Our first real tornado

Well, it finally happened. For the first time in the 4 years we've lived here, we got a real tornado in our hometown that actually did some damage. But don't panic, no one was injured or anything, so we're all okay. Well, it happened this morning, so I was at school of course, in English class to be exact. We were getting ready to do our debate, which I had kind of been dreading, and hoping that I wouldn't have to talk. We were all given a topic- either whether marijuana should be legal or whether the drinking age should be lowered- and there had to be two teams for each, one for it and one against it. We didn't get to pick either, so we wouldn't necessarily be arguing for what we actually believed. But my group was supposed to be against legalizing marijuana, and we were going to go up against the group that was for it being legalized. But anyway, I've gotten way off topic. haha. Well, we were getting ready to start when our principal came on the intercom and told us that we were in a tornado warning and that we all had to go to our designated areas to take shelter. We were all quite used to this by now. We had had to do this once last year, and once or twice this year. It's been crazy the last couple of weeks, because we've been getting so many storms and there have been a few really minor tornado threats. We've gotten tons of tornado warnings since we've lived here, but usually no one thinks anything of it, because it always turns out to be just a strong thunderstorm, or it is a really small tornado, but it never comes right over our town. But anyway, my class went to the classroom that we always go to if there's a tornado drill or warning. They made sure none of us sat near the windows, but we could still see outside. It was raining really hard and the wind was blowing like crazy. It really was some of the strongest wind I've ever seen. We sat there for about an hour, when our principal finally came back on the intercom and said we could go back to class. By then it was almost the end of 1st block, so SADLY we didn't get to do our debate. ;-) But we still have to do it tomorrow, so I haven't completely gotten out of it. But anyway, I heard that apparently we actually had a tornado right in our town! It did some damage too- trees had fallen everywhere, and even a few houses were slightly damaged, but there haven't been any reports of anyone being injured, so I think everyone is okay at least. I texted my mom during peer helping (our teacher doesn't really care if we text, at least if it's something that's somewhat important, lol) to make sure she was okay, especially since I heard that the tornado had been on a street just a few miles away from my neighborhood! Luckily I got a message back that said, "I am fine." When I got home from school today, my mom said she had talked to my brother (remember, he's a meteorologist, so he's always right on top of these things lol) and apparently the tornado had actually gone over our neighborhood, but thankfully it hadn't actually been on the ground yet! That's such a scary thought though! lol. They have also confirmed that it was an F1 or possibly even an F2 tornado! I'm just glad everyone is okay, and I hope these dumb storms stop pretty soon, because I'm ready for the sun to come back out! lol. Today also happens to be my mom's birthday, and we're going out to dinner and for ice cream tonight, so hopefully we won't have more storms interfering with that.

Well, all this swine flu hysteria is finally calming down a bit. They actually decided to open the elementary schools again today, so they're not actually staying closed for two weeks. They've also finally reopened my dance school, so I'll be able to go back tomorrow. And it's also looking like we won't have to make up the days we missed! So I'm happy about that. :)