Storms: Weather and Other Kinds

There's nothing quite like living in Tornado Alley at the onset of spring. We have always been pretty lucky except for April 2, 2006. It changed the face of my quiet little town forever. On that lovely Sunday evening, as families were at evening church services, unwinding after dinner and just going about life as usual - an F3 tornado, 1/2 a mile WIDE was making it's way toward us. It destroyed 60% of my town, including our high school. We were without power and water for days. Hundreds were without a home. We were very fortunate than none of our families homes were majorly damaged and no one in our town died. That's nothing short of a miracle. Here's the monster and you can view some of the damage HERE:

Tonight we had some pretty severe storms. Our county had a tornado warning for 2 straight hours. You can see why that's scary. And it never fails that we all go back to that day with baseball sized hail falling from the sky and the sirens wailing. But there were no actual tornadoes tonight so I'm thankful for that.

I'm not really sure why anyone would want to establish a town here - we have the threat of tornadoes, we are situated on the infamous New Madrid Fault, and we are built on the banks of the Mississippi River. And I mean literally on the river - one our banks is about 50 yards from it. But whatever, it's not Angelaville is it?

I guess the other storm I'm talking about is an emotional one. Mainly because of my mom. Again. It never fails. Maybe I should be in therapy? I see a lot of movies with people in therapy about their moms...lol anyway. She calls me today and here is the ENTIRE convo:

Me: Hello?
Mom: Well Brittany is having a girl.
Me: Ok..?
Mom: I was going to see if you wanted to make her a blanket?
Me:.... (/facepalm) I...guess.
Mom: Ok. Bye.

Ahh, Brittany. She is my mom and stepdad's niece. She needs and wants a baby like she needs a hole in her head. She found out around Thanksgiving that she was pregnant and was telling us how she wasn't going to let her boyfriend get f*cked up if she couldn't. I was peeling and stabbing potatoes. Her brother and his wife had a baby boy not long ago - very happy for them and I even got to take the baby's picture. But I was a little hurt by my parents involvement. Emotionally I mean. It seemed like they felt like the baby's grandparents. I can't explain it you would just have to see it. But all I know is it makes me feel small and hurt that they would give the love reserved for my baby away.

I know I shouldn't feel that way. I know they will love my baby. They just don't understand what it's like to want something so much and just not be able to make it happen - for you, for your husband, for the whole family. I'm not jealous that other people can get pregnant and I can't. I'm over that. I just don't want to feel like less of a daughter because I haven't produced a grandchild.