Grab a Mattress, Quick!

Written by Shannon Leigh

Somehow, I live in a house without a basement.

Basements are kind of hard to come by in these parts, especially in our little town.

BUT, COME ON!

We live in tornado alley. WHAT was I thinking?

As most of you know, the midwest experienced some nasty storms tonight.

I was actually really proud of my composure when the sirens went off.

I calmly gathered Ruby and went straight into the garage and had Matt remove the step to the crawl space.

We dropped Izzy in, put down a blanket and I had my computer on my lap tracking the storm. Ruby was as happy as a lark and Izzy didn't move from my side.

We only stayed in the crawl space for a few minutes but we stayed close by for awhile. Overall I stayed pretty calm.

In fact Matt told me later that he was very proud of me.

I haven't always been so calm. It must be my motherly instincts kicking in.

Which leads me to a story, which I really need to get down on paper because it's just too funny.

A little background:

I grew up in the middle of the country, outside of a town called Pleasant Plains. It was flat, REALLY flat (hence the name).

We could sit on the back deck and see the fireworks on the 4th of July at the state capital, which is about 25 miles away.

We could see storms coming for MILES. The clouds were just so ominous and terrifying as they came rolling down the plain.

If there was a funnel cloud within 3 counties we could see it coming.

After one particularly memorable funnel cloud my mom had to slap me because I was screaming so hysterically. I then proceeded to beg my sisters to ask Jesus into their hearts... I was sure we were goners.

You catch my drift... so fast forward 15 years.

Shortly after Matt and I moved into our current house we had a nasty storm. We had only been married for a few months at the time.

The sirens sounded and I completely lost it. Izzy was a puppy so I scooped her up and made a B line to the garage to get into our crawl space.

I tugged at the step and to my shear terror it wouldn't budge. I looked at Matt with desperate eyes filled with panic.

(Apparently before we took possession of the house the builder had screwed down the garage step with 1 million 50 inch screws).

Matt, sensing my desperation, promptly grabbed our Wal-Mart electric screwdriver and began unscrewing at the speed of a tortoise on a stroll.

Obviously I wasn't going to wait for THAT so I told him to forget it and rushed into the bathtub in the middle of the house while holding Izzy on my lap.

Matt followed me through the house with eyes wide, poor guy.

Hearing the wind and rain slamming against the side of the house made the panic rise up in me again. "Matt grab a mattress, quick!"

So my adorable husband grabbed the queen sized mattress off of our bed and tried to squeeze it through the bathroom door. Just to be clear, our bathroom is the size of a postage stamp, there is no way a queen mattress could fit. I meant the twin mattress in the guest room. The queen mattress couldn't even turn the corner.

Once the storm passed and I regained my somewhat normal nerves I climbed out of the tub and put our the beds back together.

Matt looked me square in the face and said "You turn into a different person when it storms." Yes, honey, yes I do.

Bless him for sticking by me.

We have since removed the nails in the step that leads to the crawlspace, which eventually led to the this.

{taken January, 2011}

Since that picture was taken we have secured the step to the wall so that I can avoid slippage.

That being said I would certainly take a bruised thigh over death and disfigurement.

I rest my case.

Oh and just because I mentioned Izzy as a puppy, feast your eyes on these. I know. I love her too.

{Taken May 11, 2008}

{taken the night we brought her home, May 10, 2008}

{taken May 19, 2008}