Initiation.

Well.
Remember how we were going to get the garage and the storm shelter cleaned out yesterday because we had some weather coming in?
Good news!
The garage looks awesome and we can park the van in it now!
Not so good news...
We never got to do the storm shelter yesterday.  We figured that since it was October and the tornadic threat level was listed as "marginal" - we were all set.
Right?
Suuuuuuure....

Benjamin and I were at a birthday party when the Tornado Watch Alert came out on everyone's phone.  It was us and one other family that were newbies in Oklahoma that *might* have peed our pants just a little when the weather notification showed up.  The rest of the parents there  noticed and were nice enough to give us the run-down of what to expect.
-They pointed out that since there was cloud cover, the tornado sirens were not tested that morning.  I hadn't even noticed.
-We were told what apps to put on our phones,  what television channels to watch (weather is the reason there is such good free tv reception here), to look out for green sky, what to have in our TO-GO bags and to do exactly what the weather people said.
-Most of all, they were nice enough to tell us not to panic...but after all that...it was kind of hard not to.
We pulled up our big kid pants did our regular Saturday routine and went to Mass.
When we got out of church, we noticed the air was heavy and the wind had switched direction.
We were joking we would just watch the weather and listen to the baseball game as we had our smoothie and popcorn dinner.
Then this came up on the phone:

 See Edmond there?
Sh*t just got real.
Into planning mode we went.
Being the newbies we are, we probably went a bit overboard - but looking back - I'm glad we did it.  We got snacks, a change of clothes for everyone, flashlights, a radio, our important documents and the cats in the carriers.
Everything got set next to the door that leads out to the porch and the shelter.
Then we sat and watched.
Fine.
I drank, too.  Fireball seemed appropriate.

We watched the television.
One of the things that we were told was "When the television stations stop playing programming and every station has the weather, that's when you need to worry."
Okay.
We switched back and forth from the weather to "Wonder Woman".  It was cool.  We were calm.
And then all the channels were playing weather.
Crap.
Back in Watching and Waiting Mode.
We were continually amazed by the specificity of the forecasting.  The meteorologists were giving block-by-block warnings.  Things like, "If you're in the McDonalds in Chickasha - you need to take cover now.  If you are in the south part of OU campus- you have 3 minutes, if you are within 3 blocks of Wilson Elementary - you have 5 minutes..."
Remarkable, really.
We were able to calm the kids down by reminding them that the National Weather Service is right down the street in Norman and the forecasters there are the best in the world.
So - while we were nervous, we were prepared and felt rather safe.
Weird, huh?
I still feel like living in Oklahoma is my penance for being a Snotty Yankee and scared of tornadoes.
But I"m coming to terms with that.

Things calmed down about 10pm and we were all able to get to bed.
Everyone woke up about 9.  I think all the excitement wore us out.

We cleaned the shelter today.  I have to get some varmit proof rubbermaid containers to do some food/blanket/radio/flashlight storage.
I"m pretty sure I"m stashing a pair of ruby slippers down there, too.
Then we're good.
I think.

People back East keep asking us what our shelter looks like.
It's 8'x4'x4' and there is a bulkhead leading down to it just off our back porch.

Nothing grand.  It's about the size of the back of a minivan.
No room for anything but 6 people, 3 cats and a tote of essentials.
There is a fine line between "ordeal" and "adventure".
We were able to keep it on the "adventure" side last night.