You know what this means?

That’s right. It’s Spring. This is one of the many Redbud trees outside of my office building, and here are some of the tulips that bloom here every year.

Aren’t they beautiful? And hey, it’s warm and Winter is gone. Woohoo! Of course, with the beautiful signs of Spring also come the dark, scary thunderstorms and tornadoes. Nature’s balance.

In Oklahoma, we don’t just have Spring – we also have an official tornado season which runs April through June. I’ve written before about my tornado experience and how I tend to have a little bit of anxiety during this time of year. However, this past Sunday marked the 2nd time in March that our family made a mad dash for the storm shelter (Thank you, pre-Homeland Security FEMA!) under threat of impending doom, and I am proud to say that my anxiety is about 80% gone. I can even sleep during storms now, confident that my handy-dandy weather radio will wake me up if things get too bad. And on the nights when it does go off 347 times, I still don’t panic. It’s all about personal growth, people. The really interesting thing about those two trips is that my husband was home both times, and both times it was HIM yelling for everyone to get their shoes on RIGHT NOW in a semi-panicked voice. Which then made me panic just a little bit, but it totally doesn’t count because he started it, right?

So far we have come through the storms unscathed, but like I said, tornado season didn’t even officially begin until yesterday so the next three months could be very long and nerve-wrecking. And FYI to the local news teams: it is not even a little bit cool when you pre-empt regularly scheduled programming because a storm is imminent and you cut to your reporter out in western Oklahoma City only to have her say, “Well, the sky is dark and we can see the lightning in the distance, but it’s not raining yet at our location.” It’s a bit Chicken Little-esque when you do that, and it makes me want to scream obscenities at the television in front of my young children. So cut it out, ok? Thanks.