Soggy Thursday

My mood is lifting for 2 reasons:

1)the good Lord saw fit to open the heavens, not only watering our dry and weary land, but canceling a baseball game (which is now re-scheduled for 3 p.m. Sunday -- BLECH)!! I have seen no fewer than 6 blog posts today about the storms. I guess when you live in the desert, one thunderstorm is huge news. And it is. Since I grew up in Louisiana a thunderstorm is like a sweet lullaby. I find thunderstorms oddly comforting while also awe-inspiring. Since Troy was out of town I wrapped up in a quilt and stood outside late last night watching the storm move in.

Storm systems here move in and out so quickly, it always reminds me of the movie "Poltergeist" (don't you love my ADD train of thought?) Remember where the little boy was scared of the storm and one of his parents taught him how to count between the lightning and thunder to estimate how far away the storm is? So he starts counting, and every time he counts the storm is closer and I think finally the tree grabs his leg or something whacky like that. Around here, you can "count the storm in and out" -- you can count until lightning strikes something you feel sure is in your neighborhood and you expect to hear sirens soon, then just as quickly the numbers between lightning and thunder start going up.

The spring of my junior year in college was a particularly stormy spring. Several nights my roommates and I spent shut in our hall waiting for a storm to pass hoping no tornadoes would form. I had a desk lamp that required a fluorescent light bulb (tube?) -- you know, where you have to hold down the 'on' button long enough for the bulb to get enough "juice" to light up? Three different times that spring, lightening struck so close to that house that my fluorescent light would come on to a dull glow due to all of the electricity in the air. Imagine being dead to the world asleep (the way any college student sleeps in their 3-5 hour sleep times) being awoken by an ENORMOUS flash of light simultaneous with a huge crash of thunder while your fluorescent light comes on. Hence the "Poltergeist" reference!

2) The husband God gave me is back under my roof safe and sound. His job requires him to travel. Since we live in a military town where thousands of women here would scoff at his 4-day absence, I truly try not to complain. Sometimes are harder than others with him gone. Sometimes all goes well, the birds sing, the children are happy, clean, and frolicking, and all runs smoothly. Sometimes the car does something weird while some major plumbing malfunction happens while a child slices some part of their body to ribbons requiring me to revert to Lamaze breathing while driving to the ER (one of those trips caused me to think it's best to FIND the ER in a new town when it's daylight and there isn't a screaming, bleeding child in the backseat).

This week nothing major went wrong, but the 3 remaining occupants of this house were all pretty grouchy. Small people all got their feelings hurt at least once a day, sometimes by mom who wasn't very pleased with their rude behavior. I try to cook something that resembles actual food once while he's gone, but we don't eat the same -- I let the kids read at the table, we don't put the newspaper away from the morning, breakfast dishes get left for the day. So, yes, I slack off. It just seems we work better as a family when all of our family is here. I'm so thankful he is back safe and sound to make us a family again.

So, now that he is back safe and sound, he left the house to return the rental car. 15 seconds later, the dog came inside to throw up all of the soggy food she ate outside. It's a conspiracy!