We Are Okay

I would say that last night was the weirdest weather I have experienced in a long while. It was a soggy day, or as a meteorologist referred to, a soupy day. Hot and humid. Simon's rain-date make-up t-ball game was completed. The weather was starting to change at the beginning of that game. A breeze picked up, it seemed a bit cooler. The sky turned quite cloudy and starting to look heavily clouded and gray. But not the pea-green scary stormy sky. Fifteen minutes after arriving home, we hear the sirens, which are perched on a pole at our pool one block away. No rain. No thunder. No winds. No lightning. Just sirens. We calmly grab Chutes and Ladders and Connect Four and get into the basement. Playing the games was a great diversion tactic while Eric checked the weather on the t.v. Until the power went out. Then all calm was gone. Norah is terrified of thunder. She runs to a lap that is available and burrows. She usually says "eek" after each clasp. Amazingly, she was the calmer one, I think because she did not see or hear the storm before going into the basement. Eric did run back upstairs to get flashlights, candles, lighter, and my wallet. Simon became quite nervous, "If Daddy is gone, there will be just the 3 of us". We prayed all together. He was worried. I have never heard sirens blow so many times in such a short period. We heard wind gusts and the door rattle one time. We heard a couple of thuds of a branch hitting our roof. It sounded like a much bigger branch than actual size seen in the morning. I was a bit nervous as well. I was glad when it was over. Power did not return until around 2:45 a.m., we think. Power at Eric's work continues to be out at 6:30 a.m.

Other comments made with a shaky voice and tears:

• "I don't want our house to get knocked down." Simon
• "I don't want my bed to get broke." Simon
• "Will our bookshelf break?" Simon
• "I want our books." Simon
• "I don't want my box of trains to get broke." Simon
• "We are all safe." Norah
• "That was a bad thing to happen on the first day of summer." Simon has been reading the calendar, and was quite excited for the first day of summer. He and Norah spent from 9:00-1:30 at a friends house while I worked on VBS at church. Then we came home for Norah's nap, a quick dinner, the game, and then the evening in the basement. Not quite the pool time and grill out Simon had hoped for! Plenty of summer to come.

I took a brief walk this morning, only to have rain chase me back home. Large branches and parts of trees are down on every block. It looks like homes are okay, so far.

We dodged something this time! And I am very thankful that we are okay.