If she had the proper words to say,

Man! To think yesterday was windy was crazy. In comparison to today, yesterday was only a light breeze!

It is INSANE out there! Every year, I forget how fierce the Nebraska winds can become. It is howling and whistling and swirling out there, and the rains haven't even started. Yikes!

I'm fixin' to light all my candles now, in case the power goes out this evening. Oh, and speaking of candles, my PartyLite® show has arrived... with the exception of one box, containing an incense set for beanpop. I hope to take pictures of everything tomorrow, and then I'll begin packing up the boxes to ship out. I won't mail anything until next week though, after Philip and I have returned from our weekend away. :-)

Lots and lots of rain last night. It's still booming far away right now, but the forecast says it is supposed to clear off and be sunny soon, and definitely for this afternoon. I hope so - we have a "rain date" in place for this party, but it leaves us with an option we don't want to take!

And OMG, the sea of orange continues...

The rain is starting. And not just the rain, either. I can hear large, fat hailstones ping! the gutters even as I type. They've been forecasting this storm for a few days, but it's taken forever to get here.

Thank goodness Philip got the yard freshly mowed today (well, yesterday). He even trimmed, making everything all nice and neat again. Now the rain can go ahead and soak right in. :-)

It is raining.

Finally.

We haven't had rain in almost a month. It sounds so lovely that it woke me up. I do wish it would continue on for hours.

It was snowing this morning when I took both boys to school. Absolutely crazy, and so WRONG. It's April, for crying out loud.

Jack had a fun playdate at Caleb's house this afternoon while I was at work. He's got playdates scheduled for these two weeks while his regular caregiver is away on vacation. It's nice that folks are willing to help us out like this, too.

I need to call someone about the lawn. I intended to do that yesterday afternoon, but it was raining all day long (a nice, soft rain, but still - all day long), and it drained me of my motivation. And then the snow today. Who knows what the ground/grass is really going to be like after all this?

I had a very vivid, strange-but-good dream about posthaste and her baby Soph today. I was repeating the dream to myself while I took a shower this morning so that I wouldn't forget the details. I'll have to tell Jess about it - hopefully she'll get a kick out of my REMs. ;-)

I'm hungry. Oh, and it's time to go pick up A.J. from school soon. Afterwards, I'm taking both boys to the base clinic to update their immunizations. Jack is already in tears of the prospect of new shots, but it's an evil that must be done. :-/

It rained thunderstorms off and on all night long, and it's kept up for part of the morning as well. When it's not raining, it's still looking quite overcast and like it WILL very soon. It works for me, however, as I'll gladly take an unplanned day of lounging around. ;-)

I decided even before the storming started last night that I was really too exhausted from yesterday to think about waking up early this morning and sowing the many rows of carrots. Once it actually started storming, I knew for certain that I wouldn't want to be out in the garden's muddy mess, so I figured I'd wait and see how much it would dry out by this evening. With the continuous rain, that plan doesn't seem likely either. Ah, well. I'll do them soon, I'm sure.

The boys were both dead tired last night. Poor Jack fell asleep on the couch while we were making dinner, and he just couldn't be fussed to eat when I woke him up. He ran from the couch straight to his room when I gave him the choice: eat or go on to bed? He went to bed still wearing his t-shirt from the day, but I did talk him out of his jean shorts so I could toss them into the laundry (I know you're shuddering right now, thosethatloveme *wink*). I told A.J. he could have a chocolate chip cookie after he finished his dinner, but then he needed to change into his pajamas, and I'd let him watch cartoons for a bit longer (he relishes the time by himself, I know). He finished his dinner, ate the cookie and then asked me for a blanket (he was still cold from all the water play earlier, I'm sure). I forgot about asking him to change clothes myself, and the next thing I knew, he was sound asleep on the couch, wrapped up in a blanket and snuggled in with Larry the Cucumber™ (did you notice WHICH blanket, gardenmama?). I ushered him to bed, helped him get in his pajamas and then turned out his light for him. Sweet boys.

I really DO need to spend some time indoors today, so the weather has just given me the chance to do so without feeling guilty. The boys are relaxing in the living room, and I've got some food preparation to attend to for tomorrow's 'Stone Soup' gathering at the lake. I'm making more chocolate chip cookies, a pineapple upside-down cake, celery sticks with peanut butter (some also with raisins), and we're taking a bag of marshmellows for roasting, hot dogs and buns for grilling and some juice boxes. I'm also washing our bedding today, and the comforter is almost done washing right now.

When I was buying the necessary ingredients for these items at the commissary the other day, an elderly man was having trouble finding some pimiento cheese spread. I wasn't trying to be nosy, but he and the grocer helping him were looking in the wrong spot entirely, so I offered my help. As it turns out, the spread wasn't in the dairy cases (where they were looking), but it also wasn't in the condiment aisle (where I thought it would be). I combed almost every aisle of the store looking for it myself, trying to help the poor man. He needed it because his wife had put it on the list, and he really hated to return home without it. Just as I was apologizing to the man at the front of the store for my not finding it, I spotted a tub - in the small refrigerator of sandwiches available for sale by the register! I ran and grabbed it for him, and he thanked me while we laughed. I had time to spare, and it was worth it for that man.

Philip is off this weekend. His schedule rotates, but it landed just perfectly for this Memorial Day weekend, so he's off Friday-Sunday. Not only that, his supervisor also gave him Monday off (the flight was going to be over-manned, so they could spare him). I'm tickled about that, and we already started our lovely weekend yesterday. Just before coming in last night, we lined our driveway with all our little flags, so now we are truly ready for the holiday and we LOOK it. ;-)

I'd better get going now and switch out the comforter. Happy Saturday, folks!

I just returned from my 5th viewing of Goblet of Fire, and the theatre was packed this time as well. This makes me very happy - I love seeing that people are loving these movies so much! :-)

It was pouring down rain and lightning when I got out of the theatre. Naturally, I didn't take an umbrella inside with me, but I was wearing my Pooh® fleece pullover, and it has a hood.

It's a rainy morning. It's the best kind of rainy morning, though - just a nice, light rain. The kind where you only have to use your wiper about once a minute or so.

I love rain.

A.J. wore a windjacket today so that he wouldn't have to carry an umbrella. I had just woken Jack up, so all he had managed to do was put on fresh clean underwear. Rather than get dressed quickly to take A.J. to school, Jack wanted to wear just his new windjacket... so he did. Silly boy! The school has finally paved a new lane in which to drop off our schoolkids, so A.J. doesn't have to trudge through the mud anymore before the start of class.

I slept weird last night. Woke up about 10 times. I decided to finally move back over to my own "side" of the bed again, now that I need to get used to being over there, but I just didn't like it anymore. Not only that, but my side is so far away from the alarm clock in the morning - those extra four beeps it was allowed to emit before I could reach it were DEAFENING!

There's nothing quite like an impromptu game of 'Ring Around the Rosies' in the afternoon rain...



(More.)

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, JENNA!

I hope that the irishphoenix711 is flying high today! :-)

---

It is storming today. Off and on, though more 'on' than 'off.' I presume I will not get the other half of the garden weeded this afternoon. That works out well, I suppose, as I my blister is halfway gone now, and maybe by tomorrow the rest of it will have disappeared.

I'm trying to decide on dinner for tonight. Due to the weather, I'm desiring a nice bowl of chicken soup, but I don't have any of the things to make it, and I'd really just rather have Heather's anyway. Chili sounds good too, but whereas I usually enjoy chili leftovers more than the first run, I'm thinking I won't be in the mood for it at all tomorrow. Chicken gumbo sounds fantastic, but I really don't want to head out in this storm to get the few ingredients that I need for it... Ah, decisions.

The boys entertaining themselves inside well, though. Jack has taken to computer games finally (before, he never had the patience or reserve in himself to sit still and try to figure out the games), and A.J. has been smashing his way steadily through 'Tetris Attack' on the GameBoy. Every afternoon lately, I've felt very obligated to take the boys outside for hours at a time. It's still raining now, so I'm going to take advantage of this time and try to scrapbook a little bit. (Hopefully, I'll have a new page to show you soon, redwink.)


Jack plays some SNOOD on the computer.