The storms

Oy, what a weekend for weather.

I was at a friend's house last week when the first bad storm hit. It was crazy! All of a sudden the television was drowned out by the sound of hail hitting the window...although it could have just been the wind. Branches that usually lay shading the roof were standing straight up on end. The rain flew sideways and stung. And then the lights went out. I wanted desperately to go home. Somehow you can never quite be comforted until you can see with your own eyes that everything at home is okay. It was. We were one of the fortunate ones.

Saturday the kids and I went to the lake with Hope and her family. It was nice, hot -- the water felt great. Hope and her husband, Michael, needed to run to the store before we could fire up the grill. A few minutes later, the thunder began to get louder and the clouds got darker. I made the kids get out of the lake (I wonder why I was the only adult in the whole swim area to think that swimming in thunder is a bad idea?) and we began moving our stuff from the beach to the picnic site, and then quickly to the pavilion. The breeze picked up by the time Hope and Michael got back. They fired up the grill and had just put the hot dogs on when the bottom fell out. I prayed the hot dogs wouldn't be soggy. (I was hungry! They were delicious...with Hope's homemade slaw. :) )

The rain sure looked pretty falling on the lake. We watched for a while as we ate. Okay...a very short while. But it looked like it would blow on through.

Looks are clearly deceiving. The sky got darker still, the rain fell harder and the lightning got closer. And closer. We huddled in beach towels, fully dressed, in center of the pavilion and tried in vain to stay dry (i.e. warm). We fought our trash as it tried to fly away. We tried to keep restless kids corralled and from running out to play in the lightning. We prayed it would stop long enough to pack up the cars.

After a particularly close lightning strike, followed by an bone rattling boom, we decided it was worth it to get wet and go home.

Hope said, "It's always an adventure when me and Lisa get together."

Catie said, "Do you always have to bring adventure?"

Apparently, my darling, we do. We just don't always plan it.