I went to my friend K’s wedding last weekend.  Lot’s of fun, she looked beautiful, got to see a lot of people I haven’t seen in a long time.  Longest service I have been to.  It was even longer than the Catholic weddings I’ve been to.  But, the good thing was it drastically shortened the amount of time between the wedding and reception.  I don’t understand that.  Why do they always put hours between the two?

So I had all this time to blow between the wedding and reception.  I decided to go to my friend D’s to pull the winter clothes out of storage (that’s where all our stuff is stored while we stay with my brother – I tell ya, I have great friends).  She wasn’t home, but had told me I could go in anyway.  When I get there, it was raining (of course).  On the porch I found a series of notes, telling me to take a couple of pumpkins, some tomatoes, squash and anything else in the garden I wanted.  I go into the basement and get out the clothes, and then decided to go take a look in the garden (it has stopped raining by this time).  I should point out they have a spectacular garden.  So, here I am, slogging through this garden in a semi-formal ankle-length dress, in 3 inch heels, with the owners out of town, picking vegetables.  I was just waiting for the owners to call the police.  Can’t you just see the headlines? “Crazy Woman dresses up to Steal Vegetables in the Rain”.

On a more somber note, the Killer Raccoon Clan has lost a member.  He lost a game of Chicken with a car.  Actually makes me very sad.  Even if they did eat my pumpkin.....

Getting home on Friday was a little scary.  Storms don’t typically scare me, I used to live in Kansas, so a little tornado doesn’t frighten me.  But I was a little freaked out on Friday.  I’ve mentioned before that I work in the middle of a farm field.  We are the only business out here.  We’re sitting at work listening to the rain hit the roof harder and harder and all of the sudden I see a weather alert come up on my screen.  It says there is “rotation” in a cloud that is heading our way.  We see this once in awhile so I don’t worry.  Then we get another one.  And it says if you  are in this town you need to seek shelter NOW.  This town is to the east of us and the storm is west, which means we’re in direct line.  I suggest that since we are the only large building in the middle of this farm field, perhaps we should leave the 2^nd floor.  But we don’t.  And apparently the funnel passed right over us.

So, now I’m very worried about my kids and decide to leave early.  I have never seen it rain this hard.  I didn’t even bother running to my car, it wouldn’t have made a difference.  I ‘m now soaked.  I can’t even see past the front end of my car at one point.  Then it let up a little and there was no wind at all, which scares me more.   I can hear the sirens from all the surrounding towns and the sky is a weird greenish black behind me.  And all I could think of is how they tell you to get out of your car and lay down in a ditch.  BUT THERE ARE NO DITCHES!!!  ANYWHERE.  So I just drove faster.  As I pulled into town the wind and rain picked up again.  The streets were starting to flood pretty badly and when I crossed the river I could see how high and fast it was running.

The sirens stop just before I pull into Emma’s daycare and the rain is letting up again (not that it matters, cause I couldn’t get any wetter).  I decide since the sirens have stopped we should head over to get Shannon.  About three blocks away the sirens start up again, the wind picks up it starts to rain harder.  We get to the school and I can’t even see, so I pull as close as I can, and decide we need to run for shelter.  I get out and try to get Emma out of her seat, but she has her security blanket tangled in the seatbelt and she won’t let go.  I’m screaming “Let go! Let go!” which of course just makes her hold on tighter, so I finally just yank it away.  Finally free, I pull her out and run to the building, only to find the door locked.  I start banging on the door and someone comes running over and lets me in.  The school is dark, and this teacher leads me down the hall to a bathroom where all the after-school care kids are hiding.  I decide maybe we should wait awhile before we leave, so I stand there, literally dripping all over the floor.  After about 10 minutes, we look out and it has lightened considerably outside, so we decide to leave.  We run through the rain to the car and head home.  Then as we cross a flooded intersection, a river of water comes rushing down the cross street and into the side of the car, which causes the girls to start crying.  Fortunately, I drive a gas hogging Jeep Cherokee so we were ok.  But if it had been a smaller, lighter car, we would have been swept off the road at the very least, possibly down into the river.  So I now have a whole new appreciation for flash flooding.

We got home only to find that there was water cascading in beautiful waterfalls from the air conditioning ducts in the basement.  And it was already up over my toes in the lower half of the basement. There was so much water coming down the hill behind the house, it got trapped on the back side of the house and eventually worked it’s through the siding and then into the house.  I ran around looking for a mop and couldn’t find one, but I did find a large squeegee.  Who has a floor squeegee?  Apparently my brother does.  So that is how I ended my day. 

Gratefully, none of the 5 or 6 funnel clouds in the area actually touched down, and no one was hurt in the storm.  But I now have a new respect for the power of wind and water.

On a brighter note, Shannon received The Spirit Award at School!  It’s an award only given to two students each month who exemplify what they look for in a student and she got it in the first month of second grade!!  They make a big deal out of it, giving out a certificate and announcing the names over the loudspeaker to the whole school.

Whew, I’m actually kind of glad to be back at work this morning.  Friday I got the call that Emma was sick at school and would I please come get her.   I picked her up and she looked so bad, I called the doctor right away.  Seven vomiting episodes later, and we had the dreaded strep throat diagnosis.  The only illness that strikes more fear in the heart of a parent is conjunctivitis.  So I took her home, drugged her up and called the school and daycare so they could let the other parents know.   Four hours later, it was like nothing ever happened.   Now we’re just waiting to see if the rest of us are going to come down with it.  The doctor said we’d be in the clear by Thursday.

We had tickets to the Ralph’s World concert at Ravinia on Saturday.  Emma was feeling fine and had two doses of the antibiotic in her so we went.  I absolutely love Ravinia.  It’s a concert experience like no other.  First of all, it’s absolutely beautiful. It’s outdoors with a small pavilion and a very large, flat lawn.  People bring these very elaborate picnics, complete with tables, china, silver and even candles.  And for the children’s concerts, people have these huge, elaborate birthday parties as well.

Sunday the girls were with their dad, so I took the opportunity to go through the toys.  I managed to get rid of a 33 gallon trash bag of toys and they didn’t even notice.  Goodwill loves me!

We had another visit from the Killer Raccoon Clan this weekend.  They decided to stop by to sample the tomatoes in my garden.  I say sample because they took ONE BITE out of every ripe tomato.  Didn’t even pull them off the vine.  Actually, they left me one.  I guess I should be glad they decided to share with me.  I did notice they didn’t go for any of the chili peppers!

I finally found out where they are living.  They have taken up residence in my neighbor’s garage.  She works for a wildlife foundation and says she’s going to have them trapped and relocated once the babies get bigger, but I’m pretty sure they’re full grown now and I don’t see them leaving……