It has been the strangest week. I think it is due to the weird weather we have been having. I must say, at first it was extremely  funny to listen to the weather/news casters out here. I should tape some of the broadcasts for you midwesterners to watch and you will just laugh and laugh!

“And then it we will have 100% chance of rain every day. For five days straight! Heavy rain!”

Needless to say, the “storm” has been the only topic of conversation around here since last Friday. Even over the weekend when the sky looked like this…

I think that the forecast must have kept a lot of people away from Disney, too. We had a very casual, fun weekend in a much-less-busy-than-normal park. And even when we had to wait for a ride, it wasn’t very long, and we found ways to keep ourselves occupied…

But, at the end of Sunday (thankfully just about the time we were ready to leave), the clouds started to roll in.

See? There’s one…and another…

And by the time we finished up it was pouring. Our sweet Daddy ran to get the car while we found a dry spot and sugared up for the trek home…

We said goodbye to Disney, and hello to the rain.

But whereas the rain was a nice change at the beginning of the week, it has been a little scary at times. Along with the rain we’ve had thunderstorms, crazy winds, tornadoes, mudslides, and water spouts off the coast. Most disconcerting though is the flooding. For 50 weeks of the year the earth just pretty much bakes around here, so when we do get rain, it just cannot soak into the ground fast enough. And the storm drains cannot keep up with the runoff, so we just have floods. Our entire front walk was under about 6 inches of rain today and our driveway’s puddles came well up to the middle of my calf. That is a lot of water!

So yesterday the girls and I were in our jammies, with popcorn and hot cocoa, hunkered down watching movies. Right after school. At 4pm. There was no way we were fighting the storms. Plus it was just a really nice pause in our weekly chaos.

In other news around here, we are on tooth-watch. Again. Em tells me at least three times a day how “wiggly” her tooth is.

And besides the start of cookies sales, the Crazy Daisies also had a field trip to the firehouse…

And they earned their Strong & Courageous petals. Our Daisy on the zipline…

When we first walked up she was so “not going to do that rope thing, Mama,” but she changed her mind after she watched her friend Kelli do it. That is my girl. Hang back and survey the situation, then cautiously proceed. I was very proud of her.

Meanwhile, Addie just charges ahead with life. Her friend EJ turned five a few weeks ago and I believe that Addie thinks they can’t be friends if Addie isn’t five as well. She keeps trying to tell me, “I’m five too, right Mama?” “I’ll be five in a few days, right?”

I finally told her that she will be five soon enough (too soon enough!) and it was okay if EJ was already five. And they would both get to go to kindergarten in the fall. (God-willing, EJ will get into our school, or there might be some seriously depressed little best friends around these parts.)

And after the Haiti earthquakes, and a few others up in Northern California too, J. and I have renewed our quest to be fully earthquake-ready. I think I’m going to battery-up our flashlights, we may need them today if you believe the weather forecasts, as today is supposed to be even stormier than yesterday.

Hope you are all having a good Thursday.