Day 18 of Summer 2008

Oops!  I didn't get a chance to post yesterday.  First--here's how Samuel's face looked yesterday morning.  He's healing up pretty well.  (He was chewing his breakfast, so pardon the funny face!)

Yesterday morning the kids & I went to work at Oak Tree and had a good day there.  I had 2 kids missing from my class (they're on vacation), but I gained 2 kids from another class (the teacher was absent, so rather than calling a sub, they just divide up their class into similar-aged classrooms).  When we left the school, we were all thirsty, so the plan was to stop at a coke machine (remember, in Texas, they're all "coke" machines) & let everyone get a drink.  Between the school & that coke machine (about a 10 minute drive) it started & stopped raining 2 or 3 times.  Each time, we'd laugh because the way it started & stopped was so quick and abrupt--literally like someone flipped a switch each time.  But by the time we reached the Coke machine, it was POURING & the wind was blowing.  We only had 1 umbrella in the car.  I gave each of the kids their money to get a drink & they jumped out of the car to get it.  Savannah held the umbrella & the other two tried to stayed tucked up underneath it, but before they could get back to the car, they were all drenched.  With the wind blowing like it was, the umbrella did no good at all.  When they got back into the car, they told me that they had not been able to get mine & Sarah's drinks because the machine kept spitting the money out.  I attempted to get the drinks for she & I myself, but with the rain & wind, all it took was me opening my door to realize that it was not worth running through that for a soda!  I told Sarah that we'd just drive down the street to Sonic & get one there.  I figured I wouldn't have to get out of the car & we'd be underneath a roof, so the rain wouldn't pour in on us while I had the window open.  Well....I thought that was the case anyway.  Turns out, even when you're under a roof, with 60 mph winds (yes, seriously), you'll still get soaked.  We ended up giving up & just going home.  On the drive home, it became clear that we were experiencing a flash flood.  And with the extremely strong winds & lightening & thunder, I was ready to get OUT OF THE weather!  We made it home safely and hid inside the house til it passed.  In the end, I think we got about 6" of rain in that short storm.  I believe it was all over & done within an hour's time.  Here's a story about it on our local news station's site:  http://www.kltv.com/Global/story.asp?S=8514361&nav=menu117_2

After the storm was over & we all decided it was safe to go outside again, Larry & I cut up some carpet (to make carpet squares for my class to sit on during circle time at school).  Afterwards, Sarah, Samuel & I played a homemade version of beach volleyball.  We had a beachball & a big wide open space in the backyard, but no net....so we used a tree root!  ha ha!  The line where the root stuck up in the ground (we were 10-12 feet from the tree itself) was our net.  The ball had to cross the "net" to count for points.  Before I knew it, we had two neighbor kids playing with us.  I love moments like that.  Samuel, being the only boy out there, was so funny to listen to.  He was trying to show off & be silly for all the girls, coming up with cool names for each type of serve with the ball.  Our favorite was the "Tripletrick Spin".  Apparently this is when you toss the ball up into the air while it's spinning & then whack it real hard to the other team.  Sure enough, the tripletrick spin worked everytime--the other team always missed it when we used that particular serve.  Looks like I had a good teammate in my itty bitty, scratched face, 8 year old boy.

It was a great day!

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