July 14, 2016

(click here for pictures)

• At 7, Keaton came downstairs to tell me that she had wet her bed.  She changed and climbed into our bed and I climbed out to get her sheets off of her bed.  I saw that the boys were up playing on their devices but when I was in the girls' room, I could see Reagan laying in her bed but Campbell's bed was empty.  I then assumed that she was downstairs with the boys and headed back to bed for a bit longer.
• I laid back down again but later, I walked through the living room (not really sure why) and noticed that Campbell was not downstairs.  I asked the boys if they had seen her and they said that they hadn't.  Hmm, her bed was empty and they hadn't seen her so up I went to find my girl.  After checking her bed again the next place I looked was in her sisters bed and there she and Reagan were all cuddled up sleeping soundly.  She later said that Reagan said that she could stay for only 5 minutes but she stayed there all night long.
• Our morning finally started with a few fried eggs and leftover biscuits from the cabin trip.  Then the kids started helping with chores.  Everyone worked really well on their chores-this happens sometimes but not too often.  I was cleaning potties, Anderson was vacuuming, Graham was working on his bedroom, Reagan was emptying the dishwasher, Campbell was cleaning the kitchen and Keaton was working on putting away her laundry.  Those were the chores that took the longest time but we all did work for a good while.
• Next we worked on our science and after today's lesson on genetics I think I am going to call it done on science.  I guess that school is going to start here in about 2 weeks so there is no reason to finish this year's science when next years is just around the corner.  We did read a book or two and my Whitman sat so crazy still listening to the story books that I read-he will do really good in school if he can just keep his pants dry.  
• All of this happened while Robby was out back grilling our hot dogs for lunch.  After we finished working together we loaded up and headed to the pool.  Robby had packed our lunch and once we arrived at the pool, the kids were already starving and we dug into our lunch.  I must have been hungry because I scarfed mine down as well. 
• We played at the pool for a good while.  Graham and I played ball while I watched Whitman in the slide.  He would climb up well but then just sit atop it and not go down for anything. I guess I was so busy watching him that I forgot to take any pictures.  
• Once we made it home, the kids had a bit of downtime but before we knew it, Robby was finished with work and we were sitting watching the storm roll in.  I told him that I wanted to eat while it was raining so we went on and started making supper.  We were about to plate everything up when our phones started chiming and dinging about a tornado warning.  I turned on the tv and had to search for a while but finally found the weather and it showed the road "congo ferndale."  That was close enough so in our closet we all went. 
• Graham and Whitman were in the living room so they were the first in and I went to get the others.  Anderson was busy picking up everyone's ipads for them-I guess if we were going to be stuck in the closet, he wanted everyone to have something to do.
• I am always amazed at how easy going everyone is about these things.  Whitman never really noticed that all 8 of us were crammed in the closet.  No one was ever scared-though when Robby came in and sat down with us, I got a bit uneasy.  He had seen the wind picking up pretty good so thought he would join us just in case.  
• Our lights dimmed a few times but we were all texting away until we finally deemed it all clear.  Out we went to start on our supper. On the way to the kitchen, we all noticed the yard was litered with many, many leaves and a few branches, none too large though.  As we sat down to eat, I stood back up noticing something wrong near the house I can barely see from my kitchen window.  Something was definitely on fire over there but because of the crazy rain we couldn't tell if it was the house or transformer or what.  The kids were noticing Robby and I and probably when I said to call 911 did they start panicking.  
• Panicking isn't really the right word-As Robby was on the front porch trying to see better and talking to 911, I was in the kitchen answering a zillion questions.  Graham is my most skittish one and had already convinced himself that he would need to sleep in our room.  I pulled out the weather map and showed him that the storm was already over.  I tried my best to explain what all could be happening but with my phone dinging with zillions of text, they weren't easily calmed.  We went upstairs to try to see better out those windows but they were too wet to help.  As we tried to eat, Robby drove down the driveway to take a better look.  A large branch had fallen on their power lines and had caught fire.
• That made everyone feel better (since I was just about convinced it was their house on fire) and we went on and ate our supper.  As we were finishing supper, the fireman arrived and blocked the road until the power people came.  By this time, all of the kids were watching the goings on from our kitchen window.  I told Anderson that he should go upstairs to see better.  He turend to go up the stairs and stopped immediately when he noticed how dark it was up there.  My child will not go anywhere in this house alone-for some reason he has become pretty skittish lately.  Robby called to him saying that he was up there and soon we were all sitting on the boys' beds watching the power man work.
• He drove away and shortly our power was off.  This led to everyone getting their flashlights out and replacing the batteries.  This took so long that the branch was removed and the power had been turned back on.  We then went downstairs-Anderson played the piano some and Graham strummed his guitar for a bit and then it was bedtime for my Dennie crew.
• Our nightly routine is to watch the evening news after the kids go to bed.  Well, Robby does more of the evening news watching and I try to avoid it all.  Tonight, the local news interrupted the national news for the earlier storm.  We continued watching it and after a bit and they begin showing the possibly tornado's location.  After a minute, they zoom in and show our street-eeek!  Pretty thankful that we were all kept safe tonight.