Rainstay

Finally...today our little slice of the world got a refreshing rinse. When I got up a little before 6 this morning, it was already pouring sheets of rain and the water's stuck around all day. I had front door supervision at school, and I felt so bad for the kids showing up to school completely drenched...how miserable to sit in an air-conditioned building with soggy clothes and wet feet. It seemed like the rain was heaviest at drop-off time and then this afternoon when I had to pick Macauley up at his school. Remarkably, I had remembered my umbrella. I never do.

You can't see it in this picture, but the little creek just beyond the trees behind our house is swollen and overflowing, the water roaring powerfully past us. Just yesterday it was bone dry, not even puddles in our little patch.

All the storm drains are gulping down the streams flowing along the sides of streets; our gutters are chugging. Our neighbors across the street got some water in their basement. Bummer. Totally been there...

Thought I'd settle in on the couch (with my heating pad--the 34th bday crick in my neck is much better after my massage Monday but still there) with the back doors cracked a bit, listen to the rain and catch up on my magazines (the October Country Living arrived today--I love the new look and bigger size), but I dozed off instead. I'm still not acclimated to getting up so early to teach school. I need to write thank you notes for all the sweet birthday gifts I was given as well. But now I'm off to my friend Amy's food-tasting party--she's selling a new line of food called Wildtree that I know nothing about. But I'm hungry, so yum!

One of my favorite birthday moments I want to record before I forget: Lindsay baked my favorite cake, Cherry Chip (the one from a box) with pink cherry icing, and she brought it and candles to dinner Monday night at The Purple Burrito. The candles were dripping all over the cake when she lit them, leaving little spots here and there. When Lindsay cut the cake to serve us, Macauley said, "Umm...Lindsay, be sure to give me a piece without any candle spots because I'm waxtose intolerant." I thought that was quite clever of my funny little boy and I've had fun telling my English teacher friends at school about his play-on-words.

I just heard we've gotten 10 inches of rain in Springfield today (whoa!), but I'm not quite ready for it to stop just yet. Rain, rain, don't go away...maybe they'll cancel school for a day...