~500 water balloons and one hot mama~

What do you do when your air conditioner breaks down over the weekend and you have the smart idea (maybe it'll be cheaper??) to wait until Monday to call for service?  You head to the store, of course, for a bottle of 500 water balloons!  Trust me... takes your mind off of the 90 degree temps in one toss and burst. 
Temporary relief, but we'll take it!

We came home Saturday from a travel baseball game to find the house at 86 degrees and the a/c running constant, just not cooling the house.  Needless to say, this mama has been a bit grouchy for a few days. As I sit here now, we are still waiting on our local service guy to be here "later this afternoon" to fix it.  We're finding comfort in eating lots of salads, watermelon, grilling out instead of using the stove or oven, and running 5 fans constant to get the air flowing.   Only problem is, the air that is flowing is really, really hot air!  I'm trying hard to think back to times before people had this luxury and not complain too much.
But lets be honest here... it's just not working.  

If you happen to live local and you've seen me and the boys wondering around stores, without a cart, for hours at a time, just browsing, making small talk with whoever wants to chat, now you'll know why.

If you see me driving around the block with the windows up and the a/c blaring, and around, and around, and around the block once more, now you'll know why. 

We're not bored.
We're not lonely.
We're not weird. (Although some may beg to differ.)
We're just hot.
And we'll take relief in any form we can find.
Can't wait to see you, Mr. Air Conditioner Man.  Just be careful not to get soaked by a water balloon when you pull in our driveway.

~Sunday Storms~

Sunday morning was just gorgeous.  Beautiful skies, warm air, and a perfect day to enjoy the weather outdoors.  After getting some things finished around the house, we decided to run a few errands.

We stopped by the park on the way home and let the kids explore and wear off some of that constant boy energy.

 The clouds were lovely on the ride home.  Fluffy and delicious... like cotton candy.  We had the sunroof open, radio cranked, and were enjoying the wonderful day together and the awesome weather.

Until....

We got home.

 

It just hit us.  The wind was gusting and the rain came down in buckets.  More like swimming pools.  Or rivers.

And it came...

And it came harder...

Then the hail started.  At first it was really cool.  We ran into the master bedroom to shut the window. I went ahead and left it open at first... letting the boys feel the mist of the storm through the screen. Then the hail came down harder.  The sound of it ricocheting off the grill and the patio furniture got extremely loud. It got a little scary... for us all. 
I decided I should go ahead and shut the window.

After the storm died down we decided to head outdoors to check out the damage.  It looked like it had rained for days, even though this storm had moved out just as fast as it came in.

The water had completely covered the drains along the side of the road.  You could see the water swirling where the holes to the drains lay. 

 The sun appeared again as we walked to the end of the road to check out the neighbor's yards.  It could have been worse.  And we are thankful that it was not.

Later that evening, our oldest son came out of his bedroom while doing homework to ask us a question.  He just finished reading The Terrible Wave and was working on a few assignments pertaining to the book.

He asked us if there was any "good" that could come out of a natural disaster.

Of course there is.  Whether it be a tornado, earthquake, hurricane, etc., there is always good that can come from it.

 

Community.  A comminity working together, supporting, caring, comforting, rebuilding.  That is the good.

We explained how even with our storm we had that evening, we saw our community coming together.  Neighbors were outside checking on eachother, people were using garbage can lids to scoop out water close to houses, tractors from local farms came into town to help clear out drains and move the water. 

There is good all around us. 

We just need to see it.