A Few Loose Ends

I love hearing from new people! Thank you for all the comments recently. One thing I've been wanting to mention is that ever since Blogger changed over last winter, the majority of the comments don't have an e-mail attached to them, so it is hard to respond. If there is a blog link, I always follow it and try to comment or find an e-mail address there. Sometimes this summer though, it's been a little hectic to leave comments. But I do love to "meet" all of you who stop by here. Thank you.

Preschool doesn't start for another two weeks, so don't expect me to chip away at that list too much yet. Right now it's still in the dreaming stage (dangerous, because more things keep getting added...)

One thing I'm trying to get done in the next two weeks is the re-doing of my kids' rooms. I guess I should say "doing" not "re-doing" since they were never really "done" in the first place! We have two bedrooms for three kids and previously my older two (boy and girl) shared a room and the baby had a crib in the other room. We have recently moved the two girls in together and my older son gets his own room. It suits them all and has been a really nice change. Well, I may shed a tear or two when I take down the crib this weekend, we'll see.
Yesterday I had a little time to get this project done. New lamps for the girl room. I LOVE THEM! They remind me of my sister's hats! They are so over the top girlie and if Dave goes away for a business trip he might come home and find one in our room!!

Lamp bases: free (trash picked- remember that, Gina?)
Shades and flowers: clearance shelves at Joann's
Inspiration: the lovely and talented Caro, seen here.

On a completely unrelated note.....

If you've been reading any other Chicago bloggers today, you have no doubt heard about our freaky weather yesterday. If you'd like to hear my account, read on. Otherwise, continue your regularly scheduled blog surf, because this concludes our crafting portion of the program.

I had just finished the lamps with my girls at home and was supposed to pick up Ethan at 3pm. I usually leave at about 2:40. At 2:30, Dave called from work and said “You are under a tornado warning”. I said “Warning? Not watch?” He said "Yes." (For my international guests, I don’t know if the lingo is the same for you, but for us, a tornado watch means that conditions are right for a tornado to form, and be prepared. Tornado warning means: tornadic activity has been observed in your area and get down into your basement! Now!)

I looked outside and it was overcast, but certainly not crazy thunderstorm weather. I checked the radar. Giant red radar blob headed right our way. Right about then, it starts to rain. I read the severe weather bulletins. It names all the towns and the exact time it is supposed to hit: St. Charles, 3:00 pm.

I'm thinking: Take the girls down into the basement? Go to the school and wait in the car for the tornado to hit us? Will they take the parents and siblings into the school? Since I haven't heard from the school, I assume they are dismissing on schedule and that they would do the reasonable thing and take all endangered parties into the school to be safe.

So I get the girls into the car and we head out. We are backing out of the driveway, 2:45, still barely raining, when the city tornado siren starts going off. No panic. I pull back into the driveway and call the school. I ask if they are dismissing at 3 or if they are doing a tornado drill. The secretary says they are doing a tornado drill and dismissing at 3:20, and a call was just about to go out.

So we get inside and get down to the basement. Then all hell breaks loose with the weather. We have those tiny little basement windows at one end of the house so I can see it. First, dark scary skies and really, really bad winds. Trees blowing in all directions. Then sheets of rain. Then the power went out. I waited for it to come right back on, but no.

We were in the basement for awhile, the girls happily coloring by flashlight as I was internally freaking about the storm, and I was getting nervous because it was getting close to 3:10, when I should leave to go get Ethan, and the storm didn’t seem to be letting up. Then I realized something. The power was out, my van was inside the garage, and there was no way I was going to be able to manually raise our heavy wood garage door. Okay, that didn’t stop me from trying. I went up and pulled the cord to disable the electric. I pulled. No. I started thinking about how I was going to get to school or who to call, when, all of a sudden, the power went back on.

Great. But now I have dis-engaged the door, and I don’t know how to re-engage it. I found the manual (luckily it’s only a few months old, so I have the manual on hand, otherwise there is no way I would have found it.) I re-engaged the door. By this time it’s 3:25. Five minutes after the kids are supposed to have been dismissed, and I am still at home. I got the girls in the car, the rain was letting up a little, and we raced over to the school. I tried calling the school to let them know I was delayed, but I couldn’t get through. There was still some freaky lightning going on, and it didn’t help that there were power trucks all over the place and fire truck sirens all around. I’m worried that the kids have been dismissed and Ethan doesn’t know where we are.

So, we get there and I see parents walking away from the building with kids. I pull up where I always do, but I don’t see Ethan waiting at the door where he is supposed to wait. I get out of the car (still raining) and don’t see him inside the door. I get the girls out and we race into the building (humongous thunder clap freaking us all out) but there is no Ethan in the hall. There are a few teachers out in the hallways but no kids. I ask one of them what’s going on and they tell me that the teachers are keeping the kids in their classroom until they are signed out by a parent, so the administration knows they are safe.

I peek into the room next to me and see a bunch of kids calmly sitting in their seats watching their teacher. I realize that while I was running into the building like a maniac, the teachers are in the classrooms keeping the kids calm.

Whew. Thank God for great teachers and school administrators! The end.