We're not in Kansas, Never Were

On Thursday, while Grant was working late, the girls and I went grocery shopping. It was a warm, cloudy day. We were dressed in summer clothes. The weather forecast that morning had been a slight chance of rain and possibly some thunder storms. As we were shopping, I could hear the thunder rolling in. How often can you hear thunder when you're in a grocery store? A bit later, we heard a really loud CRASH of thunder that continued to roll after the initial boom. It was alarming. Then I heard the rain. I don't know if I ever remember a time when I could actually hear the rain while I was inside a store. It was pounding down on the roof so hard I wondered if it was hailing outside.

Then, Grant called from work, telling me there was a tornado warning in our area, and I should unplug some of the things around our house. I told him I couldn't because I was at the store. At first, he told me to forget my shopping and rush home, but with the girls in summer clothes (and Phaedra with a cold), I didn't want to take them out into that pouring rain if it would possibly blow over. Grant wanted to come get us, but he couldn't cancel his class. We continued shopping, and as soon as I heard the rain ease up, I went for the checkout line. It was still raining when we walked out to the car. I gave Eleanor a folded paper bag to hold over her head, which she thought was really fun. Phaedra was in the baby carrier, so I just tried to lean over her as I ran with the cart to the car. Eleanor enjoyed the paper bag so much, she still held it over her head as we drove home.

Once home, the storm wasn't much to speak of. We certainly didn't see a tornado. Eleanor kept telling me she wanted to see lightning and hear the thunder, but she was never satisfied. I guess we missed the real storm while we were in the store.

The night before all this, there had been a thunder storm in the evening. Grant was so excited about it, he turned off the lights in the house so we could watch the lightning. His enthusiasm rubbed off on Eleanor who is usually terrified of loud sounds and has been very frightened by thunder in the past. After Eleanor got her jammies on for the night, they went out on the front porch for her bedtime stories so they could watch the sky while they read.

So at least Eleanor wasn't freaked out while we were in the store and the storm was raging outside as I tried to decide what to do. It helped that her daddy had gotten her interested in it the night before. Hopefully, she'll remember her daddy reading her stories on the front porch during a storm.