A from Cali

My friend from Cornell College A arrives today from California! She should be here soon as she took the red-eye last night. I couldn't do that. Sleeping on a plane is uncomfortable.

On another note... I didn't know it was supposed to rain again last night and then severe storms tonight as well? Geez... I don't think we need any more rain. We are already in a bad situation the way it is. People are still cleaning out their homes and everything here. Imagine my surprise when I woke up at 4 this morning and the power had gone out at least once because everything was flashing and there was massive lightning and thunder and pounding rain. I just heard on the radio that there will be favorable conditions for tornadoes and hail and really strong storms tonight. I like storms, but this is a little much.

As far as storms go, I must have been having the thunder and lightning influence what I was dreaming about last night because I dreamt about a friend of A's and mine from College who still dates one of the Lambs. He was helping me and another lamb Bri escape a tornado by going to this house he was building down the road from the Shopko that we were studying at (don't ask me...) There were computers there that people could use and I had my Flash drive and was working on a project there but I had gone to the bathroom at Shopko and came out and a classmate from high school JasM was telling me about how he had three kids and that he wasn't going to be having any more and then he kept grabbing himself and saying that that had been taken care of. (I don't think he has any kids in real life though.) Then I went back to where the project was and Bri was mad because I hadn't helped to get it done but I had only been gone for a few minutes. Then a white SUV came crashing through the windows at the Shopko and we had to run out the back way to get to the house that Den was building. Once we got there, contrary to what I wanted to do, he led us up to the top floor where there was the master bedroom and master bathroom. There were many many windows and we looked outside and we were somewhere tropical and I could see Jamaica from the window, but we weren't in Jamaica, we were in Florida, and there was a big tornado coming our way and we kept covering ourselves in these hard round lids and blankets and pillows and crouching down, but Den kept telling us that it was OK to get out and it really wasn't. Then he started talking about college and how fun it had been. Then there was a little baby that I was given (it wasn't mine and I don't know who gave it to me or what I was supposed to do with it) and I covered the baby up with the blankets I was wrapped in and then hovered over it so it wouldn't get hurt. The tornado never hit us and pretty soon it was sunny out. What should I make of all of this? I do have vivid dreams regularly, but this one was pretty complicated and lengthy. More interestingly is that I woke up to deal with the kids at 4am and then went back to sleep. That is usually when I lose my dreams, but this time I was able to keep it.

Yesterday I went with my Dad and kids to church at a neighboring Parish and then met my sister and her little baby there. We had a really good day and visited. Captain got to pick ducks out of the water to win prizes (all of which were Made in China) and he went "fishing" and got a little teddy bear. Burbles was really good all day except the two or three times she cried in church because of gas.

Saturday I spent most of the day cleaning as well as Friday. I got a little kick in the butt a few weeks back when the assessor came to look at our house to base our property taxes. I got upset because we hadn't been using the basement (2 bedrooms, living area, bathroom, pantry, utility room and Fundi's hunting/fishing/man room) but we were still paying taxes on it. In the living area we had all of my plants and tons of stuff that just needed to be picked up. So I went to work and picked it all up. Now the kids and I have a nice place to go when Fundi is sleeping. I made one of the rooms a toy room and took the CD player down from the baby room so we can listen to CDs like Raffi. The space is large and open with the only real safety concern being the stairs... Captain is pretty good on stairs except when he falls down them... I was busy, but I feel such a sense of accomplishment right now. The other bedroom has always been my scrapbooking room and a spare bedroom and that is now organized as well (due in part to A's visit this week but also to my scrapbooking drive). Neither the pantry nor the bathroom have ever been too bad. Fundi's room is his room. I would like to finish it sometime in the next year or so. My vision is a ceiling, a wall of shelves for his books and a sitting area with a lamp so that he has a place to go and nap or read if he needs a break. I feel like I could maybe get my dining room and living room back upstairs if I managed to move all the toys and kid stuff downstairs, but that might be a while yet. We might even be able to open the rooms back up and not have to divide them with a wall consisting of the toys, the couch, and the buffet. (Every time we need to go to the bathroom we have to move something to get through.) We could have family time downstairs and not worry about Captain catapulting himself over the couch or up a counter stool or climbing chairs. As for Burbles, it would be nice to have a bigger space for her to play as well. In the summer it is cooler down there and in the winter it is warmer because the heat storage unit is downstairs. Enough rambling, I'm just excited about the new usable space and it is even kid friendly.

Best get going. Captain is pulling on my arm and needs someone to play tractors with him.