Cloudy with a chance of donkeys

Hello old friends.  It has been a week since my last confession.  I can't regale you with any fabulous tale explaining my absence.  It has just been busy.  And stormy.  I mean, seriously...severe weather every other day?  At first I had to laugh about it.  But, now I'm just annoyed.  On the positive side, it has offered plenty of opportunities for us to put some storms under our belts that did not alter our lives.  We resist the urge to run to the basement every time the dark clouds roll in.  We reserve that for the warnings only.  Last Tuesday night my husband was scheduled to play donkey basketball at the high school for a fundraiser.  Of course I was aware that they were calling for severe weather.  I'm always aware now.  I'm obsessively  aware.  Would you believe that the desire to see my husband ride a donkey was enough to pull me out of my home amidst severe thunderstorm warnings?  I packed up the kids.  I made sure they each had the lovey they cherish the most.  I put our family dog in his crate in the southwest corner of the basement...just in case...with a blanket over his crate...just in case.  I might have left a few other important documents in there with him...you know...just in case.  I put the kids in the car and rolled off to the high school with my ginormous weather radio in my bag.  I must have looked like a freak with my kids to the right of me and the weather radio to the left of me.  But who's gonna mess with me?
Throughout the donkey basketball, we laughed so hard we cried.  I've never seen so much fire burning in my husband's eyes.  He was going to GET UP ON THAT DONKEY if it killed him.  And I was afraid it would.  It literally took 15 tries of jumping up and falling right on over the other side for him to stick at the top.  Once he had mastered the lowly farm animal, he took off with all the passion of the NBA.  He lobbed shots at the hoop, tried to pull high school kids off their animals, and looked like he was having the time of his life.  For a few minutes, we got so wrapped up in something that we forgot.  We forgot that there are storms.  We forgot that we were going home to a place that isn't ours.  We forgot that we were tired and nervous.  It was awesome.  Then I got the phone alert.  TORNADO WARNING.  Geez, does it ever end?  So, my dear husband had to corral all of the people in the gym and, you guessed it, the donkeys to the safe zone.  We rode out the storm (which did not bring with it a tornado) in the lower hallway of the school.  Our children were tucked into a small alcove for safety and a dear friend asked me random questions about drywall and  paint.  :)  I love you for that, Karen! 
The evening ended with us making it safely back home.  My husband took ibuprofen, my four kids snuggled up in my bed and my four-year-old fell asleep with his thumb in his mouth and his other arm wrapped around me as the thunder rolled outside.  I thought about the stupid storms.  I used to love them.  I used to get a giddy excitement over them.  But now they just tick me off.  They scare me and they scare my children.  But before the kids fell asleep that night, they recited their favorite scripture together. "I will lie down and sleep in peace.  For you alone, Oh Lord, make me dwell in safety."  As I looked across the bed at each of their faces, I realized that I will not be able to keep the storms of their life away.  I can't control the life circumstances that they will encounter.  But, I CAN teach them to trust (even when it doesn't make sense) the God that created them.  Z sleeps with a necklace (dog tag) that my mom bought him.  It has Jeremiah 29:11 on it. "For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord.  Plans to give you a hope and a future."  It is a promise...just like many of the promises God has given me through his scripture.  So, I'm going to hold onto that.
That is enough.

not sure what the ramifications will be for this form of embarrassment

tornado shelter

my cowboy :)

my new boyfriend

there are so many "ass" jokes that I could put here...

intensity

cheating