At 5:18 this morning I was doing what normal people do at that hour. I was sleeping, soundly, oblivious to the thunderstorms rolling toward us. At 5:19 I was yanked from that sound sleep by an enormous clap of thunder, the kind that shakes the house. I layed there for a minute, listening for the inevitable wail that would come from the bedroom across the hall. For a few seconds, I thought I might have gotten lucky and she wasn't going to wake up, but the wail came. And I got out of bed and headed for her room. Kevin was a few steps behind me, coming out of the guest room (I have such a hard time getting comfortable these days that it works best for us to sleep in separate beds, that way we are both able to sleep). When he saw me, he headed back to bed. As I reached for her doorknob, the door opened, and there she was, crying about the thunder. (We're going to have to have a refresher course on the "big girl bed rules.") I scooped her up and plopped her into my bed and climbed in after her. I tried to get her to go back to sleep and tried to go back to sleep myself. Everytime the thunder would boom or rumble she'd either ask me what that noise was (the same thing it was before) or try to bury her head under the pillow or crawl further under the covers. I don't know if she ever went back to sleep, but I managed to do so twice. I could have kicked my husband when he came in at 7:00 to find his pants, that he didn't really need until we got up at 8:00, at the earliest. I had been sound asleep until she realized he was there and shouted "Daddy!" I almost fell out of bed. Would you believe that the thunder finally stopped, just when it was time to get up?

I dragged around, getting ready for church. I would have loved to stay home, but I was substituting for our paid nursery worker. Amazingly, we were ready to go on time. It was so very, very dark, darker than twilight, but not as dark as night. It started sprinkling again as we pulled out of the driveway. By the time we were half way to church, it was a torrential downpour, complete with thunder and lightening. She rode the whole way with her fingers in her ears. We were able to unload a mere 5 feet from the church door and still got pretty wet, even though I had an umbrella. Thankfully some of the men of the church were standing at the doors, ready to open them for people like me who had their hands full. The storm passed just after church started. I was relieved to see we would only have 3 babies in the nursery. I don't think I could have handled a full house. We lost one of our helpers to the 3 yr. old class, where they had 14 little monkeys. We're teaching that class in two weeks.....I hope I either get more sleep or we have fewer kids in there then.

After church we did our weekly grocery shopping. The longer we shopped, the more I dragged. When we got home, it was time for lunch. I couldn't stand it anymore. I had to sleep. And so I did. For 3 1/2 blissful hours. When I woke up this afternoon, it was bright and sunny. The roads, sidewalks and driveways are dry. There was hardly any sign of all the rain we had this morning. It's hot and humid.

Tonight I have to go back to church and work in the nursery again. Hopefully it will not be too busy. And hopefully, when I go to bed tonight, I will be able to sleep uninterrupted until it's time to get up in the morning.