Rainy Day Miracle

A couple of weeks ago, a couple friends and I decided to start walking together. We walked Monday through Friday last week and had beautiful weather everyday. 

I have two dogs and a kid. One of my other friends had two dogs and a baby, and the other friend has two kids and a three-legged dog. 

This week has started on a completely different note though. For the last two days, it's been raining nearly constantly. The great thing about walking with other people though is that it kind of forces you to get up and go, regardless of the weather. 

It wasn't raining when I left the house, but by the time we got to the park where we meet, it began pouring. Kevin began to cry and we quickly put his sweater on (he had refused it before). The other friend with two dogs had almost reached us, but she didn't have a rain cover on her stroller yet, so she had to turn back home. We didn't blame her.

My other friend was waiting at the park, and we stopped at her house quickly and grabbed a couple of extra blankets. However, even with the blanket, the wind was blowing cold rain into Kevin's face, so I took off my sweater and covered the front of the stroller with it.

A few moments later, the rain stopped. We kept walking up the sidewalk, and then I suddenly noticed something. We were completely surrounded by storm clouds on all sides, but right above us, the sky was blue. 

I pointed this out to my walking friend, and I told her I thought it was a blessing from Heavenly Father because we'd gone walking even though it was raining. 

For the rest of the walk, the sun came out and it warmed up. However, as we finished up the walk, the storm clouds rolled back in. Shortly after we entered the house it began raining again. 

Some people might say that was a coincidence, but I don't believe that. I know it was a tender mercy and a miracle. 

The Lord does care about us and what we're doing. Even something as seemingly unimportant as a walk. I'm so grateful for another example of the Lord's love for me. 

It's Raining, It's Pouring

A couple of weeks ago, I was doing really well.

Kevin and I were getting out on walks, I was keeping a schedule, and I was nearly getting everything done on my list.

It felt great!

"And then came the rain" -and I quote from Rock-a-Doodle.

For the past couple of weeks, it seems like it has been pouring every day. It has made it difficult to do anything for some reason. I think we started getting cabin fever. Even the dogs weren't allowed outside as much, and it was causing the energy levels in our home to rise.

Now, don't get me wrong. I love a good, WARM rain. I like to go out and splash in puddles and get soaking wet and dirty. However, spring rains are not warm. In fact, it's been snowing in the mountains. We're super grateful for it, but it makes me cold, and once I get cold it takes forever to get warm again.

On top of the rain, my schedule got thrown off from some late nights of baby-sitting. We were happy to help, but it's hard to get up at 6:00 a.m. when I don't get to bed until 3:00 a.m.

As well as I do on small amounts of sleep, I've never been very good at the actual waking up part. I sleep very deeply, and so it takes my brain a while to emerge once I actually fall asleep. I sleep through most alarm clocks.

If I hit snooze one time, it's like my brain says, "That noise is now irrelevant. You can ignore it from now on." My cell phone alarms are one of the few things that consistently wake me up. I try not to use them unless I absolutely intend to get up when it goes off, or it becomes irrelevant noise too.

My first few years of college, it got so bad that I had radio static turned on full blast, and often I couldn't even hear that. This problem of mine made me late to a few classes and late to work occasionally. Not a good thing, and I still feel awful about it.

Okay...that was a really long tangent.

Anyway, it finally stopped raining yesterday, so Kevin, Arkhon, and I went on a walk. It was beautiful. We stopped to visit some friendly horses, and Kevin got a little scared when I brought him close to them, which surprised me, but they were awfully big! He finally worked up enough courage to pet one on the nose and then he pulled his arms back really quickly. Arkhon got to say hello to them too, but he was just as nervous as Kevin was.

After that, we went to a neighbor's house, and Arkhon got to play with his friend, a big Siberian husky. Kevin calls him, "Batman Dog." His real name is Lakota. Arkhon and Lakota are best friends and they ran all around our neighbor's yard. We have some pretty great neighbors. As soon as the dogs started to play, Kevin said, "I play too!" I let him out of the stroller and immediately he was chasing the dogs around the yard. Everything went well until he got knocked over, and the husky sailed over his head, clipping Kevin's head with his back paw. Kevin cried for a minute, got a "Mommy Kiss" and went right back to playing.

This dog looks a bit like "Batman Dog"

"Batman Dog" is so big that he can put Arkhon's whole head into his mouth. Arkhon always comes home with a wet, slimy head and a big grin. He loves playing with other dogs.

Our crazy puppy

After we came home, we started to clean the house. At the time when Grig usually comes home, I got a call from him, where he informed me that we had a flat tire.

Lovely.

I had been planning on mowing the lawn with a lawn mower that some other neighbors were willing to let us borrow until our new mower arrived.

Did I mention we have great neighbors?

However, in light of his news, I decided to leave Kevin with Argent, and go get the mowing done while it wasn't raining. Clouds were starting to appear, and I knew I didn't have much time.

I left Kevin inside and ran over. I started mowing and things were going well. After about 15 minutes, Argent came outside with a worried look on her face.

She informed me that Kevin had fallen asleep. I told her that was okay, it would make watching him easier. She's very sweet and expressed her concern that I wouldn't get any sleep that night. At the moment, I was just happy that he was calm while I was working.

He continued to mow and completed the front yard.

Then, I moved on to the backyard. As I began, I was hit with a few drops of rain. Praying that it wouldn't really get going until I finished, I hastened my pace.

I finished just before the rain began to really come down. Our lawn looks pretty good now, if I do say so myself. It's still lacking in grass in a few spots, but that will be fixed in time.

Today we had a clear sunny morning and Kevin and I went to play in the backyard. He had a great time, and I got some weeding done. I think our garden may be sprouting something besides weeds! It's hard to say, and only time will tell.

Things are going well for us, except for car troubles, but what else is new? We were planning on going on a vacation this summer to the Grand Canyon, but in light of car repairs, I think we're just going to go camping locally. It will be fun and much cheaper.