Saturday, July 16, 2011

Sweetness at Midnight

A few nights ago, I was working at the computer late at night, when suddenly I heard pitter, patter, pitter, patter.  But something was wrong with this sound - Coco's nails were more clickety, clack on the floor.

And then a sweet little boy voice saying "Mama, I didn't get to see the moon tonight!" 

My youngest had gotten out of his crib (we keep the gate down now & he's quite the expert at crawling in and out) and I guess was ready for a night time adventure.  I was surprised at his request because it's been quite a long time since we have looked at the moon. But he picked a perfect night for it. 

We went out on to the front porch and took a look.  There it was, big, bright, and shiny.  It was so bright that JM had to shield his eyes.  But he looked happy, if somewhat sleepy, to see it.  So we sat down on the porch swing for a few minutes and peeked through the tree branches at that bright full moon.  It was still pretty hot outside, so we were both ready to go back inside pretty quickly. 

I told JM "Say good night to the moon."  And he started to and then stopped and said, "the moon can't talk, Mommy!" 

Then it was off to rock my sweet little boy (in the cool of the house) and get him back to bed for the rest of the night.  What a great way to end my day.

Hot & Dry

I think Mike & I might have worked a leeeetttllle too long in the sun this morning.

We decided to go to church tonight and then out to dinner afterward.  So we were only gone for a few hours (okay about three - dessert at two different locations-DQ & the snow cone stand- took at least 30 minutes of that time).

When we got home, I noticed that Mike must have left a small sprinkler going to make a damp spot for Coco & to keep her cool.  Good thing, since it was 105 degrees when we got home around 7:30.  But then I noticed that the dirt in our new flower beds looked darker and moist, hmmmm.  And then I saw that our new path looked wet, too.  Oh, I thought I must not have realized it but Mike must have given the dirt and path a good watering before we left for church.  Although I couldn't quite figure out when he would have done that since I thought we headed out to the car about the same time, but my brain didn't ponder that for too long.  I wanted to get inside and out of the heat, so I walked on toward the outdoor faucet to turn off that sprinkler Mike had left on for Coco. 

After I turned the faucet off, I noticed that the there was a drip, drip noise.  The down spout for the gutter is right next to the faucet, but why would the downspout be making a noise?  I shook out the few leaves that were in the end of it,. but didn't see anyhthing other than some wet, old leaves.  Hmmmm, I thought.  And the drip, drip noise continued.  My next thought was "maybe Mike got a little bit of water on the roof when he was watering the ground" but somehow that just didn't seem right either (more likely that I would end up watering the roof than the yard, but not Mike!)  Aha!  I had a better idea - maybe there was a frog under the downspout trying to jump up and making that repetitive noise (and yes, we have had frogs living under our downspout before so this wasn't such a crazy thought, right???).  So I checked .... no frog.  Well, my brain was spent, and I had no more inspired thoughts, so I shrugged my shoulders and headed in to the cool house.

All was well until a few minutes later (well, it really wasn't all that well, since I was chasing two naked children around the house, trying to direct them to the bathtub...).  Mike came in looking concerned and asked me, "did you know the gutter is dripping?"  Yes, I had noticed that, too.  Now I was worried again & Mike looked rather worried, too.  "Why would it be dripping?" he asked.  I had no good answer (obviously), so I gave the good wife answer and said "I've got things under control here (ha!), you go get the ladder and check things out."  Meanwhile I had started picturing crazy things - maybe a flood in the attic (but how would that happen, my brain was simultaneously thinking and asking). 

A few minutes (and a few kids in the bathtub) later, Mike came in, looking like a man with an answer.  I wondered, what could be wrong now - would it be another house repair???? How much time, how much money would this take??
So, taking a deep breath, I asked, "Why was the gutter dripping?"  And Mike's response: "It rained."