When Life Hands You Rain

I get why it rains. I seriously do. Everything on Earth needs rain, blah, blah, blah. But rain has been the bane of my existence for the past week. It started off annoying enough. It was a beautiful morning so I decided to treat my two dogs, Ebony and Simba, to a car ride while the cubs and I went to the library. We'd be quick, they'd love the fresh air and all would be zen.

We get to the library and I see a single cloud looming over Africa but I figured on the slight chance it decided to cross the Atlantic in the next five minutes, I'd pack an umbrella. One umbrella. One of those itty, bitty, completely broken ones shoved under the front seat of my car. Ava bear is in the stroller and K bear is walking beside me doing what she does best- talking.

Fast forward five minutes....five minutes....we're all checked out. No one melted down. I even got a copy of a Clifford we haven't seen that will occupy K-bear long enough to let me make dinner. I have K-bear open the door and whoosh! I notice two things at once. First, I'm now staring down at K-bear whose fallen flat on her back screaming and there are puddles coming in from outside. So, I've not only caused a flood in the library but I have a four year old whose screaming...in the library.


I look up and wouldn't you know it's raining. Not raining like, "Oh let me open my umbrella." Raining like I can kiss my underwear good-bye. I figure I'll wait it out. Ava bear decides differently as she starts to scream...in the library. So, K-bear gets in the sit and stand stroller and covers them both with the single, broken, itty bitty umbrella and I make a run for it.

All is well until my brain remembers I'm completely uncoordinated and I run the stroller off the path and into a huge mud pile. An explective falls from my mouth and K-bear turns to find out what happened. Only glitch is she turned with the umbrella, leaving Ava bear to the elements. Ava bear loses her mind, throws the blanket covering her (a blanket we got for our wedding with our names engraved on it) into the mud puddle. I'm now trying to get the blanket back, get K-bear to cover Ava bear and get the wheels back on the path.

Fast forward even further to just last night when a storm knocked out power from 3-5 in the morning. Just in case anyone is wondering, it's frickin frackin cold at 3 in the morning. By 3:30, Papa bear was sleeping on K-bears floor, Ava bear was sleeping on my chest and one of my two retrievers was clawing at my arm because she thought maybe I could warm her up, too.

Mama said there'd be days like this- she just never specified how many days would be like this.