I've always loved thunderstorms. The wind, rain, smell, lightening.  It brings back so many childhood memories. My dad loves storms, or change in the weather of any kind, really.  When we were little, a good storm usually meant we'd all jump in the car and go for a drive. Sometimes up to the mountains to see if the reservoir was spilling over, sometimes just out of town to enjoy the sound of nothing except rain pounding down on the roof of the car.  Then we'd come home, often to hot chocolate or homemade cookies. I love those memories.

Last night was one of the best thunderstorms I have EVER been in.  Or at least it should have been the best.  Thunder, lightening, rain falling in sheets, which soon turned to hailstones the size of bouncy balls. Seriously, it was ridiculous. It started around 10:00, I think, so the kids were already in bed.  Reas is hundreds of miles away on a business trip to Denver.  That left me and the storm.  After about 5 minutes of being scared to  death that a monster hailstone was going to come crashing through a window, I realized that big time storms are totally cool when you're with people.  Not so great all alone.  I was sure water was going to come pouring down through the attic because it sounded like 10 showers were running full blast right above my head when I'd walk under the opening to it.  If that happened what the heck was I supposed to do?! Buckets would be useless. I kept going into the kids' rooms to see if anyone was waking up needing me to comfort them. Those dang kids were somehow sleeping right through it!  I just wanted someone to talk to and sing "My Favorite Things" with.  Honestly, I don't know how they slept through it.  Our house sounded like it was under attack, and I was a big chicken.

This morning in the light of day, I was mad.  Mad that I was such a wimp last night.  A cool mom would have been out in the storm collecting hailstones to put in the freezer to show her kids and husband. Grrr. Instead, I'm ashamed to admit it, I crawled under my blankets, heart pounding out of my chest, and eventually fell asleep. I don't have a picture, video, or anything!

Note to self, two inch hailstones don't happen every day, especially in Vegas. Thunder won't hurt me and the chance of being struck by lightening in a given year is one in 700,000 (it's true. I just googled it). So next time, I'd better get out there, stomp through the puddles, dodge the hail bombs and be cool.