Trouble in Twos

Man, this kid...I'm talkin bout the boss kid. He's one of the best things that's ever happened to us, obviously, but blast it! He's so stinkin ornery! Yesterday, when the boys were s'posed to be nappin I heard a bunch of bangin: on the wall, the window, and then on the crib. I waited, and waited, and waited. The bangin on the crib kept comin every couple minutes. I'd hear Hoss laugh and giggle. Finally, it came to me. Wyatt had climbed in the crib. So, I thought, if he got in there, then he can just fall asleep in there. Problem was, they weren't wantin to go to sleep and were pretty fussy. When I didn't go in to get them they started cryin. Loud. Then I heard them both start cryin my name. 'Mama! Mama!' I knew they weren't gonna go down. When I walked in, I also knew to bring my camera and here's what I found:

It's plain to see they were feedin off each other. They've been doin that a lot lately. Like brothers will do. I know more is comin. JD seems to think he can't fall asleep if Wyatt isn't in bed either. It works out alright because Wy never falls asleep for his nap as fast as JD and Wy's been gettin up earlier than usual, unlike JD who's been sleepin in later than usual.
Here's some more orneriness from the boss:





He sure beats all, I tell ya. The imagination this kid has is huge. He loves to play finger puppets while I'm nursin Hoss before their afternoon nap. My mom brought out a set of Goldilocks and the 3 Bears the last time she was here. We always play Dora, Diego and Boots though. At first, he kept wantin to be Dora. I told him he should be Diego because of the gender factor. He didn't so much like that. So, I initiated the game the next time and said, 'Diego! Diego! Where are you? It's me Dora!' Without missin a beat, he sticks up his index finger and says, 'Hi, Dora! It's me! Boots!' I wasn't expectin that at all! He was fast!
Today, as I was nursin JD before nap, Wy asked me if I wanted ice cream. Then cookies. For the cookies, he had to reach up and get them out of the cabinet and he said he couldn't. So I told him (all pretend, mind you) that there was a ladder right beside me and he could set it up and get the cookies. He told me that the ladder was too big. Okay.....come on mom....think! I told him I had put a step stool in the corner and that would work. He told me it wouldn't. Then he got the 'ladder' and said he wanted a BLUE ladder. I don't know where he comes up with these things!
Today, the boys were giggling more than usual and I walked in to find Wyatt in the crib again. When I reached to get him out he just gave me that ornerier than the dickens look with a huge grin that twinkled his eyes like stars.

Severe Sunday Continued and the rain barrel is full

Okay, it's not actually a rain barrel. It's a muck bucket. It's not used as a muck bucket either but a toy for the boss to play with and in, like this morning, when it looked like this:

He was soaked in 3.948 seconds of walkin out the door. The kid just can't leave water or mud alone. Not only was his arms in this bucket up to his elbows but his pants somehow got wet up to his knees, with no mud on them. He had overturned one of the dogs' big water dishes, actually a rubber tub for grain, and used it to stand on to dip his legs into the water.
After the first round of storms yesterday afternoon the roots from the maple all stood on end:

Then around 6 p.m., after there were two warnings of tornadoes, each within 7 miles from our place, the second storm came rollin in. This time we got to see clouds! And it was beautiful!









And it was dark!







We had high winds but not the straight-line winds that folks close to the storm had.

Our winds blew the rain into the louvers of the vents under the eaves of the house. We had some dripping on the stairs and some pooling up in none other than....a light fixture. Yeah, I went to turn the light on over the sink this mornin and it didn't work. It was dark so I didn't even think to look up. At lunch it was dark in the house because of all the cloud cover and I remembered it didn't work so I looked up and saw this:

Very safe. And since the house has been wired a little differently, we have to shut off all the breakers in order to drain this thing. I'll be honest. I'm a little jumpy.
Signing off and thankful to have a somewhat dry but not burned down house!
P.S. After draining that one, we've since found another light fixture in the same condition. This time just half full of rain water.
P.S.S. This has only happened in one other storm in the 7 1/2 years we've lived here.

Severe Sunday

The meteorologists have said that today the storms could be the most severe we've seen yet this season.

Ominous, dark, heavy. Severe. Watches. Warnings. Most of that describes Hoss, otherwise known as JD. I wonder if it has anything to do with the weather because that's exactly the adjectives for the weather outside right now. We've had no sun. None. It's been overcast the whole day with no definition to the clouds. We haven't been able to see the storms roll across the prairie like we usually do witht the huge bright thunderheads.

Yesterday there was a line of storms from just west of OKC, up through Wellington and Winfield, on up through Andover, Augusta, El Dorado and on to KC. At the racetrack last night, the Nascar Truck Series was in progress when they had to call a halt to the race and 30 minutes later a tornado was spotted in that area and went by the track.

Today there have been a handful of tornadoes already to the west of us 'round Greensburg and Pratt and farther south in the panhandle of OK. Our whole state is in a tornado watch with some already in the warnings. The cells today are poppin up farther west and south than they did yesterday, which, when you think of polo, 'man-line-ball', you just have to switch it to 'town-line-storm' and that's how it happens out here. Generally speakin, if the storms are headed in a NE direction and Guymon, OK and Anthony and Harper, KS are lined up in there then we're gonna get hit too.



Definitions of the day:

Hail:half dollar sized, golfball sized

Strong/severe winds: as in 70-75 mph, tornadic

Lightning: cloud to ground, like the one that just hit 6 seconds ago. Hello cable! Please stay on!

Heavy rain: as in 'it's rainin like a cow peein' on a flat rock' kinda hard or as in 'rainin buckets' or 'rainin cats and dogs', torrential

Tornadic activity: the 'weather ones' have said that today is a perfect set-up for severe storms and large, violent and long-lived tornadoes.

It ain't a kitten out there tryin to play. It's a big mad polecat stretchin her claws and flexin her muscles. The thunder is comin in loud cracks followed by giant rolls. The raindrops are huge. Okay, now the rain is just plain torrential. I can't see more than 100 yds away. The tv is strugglin to keep cable so I'll probably be shut down here soon from rain or lightning.

The street is flooded slightly:

Our front yard is flooded more than slightly:



Hold on, the sirens are goin off.....okay, the warnings are for 4 miles to our east and on up in a NE direction. No tornado yet, but strong rotation.
Portions of our side yard look like it's in dire straits:

Well, the grass seed in the front yard might be gettin the required 2" today!