Umm...where is the umbrella?

Not long after the kids and I got up this morning, a massive thunderstorm moved over our house. I love thunderstorms, which is a good thing, because I think we were really close to this one. Every time the lightning would flash, our German phone would ring. I'm thinking that the wiring here may need to be used with extreme caution - especially in bad weather. Which, come to think of it, there's a certain plug in our sitting room that enables my laptop to deliver a pretty steady and annoying stream of mild shocks when I use my non ergonomically friendly typing style (read: all the time). So, we don't plug anything into that outlet anymore.

As the storm moved across our house and on to the next area, the rain didn't seem to want to let up at all. We had a very, very large puddle in our driveway. I got T ready for school and found a coat for S and out the door we dashed. I've been grateful for automatic sliding doors before, but never as much as today. I'm also grateful for the covered patio outside our entrance. It let me dash one child at a time to the car. This may also be a great time to mention for the millionth time how glad I am to be out of base housing. Well, not base housing so much as away from our crappy stairwell neighbors. The new nickname: McLazy's. heh.

We head to base to take T to school and seem to be following the storm to base. When we get to school, I find the closest parking space I can, but it isn't that close in such bad weather. I get out to grab the umbrella only to discover - we have no umbrella in the van. And the reason for that is because the last time I cleaned out the van, I removed said umbrella and put it where it will do me the most good - the garage. Yay me! So I pick up S, grab T's hand and we make a run for it. The kids think it's hilarious, I think it's well..wet. And no fewer than 10 people comment on the fact that I am umbrella-less. Gee, thanks for cluing me in (insert eye roll here). My favorite comment? "Gee. You're getting wet". THANK YOU. I would never have figured that out on my own.

Luckily the storm passed by the time we picked T up from school and I went home and put the umbrella back in the car. Of course, I haven't needed it since, but that's just fine with me.