But not loud like a train!

Holy whirlwind of a week! The things I had planned for us at the beginning of this week were distinctly different from the things that actually happened to us this week. Monday started off windy, but when has wind ever kept us from anything? Well, there was that one time the wind was so strong that...nope, never. Henry and Charlie and I headed out to Lowes' garden center to poke around. I pictured us exploring and discussing different species of plants and trees and flowers in a very fun, educational way, but instead we spent the bulk of our visit playing around and in the fountains. (This is not the diversion from our plans I mentioned a few sentences ago.) I pointed out to the boys, "Hey! Trees! Lowes sells trees! Did you know there were stores that sold trees?"because I kind of have a thing for trees (see the Arbor Day post from the "Henry Times." I think I did a post about that?), but Henry and Charlie only wanted to focus on the fountains, so we did that instead. It was getting very windy outside - I heard two male Lowes employees telling the older lady at the cash register in the garden center to "keep an eye on this weather," so we headed indoors to check out bird feeders. We ended up purchasing a Venus fly trap and a third hanging plant for our kitchen, some bird seed for our existing bird feeder, a bluebird house, and some garden gloves for Henry. Oh yeah, and some Swiss chard seeds, because Henry wanted seeds and that's what we had eaten the night before. As we checked out, we noticed the sky had opened up, and we were in Lowes with nary a poncho or an umbrella. The cashier offered to watch the boys while I went to get the van, and although she seemed perfectly nice, we decided to wait a minute for the rain to slack off, then make a run for it.

By the time we got back home, unpacked our purchases, changed clothes, had lunch, and downloaded a weather radio application for my iPhone (can't keep the actual radio in the bedroom during nap time - WAY too loud! This way I can get a silent notification on my phone if bad weather is headed our way) it was nap time. As we began our nap, we were under a tornado watch, but this is hardly unusual during springtime in Middle Tennessee. Charlie had opted out of his morning nap, so he was TI-RED. It was more difficult than usual to get him to go to sleep, which meant it took Henry longer than usual to go to sleep, but finally they dozed off. About twenty minutes later, I got a call from Russell. Now, Russell ordinarily would never dare to call during nap time, so I knew this was serious. Simultaneously, I got a bright red notification from the iPhone weather radio: tornado warning! This was what Russell was calling to tell me. Sumner County was under a tornado warning. It is a testament to my insanity where sleep and nap and schedules are concerned that I then actually posed this question: "Should I wake the boys and take them downstairs?" Russell quickly brought the situation into perspective for me, and I woke the boys and got them into the downstairs bathroom. Just as I did, we heard very loud sounds that didn't sound like a train. (I remember that because my first thought was, "Whoa, that was loud!" and the only-slightly-reassuring thought that followed quickly on its heels was, "But not loud like a train!" which I chose to interpret as incontrovertible proof that we were not experiencing a tornado.) I told my half-awake boys, "Stay here!" (Henry: "But I don't need to pee!") as I darted to the front door to look out the window. There I noticed three things: (1) it was raining very, very hard, and horizontally; (2) the standing trees in our front yard were blowing sideways; and (3) not all of the trees in our front yard were still standing. That was the loud sound: two thirds of one of our Bradford pears, the tree providing our yard with the most privacy from the street, had snapped off in two separate pieces. The picnic table was buried underneath it somewhere, and Henry's sand table had been moved, its cover gone. I took this in at a glance, then

headed back to the bathroom, where Henry was asking, "What's wrong, Mommy?" "Nothing!" I cried frantically, "Everything is fine!" I must have seemed a little concerned, though, because Henry decided at that point that Charlie was scared. "It's OK, Charlie, I'll hold your hand." (This really happened.) Once the storm was over, we went back to our naps, figuring we would deal with the whole tree situation at some later point. After all, all we'd really need was someone to remove the downed tree (we ended up getting our lawn guy to do it) and a replacement tree (Lowes sells trees!) and about twenty years for the tree to mature enough to provide the shade and privacy once offered by the Bradford pear (our grandkids will enjoy it!).

Tuesday we had plans to go into Nashville to have lunch with some of my old friends and coworkers, who would be meeting Charlie for the first time. These plans actually came into fruition, and we had a great time, but little did we know it would be the last social event of our week. (Our week's schedule had been a teensy bit too full, anyway, and I foresaw lots of rushing around with tired boys on my hands: Wednesday morning we planned to visit a fire station with our moms' group; Wednesday afternoon we would go to a birthday party; Thursday we would fly kites at the park with the moms' group; Friday we would attend another friend's birthday party and tour another preschool for Henry.) On Tuesday afternoon we got news from Russell's family that his grandfather was very ill, so we decided to make a trip to Morristown the following day. Wednesday was a relatively normal travel day; you know, six hours of packing for the trip, three hours of trip - normal. Thursday Russell went with his parents to visit Papaw Woody at a hospital in Oak Ridge, and the boys and I spent the day with my parents at their house. Grammy and Grandpa hid Easter eggs for Henry outside, a "test run," and blew bubbles with him in the yard. Charlie mostly spent his time exploring every inch of the house (he's totally unaware of ever having been here before, and at any rate, he wasn't able to explore the house before now) and harassing the cat. On Friday morning, Grandpa made blueberry and strawberry pancakes for us outdoors on his grill's griddle, then we blew more bubbles and looked for dandelions. At lunch we went to Russell's parents' store, where we hung out with them and Aunt Carrie and Baby Dylan for a while. In the evening, Aunt Wendy and Uncle David came for a visit, and we all went to eat Mexican food for dinner. Russell's grandfather's condition took a surprise turn for better, and he was moved from the ICU to a regular room at the hospital. We have plans to stay in Morristown until Sunday if he continues to improve. So, it wasn't the week we had planned, but it was a week with family, which we always, always, always welcome!