Totally random stuff

I love days like this. All cloudy and rainy. For some reason this has always been my favorite kind of weather. Now, I wouldn't like it all the time, but for a change of pace give me some thunder and lightening and I will be happy. There are a few things about rain that I have come to not enjoy. For one thing, my little dog Axel HATES thunder. He totally freaks out. So about 6 this morning I had a dog running around my bed going nuts. I had to get up with him and sleep on the couch with him buried into my side and a blanket over him to drown out the sound. I was more than a little annoyed since both the girls were finally sleeping soundly after a night filled with coughing and crying. They are both getting over various degrees of sickness and are still having trouble sleeping at night. The other thing that I do not like about the rain is that our street becomes a lake and our basement leaks in the corner when it rains really, really hard. Knock on wood, it hasn't leaked today because although there has been a lot of rain it has been spread out over enough time that we are still ok.
I will never forget waking up a couple of months after we moved into this house and finding out what happens when it rains all night. I looked out the front window and all I could see was muddy water. It was covering the streets, it was over the sidewalk, and any time a truck or car managed to drive through the flood the water would wave up into our driveway. I think we might have been able to surf if we were so inclined. I woke Larry up and we went outside. We were shocked. No one told us this could and would happen so it was quite a surprise. Then we went into our basement. We saw the waterfall coming down from the window and had to hustle up any towels we could find. We used every single one we owned. We have since perfected our technique. We have the corner clear except a plastic tub of plastic toys that will be ok and a pile of provisional old towels. We have developed a system where I grab towels, Larry lays them out and then we both check them constantly. And then there is the clean up. We have loads of wet gross towels and a wet concrete floor that we scrub so it doesn't get moldy or anything. We have tried and tried to fix the leak, but then another pops up. I think the foundation needs some major work. But for now we will stick to our own personal flood plan.
Wow, I went on and on about that, huh? I have sooooo missed writing my blog lately. I would come up with the best posts and then I forgot them all by the time the computer got fixed. It was so frustrating.
My girls are growing up so fast. Vanessa has two bottom teeth and is running (yes, running) all over the house. She refuses to crawl anymore. She is still so small, it looks so cute for her to be walking all over the place. Natalie is doing great. She has been really well behaved lately (for the most part...she is still 4). The other day she was coloring a picture of a fairy when she called me over to see it. "Look mom, I gave her ankles." I looked at her foot area and couldn't see what she was talking about. She pointed at her face where she had added little dots, "see, just like my ankles." OOOHHHH!! Freckles!!!!! I had been telling her earlier in the day that I was glad she had been able to get out in the sun again because her nose had little freckles on it again. And she remembered the word as ankles. Too cute!
Ok, this has become kind of random and rambling. Maybe next post will be a little more organized and interesting!