June 19

Friday was the day Daddy was coming home. I spent most of the morning snoozing in between visits from Thomas. I am quite sure I fed him, that's all I remember. After lunch, Lois brought John home, who acted as if the sleepover had been no big deal. Mackenzie and Taylor came over to babysit all the little people (Lindsey had to do more important birthday stuff), and Mom, Lois, Dana and I spent the day shopping at antique stores in Grandville and near downtown GR. We got a lot of neat things (including vintage croquet balls that rolled all over the van floor) and just mostly enjoyed being together without little people. That evening, I drove the girls back out to Brad and Lynn's, who had their own scary stories of the night before, including the frightening smell of burning after a lightning strike...it turned out that a hair straightener had been zapped to death! While we visited, another storm hit, this one even worse. We watched the radar on Brad's computer...we were in the eye of the storm, and it stretched all the way over to Wisconsin. John was terrified of the thunder. The rain came down in sheets. Brad drove the van right up to the door for us, but we were soaked in seconds. We drove about 20 most of the way through washouts and puddles so deep I thought we would get stranded. Thomas slept the whole way. We made it home just in time for Calvin to arrive...his plane had just beat the storm. The next day we heard a lot of stories of cars and even a firetruck stranded in intersections. Some areas got 5-7 inches of rain! Out here in WA I kind of miss thunderstorms, but not that kind!