A weekend of surprises!

It was a weekend of little surprises. A present, a Berkeley hail storm, and "inked" children.

A Present:

One of my lovely readers, Cameron, is an artist. I actually follow her blog and admire her jewelery. She designs and creates beautiful hair clips, and I recently left a comment on her blog bemoaning the fact that I have no hair, and no daughters to purchase the beautiful accessories for. Cameron's response? I have the perfect clip for your pixie haircut! It arrived at my home today free of charge. It was packaged beautifully, in a bag that included a print she had painted herself. First of all I have to say on the heels of my "Sometimes people suck" post, this was a nice change of pace. Generosity. Random kindness. (And no, she did not ask me to blog about her work.) It reminded me that sometimes people can also be awesome! The hair clip is perfect. She was right, it works with my hair and makes my short "do" seem a little more feminine. The pictures really don't do it justice because I am using my lousy cell phone camera, so you really should hop on over to her site to check out her work. THANK YOU Cameron for your the gift, it really made my day!

A Berkeley Hail Storm:

I grew up in the Midwest, where the winters are bitter cold and the summers are host to a series of fantastic thunderstorms each year. I remember those thunderstorms fondly. The way the sky looked, heavy, ominous and dark with thick clouds ready to unleash a downpour of rain. I loved the thunder and the lightning, although at times frightening, it created an air of excitement and uncertainty. My sister and I would sit looking out our screen windows and wait for the sirens. Tornadoes. When we were young we were frightened of the warnings. As soon as the sirens rang my sister and I would head frantically for the basement bringing our favorite stuffed toys and searching anxiously for our cat. As we grew older the fear subsided and I learned to love the storms which brought such needed relief to the hot sticky Wisconsin summer nights.

We left the Midwest in 2002 for Denver, Colorado, where thunderstorms are infrequent and where locals brag about a "dry heat." I missed the dramatic thunder and lightening storms of home. And now we find ourselves in Berkeley where a storm is almost unheard of. We get rain, oh yes we get rain, but it is a steady, unrelenting rain. No drama, just wet. Very wet. All day long.

But last night we got a lovely surprise. While at dinner with my parents in North Berkeley there was the sudden sound of a downpour. Heavy rain pounding the roof and claps of thunder. The rain quickly solidified into hail and the entire restaurant headed to the front windows for a glimpse of the unusual. The streets were coated with pellet sized hail, resembling snow. People were snapping pictures with their cell phones, and creating make-shift snowballs. The atmosphere was positively festive. Today, unfortunately the weather returned to it's usual pattern of all-day rain.

Inked Children

It has been an absolute pleasure to watch my boys become friends (FINALLY) over the past several months. Instead of constant fighting, we now get a lot of fighting mixed in with some mutual play. At times they actually enjoy each others company. Today was one of those days. We were so happy to hear the kids giggling together downstairs in the playroom that we just let them be. Twenty minutes later Zack and Evan emerged-naked and covered in markers. I mean covered. Perhaps I was suppose to be angry, but all I could do was laugh. And snap a few photos...