Laughing at the Rain

Malcom and I had quite the adventure this morning! I tell you what.

The manchild let me sleep in till 9 am, and I was feeling energized like never before. It's amazing what sleep can do! Anyway, I got us all dressed and out the door for a morning run. It smelled like rain outside, which is something I adore because it reminds me of home. Every morning in Oregon smells like wet things. It's true! So I was practically in heaven as we ran down the street, down a few blocks, past a church building and into a back entrance of that little park in front of the nature park (I don't know what it's called). It seemed that all of Rexburg was still inside their cozy homes, maybe still asleep. All we could hear was the chirping of birds and the sounds of a slight breeze rustling damp leaves. We stopped at the playground, siezing the opportunity to use any equipment we wanted with out any of those pushy big kids getting in the way... I even went down the slide with Malcom in my lap and got my backside completely soaked. It didn't phase me in the least, because I'm an Oregon girl at heart, and playing on a wet slide is the next best thing up from a water park. Eventually I decided that we had better continue our run, since it was getting a little chilly (probably had something to do with the wet backside...). Grinning, I plopped Malcom back into his stroller and continued onward. It began to sprinkle, then a light rain and quiet thunder came. I pulled the stroller cover over Malcom and covered him up with my hoodie, and kept running because we were in Idaho, and it rarely rains for long or very hard here. I'm an Oregon girl after all! This was fun! I envisioned myself returning home, rain soaked and sloshing in my sneakers. It would be a glorious site! And how long had it been since I'd played in the rain?! I couldn't even remember... so we kept running...

In a literal flash of lightening the rain began POURING in sheets, and the cacophony of the thunder drowned out the music playing on my ipod. Hmmm... Maybe I was mistaken... maybe I wasn't cut out for this... maybe going home was a good idea? Yeah. So I sprinted down the sidewalk as fast as my sloshing sneakers cold push that stroller, trying to think of the closest possibility to get out of the rain. Should I just stand on one of these peoples' porches, and hope they don't get weirded out? Luckily we found the church building again and it had an undercover porch-type area. Sprint sprint sprint, slosh slosh slosh! It was too bad I had to get out of the rain, I was having the best run of my life! We parked in the dry area and I let the manchild wander around.

As I stood there, watching the storm, I chuckled as I contemplated how my pride had gotten us stranded and felt like a failed Oregonian. And then I saw Malcom pointing at the sky and laughing. The kid was laughing at the crazy rain, thunder, and lightening as he used to when the wind used to blow the big piles of maple leaves around last fall. It's like he looks at all "strange" weather as a practical joke played by God. I do believe Heavenly Father has quite the sense of humor, and maybe Malcom can see that more clearly than I can. I'm glad we had our adventure together, but I'm even more glad that he likes the rain. The manchild may be an Idahoan by birth, but at least he's an Oregonian by heart. Dang it, I'm proud of that! :)

I don't know how often in times we find ourselves in ridiculous situations and have a feeling that someone up there is laughing at our expense (I should hope anyway! I'd laugh if I was watching me. I'm hilarious!). It's easy to take ourselves and our temporary predicaments far too seriously. Every storm passes, and sometimes we just have to remember to point at the thunder and laugh ourselves silly.

Thanks little man for the reminder!

Love to all (and pictures coming by the end of the week, promise).