OK, so living with 3 1/2 dogs is not usually dull. (I count Fiona as a half at this point, being 3 months old-although she does take up a lot of time. :-))

We had our 3rd annual BeardieMainiacs BBQ/Bounce at our house yesterday. Let me backtrack a couple of days…..

We had been slowly getting the yard and house ready for the big event, when on Friday afternoon, the Thunderstorm warning came on TV. No biggie, happens all the time. Maddie does not like thunder and as Mac has gotten older, it makes him a little nervous. In a bit we could hear some rumbling in the distance, and I sat on the couch , letting Maddie know she was ok with me next to her (sometimes that’s all she needs).

Just then, lightning lit up outside and a small streak went across my TV (no harm done). I turned to the dogs and said, “I think I’ll shut off the computer.” By the time I got back, the three older dogs had deserted ship, and were in the basement! So I sat on the couch by myself, with little Fee at my feet. All of a sudden it was white outside! The wind whipped up, and a mixture of hail and rain was coming in so fast and at such an angle, you couldn’t see anything. I remember thinking that it was more like a hurricane than a thunderstorm.

A short while later, I heard a loud crack, boom and my house shook a little. I looked at Fee and said.b.’That’s not going to be good”. I looked out the bedroom window, and sure enough, I could see branches all over the place and on the roof. The power had gone out, so I found my cell phone (which doesn’t work in the house) and tried to call hubby at work. It was still pouring torrentially, and I was holding my hand out the door trying to get a signal and not get soaked [LOL]. I couldn’t get through to him, but did get one of my sons who worked near by. He was on his way.

Great, now what to do? Well, it was a little dark in house with no power and all the rain, so I went into the living room to raise the curtains. There in our front yard is a crater with a bunch of roots showing! One of our pine trees had been completely uprooted and left a hole while taking part of our fence out!

I threw on a raincoat and went outside, as the rain had started to let up. Our 2 willows on the other side had lost major branches that now graced my neighbor’s yard. As I got to the street, I could see the pine tree was almost completely blocking it. It only got more interesting. After a couple of hours, my son helped track my hubby down who then raced home. He went up on the roof to find a hole in it from the branches. Gee, that’s funny, I didn’t notice any water…. wait, there is now water coming from the light in our bedroom ceiling and we have wet spots on it as well. I run for a bucket, but my quilt and feather mattress are already wet. (sigh)

During all of this, the dogs were great! Fiona didn’t like the big trucks and was happy to stay in the house, but the 2 boys loved it. They sat in the corner of the yard, watching all of the activity (typical boys, love those trucks) from the public works vehicles. They cut the tree to push it off the street temporarily and the trunk and roots settled most of the way into the crater. We managed to block off the area where the fence was down, so the dogs could go out (and little Fee did great waiting to go). Our lucky break is that our neighbor is a licensed arborist! He has been helping and has an invoice ready for the insurance people!

So Saturday arrives, and we have to do some pickup and get the yard ship-shape for the BBQ. It didn’t take long, and the dogs wanted to help with all those sticks! My youngest son is storing a car here, so my other son and my hubby decided to push it back for better parking. Brian got in to steer with my husband pushing. Well that was a mistake. The car has been sitting for a while and apparently squatters took over… of the stinging kind! There was a huge nest in the door and they started swarming my son. He jumped out and shut the door and was only stung once. The car is still there.

So yesterday we were so excited about our Bounce, and though it was cloudy the Weather Channel said “occasional” showers that might hit or might not. Well, they were occasional, but it was more like occasional dry spots in between showers! We persevered, and had fun anyway, the dogs didn’t seem to mind. There were puppies running and ganging up on each other, dogs racing and playing and others just hanging around and taking it all in. (not to mention my 2 oldest who barked most of time… Beardie anyone?)

The day is over, had a great time, we are all tuckered out. We manage to make it to about nine o’clock, when guess what… the TS Warning comes on tv again! Sure enough the lightening starts in followed by thunder and lots of rain. We last till 10:00, sitting up with the dogs and it seems to be a bit better so we can go to bed. Five minutes later, Maddie comes running from her spot on the couch (that she shares with us reluctantly) and settled herself on our pillows between our heads… where she stayed. Sometime during the night, we managed to push her part way down the bed, but there she stayed, all night. (she did that Beardie dead weight thing when we tried to move her.) So I had a tiny corner of the bed to cling to, and we all went back to sleep.

This morning we are still tired, and the dogs aren’t moving much. We did get to see the public works guys come back and take the tree and clean up branches bright and early — thanks for that!

So, never complain that things are dull and nothing happens. You may get everything in one weekend. I am now going to slowly put shoes on and walk outside with the dogs, where they will probably stand there and look at me like they did earlier. (can we go back to sleep now?!)

The walking Zombies….
Val
Mac , Maddie, Traveler and Fiona