Well, for those who have never actually seen "golf-ball sized hail"--feast your eyes on this... We had a doozey of a storm yesterday! Christian and I were home alone when the worst hit. I immediately sent him into my walk-in closet while I made some quick calls to Jeff and David (ironically enough, on their way to David's baseball game) and Brittany who was with friends. Just mere minutes later I realized Christian was NOT in the closet as I had supposed, and rather was running around in the front yard trying to collect a bowl of hail! I sure hope the neighbors were able to witness this bit of stellar parenting. Probably not, I'm sure they had all heeded the warning of the tornado sirens screaming through town and had the sense to hole up in a windowless room. We just like to maintain our "crazy Californian's" image. Christian is always coming up with clever ways to do that.

Aside from some damage to my geraniums and marigolds, which really just hastened their death before I could kill them myself, we came through the storm unscathed. Today the sun is out, there is a nice gentle breeze and just a hint of the blistering humidity that is to come! Ahhh, midwest living, predictably unpredictable!