Rain. Rain. Rain.

If one word could sum up this Spring in Houston, it would be rain. No make that RAIN! I have never seen so much rain ... and, remember we had a certain Hurricane Ike visit us on September 12th? We got more rain in one rain storm on a Saturday than we got during the hurricane. It has been crazy. More than once I have expected to see an ark floating down the street!

So, I wasn't surprised by the storm on Monday night. A bit annoyed, but not surprised. And, it was only annoying because Dean's dogs are afraid of the thunder ... and, surely their barking will make the thunder go away. GRRRR. It died down. We went to bed. And, didn't think a thing of the rain. Until the next morning.

We leave for school early. We are usually ready for school early. We usually spend our mornings watching the news ... as in Fox and Friends (Oh how we love us some Brian, Steve and Gretchen in the morning!) And, so we missed the news that was Houston and the great rain storm of 2009.

Now, we weren't completely ignorant that things may not be all that they seem up in Houston. As we were getting in the car, Dean got a call from someone he works with who asked if Dean was watching the news. He quickly filled us in that there was some flooding in Houston and schools were cancelled. Not our school. So, Torrey and I left.

It was slow going and we had to move from one highway to the next because of water on the highway. We trudged along. Listening to one school close after another. We were one exit from where we needed to be when the light bulb went off in my head and I told Tor to check my phone for messages ... and, there was one saying there was a 2 hour delay. We got off the highway and looped around and headed for home.

And, our trip home was really no big deal. It was easy. I made it home quickly. And, promptly took a nap on the couch until I had to be up for "reals".

Now, after my last experience I decided that two things about the return trip to school would be different. First, I was leaving at 9 ... just in case school was called off for good (because the news was saying to stay put unless you HAD to go out) and secondly, I was taking my phone off of vibrate. Why hadn't I thought of that on the first trip? Dern.

I guess I should also say I left Torrey at home. Because we put her education first like that.

So, off I went. The highway that had been closed was now open. I made it to school in record time. Well, in time for my phone to ring as soon as I pulled onto campus to tell me that school was cancelled ... for real this time. I would like to say that steam did not come out of my ears. But, this blog is about honesty.

And, so I did what any responsible teacher would do who suddenly finds themself with a surprise day off. I quickly got myself off of the property before anyone realized I was there. I am no dummy.

My day off was not wasted. On my second trip into school within two hours, I realized that the inspection sticker expired on 3/09 ... so I got myself to an inspection station ASAP, I went to the grocery store (mostly because I got a text from Dean and Torrey to tell me that we were out of mint chocolate chip ice cream) and I went home to lunch and a nap. It was a good day.

Oh, and as for our house. We didn't have the problems Houston did. As a matter of fact when we left in the morning I questioned the "flooding" because our driveway was dry.

We have learned two big lessons of the great rain storm of 2009 ... watching local news can be a good thing, and you never know what will happen when you pray for rain!