Sirens, Sleep Deprivation and Stuff

I'm back from the booming metropolis of Springfield, Ohio where I attended the Springfield Antique and Flea Market Extravaganza. (Say that 10 times fast!)

I can't wait to fill you in on all the flea market fun and finds. Unfortunately, I am too tired tonight to do a proper road trip recap, so I hope you'll bear with me for a few more days.

Instead, I'd like to share my excuse for not posting about the flea market. To hold your attention while I ramble, I will throw in random pics of some interesting flea market finds that I didn't take home with me.

Okay, so here's my excuse:

It's the last week of school for my kids.  If you're a parent, you know what I'm talking about. The last week is always the busiest. Don't the teachers realize we want to savor our last few days of freedom before the kids are home 24/7??

To top off the crazy week, I spent last night listening to tornado sirens and watching weather reports. In the past the sirens have sounded, and the weather has been nothing more than a bit of rain.  So I am leery about waking sleeping children if I don't have to. I especially hate waking my 2 year old, because once he's up, it's nearly impossible to get him back to sleep.

Of course, my husband was out of town. He was sleeping siren-free in a nice hotel. Good for him. In light of the recent devastating storms, I decided to pay heed to the weatherman and wake the troops for a trek to the basement.





I carried/dragged my older boys downstairs, kicked about 500 toys out of the way, set up the sleeping bags, and got them settled in. The thought running through my head was that our basement was probably not the safest location in the house. If a tornado were to stir up all the junk down there, we would surely be knocked unconscious by flying bins of legos, matchbox cars, little people houses, nerf guns, buzzlightyears, etc. The basement more closely resembles a war zone than a safe haven.

I positioned my 5 year old on one side of the sectional, and snuggled in with my youngest on the other side. Like I said, once he wakes up....

every time someone rolled over, grinded teeth, coughed or made the slightest sound, my 2 year old sat up and said, "Who's that?"

Every time the thunder rumbled or the wind blew (which was about every 10 seconds), he would say, "What's that?"

This game of "Who's that/What's that?" continued for a half-hour or so, until I realized I never brought the goat dog downstairs. I ran up to get her, settled back onto the couch with my toddler and tried to catch some shut-eye. However, the dog was roaming around making noise, and when I got up to check on her, she was chowing down on a roll of toilet paper. I closed the bathroom door, ordered her to lie down next to us and again tried to get back to sleep.

Yet again, I hear the dog making noise and get up to find her eating a box of crayons. Well, that did it. She was going to have to take her chances upstairs. (Don't judge me. If there were a visible funnel cloud, I would have let her continue snacking in the basement.)

I head back down to the basement, and as I try to creep quietly back onto the couch I am startled by a blaring noise across the room. I go to investigate and find my toddler playing with a loud, noise-making truck that I can't figure out how to turn off. 

It is now 2am, and in a state of sleep deprivation, I irrationally think, "if I just lost a night's sleep and a tornado doesn't come, I am going to be pissed."

Well, thankfully, a tornado did not come. And despite today's complaining, I truly am grateful. Tired, but grateful.

Let me get some sleep, and I'll be back to show you the fun things that I did bring home from the flea :)  Hope you have a great night's sleep!