Storms of the Past (a guest post by Alexander)

We tried to go to the pool today. According to the forecast we had a good hour before the impending storm hit us, and from looking at the sky that seemed to be the case! It had rained a little earlier in the day, but then cleared up a bit. So, we headed over to the pool, stopping on the way to pick up a couple of items from the Buy Nothing Group.

 

What can I say? I'm a sucker for a good deal!

We picked up a dart board—because I thought Benjamin would love it. Andrew thought I'd lost my mind when I first told him that I had scored a dart board. But I assured him the darts were plastic...so not in any way lethal...and he felt much better.

Still, we put it up with the cement wall of our foundation behind it (rather than hanging it on any sort of drywalled area). I don't know how much we needed to worry about our walls, however, because Benjamin threw a bullseye!

What a good shot!

Who hit the 20 at the top of the board? Well...me. 

But I also threw the one that's really close to the bullseye (in the triangle part of the 12).

I'm nothing if not unpredictable. 

When Benjamin got the bullseye he started whooping and hollering and jumping up and down and the cat got so annoyed that she pounced on him and sunk her claws into his pant leg (fortunately he was wearing long pants, so no harm, no foul—but she was super ticked off at him). 

Anyway, we picked up this dart board from the same woman who gave us all the National Geographic magazines, and we took a few fig tree shoots from her front yard (with her blessing...and garden tools...of course), which are now potted and waiting for the summer weather to cool down so we can put them in the ground (which was her advice, and she seemed to know more about gardening than I do, so I'll try to trust her, but I might also overwinter one of the shoots indoors just in case the winter kills off these other ones). 

We're pretty excited about both these finds! 

They only slowed us down for a minute because this lady's house is right on the way to the pool. When we got to the pool, however, clouds were swirling suspiciously overhead and the wind had picked up considerably—so much so that we weren't quite sure whether we were hearing thunder or whether it was just the wind. Miriam, Rachel, and I spent several minutes trying to listen for thunder over the sound of the wind (while Benjamin, Zoë, and Alexander jumped into the deep end), and just as we were reasonably concluding that the mere fact that the wind was loud enough to be mistaken for thunder could just be our clue to go home...it thundered so loudly that even Phoebe looked up at the sky in awe and said, "Nunder!"

So we pulled the kids out of the pool. One solitary table umbrella whipped open and tried to fly away (Miriam and Benjamin wrestled it down). We packed up our things and booked it to the car. 

It was downright pouring by the time we got home. 

Alexander wrote this story while I was getting Phoebe down for a nap:

Storms of the past

By alexander hiess

Edeting by ben and nancy heiss

Today we had a bad storm We did some swimming rhit when we got thear we heard thunder

So we only got to swim for a bit ugoly we go for a 2 hours ok guys we go to jons brije pool

Ok so back to the blog the storm was bad so we left early  which is ok rhit mom wow guys 

We only stady for like 2 miunuts hoover reads this mite be scard cuas i mayhave made it scary

Ok  now we are beaing safe guys mom rights more then me the thunder was like big booms

Taking turns dancing and booming acros the scy is flashing the booming scary  is int a storm

Just booms and flashes and water falling from the scy scary rhit boom flash crak snap the storm

Gose qwik as a faster then a bird wow thats fast as fast as a car or truck wow that is realy

What i call fast a few days ago we had a power outage those are scary  mom siad that we 

Had to go so we are are like ok mom the last blog i rote is abot navoo mom was like wow that is a

Nice blog  buddy /alex/alexander ok  just a reamander this blogs name is storms of the past 

On this blog i have are storms scary to you? Guys rihting is fun eaven wehn it is for a purpose

Storms can sometimes be fun like snow storms and rain storms  and checking damage can 

Also be fun and staying insid during a storm eaven when you are scard

It is ok to be scard guys playing  in the rian can be fun guys ok wehn you are

Sard think of smopthng hapy

Here's a translation of what he wrote (and, yes, he also writes in a notebook to practice his handwriting, but he rather enjoys typing and he'll probably end up doing more of that in his life, anyway, so I don't mind when he writes on the computer):

Storms of the Past

by Alexander Heiss

Editing by Ben and Nancy Heiss

Today we had a bad storm. We did some swimming; right when we got there [to the pool], we heard thunder. So we only got to swim for a bit. Usually we go for about 2 hours. Okay, guys, we go to [name redacted] pool. 

Okay, so back to the blog: the storm was bad, so we left early, which is ok. Right, mom? Wow, guys, we only stayed for like 2 minutes. 

Whoever reads this might be scared 'cause I may have made it scary. 

Okay, now we are being safe, guys.

Mom writes more than me.

The thunder was like big booms taking turns dancing and booming across the sky. [The sky] is flashing, the booming. Scary! Isn't a storm just booms and flashes and water falling from the sky? Scary, right? Boom, flash, crack, snap! The storm goes quick as a...faster than a bird! Wow! That's fast! As fast as a car or truck! Wow! That is really what I call fast!

A few days ago we had a power outage. Those are scary.

Mom said that we had to go, so we are like, "Okay, Mom!"

The last blog I wrote is about Nauvoo. Mom was like, "Wow, that is a nice blog, buddy/Alex/Alexander!"

Okay, just a reminder: this blog's name is Storms of the Past.

On this blog I have: are storms scary to you?

Guys, writing is fun, even when it is for a purpose. 

Storms can sometimes be fun, like snow storms and rain storms. And checking damage can also be fun and staying inside during a storm even when you are scared. 

It is okay to be scared, guys. Playing in the rain can be fun, guys. Okay? When you are scared, think of something happy!

*****

He had a few tangential ideas in there—who doesn't fall victim to a good tangential thought every now and again? I know I am partial to tangents!—but overall, I think he crafted an excellent little narrative.

Considering he's in kindergarten.

My favourite bits were "hoover" for "whoever" and "ugoly" for "usually." He was quite worried this story needed a content warning—because all this talk about storms might scare someone. He pulled some advice from Daniel Tiger about thinking of something happy when you're scared during a storm (he felt that might help his readers who were feeling scared about the storm). I love all the onomatopoeias he came up with—boom, crack, snap!

I'd say this story is a bullseye!