God Loves Tortoises!

First let me say that is does NOT rain in Southern California in September!! But it did this year and I don't mean the drizzle that we sometimes get at night.

The weather man has been saying "there's a storm coming!" for several days now but I didn't believe them. Friday was beautiful, clear skies, warm air, just gorgeous. Late in the afternoon a wind began to blow, a cold one. I thought maybe I should bring the tortoise in just in case. He (or she we aren't sure) has been living in the back yard in a nice burrow he made under the driveway. But he is an African Spurred Tortoise so he does not fare well in cold or wet weather and we need to bring him indoors or make him an above ground house with a heater for the winter. We haven't done that yet because IT DOESN'T RAIN IN SEPTEMBER! Well, I went to bring him in, but he was already way back in his burrow and it is very deep. I certainly wasn't going to go get the shovel and dig him out. And I figured if it did rain, it would only be a little bit.

We went to bed. Around 11pm, I woke up. I heard rain...hard rain. I worried a bit about my hard shell friend, but tried to go back to sleep. What could I do anyway? I couldn't sleep. Finally, around midnight I got up to look out in the yard. The water was coming down in sheets off the garage roof, right into the place where his burrow is. That is when I really started to worry. I went out into the yard in my PJ's and a blanket over my head. We don't even own an umbrella or rain coats that are handy! It was pouring and the yard was flooding. I went over to the burrow and kneeled down to feel inside. It was wet and puddled in front. The burrow goes down from there, not level with the ground, so I knew that the water was running down to the bottom of her house. It was cold, too. I started to cry. I knew he would be cold and not be able to move out of his hole and save himself. He was going to drown and it was all my fault. I ran back inside crying and stared out at the yard and the rain for several minutes trying to figure out what to do. I prayed out loud to God. "If you love tortoises please save this one. Do something!" I stood there trying to figure out what to do for awhile longer and then went back out into the rain.

There I was, standing in the yard in the middle of the night in my PJ's with a blanket over my head crying. I felt inside the hole and now the water was running in a river from the grass into the hole along with the water from roof. I stood up and yelled "Come out Lucky!!" When I looked down at my feet, there was Lucky poking his head out of his hole and looking up at me!! I couldn't believe it! I snatched him up from the ground and yelled "Praise God! Thank you!" and run into the house with him. We were both muddy and cold, but we were safe. He would warm up in the house and live to eat grass and harass the dog another day. I cleaned up and went back to bed, praising God for his small miracles!

Angels Baseball!

We went to the Angels Homeschool Appreciation Day! I was worried because it has been so hot and I knew we would be up high because the tickets were so cheap. But there was nothing to worry about. I also worried we would be the only ones there, but we filled at least two sections! Yay!! We got there before the game started because I wanted the boys to get a snack and hear the National Anthem. It was so perfect. I could have stayed the whole game. I forgot how much fun it is to watch a live game. We were in the shade the whole time and there was a nice breeze. Perfect baseball game weather!

Jake wanted to leave at the second inning. He was bored. Tom was pretty interested though. If it were just the two of us, we would have watched the whole game. We did stay until after the 5th though. I got them ice cream to bribe them to stay. I tried for the 7th by telling Jake there would be singing and stuff, but he was not impressed. Oh, well. Maybe next time. :)

Here is a picture of the boys with their noise maker tubes. Oh my goodness, those are annoying!!