Who is the Real Hero?

(Morgan insisted that we take pictures and blog this event. I prefer to forget it but for her... here is the story.)

We sat at the table eating our peanut butter ice cream, enjoying our last summer day together before school started. I watched the cattle out the window and thought it was strange that they were all moving to the right side of their pens. There was no feed truck. Why did they all decide to move that direction at the same time?

Then I saw the wall of dust and heard the roar of the approaching wind. I announced to the kids that a storm was coming. Morgan jumped up in a panic, worried about their swimming pool they had been playing in earlier.

We have had this inflatable swimming pool for almost 4 years. It originally had a whale slide that was also inflated and attached to the pool. (After our first time inflating I was ready to be done with it. Glad I got it on clearance.) After the slide got a mysterious hole, the kids insisted on continuing to use the pool. Even with the tie-down things on the bottom, it has been a fun little wading pool.

The kids told me they had opened the drain when they were done and Zane was sure it was blowing away. To fulfill my need to be hero-mom, I slipped on my flip flops and rushed out to save the pool! (By this time we had 60 mph wind gusts!)

As I picked up the pool I realized that not all of the water had drained so it probably would not have gone too far. But lifting it, I emptied it. So now what?

I knew I had to get it to the storage shed at the back of the house. It was a bit difficult to maneuver in the wind but hey, I am super-mom, the hero. As I rounded the corner of the house, I realized that I was now sailboat-mom, about to set sail across the field.

The pool completely wrapped around me and I could not see where the wind was taking me. As I tried to dig my feet into the ground to keep from going completely airborne, my right flip flop broke. (I think this is what actually saved my life. I was then able to dig my bear foot into the ground and stopped flying.)

As I tried to carefully pry the wet, plastic pool off my face to see where I was, the wind ripped it from my hand and sent it soaring. I had missed the storage shed by only a few feet but at this point I DID NOT CARE.

I picked up my shoe and limped inside to tell the kids I would buy them a new pool. (I thought they would be happy about that but no.)

Through their tears, they looked out the window to see where the pool had lodge in the weeds.

(Ignore the fly on the window. See the blue speck out there?)


There was no way I was going out there, even when the wind stopped. I no longer felt the need to be the hero so I assured the kids that Dad would rescue the pool when he came home. I nursed my brused foot and begged the kids to STOP crying.



Not long after, Scott came home and saw the speck of blue in the field. He knew what it was. He tromped through the weeds (not afraid of the snakes) and rescued the wayward pool. He safely secured it in the storage shed before coming in the house.



The kids fought back tears as they told Dad the story and took him to the window to see... no pool. Then Scott assured them he had already retrieved the pool and their tears quickly turned to shouts of joy!



Dad was the true hero of the day! And I'm okay with that.