The Calm Before the Storm

Most of you reading this know that during the fall, we spend our Friday nights at Bryant Stadium, cheering on the Dreadnaughts...but more importantly, supporting the band....and even more important than that, the drumline.  Chris is in his 19th year of working with the drumline, which translates to 15 years of Friday night "date nights" at the football games.  So, to say I've loved every minute would be a lie.  There have certainly been many (many, many, many) Friday nights where I dreaded going.  But, all in all, it's really become a fun family tradition for us now that the boys are old enough to enjoy it...which, in turn, means mommy can enjoy it.

But, we don't "enjoy" the game as most fans do.  When we go, we don't sit down...we stand in the north end zone, in front of the band, where Chris can keep up with the game and keep his eye on his drum kids.  So, the boys spend the whole game on the sideline or in the end zone...something most kids don't ever get a chance to do.  In fact, I can remember when I was Warren's age...sitting up in those same bleachers on Friday nights.  I used to think the football players, cheerleaders and band kids were so cool getting to be on that big field.  And I remember watching the "big kids" play football and hang out behind the bleachers.  

Fast forward 20 years.  Warren is now one of those "big kids."  This week, he brought his friend, Lincoln, to the game.  (Harper has never mentioned bringing a friend, but we sure are blessed that Warren has chosen friends who get along so well with him, so he is never left out.)

In any case, Chris and the boys arrived at the stadium in time for the band rehearsal (2 1/2 hours before kickoff)...which meant the boys got to play on the field!  Warren and Lincoln had fun pretending to be Dreanaughts, while Harper was off to the side, being Harper.  Little did we know this was the calm before the storm.  

Right after pregame, we got hit with a huge storm...literally.  Terrible lightning, rain and wind.  We corralled the kids over to the baseball stadium where we sat in the bleachers, under cover.  As the boys sat, I eavesdropped into their conversation only to hear the sweetest voices talking about why we have hurricanes and tornadoes.  I heard one of the boys ask "Why did God even create them?"  To which Warren replied, "Well, God already flooded the whole Earth once and He promised he wouldn't do it again."  And Lincoln said "Ya, then he drew that promise with a rainbow.  So he won't flood the whole Earth again."  

And while I thought that would've been comforting, apparently Harper didn't "buy it".  He got very scared and wanted to "hide" under the desk.  So all three boys crammed under the desk, in their ponchos.  To take their mind off of the storm, Chris gave them his cell phone to watch a movie.  And suddenly, my big boys didn't seem so big anymore.