Saturday beemed bright and merry,a sure winner for a fun day at our White Caps BallPark.Gordon Food Service gave us 10 tickets for entrance and percentage off coupons for certain items bought at the concession stands.Wow, what fun to be had.It was Gordon Food Service Family Fun Day at the ballpark.Earl was enroute home from being on install out of state so he wouldn't be able to make it.On the other hand Annette and the girls would be joining us soon for a fun evening.Afternoon arrived right along with a few ominous looking clouds. I decided not to let them bother me,I wanted to think positive.It worked for alittle while.The rest of the afternoon had us glancing up at the sky every so often to watch the clouds become quite gigantic thunder heads.The light turned into darkness as if bedtime was here and time had come for nightfall.Our sky had become quite dreary and very threatening .A ruff storm was soon to be unleashed on us with lots of fury.Did we really need the rain right now?Lord couldn't the rain hold off until after our game was over tonight? RuthAnn pulled a stool up to the kitchen window where I stood peering out heavy in thought and looked out to see what I was looking at.What's wrong Momma? It had began to rain lightly at first and then began to downpour.Well, RuthAnn it's raining cats and dogs.If it continues we won't be going to our ballgame.A sadness began to overtake us so I suggested that we should pray to Jesus and ask him to turn the water faucet off.Jesus can turn the water off as well as he can turn the water on. Ok Momma.As we both stood next to each other looking out the window she folded her little hands,closed her eyes and began to pray.Please Jesus we would like to go to our ballgame,could you please turn the water faucet off?Thank-you amen.We watched as the storm roared down in torrents.We walked away from the window and proceeded to gather up umbrellas,jackets and blankets in preparation for going.Within a short while the rain began getting slower and slower.Is Jesus turning the water off momma?He might be RuthAnn.I picked up the phone and called Annette.Do you still want to go if everything is soaking wet?Yep,they had all looked forward to it for the day.With Umbrellas,jackets and blankets in arms out we went.I'd like to say I was thinking positive but of course one of you will say,then why did you arm yourselves with all those items? As we sat waiting for Annette to arrive,the much dreaded rain drops began once more.When Annette and the girls walked up to us,each of the girls had their umbrellas,even little Emma.I gave Annette my small umbrella and up went my large beach umbrella for myself and RuthAnn.We handed in our tickets and walked in to where we would find our seats.Only a few brave people we're sitting down in seats with their umbrellas sheltering them.As we stood there watching, the rain got heavier and heavier.Up came the few people who thought they we're braving it.Wow what a down pour.The place became one large mass of people watching the torrential rain come down wondering if we would soon be told it would become a rainout.What does it take to decide a rain out is required to take place? As the time became longer and longer people began buying drinks and things to eat.Ok so who ordered all this rain? Surely I didn't.Before long Annette and the girls and I we're sitting on the cememt floor back in a corner next to the ladies restroom.What a sight.Grandpa bought a large bag of popcorn,Hannah got out her notebooks of paper and color crayons and there we sat,cross legged,nestled close togeather,chomping popcorn and watching people wonder what our outcome would be.I think we we're probably either the funniest looking people there or the smarter looking people there.Eventually the time came that the rain let up.Everyone slowly filtered down to their seats and wiped them off with either their butts,paper towels,blankets or jackets.In our situation we had not thought of bringing paper towels or going into the bathroom for lots of tp.We just layed out our blankets on the wet surface and plopped our butts down.Everyone cheered as the field crew came out to get the tarp off the field.They formed a line across and slowly drew the tarp over to the far side.A few minutes passed and a slight stir went through the crowd as we watched the field crew bring the tarp slowly back our direction.This must just be the way they take it off,surely.As the crowd watched each of them layed the tarp back down and picked a sandbag to place back on the tarp.This can't be good everyone realized.Low and behold about twenty minutes later a very large,dark cloud began forming,becoming larger and larger flowing closer and closer over our heads,seeming so low that you could just reach up and touch it.As everyone seemed captivated by the large ominous cloud,the intercom jarred us to our senses,telling us to immediately leave the seating area and head for cover.A very forcefull storm system had suddenly developed and was soon to release its fury on all of us.Needless to say people moved very rapidly up for cover and just in time.Wow,it wasn't good.It was a very bad storm front that had moved in on the ballpark. People we're packed in like sardines once more waiting either for the let up or the intercom to say it was a rainout after all. It suddenly dawned on Annette that she had said to me to leave our blankets on our seats and I had agreed.We both looked at each and ended up in hysterics.As Chuck looked at us wondering what was so funny,Dan told him what we had done.Chuck just smiled at us,raised his arms and showed us the two blankets he had quick wisked off our bench.What a relief for us and what a proud looking husband I had at the moment.Finally what was supposed to be a 7:00pm game became a 9:00pm game.Unfortunately by the beginning of the third inning Annette had decided she needed to get going because of the lateness of the hour and Earl was soon to be getting to the house from his journey home.The air temp had cooled down quite a bit also so that combined with everything being drenched from the rain created for chilled bodies by this time.Chuck took one look at me and realized by now I would like to follow suit and get RuthAnn out of the weather.RuthAnn has been on medicine for getting over pnuemonia for a few days.I was sitting there with cold feet because of me breaking my little toe earlier that morning and feeling more chilled by the minute.We followed each other to our cars,gave kisses and said our goodbyes.One positive was we had no problem leaving the parking lot with so many trying to get out.It felt good to get home and climb into bed.I felt bad for Chuck to not be able to stay and watch the whole game but he seemed ok with it.What a sweet,understanding husband,father and papa(grandpa)to make the decision for us to get up and leave also.It left a warm feeling in my heart for the night.Our summer has just begun so I believe there will be more tickets given out with more chances of fun family times at the ballpark.Did it rain on our parade?Yes but No,not really.We still got out and tried.The kids loved every minute of it and were untouched by it all.If anything they didn't know why we were leaving so soon and felt bad.The Good Lord will bless us with other times,hopefully without the inspiration of rain.
