another reason to no longer fear hell...

...although you have to admit that this looks quite demonic

as if this weren't reason enough, i now have yet another reason to no longer fear hell: i was forced, by the weather, to have 18 way overstimulated 2nd graders and their parents in my house for a 4 hour end of the year party. it was SUPPOSED to be an outdoor party--got the grill goin', rented a bouncy house, had a slip-n-slide, etc.--yet when i woke up this morning it was black and cold and windy. and i was frightened. come on, this is albuquerque--we have 320 sunny days a year! it was like 94 degrees outside two days ago! however today was not as such. and i had to accept that i can control many things in life, but not the weather. or my children. maybe i'm not trying hard enough?

anyway, below is a quick visual guide to the horrors of the day:

these girls are trying so hard to ignore the wind and cold, but it didn't last

eventually, everyone ended up inside (and this is only a random sampling of folks)

then it cleared up for a bit and disaster number two struck: my built-in gas grill died. i mean really died.

so poor dean had to run home and grab his to save the day (and feed the starving kiddos)

sophie seemed to have fun in lucifer's bouncy house

(yet right after i shot that picture it started HAILING, then later the bouncy house rental guy got mad at me on for not grabbing the 1/2 ton air pump and dragging it undercover. jerk. freaky weather today, though.)