Opportunity is one of those things that depend greatly on the eye of the beholder. ~Andrew Sanchez

I have whined a little bit about the rain here, wishing for the sunshine to come back, but to be honest it hasn't really been even a fraction of how I am really feeling about the rain.  I used to love the rain.  Those days that called for baking or snuggling up under a blanket with a good book or an old favorite movie.  I loved listening to the rain beat down on the roof while staying inside or running from a building to the car without an umbrella because umbrellas are for sisses.

But I am having a hard time getting used to the return of the rain.  I feel cold to my core even thinking about wet socks and damp hair.  The gutters are overflowing. The gray of the clouds has set in and I have let it change my mood.  I think I would be perfectly content staying inside with Taelin and Joe for the next, say, 5 months.  Blah, blah, blah...right?

Well, kind of.  I do miss my sunshine and I think I can safely say that the answer to the question of "What is your favorite season?" has shifted to a solid "summer".  But realistically I am not going to be very much fun to be around (and I pretty much have to be around me all the time) if my attitude continues down this track.  So today, on our way home from Taelin's gymnastics class, I tried to ignore the fact that yet another leaf had gotten wedged between my windshield and the wiper causing a horrible messy arch that was impeding my view and instead tried to think about what opportunities the rain had brought.

I suppressed my non-helpful sarcastic side (which at times is more skilled than I would like) as I watched a car turn the corner and splash through the puddle that had been created by the leaves blocking the drain and thought, "Puddles.  There are puddles to jump in when it rains."  

So it was decided.  I told Taelin that when we got home we were going to go put our rain boots on, and find our coats with hoods and go jump in puddles.  Her response was logical for a preschooler, "Why?"

"Because it is raining and someone needs to jump in all those puddles," was my answer.
"Ok," was her simple reply.  (Something tells me not all my question/answer discussions will be that easy in the future but that is for another day.)

We got home just a few minutes later and gathered our gear (which also included the camera for me) and headed out.

How can you beat that smile? <3
 

They weren't really huge puddles.  Some people might not have even called them puddles.  But we did and we jumped and stomped our way up and down the street.  I did stop a few times to take a few pictures but you are just going to have to trust me when I say that my pants were just about as soaked as hers in this last picture from all of my own stomping and jumping.  There were absolutely puddles harmed in the making of this memory.

And for the record, after we came inside and peeled off all of our wet clothes, we snuggled up under a blanket and watched an old favorite movie.  Just like you are supposed to do on rainy Oregon days.