Let it rain!! Let it rain!! Let it rain!!

That is what I was thinking today. It rained here, and I mean actually rained. Yesterday I was talking with my grandparents and they mentioned that the weather stations were predicting rain. I kind of looked at them with a skeptical look and commented how it probably wouldn't rain. Last time they predicted rain it sprinkled, and some stations didn't even count that it rained because it wasn't measureable. However, I didn't hear the reports that said this would be the most rain we will get all year (considering the year is almost over, that is not hard to predict!).

I looked outside this morning and noticed that the ground was wet and thought, "Oh, they were right, it did rain." Then a couple hours later I looked outside and it was pouring. It reminded me of a good Washington rain. Lydia and I went and sat out on the patio to watch the rain because in my mind, this wouldn't last very long. We weren't outside very long because we needed to leave soon, but it was so nice to smell the rain and enjoy the coolness that it brought.

To make a long story short, it ended up pouring for a good 4+ hours today, and it is still raining. It is more intermittent now, but the gutters are pretty full with water, and there have been flash flood warnings issued. All over the valley rain totals, as of this evening, are around 1/4 of an inch to 3/4 of an inch; pretty significant for us when one weather station I looked at recorded our last measureable rain as 4/100 of an inch October 4th.

Anyhow, I guess what I am getting at is that I am so glad that it rained!! We needed it so badly, and it made me feel more at home. Lydia and I went to the store twice today, and it was so funny to watch her face as she got wet. The first trip was with my aunt and it was raining pretty hard. Lydia had this look on her face like, what is this getting on me! The second trip was with Jeff and he ran in the rain with her, and even though she didn't like the rain on her face, she was laughing because he was trying to make it fun! This was really the first time we have ever really seen a true reaction from her because of the rain, so it was fun to see.

Well, that is a little bit of weather news from Arizona! We hope this finds you well and enjoying the beginning of this wonderful Christmas season!

*****Updated on December 13:*******
Once I looked at the final total for rain on the 30th of November, it was 1. 73 inches, so a lot more than the 1/4 to 3/4 of an inch they origianlly said the totals were. Crazy!