*LIGHTING* 1, 2, 3... *THUNDER!!*

That's right, it's been a "STORM WATCH" week in San Diego the past 4 days and there's this silly part of me that loves it. In fact, I'll admit right now that I get weather updates texted to me. The rain itself is a nice short change in our "Early morning clouds with sunny skies by the afternoon" daily weather, but what I really love is a good thunderstorm. I kept missing them all week, or thinking I saw lighting then not hearing the thunder or not seeing another strike, but this evening was different...

I'm not sure if you've ever been to my house, but the family room is like a fish bowl and perfect for watching storms come in from the west, pass over us and head east over the mountains. Right around 9:00 my dad and I started to see lightening out towards the west, but after counting the seconds between strike and clap we figured they were about 10 miles away. Somehow that quickly changed and it was literally like, "boom, boom, pow!" over my house (poor Maggie was freaking out) and before I could even say "HOTT DAMN!" the hail started pelting the patios. It was so amazing. My dad opening the door to get a better look at the hail and you could feel how quickly the temp had fallen...to which my mother said, "Close the door!". I know this is all hugely dorky, but a Southern California girl needs a lil weather spice in her life every now and again.

While that lil episode was fun, I think the craziest one I can remember was about four years ago (probably around the same time) during a STORM WATCH! day when we were in Subway and saw a huge lighting bolt, then almost at the same time a clap of thunder so loud that shook the whole building. Everyone just kind of stopped and looked at each other. Then after we ate the temp had dropped so much that we actually had to go home and put on our "winter clothes" (at least what we consider to be "winter clothes"). But the coolest thunderstorm I ever saw was a couple years ago early in the morning around like 6:00ish as the sun was rising. I flipping over on my stomach and watched the light show go on right as the sun was rising over the mountains and I swear it was one of the prettiest things I've ever seen... and I didn't even have to get out of bed :). Anyway, I'm glad that our good 'ole SD winter is returning this weekend, but it was fun watching some pretty crazy rain and wind so strong it threw our chase lounge chairs into the pool.