Happy Friday, everyone!!!  What a crazy week this has been, eh?

Wednesday night our area was hit with tornadoes.  One of the families in our church had some direct damage to their house, but everyone we know is safe and unharmed.  A tornado flattened a house less than a mile from another church family’s house.  Crazy stuff! But we serve a powerful, protective God.

My family all crammed into the church office during the storm.  It’s the third time we’ve had to do that recently and it always leads to laughs.  Don’t get me wrong, my mom and I (sorry to rat you out, Mom. ha!) were kind of flipping out.  And when we panic we laugh at things.  It just helps.

Let me just set the scene for you.  The office is pretty small.  We can’t fit enough chairs in there to seat us all.  My Dad sits right inside the door and turns on some weather radio station on his iPhone and pulls up one of those weather maps that shows where the storm is.  He is the tornado aficionado.  My Mom clutches her iPad and plays Scrabble as if the fate of our very lives depends on whether or not she gets a triple word score.  She is the professional at keeping your mind occupied.  My brother is the one who brings snacks.  During our last storm shelter family time he brought a pack of cookies and some Mt. Dew.

Yeah.  He drank a whole 2 liter straight from the bottle.  He’s the stress eater.  Except without all the stress.  Sometimes I think he has no clue what’s going on.  I’m pretty sure that when he asked if we were going to get an “aftershock” after the first tornado hit, that sealed it.

My Grandma is always upset because she wasn’t able to get something or other from her house.  I won’t list all the things she has forgotten, but believe me, it’s funny.  Wednesday night she delighted us with tales of tornadoes in her lifetime and how much damage they caused.  She’s the one who’s impervious to tornado fear.

Timothy is the storm chaser.  He keeps on going in and out of the office to look at the sky.  He searches Facebook for pictures/videos of tornadoes that local people have uploaded.  And his *favorite* thing to do is turn on his iPhone brighter-than-the-sun flashlight while simultaneously playing emergency weather radio.  While Dad is playing his radio.  Except they don’t listen to the same station. Hmmm.  Fun.

I am clearly the one who is most capable of dealing with emergencies.  I hang on every piece of news that comes out of our iPhone radios.  And if no one looks like they’re worrying sufficiently, I worry for them.  Just because I’m that nice.  I tried to be like Mom and read a book to keep my mind occupied, but then the power went out.  She had planned for this and was fine, but I was up a creek.  I ate half of David’s stress cookies and stopped short of drinking straight from his 2 liter.  I handed Grandma multiple kleenexes, waters, her glasses, her purse, her blanket, and I swept in and saved her when she stumbled.  Go me.  And I sent Timothy texts telling him to come inside out of the rain and winds and deathly tornadoes and stand by me and hold my hand.  And rub my face.  Does that make me high maintenance?

So that’s what it’s like inside our storm shelter, aka church office.  I’m sincerely praying that we don’t have to visit that room together again.  And I’m praying for God’s mercy and protection.  He’s the only One I know that is stronger than a tornado.  Doesn’t it feel good to have Him on your side? :)

I hope you dear readers have a safe and blessed weekend, free of stress cookies.

~Whitney

Driving around our small little town the other day, Timothy and I spied this:

Do you need me to zoom in on this for you?

Yeah, that happened.

It was the talk of the town.  Or at least the talk of my family.  Who plops a casket in their front yard to sell it???  I have no words.

~Whitney

This past weekend we went up to Lafayette to visit Timothy’s family and home church.  It was a much needed, fun, relaxing, and rejuvenating weekend.

We started Saturday with a bang by going on a double date with some friends to the Indianapolis Symphony.

I would make an entire week’s worth of posts about the symphony if we had been allowed to take pictures and videos.  (I snuck this picture in before everyone set up.)

I thought that the opera was mine and Timothy’s “thing,” but we declared that our thing will forevermore be the symphony.  Oh my word.  I really can’t think of the proper words to convey it’s mind-blowing-ness.

Then we all went to dinner at The Spaghetti Factory.  I had the Mizithra Cheese and Browned Butter pasta.  I get that 99% of the time we go there, it’s that good.  My dear friend told me how to make it and I can’t wait to see if I can make it at home!

Afterwards Timothy was going to drop me off at the hotel while he spent some time with his little brother.  Yet we were met with some hotel drama.  I can’t take baths at our house (don’t worry – I shower), so I always take a huge bubble bath at hotels.  It’s my favorite part.  Well, we checked into our hotel, went up to the room, and I immediately scoped out the bathroom and was greeted with a huge shower.  It was a gorgeous shower, but no tub!  Aaaah!  I of course did the logical thing and sat down and cried.  Lucky Timothy.

But he saved the day and checked us out of the hotel and got our money back.  He’s a miracle worker.  Then we drove around until we found a hotel with a huge, lovely tub.  And that’s the story of our hotel drama.

We went to church at Christ Memorial Temple in Lafayette and had an amazing time!  It was so great to see everyone.

Afterwards we celebrated belated Mother’s Day with his Mom and Nonnie at a Mongolian restaurant.  Oh and yeah, we roasted marshmallows at our table and made s’mores for dessert.  Yeah, that happened.  And it was amazing.

Then Timothy and the guys went to play about 12 games of basketball at the park.  That’s my man shooting that impressive looking basket!

I found other less strenuous ways to entertain myself.  I didn’t want to show up the guys in basketball you know.

Sunday night we went back to church and then ate with all his friends at O’Charley’s.  We stopped by to visit his Indian side of the family before we drove back home.  And I fell in love.

Um yeah.  Prettiest baby I have ever seen.  I’m not even exaggerating.  What is it about Indian babies and children?  Timothy’s cousins are all beautiful.  I’m sad that I can’t remember how to pronounce this darling girl’s name.  I asked all the cousins running around and they said it to me numerous times, but I still couldn’t catch it.

This is her little brother at our wedding a year and a half ago.  He’s walking now and I didn’t get any pictures of him that weren’t blurry.  Seriously.  These parents have the cutest children.

His name is Harsukhpal.  I have no clue if that’s how you spell it, but it’s pronounced har-sook-paul.  Or something like that.  But everyone calls him Harry.  Harry I can deal with.

So we had an amazing weekend.  It was so great to see his family and friends.  And I’ve thanked God for letting me marry an Indian a gazillion times.  Hopefully the cuteness is passed down to our kids someday in the way, way, waaaay future.

~Whitney