Sirens

In this small town, the way they've always done it is the way they still do it. Even though most people work indoors where there are clocks, the sirens still blow at noon (that's the Noon Siren) and at 6pm (that's the Evening Siren).

So as we were packing up for Prayer Meeting, I heard a siren and it didn't register that the time was not 6pm.

It was 7:23 pm.

When a siren blows and it's not the Noon Siren or the Evening Siren...it's a tornado warning. So, instead of going to the Prayer Meeting, we all trooped down to the basement to wait out the warning. The hail came (some stones were really big, about ping-pong size), so s-i-l A and f-i-l S moved A's car to the garage, then stayed in because the hail was so big.

Ian and I stayed in the basement, watched the local tv stations for updates, and realized that the worst of the storm had already passed us by. We breathed a sigh of relief.

Days in Kansas so far: 7
Tornado Warnings experienced so far: 2
Tornadoes spotted: 0

Sister-in-Law

We drove to Wichita with my sil A, and once we made it to Wichita, we met up with my mother-in-law J, Ian's brother D, D's wife S, and their baby C. We all went to the airport to pick up Ian's youngest brother P.

It's been a good time, at my husband's childhood home, with all his siblings here (finally) and able to spend time together without my wedding keeping us busy, D and S's wedding keeping us busy, or A's graduation keeping us busy. We're just frittering time away!

I'm getting to know their personalities, some communication styles, some likes and dislikes, the different senses of humor...all that stuff that makes an individual an individual.

*sil S has an ironic sense of humor, is talkative and expressive, and is a good mommy to baby C.
*bil D, so far as I've seen, is quieter than S, but is kind and caring of both her and baby C.
*baby C might be a lefty, she likes to dance and jump, and she's starting to recognize me!
*bil P is an engineer with a strong linear thought process, but told me about his art class from last semester and how it helped him grow.
*I already know sil A, but I'm also learning that she is very good with little children and babies and takes good care of baby C.
*Ian, sil A, and I all live near each other and have rapport that only time can build. We all went to the same college; that's where Ian and I met!
*bil D, sil S, and bil P all live near each other and have the same rapport. They all went to the same college; that's where bil D and his wife S met!

In any case, it's been a rare treat to be able to spend such long stretches of time together all under the same roof. You who live in the same city as your family (or even the same state), don't take it for granted that you have the benefit of sheer time to know and learn more about your loved ones.

Hit the Road

We're Wichita bound.

I'm excited to be gone. It'll be good to have a change of pace and location.

Keep in touch, y'all.

Engagement

They announced their engagement today. We are all (the church people) thrilled to death for them.

Congrats, G and D!

Blank Book

I've got a love affair with blank books. I browse the shelves in the bookstore, imagining myself writing in each and every one of them. There's the travel journal (I can catalogue all the road trips we take!), the prayer journal (write prayer requests and answers!), the journal with the artistic, nature-inspired cover (I can write about the way that shaft of light just hit the roadside daisies today as they whipped around in the pre-thuderstorm wind!).

Inevitably, they end up sitting on my bookshelves at home, each with one or two entries in the first few pages. All the fantasies about journaling every day go crashing down to the ground.

So I made up a rule: no buying a new journal unless 1) the old journal has ten or fewer blank pages left, 2) the very perfect journal turns up on the bookstore shelves or the grocery store shelves or the used bookstore shelves, and 3) we can afford it.

That third one has been tough these days. (A tank of gas is like forty dollars! Like, zoiks, man!) I try to discipline myself to buy a seventy-five-cent composition notebook and just decorate the cover with magazine photos (artfully cropped and collaged, of course), but it's hard. Because I want. I want it!*

Ok, so I got a little sidetracked. But I'm needing a new blank book for sermon notes. I realized today that I'll probably only make it through one more Sunday till I need a new one. So there...I have a week (give or take a few days) to decide if I'm going to be good and just settle for a composition notebook--or if I'm going to look around for a nice, cool, pretty, reasonably-priced blank book that I will tote to church every Sunday for the next few months. (If I'm going to have it with me that often, I have to feel as if I'm going to like it for at least that long.)

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*I heard a little child in the store saying that very thing. I hear it all the time. Little children react to stimuli exactly how we all react; they are the only ones that don't know how to filter their reactions to the so carefully constructed stimuli that make them feel like they want. Think of that next time you are in a store, feeling like you absolutely must buy that ____ in order to make you truly happy.

I Have a Confession...

I see a lot of people I know where I work. (That's not the confession.)

Saturday at work, I saw a former professor's wife and her twin daughters. My husband coached the girls in cross-country and in track.

I hid behind the girls' bikini rack so they wouldn't see me. I just didn't want to talk to them, didn't want to explain why a teacher is working at this store, didn't want to go through the false cheer.

I saw them leaving, too, and hid again.

I'm embarrassed that I hid and embarrassed about all the reasons (and potential reasons) that I hid. Twice.

The Only One

HowManyOfMe.com

There is 1 person with my name in the U.S.A. How many have your name?