Tornado

I know, I know, it's been a full week since that thing blew through. I need to blog about it. People have been asking how it was, how we're doing... So here goes it.

We're fine, by the way. :)

Things I learned Last Weekend When a Tornado Tried to Knock Down My House:

1. Tornadoes do not always sound like trains.

My experience was that the pressure change caused my ears to ring. So I didn't hear a train, or my husband trying to tell me to put my head down and cover my spine with a pillow. All I heard was my own sobbing and the incredible ringing in my ears. Jake however, who did not have ears ringing, also could not hear a train.

2. Tornadoes come heck-a fast.

My parents called at 3:17 to tell us that a tornado was in a nearby town. I started putting pillows, candles, water, and a dog bed in the bathroom. They called again at 3:34 to tell us the tornado was on the nearby highway. We, thankfully, were already camped out in the bathroom at this point. I hung up the phone, the power went out, the pressure dropped, my front window popped out, and a giant WOOOSH of wind came underneath my bathroom door. By 3:41, when we called my dad back, we were outside surveying the damage. The moral of this story is: When your parents worriedly call to tell you there's a tornado nearby, you better have already moved, cause you won't have time.

3. 30 seconds can be utterly terrifying.

The tornado was over so fast, and yet, I spent most of the next day reliving it OVER and OVER again. Jake finally took me out of the house just so I could calm down.

4. The tornado and damage could have been SO much worse and there's nothing we could have done about it.

This is the part that upsets me the most. My sweet coworker, Niha, finally told me to stop thinking about the what-ifs and I've been trying to follow that advice. So briefly, I've just realized that the tornado came right down our street. If it had been a category 2 or 3 instead of a category 1, our house would have a lot worse than a little roof and siding damage.

5. There are too many pine trees in this state.

I mean really. Those things fall down so easily and they are EVERYWHERE!!

6. We have a REALLY good insurance company

They have been so helpful and it really took the stress off when we realized how well they were taking care of us.

7. And most importantly... I learned that tomatoes are tornado proof.

Okay, seriously though. The tornado took my shingles, my siding, my shutter, and most of my privacy fence... but 2 feet away, my tomatoes we planted that morning are in perfect condition!! Ridiculous!

Delicious pancakes

Jake and I love to do pancakes on Saturday mornings. I've been a Bisquick kinda girl, but I recently discovered this delightful product on the baking aisle of my Food Lion. Cultured Dry Buttermilk which keeps in my pantry, but only replaces the buttermilk in my recipes...

My pancake recipe has evolved over time but here is my current delicious recipe for
Saturday Morning Pancakes
Yields 6 large pancakes. (2 is a plenty for one person at our house)
Each pancake is: 130 calories, 2.8 g fat, 20g carbs, 2.2 g fiber, 4 g sugar, 6 g protein.

- 4 tablespoons of buttermilk substitute
- 1/2 cup of all purpose flour
- 1/2 cup of whole wheat flour
- 2 tablespoons flax seed (ground), optional
- 1 cup milk
- 1 egg
- 1 tsp baking powder
- 1/4 tsp baking soda
- 1 tsp vanilla
- 1 tsp Stevia (sugar substitute). If you use sugar, use 1 tablespoon. Stevia is much sweeter than sugar.

Make batter by mixing all ingredients. Make pancakes. Eat, yum!

Notes:

• Both the Flax Seed and the Stevia were purchased at Trader Joes.
• I have a bag of ground flax seed that I keep in the fridge to add whenever I'm baking. This is optional, but it adds protein, which helps the Glycemic Index of the recipe.
• The stevia was an experiment today. My husband, super taster that he is normally complains about anything that isn't sugar. Stevia is actually a plant extract and Jacob said "I can taste it but it's very mild." I couldn't taste a difference at all.
  
• I add chocolate chips to the pancakes as they are cooking. This is because 1- otherwise the chocolate chips don't get nicely spaced out and 2 - I don't eat chocolate chips in my pancakes, so I can make them to order... giving my husband extra calories and happiness, whereas I can keep the sugar low.
• And of course, I top my pancakes with low sugar syrup. :)

Career Advice

Someone told me early in my career to NEVER NEVER under any circumstances tick off your Database Admin or the person in charge of hardware/helping you fix your computer.

I don't have much contact with our DBA, but our regional hardware/tech support guy rocks. In terms of making my life more or less horrible in recent days, he's been the most responsible for getting things done, helping me recover from a massive harddrive failure, and generally survive with respect to installations and access permissions.

I think this is especially true in the computer industry, but regardless of what industry you are in, you should make friends with your helpful techology coworkers! They work really hard to make your life better.

These are a few of my favorite things

In no particular order, here are some delightful things that happened today:

Complete Inner Peace and the Future

I've been having a lot of stress dreams lately. If it's not work, it's the future, or possible options for the present. There has been a lot up in the air lately, and my work project schedule has been tight for 2 months now.

Which means that yesterday, I yelled at my dog, my husband, then I had a nervous breakdown over a lack of milk for a latte. Yeah. I'm going a little crazy.

After apologizing (to my dog, my husband, God, and the world at large), I decided that I need to make a concerted effort to find some inner peace so that these outside stressors do

n't turn me into a insane person.

What I needed that milk in my latte for, though,was to wake me up enough to get to Jake's professor's farm for student day. What a complete blessing from God. My cell phone battery died right as we reached the beautiful farm of Dr. Black and his wife, Becky. After a potluck lunch with about 30 students and spouses, we were walking through the "ripple pasture", and the amazing blue sky was looking down on the wind-blown grass, I told Jake, "whenever I'm stressed, I'm going to try to get right back here."

And after most of the students left, they asked us to stay to talk about some of our future plans. What wise and gracious people. I hope one day, Jake and I will be like that. I was able to share my concerns and fears and doubts. Dr. Black spent time trying to help me to be open to where God might be leading and why he believed that one path would be better than another for Jake. But at the same time, he really listened to why I was afraid and what I was holding on to. Becky gave me so much practical advice and actually made some things sound a little more scary. But at least, I have an idea of what I'm up against. In the end, I think her experiences will be the things that keep me sane if we go that direction. (picture from Dr. Black's blog)

Another thing I noticed and appreciated.... they both used our names when talking to us. Not in a "I'm trying to get your attention" kind of way. But how often to we talk to people without really thinking about who we are talking to. It made me feel... valued. Listened to.

When it was time to leave, Dr. Black prayed for us both. I was really struck by how he clearly grasped the situation we were in, the difficult decisions that had to be made, and made it very clear that he and Becky didn't have a right or wrong answer for us, and prayed that God show us what was the right direction.

I left refreshed, excited, and hopeful. And whether we follow their path or another one, I hope one day to show to others the wisdom and kindness and hospitality that they showed us. And I am so thankful that God has given us so many people in our lives to pour their wisdom into us, and how He always has the most impeccable timing.