148 Months of Love

 

You may or may not remember (I’d be shocked if you did!) that Ryan and I didn’t use the traditional wedding vows in our ceremony. We found some that we particularly loved, and one of the lines in Ryan’s vow to me was to promise his “deepest love, fullest devotion, and tenderest care.” What better way to put those into practice than a massive tornado warning on our monthiversary!

                (In full disclosure, my vows to him said I would ever strengthen, help, comfort, and encourage. Well, I was wadded up in a ball in a storm shelter, so I’m not sure I did nearly as well at my end of the vow-keeping. Fortunately, storms don’t bother him, so…)

                But let’s back up and look at the full day, shall we?

                Our 148^th monthiversary was a weekday, so we went our separate ways that morning. I went to a breakfast with the senior crowd at church, and while I was out and about, the storms began. What a lovely start to the day, right?

                Ryan and I FaceTimed during lunch, as we often do, and I told him I was having a terrible time planning the rest of the day, because forecasters were not totally sure what time the storms might arrive or how horrible they might be when they did show up.

                I went to a funeral visitation in the afternoon and by the time Ryan got home, I was a shaky mess. We were supposed to be at a church meeting that night, but we were both pretty sure I wouldn’t be overly helpful, and Ryan needed to be on standby at work to help move residents if needed. So the group leader told us to just stay home…she said the crowd was a small one that night anyway, because of the weather.

                I insisted that we take our monthiversary picture as soon as Ryan got home from work – in case I fully dissolved into a frazzled mess.

                It actually went from the 30s to the high 70s by mid-afternoon, and the sun was out. I knew both of those things were disastrous for our storm likelihood, but it did make for a pretty few minutes, so we took Lexi out for a quick walk.

                It was so windy, her hair was blowing straight back out of her eyes and she could barely keep them open!

                As soon as we came home, I cleaned out my little cubby under the stairs so I could hide when the show began. I brought down all the important things and some blankets and pillows.

                I don’t know that I’ve ever seen the entire state of Indiana in a severe weather path, but it sure did move right in for us. While we waited on it to arrive, we worked on a project together, and Lexi gnawed on her toy bone. (I was a little nervous she was going to get the bone and my foot mixed up at some point, but she did not.)

                And then my weather guy posted that it was HERE. Lexi and I dove into the closet, and Ryan kept an eye on things. Lexi isn’t terrified by storms as some dogs are, but she always knows when it’s really bad. She sat beside me in the closet and didn’t argue when I told her to stay put. We had the leash on her just in case the house ended up with a hole in it and we needed to keep her corralled. Ryan came and checked on us both quite frequently, which we appreciated.

                The worst of it passed before midnight, but we slept on the couch just in case it all came back. (Plus the light show in the sky was still top notch, and Lexi HATES that. I knew a real bedtime wouldn’t serve ANY of us well.) We slept all night long with no more warnings!

                We didn’t have damage here at our property, but there was a lot of bad damage not that far away, and my heart hurts for those who have to start over!

                Thank you, Ryan, for living out your vows in real time. I’m sorry I wasn’t overly encouraging, but I hope you know how much I love you, even when I am shaking in a storm closet!