The Weekend in Review

On Friday night, we hosted an open house at the new Ailor Photography studio. We wanted to thank those who helped us with the move earlier this year and give the community a chance to see the new space and meet Mark's staff -- Dana and Ashley. Dana is the office manager and Ashley is the new photographer working with Mark. We had lots of food and even used the punch fountain we received as a wedding gift. (Aren't the bubbles from the 7-Up impressive?)

We especially enjoyed showing the new studio to our friends. We were honored to have many of Mark's colleagues from downtown stop by as well as some of my co-workers. Here is a photo of two of my co-workers: Debbie and Les Booth and Denise and David Buhrmester.

The prize for longest distance travelled went to our friends Chris and Sarah Ponsler who drove over from Kokomo for the open house! So nice to see them and catch-up. (Thanks for coming over!) Towards the end of the open house, a line of strong storms came through and Main Street turned into a river. The tornado sirens even sounded, though we didn't hear them. But it made for an exciting evening! On our way home from downtown, it just poured and poured -- we could barely see the road! We saw a gas station overhang that had blown over in the storm. When we got to our neighborhood, we could tell that the ponds were a lot higher than normal. And then it started raining even harder! I wish we had a rain gauge because I'm sure we must have had 4-5 inches of rain. And here's proof of why I think that:

We knew that our back patio doesn't drain well but this was unreal. The water kept rising and rising! Another 2 inches and it would have been coming in the sliding glass door. As it was, it flooded Mark's workshop, which sits at the lowest part of the house. The water was just rushing under the door and there was nothing we could do to stop it! Thankfully, nothing was ruined or lost -- just a lot of mulch, dirt and debris to clean-out once the floor dried. It ended up with over an inch of water in the workshop. We also had to put buckets under both of our skylights in the sun room. We already knew that one of them leaked and have been talking with a contractor to have it fixed. Couldn't be more timely! I've had the Jars of Clay song "Flood" in my head all weekend -- go figure! And neither of us slept well on Friday night because we kept hearing the storms and rain. It was an eventful evening.

On Saturday, I had to work in the afternoon/early evening for commencement at Purdue. We had also agreed to watch our little friend David so that his Mommy could go out to dinner to celebrate her niece's graduation. This meant that Mark was on his own with David. And they had a great time! Mark taught David how to play the harmonica. (Seriously! David played and Mark "sang the blues." Sorry I missed that!) They also went for a walk to see the geese and ducks down by the ponds. And in this photo, they are having a staring contest. David cracks us up and we love spending time with him. Thank you for letting us babysit, Denise!

Funny thing ... we haven't been able to find the remote control that works the TV volume since David's visit -- ha! And we have looked everywhere.

Today, Sunday, we tackled many chores and lots of laundry. Mark got the workshop cleaned-up. It still needs more time to dry but we are thankful that there wasn't more damage. We also have started getting ready for our vacation to Pennsylvania later this week to visit my family. Mark found his new 'mandals' for the summer and we even planted a few more flowers. Not sure I'm ready to start the work week again but at least it will be a short three days and then off on vacation. Yay! Bring it on.