Strm damage and sblng beatngs (and thngs)

I'm supposed to be working on my thesis right now, and I am! But I'm also taking a quick break to write a few funny stories about our day. Because those are important, too. Perhaps more important? Like so many things in life that are seemingly less pressing but ultimately more important. 

I really ought to hurry though because we're under a severe thunderstorm warning (it's already getting dark and stormy outside) and we all know what happened last time we were under a severe thunderstorm warning. To that end, allow me to share some pictures of Grandpa's house and yard (which suffered quite a bit more than our house and yard):

The tree that is resting horizontally in this picture? It used to be vertical.

Technically it's the neigbour's tree, but the crown is now resting across Grandpa's backyard. The fence was smashed. And if you look over the fence (as Grandpa's helping the kids do below)...

...you can see the trunk of the tree.

So that tree will have to go. Then there's this gigantic (tree-sized) branch up on the roof of Grandpa's house...

I think in this picture everyone's trying to figure out where it came from, exactly, because there aren't trees directly over Grandpa's roof. But we figure it came from the nearest oak tree (just to the right of everyone in this picture) and was simply ripped off the tree by a gust of wind (we were getting 70 mph gusts) and carried the short distance over to Grandpa's house.

There was also this big branch on the ground (from the same oak tree, we figure).

We know it wasn't from the tree that toppled because the tree that toppled wasn't an oak tree. 

Oh, also, Alexander found this stick that was lodged in the ground. He thought it was a pretty important find.

My sister Abra called to wish Rachel a happy birthday while we were walking home (it was so hot and humid; we were absolutely melting) and we had a wonderful discussion (which was nice because the last time we talked was more of a crisis than anything). She's adopted a little kitten and has been taking the kitten to the retirement home next to her apartment building to visit with the folks there and...this seems to be helping to improve her mental health. She feels like she has a purpose, she feels like she has connection. I think it's wonderful!

Anyway, when we got home we thought about doing yard work, but it was so hot (and I had thesis work...) so instead Miriam simply collected some flowers that the storm had "picked" for us and made this lovely bouquet for us to enjoy:

Now for the funny stories...

Last night was a difficult night with Phoebe, so you'd think she'd sleep in...but no! She was the first child awake. I nursed her and took her potty. And then I said, "I don't hear anyone else awake. Should we go check on the kids?"

"Yeah!" she said. 

So we tiptoed into the hallway to peek into the kids' rooms. 

"Would you look at that?" I whispered. "We even beat Alexander up!"

"Yeah!" Phoebe said, and then she ran over to him and punched him right in his sweet little sleeping face! That woke him up pretty quick (it's a good thing she's not very strong)!

Alexander is usually the first one up, so it was rather notable that we...beat him up. 

I did not intend for Phoebe to beat him with her fists.

*****

As I mentioned, I'm revising my thesis right now. Once again my advisor left a plethora of comments for me to consider (we're talking around 100 comments...again). I was working on merging my theoretical framework into my methodology section instead of where I had it before and thought that the easiest way to jump to my methodology section would be to use Word's "find" function. So I hit [⌘ + f] and typed "methodology." The first hit wasn't my chapter heading—which is simply "methodology"—so I hit next...next...next...as I skipped around waiting to land on my chapter heading. But soon I was back to the first hit in my list, without ever having landed on my methodology chapter. 

Odd.

So I decided I'd have to just scroll down until I got there. I scrolled and scrolled and scrolled and scrolled and...there! Methodology! Right where it should be! Why hadn't I been able to locate it using the find function?

And then I saw it...

Methdology?!

This particular draft had been approved by the graduate school for electronic upload (I don't know why they do that before you've finished writing, but...whatever). This draft had been read by my advisor multiple times. I have been working on this draft for months. No one ever noticed that I'd typed "METHDOLOGY" instead of METHODOLOGY!

I sent Andrew a screenshot of the image above and in return he sent me the following comic with a note saying, "same vibes":

Sometimes you just have to look at things with fresh eyes. Or i's. Or o's. Or whatever. 

Now back to my thesis!