Small improvement

Today we begin phase 2 of this adventure, as we move to a new hotel.  Yesterday had a tense couple hours when I discovered that we were being asked to move to another room in this hotel that was a single room with 2 double beds.  That can work for a night on vacation, but not to live in indefinitely.  Once I found out I called Jon to ask him to call the housing place back and tell them this wouldn't work.  They discussed it with insurance and got to work.  The biggest battle is that everything is booked.  It is really crazy to me, with the number of options around.  But I looked online and everything really and truly is booked.  The insurance company has also only approved accommodations until Saturday.

That is the part the makes me the most frustrated.  We know we haven't done anything wrong here.  With 30 minutes of the tree falling through the roof, Jon was on the phone with the insurance.  He had put the claim in before the fire department left the house.  We had them suggest a tree company and let them tell us where to stay.  We haven't been asked for proof of anything yet.  We certainly have TONS of pictures to share and we're not looking to hide anything.  With 2 small kids, we honestly just want to get back home.  But the village put a sticker on our house that says it is not approved for occupancy.  Yesterday Jon left a message for the adjuster with the name and number for the guy from the village.  I'm hoping that if she calls him she'll realize that there is indeed extensive damage and at a minimum we will not be allowed home until a structural engineer inspects the house.  We can't guarantee the clean-up guys from Servpro that when they start tearing down the ceiling it won't cave in on them.  It's clear that at least 1 ceiling rafter is completely snapped and I can see damage to the one next to it.  The entire ceiling is slanted, but we don't know if that's damage to the rafters or simply the drywall being out of place.  That's not our job to determine either, since we know nothing about building a house.  The adjuster will arrive Saturday between 12 and 1, so hopefully after that things will be easier to handle.

Things ended up settled in a positive way yesterday through much patience, although up against a timeline from this hotel.  We ended up being allowed to remain in this room for last night.  Today we are moving to an Embassy Suites.  This move will allow us to keep 2 separate rooms so I can still work after the kids are in bed.  It also puts Jon much closer to work, getting him a bit more rest each day.  I believe it might shave some time off driving Carolyn to school as well, it's hard to know until we see the traffic.  They also have a wonderful breakfast, so while there is no kitchen, we know at least 1 meal a day will be substantial without stress.

So we move forward into the next phase of the adventure.  God definitely came through for us yesterday and we were blessed with not having to move yesterday.  We were able to pack up most of the cars last night, which was nice.  We appreciate the continued prayers from all!

Delays

Yesterday I spent the day waiting to hear from the insurance company.  Around 1, Jon decided to call them.  He was told we were being assigned a field adjuster and should hear something in 2-3 days.  That was pretty disappointing.  We received a call about 7:30 last night from the field adjuster and he asked to meet us at the house on Saturday between 12 and 1!  It will be over a week before anything gets even looked at.  Which means no work can really be started until Monday.  Although we might get lucky and Servpro can start some demo on Saturday, but that's unlikely since first they need to get someone in there to be sure the ceiling isn't going to collapse as it is torn apart.

Carolyn had a great day yesterday.  She was annoyed that her class had already gone into the classroom when I dropped her off at school, but otherwise was fine.  Today will be a longer day with gymnastics, but I pray she'll get through it.

James is having a tougher time without napping.  We spent the morning with Jon's dad, playing in their house and visiting the park.  He spent a lot of time re-enacting what happened with blocks or other toys.  Kind of interesting to see him coping in such a textbook way.  Development books always seem to be written exactly about him.  We went to the house to grab the crockpot and his soccer stuff and he came inside.  He asked questions about why he can see certain things in the ceiling, but seemed okay for the most part.  It was clear at dinner that he was exhausted.  So after his gymnastics and soccer today we're going to come back to the hotel so he can attempt a nap.  I'm going to let him lay on the bed next to me as he is definitely very clingy, but hopefully he can sleep a little while I work.

So for now we focus on trying to get into a place to stay long term that has a kitchen and is hopefully closer to everything.  Jon spoke with the housing person yesterday and let her know where Carolyn's school is and that above all, that's where we want to be close to.  We discovered there is a place very nearby, so close that if we get moved there I might see if the bus would pick her up.  I'm praying for an opening there starting tomorrow as it would make things easier on the kids and that's what we're counting on for now.

God will get us through this.  We're not sure where there is going to put us financially once it's all settled, but God is in control.  This is definitely one of those times where you don't realize how great everything is until you lose a lot.

Thanks for the continued prayers from those reading!

Moving Forward

The past weekend was definitely anything but normal.  Saturday we were all exhausted.  Carolyn made it through soccer.  Then we returned to the house to meet a clean-up crew and board-up crew.  After some discussion, the clean-up crew decided to return today and not enter the house and it can be determined that nothing will fall on them.  We were able to learn some of what needs to be done to get back to normal.  The ceiling will need to be torn down.  The floor will need to be pulled up.  Everything in the room will need to at minimum be cleaned.  The carpets are most likely trash, but are just area rugs anyway.  The roof will need to be replaced over about 1/4 of the house, possibly more.  There is 1 large hole and about 6 other small holes in the roof.  We can see that one of the boards behind the fascia was pushed out of place.  We can also see that 2 rafters are snapped where the branch came through.  The entire ceiling is sagging, so it is possible that while other rafters didn't snap, they have experience too much stress and need to be replaced.  Of course, the may have even snapped some but we can't see them at this time.  There may be damage to the floor supports, we'll find that out as the demo begins.  We are unsure completely of any wall damage.  Any drywall that got wet will be torn down, we're unsure if that includes the wall where I was closing the window.  We don't know about any of the furniture in the room.  That will all be moved into the garage and if it's salvageable will be thoroughly cleaned.  The final thing that will need to be addressed is the electric.  We can see that some of the conduit in the ceiling snapped.  We're pretty confident that this is why there is no power in the living room or kitchen, which saved a fire from occurring.  Each time I have returned to the house, the ceiling has dropped a little further.  So it will be nice to meet with someone today to get the demo officially started.

We remain in the same hotel and asked last night if we can bring a crockpot.  So I will get that today with some meat to cook for tomorrow.  The fridge here is tiny and there is no freezer part.  So that makes things a little more challenging.  But we're pushing through and it will all be okay.  Yesterday we had lunch at the church picnic and dinner at Jon's parents' house.  Today we'll likely pick up dinner using the generous gift card my sister emailed.  If we're still out of the house come this weekend, we'll likely head to my dad's for part of Saturday.  It is wonderful to have such a supportive extended family in times like these.  Our neighbors have been wonderful as well.  Once we are back in our house I will be writing a bunch of thank you notes to everyone that has helped.  God has truly blessed us with the people he has placed in our lives.

Today we truly begin the healing process and start to put the pieces of our home back together.  God is in control and He will get us to where we need to be.

Night after the storm

Thank God we're safe and sound.  It's just after 3am and I can't sleep.  Every time I close my eyes my mind races.  I start to replay the last minute of what happened in the house.  And I am in awe of how good God must be to have kept us safe and any semi-important things unharmed.  I say semi-important because nothing in my house seems very important after what happened.  I'm hoping maybe writing a little will allow my brain to rest so I can get some sleep and not be a total zombie tomorrow.

About 2:30 Jon texted that it was dark and real windy at his school, then said he saw a tree knocked over in the courtyard outside his window.  I remember thinking "gosh, I hope that storm doesn't come south."  Then it got darker and I asked James to help close the windows.  He worked on one in the kitchen while I did the playroom, closed the front door, closed the bedroom window and then went to the backdoor.  As I closed the back door I heard a very loud cracking noise.  I figured it was a tree limb breaking and didn't think much of it.  I did note I had to force the door closed as the wind was quite strong.  I then went to close the final window as the wind was pushing the rain into the house and continued to hear the cracking.  I still didn't think much of it as I pulled the couch away from the wall to get to the crank.  The crank fell to the floor so I grabbed the one next to it and started to close the window.  I saw what I thought was a branch fall just passed the window I was closing and turned around as I heard a loud thud.  I couldn't believe my eyes as I saw the ceiling caved in.  Panic started to set in as I saw the tree blocking the front door.  I ushered James into the playroom as I decided what to do.  I tried calling Jon, but he didn't answer.  So instead I dialed 911, luckily having my cell phone in hand this whole time.  The woman sent a fire truck and told me I had to get out.  It was a total downpour outside and we had no shoes or umbrella.  I remember that our neighbor, Wendy, would be home so we opened the never used third door and made a run for it.  We ran through 4" of water on the sidewalk and across the street.  Wendy saw us coming and couldn't figure out why we were running.  Later she told me she was wondering why I had texted/called instead of coming over.  Then she saw the house from across the street.  It was nice to know we were safe and had help.

I waited under Wendy's eaves for the fire department to arrive and got in touch with Jon.  They didn't do much, except tell me to stay out of the house and estimate the tree to weigh 1200-1300lbs!  They let me go inside to grab a few needed items - keys, teddy bears, shoes, and my purse.  What I really needed was my laptop - everything is on here.  I was told no as it was in the corner where the tree was but the head fireman did go over and get it for.  They dropped my stuff at Wendy's and went to help others where there was something they could do.  Meanwhile Jon had called the insurance company and they had referred him to a tree service.  The tree service and a village representative arrived about the same time.  The tree guy looked over the house and let me know a crew would be arriving as soon as possible, but traffic was bad and they were finishing up a limb removal.  He left to get a tarp for the hole.

The village guy walked around the outside with me and asked if there was a way inside.  It was while these 2 gentleman were there that I realized the tree had pulled up 2 slabs of concrete as came up.  Our back door rendered unusable and our front door blocked by the tree, our third door the only usable entryway.  We went back into the house to assess the damage and he deemed we could re-enter once the tree was removed to retrieve needed items but were not allowed in the living room.  He remarked that he felt part of the house would be okay due to the steel beam running between our living room and kitchen.  Then he got an orange sticker out of his car to put on this house, deeming it uninhabitable until someone comes in to shore it up and check the structural integrity.  He wrote his name and direct number on the sticker and asked us to call should we need anything.  A wonderful gesture, he told me that all permit fees would be waved and that we can move forward as quickly as possible with any repair work, they will help that happen on their end.  It's great to see that they are willing to help us along as possible.

At that point it became a waiting game.  I waited for the bus to drop off Carolyn, who was stuck at school a bit longer as buses were delayed.  I sent her to Wendy's to play while I waited for Jon and the tree crew to arrive.  Jon came home and was on the phone with the insurance company a bunch. The tree crew arrived and did a very nice, quick job of removing such a large tree.  It took 2 trucks for all the wood chips and multiple crews were working.  Once the tree was removed we went and loaded up a laundry basket with clothes for the night.  Jon had discussed the situation with multiple people at the insurance company and they secured a hotel room for the night.  It just so happens to be the same hotel where we had our wedding reception over 8 years ago!  I prefer the former reason for being here of course.  The room is great and is a suite so the kids have their own room.  Great since it's 4am and I can't sleep and don't want to wake them.  We'll be here for at least 2 more nights, and then they'll try to move us hopefully closer to home and a place with a kitchenette if we still can't go home.

A company was to come to board up the hole last night.  We left to find dinner around 7:30 so I hope they came.  Of course I have visions of the roof completely collapsing in that part of the house as there was more rain last night.  While they removed the tree more drywall fell from the ceiling and we could see the entire ceiling is bowed in our living room.  There is a lot of damage and it's going to take a lot of time to fix.  But once the structural integrity is determined, we should be able to return home while the work is done.  We will be meeting with someone at 11 today to start the clean-up process.  There was standing water, so I do wonder if the floor will be ruined.

For now I hope I will be able to sleep without hearing the cracking of the tree and replaying what happened over and over.  Definitely some PTSD from the whole thing, and I hope and pray that James won't have the same problem when he returns to the house.  Both kids seem to be sleeping soundly tonight, although a 10pm bedtime doesn't give them much choice.  In 4hrs we'll be up for the day and headed to Carolyn's first soccer scrimmage.  I want to keep things as normal as possible for the kids.  And then I hope my brain can settle down so I can get back to close to normal, or at least a new normal until the house is put back together.

Thank God we're all safe.

Focusing on the positive

Wow, it's been a long time since I've written in here.  Life just completely took over and I haven't had time to sit down and write.  Likely, I should of be doing a myriad of other things even right now.  I never did print off James' preschool for the week, but I think I at least have what we need for tomorrow!  And I signed up for an online physics course that I haven't even looked at yet.  We've had so many wonderful adventures in the last 8 months, let me see if I can sum them all up quickly.

Last Spring, once the ground finally thawed, Carolyn finished up her year of AYSO.  Her growth as a soccer player was awesome, along with the growth of her teammates.  We chose to pursue another route for soccer this school year so I am no longer her coach.  Carolyn played her first (and last) year of tball.  She really enjoyed it and can't wait to try softball next Spring.  James got to try tball as well, which he loved.  And it turns out that he has a great arm for such a peanut and can even hit a little coach pitch if the bat is small enough.  We celebrated birthdays for everyone in the family, sticking with family parties for at least one more year.  It was nice to see everyone and have low-key celebrations that focused on enjoying time together.

Once school ended we headed up to Blue Harbor for a few days and had a blast in the waterpark and at the beach.  The kids love it there, we'll see if we make it back next summer.  After that was the 4th of July and then Carolyn took her NU CTD classes and absolutely loved them.  Definitely a little weird to have my 6yo telling me about phalanges and telling stories about Nessie.  She did a bunch of projects and both teachers told how they loved the questions she asked.  After her classes ended, we piled into the car for Denver.  The drive was definitely long, but both kids did pretty well.  It was wonderful to see my grandfather and he did his best to stay awake when we were there.  For a 96yo he's doing pretty well and I am SO glad we decided to go.  Lots of great memories to last for a while, and of course I always know that this may have been our last visit with him (although we've been saying that for 5years it seems :-))  We came home and recharged for a few days before heading up to MN to visit my former department chair.  She has cabins in the middle of Superior National Forest and it was an experience.  We had intended to spend 2 days hiking and playing in the water.  Instead we spent 1 day driving to the ER to clear James of a concussion and then 1 day playing in the water.  The kids really enjoyed that one day though and it was nice to visit with Maggie.  She's really enjoying retirement and that's awesome to see.

Summer was basically over once we arrived home, with Jon heading back to work a few days later.  Both kids attended soccer camp and for the most part enjoyed it.  I got to walk each day while they were both at camp and James and I had some special time while Carolyn finished up each day.  Then we enjoyed another week of settling into activities before school started.  Carolyn is starting the team program for gymnastics, which is 2 afternoons each week.  She started first grade last week and was definitely exhausted by Friday afternoon.  But so far she is loving her teacher and kids in her class.  She has some of the more severely challenged students join her class for specials and on the first day helped one of the girls find a seat.  It's a great opportunity for her to work with others and use her gentle, loving spirit to encourage and include others.  We spent most of this weekend at a family wedding, which was beautiful.  We all had a wonderful time at the ceremony and reception and have spent the last 2 days recovering from staying up until about 11.  All ready to face a new week now though!

This week we don't quite get to settle into a regular routine since I have jury duty on Wednesday.  James is looking forward to some special time with Jon though while I'm gone.  And Jon is looking forward to being a part of activities like chess and soccer that he typical misses.  After this week we'll settle in for a bit though.  I can't wait to see the blessings God has in store for our family this school year.  Both kids continue to be very inquisitive and I am looking forward to helping them answer their questions.

My goal for this year is going to be to focus on the positive.  When I go for my walks (try for 3mi 4x/wk) I repeat a verse in my head as much as possible.  I don't know which one it is as it comes out of a song, but I just repeat to myself "Be still, and know that He is God."  Because really, that's all there is to it.  If I focus on getting things right with God and helping my children to focus on behaving through God's grace, we'll all be on the right path.  So while I can't be physically still most of the time, I am trying to focus on keeping my mind from racing by remembering that God is in control and everything is working towards the best outcome.
Ready for the next challenge, because I know that God is in control.

Still struggling

So with the 2 extra days of break, I got a taste of homeschooling last week.  And honestly, I totally loved it.  The kids were fully engaged and excited to be working on whatever I asked them to do.  We did an art project, played alphabet games, and end the morning with air hockey on day 1.  In the afternoon we read some books and then the kids gladly played together while dinner was made.  On day 2 we went to the library, where my kids picked book after book off the shelf and wanted to bring it home.  Since that day I have read no less than 5 books/day to James, often 10+.  Carolyn has averaged at least 1 chapter book per day and as usual soaked up the female biographies I got for her.  After a morning at the library, we spent time in the afternoon reading and then the kids again played together nicely until dinner.  It was like a miracle had happened in our home.

This Wednesday and Thursday, I worked with James to complete the preschool lessons I put together.  He loves reading the books, reciting the poem, and doing the art project.  He is struggling a bit with writing the letters, but we get through it.  I think I might decrease the number he needs to do so it doesn't feel tedious to him.  But he is loving doing his preschool at home.  We also have played several board games - his favorites are Mouse Trap and Candy Land.  With those his colors and numbers and being reinforced.

Carolyn continues to report that she's not doing much in school.  I ask her what she likes and her only answer is the teacher.  That has me terrified about what next year might bring.  They are spending the next week or so doing more assessment.  It's January, and they appear to be on their third round of assessing.  Isn't there an easier way than taking a week's time when there are only 20 kids in the classroom?  I know Carolyn is going to be bored and so part of my weekend will be spent putting together some academic activities for her at home to focus her mind.  But it really shouldn't be like this.

If I bring her home, I know not every day will be like the 2 above.  But I also wonder if there is no school, if the kids will finally let themselves relax.  We really battle with sleep in our house.  If there was no school, maybe we'd stop fighting that battle.  I think about letting the kids decide when to sleep and when to be awake for a week.  I wonder if they would get to know themselves a bit better and realize what we're doing is trying to help them.  The rule, of course, would be that they could not rely on us to entertain them in an effort to stay awake.  But I suspect that James is still too young for a similar experiment and he doesn't recognize when he's tired.  But I digress, I just can't get over this heart tug to keep the kids home.  I thought if I focused on other things that I would move on.  But even focusing on properly preparing food (I started making a sourdough starter and am soaking beans today), keeping the house a bit cleaner, and increasing my workload to try to save for the roof haven't stopped my mind from resting here.  I need to pray about this more, but I feel really stuck here and can't figure out what God is trying to say.  I feel like to make this decision peacefully I at least need Jon's full blessing.  Surely God wouldn't want me to make a decision not inline with my husband.  So where does that leave me?  For now, struggling in my heart about a decision that could make a huge impact for my children.

As a TEDx video I watched said... I want my children to be happy.  What they want to do when they get older is up to them.  I need to help them be happy and healthy.  I just wish I knew what the best path to that result is.

New year, new start

We are 4 days into the new year and I am focusing on truly a fresh start.  Sticking with my goal, I have avoided all sugar.  Along with that, I have completed 2 workouts.  Wow am I weak from taking time off!  I could even feel it in my lungs a bit as I lifted today, very bad.  I think that these 2 changes are easy enough to start off with this month.  On top of the personal changes, I have spent time thoroughly cleaning the kitchen and living room.  After everyone was in our house with shoes and the snow over the holidays, the floors were gross.  Jon was great and took the kids to gymnastics yesterday and out in the snow today so I could get things cleaned without the kids underfoot.  It feels so nice to have such a clean house.  We also put out the tree today and packed up the Christmas decorations, so the house is much less cluttered.

I have also spent some time making some preschool activities for James.  As we head into the second half of the year and he continues to show the desire to read, we'll continue to focus on letter recognition and their sounds, as well as writing the letters.  I'm following the handwriting order of introduction rather than alphabetic, since he already knows the song.  We'll do some alphabetic order stuff too, since I know that's something he'll need for kindergarten.  I've put together some packs with a nursery rhyme, art project, and letter writing.  We'll get letter books from the library and work as he wants.  I figure we'll go a little slower with this, at most 1 letter a day.  I also made my own crocodile snap game.

You take turns pulling letters/numbers out of the box and saying them.  If you pull a snap card, you have to put all your cards back.  Whatever cards you get right you have to keep.  I figure it can be fun on days he's looking to work on "preschool" but doesn't have the attention for writing.  As he gets older I can even make new note cards with sight words to put into the box.  I might make a second set of cards with math problems for Carolyn so she can play, but we'll see her interest level.

I've enjoyed this time off and extra time with family, but I'm looking forward to getting back to our routine.  Yesterday the village was working on a water issue in our neighborhood so our water was off 10-4.  We went over to Jon's parents for the day.  The kids had fun, but James fell asleep on the way home at only 6.  Yep, we definitely still need naps!  Today they both slept until 2:45.

Time to put them to bed!