sweet home

Yowsers! Someone missed their therapy session or something on that last post................ Anyway, we really are doing well around here and have been especially pleasantly surprised by the grass in our backyard. Remember back if you will the hours and hours and 100 or so black garbage bags that I filled cleaning that yard up. Well, about a week before "the storm" we fertilized and seeded that area. We thought the grass seed was a goner, but it has proved us wrong and it's great. Unfortunately, the weeds are also doing really well. The grass is even growing in our garden!!!! And check out this tomato plant that just won't quit. We moved the garden after the tree fell because the tree and debris was covering it, but this plant stuck it out.

This family picture was taken on Sunday and yes our deck is still exactly as it was 2 and a half weeks ago.


And that just makes us sad.


Well, we've been under some stress around here lately. Taking lots of deep breaths, prayer, meditation, and pulling weeds have been my saving grace for the past few weeks. As some of you know my mom had surgery on Friday to remove a tumor in her brain and it went really well. We appreciate so much everyone's love and support and of course my mom is recovering and kicking booty because she's just a champion like that! Isn't she though? Seriously.
On Saturday Lewis ran the Country Music Marathon after training for only a few weeks. And I mean "training" in the
sense that he has run only off and on and had only done one long run before the marathon. Man, he's tough though and he ran really really well. He ended up running a 2:53 and finishing 24th overall. What a champ! It was cold and rainy at the start, but ended up being great running weather for the rest of the race. We got to see him at the start, mile 2, mile 9, mile 20 and at the finish. It was a great spectator race. We got to see Adam--a fellow UConn Dental grad who is now doing an ortho residency (we have some work for him in a couple of years, you should see A's teeth!!!!!). He was running the half marathon and also did really well.


Lew's fan club.


Brooks with his free stuff


Lew finishing ( I have better pictures of him running but don't have permission to post pictures of him in short shorts)


Marathons are hard, they make you tired.


Now that the marathon is over, Lewis has a few days to study his brains out for the next few days. He takes step one of the medical boards on Friday and it will be a HUGE relief to have them over and done. Next up he has the Alabama state dental boards June 18-20. This is a pain because:
--he took the NERB dental boards last year and they are accepted in over 40 states. (not in Alabama though!!!!)
--He has not done a filling or root canal in a year and has no plans to ever do them again
--it is expensive
--I WAS going to be induced on June 20 because as of June 23 Lewis is no longer a resident, but a medical student so we will have to change to private insurance or pay around $10,000 for the year for student insurance. I am due June 27. Lovely, eh

So, now we have to figure out a date to have this baby!! I am hoping she will make an early arrival (not too early, believe me), but I'm not counting on it. Lew's last day of residency is June 22 and he starts his med school rotations on the 23rd, so I'm just not sure when will be a good time to have a baby. It will be a crazy couple of weeks though, that's for sure.
I am so looking forward to having this baby come, though. I think for the first time I am anxious to see her and hold her and not just because of the pain this pregnancy has been. The pubic pain (symphysis pubis dysfunction) is getting so bad that I can't stand for more than a few minutes at a time. Also, apparently it's not a great idea to do kickboxing while pregnant. A couple of weeks ago while working out I kicked backward and my left leg went totally numb. Since then I have had significant "discomfort" and pain in my sciatic region radiating down my left leg. It makes keeping up my usual pace quite difficult.
As far as the house repairs go, well, they aren't going. We are having some trouble because the estimate from the construction company was twice the amount the insurance adjuster came up with. Wasn't that generous of him? I am almost mad enough about it to type his name and company right here and start an uprising, but not quite. (but I will tell you that they are headquartered in or around the place we used to live and we know lots of people who work for them) For example, he estimated that it would cost $1400 to remove the tree, it was actually $5000. He will be writing us lots and lots of checks. Don't mess with me 7 weeks before I'm due, buddy. Not a good idea.
So, I've been trying to get other estimates and it's actually hard to find someone who does all the things that we need done on this house. It is quite a process and I'm hoping it won't become my full time job to harass the insurance claim adjuster!
I know that this has turned into an annoying whiny mess, but that wasn't my intention!! We just have a lot going on right now and it's nice to be able to write it all out and send it out into the universe. Plus, if you are reading this then you probably know me and know that I am totally NOT a whiner, right! ;) If you are reading this and you don't know me or my husband, let's face it, that's sort of creepy. But whatever. The point is-- sometimes you aren't even prepared for the marathon but you just have to run it and it wears you out and you're tired but you can't quit, or you don't quit and you just keep running and then at mile 23 when you feel like you want to stop and rest or just wait for the medic to come pick you up you look up and see a hill. A really big hill and it makes you want to cry. But you don't (or maybe you do, but you get over it fast) and you just keep running and you just take it one step at a time and then when you get to the top there is another hill and that really really sucks, but you have already decided that quitting is not an option so you just keep running. And at some point there is a rest and a break and you look back and you don't know how you did it, but you did it and that feels good.
And yes I know that analogies are weird and this one is especially cheesy, but that's ok. I just feel blessed to have people in my life who are examples to me of pushing though incredible obstacles and having a great attitude about it.

We celebrated Earth Day this year by going to the zoo with friends in the morning. (giraffes rule) When we got home I thought it would be a great idea to go for a walk and pick up trash. Brooks was having a COMPLETE come apart because he couldn't get his gloves on just right ( can you say TIRED?!?!!!?!) and then decided TWICE to run into the road in front of cars. OH, it was a great attempt at saving the earth and we actually did get lots of trash. I just want my kids to know how important it is to be good stewards of the earth. We can't just consume and consume and consume and waste waste waste. We have to be able to give back. Whether it is by taking shorter showers, turning off the water while you brush your teeth or shave your legs, bringing your own bags when you shop, changing your light bulbs to save energy and reduce carbon emissions, using earth friendly (and also people friendly) cleaning products and soaps, buying locally, or doing whatever you can do------- I hope that today we will all decide to be better to our earth and teach our children to appreciate God's beautiful gift to us! Let's all decide to do our part -- GO Earth Kids!
(here are some ideas to get you started)

Are you as tired of hearing slash reading about this darn tree as I am? Well, get over it for just a minute because here is Brooks' explanation. Of course, when the camera is NOT on him he hams it up, but what can I do? OOOOH I could just eat him up.

We're back online! Whew. Friday night the tree guys were here until about 1 am getting the tree off the house. They ended up having to bring in an 80 ton crane to get it off the house. On Saturday morning they came to take the stump out and take the tree away. Also on Saturday morning we had a contractor come and take a look so he could give us a bid. We were sort of in a fog on Sat. and didn't get much clean up done other than some raking (ahhhhh MORE raking!!!!). Then yesterday we had the Directv guy come and replace the dish thing (hooray for the disney channel) as well as the phone and internet guy. (we lost our phone and internet when they took the tree down because it was tangled up in the wires). Also, the insurance adjuster came! So we should be ready to go soon. The main concern is the spot where the tree hit the wall of the house because it hit hard, causing the wall in B's room to buckle and even the brick is bowing. I hope they can reuse the brick because it would seem so hard to match 40 or so year old brick exactly. Hopefully there is no water damage on the inside of the walls and hopefully the rafters won't need to be replaced. Last night a couple of friends came over and helped us 1)bag up a million or so pine cones (seriously we used about 15 bags again!!!!!) 2)pick up sticks, once again about a million 3) rake the yard 4) and sweep the driveway--- it was full of sawdust, dirt slash mud piles, etc. SO A BIG THANK YOU TO THEM!!!! We stayed away from the debris from the house, it is so full of nails. Also, there is a big piece of the stump left in the ground and lots and lots of roots. SOOOOO there is still quite a bit to do, but we are on our way! Here are some more pictures and videos. Oh, and thank you so much for all your nice comments!! WE really appreciate them and we are doing really well. We are all ok, our house is definitely live-able, and all things considered this could have been about 500 times worse.

The tree


Looking down our driveway, our neighbor lost 3 trees and they ended up in our yard!


The crane


the view from the roof (holes are covered by tarp)


Loading the stump. Brooks wants to be that guys when he grows up. (but how cool is that truck?!??!!!)


The hole they made in the the driveway when they were taking the stump out (had to brace the truck)


Our lovely torn up yard (it's just a corner) after the crane came through


A close up of the wall that took a lot of the weight of the tree (actually, we were lucky and the deck took most of the weight of the tree and was able to withstand it. The deck won't have to be totally replaced)

well, I am really tired and wasted, but here's what I can remember. It's all sort of a fog. After picking A up from school at 1 we came home because of the tornado warning in effect. I actually posted the pictures pretty much right after it happened because I had been talking to my family and wanted them to be able to see the damage. Isn't it lovely? At about 3:30 the sirens started going off and the guys on tv said that two storms were about to crash into each other in our area. Lucky for us A makes us go to the basement every time the sirens go off. I was talking to my mom and Jordan on the phone and heard what I thought was a huge crash of thunder right above out house. I saw the wind whipping through the trees and ran upstairs to close the windows. When I did, I looked out the back windows and doors and saw the deck, totally demolished. ANd I am not kidding that a few months ago I had a dream and that exact image of the deck all torn up was in my dream. ANYWAY, I called my mom back in a total panic asking her to page Lewis because the phone and internet were down and this was the one day he had forgotten his cell phone. She was in the car on the way home from Target, can't blame her there, and did her best to calm me down over the phone. I decided to call one of Lew's co-residents and see if he could track Lew down for me. Meanwhile Lew was in the basement at the hospital waiting for the tornadoes to pass. Little did he know!!!! Finally his co-resident called the building where Lew was and someone went around and tracked him down. He called me back and headed home. It probably took him an hour to get here. His wonderful co-resident and fiancee came over and helped me put towels down where water was coming in through the basement into the laundry room. I had already unplugged everything and pulled it away from the wall, but it was nice to have the help. They stayed in the basement with the kids while I ran around like a chicken with its head cut off. They couldn't have come at a better time, it was so nice of them to come over right in the middle of the storm. They also took the kids to get dinner, I don't know what we would have done without the. Several neighbors also came by and made sure we were ok, offered us a place to stay, and also offered meals. The next door neighbor had three trees with the tops blown off, blocking our driveway, and pulling on the power lines. Down the street, another house got hit also, but it just hit the awning and a small part of the roof. Lewis got home and called the insurance company and there is a guy coming to take the tree down tonight. Luckily, we are all ok. There are at least 3 holes in our roof and the wall in B's room is starting to buckle, but we are so blessed to be all safe. That's all I can remember now and I'm sure it's impossible to understand, but I will put more as I remember it.

hahaha.
Anyway, her is me today looking REALLY good after a morning working in the garden at the preschool.


Today we did some straw painting, A got really into it of course. She is still begging for her own art studio.




Yesterday I took the kids to the botanical gardens. So many beautiful flowers in bloom.


B had a little accident (i forgot to put him in a diaper before leaving the house) and had to change into just a diaper. He kept getting pine needles stuck to his diaper, it looked like a tail!


The dogwoods are everywhere and are amazing.


They are soooooooooooo silly. I can't get a normal picture. But they are cute.

"ok, you can do it"


"be brave, jump jump jump!!!" (he did finally work up the courage to jump, but A got in the way of my picture)


On Friday we had storm after storm hitting us with threats of damaging winds and tornadoes. Lewis was of course at the hospital. The sirens went off twice. I kept feeling like we were in the clear and then the TV would tell me another round of storms was crossing the state line and heading our way. I am getting tired of tornado warnings and storm after storm after storm, but we do need the rain. On Sunday we went to visit Lew and have dinner with him. We had a really great time and on the way home the sun was starting to set, the light was just right and yellow, and making everything seem so beautiful. The grass next to the freeway on-ramp was so green and gorgeous. I guess we have to have those storms to make the earth beautiful. The storms make us green and beautiful too.

A little post dinner hoops never hurt anyone.

First-- the hole the snake was going into. We have a plan, we are going to put dirt in all the holes to see which ones are actively being used and then Lewis is going to "take care of it".


Second-- we made popcicles and the kids are loving it. (me too). Can you believe it's the first week of April and we are in t shirts? I hate to have the AC on already though. And these tornadoes.............


We planted a little vegetable garden. We'll see how it goes, we might be going to get plants at Lowe's to put where the seeds are if they don't sprout soon! I wanted to do raised beds, but it wasn't going to happen this year, so we improvised!


I came around the corner the other day and Brooks had torn all the flowers off my pansies! He was so angry and yelling "I DON'T WANT FLOW--YEZ!!" OK....................... (except I wish you could hear how he talks because it's so cute and every work is so deliberate. i love how 2 year olds talk)


Lastly, Aiden had spring fling carnival thing at school today. There were lots of games and face painting and stuff. She chose a butterfly. Isn't she cute too?

Izze sparking fruit drinks are sooooooooo good. I don't really dig soda (sorry, diet Coke lovers), but this stuff rules. They had it at Costco too.


I've got a pretty great model, don't you think?