Just got our first post-tornado severe thunderstorm alert for our town.
This is going to be stressful.
On everyone.
Let's hope the tarp really is waterproof.
And that I don't have a nervous breakdown.
Thursday, March 22, 2012
Wednesday, March 21, 2012
They're Not Sleeping; They're Crashing
When we bought our house, Kid got an unusually long bedroom with amazing closets. Partly, because she is a hoarder collector.
When the movers delivered our stuff a lot of it was just placed on the floor to ceiling shelves in one of her closets. And so her closet has been mostly useless as a functioning space, due to the overwhelming project of sorting what all was placed in there and why.
I always wanted to turn that into an amazing built in desk. The simple construction of the shelving, just two boards placed front to back placed on side supports meant we could theoretically knock off the front board leaving book shelf width shelving floor to ceiling and leave one double board shelf as a desk. You follow? Mr F didn't. He always wants to overcomplicated projects, which means they stagnate. It stayed like that for 18 months.
Kid is not so much a hoarder as much as she is sentimental. Having two major moves at so young of an age, meant that a lot of little things carried a tremendous amount of meaning for her, reminding her of certain houses we've had, or friends, schools, etc. Which is all totally appropriate ways of dealing with transition and loss.
So this closet was filled with weird odds and ends, her boxes of stuff she didn't want to let go of, books, curtains that don't work in this house... stuff.
Finally, I convinced Mr F to just try it my way.
That meant we had to clear everything out and sort it. Which made Kid's room impassable. We did find tons of age appropriate books for Baby... bonus... and kind of sad that they are growing up so quickly. So then we carted it all to my room where I thought I'd have more space to sort. Which made my room impassable.
Mr F obsessed over the shelves for a weekend, trying to decide which individual ones were flattest and smoothest for the desk.
Then I went to IKEA and spent $20 on storage boxes.
And my dream came true...
Kid and I sorted all her momentos into specific boxes, one for Ann Arbor, one for Asheville, one for Disney World, one for Brownies, one for greeting cards, a current one she can put stuff in.
It's totally awesome. If she wants to think about Asheville she can get down the box and go through it and then put it back.
There was also plenty of trash mixed in that we sorted through and got rid of last night.
Kid was sitting on my floor reading an airline safety brochure.
"You don't need that." I said.
Yes, I do." Kid replied firmly.
"No, you don't, they have them on every plane." I said, kind of concerned that she might start obsessing about airplane safety.
"Yes, I do, I need my own." Kid said.
"No, you don't, every seat has one." I tried.
"Well, I took this one, so what if someone took the one for my seat." Kid explained.
"Fine." I gave up.
About an hour later Kid comes into the kitchen holdling the pamphlet.
"Why do they tell you how you have to sleep? I mean why do you have to hold your kid in your lap or hold onto the other seat?" Kid asks.
"Um... they're not sleeping." I reply, laughing nervously.
When the movers delivered our stuff a lot of it was just placed on the floor to ceiling shelves in one of her closets. And so her closet has been mostly useless as a functioning space, due to the overwhelming project of sorting what all was placed in there and why.
I always wanted to turn that into an amazing built in desk. The simple construction of the shelving, just two boards placed front to back placed on side supports meant we could theoretically knock off the front board leaving book shelf width shelving floor to ceiling and leave one double board shelf as a desk. You follow? Mr F didn't. He always wants to overcomplicated projects, which means they stagnate. It stayed like that for 18 months.
Kid is not so much a hoarder as much as she is sentimental. Having two major moves at so young of an age, meant that a lot of little things carried a tremendous amount of meaning for her, reminding her of certain houses we've had, or friends, schools, etc. Which is all totally appropriate ways of dealing with transition and loss.
So this closet was filled with weird odds and ends, her boxes of stuff she didn't want to let go of, books, curtains that don't work in this house... stuff.
Finally, I convinced Mr F to just try it my way.
That meant we had to clear everything out and sort it. Which made Kid's room impassable. We did find tons of age appropriate books for Baby... bonus... and kind of sad that they are growing up so quickly. So then we carted it all to my room where I thought I'd have more space to sort. Which made my room impassable.
Mr F obsessed over the shelves for a weekend, trying to decide which individual ones were flattest and smoothest for the desk.
Then I went to IKEA and spent $20 on storage boxes.
And my dream came true...
Kid and I sorted all her momentos into specific boxes, one for Ann Arbor, one for Asheville, one for Disney World, one for Brownies, one for greeting cards, a current one she can put stuff in.
It's totally awesome. If she wants to think about Asheville she can get down the box and go through it and then put it back.
There was also plenty of trash mixed in that we sorted through and got rid of last night.
Kid was sitting on my floor reading an airline safety brochure.
"You don't need that." I said.
Yes, I do." Kid replied firmly.
"No, you don't, they have them on every plane." I said, kind of concerned that she might start obsessing about airplane safety.
"Yes, I do, I need my own." Kid said.
"No, you don't, every seat has one." I tried.
"Well, I took this one, so what if someone took the one for my seat." Kid explained.
"Fine." I gave up.
About an hour later Kid comes into the kitchen holdling the pamphlet.
"Why do they tell you how you have to sleep? I mean why do you have to hold your kid in your lap or hold onto the other seat?" Kid asks.
"Um... they're not sleeping." I reply, laughing nervously.
Tuesday, March 20, 2012
Yay!
Found out our driveway repair will be covered (most likely).
Awesome!
Not awesome that when the adjuster came last Friday, they didn't notice the tree on the house (?!!!?!?!?!). WTF?
Which means it's going to be a while before we can start to get the house rebuilt/repaired.
Awesome!
Not awesome that when the adjuster came last Friday, they didn't notice the tree on the house (?!!!?!?!?!). WTF?
Which means it's going to be a while before we can start to get the house rebuilt/repaired.
Monday, March 19, 2012
There Are So Many Things I Want To Say....
One is... WHAT THE FUCK?!!!!
It's hard. It's hard to wrap your mind around something so violent yet so short lived.
Something so localized and selective.
The world wants to move on so quickly, when I want to yell
"AN F3 JUST TORE THROUGH MY LIFE!!!!"
If you didn't live in it's direct path, it's like it didn't happen.
Our neighbor's? Not a twig was moved by it. Not a fucking twig. The vacant house in foreclosure across the street... that could actually afford roof damage?... Not a thing. The vast majority, even in our small town, is completely in tact.
But it hit us.
And it's hard to deal with.
Things are getting cleaned up, but it's still so traumatic.
Emotionally.
And every time we look out the windows there are huge reminders.
Huge holes.
It happened. And you remember. The terror. It was real.
Yes, it could have been worse, but right in your face, right across the street, is the reminder that it also could have been better.
It's hard. It's hard to wrap your mind around something so violent yet so short lived.
Something so localized and selective.
The world wants to move on so quickly, when I want to yell
"AN F3 JUST TORE THROUGH MY LIFE!!!!"
If you didn't live in it's direct path, it's like it didn't happen.
Our neighbor's? Not a twig was moved by it. Not a fucking twig. The vacant house in foreclosure across the street... that could actually afford roof damage?... Not a thing. The vast majority, even in our small town, is completely in tact.
But it hit us.
And it's hard to deal with.
Things are getting cleaned up, but it's still so traumatic.
Emotionally.
And every time we look out the windows there are huge reminders.
Huge holes.
It happened. And you remember. The terror. It was real.
Yes, it could have been worse, but right in your face, right across the street, is the reminder that it also could have been better.
Sunday, March 18, 2012
The Aftermath
Our Yard Before:
(obviously from summer)
AFTER 3/15 Tornado:
That tree in leaf you see in the above photo is what you see now against the house:
House after Clean Up:
Yard After Tornado:
Yard After Clean Up:
A HUGE thank you to all of the wonderful, generous, community volunteers that donated their time, effort, & food yesterday. We are overwhelmed and amazed at both the response and what was accomplished in such a short time. We anticipated that we'd be digging out of this for a long time coming. Now we are all set for the professional crews to come in and pull out the root balls, fill in the holes, take down the shorn off trees, and fix our house! This clean up effort saved us thousands and thousands of dollars! We are so grateful to everyone that came out. We REALLY couldn't have done this on our own. We thought we'd be lucky if we got the tree off the house this weekend... I can't believe the kids can actually play in their yard again. Such a gift of normalcy for them that they really needed. They were scared to come home, and begged me not to make them, for fear of what everything would be like. Things are weird, for sure, it will take time, but not seeing the trees all over the place helps them to forget a little of how scary & terrible it was. So, thank you, you made a difference.
(obviously from summer)
AFTER 3/15 Tornado:
That tree in leaf you see in the above photo is what you see now against the house:
House after Clean Up:
Yard After Tornado:
Yard After Clean Up:
A HUGE thank you to all of the wonderful, generous, community volunteers that donated their time, effort, & food yesterday. We are overwhelmed and amazed at both the response and what was accomplished in such a short time. We anticipated that we'd be digging out of this for a long time coming. Now we are all set for the professional crews to come in and pull out the root balls, fill in the holes, take down the shorn off trees, and fix our house! This clean up effort saved us thousands and thousands of dollars! We are so grateful to everyone that came out. We REALLY couldn't have done this on our own. We thought we'd be lucky if we got the tree off the house this weekend... I can't believe the kids can actually play in their yard again. Such a gift of normalcy for them that they really needed. They were scared to come home, and begged me not to make them, for fear of what everything would be like. Things are weird, for sure, it will take time, but not seeing the trees all over the place helps them to forget a little of how scary & terrible it was. So, thank you, you made a difference.
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