Dance Fever

I was having some music flashbacks on iTunes. I was playing some classics and the girls enjoyed it so much they couldn't keep still. They love music.

Makinley's face is priceless. What a goof.

Trouble

What do you get when you cross two innocent looking girls with chocolate covered sugar? TROUBLE. Let's just say they were very excited when I surprised them with these treats and even more excited afterwards.

Weiner Update

The weiner dogs now have a home again. They had been living at my Dad's in one of the greenhouses but they needed to move since my family started working in the greenhouses again this past week. It has been in the 20's and 30's here at night so we once again put them in their crate and kept them bundled in the attached garage. Luckily since it has been so cold the mud was frozen so they didn't sink when they went potty. Today we got their home put together. We used the smaller kennel we had and moved it to a clean spot by the garage. We pressure washed the horse mats and got them put down in the bottom. Jason and Brian Horton made an awesome "roof" so that it would have a peak so that the rain would run off. It is also very helpful for us since we are so tall to go in and feed them and "pick up" after them. We also got a heat lamp that you would use for baby chicks hooked up so they won't freeze. During the process of putting it all together the dogs got a bath and their blankets were washed. I figured it would be nice for everything to start out as clean as possible. This was a pic before it was tarped. Scout really doesn't like to come out much when it's cold.


I feel sorry for the guys that are working under the house. I thought we were muddy. They are using Jason's shop vac to vacuum up the mud and then emptying it into a wheelbarrow and wheeling it to a better location. They said that the mud has gotten thicker and worse as they have gone along. I think they are pretty close to having the mud part of the job mostly done. They are really nice and have been working hard. The wheelbarrow tipped over once. We have a nice mud pancake :)

New River Pics

I decided to take a few more pics of the river today. It has gone down even more and the water is not as brown. You would never know what it's potential is by looking at it now.


I walked further east on the river to get a few different angles.


Here's looking back down river towards the house.

Got Mud?

Mud is everywhere. The back corner of the yard has the most. It seems to be growing on its own. I feel so sorry for the guys working under the house. This is close to where they crawl under. They were putting some of the mud at the corner of the house but soon realized there was more than they thought.

Here's where our carport was.

Getting our first load to the dump together. We have garbage piles building up everywhere.

My treadmill. May it R.I.P.

River Pics

Here are a few pics of the river that I took today. I knew that a lot of ground, trees, and stumps were missing but I didn't realize how much until I looked at pictures I took last fall. The shape of the river has changed too.



Before

After

Before

After

A Day Of Rest...Kinda

Brutus, our neighbors dog who has been a little bright spot in all the mess.


I have determined that living in a hotel room with the girls and trying to keep them on a schedule is going to be a challenge. We have two queen beds so the girls sleep together in one. Unless all the lights are out and nothing is going on will they go to sleep. Bed time is 7:30 so this should get interesting. The hotel has a great continental breakfast so that will help a little. At least it will make it easier to get them food before school.

Jason forgot his briefcase for church so we had to drive out to the house this morning before we went to get it. I really didn't want the girls to see the house yet and all of their stuff piled up muddy in the rain. Jason ran in and got what he needed while I distracted the girls. On the way to church Jason asked about an item of his that he had found in the trash pile and he wondered if it could be saved. Unfortunately for him I am the one who had packed most of the totes and knew that several items of extreme importance of mine were also in that tote. One being something that my Mom had bought me before she died. I asked if those things had been there too and he said they had but they were destroyed. I had a complete meltdown all the way to church. I seriously feel like I am losing my mind. I have a constant headache and stomach problems from the stress. I know I need to try and calm down but knowing it and doing it seem very hard right now. Being sick and extremely exhausted doesn't help. I think I cried a good portion of the day today. I don't like doing it but like I said I think it is all beyond my control. Something in me feels like it has snapped and I am beyond sad. I can feel myself entering into a depression and it scares me.

I finally got the girls to go to sleep but it was after 9pm. I don't want this to affect the girls more than it needs to. If they don't start falling asleep sooner then I'll have to figure something out.

I am getting ready to go to bed and try to prepare myself for tomorrow. Jason will go to work and I'll get the girls to school. After that I'll head to pick up the free dumping voucher to use for all of our flood damaged stuff. Once Makinley is out of preschool I'm headed out to the house to take pictures and to go through all of our damaged stuff to itemize it. I am not looking forward to it at all. Everyday we find something else and every time I crack a little more. Our wedding pictures are still missing among other things so I'm scared for what I might find. I still can't believe this is happening.

Post Flood Saturday

This is the view from the front door. It doesn't look too bad but it really is a mud field. Our blow up Christmas Bear was a casualty of the flood too.

The backyard really is a mess. It's not safe unless you are in rubber boots. It is deepest out here.

The bad mud corner and a pretty good view of the river. It was actually pretty narrow through here before. The river has gotten wider especially on the opposite bank.


There use to be trees and stumps on this side of the fence. Now there is a lot less bank and it is undermining the whole area. Pretty scary. There are at least two other trees that need to get cut down. One seems to be leaning more towards the kitchen area of the house.


These are the steps on the back porch. The water was flowing up to and along the very top wooden part of the porch.


Today Jason and I got up early and headed out to the house. There are so many things that need to be done it's overwhelming. I needed to pick up all the pictures in the floor that were saved. I can't get over how cold and damp the house feels. The propane stove is really only heating the small area directly near it. So far the temp hasn't gotten over 63 in the house and that is with the temp gauge right by the stove. I don't know how cold it really is in the rest of the house.

We had a few more friends help with picking up pics and helping Jason take his trailer over to Aarons house. Yesterday the trailer was loaded with stuff that might be salvageable but it was still coated with mud and needed to be cleaned up. They got it clean and unloaded. Aaron is letting us keep our stuff in his shop until we can figure something else out. Since the detached garage is horrible and also the attached garage will need repairs there isn't anywhere for us to put whats left of our belongings. It won't be at Aarons long either though. His shop almost flooded so we'll be getting a storage unit or somewhere else safe. I am very grateful it can be there for now while we address other issues.

Jason discovered several things that had been tossed into the dump pile. I had two boxes of books that the cardboard bow was damp but otherwise fine. Unfortunately it rained off and on today so the books inside got pretty wet. I now have all of my collector books out in the floor trying to dry. It just proves that the job is just too overwhelming for one person. As much as I have tried to be everywhere and catch things I just can't.

I'm starting to get very upset about everything. Not only have we lost most of our household belongings but the history of my life, Jasons life, and my childrens lives are now lost. I am aware that these items are just "things." I know how very lucky I am that we are all alive and healthy. The problem is that I have lost so many important people in my life that some of these "things" are all that I have left of them. We have moved way too many times. I was so ready to try and improve our situation so we could finally buy a home and be done. I know life isn't a fairy tale and I expect ups and downs along the way. It has been hard because we seem to lose things each time we move. I thought we were safe and our stuff was safe. I tried so hard to get things stacked and moved up to save them. It is just overwhelming to not know where we are going to live. Water keeps wicking up the walls in the attached garage and I can only imagine what is going on under the house. If mold starts to grow I can't have my girls or even us in that environment.

I just don't know what we are going to do. Every day the money we had for a down payment for something is disappearing. Even if we could get something now we don't have any of our "things" anymore. The girls don't have beds, dressers, and desks to just start. I don't know if Jason has been at his job long enough to get a loan and the thought of renting again is exhausting. At this point I don't even know if we could afford to rent anything else.

To top everything off renters insurance does not cover anything that we lost. The best part is renters cannot get flood insurance so there was no way for us to protect ourselves from this. I don't know how we'll ever replace the things that were lost.

We are supposed to find out Monday when someone will come out to address the heating situation under the house. After that I don't know how long it will take to fix. That is just for the heat. I still don't know when someone will be coming to get the wet insulation out from under the house. If the heat gets fixed and the house is safe and the floors aren't wet then we will be able to go back to the house. The walls in the attached garage concern me. I have no idea how much time it takes for mold to be an issue.

I am very thankful for the things we do have but losing all of my belongings, dealing with mud, not getting to be with my family, and the financial stress is weighing on me.

On a good note my family brought the girls from Vader to the hotel tonight. Jason hadn't seen them since Tuesday. So tonight we are finally back together.

Friday Flood Update/Clean Up Begins

Here is todays view of the driveway. A huge improvement from yesterday. When I pulled in the driveway this morning our neighbor Aaron was out on a tractor pushing all the mud off of the driveway and trying to get as much out of the way as possible. I can't believe all that him and his wife have done to help us out and we don't even know each other well....yet.

Since we don't have a truck anymore Jason had to use the Explorer to get his trailer backed up to a high spot close to the attached garage. Water was flowing underneath it but never got high enough to do damage. I'm so thankful for that. If he wouldn't have moved it from where it was it would now probably be out in the middle of the yard.

Inside the attached garage. I couldn't believe the smell when we first looked in here. It was awful. It almost seems like the mud multiplies. It is terrible and sticks to everything.



This is the view looking outside of the attached garage towards the driveway.

This is the mud besides the attached garage. You sink over your ankles or deeper in this area.

The front sidewalk.

The mud is everywhere. It is going to be a constant nightmare for a very long time. It is going to get tracked everywhere. I also worry about the dogs. If we get to go back I'm not sure what we can do with them. They will sink in the mud. There is literally no place they can go off of the pavement. Its dirty and stinky. Right now their dog kennel is completely filled with about a foot of mud.


The detached garage door. You can see how deep the mud was where it was scraped away here. There are just blobs of it everywhere.

Here is a pic of some of our stuff in the detached garage. You can see how much water and mud is still there after already trying to sweep some out.


This is outside the detached garage.

Another view of the destruction.


The detached garage as the clean up began and things were taken out.


An example of the mud again. Obviously it looks terrible in the thicker spots but don't let the grass fool you. You walk anywhere off pavement you sink.

These are pics taken off the back porch. Yes, the house is that close to the river. There are several trees missing and quite a lot of land. The water was actually over most of the fence that you see which puts the depth of the water in perspective. When I came to rescue the dogs and looked out that side of the house it was overwhelming. I will never get those images, sounds, and smells out of my mind. There is even more mud in this part of the yard. Also there is a log in the fence.


Here is a small sample of some of my pictures we tried to save from my photo albums.


Jason couldn't miss work today but we were blessed to have so many of our friends come and try to help start the clean up process. Every day brings more and more sadness to me. It's hard for me to wrap my mind around losing the big items but the sentimental ones send me over the brink. I already started this ordeal with a cold. The lack of sleep and stress just compile each day. I'm trying really hard to keep it together. We have already lost both girls baby books and all of their keepsakes from that time, my great-great-grandmothers quilt, and several other family heirlooms were beyond saving. So far I have already lost two totes of pictures. Another tote of albums were found today along with a tote of loose pics and sentimental things and a whole tote of framed photos. I worked for almost 8 hours just on the pictures. Along the way I had several friends join me on this job and I can't begin to say thank you or repay you. I think seeing your things floating in brown water and thick mud is something you should never experience.
When we got there we reset the breakers and tried to get everything working. We knew we couldn't turn on the forced air since water and mud was up to the insulation under the house. Our friend Jesse tried to get the propane stove working. We finally discovered there was no propane. To make a long story short Jesse is our hero. He works for Cenex and was able to get them to deliver today. Usually there is a long wait. He got it going after that and that helped a lot in trying to dry the pictures out. The house had gotten very cold. After 6 hours the house temp only went up 10 degrees. We have to keep the stove on because you can feel the dampness and cold everywhere. It's too cold too stay in the house so we have to stay in a hotel. As we all worked on the photos in different rooms we all felt like the floors feel damp. Everyone's fingers and feet were freezing too. I don't know if that is just from the house being so cold or if water is actually wicking through the floor. Everything is still up as much as it can be at this point so I guess we just have to wait and see. I hope the house doesn't start to get damage too or have mold start to grow.
One by one people left. Jason showed up after work and we did a few more things. It has been dark each night by the time Jason gets here so it has been really frustrating to him since he wants to get stuff accomplished. I have been staying in Vader with the girls but decided to stay in the hotel with Jason tonight. We hadn't really seen much of each other since Tuesday and we needed to talk and start coming up with a plan. By the time we got to the room we were even too exhausted to talk so we went to bed and decided to start again tomorrow.