Twister 2013

As you know our town was hit by a tornado on the 17th. Everyone's been nice to check in on us via email, text, phone calls, facebook. we are eternally grateful for your thoughts and prayers, but we are starting to run up against our cell phone texting limit and aren't always close to a computer to keep everyone updated. I thought i'd update here to try to reach as many people at one time as I can. I apologize in advance for typos and grammar errors but i'm typing as fast as I can while I have computer time without the boys around. I'm sure if you printed out this post and circled all the typos and held it at arm's length it might look like debris, symbolic of the debris that our house is currently surrounded by. I need to get these thoughts out not only to share with you but to free up some brain space for myself. ha. We have to do lists, questions, concerns and so many other things rolling around in our heads right now. it's helpful for me to release some of my thoughts here so i can use that brain space for trying to find a rental property, pack our belongings and get our stuff to this, that and the other place, call the contractor, help a friend or even to just let me mind slow down to get some sleep.. so here goes.

we are incredibly lucky that we did not have more damage and we are exceedingly grateful to be alive. period. It is an honest to goodness miracle we are alive, especially D. He was out in the yard working on a tractor behind our house when he heard the sound of the wind changing and decided he better come into the house. the tornado whistles blew and the boys convinced me to come inside and head for the basment. as a midwesterner i have become somewhat lax in surrendering to tornado sirens. the joke is that when you hear the sirens you run to the windows to see what's coming instead of running to the basment as we were taught in grade school.. n's school had recently completed several safety drills with tornado drills being one of the so he insisted we take cover. when daddy wouldn't come down i told levi to go get him thinking levi could convince him better than i could and he did. as i look back on it i can't believe i sent levi upstairs in a time of danger like that. i'm really sorry i did because he saw the twister coming towards us through our front window before he and daddy headed downstairs. i am so, so thankful that nothing happened to him! i told myself to stop thinking about what could have happened, but it's hard to let go of. anyway...d and levi ran downstairs and as soon as d closed our basement closet door the twister hit..."It's commmmminngg!" He yelled. L jumped in my lap and n squeezed close to me as we hung onto each other. i just kept saying "Are we in the right place are we in the right place?" I was really worried we had chosen the wrong place to hide out because i was afraid our entire three story stairwell (that goes from our basement to our roof) would collapse on us. it didn't, thank goodness! I think from the time d closed the closet door to the time the twister ripped through our house only about 60 seconds lapsed. we looked at each other as we heard the glass crashing down, things hitting walls and then the pressure from the winds filled our ears until we couldn't hear at all. d jumped out of the closet immediately to determine if we should remain there or if we needed to flee. the boys and i didn't have shoes on and L was still in his jammies. d got us shoes and clothes, hats, coats, etc. we determined the basement was the best place for the boys and i to stay for a while as there was far too much glass and debris upstairs to roam around. d and i took turns huddling in the closet and packing things up for about three hours until d's parents were able to arrive. we were really glad to get the boys out of the house as smells of gas were starting to get heavy. d fired up his cat bulldozer, hooked up a trailer to the back of it and carried the boys across the muddy debris filled field. i walked behind with backpacks.I did my best to step on boards to avoid from sinking in the mud. i took one mistep and landed on a nail. i was glad i had my snow boots on because i could have been injured much worse if was wearing a shoe with a thinner sole. don't get me wrong it hurt, but i was in such survival mode that i just pulled the nail outta my foot and pressed on across the field. the weather was still questionable and i didn't want to get stuck in the field if a new storm came throug, so i walked it off. the next day i went to a prompt care in a town an hour away (because my doctor's office and other doctor's office were closed due to power outage) and get a tetnus shot, an antibiotic and some other stuff.

once we knew the boys were in safe hands with Baba (grandma) we knew we could get to work on a few things at the house. D's dad walked across the field to get to our house as there was no other way of entering the whipped up streets. i started taking pictures, throwing our clothes in trash bags and sweeping a path through the glass so we could at least walk a little bit without stepping on something. once i heard the police sirens outside and saw the cars stranded on the road behind our house i began to realize this was bad.. but i could only take care of myself and our immediate needs so i didn't look out our windows for a long time.

As i was gathering up clothes and necessities i was headed out to the garage to get a wide shop broom to sweep glass out of the kitchen i opend the garage door and there was my mom! I could not believe my eyes and i still cannot believe she made it in. i tease her that she should join the grammy marines. somehow she got into this forbidden area, threw on a rain coat and a backpack and walked approx 1.5 miles to our house in the wind and rain to be at our door step. "I can't believe youre here!! I said. "You couldnt' keep me away."

As we look out our front window at the nieghbors we realize we had a special angel (Dad perhaps) watching over us. The house across the street from ours has it's garage ripped open with cars, a tractor, garage stuff thrown into the kitchen of the house behind it. the neighbor next to that has a house that is standing but close to caving in. 100 yards out our front window the houses are no longer houses, but piles of rubbel. for whatever reason the twister took a slight right turn and spared us. our house is not liveable and won't be for 3-6 months, but we feel like we were spared. our neighbors to the east are not so fortunate. they don't have their homes, but they have their people. so far i've only heard of one fatality which is completely unfortunate but it is an absolute miracle no more lives were taken.

I think our city leaders have done a terffic job of doing their best to maintain our safety with police and fire staff on hand. staging areas for misplaced people to sleep eat, shower, make phone calls, connect with insurance adjustors, collect donations were in place very quickly. we are working around a curfew that hte city has in place. they want us to get what we can out of our homes, but they want us to be safe as night fall,  gas, rain and impending snow are dangers. not to mention possible looters. ugh!

we were able to be in our homes almost every one of the last  six days. my sister j came down to help us on wednesday. i'm so glad she was able to do that particular day because our homes were not available to us the next day. our main concerns for our home are continued water damage, the upcoming freeze, snow and looters. i had j gather up and pack all my personal bank, credit card,  bills and get them out of the house for fear that looters could take off with that information and rob us from afar. i feel so much better having that stuff outta the house. my baby sitters' showed up at our house to pack. our kids have the most terrific babysitters. they are a family of nine children. the boys have grown  up with these girls as our babysitters and they  showed up at our house to do whatever we needed. i was glad i had my faculties together and put a packing list for them. they did a terrific job of boxing  my kitchen into boxes according to my list of what items can be stored at the storage  unit we obtained and what items can go to hotel. because of their team work i was able to run in my house and grab all of our hotel boxes with a half our notice of being kicked out of our house. i was able to take those boxes to our hotel and get somewhat acclimated and set up last night. we've had such a tremendous outpouring of support. it's so touching and really gives us the strength to push forward.
what would you yank out of your house if given one day and not  a moments notice with no trailer and no car to carry it out? We're realizing what we can live without and what our true treasures are. now that we've had a couple of days to assess our damage and now that we can drive down our street we are able to pull more stuff out. for me, my treasures are the things everyone else thinks of (disks with family  photos on them, scrapbook, wedding photos, engagement ring), but anything my dad laid his hands on are golden. we were able to pull out our kitchen table and matching chairs. that table is a combo of d's family history and mine. the table was originally his grandma's, but my dad refinished it for us about a year ago. we've eaten so many dinners and done numerous crafts at that table. so for me that is my biggest treasure. everyone knew that and all the guys who helped us move it to storage unit were super gentle with it and we got it in a safe place along with the sofa table and antique mirror dad finished for us.

i think about dad quite a bit and i know he would be here to help if he could, but i think he was here in spirit when the twister hit. honestly, i would not be able to live with myself if he was at our house trying to help out right now and his heart stopped at my house during all of this. i really don't think his heart and lungs would've been able to deal with the physical and mental stress of all of this. so, if this all had to happen i believe it has happened in the right order. i was just getting over the initial shock of dad's passing and was getting us back on track and back into our routine when this hit. one set of shock to another, but i know we're going to be okay.

so, today is day six. we make progress every day, but yesterday was a big day. we felt like we were on the show "the amazing race" racing from the post office to collect and hold our mail, to the insurance agent to get the okay to move forward with a contractor to the bank to set up a new account to the lumbar yard, hotel, town hall meeting...then drive back home to be with our boys. we've had some really long days, but they're going super fast.

today our goals are to continue to winterize the house by draining dishwasher hoses, laundyr hose, refrigerator hose, toilets (d's dad has put rv antifreeze in all the toilets but one so we've had one primitive toilet to use). we're doing our best to prevent collected water from freezing in appliances and walls and caushing further damage...although insurance has assured us that sort of damage is covered we'd like to do our best to prevent what we can. we also need to do our best to looter proof our house. no good dirty looters. sick! a hometown contractor (from our parents' hometown) is set to arrive at our house (provided d he can get in to the neighborhood) at noon to give us an estimate on repairs and repair timeline. i am still at d's parents today and my goals are to organize and pack our clothes so we can move into our extended stay hotel room. we have plans to be at the hotel for thirty days but will continue to pursue rental properties because we think we will be displaced for 3-6 months.....

The boys are doing as well (or better) than can be expected. we are very fortunate that we can leave them in good hands with their Grandmas and Aunt M. Last night i asked N what they did and after a few minutes of talking he paused and said, "Baba's taking good care of us, Mom." I knew it but it was nice to hear his appreciation.

so that's a not so brief synposis of where we are. like i said above, we are grateful for your thougts and prayers.we know people feel the urge to help out in any way they can. please don't feel obligated to send us anything, but i hear other people from out of state are sending gift cards to their effected families.  I hear people are recieving gift cards for area restaurants, target, wal mart, lowes, etc. please dont feel obligated, but if that's what you want to do I'm sure we'd use it. we will need help in the weeks to come. so, while people want to come here and help right now remember we will need help in the future with moving outta the hotel into an aparment, from apartment to our house in distant future. we will keep you posted.. thanks and take care!!