It's not normal... but it's routine! =)

You might not know this about me, but I'm a softie. I'm a big emotional sap. mmhhhmm. Shocking, I know. ;) Particularly when it comes to my family. Today a message from Katherine's daycare had me crying at least half a dozen times.

After the tornado we shared with school what had happened. One, because if anything started to go amiss at school that they could be on the lookout and let us know. Two, I wanted to know where the safe room was for the school. (I now enter buildings and look around for where it would be safe to go... I'm sure this will relax in time, but right now it's what I do. I also want to continually run to Dorton Arena's basement since that protected us the first time around.) The Directors at the school asked if there was anything to do to help. As I mentioned in previous blogs I continue to struggle with "asking" for help. I like to give it - but don't really know how to accept it. I know it's as much for them as it is for me - and in fact the CEO of the company Stephen and I work at, mentioned this during a speech he gave on Saturday night. People WANT to help. When you let them help, it makes everyone feel better. It reminded me, yet I still struggle. First step is acknowledging?? Or is that just for AA?

Today one the Directors at school emailed Stephen and I to share two things:
- On the Friday before the tornado the school had their annual Spring Fling. (We went and had a blast. KK didn't come out of the jump house for a good 45 minutes.) Part of the Spring Fling is to raise money for charity organizations the school supports. They decided to take the total raised at the event and donate half to the three families at the school that were affected by the tornados on 4/16/11.
- They credited our account for one week's tuition.

To say I found this to be extremely generous would be an understatement. Stephen and I both went into school this afternoon when we picked K up to give them a hug and say thank you. Of course a formal thank you will come - but truly, brought me to tears (multiple times).

In the last week a few things happened.
1. We learned that the city was (is) not going to help clean up non-vegetative debris. Not the greatest news.
2. The news crews are just waiting for more drama to strike on our block. We know this because when there were high winds/storms forecasted last week they camped out on our block. Literally. Slept in their news vans with cameras on at least one house, waiting for it to fall, some more.
3. We didn't hear from the insurance company. This one is I s'pose more of a "what didn't happen" then what DID happen. Sigh.
4. After learning about #1, several neighbors and a few people from our neighborhood came to help on Saturday with debris clean up. Neighbors on both sides and across the street came to help up a few yards. One neighbor brought a truck (how he managed to get a one month old truck from his friend to haul debris... Not sure. But truly a test of friendship!! =)) A few others came over to help load the house debris into the truck. SA and the neighbor, as well as others, made numerous trips to the dump to get rid of the debris. After about 7 hours the two larger piles in front of our house and the neighbors house was gone, and a few other smaller piles were removed. Pretty impressive manual labor.
5. The organized church groups in this area again came to help with clean up. These people have a very special place in heaven waiting for them.
6. Vacuuming is therapeutic. For me. I spent more hours vacuuming in the last 24 hours than I typically do sleeping on a given night. And I heart me some sleeping. On Sunday I spent 5+ hours vacuuming floors, walls, window, screens, baseboards and the carpets again. I didn't step on glass today although I did find some more this morning. Fortunately it was found by glimmering light - not by my foot. While most of our windows have holes in the screen and damage to the actual window, it's nice to be able to look out the window and not see insulation all over the screen/window. And I can't see the insulation all over my house when I'm inside, so that's pretty great too.
7. Vacuuming the grass: Also awesome. While SA wasn't thrilled by my vacuuming the house for 5+ hours he did think vacuuming the yard was pretty awesome. I spent about 2 hours in the yard tonight vacuuming a space about 10'X6'. It looks pretty. Only 3/4 of the yard left to vacuum + all of the garden beds & plants. I should be finished by September. ;)

Good lessons and no doubt they'll continue.

On Friday we had a structural engineer come out to do an assessment. I haven't been able to sleep at night wondering if everything is okay. Yes, you look at the house and you think "it doesn't LOOK like it's going to fall down". But I'm not an engineer. Neither is SA. ;) He THINKS sometimes he is... alas, no dice. The engineer gave us the stamp of approval (literally and figuratively) that our house is structurally safe. WHEW!!! Friday was the first night I slept through the night. Thank you Mr Engineer. I heart you.

We continue to be asked if things are "back to normal". No. They're not. BUT, we have found a routine. And maybe this is the "new normal". I don't know - and I'll admit, right now, I don't much care. I care about my family being safe and our house getting fixed. The spectators on the street continue. I thought that by this time the drive-bys would be completed. They aren't. Some of the neighbors aren't fond of this - and I'll admit that there are times I wish it would just stop. There are other moments I think - if only we'd started to charge admission we could have hired some folks to help with the debris removal! :) Lately I've been thinking - I hope that this startles them. I hope that what they see scares the pants off of them. (Just not in front of my house.) I hope that the next time a tornado warning is issued, they run for cover of their safe room. I hope that the men that see our block respond intelligently and go to the safe room with their families versus standing outside waiting/watching for the tornado to come. So come visit. Come see what has happened on Serend!pity. If it helps YOU take this seriously - DO IT. The one thing I ask you not to do is tell us how awful it is. We appreciate the sentiment, but really, We got it. =)

As for tornado warnings... On Saturday as luck would have it SA and I attended a Gala for JDRF. It was the annual fundraising event for the organization and is a black tie affair. Fortunately SA and I already had our duds and neither were ruined by flying glass. Yay! I was honored by being chosen as one of the two folks to accept the corporate award for the company we work at. I, and my co-acceptor, are behind this giant screen as the speeches begin, waiting for our turn and we meet Greg Fischel. Nice guy. Really funny guy. Well, we have Greg signed up to call us should a tornado be in our area. Ahem. On April 16th Greg called our house (which we didn't know until power was restored a few days after the tornado) but he didn't call our cell phones. Our fault - wrong numbers were programmed. (For those in Raleigh we HIGHLY recommend you subscribe to this service... Small fee. Great warning system!) Anyway, Greg's "backstage" with us and the conversation goes something like this:
Darlene: "hey, thanks for the tornado warnings!!"
Greg: "Oh yeah! Sure! My pleasure! Where do you live?"
Darlene: "Serend!pity!"
Greg: "OH!!"

I made the TV guy speechless I s'pose and given he was our MC I didn't want to leave him that way, so I asked the only question I could think of at the time:
Darlene: "Do you have any lipstick?"
Greg: "No! HAHAHA"
Darlene: "Aw, Crap"

I really thought a TV guy might have a little gloss with him. Appears not. Or at least none that he was willing to share with me. He also tells really ridiculous (and I think amusing) jokes when trying to stall for time. I hope he MCs again next year... and I hope I'm invited again.

Continued thanks to everyone! Much love!
Darlene, Stephen & KK
xo

PS: I am struggling with whether or not anyone really wants to hear about the continued tornado "stuff". Do I keep blogging about it? Stop? Someone said, "that was so two weeks ago" - I know kiddingly but it does make me wonder if it's getting old. Let me know what you think. :)