Funny Things

With all the Tornado stuff swirling about around us (pun intended), I thought I'd take a break from that and share some of what I thought were funny moments from today. Some of these may only be funny to me, but a few continue to make me laugh, and since it's my blog... I get to do what I want. :)

As I'm driving into the daycare parking lot today I see a Dad driving out. He's got a little cup in his hand. It's got a swirly straw and it's a little plastic cup. He's drinking from it. Morning coffee?? Made me laugh, and I thought it was cute at the same time.

We went to Whole Foods for dinner tonight. It's becoming my Wegmans of the South. I have a yogurt parfait for dinner, K has some pizza and Stephen has some sushi. We dig it. K tells me about 15 minutes into dinner that she has to go potty. I take her down to the bathrooms and as we're washing her hands she sees cheerios in the sink. No idea how they got there. She says, Mommy, did Daddy put them there? No. He didn't. She's started this new thing where she likes to say how either S or I do something - particularly if it's a "no-no". It's never her. I tell her that Daddy doesn't do everything, despite what she thinks. There's a woman standing behind us, apparently listening to our conversation, who says, "Did Daddy also put your shoes on backwards?" Oops. And the lady called me OUT! Nice!! I wonder if she was like that all day?? (that would have been my fault.) Still laughing about this. She left the restroom with them still on backwards. She kept them this way until she changed for bed.

S is looking at the weather for the weekend. He says "it's going to get cool tonight!" I say - great! Maybe we'll get a breeze through the windows! He looks at me confused. I say, what?! Apparently the breeze would be great if it could get through the tarp, boarded windows and plastic. Ohhh, yeah. Forgot about that. Big blue tarp all over half of the house. Duh!!!

Katherine is in the bathroom (again). She's got the door closed. We hear her screaming MOMMY DADDY!!!!!!! We think she's done going potty and needs help. Stephen starts heading to the bathroom and we understand what she's yelling a little better... "IT'S A SPIDER IT'S A SPIDER!!!" She was too scared to poop because there was a spider. It was a teeny tiny spider that we're not even sure how she saw it. Couldn't poop. It was staring at her.

I'm sitting with K in her bedroom and we're singing songs as we rock in the rocking chair. Normal nightly routine stuff. She starts playing with my earring. She wants me to look at it. She keeps turning my head saying look Mommy look... And didn't understand why my eyes couldn't look at my ear. ;)

A Tornado news update:
We had a structural engineer come to our house today to do an inspection. We *thought* that everything was okay, but wanted to ensure that it was. Really - why risk it? The engineer said everything was fine. *Whew* Big relief. I mean BIG. I have been stressed since we got home that there's something wrong that we don't know about. Something we can't see. I feel better now.

Last night we found out that the city will not be assisting with debris removal. I don't claim to be smart enough to understand why the City won't help - but alas, they won't. We'll be on our own to do our clean up. We're thinking of renting a dumpster to put all of the debris in. If we do, Raleigh folks, we'll be seeking volunteers. One to put stuff into the dumpster so that we can clean up and another group to help clean up the yard of the smaller pieces of glass, insulation, roof shingles, siding, etc. We're thinking of using a shop-vac to pick up the smaller pieces. It can suck up bowling balls, why can't it suck up this stuff? :) I'll let you know when we're forming our work crew, if you're interested. :)

Tonight I ask that you say some prayers for the people in Alabama. I can't imagine what they're going through right now. Truly. We look at our little block and had thought that this was pretty devastating, but there are whole neighborhoods/cities that look like our block. The funnel was so large. So many lost their lives. They need all of the good thoughts and prayers we can send them.

Love from the Alekzas!
Stephen, Darlene & KK

Life continues...

I'd say it's been an eventful few days, but it hasn't been. And really, we're okay with that.

We went to Myrtle Beach for the holiday weekend. It was nice to get away from the immediate situation and just have some family time. Katherine had a great time playing, feeding turtles in a little pond (okay, I'll admit this was pretty fun for me too!) and going to the beach. The "down-time" was good for all of us. We even cooked our Easter dinner. Ham, macaroni & cheese and green beans. It was awesome!! K and I made an Easter Bunny cake together that I'm not sure who was more excited to eat - K or S. It was a box cake with some can frosting and bagged coconut but brought a whole lot of smiles. AWESOME!!

We returned home on Monday to meet the FEMA inspector. He came through our house, took some pictures and some of our information and went on his way. As we understand it our initial application for assistance was denied because we have homeowners insurance. We need to wait to see what the insurance will cover and then may be able to re-apply for assistance. I'm not certain but I believe we have until June 11th to submit that application. Not a whole lot of time given the situation, but hopefully enough time for us to know what's happening.

We haven't heard back from our insurance company yet. I don't think we've gotten any further communication from the adjuster either. I've been working the last couple of nights on documenting the contents inside of the house that were damaged. I didn't realize how much there was until I started documenting each line item and quantifying the cost associated with replacing it. I certainly didn't expect it to take as much time as it is. But isn't that usually the way? :)

Stephen and I continue to feel so blessed and grateful. It seems odd sometimes but under other circumstances I think I'd be having a nervous breakdown. Really. But in this situation I'm glad that it's a feeling of, we're fortunate to have a roof over our head and clothes on our backs. Food in the house is still debatable - but that's our own fault. Grocery shopping is certainly an item on the list of "things to do". The best news to report is: We're back in "the family house"! The first night I was pretty anxious. I struggled getting to sleep waiting for something to "happen". I'm not sure what I thought was going to happen, so I just waited. Eventually sleep happened. Thankfully. While I know it will take time for things to get back to "normal" - We're at least back in our routine. School/Work>Dinner>Bedtime. And tonight we even threw in a little playdate for KK with the neighbor.

I'm so grateful for getting to know our neighbors better. I am certain it's been our own fault that we haven't known them better in the past - and I'm so glad that we're getting to know them now. Truly fantastic people. Funny, sarcastic, easy-going, family people... I love it!!!

Vacuuming is also something on my list of things to do. Daily. Repeatedly. Obsessively. And no matter how much I vacuum the carpet there's still glass. Shop-vac vacuum. Vacuum where I break a vacuum (apparently for the 30 minutes I was cleaning and *thought* I was picking up glass I was pushing the machine back and forth over the carpet - AWE-SOME!!!) I'll continue to be obsessive. It's one of the few things I can control. And I'm referring to vacuuming. ;)

So we wait... We called the insurance company on Monday to see if we could get any money to cover the immediate expenses we had. The answer was no. Asked if we could rent an air conditioner or buy one to help keep the house cool this week - the answer was no. Fortunately my cousin came to the rescue with a window unit that we are using to help keep us cool! THANK YOU MICHELLE!! xo

On Saturday there are a group of volunteers from our neighborhood that are coming to help us remove the three trees from our backyard that either fell or are in the process of falling down. Fortunately all are far enough away from the house, and the trees are short enough, that there shouldn't be any risk of them landing anywhere to damage something! ;) Men & chainsaws... I think I'll stay away from that event!

Below are some pictures from the Easter weekend in MB. Continued thanks for everyone's support!!
xo
Darlene, Stephen & KK

This scrapbook design personalized with Smilebox

"Mommy, why did the tornado hurt our house?"

The question of an almost three year old.

Many of you have messaged to ask how Katherine is doing. So I thought I'd write about it.

For the last month or so she's been calling our house "the family house". We aren't sure where it came from or why she started it but its stuck. Now all three of us say it. Explaining to K what a tornado is has been challenging. Explaining to her that the tornado hurt "the family house"... also difficult.

"Mommy, the family house is hurt?" (Trying to explain why the blue tarps are all over the house I said that they were kind of like band-aids for our house until we can get it's boo-boos fixed.)

"The leprechauns made a mess!!" (On St Patricks Day the "leprechauns" came through her classroom at school and messed up some of the toys while the kids were playing outside. Since then the kids in her class insist that when there's a mess the mischevious leprechauns must have done it.) Today she told us she loves the leprechauns. (She also loves the Easter Bunny she said.)

"Mommy, noooo we can't go to the family house!! There is glass all over your bed!!" (After telling her that we weren't going to the hotel anymore. We were going to go back to our house. I'm wondering if this also had something to do with having fruit loops for breakfast every day and went swimming in the hotel pool. At home she gets a banana or some other kind of fruit for breakfast... Not sugar-y goodness cereal.)

"YAYYYYY Mommy my room is all cleaned up!!!" (On Saturday when we got home after the tornado the only room I could reasonably say was safe for her to be in was her bedroom. Needless to say the carpet needing vacuuming after trekking straight to that room on Saturday. She was quite excited that her carpet was clean. Thank you Veronica!!!)

We continue to try to explain what happened and realize she sees and hears what people are saying. She knows she can't go outside to play because there is glass and trash in our yard. (Trash is easier to understand than debris.)

She wants to know if her playset can get a bandaid and get better. Unfortunately, unless we can get the yard cleaned up really well, I don't know that she'll be out there playing anytime soon. We were talking to our neighbor about how to clean up the yard. He had a great idea. We're going to use our shop vac & leaf blower vacuum to try to suck up some of the stuff. Then in the fall we may try to put down a layer of topsoil over the grass to help with the debris clean up, rather than just wait for it to work its way into the soil. Cover the yard just enough to see the top of the grass so it can continue to grow and hopefully make it safe for Katherine come spring of next year.

The first couple of days were rough. Since Wednesday each day we've see a little progress.

Wednesday evening we had a bit of a party night. Pizza for dinner, followed by ice cream and then swimming in the hotel pool. She was pretty excited. I was pretty dern cold! ;)

Thursday she had her party at school for Easter, complete with Easter egg hunt & visit by the Easter Bunny. At this point, I have no idea how many times she's been to see the Bunny this year. ;) Thursday after the party we went back to our house. My cousin Michelle and our friend Veronica spent Thursday at our house helping us clean it in preparation for us coming back home. (Thanks again ladies!!!) She was a little hesitant to come back home but once she got inside she was pretty happy. It looked back to normal for her, aside from seeing the blue tarps on the windows. But she knew they were bandaids for the booboos.

Today we went to the beach and had a visit from the bunny while she and I were at the potty ;). He left us some Easter eggs on our blanket, in her toys and on her chair. When she saw it, as we were coming back, she took off down the beach to go see them. Excited is an understatement. Tonight we started to make an Easter Bunny cake. She wanted a cake and when I asked what kind she said a bunny one... So we're making a bunny cake. We had a pajama party tonight. (Jammies for the whole family & watch a movie).

While we were eating dinner tonight we had another conversation about what happened. She knows when we go home in two nights we'll be going back to the family house. She seemed a little better about things tonight. In fact, it was the first night since the tornado (outside of Saturday night when she was sleeping with friends in the same room as she was) that she didn't cry for me to sleep with her. She's still sleeping with my shirt, but she went right to sleep tonight. Progress.

So... All in all she's doing okay. Again, I'm very grateful she wasn't in the house during the tornado. She remembers nearly everything, even things that happened months and months ago. She mentioned last week that Elmo sprayed water on her... It was the 3D show at Busch Gardens. In December. She remembers.

Tonight the Easter Bunny came. I'm sure tomorrow she'll be jacked up on sugar. And I'll be perfectly okay with it. ;)

Happy Easter everyone!! xo
Darlene, Stephen and Katherine