Finally We Have Walls!

Okay, so I'm a little late in getting this posted, but it's been a busy last few weeks. Hank's parent's arrived 2 weeks ago and began helping us put our house back together again. After weeks of living in a deconstruction zone, we began living in a construction zone! YEA!!!

They started putting up the wall that would seperate what was once our family/computer/craft room. Where once we had a huge multi-room, we've seperated into 2 rooms now. And they each have a HUGE closet so our family can now come and visit for long periods of time! (hint..hint)


They then proceeded into the living room, where we still kept the big room. Although, we are NOT putting back up the ugly panneling that was in these downstairs rooms. Already, with just the drywall up, the rooms look so much brighter and better. I am so excited! But, it also may have something to do with the fact that we have no curtains and the living room gets all of the morning sun. Which I do absolutely love. I hated, hated, hated that dingy dungeon feeling that you go when going downstairs into our "basement". (okay, slight dig there to the insurance company. I know, I should forgive and forget. sigh...oh well.)

We now have walls all through the downstairs area. We've even managed to mud them, although I admit, sanding has come a little slow. I have heard so many horror stories on the sanding that I keep putting it off. I suppose I was hoping that some little elves would come and do the sanding. I promise, I will make little clothes for them if they come!

But alas, no shoemaker here. I can't complain becuase we have really been so blessed and fortunate through this whole flood situation. In

talking with so many others throughout my neighboorhood and town, we are so blessed. So many are still fighting in so many ways to get

their lives back to normal, and we are almost there. I am so grateful for everyone who has helped us. We are truly blessed in the family and friends that we have! Thank you all!

Food, Friends, & Fireworks!

It's been a crazy last few weeks. After dealing with the flood and all the complications that has brought into our lives, we really wanted to kick back and enjoy a break. What better way than to gather with friends, eat LOTS of food, and blow things up? Gotta admit that after everything, the blowing things up sounded the best to me! Since we couldn't blow the house up or an insurance company, we enjoyed some home fireworks instead.

The kids were very antsy all day to go. We had MORE rain that morning and were afraid the festivities would be cancelled. Zach got up early (for him...he's my LATE sleeper) and got dressed by himself. I'm not sure if he was hoping the rain would turn to snow, or if he just has his mother's genes and is cold all the time!

The rain finally stopped and we gathered at a friend's home for the holiday and enjoyed a wonderful BBQ. There was so much food and it was nice to see old friends and meet some new. We have been so blessed to have some awesome friends since moving to Terre Haute and it was great to spend time with them. Plus, enjoying all their favorite BBQ foods was a great plus! I think the kids loved getting together the most!I know Josh was expecially thrilled to have the party because the Green family was invited. That meant that Abby got to come! He just loves Abby and is convinced he is going to marry her. We have found them slow dancing behind the curtains at church and they've even shared their first kiss. (We finally had to put a stop to that one!) So he was pretty excited to have her show up. We even found evidence of how thrilled they were to see each other again all over the front sidewalks for all the world to see!
After enjoying all the food and company, we took the kids out to the softball fields in front of our friend's house and lit sparklers. That was quite a feat with 20 kids! The kids all enjoyed the sparklers, even Zach who decided to try and light his chest on fire. He was playing with a sparkler when it burnt his fingers, so he flicked it and a piece of the sparkler went down his shirt. He blistered and burnt pretty good, but barely slowed down.

After the sparklers, we enjoyed a wonderful show with some awesome fireworks! We got just a "few" to shoot off and they were better than some of the shows we've seen.
We had a really awesome time. We even were treated to a second show. We got to watch Josh and Abby throughout the fireworks. They sat with Josh's arm around her the whole show. It was quite a show! And the girls spent the evening using the leftover sparklers to dress up their hair. We had a really fun night. What a great way to spend the holiday!

And The Rains Came...

We were having this wonderful vacation in Texas--enjoying the chance to kick Kyle's rear in Go-carts and golf, when Hank calls up and tells me that Terre Haute had gotten a "little" rain while I was gone. (Apparently even the heavens were crying over Kyle's performances! LOL)

Hank had been driving to work that morning and had driven through a puddle. The car in front of him tried to turn around and washed him out. His car flooded and he ended up swimming to work.

It ended up not being the only thing flooding that day. While Hank was stuck at work, the rains flooded our neighboorhood. The roads became undrivable and many of our neighboors had to evacuate their homes in boats. Our adventerous friends were not able to get near our home and check out any of the damage as the current was too swift. I called our neighbors across the street and caught them as they were evacuating. Water was pooring into their house at an alarming rate and they had already lost their basement to the flood. It was really hard to be so far from what was going on and not know what the status of our house was.

Yet, I know it was a blessing that we were not home when the flood happened. I'm told it was so quick in places, that I worry what would have happened if we had been there and had to evacuate with the kids. Its a scary thought and I'm glad that we didn't have to add that to the experience.

Hank ended up having to stay at work until after midnight due to many other guards not being able to get to work because of the flooding. Many of the roads throughout town, as well as part of I-70 were closed. And I'm told now that US-41, which is the road outside of our house, was almost like a flowing river at one point.

Some of the stories that I've heard since the June 7th flooding have made me realize that we were so blessed. We did end up getting flooded and lost a "lot" by worldly standards, but the important things in this world were safe with me in Texas and holed up in prison. (Boy that's something I never thought I'd write.) And the experiences that have come from this have been amazing. But I'll blog more on that later.

All I can say is that it was quite a day!