Sunday, June 22, 2008

Clean up, Clean up, everybody everywhere....

Yes, that old Barney Song comes to mind. I was going to do a series of posts on this... but to post one EVERY DAY... I am not that blog minded. If it is too long for you ... just come back a read a paragraph a day... and PRETEND I posted every day.

SO...Here is what went on at our house this last week or so.

1. We got power back on FRIDAY NIGHT... so from Sunday around 4:30 pm to Friday at the same time... we were powerless. The first day was hot and humid... then it cooled down. We did have water and our hot water heater is gas... so we had hot water. We survived.

I looked around one evening and thought "we are like Laura Ingalls on Little House.
Candles lit around the house ... dishes drying in the sink after being hand washed... hair all frizzy pulled back in a ponytail because of no blow dryer, flat iron, etc... no TV blaring... we sat around talking and laughing... Brianna reading by candlelight... THEN... my little euphoria dissipated as I heard my cell phone ring... then I looked at Steve on his laptop using battery power... and then I thought... Well... not QUITE like Ingall's family.

2. Dad came on Tuesday to get the car running. He fixed what Steve tried to fix which wasn't what needed to be fixed in the first place. So, Wed. we took it to the car place and they fixed what should have been fixed that Dad couldn't have even fixed.

Thanks, my HUNKA HUNKA BURIN' LOVE, for trying to save us some cash.

Thanks, Dad... for being Mr. Fix-it for Mr. & Mrs. Broke-it!
)
















3. The funniest thing happened when the tree guys came.

They came on THURSDAY... weren't supposed to come until SATURDAY. You say... GREAT... they came early.

I say... GREAT... I was getting out of the shower... on the second floor... windows wide open for the breeze because we had NO POWER... and as I exited the shower wearing... well what you wear or don't wear in the shower... there were the tree guys... climbing up the trees... at the level of the second floor windows!!!!!!

Yes... I will stop there... I will spare you the naked details and vomitous results. (can you hear me laughing? wasn't that funny!!!)

After their rude morning awakening and unsightly entrance to the morning job... they worked... and worked... and worked... for 12 hours. And then had to come back a couple more times... maybe that was because Brianna bought them cookies. She would've made them... but alas no electricity.

I could wish for a gas stove... but WHY? At least when the power is out I don't have feel the guilt ridden emotions for not cooking... like I do normally...

4. The saw mill guy came to take some of the logs for his mill. Asked if we would like a slab to make a bench or something to remember our trees. I said... "Now that's a thought..."

...and that was the ONLY thought I had on that! Tree hugger I am not. Sorry all you green people out there. I do my part for the environment... but benches made out of trees that crashed on our house... not really my idea of a souvenir... these pictures do just fine.


5. Insurance adjuster came. He was a good ole' Tennessee boy. His wife was with them. She had itty bitty size 5 shoes and as we chatted she commented on how she can't ever find shoes. I got excited because my neighbor just had a garage sale and couldn't sell her size 5, women looking, elf sized shoes. SO... I helped them both out. We offered them Key Lime Pie... AND guess what? It pays to be kind and nice because... PTL they are covering a new roof and new gutters and other damages!

Talk about giving thanks... if the trees HAD NOT hit our house... they could not have paid ANYTHING and we would have had to come up with $3,000 from thin air for tree removal and any damages. GOD is so GOOD to us.


6. THEN DTE came and started digging up our yard... looking for electrical trouble. Yes... 5 trucks all for our little yard!






I had a watermelon and a pineapple I needed to cut up before we left town... so I served it to them. They loved it.

They loved it so mu
ch... they came back the NEXT DAY and dug up some more because they couldn't find it the problem. AND will dig until they find it!

SO NOW my back yard has a dirt path all the way across the back side... it NOW continues under the fort across the rest of the backyard. They say they will re-seed it. I'll be holdin' them to that!


7.
Our roofer friend came. So hopefully we will soon h
ave a new roof and gutters.













8. My nephew spent the night on Wednesday. It was his 5th birthday and he wanted a grand adventure at Auntie and Uncle's house with no "lectricty..." where we ran around the house with flashlights, ate by candlelight, and had a slumber party downstairs on the couches and floors where it was cooler...

We went to the
Mom's nightmare kids' dream for supper and then retrieved our ice cream in the neighbors freezer run by a generator... put it in a cup with 5 candles... sang to him... and what fun he had the next morning watching the guys out the windows with their chainsaws cutting up the trees. Such a testosterone driven thing. CHAINSAWS! WAY COOL!

9. Weston came home and we celebrated Father's Day (see previous blog) and we so enjoyed our time with our son. We miss him.

10. Right now we are in Sunny, Hot Florida for Church Planters' School. Steve is speaking and I am doing a session for the wives on Friday with two other gals.

So... hopefully, when we get home... things will be a little more normal... well... as normal as our home can ever be!!!

19 comments:

Sherilyn -Dominee Huisvrouw said...

Well, I suppose the tree guys could have come back for the cookies, but maybe they were hoping to catch you out of the shower again! :)

kim said...

MB, I'm pretty impressed that you were able to get all that down! What a week...what a story. Bring me back some FLA sand, will ya? :)
Miss ya!

Web Designer said...

Ha ha ha ha. Thanks for giving me a good laugh today :-)
Hopefully things will calm down for you now! Have fun in FL

elizabeth embracing life said...

What a terrific accounting of your week. I was really wanting more shower and tree guy details. Were they cute? J/k. That would have been a really good funny home video too.

Anonymous said...

Is the Lord preparing you to be a missionary by challenging you with power outages?

Wait until He turns the water off. It is hard to live without electricity but even harder to live without water. Trust me. It happens regularly here in Kenya.

Trina

Anonymous said...

That one was great! I can't believe your yard and the damage. Unbelievable.....what a week you were having!!! At least that phone lasted almost 1 yr from it's swim in the lake.

No trees through the windows, no one hurt and now a new roof and all. Life is good.....easy for me to say. We lost power for 1 minute. I had to pull the whole baseball team out of the lake-just before it hit. Other than that-it was smooth sailing here.

Anonymous said...

Hi Mary Beth. I always enjoy your blogs.

May you enjoy Florida,forget about what is going on here. May the joy of the Lord be your strength.

Gwen

Anneliese Dalaba said...

Your blog was a great way for me to start my day today. You have a wonderful outlook on life.

AnneMarie said...

i cannot believe that gavin is 5! Oh my goodness!!!!

Lakeville Vertical said...

Sorry but I had to laugh when I read about the tree guys and the shower incident. Do you think it was a mere accident? You never know. :)
Looks like things are slowly returning to normal. Not a fun thing I can imagine. Hope you are having fun in FL.

LAURIE said...

I am just getting caught up on some blog reading and OH MY I had no idea what you have been going thru but I am so sorry in the middle of your chaos I had to LAUGH about your tree/shower story. Can you imagine at the dinner table that night when the tree workers wife said, "so honey tell me about your day"! - hope things are on the up these days for you, Laurie

Anonymous said...

laughing laughing laughing!!! especially the guys in the tree :o) hee hee hee!!! When all is going wrong- we really must laugh!

Lisa @ The Preacher's Wife said...

Girl...I'll be so happy for you when all that mess is cleaned up! You have truly been through it..

I have to ask, did the tree guys really see you nekked?? I'm laughing because some old men in an assisted living next door to us saw me ironing in my underwear once. They let me know about it, too. LOL

Anonymous said...

I'm sending a tree over to you...

from my blog
to yours :o)

Kathy said...

I see we really did miss a bad storm! My husband and I were still in Florida and our son told us there was a wicked storm happening by his house (and ours). I'm glad you all escaped any serious damage. Enjoy Florida - I wish I were still there!
Kathy (mimisgarden.blogspot.com)

Sharon said...

Hi MaryBeth!
It's been a few weeks since you've posted. I'm just checking in on you, and see how you're doing?!?

Hope to see you back soon!

Know that you've been missed in the Assembly of God Blogging community!! :0)

Vanessa said...

Have fun in Flordia.

Web Designer said...

Hey you need a new post to give me something good to laugh at !!
Thanks again for watching out for Jon at camp :-)

Anonymous said...

Hey, about the socks...my socks rock... no really- next time I'll be sure not to wear any!!!

I always love reading your little words of encouragment :)