Driving Solo.......

Today was the day.  He drove down that driveway all by himself and then made the trip through town to his high school.  I'd both looked forward to and dreaded this day.  I offered to drive him one more time.  He said "not needed, Mom"; I offered to follow him in the truck "just in case".  He replied "not needed Mom...but you can if you want to".  Of course,  I didn't follow him....even though I wanted to....Instead, I filmed this big day in the life of our youngest and then went inside and spent the 30 minutes it took for him to get to his destination working on this...........

Made that 30 minutes fly by......

It's Official - The Growing Up phase is almost over....

My family has a "tradition" it seems.  Most of the women have a couple of kids in their 20's and then sometime around the age of 35, they add in a third one.  Although the age of the mother's might be a bit different, the age difference between the children tends to always be 9 years.  My mom was 9 years younger than her brother, my sister is 9 years younger than our youngest brother (who was a 3rd child) and Hunter is 9 years younger than Dallas.  As a genealogist, I found that this "tradition" goes back generations - and not just on my maternal side.  My paternal side has a history of this as well.

There are a lot of good things to be said about this "tradition"; older parents have more patience, more experience, and more money.  Any parenting issues have usually been worked out already in the older children; take for example the fact that our Nikki got a bath every single night.  The very thought of her going to bed without one was horrifying!  By the time Dallas was born, it was not quite such a horrible thought to bear if I considered skipping one every so often.  Nine years later, Hunter got his feet, hands and face washed and a clean pair of underwear and we were good to go on the occasional busy evening.

Or, consider the fact that most first time parents read every book they can and NEVER want to even consider the thought that their pediatrician might not always have the right advice.  With Nikki, we dealt with an underarm rash during her toddler years that would not go away despite several prescriptions of something or another from her doctor.  Older women in my life kept telling me it was probably the apple juice but her doctor kept poo pooing that as an "old wives tale".  Finally, when her rash was so bad it was leaving scars, I took her off of apple juice and walah!  No more rash.  When Dallas came along, I took the doctors advice AND listened to the poo pooed "old wives tales" as well.  A particularly bad case of teething got him a bit of whiskey poured on a cloth diaper and rubbed on his gums...out the boy went for a good nights sleep!  Again, with Hunter, I ended up on a formula that my doctor wouldn't "recommend" when he had digestive issues that made both of us miserable.  Within four days, all digestive issues disappeared and I recommended that formula to everyone whose baby suffered the same issues (when they weren't first time parents who thought anything their doctor said was gospel :)

So, parenting Hunter was a lot different than parenting the older two; I was more experienced and wiser in my choices because I had a greater understanding of the pendulum that swings continually as the so-called experts switch back and forth on their theories of child rearing (many of whom are academics floating out Utopian theories of how they want things to be!)  I slowed down and enjoyed every single minute of parenting him because I knew how quickly the time would come when he would flee the nest.

This more laid back form of parenting worked well with his personality.  His siblings called him the "self raising child" because David and I only needed to offer gentle guidance to him through the years.  He did his homework without having to be told to do so; he kept his room decently clean and organized without having to be constantly told to;  he chose friends slowly and carefully making sure their habits and values were similar to his.

At 17, he and his girlfriend still are totally okay with hanging out here or at her house and with only dating in group settings.  There is never a word of complaint that both households still have the same rules that applied when they began dating two years ago.  Hunter was in no hurry to get his driver's license and seemed to enjoy that hour we spent every school day together in a car with no distractions to stop us from checking in to each other's life and thoughts and worries and goals and....

He got that drivers license this morning.  And he registered to vote.  And he checked the organ donor box on the form. Afterwards, I dropped him off at the high school for a day of Marching Band Camp.  And as I pulled out of the parking lot, it hit me.  It's here.  He's about to start his senior year of high school; he'll be driving himself every day. The final phase of that proverbial cutting of the apron string is upon me.  Because when he flies the nest, it will be completely empty!

Not sure how I feel about this.......

About that Movie!

Yesterday I mentioned that our Farmhouse had been chosen by a producer and director to be used in a movie.  

We moved out here to live a slower life.  And so we'd hardly ever have to deal with a traffic jam. Let me just say that this ideal that we'd built up in our minds of moving to the country where acres separate us from neighbors and where the only people we have to see are those we want to see (excepting those occasional visits from various contractors/repairmen!) gets a laugh from David and me now.  

The very first year we were here, John Travolta filmed part of the movie "Lonely Hearts" in the abandoned farmhouse across the tater fields from us.  This required various detours of the roads leading to our house...which translated into we could leave our house using one road in the morning only to have to drive another to get home.  We'd have to show ID sometimes to get to our house.  While it was exciting (and I will admit to using the zoom lens on my camera to gaze at the lovely Travolta during the filming - Counting those blessings! :) it also rather quickly became a situation that could make your head explode.  Especially if you'd moved here to avoid traffic and people and noise.

The second year we were here, Extreme Makeover Home Edition chose the family of Hunter's third grade classmate for their show.  The house was just behind their school.  I'm sure you realize already that this meant traffic detours...where you'd go to the school to drop off your kid using one road only to come back to have to use another...and where you sometimes had to show ID to get to the school to pick up your kid!  But, Hunter got to be a part of something very few ever will be blessed to experience. (The kids participated in "Tear down that house" and "Move that bus" and got to take time out of class to watch the process - Counting those blessing! :)

The years in between were filled with lots of things that made it hard to feel as if life had slowed down out here and then there was another filming!  Over Christmas holiday, two young men walked up our driveway and spoke first to Dallas.  They explained who they were and what they would like to do.  David and I spoke with them, got the details on just what the movie would be about and said "sure"! 

Now, we didn't get a lot of money from allowing them to use our home for two scenes in the movie; that's the first thing that folks ask.  This is an Indi film by a young man who built himself a very good reputation in the short film genre; this would be his first full length movie.  Basically, we broke even since they ended up borrowing quite a few things that we needed to replace afterwards...let's just say we did this for the experience!

And, the second question always is..."will you do it again if asked?".  That's a hard one.  Letting movie folk come into your home and your neighborhood (even if it's a neighborhood with acres and acres between the houses) is kind of like letting your world be turned upside down.  And could be one of those things that make you feel like your head might explode~

Floridians love their AC more than their spouses!

So, this has been one of those years.  You might know the type.  Its the kind where every single good thing that happens is balanced by a bad one?  I'm talking about the kind of things that totally upend your world for a while.  Its the type of year where you have to keep on counting those blessings to stop yourself from having your head explode!  Things like oh, your house gets chosen to be used in a movie...then you get a tornado!  Your daughter gets engaged and the wedding is at your house...where you had that tornado 14 days before the wedding day!  A year with things like that happening!  How many more months are left in 2013?  Just sayin'!  Anyway......

It was David's weekend off so there were plans to get a lot of work done.  My sister was in town and we were having her and her kids and Mom for lunch.  Saturday morning started out really well; David and I got a few things done directly after morning coffee and then split off to do the individual thing...he went outside to finish up the Pump House (or Well House as I'm apt to call it!) while I vacuumed up dog and cat hair and dusted and all those other housewifely things you do when company is coming.

It's summertime so a lunch get together has to have potato salad.  So about 1 p.m. I got those taters peeled and boiling.  And had a hot flash.  Or so I thought.  I went to the AC thermostat and turned it down a degree...went back to the kitchen to start the next dish....still having that hot flash.  Went back to the thermostat and turned on the Fan...went back to the kitchen and back to work preparing for lunch.  About an hour later, my family walks in the kitchen...someone said something about the temperature of my kitchen.  Back to the thermostat I go....to see that it reads way hotter than the setting and that that fan I turned on wasn't on!

To make a long story short; we call our AC company to come see what is up with our 3 year old system.  

Its the Fan.  

A GE product.  

And GE and the AC company KNEW it was going to go out.  

Because they are all - one by one by one - going out on all the systems that contain that product.   

Did we get a recall notice like you do for your vehicle?  Nope.  They just wait for your system to fail to tell you that they are going to replace it for "free" right before they tell you how many hundreds of dollars it will cost to get that "free" fan!

Have they known for years that this fan was defective? Yep. 

Did ours go out on one of the hottest days of the summer here in Florida? You betcha.  Along with two others that our neighbors (well, they share our county) had put it in within the last few years!  (Our AC guy thought it would be helpful to let us that we were his THIRD call this weekend for the EXACT same issue with new systems they'd put in!)

Could they fix it there and then? Oh, no way!  They have to order the part and wait for it to be shipped to them and then we have to wait for them to come out and pull out the defective fan and put in the new one.....In Four Days.  Maybe.  But they sure needed that several hundred dollar check right then and there didn't they?

Lucky my head didn't explode!

Anyway, we did what any Floridian without AC does in the dog days of summer.  We headed for water!  And did some Angus training to boot!

Like I said....counting my blessings!  And waiting for the AC guy to call and tell me he'll be here with the fan this afternoon........

Counting Blessings Part Two...

We stare at chaos.  We stare at all that remains to do to fully recover from the tornado.  Sometimes, we snap at each other.  One problem is that the old barn is hindering our progress; another is the rain that we have been getting this summer. It seems each time David gets the tools plugged in and ready to go, the rain comes down and its a race to get it all put safely away again.  So, what to do?

We keep moving forward with the little things.  Today I'm beginning to move out roses, ferns and border grass from the garden that is placed on two sides of the old metal shed.  Since the barn/garage will (eventually) sit where the shed now sits, those plants have to be moved away to make room for first, the new slab that will be poured and then for the construction of the building itself.  We continue to stack wood from the trees that came down.  David works on little things; he put a cat door in the Gazebo wall today (the cats will temporarily have no place to go once the old barn and shed are gone) and worked on a few other things in there.

Every little step forward makes us feel just a bit better, but still, we stare at chaos.  So, when frustration begins to take over, we count our blessings.

Blessing Six and Seven:  We replaced the water treatment system in 2004.  New systems are much more energy efficient.  Our system was nearing the end of its life span and had to be repaired last year (2012), we had plans to replace it this coming fall after we got through the expenses of the wedding.  The tornado took down the Holly Tree which came down upon the well house and the treatment system, destroying both of them.  Although we were without water for almost 48 hours, we now have a new energy efficient treatment system.  Only a few days before the tornado struck us, David warned me that he would be rebuilding a new well house in next year's project time because the old one was starting to have some rot and also was too small to be able to easily work on the pump and treatment system when needed (normal maintenance). His plan was to build it to be a mini version of the Gazebo.  Insurance paid not only for the new system but also the new house that is currently being built.

Blessing Eight:  The new Barn/Garage; we planned on building one when we moved in nine years ago but put aside that plan because of the state of the old barn that bordered our property.  Four hurricanes in 2004 and numerous tropical storms in the years past - specifically Faye who stalled over us for three days - took their toll on that old structure.  We had spoken with our Farmer across the street many times about either our buying the barn from them or his doing some repairs on it...with no success.  All we could do was pray that it would go eventually go down in a way that didn't come down on our structures.  (One might possibly be thinking "well, why did you put your structures so close to it? The answer lies in the way the property boundaries were laid out when the yard was cut out of the farm so many years ago, there was no where else to place those structures.)

In the end, it was trees that took out our structures and the old barn.  With three months of rain in only three days followed by a tornado on that last day of rain, those trees didn't stand a chance of surviving such a direct hit.  When the 100 year old pecan tree was uprooted by the storm, its roots lifted one corner of the barn as the tree fell onto our shed and slab.  The barn roof and siding blew off in the storm as the structure itself came down and went through our metal shed along with hail stones the size of golf balls.  Finally, the winds blew the barn as it fell so that its remains literally lay on our buildings.

This is probably the most difficult "blessing" to remember as we count them off one by one; because this is the one that will take the longest to complete.  The old barn has to be hauled off bit by bit before we can remove our old shed and the destroyed concrete slab.  We can't even begin to rebuild until all of that is done.

But in the end, this will be probably the greatest blessing beside our survival of the tornado.

We just have to keep remembering that!

"Count Your Blessings" Part One

"Count your blessings,

 name them one by one; 

Count your blessings, 

See what God has done"

When frustration rears its ugly head causing David and I to quickly lose our patience, we both try to stop and think of the many blessings that we've experienced during this trying time in our lives. We have them listed in our iPhones for those times when we just can't get our minds to focus.  Because sometimes, the chaos that still exists in one portion of our property makes us angry and short tempered.

Blessing One:  We were in our home when that tornado passed right by our house.  There were photos falling off of walls, destruction taking place all around us, but we survived.  Not only did we survive the tornado, but our home escaped severe damage needing only minor repairs.  

Blessing Two:  All three of our farm cats happened to be inside that night.  They come in for dinner but usually one or two or even all three escape back outside as soon as they are finished.  That night they were safely inside the house instead of in the barn that collapsed, or the metal shed that had timbers from the barn go through its roof, support beams snapped in half, and hail coming through the roof or the wooden shed that had a corner of the barn and part of a tree come down on it.

Blessing Three:  This one would turn out to be a short lived blessing; our three chickens survived the storm despite having the barn come down on their coop.  Three weeks after the storm, a stray dog killed two of them - our precious Little Roo and Hecky Pecky.  

(That is what happens when irresponsible pet owners drop off their pets just because it is "country" and they think the animal will have a hope of survival.  IF they survive the road traffic, they'll end up shot after they kill our chickens! - Put them in a shelter!)  

Huffy Puffy, our one remaining hen now sleeps inside our mud room in a puppy crate until "after we rebuild" and she has a safe place to live.  During the day, she hangs with the cats....

The coop was between the metal shed and the wooden shed.  It is under all of that debri.  This was taken on May 5th before we began to clear away the trees that covered the whole area between the barn and our patio, house and Gazebo. When we took this photo, our chickens had just come out from under it all.

Blessing Four: Neither of our two vehicles were parked where they normally are; the pecan tree that came down with the barn covered not only the wooden shed and our back fence, but the parking area.  Both paid off vehicles would have been totaled and the insurance checks received would likely NOT have paid for even one new vehicle.  We would have gone from no car payments to TWO car payments.  

This was a HUGE blessing with all the expenses of the wedding and the cost of our rebuilding.  The RV, for which we are still paying, escaped any major damage as well.  

Blessing Five:  The Gazebo had just been roofed in February of this year.  The framing had just gone up to add the screening and half walls.  Despite what appear to have been 100 mph winds, only one corner of the roof was damaged and only one frame post was broken.  The Hot Tub cover blew around the interior of the Gazebo and took out that one post although it did move another interior support post a few inches. (David was watching this from the mud room window when the Holly tree came down on the pump house taking out our water...it was only then that he took shelter with us in the Harry Potter Cupboard under the stairs!) The 9 year old hot tub lid was on the list of things to be replaced over the course of this year; insurance now replaced that lid when the repairman found it was cracked from the impact while there fixing a leak that also resulted from the storm damage.  The hot tub was drained the night of the storm for a cleaning to prepare it for family who would be staying with us for the wedding.  The storm also took out the GFI and the sensor panel for the hot tub.

After all the insurance claims were handled, we realized that we had not carried enough coverage for ALL of our outbuildings...had the Gazebo been destroyed, we would not be building a new barn/garage! 

To be continued...."Count Your Blessings" part two tomorrow....

"After we rebuild"

When we moved here a little over 9 years ago, we planned on putting up a barn/garage.  It would have been built beside the old barn that bordered our property.

After a few weeks of settling in, David and I took our first good look at that old barn.  We realized that it was infested with termites as was the wooden shed that was on our property and which we soon tore down and burned.  

Speaking with the Farmer across the street, we learned the history of that building; a history which included the fact that after Hurricane Dora tore through here years ago, the farmers had taken three tractors and "pulled that barn right back up".  It quickly became clear that putting a lot of money into a new barn/garage would not be wise. We'd need that old barn tented for termites and structurally inspected to ensure that it wouldn't affect our building.  Obviously that wasn't going to happen. 

Over the years we had discussed buying back for our property some of that which had been sold to our Farmer.  

Various things always seemed to get in the way of that being done.  Had we succeeded, we would have put up our own barn/garage in a different area of the property.  

So we made do....

The tornado destroyed not only that old barn, but all of our outbuildings as well.  

While the Farmer's son says they'll rebuild their barn, I doubt that that will actually happen.  They don't actively farm any longer; they lease their fields to other farmers who grow potatoes for Frito Lay.   Regardless of whether they will ever rebuild a barn, we will now be building our own barn/garage....finally. 

We'll haul away the destroyed metal shed and haul away the destroyed slab once the barn is completely off of them. 

Then a new slab will be poured and the barn/garage will be built. It will be able to house not only our camper and two vehicles but also provide a work room and storage room.  

We plan on having a covered porch extending out towards the front of our yard for not only working on projects under cover but in the open air, but also to protect sound systems and open bars for any future large gatherings we have here.  (The plan is to never again have to answer "no" to the question "do you have a back up plan in case of rain?" : ) 

We'll also now be able to recover some "yard" that is currently being used as our parking area.  A new chicken coop will most likely be built there with a covered area for the chickens to safely hunt and gather during those times that they have to be penned for a few days. 

We've been able to salvage the metal roofing from the wooden shed to use on the new Well House. It is under construction as I write this.  David designed it to be a mini version of the gazebo.  It's "footprint" will be larger than the old well house so that working on the system will be easier in the future as well as providing us a temporary place for storing our garden tools (rakes, shovels etc.) until the new barn/garage is built.  

"After we rebuild", this place will look a whole lot different.  I mourn what we lost...two beautiful old trees and that historic 100 plus year old barn.  The charming view we've grown used to is no longer there.  I no longer can gaze out the kitchen window at that barn and I wonder as I stare at the destruction whether I'll ever love the "new" view that will eventually be seen. 

The place will have a new charm since we'll be using wood salvaged from the old barn that the farmer is selling us and will be built to look "old".  But it won't have the same roof line because of how it will have to positioned to fit our property boundaries.  And it won't have the story that that 

old barn had...it won't be filled with "Made by McCoy" pottery that was put there who knows how many years ago; it won't house an antique tractor or tricycles more than 40 or 50 years old. 

"After we rebuild" is a phrase that is getting old about now.  Its taken much longer than anticipated for the farmer's son to remove the barn debris.  There is so much that we can't do until that is a completed job.  I am tired of looking at the chaos that still exists over there.  But, I also know that he is facing the same obstacles that we are...Florida heat and afternoon thunderstorms; the flies and gnats and other biting insects that we deal with during the summer months; not to mention all the responsibilities of caring for his elderly parents at their home and maintaining his own place in a nearby town.

David and I have resurrected an old childhood habit that I learned growing up in a Baptist home...

"Count your blessings, name them one by one.  Count your many blessings, see what God has done!".....  

More about that tomorrow.....

What the barn looks like today....that is our Moggie sitting up on the destroyed roof line!

The Wedding Part Three

There were quite a few things that didn't quite go off as originally planned...the Greek Wedding Dance should have had the traditional props to go along with it.  The Gazebo wasn't fully painted or wired or even screened.  The person responsible for making the signs that would point the way to the wedding would forget to do them and we'd have people getting lost and arriving a few minutes late (even though we held off starting for an additional five minutes to try to accommodate this.)

But when making all those initial plans, we hadn't factored in such a thing as a Tornado two weeks before the wedding.  We'd not factored in that the storm would thin out our "covered" property because the topped and thinned trees would allow the sun to shine so brightly into our guests (and the Bride's) faces during the ceremony.  

In the end, the setting was beautiful; the ceremony was moving; the reception was filled with laughter and dancing; in the end, our daughter married the man of her dreams and started her new life.  How could we ask for anything more than that?

In the end, the Tornado is part of the story.  Friends and family members are a larger part of our story than they would have been without that storm.  Nikki and J.C. had their relationship tested in the days before the wedding and learned that together they can weather any storm : )  In the end, just as I whispered to David after he gave our daughter away in marriage....despite all the obstacles that blew into our path...We Did It.

The "We did it" shot taken just after Nikki and J.C. drove away in their taxi!  And just seconds before the sky opened up and showers of blessing rained down upon us!

"Mama's Song" ~ The Wedding Part Two

David sat down beside me after giving our daughter away.  I grabbed his hand and whispered "we did it".   In the video, you can see him throw his head back and rest it on the chair before quickly sitting back up.

In the days since the Wedding, many have asked us (including our daughter) if we ever even thought about canceling it after the Tornado basically made our home look like a war zone just 14 days before the big date.  My answer? "No!".  David's is a bit slower in coming.  

Before friends and family arrived to help us begin to dig our way out that Sunday morning, he stood in the middle of the fallen pecan tree yelling.  While I can't repeat his exact words here (!), basically they were "where do we start?".  He'd later tell me that he couldn't see how we'd get the place safe for 100 guests in the time we had available.

We've been married 31 years.  We've been together for 33 years.  We have what I wish every couple had and what I've counseled my children to look for in a partner...a relationship where we balance each other.  When I am being pessimistic, David is optimistic and the table turns as needed.  In this case, I was the optimist - relying on faith that we could and would pull this one out.  While David concentrated on the physical aspects of cleaning up and building (and rebuilding) what we could before the wedding (as well as working 12 hour shifts at his job) I dug in and got the contractors we needed and dealt with the insurance claims and the power, water, phone and TV folks.

We didn't pull this Wedding off on our own.  Nikki and J.C. were there in the midst of all the stress and exhaustion and fear that sometimes made even me think we might not make it.  But what I saw in my daughter's relationship through those two weeks, I see in my own relationship with her father.  It reaffirmed what I already thought I knew about J.C. and why I asked for "Mama's Song" to be sung at the Wedding.

Photography by Alvarez Imaging - I would love to be able to play the audio on this slideshow but due to copyright issues, I cannot.  If you'd like to hear the song, press play on the video just below and then begin the slideshow....!  It won't quite line up correctly, but you'll get the idea!

We did it! ~The Wedding Part One

  Photography by Alvarez Imaging

Transformation....

Rehearsal Day 

Mystie and J.C. set up the chairs.  

The Dance Floor was ready. 

Mom and David began decorating the porch...

Other family began arriving and were quickly put on various tasks.  Dallas and Mystie familiarized themselves with both the sound system and the plans for the Ceremony and Reception.  Once they'd done that, they provided a bit of entertainment for the children as we finished it all up.

David and I, exhausted by the past 12 days of insurance claims and contractors, making the trees and lawn safe for 100 plus guests and handling most of the last minute details for the device, were operating on sheer adrenaline.  The sounds of laughter and music were wonderful things; this was going to be not only a celebration of marriage but one of triumph over adversity and a celebration of life itself.

We made it!

We'd spent Thursday night with our daughter and soon to be family decorating the fences, stringing lights and going over last minute plans.  

On Friday morning, David and Dallas headed up to get the Sound System while Mystie and I completed all the inside tasks for the arriving family while we waited for the delivery of the dance floor and the chairs.  That night, we'd have the rehearsal dinner!

As I prepared for the mad rush to come, I pondered all the little things that didn't get done; the Gazebo was 90% screened; the lights would go up but with a temporary rigging job rather than with the wiring hidden.  The half walls were supposed to have been painted white but would be the yellow of concrete board. 

The paving stone pathway that led from the front porch to the back patio had been badly damaged from the dragging of all the debris after the storm.  I was concerned that someone would twist an ankle, but there was no time left to relay those stones.   And the lawn was full of holes where limbs had gone straight into them driven deep by the wind.  The newly laid sod had been pushed a full six inches over the barn slab and there were now gaps between many of the individual pieces. 

We still didn't have shoes and slacks for David to wear with the shirt and tie that Nikki had gotten for him to wear.  

But we were out of time.  What didn't get done just would have to be ignored.

It was time to Party!  

We made it.

The Wedding!

Sign hiding missing trellis made using part of the old chicken coop

It's Thursday May 15th.  Dallas and Mystie have taken Hunter to school for me and David is working.  Tonight, Nikki and her Maid of Honor, her man and her soon to be Step Daughters would be coming over to begin the decorating.

But for the moment it was just me at the house.  There were no contractor's trucks in the driveway.  The trailer full of debris had been hauled off the night before.  I walked the property with my video camera in peace and quiet; I could hear nothing but birds singing and the sound of our sprinkler going.

Order.  

Out of Chaos.  In 12 days.

Facebook Post Thursday May 16th (Me):  

Done.  What doesn't get done, doesn't get done.  Pooped.  I'm ready to PARTY!

Two more wake ups and the Big Day would be upon us!

Almost there.....

Facebook Post Wednesday May 15th (me) Gazebo screen UP! Door ON. Siding going ON as I write this....Yard Guys will be here sometime to finish up the final pickup of logs and other things still around the property - replace brand new sod that was laid four days before the tornado in places where it was swept away or ruined by the weight of a 100 year old tree laying on it for four days....and mow for us since our John Deere is out of commission! Lay the rest of the stone.....Put up the new coop....finish potting flowers....Hey, we may actually make it!

We'd decide on Wednesday that the Gazebo wouldn't get painted (white) before the wedding. We were out of time. The next day would be spent finishing up the exterior decorating (lights on fences etc.) and Friday morning we'd have the deliveries made of chairs and dance floor and needed to start getting ready for all the family members coming in from out of town on Friday for the Rehearsal Dinner.

All our focus had been on getting the yard safe for our guests and the Gazebo walled and screened in order to serve food at the Reception for the past 8 days; the inside of the house was a mess and the camper needed to be readied for overflow family accommodations.  It was time to shift our focus totally to the Wedding!

While Wednesday was a very busy day, it was a fun day.  We could see that we would make it now.  All of the friends and family who'd shown up had helped us to accomplish what many admitted later they thought we would never be able to do.  Our homeowner's insurance had paid for the whole house to be pressure washed.  We'd found someone available to make our trees safe and help us repair fences and gates and sod and get our landscaping looking beautiful while all around us the damage to other's property was still visible. 

There was a lot more stress to come as we pulled it all together and a whole lot of things that we'd not get to do at the Reception that we'd planned on doing,  but our daughter was going to get her wedding at her home just as she'd wanted! 

And while we worked and laughed and realized we had this thing handled, God decided to remind us that he had a sense of humor; that he is always there in every situation we may find ourselves in.....

The field tornado followed the exact same path as the real tornado had done, reminding us all of all that we had come through together, with God and good friends and loving family.  My new Son in Law and I would see another of these whirling dervishes as we waited outside in the front yard for the rental company to unload the dance floor and chairs on Friday morning.  It was another reminder of who was ultimately in control!

2 days left till the Wedding!

A Huge Mess...and a Mama almost has a Melt Down!

Saturday May 11th - One Week From The Wedding!

David was heading into a three day work weekend.  Shane and Jesse were going to tackle the pecan that still lay across most of our new sod that had been laid just a little more than a week past.  Hunter's two best friends were coming to spend the day helping us out.  Mr. S, dad to one of the boy's, decided he would stay and help keep them on the job for me.  Let me tell you something about Mr. S; he is exactly the kind of friend one wants in a situation like this. He's not the only one who showed us how to be a really good friend, but his story is the easiest to write about....

He showed up on that Sunday morning after the tornado and stayed through the day helping us clear our way off the back patio and to the gate and the barn area.  We didn't ask him to show up to help.  He simply showed up and began working.  This Saturday morning was no different.  He showed up with the two boys and came into the house and said "what do you need done?"  I pointed to the refrigerator door and its mass of lists of "to do".  He took a list and the boys and he got it done.

They finished the french drain digging (that David had started the previous Saturday afternoon before the tornado hit us) and filled it with stones.  They cleared the driveway area of limbs that we had just pushed out of our paths as we concentrated on the inside yard where the wedding would be held.  They drug the driveways with a magnet and picked up pieces of metal and nails and other debris that could puncture a tire.  And they added to the bon fire that was started on every day that our Farmer's son worked to salvage what he could from his family barn.   The chicken coop was still on the slab between our two sheds and they removed what they could of that debris and helped the tree guys haul and stack the logs from the pecan tree.  

Progress!

Sunday May 12th 

It was Mother's Day; S and J showed up to work on trees even so - another God Bless Them is due.  They brought their children with them and put them on raking the area outside the fences.  But, by now, I was seeing that they worked in a way that was completely opposite from the way I worked!  They would start on an area, make a mess, and move to another area before completing the work needed in the first area.  When they would leave for the day, it would seem as though the tornado had come through the trees again.  

Hunter and I would head out and clean up as much of their mess as we could, hauling debris to the next day's burn pile or out to the road, still saving what we could use for cooking and/or leaving the larger logs out there for them to move later.  We'd also have to go on a hunt for our new yard tools that Shane would use (they are a tree and landscaping service with J being the tree guy and S the yard guy) and leave wherever he last used them (i.e. we found our new fan rake propped up against the debris pile set out for the county to pick up one night and found it in the middle of our driveway another night!).

Don't get me wrong!  I appreciated that they were working their butts off to help us get everything safe for our guests; but the stress and exhaustion of getting it all done in time was wearing me down.  The constant noise of a chain saw was wearing me down.  These guys were young and they were doing us a huge favor but on Sunday, I still saw so much that needed done that my brain craved order and all I saw was chaos!

Facebook Post Monday May 13th  (Dallas) Going to Florida today. Wasn't gonna go till Thursday, but a Tornado kinda changed everyone's plans. Can't wait to see my sister get married on Saturday!

It was time to start thinking about the decorating.  There were signs to make and flowers to purchase and pot and place. I took Hunter to school and met up with Mom and Nikki to purchase the flowers for the wedding.  We had lost so many of our hanging pots and had so many places where the sod had been torn up by the trees and limbs, so we were basically buying not only to re-decorate the front porch in her chosen colors but also cover up areas that we knew we would not be able to repair before the big day.  It took us visits to three different garden centers to get what we needed...and filled up every spare spot in our cars to get it all back home.

Mom and Nikki headed back home with me; neither of them had been there since the previous Monday and with all the work that they'd heard about, I think they were expecting something different than they saw.  The guys were hired to not only take care of the trees but to replace the fencing; not only to take down the tree limbs or remove a tree but to stack what we were keeping and haul away the rest.  Each night, they promised they'd get the fences done and the large logs stacked the next day.

Hunter and I had been picking up the smaller stuff every night to not only help the guys move the job along but also to help us feel that we had some semblance of normalcy to our lives.  And each night we still had broken fences and gates that wouldn't shut and huge logs all over the yard.

When we returned home, the place where we normally park our cars was filled with logs they had simply thrown over the broken fence.  Logs from the pecan they'd worked on removing from the yard and logs from the holly tree.  The three of us could barely get to the gate from our cars stepping over logs.  The back fence was still laying down - despite the promises to get it back up BEFORE Dallas arrived with a 3rd dog needing to be kept safe.  Dallas and Lucy were on their way here that very moment.  

These are not the actual logs in the parking area; these are on the shed slab from the pecan tree but, the logs were this size and smaller and thrown everywhere!

I was done.  I got out of the flower filled car loaded for bear.  Luckily Nikki was there to stop me.  We went into the house and Nikki said "give me the list of what they were hired to do and I will deal with them...I'll use the tearful bride if I need to!"  Fifteen minutes later, I looked outside and saw them stacking the logs while Nikki stood there with her hands on her hips pointing at the list, pointing at the fence, pointing at the list and so on.  She spent most of the next three hours outside directing and charming and getting them to get things done.

By the end of the day, those lads had the fences fully repaired (the posts were broken and needed to be replaced and the fencing restrung or replaced and attached); and there was a huge stack of logs to one side of the parking area allowing us to actually park at least one of our vehicles in its normal spot.  They left at 9 p.m. !

Facebook Post May 14th (me) - Tree guys FINALY finished up last night after dark. All 12 pecan trees, one Holly and both Cypress trees were either destroyed or heavily damaged. Fences back up with new fence posts installed. Outbuildings as cleared as can be until the barn is out of there (because it is sitting on our stuff and we are at the point where if we move the wrong thing it will come the rest of the way down). Insurance provided Pressure Washers here doing the House for us as I write this. Flowers for the Wedding ready to go in. 5 plus hours of playlists finally complete! Seeing the light at the end of the tunnel finally!

Progress

4 days till the Wedding

Getting it done....

Friday May 10th - 7 working days left till the Wedding
We drank our morning coffee accompanied by the sound of chain saws.  It would be an almost constant sound for the next 6 days.  Jesse and Shane had gotten the most dangerous of the "hangers" out of the trees and had temporarily propped up the front fencing for us on Wednesday evening; they would now get the rest of the hangers out and trim and paint all the damaged limbs in our 11 remaining pecans and one of the cypress trees.  They would cut the holly tree up and remove it for us.  They would cut away as much of the pecan that had fallen in back as they could safely take care of; its roots were under the barn wall (the concrete that those roots lay under stand up 4 feet straight in the air under the debris).  In fact, those roots (and that upright concrete slab) are still there to this day waiting for the remainder of the barn to be removed.

Those 6 days would test my patience.  The constant noise around me when I am used to the stillness of the country  - where the music of birds and breezes ruffling the leaves and a tractor working a distant field are the norm -  was wearing.  It seemed like every ten minutes, the dogs would be barking as Jesse or Shane knocked on the door to point out a place where the damage was worse than thought and we'd need to take off another limb.  Visits from Contractors to finish the well system or fix the hot tub or inspect a roof or the R.V.; a constantly ringing phone, and a yard that required an hour or two of clean up every night after the trees were worked on were all mentally exhausting.

This photo gives a glimpse of what we'd see at the end of every day the trees were being worked on.  

Hunter and I would head out just before dinner and start hauling the debris either to the front for the county to 

pick up or to the burn pile that was lit every day.  We'd save as much of the pecan wood as possible for cooking.

 This was mostly from the damaged Cypress tree that sits just outside our kitchen window - it was planted by 

Ella Wilton in 1909 shortly after their immigration from England.

We were averaging about 4 hours of sound sleep before suddenly waking up with a start before sunrise; those lists hanging on the refrigerator door were the first thing we checked while having our coffee.

Hunter went to school dealing with not only end of the year exams but also his SATs and ACTs and final concerts and banquets.  He spent each evening home out there helping us to clear out and salvage. 

When home, David continued to work in three different directions; he helped Shane and Jesse where needed; he worked on putting up the screening and the walls of the Gazebo; and he continued to enter the totaled metal and wood sheds salvaging what he could of our contents. Then he'd go to work a 12 hour shift at his real job.

I played the Wedding Music Playlist I was creating every chance I got to remind us of why we were doing all of this so quickly while all around us the damage remained untouched.  Our farmer still had trees down across his driveway; driving in to town we passed places where other than small cleanups nothing had been touched.  (Our farmer's trees were only removed from his driveway two weeks ago - six weeks after the tornado.)  

When our spirits got heavy and we'd didn't think we make it; or we'd ask "why in the world did this happen to us", we'd remind each other of how blessed we were to have gotten folks to work on our place so quickly.  Our home insurance adjuster called contractors and told them what had to be done before the wedding and what needed to wait until after the wedding. Our vehicle insurance adjusters (3 of them) were patient and understanding of our continually putting them off until after the wedding.

But Jesse and Shane were the real blessing.  While the fallen and broken trees around us turned yellow and died because no one could get a tree company to get to their jobs, our trees were being repaired and/or removed on a daily basis.    There was no denying that God had sent them our way.

And at night, I organized all the photos and video we'd taken for the insurance adjusters into a "movie" we could look back with our future grandchildren years from now and remember this time.  Making that movie was not only a way to tell "Our Wedding Story" but it was therapeutic for me... in the photos and videos, I could see not only the progress we made each day, but also the love and support of those friends and family who continued to show up to help us out.

Progress!

6 more days until the Wedding!

Still relatively sane~

Facebook Post Thursday May 9th (me) - 8:30 a.m. Update - Still relatively sane, check. House foundation, interior walls and metal roof inspected and found safe with minimal damage (a miracle) - Check. Water treatment system installed and running - check. Metal roofing out of tree tops - check. Hangers out of tree tops (dangling limbs) - check. Contents Loss List under way - Check. Wedding playlist within 30 musical minutes of being completed - check. Today's agenda - clean up the limbs and metal that were in the tree tops and are now on the ground. Confirm all the wedding deliveries. Get the John Deere out of the rubble and to the shop for an estimate. Replace all the food lost in the power outage and stop eating take-out every night. And once again...play that wedding music as loud as possible....

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Although our power had been back on since Sunday evening (May 5th) there were still lines down across our driveway on Thursday.  The power company said they belonged to the phone company; we'd flagged them down and told them about them on Sunday..and on Monday...and on Tuesday and again on Wednesday as they continued to drive through our community making repairs.  I had called the phone company on Monday; today I would call them again. Finally, they'd send someone out to get it seen to...or so I thought.  

Only issue was that when the phone company arrived, it wasn't our phone line.  It was the Satellite line.  Another call to that provider and another five days would pass with contractors driving over that line. It was a blessing that we never lost T.V. service despite the wear and tear on that line for 9 days after the storm.

We were also expecting a visit from the power company.  My Tree Lads had told us they didn't feel comfortable getting up into the trees that run the driveway beside the power lines so I placed a call to the power company to have a "specialist" come out to arrange to have the limbs cut back far enough that the men could get up in those trees.  This wasn't the first time we'd placed a call like that with no luck in getting the trees cut back; I hoped that with the damage we had sustained that this time a supervisor would approve the work. 

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When we arrived home from yet another trip to Home Depot and a quick run to the grocery store, friends were already at the house with a chainsaw and wheelbarrow picking up metal roofing and the limbs cut down the night before.  David got right to work with them while I headed in to put away groceries and make several more phone calls to various contractors, speak to insurance adjusters, and work a bit more on the contents loss list before joining them.  

After a few hours of picking up debris, we got to work on getting the John Deere out of the shed.

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Facebook Post Thursday May 9th (me) 3:00 p.m. So! I think my calmness may be a bit frazzled...David just saved a Contractor from a tongue lashing from me! Some prayers might just do me some good (and protect a few folks from an overworked and overstressed Mama!).

The power company "specialist" came by and said "oh, those limbs are far enough away from the power lines, you don't need us to cut any back".  Luckily for him, he said it to David.  I'd been this route with these folks before when we couldn't get anyone to cut back the limbs from those trees. Lessless than a month after the last "specialist" said we were fine, a huge limb had fallen into the power lines and hung swinging outside my office window for hours until they finally came to take care of it.

David came over and told me that yet again, this so called expert was denying what two tree companies had said was true.  And yet again, despite the fact that a tornado had ripped through our property and there were "widow makers" hanging from the driveway trees,  here we were getting the same story all the while no one was willing to get up into those trees to get rid of those hangers UNTIL the power company cut the limbs back from the lines.

Stalemate.

I started at a near run down the driveway to chase the truck as it was backing out; David caught up with me and said "Lori, wait.  This is a battle we'll fight later; take some photos and get the tree guys to put it in writing that they won't cut the limbs or get the hangers until the power company does its job".  Reluctantly, I agreed.  I knew that it would not be in either mine or the power guy's best interests for me to get into it right then.  My calmness was frazzled.

Despite the frustration with the power company, the yard was picked up after the tree lads work the night before; the John Deere was at the shop; my freezer was filled again, and the pecan tree that had lain for days across our back yard and on our back fence was just a wee bit smaller ....and I'd made it through the day without verbally taking anyone's head off .

PROGRESS!

8 days till the Wedding!