Everyone Knows it's Windy!

Thursday morning we woke up to no power and a lot of wind. We looked outside and saw our humungo pine tree down. I never imagined that tree could be blown down. Here are some blogs that I follow that describe the disaster: Misty and Sue.

Here is a picture of Andy and the tree root.


Though this picture is really crappy, you can see the size of our tree. You can see Andy on the very left and the size of the tree compared to Andy's size. LOTS of work to be done.

Most of our community had their power back the same night. Ours didn't come on for two days. I'm not one to enjoy sleeping in a cold house. Fortunately Andy's sister, Kim, had power and she invited us to stay at her house. Kim took care of us as though we were staying in a 5 star hotel. My kids saw it as a big slumber party. I saw it as a big blessing.

We returned home on Saturday to a nice warm house. I think that's when it finally hit me that I faced the reality that our entire community experienced a natural disaster. I only believed those happened in Florida, Kansas, and Japan. Fortunately, this wasn't as tragic as others, but it was still a change.

We had to start getting that big tree out of our yard and I was dreading that huge task. I texted a few friends asking for chainsaws. My text brought at least 20 people to our house with chainsaws, arms and legs to carry the branches away. Tears kept creeping up as I thought of the service that friends were giving as they worked away on our tree. It was an overwhelming feeling of hope and love as I watched these friends move from house to house to help those in need.

I ran to the store to get some pizzas for our friends. The longest line I've seen at 1 PM. I spoke the the person behind me as we shared that we were both there to feed our friends who were working so hard. I paid the employee only to learn that my card declined. Crap!! I suddenly remembered that my card expired in November and I hadn't activated my new card. My life was on hold for two days and I forgot to take care of my debit card. I had no cash. I had no checks. I felt helpless. I started telling the cashier that I had to go home to get my money and the woman behind me said "I've got it. Just put her order with mine." I looked at her puzzled, "But? Where? What?" I didn't know what to say, what to do. Suddenly, a man in the back of the line said "How much do you owe? I'll pay the difference!" I was so overwhelmed. I held back my tears. The woman behind me paid for my pizzas. After I said thank you I walked out saying, "I will not cry in Little Cesar's Pizza", one of the customers in line said "I already am". I still get choked up as I think of my little heart inspiring story.

Despite all the discomforts of my home life, I still had to work every night this was all taking place. Last night I worked 11 hours on my feet. I came home exhausted. I looked in our fridge and my friend, Cecilee, had made a pan of enchiladas for us to eat the next day. Again, a little choked up.

I am amazed at the strength, stamina, love, compassion, and sacrifice my family, friends and neighbors have. I hope that we don't have another disaster like this in our lifetime but if we do, I have the hope that we will be okay. I feel blessed and grateful for the angels God has put in my life.