Today it's the dryer

'nuff said

C'mon!

Have you heard the saying "The Devil's In The Details"? Well it just may be those details that set us over the edge! Last week it was the computers, Sat was the plumbing, Monday was the garage door, Tuesday was the dishwashers (yes there are two!) and yesterday we found out that the referral number on our phone line is wrong! I called to fix it today but it's still not right.

So here it is again - don't bother calling for the referral, who knows when it will be fixed
Phone
949.709-5502
Address
55 Golf Ridge
Dove Canyon, CA 92679

But we're hanging in there. Our benchmark is the house burning down after all and compared to that these annoyances are nothing - though they do seem to be compounding. So continue to pray for patience for us PLEASE!

Also, we are gonna need some physical help. Our quote for "restoration" came in at 12K yup that's $12,000 - US dollars! Not including the Piano or Washer and Dryer - probably the only things that are worth restoring. So, we'll be cleaning our own stuff. I'll keep you posted on the day (hoping for next week) and if you are able to come buy and help us transport, or take home and clean and then we can pick up we'd really appreciate it. Seems silly for us to pay them $150 to clean our $70 tent and equally crazy to pay whatever they are charging for disposal when the whole house has to be disposed of anyway! So, we're just gonna go grab what's safe to keep and keep on keepin on!

What's with the hair?

I've had enough question to warrant an expanation.

Mike cut my hair.

I made him.

The story is, my hair is curlier in the back than the front so often it looks shorter. In "our new bathroom" there are mirrors everywhere so I could really tell the difference and it was bugging me. I kept messing with it and was nearly reduced to tears when it occured to me that is was an easy fix. Fortunately, my cheese hasn't slid completely off my cracker so I did not cut it my self. I asked Mike to. He said no, so I presented the options "you can do it or I can do it, but it's getting cut and it's getting cut now" He reluctantly complied and he did a pretty good job. Aidan says it's too short, but, it'll grow. I actually thought about cutting it shorter (by a professional) but I guess that poor kid has gone through enough change so I'm not gonna push it.

The Family Who's House Burned Down

So, it's finally happened. I have started referring to myself, with great ease, as "The Lady Who's House Burned Down". I mean, let's face it, it's us, there is no denying it, and it does help expedite some matters. The way it flows off of my tongue has given me a false sense that I am "fine with it". That I may never wake up and have that melt down everyone has been preparing me for, I would just go on with my life as I have after any other bad day.

But then I asked a neighbor, Anne Ayres, who lives one street above me, to e-mail the photos she had taken during the fire. Keep in mind we were spared ever seeing our house burn. It was only smoking (which was against the rules inside) when we arrived home. And she replied promptly to my request.

Those photos, coupled with the knowledge that attic fires are always dangerous to those inside because smoke rises and some people never know there is a fire until something falls out of the ceiling - it was our furnace that fell ...on the landing...blocking our room from Alyssa's and Aidan's...where they surely would have been sleeping at 5:00 a.m. on a Saturday morning -that made me want to vomit. I have never been punched in the stomach but certainly that is what it feels like. Throw up or cry, those were the only options that seemed available when I saw this photo. A burning inferno, literally, where my babies slept and played, friends slept over, danced, made silly videos, had fashion shows, and bred fish. Not just "some family's house" but rooms that I knew intimately. How quickly the reality of how bad, not only it could have been, but really was, set in. And the sweet voice of my dear friend Debbie Glum who phoned at 5:30 a.m. to let me know the dogs were safe, rang in my ears, "It's bad, really bad". And it obviously was. But how much worse it could have been. That's where my mind has been lately and that's what makes my stomach hurt and makes me want to lie down and take a nap and drift off into dream land where we are not "The Family Who's House Burned Down".

But I can not spend the rest of my life in bed - as tempting as that may sound ;) So I am choosing to focus on the verse from the study I have been in since Fall, thanks to a gentle reminder from Carolyn...

Isaiah 61:3 "...to bestow a crown of beauty instead of ashes, the oil of
gladness instead of mourning, a garment of praise instead of a spirit of
despair"

by praising God that we weren't home, that none of the firefighters were injured (did I mention one of Alyssa's friend's from school dad fought our fire - he concurred, it was bad!), that our neighbors houses were safe - not even the leaves on the trees between us were singed, and of course I praise God for such great friends.

Tonight we had dinner with our friends in our small group (bible study) it was our regularly scheduled meeting night but Mike and I are book-less :( So we just got together to be together. Today Maya babysat me - she spent the day with me, told me what to do (#1 - fix the hair) and I followed her instructions and accomplished much more than I would have left to my own devices. And we have lots of other friends who have helped us out already and are waiting to help us out along the way - I fear it's going to be a long way but our load is light - really, we don't have much :) Well, Alyssa does. Her friends got together and spent their life savings (apparently) on a gift basket for her with items that every girl needs from a Juicy bracelet to a Fireman Build a Bear. She was beaming when I picked her up. But since it was too much for her to lug around school today she left it in the office. I got a call reminding me to pick it up, the person thought it might be for her birthday, but I knew the real reason, she is after all, "The Girl Who's House Burned Down".

We had a good day

Our day started early for a Sunday but we accomplished a lot. It was great to see our friends at church and have lunch just like always. Amy was nice enough to go to Target with me which is huge since it's hard for me to focus in there. It's hard to prioritize what to buy when you know you need everything.

Our computers are fixed which is huge and will make a lot of things - like responding to e-mails and printing, so much easier! And I got some great advice to pass on. I asked about backing up the info and was thinking online storage must be the best bet but was advised instead to purchase an external hard drive and a MEDIA SAFE firesafe (remember ours was hot inside so things like CD's electronics could have been damaged).

Another bonus, Maya has been the laundry fairy this week and gave me a big bundle of jackets she washed for me from our hall closet - they smell great and look even better than before the fire. And Gracie has been working hard on a spread sheet of all the items she could remember from the house - Thank God cuz I do not have the gift of administration and that is a daunting task.

The bad news is all the stuff our friends, who were first on the scene, helped us wipe down and save from the master bathroom (hair products, lotions, face wash, etc) ended up in the trash. Remember the plastic issue I had mentioned in an earlier post? The contents of those bottles are now toxic, probably not a good idea to apply to my face, eh? And to think I have hesitated to replace some of it knowing it was saved - urgh.

Tomorrow Mike meets with the structural engineer to discuss plans to tear down the house - Aidan is flabbergasted at the idea that they have to make plans to destroy something. And we are hoping to get the bid from the company who will tell us what the remediation costs will be.

We are all hanging in. Patience are growning thin so please continue to pray about that for us. I have noticed tempers, mine included, are getting shorter by the day. But we have a much to be thankful for, we just need to stop and remember that.

Auntie 911

My Aunts came up from San Diego today with a carload of necessities and luxuries ;) from San Diego county. They carried in items sent with love from several aunts and cousins down South and everything was much appreciated. We were well fed and will be well dressed and even smell good thanks to all of them ;) My mom and her sisters worked hard to get this place in tip-top shape and then we toasted with margaritas while we enjoyed some burritos sabrosos and then got back to work! It was a little hard to get the cleaning done without water (yeah you read that right, we had some plumbing problems here) but those girls worked some magic.

Yesterday was a little rough. We are happy here in this beautiful home and in our false reality. It used to be that the drive out of the gates reminded us of our real lives and the fact that we are "those people" now -victims of disaster. But now the reminder is just outside of the door. Yesterday our friends, Cathy Ulrich, Maya Bowe, Amy and Mike Alpert, Ryan Zuelner, J. Steele, and Debbie Glum helped us move our things from the neighbors garage to the garage here. Everything we owned now fits in a one car garage, and it's only stacked about 3' high. And to make it worse, it stinks! And it stinks every time we open the door. It's funny how closely smell is linked to the memory. I bought a new hair product that I used in Thailand on our trip last spring and now every time I smell it reminds my of our adventures with the Kiehle's and, until this week, I loved the fact that my sense of smell could take me back there so quickly. Now I'm trying to pretend the smokey smell here is Yosemite Camping residue but it's not quite working.

Debbie Lombrano has been helping me sort through my jewelry. Oddly enough my costume jewelry survived but the real jewelry is in pretty bad shape. I am wearing the most expensive pair of earrings I own right now with my sweats and no make up because I had lazily tossed them in with the costume jewelry and they are in great shape. I figure I might as well wear 'em, what's the point of having them if I'm not going to enjoy them, right?

Now we are hanging out waiting for our left over Wood Ranch (compliments of "Fireman Paul") to heat up and then we will probably get to be early - don't know why we are all so tired :) And take on another day. Mike is looking forward to wrestling with his friends in the 2&3 yr old class room where he serves at church and of course the kids and I are excited to see our friends.

Thanks for checkin' in!

It is better (and easier) to give than to recieve

Our closets are filling up with quickly with items that have been so generously donated to us by friends, family and strangers alike! Seriously folks, we don't "need" anymore clothes. We do appreciate it and want to be good receivers but right now we are good. Alyssa and I were talking today as I stared at the 4 t-shirts she owns when she told me "we have enough". And I have to agree, we do. We don't have as much, but we have enough and enough is all we need. It's interesting when you have nothing (ok I'm being dramatic, we had a 4 days worth of clothes) you really realize how little you actually need. I think we all, including the kids, want less now than we did before when we had more. I wish I could better describe it but I think it's just one of those things you can't explain or probably even understand until you have experienced it. I used to have a hard time parting with things, now I am having a hard time attaching to them - I think we all are.

Of course there are things that I want like my e-mail to work, and the insurance fairy to just hand me a check but unfortunately those are not things you, my loving, caring, support group can provide for me. But soon enough, I will have them too (minus the fairy) in the mean time, I'll just wait. And I'll ask for encouragement, possibly a shoulder, and definitely some laughs, the best things in life really are free!

The news today is our phone is working! Woo hoo - the very first call?...A solicitor! Truly. How did they get the number, it was only hours old!!!

Tomorrow we meet with the company that will give us an estimate on what it will cost to clean up all the stuff that is salvageable from our garage and kitchen - yes, that comes out of the benefit :( And we will get the items our neighbors have been storing :)

Today Aidan was home sick again and I made lots of phone calls trying to get services turned off or switched. Boy did I hear some dumb questions. What part of "my house has burned down and is completely destroyed" would lead a person to ask when I will be returning the reciever? And then the doorbell rang and stuff started coming in from as far south as San Diego, and as far north as Montana! My mom and aunt came along with friends who delivered from multiple people and wow, the house was full. I was overwhelmed and looked for a dark corner to hide in while the whirlwind ensued. Low and behold when I emerged everything was put away and Alyssa had waaaay more than 4 t-shirts in her closet. And yes, she thinks she has too much.