Wednesday, July 30, 2008

Oh FFS

I'm feeling a pull to Facebook. As if I need one more thing to be unable to keep up with online! GAAAAAH! But, I have so many friends who are there and NOT MySpace. Or are on both but never go to MySpace anymore b/c they have Facebook. Sigh.

I know, this is a petty vent, but hey. What are you gonna do?

One more vent. I can't believe I haven't mentioned this here before - I'm sure the lack of power last week is to blame! ;-) Anyway, we have recently had an issue on FROGs, and I'm shaken to the core by it! I can't believe how much it's affecting me. If I think on it too much, I get sick to my stomach, my throat feels tight, and I can feel my heart racing. So not good.

What happened? How did I know you'd ask? Here goes.

We have a member who recently returned to the board after being away for a while. After her return, she sent me a private message to explain her absence. At risk of pissing her off and chasing her away from FROGs for good, here's her message:

Hey Heather. I didn't want to post this on the board and make a issue of it, but I want you to know the main reason I haven't been around and the same reason I am kinda worried about coming back. One of my last posts was about how I felt like I was having a hard time connecting here and that I felt lost sometimes. Well...I recieived a email from someone and I was hurt to say the least. Basically they said that it was God's way of letting me know that FROGS wasn't to be my home and that maybe I would feel more comfortable somewhere else.At first I was just kinbda stunned and was trying to figure out what exactly that meant. But as time went on, I just got mad and decided to stay away for awhile.

I am not telling you this for any other reason than just to let you know why I disappeared. On a different note, it looks like there have been a lot of changes here in the past few months...it looks nice and you are doing a wonderful job!

I read this and INSTANTLY was angry beyond belief and grieved more than I'd have thought possible. How DARE someone on FROGs do that to a sister in Christ? HOW DARE SHE? Despite our best efforts, we could not get the individual who contacted me to reveal the offender. That ticks me off to no end. I understand that she wants it over and done with. She wants to move on. I get that. I also get that she has extended forgiveness and wants to walk in forgiveness. OK. But, why tell us if you don't want something made out of it? Seriously. This is a HUGE deal. So far as I'm concerned - so far, at least - it's the WORST offence to have occurred on FROGs!

And, in addition to being angry and disappointed that it happened, I feel betrayed - by both the offender and the sister who shared this with me. I don't think I should feel that way, but I do. I'm also afraid we'll never find out exactly what happened, and that worries me. I want to know who so I can talk with her and make sure she understands that it is NEVER to happen again. It's not about punishment or revenge or anything like that - it's trying to make sure EVERYONE on FROGs is safe! My biggest fear is that this individual will do this again.

I have so many thoughts and feelings on this, but I'm spent. I can't think clearly or find a way to write it out. So, I'm going to end this post for now. I just had to get some things off my chest.

Tuesday, July 22, 2008

Apparently I was wrong

Around 9:30 p.m. our power was restored! WOOHOO! PRAISE GOD! Everything is working properly, and we're back into normal life - FINALLY! :-D DH, Abby, and I all just GRINNED real big when the lights came on, and Abby was bouncing around! LOL The other two were asleep, but they will be thrilled in the morning - well, at least Grant will! ;-) Anyway, I just wanted to say YAY! Thanks, everyone, for the prayers! It's so nice to be back in the 21st century! ;-)

Day Two

Wow. We're finishing up Day 2 with no power. Well, minimal power. I will start by saying that this is the longest I've EVER been involuntarily without power. It sucks. I'm just happy that my home and my family are all OK. I can only imagine how much worse it would be otherwise. Scary thought, actually. But, I digress...

Today started with DH getting up at 4 a.m. to turn off the generator. It runs for approximately 10 hours before needing a refill. Prior to adding more gas, however, it is highly recommended that the generator is allowed to cool for 2 hours. So, DH got up at 4 to allow us to get it back up and running before WE had to be up and running. I slept rather well - and the kids seemed to, too. Natalie woke at about 6:30 to nurse, which started our day. Grant got up then, too. DH got Abby up about 7-ish, because she had a dentist appointment this morning. (And all is well with her teeth. :) )

Most of the morning we just spent time together. Had breakfast, played, etc. DH took the day off - and would've had to anyway, because the Corps still has no power, too. Apparently they had yesterday off, too - but he was out of the office so he didn't know. And, honestly, if he wasn't in Coralville, we likely wouldn't have the generator. God knew what he was doing! ;-)

Late morning, Natalie was napping. (She's napped poorly today, which I'll blame on it being too warm in her room.) DH took the other two to the park, which was much needed. He encouraged me to lie down upstairs in the a/c while I had the chance. No sooner had I begun to relax when Natalie decided her nap was over. *sigh* We all had lunch - more peanut butter. Then the kids and I napped. We miraculously had ALL THREE kids asleep simultaneously. There was no way I was going to miss this opportunity! LOL I got a good nap in, too.

DH needed to turn off the generator about 4- 4:30 p.m., so we planned to go out to eat while the generator cooled. We ended up at Carlos O'Kelley's at Abby's request - she thought the building was pretty! LOL After we swung by a park on the way home. It's cooled off nicely and is really nice outside now. The kids enjoyed getting some time to run and play.

On our way home, we knew the power wasn't on yet b/c our neighborhood is still pretty dark and full of debris. But, we saw an encouraging site - the first crew from the power company a block away from our house! WOOT! Praise God! That means we're FINALLY getting somewhere. Afterall, they gotta clean before they can fix! ;-) No worries, I'm not expecting power in the near future. I know how bad it is by us - and not too far from us. I know that we still could wait up to three more days. I am constantly praying that's not the case, but I am prepared for it. But, it is so NICE to see a crew. I don't care if they're just loitering - they're HERE! LOL (And, no, they weren't loitering - we saw them actively working to get a downed tree off someone's home. I just had to express just HOW wonderful it is to see them! LOL)

One more positive I realized: Our power bill should be noticeably lower this month! LMAO

Oh, and Sawyer just HATES the generator - I'm guessing it's just too loud for him. He is a dog, afterall, and has much more sensitive hearing than we.

I had more I wanted to say, but it's gone. Once again, fatigue sets in. If I think of it later, I'll share in a separate post. Otherwise, hopefully my next post will be praising God for the restoration of our electrical service!

Monday, July 21, 2008

What a Day

Cue Jack's Big Music Show! LMAO

Seriously. It has been one heck of a day. Wow. I feel like it's been a week! I'll start at the beginning.

Natalie woke about 6 this morning to nurse. I got up to use the restroom while DH got her diaper changed. When I came back into the room, I noticed that it looked SUPER foggy outside. You could hardly see anything. I commented to DH about it, then went about my business nursing Natalie. About five minutes pass when the wind picks up and the storm sirens go off. So, I whisk Natalie up, and DH gets the other two and we all head down to the basement. I felt bad having to wake them up like that, but we knew we had to. Just before the sirens went off, I could FEEL the wind shaking my house as I lie in bed nursing Natalie! It was no surprise when the sirens were activated! On our way down the stairs, we were able to witness the kids' easel blow across the porch from one side of the house to the other, passing the front door. It was wild. We tried to get Sawyer to come downstairs with us, but he was too freaked, so he stayed in the kitchen. We were down there 5-10 minutes when the sirens went silent, so back upstairs we went. I finished nursing Natalie, and DH got the other two settled when the sirens went off again. Another 5-10 minutes went by before silence was heard. Then, DH got ready for work and the kids and I started our day. (Well, except that DH put Natalie down for a nap before he got ready for work.) Oh, and the power went out shortly after Natalie waking up. I don't remember exactly when - but I think it was while I was nursing her. I know for sure it was before the first siren went off.

So, we (the kids and I) spent the day trying to stay occupied. We played in the morning, and read some books. I found 8 C batteries to power a portable radio we have, so I was able to keep up on the weather and news. First estimates, around 9:30, were that most people should have power back within 72 hours of when power was lost. At first I thought that wasn't so bad, but then I did the math - that's THREE DAYS! Yikes! I was hoping we'd be on the early end of that, but so far no good.

According to the news, it was a storm that involved straight line wind. Here's text of the story from KWQC, our local NBC affiliate:

Severe storms ripped through the Quad Cities on Monday morning, leaving significant damage and nearly 180,000 homes and businesses without power in the QCA.

Meteorologists from TV-6 and the National Weather Service agree that the damage was a result of straight line winds. A 94 mph wind gust was reported at the Quad city Airport in Moline.

The National Weather Service surveyed the storm damage and confirmed the wind estimate of 90-100 mph. While the damage was not a result of tornadoes, the winds woudl be equivalent to an EF-1 tornado.

Meteorologists stress this is an example of why it is so critical to take severe thunderstorm warnings seriously. "It doesn't matter if it is a 100 mph wind from a tornado or a 100 mph wind from a straight line wind." says KWQC Chief Meteorologist Ryan Burchett. "The damage is going to be the same. If anything, the damage may be more widespread from the straight line wind event. The big difference is the structure of the storm. And that doesn't matter much to the people whose homes are struck by the storms."

The National Weather Service has posted more information about their storm survey on their website.


We are fortunate. No damage to our home or anything - just the loss of power. While an inconvenience, it's trivial as it could be so much worse. A few houses down, a tree fell on the house - can't tell if it damaged the house, but I'm sure it at least scratched it up a bit. We had a tree removed from out front last fall. Man are we glad that happened - as it was DEAD and likely would've damaged the house if it was still here! The worst news out of today was of a campsite that had trees downed, and a 4-year-old boy was killed! :-( The tree fell on the tent in which he was sleeping. Two other kids, a 9-year-old and a 9-month-old, were injured. One was sent to Peoria. Please say a prayer for the family.

There are tree limbs and power lines down EVERYWHERE here in Moline. Our mayor called a state of emergency and asked that everyone stay home as much as possible. No problems there. the garage door opener is out - I'm not going anywhere! LMAO John Deere Road, a MAIN road here in the Illinois side of the Q-C, is closed. There are several power lines down along the road, as well as the poles holding said lines. So not good. The kids and I have made do. There's not much choice - nothing nearby is open. No one has power. I did my best to avoid opening the fridge, until 1 p.m. rolled around. I decided at that point that most of what's in the fridge likely has spoiled already, so I'm having my Dr Pepper! LOL (The local Red Cross is saying 2-4 hours is the longest you should go with stuff in the fridge.) We had crappy breakfast and lunch - crackers, dry cereal, canned fruit, bananas, peanut butter, etc. But, hey, at least we have something we can eat.

So, where was DH in all of this? Coralville, Iowa, for work. He had some water sampling to do at the "lake" there. It was kinda rough not having him around, but it also ended up being a good thing. He was able to go to a Lowe's there and get a generator. (I am sure there are NONE to be found here in the Q-C!) So, now we have minimal power. We have the fridge hooked up, the chest freezer in the basement, the wireless router (of course LOL), a fan in the living room, and a window a/c unit in our bedroom. And, praise God, that flooding in Iowa last month left us with LOTS of money from the OT he put in. So, we were able to pay cash for the generator. Bad news, though, is that it's gone - all of that OT pay is gone. Oh, well. At least we can wait out the power loss somewhat more comfortably - and eat, too! LOL

You know, the biggest praise is that we hadn't spent that money yet! We can be a bit less frugal than we should - but by some amazing miracle, we had not spent it yet! Praise God! Of course, this all happens as we begin reading Total Money Makeover by Dave Ramsey. Figures it would work out that way, huh? At least we were able to avoid going any further into debt than we had been prior to starting the book, and likely the TMM! :-) Although, I had been hoping to use the OT for Baby Step 1 - the $1,000 emergency fund. Oh, well. God will provide. And, hey, had we not had the OT, it'd be that much harder, right?

When DH got home, he got the generator going. (I have a minor vent there, but will save it for a time when I have less-limited resources!) Then we swung by McDonald's (in Iowa, as no where anywhere near us has power yet) and got some dinner, which we brought home. The kids are now in bed, and DH is out buying more gas for the generator and another power strip to allow us to have the fan running AND the laptops charging simultaneously! :-) God is always faithful.

As for the power, the last I've heard is that MidAmerican (our power company here) is still in the assessment part of things. That means they STILL have no real idea how long it'll take to get everyone's power up and running. *sigh* They are still saying that most people should have power back within 72 hours. BUT, and this is HUGE - IMO - it could be as late as Thursday or Friday! YIKES! We live in part of the hardest-hit area, so I'm nervous that maybe that'll be us waiting ALL WEEK! Eek! So, do we stay or do we go? We could head to Winfield to stay with my parents for a few days while power is nowhere near restored. Or we could just hang out with the generator for a week. I did check, and our vet could board Sawyer until Friday. So, we can leave if we want to - after Abby's dentist appointment tomorrow morning. We shall see - DH and I will discuss when he gets back, which I hope will be SOON!

Well, I've run out of brain power right now, so I'm going to go. Plus, I probably should check in at FROGs and let them know I'm OK.

Thursday, July 3, 2008

I'm at a loss for words

Someone on FROGs posted this blog, and I thought I'd share it here.

ConnorWatch

An absolutely amazing journey. That poor 18-year-old child and his poor parents. If you're not familiar with the story, an 18-year-old boy had a diving accident and ended up with a spinal injury. He has made astounding strides in recovery, but still has a long way to go. The family is Christian, and are asking for as much prayer support as anyone can spare. Even if you aren't Christian, I think it's worth following this story. I have added this blog to my blogroll for easy location in the future. My heart and prayers go out to Connor and his family and friends.
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