Welcome Home!

The excitement just never stops around here!

Saturday morning we left to go to my parents who live about 2 1/2 hours away.  We were going to celebrate my mom's birthday.  My sisters and dad and us all chipped in to buy her a Nook with the back light.  I've never known anyone who sleeps so little and she often reads in the middle of the night, so the light was a must.  This is her first electronic device.  She was very excited, but a little scared of it too.  :)

We had a good time, even though one sister and her family were missing.  Something about some stupid ball game in Cincinnati or something. :)  Missed you Valerie!

Anyway, on our way home on Sunday, a friend called Cameron and asked where we had been (since we weren't at church) and Cameron told him.  Then the friend says, "Did anyone tell you about your house?"  Now these are words you really don't want to hear.

Thankfully, it wasn't so much the house, but the trees.  Two different trees had basically  split and fallen over right by the back door.  Each one hit the gutters in different spots, but that was all the damage they did to the actual house.  However, one of those trees knocked down and broke our outdoor water spigot.  It is not the more modern thing that is attached to the wall, but stands about 3 feet above ground.  So water had been pouring out of that since the trees had fallen.  We were told the storm came through around 5:30 that morning.

So other than a big mess in the back yard, two pieces of siding ripped off the front of the house and no water, we have a lot to be thankful for! :)  Oh, and a really torn up garden.  Some of those large limbs blew across the garden like a gigantic broom sweeping away dirt.  But back to being thankful....

Seriously, all I kept thinking about over and over was how thankful I was that we had not been home.  I can't imagine the kind of noise that those two trees falling would have made.  The wind out here is often fierce and loud even in a mild storm.  We had to go ten feet into the corn field to get some of the large limbs and a small picnic table that Cameron had rigged up for us and some other odds and ends!

I'm also thankful that there was no serious damage to the house and my new (still not finished painting it) back door!

I'm thankful for the rain that was so desperately needed here.

I'm thankful for good friends with chain saws who are really hard workers.  They came over as soon as we got home and everything except the largest portions of the trunk have already been cleared away and put into a big pile.

I'm thankful that Dominoes has gluten free pizza and for paper plates!

I'm thankful for more good friends who let us come get showers after the clean up.

I'm thankful our two apple trees survived unharmed.

I'll admit that I'm a little disappointed that the BARN is still standing!  That's what we need to get rid of! LOL

So every time today, and possibly more days depending on what is involved with this water pipe outside, that I get frustrated about having no water and how it has totally interrupted my plans,  I am going to repeat this list in my head.  And I'm going to thank God for the fact that we normally have access to all the water we could want.  Because we live in the country and have a well, it is also free.  Many people around the world do not have this most basic "luxury."  It is a blessing that I know we take for granted.