Okay, I'm getting a little overwhelmed with offers of help, so I thought I'd start here with a short list of things we will need eventually. Unfortunately, this weekend is kind of a lost cause since the insurance adjustor hasn't been out here yet and we can't really get started on anything. Very frustrating but we know we're in this for the long haul.
Immediate needs:
- A long-term temporary place to stay. The contractor says it will be 6-8 weeks and although they'll technically be working upstairs most of the time, it's not really possible to stay here with all the construction going on. We're hoping to find an apartment or maybe borrow someone's camper so we can come home to work but still eat and sleep somewhere else.
- Clothes for Jacob. He really just needs summer clothes for now: shorts, tees, underwear, socks, and a swimming suit. I don't want to buy these new unless I can't find a source for hand-me-downs.
Immediate wants: things that would make our life a little less complicated but aren't really "necessary:"
- Gift cards to local fast-food places or restaurants since we can't eat here (we have electricity but everything is covered with soot!) We will eventually get another place to live and then we won't have to eat out as much but it's kind of unavoidable at this point.
- A pre-paid cell phone for coordinating the construction. Not truly "necessary" since we do still have a real phone but I'm sure they'll turn off the power once in a while and it would be nice to have one at our second location. I'm kind of hoping someone has one they're not using or something...?
- Cash is not really necessary at this point because the insurance agent gave us a check to start staying in hotels, etc.
Later needs/wants:
- After we get the scoop from the adjustor and contractor on Monday (hopefully) we will start calling local people to help with the clean-up. We're hoping that if we do part of the clean-up and/or destruction ourselves we can save a little money and use that to pay the deductible, but we don't know if that's possible or not.
- After the whole thing is over, we will need to replace a lot of carpet, furniture and mattresses. They can stay for now but they're pretty smoky and we'll have to replace them. Everything we currently have was found at garage sales or whatever and I plan to re-furnish the house with all used things again so keep us in mind if you come across any good deals. :)
- Jacob is kind of sad that he lost all his books so I will also start asking for donations to his new library. He had a pretty good collection for an 11-year-old and he'll be anxious to get more books.
I think that's it for now! Like I said, we really don't know anything yet this weekend so we're kind of just hanging out in hotels and coming home to clean every once in a while. Thanks again for praying for us this week!
Laurie
Saturday, July 26, 2008
Updates
I'm kind of pressed for time here so I will try to keep this short and sweet.
Mark accepted a position with Habitat for Humanity and will start working there next week. It doesn't pay very well and we don't know if it has benefits but it's a start! And he's very excited about working for a good company. He says he's tired of making rich people richer.
As most of you know by now, we had a fire a couple of days ago. I posted lots of pictures on my facebook page so look for me on Facebook and check them out. It started in the small space above the upstairs ceiling and the insulation caught fire and it just spread along the whole roof line very quickly so now we have a bunch of big holes in the roof but at least it's just on the top floor.
Mark and I don't really believe in "coincidences" and the story about finding the fire is truly amazing. Mark "happened" to still be awake at 1:00 at night and he just "happened" to hear some weird clunking noises upstairs in Jacob's room and headed up to investigate. He thought it felt very warm in there, despite the A/C so he started poking around and discovered an orange glow above the ceiling so he grabbed Jacob and tore downstairs and woke everyone up. We were outside waiting for the fire trucks by the time the smoke alarms went off and we heard a loud crash when the ceiling right above the stairway collapsed and we realized that if we had waited until the smoke alarm went off Jacob would have been stuck upstairs! So despite a very messy house and the prospect of being homeless for the next 6-8 weeks, we feel TRULY blessed! We all had plenty of time to get out of the house and the vast majority of our belongings are fine.
Anyway, I will share more later but I wanted to at least give out the basic story. Our insurance agent has already given us a check to get started with hotels and finding some clothes for Jacob (he lost virtually everything he owns!) and we're meeting with the contractor on Monday to start working out the exact plans. We're also very blessed to have such a caring insurance agent. He's already been here like 3 times to check out the damage and see what we need.
The house smells pretty bad and I'm getting a headache so I think we're heading out for a bit - there's a parade this morning and they always hand out lots of candy so we need to get a good spot. Take care and God bless!!
Laurie
Mark accepted a position with Habitat for Humanity and will start working there next week. It doesn't pay very well and we don't know if it has benefits but it's a start! And he's very excited about working for a good company. He says he's tired of making rich people richer.
As most of you know by now, we had a fire a couple of days ago. I posted lots of pictures on my facebook page so look for me on Facebook and check them out. It started in the small space above the upstairs ceiling and the insulation caught fire and it just spread along the whole roof line very quickly so now we have a bunch of big holes in the roof but at least it's just on the top floor.
Mark and I don't really believe in "coincidences" and the story about finding the fire is truly amazing. Mark "happened" to still be awake at 1:00 at night and he just "happened" to hear some weird clunking noises upstairs in Jacob's room and headed up to investigate. He thought it felt very warm in there, despite the A/C so he started poking around and discovered an orange glow above the ceiling so he grabbed Jacob and tore downstairs and woke everyone up. We were outside waiting for the fire trucks by the time the smoke alarms went off and we heard a loud crash when the ceiling right above the stairway collapsed and we realized that if we had waited until the smoke alarm went off Jacob would have been stuck upstairs! So despite a very messy house and the prospect of being homeless for the next 6-8 weeks, we feel TRULY blessed! We all had plenty of time to get out of the house and the vast majority of our belongings are fine.
Anyway, I will share more later but I wanted to at least give out the basic story. Our insurance agent has already given us a check to get started with hotels and finding some clothes for Jacob (he lost virtually everything he owns!) and we're meeting with the contractor on Monday to start working out the exact plans. We're also very blessed to have such a caring insurance agent. He's already been here like 3 times to check out the damage and see what we need.
The house smells pretty bad and I'm getting a headache so I think we're heading out for a bit - there's a parade this morning and they always hand out lots of candy so we need to get a good spot. Take care and God bless!!
Laurie
Tuesday, June 17, 2008
Summer Vacation
We've actually been out of school for a couple of weeks already but it's been kind of a struggle to find time to get on my own computer. Mark and I both stopped working at the same time the kids got out of school so we went from everybody being gone every day to everybody being home all the time! Kind of a big adjustment. It was kind of hectic at first with everyone wanting to do different things but I finally stepped in and typed up a "summer schedule" as an attempt to somewhat control the chaos. I tried to post a picture of it to show you the little icons. Jacob especially likes the swimming picture. :)
Anyway, I mostly just wanted to share two things: first, that Mark's job ended way sooner than we were hoping so he's home full time again, and second, that Sean is continuing to make great progress in the bladder control department.
Not sure what to say about the job thing. Mark was told the temp job he had would last a few months, but since he was able to just jump right in and already knew the program they were using it seems like he worked a little too quickly and he got the department all caught up and there was nothing left for him to do! I've been trying to make sure he has the computer all to himself on Mondays so he can look through the classifieds but he says that doesn't help if there aren't any listings. He's just not finding any leads at all. The local Wal-Mart is renovating in a few weeks so he's thinking about working construction for them for a while, but that doesn't really help us with health insurance and obviously it wouldn't be enough money either. Unfortunately Mark's unemployment is running out (they actually haven't paid anything since his job ended in May so we're not sure if there's anything left or not) and the student loans won't let us defer any more and we have one of those infamous ARM loans on our house that's due to go up in September so we are kind of starting to freak out a little. It's fun having Dad home to go for walks and go swimming and stuff, but he's miserable and he needs to get out of the house!
Sean is doing VERY well since getting out of school. I was pretty sure that not being in school would stop all the progress we had made but he's doing okay. He's had quite a few accidents since he doesn't have Mrs. Nielson reminding him to go potty at certain times, but he's getting there and he is wearing underwear almost all the time. Every once in a while I'll catch him trying to put on a pull-up but he seems to understand that's not allowed anymore. I've noticed that Grace is already going a few hours without peeing during the afternoon and she knows when she needs a new diaper (and sometimes takes it off herself!) so it might be kind of embarrassing for him when his 2-year-old sister has fewer accidents than he does. It's so weird how boys and girls are so different at this age. I didn't even THINK of trying to potty train until Jacob was 3 and here Grace is 18 months and I'm looking for a potty chair for her.
I don't want to push my luck that Grace's nap will last long enough to type more, so I'm going to quit and try to add some pictures. I don't like putting too many up here because it makes the page load too slow so if you want to see more, feel free to look me up on Facebook. I have some really cute pictures of Jacob at his "Pioneer Days" where the class had to dress up like Pioneers and learn how to crochet, quilt and make their own candles.
Laurie
p.s. If you usually read this blog so you can find out how to pray for Sean, can I ask if you can maybe pray for Mark this time? We know his A.D.D. is a big factor in why he doesn't seem to fit in at some workplaces (which is obviously not something he can control) but he has been very down on himself lately. It's very frustrating to him that God would bless him with certain skills and abilities in a field where most people are very organized and "type A" but then also let him struggle so much with his A.D.D. Unlike in the past, when Sean was born and we were dealing with all that stress, Mark is very open and patient this time - simply waiting for some heavenly direction. He's considered other fields of work and other locations and he feels very strongly that we are supposed to stay in Indianola (we are all very happy here, despite the recent money issues) but he's frustrated by the lack of leads here too. I don't think we care where we live or what kind of career either one of us has, but it is getting very difficult supporting a family of five on sporadic unemployment checks. :) Thank you and God bless!
Anyway, I mostly just wanted to share two things: first, that Mark's job ended way sooner than we were hoping so he's home full time again, and second, that Sean is continuing to make great progress in the bladder control department.
Not sure what to say about the job thing. Mark was told the temp job he had would last a few months, but since he was able to just jump right in and already knew the program they were using it seems like he worked a little too quickly and he got the department all caught up and there was nothing left for him to do! I've been trying to make sure he has the computer all to himself on Mondays so he can look through the classifieds but he says that doesn't help if there aren't any listings. He's just not finding any leads at all. The local Wal-Mart is renovating in a few weeks so he's thinking about working construction for them for a while, but that doesn't really help us with health insurance and obviously it wouldn't be enough money either. Unfortunately Mark's unemployment is running out (they actually haven't paid anything since his job ended in May so we're not sure if there's anything left or not) and the student loans won't let us defer any more and we have one of those infamous ARM loans on our house that's due to go up in September so we are kind of starting to freak out a little. It's fun having Dad home to go for walks and go swimming and stuff, but he's miserable and he needs to get out of the house!
Sean is doing VERY well since getting out of school. I was pretty sure that not being in school would stop all the progress we had made but he's doing okay. He's had quite a few accidents since he doesn't have Mrs. Nielson reminding him to go potty at certain times, but he's getting there and he is wearing underwear almost all the time. Every once in a while I'll catch him trying to put on a pull-up but he seems to understand that's not allowed anymore. I've noticed that Grace is already going a few hours without peeing during the afternoon and she knows when she needs a new diaper (and sometimes takes it off herself!) so it might be kind of embarrassing for him when his 2-year-old sister has fewer accidents than he does. It's so weird how boys and girls are so different at this age. I didn't even THINK of trying to potty train until Jacob was 3 and here Grace is 18 months and I'm looking for a potty chair for her.
I don't want to push my luck that Grace's nap will last long enough to type more, so I'm going to quit and try to add some pictures. I don't like putting too many up here because it makes the page load too slow so if you want to see more, feel free to look me up on Facebook. I have some really cute pictures of Jacob at his "Pioneer Days" where the class had to dress up like Pioneers and learn how to crochet, quilt and make their own candles.
Laurie
p.s. If you usually read this blog so you can find out how to pray for Sean, can I ask if you can maybe pray for Mark this time? We know his A.D.D. is a big factor in why he doesn't seem to fit in at some workplaces (which is obviously not something he can control) but he has been very down on himself lately. It's very frustrating to him that God would bless him with certain skills and abilities in a field where most people are very organized and "type A" but then also let him struggle so much with his A.D.D. Unlike in the past, when Sean was born and we were dealing with all that stress, Mark is very open and patient this time - simply waiting for some heavenly direction. He's considered other fields of work and other locations and he feels very strongly that we are supposed to stay in Indianola (we are all very happy here, despite the recent money issues) but he's frustrated by the lack of leads here too. I don't think we care where we live or what kind of career either one of us has, but it is getting very difficult supporting a family of five on sporadic unemployment checks. :) Thank you and God bless!
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