One Month

One month today since we lost our home.  Hard to believe we are now in our 5th week of being homeless.  Yesterday we actually had somebody from the construction company that contracts for our insurance company show up at the house for the very first time!!!  If it takes them a month just to show up to give us a quote on building us a new home I shudder to think at how long it will take them to actually do the work.
Still living with the MIL and her husband.  She’s been great…him not so much.  Doesn’t take too well to our kids.  Have been calling every rental property we find but absolutely none will rent to us short-term.  Getting desperate as the husband has told us he doesn’t want us to stay here anymore.
Kids are doing better.  Sage is re-adjusting and not acting out as much as she was the first couple weeks.  Big trauma for such a little girl.  Jasper is back to his old self as well.  Not screaming nearly so much.  But is crawling now and there is lots and lots of clutter in this house which is a baby disaster!  He keeps me on my toes!

Tornado June 6, 2010

It's been the craziest week of my life around here.  Last Sunday at 3am we lost our home to a tornado.  I know.  Who does that happen to in real life??  And in Southwestern Ontario of all places???

Here's how it happened.  Geoff woke up just before 3am (and it doing so woke me up as well!) as the wind and rain had gotten quite strong and we had left the windows in the front of the house open.  We weren't concerned at all because strong winds are very common around here.  Geoff got up and went to close them and headed back to the bedroom.  I was lying in bed thinking about what a pain it was going to be tomorrow to clean up all the toys that had been left in the yard and that I was positive by now were at least several houses down.  HA!  Least of my worries.  Just as I'm thinking this...CRASH.  100+ foot tree from our neighbour's yard lands directly across our house.

I yell for Geoff as I instantly realized what happened.  He's not back in the bedroom yet but does not answer me.  I start screaming for him as I think the tree has landed on him.  Not a good place to go in your mind at 3am in the pitch black.  So Geoff finally answers me and we desperately try to find flashlights and cell phones.  Even though we knew exactly where they should be, it's a different story to actually find them when you can't see at all.

Geoff gets his flashlight and runs upstairs to get the kids.  He gets to the top of the stairs and starts yelling.  The tree had come right through the roof and what was our loft was now crushed.  At first glance, it seemed as if the tree had also come down on the kid's bedroom.  He slips in the rain water that has poured in and loses the flashlight and it does out.  He somehow manages to crawl underneath the tree and breaks down their bedroom door.

He grabs Jasper from his crib and has Sage follow behind him.  Geoff has to let go of Sage's hand for a second to crawl underneath the tree with Jasper in his arms and when he reaches back to grab her he has a few very long seconds of extreme panic when he thinks he can't find her.  In a flash of lightning he sees her standing directly underneath the hole in our house staring up at the sky.

They all make it downstairs safely and we do the quickest carseat buckle up for Jasper ever and run out of the house through the back door.  The wind has practically stopped by now but it is still raining quite hard.  We come around to the front of the house and even though our car was parked just a few feet away from the now fallen tree it is safe.  We pile in and call Geoff's mom to let her know we are on our way to their place.

Giveaway!

Go check out The Anderson Crew for a great Shey B camera strap giveaway.  I have been coveting one of these for sooooo long!

Stuck

Week in the Life ended ages ago and I still haven't got my butt in gear and finished my album.  I've gotten all my journaling into The Story of Today overlays and printed them off but haven't done a thing about all the other photos and bits of memorbilia.  I need some motivation!!!

Sunday

• 6:10 Jasper is up.  I nurse.  Put him back in bassinet.
• He’s quiet for awhile…then bring him into bed to cuddle with us.
• Sage gets up and eventually makes her way into bed too.
• Geoff and I fall back asleep for a bit.  Sage, Geoff and Jasper get up.
• I try to fall back asleep for a few more minutes.  Doesn’t work.
• Trevar calls.  Has already been grilled about Florida.
• I get up.  Feed Jasper breakfast.  Change and then down for a nap.
• Pancakes for breakfast.
• Geoff and I have our coffee on the couch.  Sage plays in her new tutu.
• Tell Sage about a dozen times to quiet down as Jasper is sleeping.
• She goes up to the loft to pretend her butterfly is flying.  Talks the entire time.
• Not feeling well today.  Not up to looking after Jasper by myself.
• Sage and Geoff play Super Mario.
• 10:30 Jasper up. Nurse.  We watch them play Mario for a bit.  Try out Sage’s firemen hat.
• Sage plays with her slinky.  Whines, whines, whines.
• Geoff and Sage go outside to clean the paint out of the garage.
• I fold laundry.  Put Jasper with a rice cracker in his highchair.  Crys.
• Email from Dad.
• Feed Jasper lunch.  Put him down for a nap at noon.
• I need comfort food for lunch.  Make pasta and pesto sauce.
• Geoff and Sage come back in.  Jasper gets up.  They go back out.
• Nurse.  Play.  Poop.  Bang on window at our people.
• Put Jasper down to play on the floor and I fold more laundry.  Play with Jasper some more.
• I come upstairs.  Rainy miserable day.
• Jasper is screaming.
• I think about screaming too.
• Play again.
• Down for another nap.  Wakes up 30 mins later.  Comfort him and he falls back asleep.
• I finish watching the movie from yesterday.
• Jasper gets up.  We bang on the window some more.
• Go outside and tell Geoff to come in as I cannot take anymore of this.
• Sage has found lots of treasures in cleaning out the garage.  An old chequebook, notepads, construction pencils and boxes of old business cards.  Some going back to 1970!
• Geoff plays with Jasper and then feeds him.  Still pouring rain.
• We have candy.  Jasper goes down for a nap.
• Family tickle fight.  Sage gets an ice cream container from the freezer to put on Geoff’s back!
• Geoff and Sage finish making the sugar cookies.
• Jasper gets up.
• Sage gets mouthy and gets sent to her room.
• Geoff starts making sausages.
• I still feel gross.
• Nurse.  Put Jasper in the swing.  Lasts for a little while.
• Sage and Jasper play peek-a-boo on the floor.
• Geoff and Sage eat dinner.  I skip.  Feels like a person is sitting on my chest.
• Jasper and Sage go off to bed.
• Geoff watches tv.

Saturday

• 6:45 both kids are awake.  I nurse Jasper.  They both play in bed with us til about 8.
• Sage goes to do crafts and Geoff puts Jasper in his highchair so he can be at the table with her.  Comes back to bed.
• We both sleep til 8:45.  Geoff gets up and feeds Jasper breakfast.
• Jasper goes down for a nap at 9am and I get up!
• Have coffee and leftover pizza.  Yum.
• Hang out in living room.
• 10:30 Wake Jasper up and leave for eye exam.
• Get glaucoma test done so have extremely blurry vision for a while after this.  Have to nurse Jasper in waiting room.
• Burger King for lunch.  Yum again.  I love Whoppers.
• Go to the Mom2Mom Family Expo.  Sage gets her face painted, a bag of candy and I buy her a red tutu.  So cute.
• Back home.  Nap for me and then for Daddy.
• Hang out on couch.  I am still so tired.
• Jasper goes down for a nap and I go to Zehr’s.  Going to have Geoff’s homemade hamburgers for dinner tonight and need buns.
• Grab a drink and head upstairs for some internet time.  Rainy and cool out…such a blah day.
• Try chatting with Roz on msn.  Stupid satellite internet doesn’t work when it’s rainy or windy or snowy or too sunny or too mild.  Ha.
• Sage goes outside to play in the rain. Geoff models her new fireman hat for me and his construction suspenders.
• Jasper wakes up.  Geoff feeds him dinner.
• Internet working again!  More chatting with Roz.
• Geoff and Sage go outside to play and make dinner.
• I watch the rest of Fringe.  Nurse Jasper.
• Have dinner.
• Geoff and Sage go to Shopper’s.
• Jasper goes into the Jumperoo.  I try to text Paula.  Jasper freaks out.
• Bring him into the bedroom with me to play on the bed while I fold laundry.
• Off to bed for Jasper.
• Geoff and Sage back.  Sage finishes her dinner.
• Playtime.
• Bathtime
• More playtime.  Makes the butterfly craft she got at the Expo. Has some organic cheesies!
• Let her stay up til 8:30
• Geoff and I watch a movie..I go to bed halfway through.

Friday

• Sage and I hang out in bed with Jasper.  Say to me “Sometimes when Jasper’s hands are cold I don’t like it when I have a big hangover”. Me “What!?” Turns out she thinks the area between her neck and shirt collar is called a hangover.  Phew!
• Kitchen is a mess but I don’t feel like cleaning it up.
• Jasper plays on floor while I get Sage breakfast and myself coffee.
• She makes crafts.  I feed Jasper and leave him to play in his highchair so he can be near Sage.
• I try to talk to Sage about solar energy.  Tell her that we can use the sun to make power for our homes.  She says “I already know Mom.  I saw it on Handy Manny.  They’re called solar panels.”  Alrighty then.
• I go up to look at blogs.  Jasper takes a nap.
• Sage wants to do something together so I can out the big cardboard S I bought ages ago and we cover it in pretty paper and start to make paper flowers.
• Jasper wakes up.  Play with him on the couch.
• Turn Oprah on.  Sage very disturbed about the dolphins.
• Nurse.
• Jasper comes upstairs with us and we roll more flowers.
• Geoff is back at noon.
• We leave for Windsor at 12:30.
• He gets to go to Florida for training next week.  Am so jealous.
• Go to Zehrs to get our passport photos done.  Grab lunch there for Geoff and a donut for Sage.  She is thrilled.  I can’t remember ever buying her a donut before.  Junk food is Daddy’s department.
• I have cramps.
• Realize that Charlene needs to sign our passport photos so drive into Leamington.
• Finally make it into Windsor at 2pm.  Wait 1hr at the Passport Office.  Lady who serves us was an old customer of Geoff’s.
• To Starbucks.  Grande light Vanilla Bean Frappuccino’s.  Yum.
• Pick up a part for Kam just off Walker Road.
• Home.
• Geoff and Sage go get Naples pizza.
• While they’re gone Jasper has the biggest poop explosion I have ever experienced.  Run around trying to figure out how to get this all cleaned up.
• Geoff back just as I am done.  Figures.
• Throw Jasper into tub. Not literally.
• 8:30 Kam and Paula come over.
• Geoff and Kam talk movies.  The 50 Year Old Virgin and Cowboy Ugly.  I don’t know what version you saw but mine had girls in it.
• Midnight.  Off to bed.

Thursday Afternoon

• I sit down on the couch to watch The View.  Remember that remote is in bedroom.  Sneak in and get it.
• Really want the dress Elizabeth Hasselbeck is wearing.
• Lay down.  Just start to relax and Jasper wakes up.  Only been sleeping for 30 minutes.  Not good.
• Bring him to the couch to cuddle.  Screams.
• Go back to bed with him.  Try to get him back to sleep.  He cries.  I cry.
• I walk away.  Grab drink and go upstairs.  Soon all is quiet.  He’s fallen back to sleep.
• 3pm  Jasper wakes up.  Mom calls for Sage.
• Nurse.
• Sage comes down.  I talk to Dad than to Mom.
• Put kid’s shows on for Sage…she sits on couch with Jasper.  I can finally shower.
• More laundry.  Blogs.
• Start dinner.  Give Jasper a cracker so that I can go straighten my hair.
• Geoff gets home.  Dinner goes into oven.
• Geoff feeds Jasper.  We all get ready.
• Get to school just on time. 
• Mme Lapere has good things to say about Sage.  She’s doing well with her numbers and alphabet, french vocab.  Needs to work on waiting her turn!
• Go after this to Zehr’s to get passport photos taken.  Photo Lab has changed hours and closed early.
• Place in town closed too.  Go to Superstore in Leamington.  Don’t even have a photo lab.  Go to Walmart.  Just closed.  Ai yi yi.
• Back home.  Fill out applications.  Takes forever.
• Geoff takes them over to Charlene to sign.
• Nurse Jasper and put him to bed.  Way late.
• Geoff and I watch The Mentalist and Fringe and then to bed.

Thursday Morning

• Alarm goes off at 6:30.  Sage gets up just after.  Can hear her wheel Jasper’s bassinet down to the table so that he can be next to her while she does crafts.   Jasper is babbling away.
• 7am Geoff gets up.  Me too.  Geoff gets ready, gets his lunch and leaves.
• I nurse Jasper.  Play on the couch with him and Sage.  I pretend to be Jasper talking.  Sage thinks it’s hilarious.
• Sage goes up to her room to play and Jasper goes on the floor.  I tidy the kitchen up.
• Jasper not happy so goes into swing.
• Sage comes back down.  Kettle goes on.  I think about what to do to keep Sage occupied today.  Hope that the weather warms up.
• Jasper happy to sit in his swing and watch Sage play with his toys.
• Sage “Could you please hold him?” Me “no” Sage “Why? I can’t take care of him” Me “he’s in his swing, you don’t need to”
• Coffee is ready.
• Jasper wants breakfast.  Oatmeal and a jar of pears today.
• I tell Sage to get our her playdough and pick out the pieces we could use at cookie cutters.  Gets very excited.
• Go change Jasper’s diaper.  How does so much poop come out of such a tiny little body?
• Put him back in highchair to watch Sage play.
• I go upstairs.  Finally get to drink coffee.  Look out window.  Hostas have come up like crazy already.
• Go put Jasper down for his morning nap.
• Clean stove.
• Love, love, love the vintage Le Creuset pot I just got that used to belong to my grandmother.
• Make the rounds of the house picking up stuff.  How on earth did my bra get there?
• Another load of laundry goes in.  Sigh.
• 9:30 Am hungry.  Bowl of Honey Nut Cheerios.
• Sage goes upstairs to play her Kidoz games on the computer.
• I look around at the sea of plastic toys that has overtaken our living room.  Forgot how much one tiny baby uses.  Would sell my soul for a playroom.
• Upstairs to print off sugar cookie recipe.  Sage comes out to look at my scrapbooking stuff.
• Wash the pots from last night’s dinner.
• Sage comes down dressed as a ballerina.
• We start making the cookies.  Butter is too hard.  Set aside.
• Let Sage wash all the cookie cutter pieces.
• Jasper is up.  Nurse.  Go get him dressed.  Sage and Jasper play on my bed.  I fold laundry.
• Sage goes outside to play.  Misbehaves.  Get’s sent to her room and I tell her we will not finish the cookies today.
• I finish making the dough and put it into the fridge for tomorrow.
• Jasper and I come upstairs.  Me on computer.  Him in Intellitainer.
• Sage keeps opening her door.  Am very frustrated with her now.
• At noon I let her come out.  Gets spoken to.  Same conversation we’ve had 100 times in the last couple months.
• She plays with Jasper for a few minutes.  Requests peanut butter and jam for lunch.
• We all go downstairs and she starts to feed Jasper while I make her sandwich.
• I go to get her a glass of milk and knock the glass over.  Goes all the way down front of fridge.  Take all the magnets off and throw them in the sink to wash.
• I finish feeding the baby. Change him and put him down for a nap.
• Sage’s sandwich smelled good so I make myself one too.
• Tell Sage that she can pick out a movie and take the portable dvd player to her room.  Not a good day for me.