Sunday and Monday Update

The past couple of days have been super busy and we have been super tired (too tired to blog~sorry, the lack of sleep has been catching up with us).

Sunday we went to church. It was a nice break, and it felt good to be clean for awhile. After roaming around the muck and sweating in the heat and humidity, it doesn't take much to smell a little less desirable. It was the first time in a week that I had worn makeup or fixed my hair! Yikes.

After church, Dave headed back to Urgent Care to have the stitches in his finger removed. Unfortunately, he has developed a full blown infection that had to be drained. As much as he has tried to be good to his hand, it still got infected. The doctor gave him a couple of antibiotics and a pain killer. I had a quickie nap while he was gone, and when he got back, the Vicodin let him have a bit of a nap. While he slept, Stefanie and I headed over to Amy's house (actually, her garage where all our stuff is being housed) where we sorted through all the food retrieved out of the house. We wanted to make sure that we got out the stuff that would attract bugs, etc. The chocolate chips were pretty much a melted mass, and the cereals and breads were moist.

We got to talk with Jill and Ryan--that was a nice break. Unfortunately, their computer has died, so they have not been able to keep up with all of our blogging. Please, family, help me keep them informed. Thanks so much! :-) It was sure fun to talk with them.

Later Amy came back to Stef and Danny's house, we enjoyed a spaghetti dinner and hit the sack. The insurance adjusters were scheduled to be out at the property at 0800 Monday morning~ so much for sleeping in on this holiday.

Monday (today--Happy 29th anniversary to us!) was spent mostly at the house. Thankfully, the sink hole has stabilized and they opened one lane of the road so we didn't have to drive all around to get to our property. We got there bright and early at 0800. The road is now completely passable water-wise--hooray. Although we have some standing water in the lower areas of our property, most of it has receded. The odor is outrageous and the mosquitos are swarming.

0815 No insurance adjusters

0830 No insurance adjusters

0840 They called. They were running late thanks to the effects of Hurricane Gustav in Pensacola, Florida. They'd be there in one hour.

Dave and I headed to have some breakfast at the Waffle House

0940 Pick up the other 42" barn fan we bought, and one we were borrowing. We figured we'd let them wait a couple of minutes for us

1000 Dave, Danny, and a crew of guys from the church began to arrive for the clean-up. Dave had them get started on the demo---pull out the carpet and pad, remove furniture, clean up debris in the house, etc. Still no adjusters.

Almost 1100 (we could have slept in!): The two adjusters came and I walked around the house with them. They nearly knocked everyone out when they opened the fridge and the scent was sent through one of the fans. No lie, the guy opened the fridge and less than 10 seconds later you heard all the guys groan across the house! It was BAD. We've decided that we need to duct tape the fridge and freezer shut when we finally have the chance to pull them out.

The insurance will pay for new flooring (subflooring and flooring) and drywall up the 4 foot level. They will also texture and paint the walls. They will also pay for new appliances, hot water heater, and AC (the most important). They will also replace the lower kitchen cupboards, bathroom sink cupboards, doors, and the lower windows that were in water......

Then we were requested to pull together our inventory list of content in the house and barn---today! Yikes! Well, we have until tomorrow to pull it together--complete with purchase dates and figures of what we paid. Unfortunately, one drawer of our household receipts was in a lower drawer that was filled with muck. We are having to guesstimate! So, that's all we have been doing since 5pm (it's about 1030) and we've only made the initial dent. I will continue to work on it tomorrow. We are being asked to hustle with this so the claim can go in before all the claims on the damages from Gustav are started! But, this is no easy task, and quite frankly, I'm tired of typing. So, I decided to take a moment to update this blog---more typing--go figure. ~sigh~

Well, I have more pictures of the current state, but I'm too tired to post them. I'll try for maybe tomorrow if I can get the inventory list pulled together. On Wednesday it will be back to work. I'm looking forward to the diversion (All I've thought about 24/7 since the storm is this mess). There is still SO much work to be done, but we'll take it a little bit at a time.

Again, thanks to everyone for the messages and emails. We appreciate the kind words. Our neighbors Dave and Linda even gave us a call to wish us a happy anniversary~ sweet, huh?! Thanks you two!!

We're hanging in there, but we are at the end of our rope. As Eleanor Roosevelt said, "When you get to the end of your rope, tie a knot and hang on." Our knot is a little frayed, but we're hanging. It certainly helps when people are praying for us. I had a rough day on Saturday, and today was Dave's "down" day. I guess these days will come and go....I'll just be glad when we get back to something more "normal"....and I will NEVER again complain of our boring life. I can hardly wait to become boring again. :-)

Today's blessings:
1) Hurricane Gustav bypassed us and Hanna is being held at bay by Gustav.
2) Our pond is now full! The critters have their watering hole back!
3) The wonderful help of great people who willingly sacrificed their holiday weekend to work, yet again, in our muck.
4) We have each other!
5) We have our kids and grandkids!
6) We have our family and precious friends. Again, thanks for all the support--that is exactly what we need.

We are blessed.

Blessings to all of you!

Linda and Dave