Back in the house!!

As of last week mom and Caleb are back in there home! I have been extremely busy, but will get pictures up within a week. Promise! Thank you to everyone for your prayers, donations, and hard work. We could not done this on our own. We are truely grateful for everything and you will never know the wonderful impact you have made on our family. THANK YOU!!!

Oh and a couple of people have mentioned wanting to help throw mom a party. So, there might be a house warming party in a couple of weeks. Gifts are not required to stop by just to see the end result. However I will not let her turn away house warming gifts. Anything electronic you can thank of was lost. From toasters to alarm clocks.

I love being in the volunteer state!!

It will be six months on October 2nd. The hype with the flood is definitely gone. You would think it would be hard to find help. However, being in the volunteer state it isn't hard to find someone looking for a place to help out. As the stress level goes up from trying to get everything to come together at the end we have had so many people volunteer their time. We have had people from our life group (LifeChurch.tv bible study), friends, and complete strangers show up. Within the last month they have painted, stained, cleaned, and install hardwood floors.

We are hoping for mom and Caleb to be back in their house in a week. I have already had a church contact us about bringing out a group on Saturday. God has definitely shown us he will take care of us. Everyone that has came out to help has been a light for God. So many times it has looked as if there was no way things were going to work out and God has put someone in place to make sure everything would work out. One example is we have come to the end of funds and not sure how we would get everything finished. I knew I could at least get some rooms painted and it would start looking like a home again. A friend of a friend showed up to help. By the end of the day he had offered to head up a day for volunteering to install the floors. He leaves in a week to go to New Orleans to volunteer for the 23rd time. What an amazing person God put in our lives!

So why on Earth would we even worry how things will work out when our awesome God is in control.

Wood Floors

We have a wonderful stranger, Alan Pickirel, donating his time Saturday to put in as much of the wood floors as possible. He is a friend of someone I work with. He showed up about three weeks ago to help paint. We have spread the word and hoping we get a group tomorrow to help. Alan said he can use anyone, no matter the experience.

We have come to the end of the funds and trying to get the last of the house done on our on. Besides the floors we have painting, cleaning, all trim work, doors, fireplace, and a few more things we know we have to do. Trim is the one thing we are not knowledgeable about.

Hopefully I will have pictures soon.

Painting!!!!

This weekend we will start painting the entire house. Since it is new dry wall we will have to prime first. We will start at 9am on Saturday and noon on Sunday. We could use all the help we can get. The more people we get, the faster it will go. You can call me for the address and directions. 615-400-7687

Getting Closer

It is beginning to look like a home again. The floor plan was changed a little to what mom has always wanted to do to the house. If she ever wanted changes to the house then now was the time to do it. We opened the kitchen, dining, living, and den to one huge room. Also, she has a utility room now with a pantry. The last thing was changing the porch to a sun room. God has taken something horrible and made my mom a safer, more cost efficient house. The old electric was the wiring with paper around it, insulation was bad, and a/c had gone out several times. To get hot water you had to go into the garage and flip a switch. Now the electric has been reran. New insulation and drywall are up. Also, the walls are now textured. The duct work and new a/c unit are installed. I am hoping we will be painting in a week. Then the floors, cabinets, tile, etc. will be put in. After that hopefully we can get the furniture delivered that is being purchased by donations from her AA friends.

We had a lot of rain this past week and the roof leaked. It leaked around the fireplace and into some new light fixtures. That might put us a little back, but will find out this week. We are praying it will be an easy fix.

If you are looking for ways to help we might need volunteers for for a few things. We are talking with someone about the possibility of having them spray the paint on the walls. However if that doesn't work out we will have to prime and paint the entire house. Also, once the house is complete we will be taking what we salvaged from the flood and moving it back to the house. We could use help moving and cleaning everything. The things we saved are currently being stored in a unit that was donated, and we are thinking everything will need another good cleaning before being used again. I will post when we are getting close to needing help. The painting hopefully will be in about a week and the moving will be maybe in a few weeks.

The anticipation is building. God is good!!

Let the Shopping Begin

The floor joists are finished and sub flooring is in! I think mom has decided on the floor plan and final changes are being made. This coming week the tub and showers are going to be installed. Mom took me with her to Lowe's and showed me the appliances she wants for the house. We had some fun taking pictures while we were there. I was told I couldn't post the picture of her in the toilet section of the store but I will hold on to it for future bribery.

quick update

Hopefully by the end of this coming week we will be done with floor joists and the building process will go quicker. We were at a stand still this week waiting on insurance. Everything has worked out and it should be a go on Monday. We had someone jump the front gate again and open two gates. The barn was a mess but it is possible Cole did that part.

I smell fresh wood...hmmmm...smells good!!

Mom and I worked today at the house cleaning up the yard. We scooped up the left over trash from the piles of stuff. Davidson County Sheriff's department came out again this week to get the last pile of debris. There were swarms of flies all over. It was pretty nasty. What was worse was the ac ducts were piled in the yard. When they were brought out of the house they were full of...well...bile to put in nicely. We also picked up tile from the yard that had been removed from the bathroom. It is kind of funny that the entire house is gutted except for the guest bathroom in the middle of the house. To get to it you have to walk carefully along the beams, but it does work. Mom also cleaned the bathroom today. The front porch is swept and the barn is clean now. That should last for about a week.

We currently have a crew in the house during the week rebuilding. Right now they are replacing floor joist. Hopefully when they are finished with those it will go a little faster. It is nice to smell fresh wood!

This week we apparently had our first looters. On Wednesday morning my dad said two of our gates were open. Someone hopped the entrance gate and made there way through our yard leaving two gates open. They took the halters off of the three horses. They are about $20 a piece, and we had just bought them after the flood. They didn't get into the house, and we aren't sure if anything is missing in the barn. We really aren't sure what is where at the moment. Things are being stored in various locations. So it is hard to know what is gone unless we are looking for it to use. The halters were easy to notice they were missing because mom leaves them on the horses. It is really sad that someone knowingly steals from someone who has lost almost all their possessions. Hopefully that will be all the looting we get through this process. I am sure if that is the only thing taken then we are doing better than most who have dealt with looting. It was still frustrating.

Slide Show House Demolition

I usually make movies with Microsoft movie maker. This one is the first I have made on iMovie with my mac. I am still trying to figure the program out so I apologize. I am going ahead and loading it as is because there have been a lot of request for newer pictures. Enjoy!

The gutting is just about complete.

I am spending the evening lazy on the couch. It has been a long 20 days. Today we got majority of the sub flooring out. Mr. Baxter from my school and two guys from his church came out in the morning along with my dad and brother, Casey. They removed the sub flooring in 3 bedrooms and the living/dining room. Mom grilled burgers on our charcoal grill donated to us from LifeChurch.tv. After lunch Baxter and his guys left and the Raglands showed up. Bryce is one of my students and he came with his parents, Jill and Danny, and his brother, Brandon. The guys helped finish the sub flooring and Jill helped me pick up glass in the yard. Bryce continued to help my dad in the house. At one point I looked in on them and all I could see was Bryce from waste up. He decided it was easier to work standing in the crawl space. Casey, Brandon, and Danny moved the temporary gate back to its original spot so the horses have more room. The horses are healing and now can get in the barn. They are doing wonderful.

The last thing we have left to do before starting back rebuilding is removing the plastic and duct work in the crawl space. It should be easy since the house is gutted and there are no floors. However, it will be the nastiest job. I am still working on finding volunteers for that one. I don't even want to do it.

There is free standing water all around the yard and fields. It is starting to stink really bad. Lily at one point today was helping Jill and me find glass and asked who pooped in their pants. Don't worry she wasn't touching the glass. She was telling us where the glass was and taking worms to Granny while saying "Granny I found a snake."

Tomorrow mom goes back to Texas to work for the first time since the flood. She isn't looking forward to it. I am glad we are far enough along she doesn't feel like she should be here working. She is working on floor plans for the house. She is making the best of the flood and rebuilding it back how she has wished her house to look. That is a positive to having to gut and rebuild your house. If there is something you didn't like now is the time to change it. She will have a bigger bathroom and closet when finished. Something every woman wants for their house. Another part being designed into the house is a laundary room.

Thank you again for all the prayers and support. Also a big thank you to the Homedepot manager. Mom went in to ask about the washer and dryer that were still under warranty. She is trying to get either her warranty back or have someone come out and fix them. Her blower was also new and under warranty. They told her to contact the manufactor for the washer and dryer. The manager ended up coming to find her in the store and had a brand new blower for her. He said he felt bad he couldn't do more for her. Thank you for the new blower Homedepot. It is one less thing she has to replace.

Going to start removing the sub flooring on Saturday

We had a group from Recovery Community come to the house again today. Ralph Carrano that works with mom flew in from DFW for the day to work. Also my dad went over to help. Since I was at work I am not sure who did what, but the list of things to do was complete! They raked the hay in piles and burned them. Someone walked the fences and fixed the fallen posts. There was small pieces of dry wall above the windows and someone took care of it. The tile in the master bathroom was removed. Also, my dad removed a portion of the sub flooring. When I arrived Mom, Ralph, and I pampered the horses. Ralph gave them feed. I talked sweet and stayed beside them so they wouldn't move. Mom had the job of putting ointment on their wounds. Two of the horses have wounds on one of their back legs. They are getting easier to deal with in applying the medication.

This Saturday we are going to finish removing the sub flooring. Anyone that would like to help is always welcome. We have a limited amount of tools, so you might need to bring your own. However, I am not the person to ask which tools those are. We could also use people to help take the wood to the piles as they are removed, and broken glass picked up in the yard.

I haven't caught the full story on the news, but I saw something last night about investigating the flooding caused by the damns being released. Apparently some of the waterways were low and the Corp of Engineers let an area get as high as it could before releasing it. They are saying it should have been released a lot sooner. If they had it would have kept the water ways level and could have prevented the flooding of homes that were flooded due to the damn release. That would include my moms home.

We are taking the night off for elections!

I took a couple of days off from blogging. Not that there hasn't been anything going on, but more that it has been crazy the past couple of days. Sunday my Aunt Jackie, Uncle Casey, Kelsey, Mom, and me worked at the house. We didn't have any groups show up, but we were fine with no one coming out. We worked early and had to leave by afternoon to go to my cousin's visitation. Then on Monday was the funeral services. my uncle, mom, and me went to the house afterwards to work. My uncle has started knocking out walls. Caleb showed up along with Casey, Ann, Lily, and Logan that evening. Casey came to fix the water leaks. We now have water again and can use the bathroom. We have left one bathroom in place so we don't have to go behind the barn. We all went to chilis for dinner after he got through. Today mom is taking a break to campaign for our friend David Smith. It is a nice break for her and we all will be going to the Lime Light tonight for the victory party.

We are getting to the point to start taking out the sub flooring and putting in the new sub flooring. We also have found out the ceiling will have to be replaced. It has started to sag and crumble in some spots. The bad part is the flood insurance only pays for the flood damage not things damaged due to the humidity. Even though the humidity is caused from all the water in the house. The good part is it can be covered through her regular home owners insurance. Either way it is more work that has to be done. Also I found out from Ms. Davis at work that there was a story on the news about contaminated hay from the flood. Thank God we were able to get fresh hay from Mr. Evans. At one stable in the Nashville area four horses have died and seven are very ill with ecoli from the hay. We scattered our contaminated hay in some muddy areas in the field, but the horses are being kept in a seperate area. We will have to gather all the hay and get rid of it before the horses get near it.

We have been extremely blessed by so many during this time. We truely are very thankful.

Link to news story on the contaminated hay:
http://www.wkrn.com/global/story.asp?s=12497513

Recovery Community Rocks!!!

Today we had the hardest working group of young men finish gutting the house. My uncle hooked us up with Recovery Community and they came over with about 12 guys to put in community service. It is a great organization that works with my uncle's drug court. Lyn and Emily headed up the group that came out. They brought breakfast, lunch, and a lot of supplies. They were wonderful. The guys were great and wouldn't let mom or me do any hard work. As soon as we would lift, push, or do anything that required effort one of them were jumping in and taking over. It was much needed since mom's shoulder and back has been hurting. They had no idea she needed a break. We have trouble taking breaks while so many people are working. You just can't sit back while someone is working in your house. It just seems wrong. However, with these guys we seemed in their way. At one point we heard a chain saw and turned around to see one of them cutting up a fallen tree in her field. They truly were a blessing to have out.

Also, three teachers I work with came out and helped. Mrs. Brooks showed up early and helped sort & pack. She talked about helping us replace some of Caleb's books and restoration of the 8 mm film. Mrs. Brooks is the librarian at my school. Ms. Davis came out again to help and brought medicine for the horses. She put the medication on the horses' wounds while mom held the rein and I gave the horses feed. I am sure we were entertaining to anyone watching. Ms. Davis was very courageous to put medication on a horse's back leg. Don't worry she didn't get kicked. Mrs. Ravech brought her husband and they joined in with the guys from Recovery Community and worked so hard. They helped in gutting the garage and tearing out the pine boards in the kitchen.

It is hard for me to stay working on one project when we have a large amount of people. I couldn't tell you how many times someone was hollering my name to ask a question or see what needed to be done next. I am glad I can organize the work but I really know nothing about construction or demolishing a house. I guess as long as I act like I know what I am doing maybe no one will notice. I just listen to what my cousin, Joe, has said needed to be done and gone from there. Luckily no one has asked how to do the things I told them needed to be done. If someone would have asked how to take out the toilet, sinks, or tubs I would have laughed. I have no clue. I just know how to use the toilet, sink, and tubs.

At one point someone broke a pipe and water was going everywhere. The guy was apologizing and felt bad. I laughed and joked about that being nothing compared to the amount of water we had in the house a couple of weeks ago. Casey and another guy took off running to the road to shut of the water. Dad ended up closing the pipe and we tried turning the water back on. We found out someone cut another pipe and had to shut it off again. Dad is going to come out Sunday and fix the water leak. We wouldn't want to get anything wet.

We finished around 1:30 and after everyone left my dad mowed the yard. Mom and me tried to clean-up around the yard. It looks so much better. We were able to come home and clean up to go to the 5 o'clock service at church. I love to go to church on Saturday nights so I can sleep in guilt free on Sunday mornings. Afterwards mom, Caleb, and me went to Kohls to get them some clothes. A manager checked us out and was telling us about one time her home was destroyed in a tornado. She started to tear up talking with us about how much she understood what we were going through. She ended up giving them 30% off their purchase. We stopped by target for a few things then went out to eat. It was a relaxing evening and hopefully everyone will get a good night sleep. I think this house is lacking in that area. If we keep having trouble sleeping we will resort to eating Benadryll for a late night snack.

Another element to the horse story

My uncle told me yesterday that he found out another piece to Cole's journey 14 miles down the Cumberland River. Nashville flooded on Sunday night and the next thing we knew was on Tuesday Melissa Riley had a crew trying to save him. Well we now know how he ended up on the little island. A man by the name of Barry Hobbs found Cole in water up to his chest. He went to get a rope and jumped on his jet ski. Mr. Hobbs tied the rope around Cole and lead him to the island. On Monday the water was still rising so we are very thankful this man took him to higher grounds. Cole's story just keeps getting better.

Today's volunteers were provided by Davidson Co. Sheriff's Department

Last night we found out that our cousin, Justin, passed away. He was in his 30's and has a beautiful daughter. My heart goes out to his daughter, parents, and brothers. They are by far the sweetest family and growing up I always loved to visit them. His parents, Joe and Elizabeth (Sissy), and daughter, Heaven, were at mom's this past week to help us in the clean-up process. Joe has been out several times and has been a huge help in telling us what we need to do in the gutting of the house. We are extremely sad and sick about Justin.

I decided it would be best if I stayed home from work today and help my mom. My Uncle Casey came out this morning and busted out the kitchen. The kitchen is almost completely gutted now. The piles of my moms stuff that was lost in the flood have been so depressing to look at while working at the house. It just is a reminder of how much we lost. My uncle made a phone call and in 30 minutes the sheriff's department was out cleaning it up. There were about 8 inmates that worked at getting the piles gone. There worked so hard and were very nice guys. We were very appreciative of them and red cross fed them all. When they finished they went to a neighbors house that had come up to see if they could help him out. After they cleaned out his shed that had floated to another yard they went and emptied their trucks. Then they came back to our neighborhood to help clean-up the piles of debris. Our neighborhood has been a forgotten neighborhood and the sheriff's department has stepped up to help us out.

After they left, mom and I took off to run some errands. We went to the Tide Trucks for Loads for Hopes to pick up and drop off clothes. We also tried to get mom a tetanus shot but we were unsuccessful. While in downtown we were stuck in lots of traffic. It was very frustrating. At one put we were at 8th and Division when mom got in the turning lane to turn right. We sat for at least 10 minutes and not moving an inch. The lights were changing and no one was moving. Mom was griping and saying she was going to go in the middle lane then turn in front of them if they don't go soon. She finally decided to do that and then we started laughing so hard. She had been stuck in stand still traffic behind a row of parked cars!!! In her defense the car in front of her had someone in it with the break lights on. Also, there was someone behind us that had done the same thing. We were laughing and figured there is a dumb blonde joke going to come out of this story.

Caleb's Graduation Announcement

Due to procrastanation and the flood ruining everything in the house. We no longer have graduation announcements or mom's address book. Therefore, we will not be able to send out graduation announcements for my younger brother, Caleb. Even if we did have the announcements his school, Nashville School of the Arts, was suppose to have their graduation at the Grand Ole Opry, and that is now flooded. The school has now moved graduation to a local church and only letting the seniors bring 10 people.

So the internet is now going to help us announce that Caleb Jones will graduate Thursday, May 20, 2010, from Nashville School of the Arts. If you would like to send a graduation card their mailbox was not damanged. Also, we will probably have a small graduation party for any friends and family to stop in on Friday, May 21st at my home in Goodlettsville.

As an update we took a break last night to go to one of Caleb's performances from his theatre dance class. Caleb had mainly theatre rolls in the performance. The students at NSA are very talented and I always love watching people dance. It was a great way to take our minds off of everything. However, I kept thinking someone might show up at the house while we aren't there. I didn't have any definites on coming but there has been a lot of unexpected help show up in the past couple of weeks. Yesterday my dad came out for a couple of hours with some of his employees to work on dry wall. Carol came out to help mom during the day and brought two bags of clothes. We didn't realize she took two bags of Calebs clothes home the night before and washed them. She was so sweet for stealing a teenage boys dirty clothes and washing them. I don't know many people so brave. Gina came out again yesterday and went with us last night to watch Caleb. Mom and Gina also dropped off 4 loads of clothes with the Tide trucks set up in Donelson.

There is a great youtube video on the flooding. I am proud to be from Nashville!!! Copy and paste the following link in your address bar to check it out.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pFjaQoOdJvI

What day is it?

"What day is it?" seems to be the phrase that keeps coming up. It is hard to believe it has been over a week since the great flood of Nashville began. We had a lot of help show up today. Gina flew in this morning and was at the house helping mom today. Steve was there when mom showed up ready to help. Also, my mom's friend Carol came out and helped. I came over as soon as I was able to leave work. Gina's daughter Amber stopped by. I am not sure if she knew she was going to be put to work, but she jumped right in to lend a hand like it was planned.

Tonight was a MJMS night. Mr. Baxter came out after school and had sent word out to his church. He ended up bringing several people. One included a former student, Collin, and his entire family. These guys quickly got to work and did so much in the three hours they were there. A couple I work with, Mr & Mrs. Speck, snuck right by me and I found them pounding away at the walls. Trent from Lifechurch came back out again to join the fun in tearing down dry wall. With this many hands we were able to get a lot done. I am hoping we can have moms house gutted by the weekend.

Red Cross Disaster Relief Team showed up today to get some information from us. There were four ladies and they were so sweet. They spent a lot of time going over everything, asking questions, and filling out paper work. In the end they were giving mom some financial help to cover some basic needs. It wasn't much, but it made me start to cry. Just the fact that so many people have reached out to help during all of this can be a little emotional at times. The smallest gestures can get me teared up and I hate to cry. I can tell you right now that when all is said and done I will be looking into being a part of the Red Cross Disaster Relief Team. There is no way I can ever sit back and watch something happen and not do anything about it. The Red Cross is truely an amazing organization and has been a great benefit to our communtity.

With that said tonight was not a Red Cross food night! We had the best full course meal provided by a great friend from work, Melissa Johnson. It was so delicious and it was vegetarian!

Thank you to everyone that helped today. I pray it will come back to you ten fold.

Also, If you are keeping up with the blogs please click the follow button. It would be fun to see how many people are reading. But who knows it might just be another way I am talking to myself. Good night!

Finding Cole

Not much going on today. I went back to work and Caleb was back at school. We left mom alone at the house. My cousin Joe came over and started tearing down the dry wall and mom finished getting everything out of the house. We are hoping to get the entire house gutted out by the weekend.

I wrote in the first posting about our adventure in saving the animals at mom's house the first night. The story of us getting Cole back is unbelievable. On Monday morning at 3:00 am we gave up in finding anymore horses. We had saved three, left one because of the danger, and missing two horses. On Tuesday, a high school friend of my moms, Teri Huffins Blunkall, called to let us know air 4 was showing a black horse in Pennington Bend. We didn't think it could possibly be our horse. Cole is a strong, young horse who loves the water and loves to go swimming in the ponds. However, Pennington Bend is 14 miles down the river.

I have been in contact with Melissa Riley who was out on Tuesday trying to save the horse. She sent me the following information.

"I got a call from Nashville Paw about a horse trapped in the Pennington Bend area. We got our equine volunteers and a boat to go out and see what could be done for him. We attempted to rescue him on Monday when we were told that the waters were projected to continue to rise and take him off the island back into the Cumberland River.

We got out to him after fighting a lot of current along where the road and guardrail were. He was extremely calm and so gentle and sweet. We could tell that whoever he belonged to loved him and took good care of him. He walked into the water with us without any trouble at all.

We got him about halfway out (back to the road where the white shed was) with water up to our chest when within a few minutes it rose without warning to over our heads. The Corps of Engineers was not supposed to be releasing water at that time, but it rose significantly without warning.

We made the decision for his safety to swim with him back to the island where we treated his wounds he had from washing downstream earlier, and then had to leave him for the night. We felt that he was safer sheltering in place than trying to swim against such a strong current as he was already very tired. Our fear was that he would be washed back into the Cumberland River. We did not want to abandon him, but it was the safest choice we were facing at the time on Monday night.

We attempted to return the next day to evacuate if the water was down or leave fresh water and hay if we still could not get him out, however, all boat operations were canceled in that area because structural engineers said that houses were about to break loose"

On Wednesday, mom began to think of how we had found one horse dead and began to get really upset about Cole. We decided we had to try and get to him. We knew the water was still up in Pennington Bend but it was worth a try. We drove out and talked the police baracade into letting us in the neighborhood. We talked with the Fire Department who was giving people boat rides into the neighborhood to get some items from their homes. They gave us a lift to the drop off point, and we had met two men that had seen the horse. Mike Bishop and his friend took off in their canoe to get a better description of him. When they got there Mike called my cell phone and described Cole. We knew it was him since he has a white mark on one of his hips. After the firemen were finished taking the last people back they took us as far as they could in the boat. There I stayed with one of the firefighters and the boat. Mom and the other fire fighter walked through the water the rest of the way. As soon as mom got to the island she hit the ground running. She was so excited. We decided there was too much current and we needed to wait until morning when the water goes down some to walk him out. On the island was a playground, Lock Two Park, and an old house with a fence around it. Mom checked out Cole and the Fireman tightened the gates on the fence. They left him in the fenced in yard just in case the water went to far down and he decided to leave.

The next morning (Thursday) Mom, Casey, Casey, and me went to get Cole. We drove as far as we could, then walked him to the trailer. We spent several hours trying to load him. All the noises had him spooked. There were helicopters flying over us constantly. Apparently we were on channel 2 during this time. We never got a chance to see it. Finally we decided to drive out and mom walked him all the way to the shore.

When we got him to dryer ground a couple of metro police officers helped and with some force he went in. We stopped by a vet on the way home to have his leg checked out. He seems to be doing great. He came to my house for a couple of days, but quickly got restless in the smaller area. Channel 4 contacted mom Thursday night to come out Friday and interview her. They had received lots of calls to see about the horse. They said some were crying on the phone. The story aired Friday night. A lot was cut out and some was exaggerated, but it was a lot of fun to watch. Mom and Cole were adorable. Saturday Cole loaded up with no problems and we brought him back home. A teacher from my school brought hay because our hay, feed, and fields all had the nasty Cumberland River muck on it. Cole ran around thrilled to be back home. Within minutes he was in the pond for a swim!

Channel 4 News story on Cole: http://www.wsmv.com/video/23480160/

Mike Bishop's note on facebook: http://www.facebook.com/home.php?#!/note.php?note_id=387988739785&id=1413212086&ref=mf

Map of Cole's journey created by Mike Bishop and Wade.

Flood Clean Up Slide Show

Slide Show of Flood Pictures

Happy Mother's Day Mom!!

I definitely have the greatest mom in the world. She has done so great considering the circumstances. Of course I have always known she is a strong woman. I hate that on Mother's day we are helping her go through everything she owns to see what we can keep. We were not able to find the movie film and I wasn't able to buy my mom a brand new home for mother's day. So, I settled with buying a card and doing manual labor instead. I guess that will due. LOL.

We had a great group show up to help today. Sally flew in from DFW to help and it was a huge blessing. She went through a lot of the stuff that was damanged looking for the film, writing down everything destroyed, and putting everything in trash bags. Steve Collins came out again today and was all over the place getting things done. My Uncle Casey has worked so hard doing everything imaginable. He is taking care of his little sis. Some of my cousins came down to help. They jumped right in and helped out. I had some of my switch chicks from the youth group I work with at church show up with their parents. Those girls can clean the cumberland river off of anything. Beth and her dad, Tim, even buried the dead beaver that apparently couldn't build a dam. That damn beaver!!

Mom got up in the attic and started handing us things to load in the trailer. She ended up handing us a box that the bottom fell out. So the christmas tree decoration survived the flood but didn't survive mom. I had her get down and step aside. I would take over and hand stuff down. I didn't even make it up the ladder and dropped the light and broke it. Finally, Jay was able to bring everything down safely.

Lunch was provided again by the South Carolina Red Cross Disaster Relief Team. They had beef strogenof. Since I am a vegetarian my Aunt Jackie and cousin Kelsey saved the day and brought me a veggie sandwich when they heard what was served.

This evening we noticed Cole's cut on his jaw is swollen. Hopefully it will be down tomorrow. Caleb goes back to school tomorrow to get ready for exams. Eleven more days until he graduates. We still haven't got invitations out for him and the Grand Ole Opry is flooded so it will change locations anyway. I go back to school tomorrow too. I teach and do not know what went on in my classroom for the past week. Praise God I work with awesome people and they took care of everything while I was out. I look forward to the rest from the manual labor while at work but will be back out there by 2:30. However, it will not be a mental rest since I teach middle school.

We got a dumpster today so the gutting process will start up soon. Keep praying! It is working because I think we are still sane!

And on the 7th day we worked!

It has now been 7 days since the flood occured. We had a team from our church, Lifechurch.tv, and some of Caleb's friends from school show up today to work. They put a huge dent in the mess. Also, my Aunt Jackie and Uncle Casey came out, but they have been here for us during the entire process. They have been a huge blessing. If you know my mom you know that she likes everything clean and organized. So as soon as people were showing up she was in the bathroom cleaning the toilet and sink. She said she didn't want people to have to use the dirty bathroom. It cracked me up, but I felt better using a clean bathroom.

We got a lot of things packed up that we were able to save and sorted through to make the piles for the city to pick up. My DOL (dad-out-law; sis-in-law's dad) showed up with another couple and were able to get the last horse loaded up and back home today. Mr. Evans, a teacher at MJMS, donated a huge roll of hay for the horses. As soon as it rolled out of his truck they were running to it. My aunt took most of the clothes, linens, and towels to the laundary mat. Most everything came clean, except for the white or off whites. My dad, Troy, and step-mom, Shelia, grilled everyone hamburgers and hotdogs. We had a wonderful cook-out. Also, my cousins brought cupcakes!!!! They were delicious!!!

For dinner we had a hot meal from the Red Cross Disaster Relief Team from South Carolina. They were so nice. They are coming around our neighborhood to feed everyone lunch and dinner. It wasn't that bad either. Never thought I would say I have ate FEMA and Red Cross food. But hey, I never thought we would be flooded. It only happens to other people. I am sooooo appreciative of the Red Cross and what they do during disasters. If you have donated to red cross you can know you are feeding about 20 houses in our neighborhood and all the people working hard to help those families.

I wish I was more of a cat person because I would be bringing the barn cat home with us. She lives in the barn and keeps the mice out of the hay. She cries at us when we get there to feed her and cries when we leave to go home with us. She is a smart cat and stayed in the loft of the barn through the flood.

The turkey's were back running around yesterday. They stayed in the trees during the flood. I told someone today it is sad to not see any deer around. Before the flood we were seeing around 20 deer in the evenings. They are always fun to watch from my mom's patio. Tonight at dusk three deer were in the back pasture. We were so thrilled to see them back so soon.

Two allstate agents also came out at dusk. We weren't as excited to see them. LOL. Even though mom isn't covered for content, we are very blessed that she has flood insurance. One agent said that only 1% of the people flooded in Nashville had flood insurance. We were happy to hear they include the stove, microwave, dishwasher, and the two fridges as part of the house structure included in the flood insurance.

One thing we still haven't found in the house is all the old super 8 films. For those too young they were film strips you run on a projector and has no sound. I did make a vhs in high school for my dad by recording it off the wall while having music playing. It isn't the best recording but at least we have some of it copied. There is some of my mom's family and her when she was little that wasn't on the video. I am nervous they were wet and someone threw them away. I hope I can find them tomorrow. That would be a great mother's day present. I haven't had time to get her anything.

Keep praying. We have a long road ahead of us. Thank you to everyone for all of the support we have received.

Clean up has started

We started the major task of trying to clean up. At times I felt like I was walking in circles looking at everything. We had a big group sent out through Goodpasture. Goodpasture formed teams to go out and help any alumni that had been flooded. They were amazing. There were a few adults and lots of teens. I wasn't expecting many people to show because it was a Friday. We definitely got more done than I thought we would. However, I realized how much work this is going to take.

So many people have helped us out in this time. Rachel, a friend of Casey (my brother), made us dinner last night and brought over lots of goodies. Jay, Scotty, and Jimmy helped my mom get the horses back to the property. Ricky Rollins has donated the use of a storage unit while mom rebuilds. Steve Collins came by and did a ton of handy work. Also my dad, Troy Weaver and Associates, came with one of his employees and worked all day. He was a major help in delegating what needed to be done. I desperately needed someone to take charge. It was a huge blessing to have all of the help today.

One funny thing but irritating at the same time was when we leave it takes us an hour or so to actually be going down the drive. We seem to find something to do. Mom and I were in the car taking our boots off and I received a call from my dad that it was suppose to rain. I told mom put your shoes on we aren't done. We did so much today to clean dishes, pack things up, and salvage what wasn't water damaged. We kicked butt and moved those things back in the house. I couldn't imagine if we had left everything outside that didn't get water on it and then it rains. I am glad we got that phone call.

Thank you again for all of your prayers!

Catching everyone up to speed

On Friday, April 30th, and Saturday, May 1st, Nashville received on average 13 inches of rain fall. The record in the area for a two day span was around 6 inches. I was stuck at my house saturday and sunday because run off flooding. My garage was completely covered in water as well as my crawl space/basement area. On Sunday my power was out all day and had no idea what was going on here. Apparently Sunday evening they opened the dams and people around the rivers began to flood. My mom, Cathy, was at DFW and younger brother, Caleb, was at his girlfriends house. Interstates and streets were flooding. I had a situation occur that caused me to get upset and my dad drove down to get me. I packed up some things to go with him when we received a call from my older brother that lives 30 minutes north. He asked my dad to drive and take a look at our moms house. When we arrived my moms house was flooded. The water level was at the bottom of the window. She has one dog and 3 horses, but helps take care of our neighbors 3 horses. I made some phone calls trying to get some help. My uncle Casey was the first there.

My uncle borrowed a one man blow up raft with two small ores and went searching for the dog. Our first priority was to get my moms dog, Rueger. He found the dog on a table on the back porch in a foot of rising water. I found a neighbor with a small boat that had a trolling motor. He took me and a family friend, John, out to find my uncle. We found him in paddling around in the front yard. John and I grabbed Rueger and pulled him in. Rueger was so excited he was all over me with kisses. When Rueger made it to shore he peed for 5 minutes. Apparently dogs don't pee in water. We made it back to shore with the dog as my older brother, Casey, pulled up with a canoe. By this time we had my dad, uncle, aunt, brother, cousin, family friend, S.O.L, B.O.L, D.O.L., lots of neighbors, and myself.

Casey, Casey, and John took off into the water with the canoe to start the search for the six horses. They didn't pass the intersection before they spotted the first horse. It was swimming toward them down the street. They paddled to it and my brother jumped in, hooked on a lead, and walked him out. It took a while to get him to the shore because he was not wanting to move once he could stand up. They rested a minute and took off again. This time it took them over an hour. They brought back Flare. She came close to drawning and at one point got her leg stuck in the tractor. My brother had to go under and get her leg loose. After a longer rest they headed back out. They brought Tony back this time. This horse was cheered on by our entire family. Tony was my papa's horse. My papa originally owned the farm land and my mother took it over after his death 6 years ago. At this point my brother was wearing out and needed a longer break.

He was jumping in the water, hooking them to a lead, treading the water, and trying to lead them to the shore. Thank God that he is in fantastic shape right now. He leaves this Saturday to Virginia fro the Law Enforcement United Tour where he rides on a bicycle 250 miles in honor of police officers killed in the line of duty. The tour goes from Virginia to D.C.

The last time he went out was the hardest. He went with his friend John and Eric on a fishing boat Eric brought over. They found Shayane in a back pasture closer to the main part of the river swimming. She put up a fight with Casey. Her tail got caught in the prop and Casey had to cut her tail with his pocket knife. Don't worry it was just the hair. His friends called it quits when She took him under. By this time I was with my uncle, one of his friends, and two neighbors with a huge boat. We had gone to the house to see what we could get. We heard the three guys yelling and argueing coming back toward the house. None of them were okay with the decision to leaver the horse behind but I would rather have my brother. They pulled up beside us and my brother jumped in our boat.

My uncle and a neighbor had busted in a window and started searching for a cedar chest. My mom had always kept family pictures in this chest as long as I remember. They found it before my brother got in to join them. However, there were no pictures in it. They ended up finding them in the top of a closet in little boxes and a big storage bin. Come to find out a month ago my mom had the idea of moving them there. Another way God prepared our family for this flood! We ended up with pictures, jewelry, nana's quilts, and left over dirty santa gifts. That made me laugh. About 3 am we called it quits with a dog and 3 horses saved, 1 left behind, and 2 missing.

Mom and Caleb saw the house the next day. The water crested at one point at the gutters of the house. My brother and a neighbor went to the back of the property and found Shayane the horse they left floating were they had left her. The days start running together after this. In the next post I will tell you about our famous Cole horse rescue.

This is a tragedy that has occured in Nashville. There are lots that have lost their homes and most everything in it. Including my mother! We are truely blessed with how much support we have received. If you would like to help there is lots you can do. First and for most pray! We need that more than anything in trying to stay sane right now. Second if you are able go out in Nashville and surrounding areas and help. There is lots you can do! To give you an idea on how you can help some of the things people have done for us our helped in clean up, given us supplies, washed clothes, and cooked a meal. Supplies could be cleaning supplies, boxes, storage bins, snacks, food, water, toiletries, clothes, newspaper to pack up dishes, gloves, masks, boots, hay(for the horses) etc. If you can't get out and help look at donating to some awesome organizations. Click on the following link for more info: http://www.wsmv.com/news/23448373/detail.html Some organizations helping out in this area are Red Cross, Second Harvest Food Bank, and Hands on Nashville. We were just able to get into the house today, so anyone who wants to come help in the clean up let me know.

Thank you for your prayers!