new car tags: a mostly good experience

Our car tags expire today, so it was time to get Alabama plates.  After gathering what I thought I'd need, I headed over to our insurance agent's office to get a new insurance printout (the one in the car expired in February...hm, what have I done with the other one?  There's a reason I usually have a put-it-in-the-car-the-very-second-it-comes-in-the-mail policy) but he was out of the office until one today.  Thinking Alabama might have a system where you can mail in your proof of insurance (either AZ or UT did), I went to the county office anyway.

Despite the lady in line next to me complaining about the "intolerable line because it's the last day of the month", we only waited 10 minutes or so.  That's intolerable?  Not too bad compared to the AZ DMV, but maybe that's because this was a separate office just for license plates and titles.

Then, I discovered that they did not need proof of insurance so I would not have to come back or beg.  Then, I was pleasantly surprised by the price.  I'd been warned that registering a car from out of state there would be some weird tax but it was only $50 total.

Oh, but then I found out that in Alabama registration dates are done by your last name, so this registration is only good until June.  Of 2011.  And no, even though it is May 31st, there was no way for them to let me pay for next year's registration too.  I guess not everything can be a pleasant surprise.

locked doors = bad news

And then there was the time that Jonah locked himself in the room we're all staying in and then fell asleep.  We didn't realize it until a few hours later when we tried to go to bed.  We couldn't find the key, but after over half an hour of trying to pick the lock, Josh finally just took the doorknob off.

Then, after an incredibly frustrating morning, he locked us both out of the room with my clothes (I was still in my pjs), phone, the bed, the diapers, the wipes...pretty much everything.

I finally got him to sleep somewhere else and now I need a nap.  My I'm-going-to-clean-the-whole-house-make-bread-dinner-and-granola day has turned into a one load of dishes and a headache day.  Good night (and I'll call you back when I get back to my phone).

no more storms, please

We watched a brief segment about the Joplin tornado on the news last night.  I thought I was doing pretty well with our tornado, but I didn't have the stomach to watch it.  Jonah even said he thought it was our broken house.  I'm really feeling for the people there today.

nothing important

This post contains no pictures, nothing about Jonah, nothing funny, nothing uplifting, and nothing even related to us.  Just thought I'd throw that out there.  Nonetheless, this is something I've been thinking (and chuckling) about for a while now.

So when I was a kid, in addition to walking to school in the snow, a kid names Thomas went by Tom. Christopher was Chris.  Joshua went by Josh.  You get the idea.  It wasn't until I went to college that I met my first Topher and Drew (whose names were actually Christopher and Andrew).  Since then, I've met a Tricia (Patricia) and at least one more I can't think of right now.

So my question is this: what potential nicknames exist that I haven't heard yet?  Could I come up with one?  Could my Robert friends be, instead of Bobby/Rob, Bert?  Should I be going by Lee and my sister Lyn?  Josh wanted Jonah's name to be Enzo for a while (short for Lorenzo), so why not something that seems equally strange the first time you hear it?  Topher certainly seemed weird to me until I heard it a few times.  I haven't come up with one I think would fly yet, but this is a favorite activity of mine on long drives.

Jonah said

While eating lunch, Jonah was singing a song (the peanut butter and jelly song to be specific, since that's what we were eating).  Suddenly, he tooted, laughed, and said: "I tooted a little bit and it stop-ted my song."  We had to laugh at that one.

mostly goods

It's been a pretty good day.  About an hour of this evening seemed downright magical, in fact, when Jonah was running around happily with Dixie proclaiming, "I love Dixie so much" and I saw my first fireflies of the summer.  Tonight, I'll focus on those things instead of the mounds of work to do.

refreshingly normal

I was at the post office buying stamps (and oh so nice to drive down a normal Arizona road in a normal Arizona town and not see any broken houses) and asked to see the specialty stamps.  Most of them are the same price, so why not, right?

It was an odd collection: Kansas, Ronald Reagan, Gregory Peck, wedding rings, etc.  When I saw the folder marked "Literary Arts" I told him I'd take one sheet sight unseen.  Why not, right?  I was even happier to discover it was an author I'd not only heard of, but read.  Yay.

family circle

We had Allison come do a photo shoot at the family ball game.  This one makes me laugh: all seven siblings acting like kids. There are others with Jason's whole face, but in most of those my face is smushed.  Also, that red thing?  That's a baseball cap providing shade.  I think at one point we had 4 hats up at once.  It's not easy to stare at the sun, you know.

Thank yous

I ran to the post office last week to pick up stamps (see below) and also picked up 40 thank you notes.  FORTY.  I'm already running out and my list is not complete.  We have been overwhelmed by the outpouring of love and support from friends, family, family friends, neighbors, and complete strangers.  I also know there are some who have helped us who wish to remain anonymous.  If any such are reading this, thank you.  If you change your mind, let me know and I'll send you a thank you note with a cool stamp.

Thanks again.

the day's notables

"funniest" moment: when the insurance rep called to say, "I can't find your house."  Clearly.

wow-that's-really-cool moment: when after arranging to board Dixie while we're in AZ, Jo Anne discovered that they are not charging because of the tornado

saddest moment: going through the house, again, to itemize our loss

happiest moment: eating lunch with friends and laughing

moment of greatest relief: Josh meeting up with his professors and mostly sorting things out

things-you-don't-think-about-until-you-live-through-a-natural-disaster moment: waiting in line for over 30 minutes to pick up mail (I'd not considered what the mail situation would be...I knew I had to go get my mail, but I was not expecting such a line!)

miracle moment: when walking through the house with the insurance man, noticing a small purple box and saving the ring Josh bought me when we were in junior high.  He never gave it to me then, we did not remember to put it on the list (and who knows how long we would have forgotten), and it's value is primarily sentimental (read this as: could not be replaced even if we remembered to claim it).  That was a great save on my part.  Go me!

scariest moment: learning our house was covered in asbestos tiles and wondering what's now covered in asbestos.  (Yes, Steph, I laugh a little bit even as I worry about it...Asbestos, get off the couch!)

FAQ

In the interest of answering the most common questions all at once, here are the questions we are most frequently asked.  I don't mind questions at all, so ask away if you have any others and I'll update the post.

Did you know the tornado was coming? 
Yes and no.  I'd heard severe weather was headed toward Alabama, but that happens relatively often.  I did know enough to have the news on so I could watch the storm's progress, but I did not know until about an hour before the storm that it was headed straight for town.  At that point, I got Jonah and a bag of snacks/toys and we headed to campus.

Where were you when it hit?
We met Josh at his building on campus and hung out in the basement for about two hours.  We had done this once before when a storm was close enough for UA to cancel classes.  We snacked, Jonah watched a movie, and we watched the weather updates until the university lost power.  We stayed inside for another hour or so because there was a second tornado trailing the first, but once the sky cleared, we left.  One of the things I am most grateful for at this point is that we were not at home.  The places we were planning to bunker down were both intact, so we would have lived, but I can only imagine the horrible sounds, sights, and smells those who were stuck in the middle have to try to forget.  I'm having a hard enough time sleeping as it is.

Did you know your house had been hit?
We had a pretty good idea.  The news was reporting the twister was at the mall which is fairly close to our house, so we figured there'd be some damage.  When we emerged from the basement, however, and each had many frantic messages from people who had heard Krispy Kreme's was demolished, we started to worry.  Krispy Kreme's was just kitty corner from our house.

What happened next?  
We drove as close to home as we could through some insane traffic, but the roads were blocked off about 1/4 mile from home.  We parked and walked in.  While we drove and then while we walked, we tried to call someone from church/our parents to let them know we were okay (we'd had many calls) but there was virtually no reception.  It was similar to 9/11 when the networks were all flooded.  We eventually did get through to our bishop's wife and hoped she'd pass the word along that we were fine.  Jonah had fallen asleep at this point, so we carried him home.  We made it over a little hill north of our house (for those who have been here: the railroad tracks by the hospital) and from there could see nothing but devastation.  Before then, we'd not seen anything other than a few downed limbs and some broken glass.  The hospital was spared, but everything south was not.  The weirdest thing were the downed trees.  The area had many very tall trees and we were not used to an unobstructed view.  As we neared our house, we started to run.  We just could not make ourselves walk.

Could you tell it was your house?
We turned the corner and it took a minute to figure out which house was ours for two reasons.  First, our neighbor's house had been pushed back off the foundation, so that marker was gone.  Second, our laundry room was ripped off the back so the dimensions were off.  I could see some of our things through what used to be a double window, though, which was strange.  Right as we approached the house we looked up and saw some friends from church.  There was nothing I could do at that point but cry: cry for my house, and cry because they'd come looking for us.  Ally held Jonah (who asked her, "what happened to my house? where is my window?") while Josh, Aaron, and I surveyed the damage.  We were barely inside before we smelled gas and a police officer came over and told us to leave.  There was a gas leak in the neighborhood and they were clearing everyone out.  We grabbed our 72-hour kit and our box of files and left.  Ally took me and Jonah to her house and the boys stayed in town to help.

And then what?
The first eight hours were the worst.  We were in shock, there was no power so no news updates, we were still frantically trying to contact family and friends, our cell phones were dying, Jonah was upset, etc. etc. etc.  Josh and Aaron were out until after midnight, but around nine a man from our ward showed up with a bag of diapers, clothes, and toys for Jonah. Two of their boys are close to Jonah's age (one younger and one older). Their oldest was in my primary class and it was his job to pick the toys.  He was so proud to tell me on Sunday that he had selected the cars.  Dan's phone also had better reception than ours and he had power at his house (therefore he could charge it when he got back) and so he let us call people for hours.  I imagine his wife and children missed him, especially on a night when everyone wanted to be with their families, but we really appreciated the chance to touch base with family.  Up until then, only texts had been going through and even then only about half of them.

Where are you staying?
With Aaron and Ally (the couple that met us at the house).  They have been nothing but welcoming and there is no way for me to explain how great they've been in all this.  They're letting us store our things in their dining room and garage, they've fed us, cared for our mental health, made us homemade ice cream, done our laundry and Aaron even changed our fuel filter because he noticed the car coughing.  Ally is really allergic to dogs but they have welcomed Dixie, even though she's chewed up a cord to their outside lighting, their neighbor's shoes, and who knows what else we haven't found yet.  I could do every nice thing I could think of for them for the rest of my life and never make up for them scooping us up off our front lawn and taking us in.

Did you have emergency supplies?
We did.  I'm glad.  The things I was most pleased to find inside: pudding (things were not so dire that I wanted to eat straight tuna fish yet, but it would have kept me alive), clean socks and underwear, chapstick, sunblock. The things that should have been there: toys for Jonah, a weather radio, a pair of tennis shoes (we were all wearing flip flops), pajamas (I'd originally thought I wouldn't need them in an emergency, but I wanted something clean to sleep in...luckily Ally lent me something), copies of our important documents, neosporin, a solar-powered cell phone charger. UPDATED: I woke up to pouring rain today.  We should have had umbrellas or ponchos.  I actually think there might be a poncho in there somewhere, but one would not be enough for all of us.  Also, from my perspective, 72 hours is plenty.  After the first 48 hours, food and water were readily available at every major intersection.  By Saturday or Sunday (3 and 4 days out), the same intersections also had clothes, diapers, flashlights, etc.  There must be some wisdom in the 72-hour rule.

Were you able to get your things?
We've been to the house four times.  Each time I hope it's the last.  It is hard to see what I worked so hard to make home in pieces and my things and memories on the floor.  The pictures are the worst.  Even though I have digital copies, I picked up all the pictures I could find because I just can't leave a picture of my baby boy in all that rubble.  The first, that night, we grabbed a bag with our emergency supplies and our files.  Later that night, after clearing roads for hours, Josh, Aaron, and another friend went back and grabbed whatever Josh thought we would need in case we never made it back.  They grabbed a handful of clothes for Jonah (literally. We had some socks without matches and lots of pajamas since it was the top drawer), Josh's guns (he did not want looters having access to firearms, our scriptures, our wedding pictures, Jonah's baby pictures, the spare computer (which has personal information, etc), Jonah's two favorite stuffed animals (filthy and embedded with debris, but intact), a few of Jonah's cars, my sewing machine (that was him being sweet....pieces of it are missing so I'm not sure if it works, but it was very kind of him to think of that), and my flute. At about 4:00 the next morning, when I couldn't sleep, I made a list of what I would grab if we were able to get back in.  That afternoon, when Josh's dad came to town, we took him to see the house and went in to salvage what we could.  That walk through we noticed there was quite a few things that could be saved if we can ever get the mud and insulation off them.  Finally, the next day, we went by with a crew from the church and took out everything else we could.  I'm in the process of sorting through it now.  Some things, like Jonah's bed, were intact but I'm nervous they might be embedded with glass or other debris.  Still, we were much luckier than those who have nothing left but a foundation slab.

Where was your dog?
I left Dixie in the house in her kennel when we went to campus.  My thought was that I didn't want her to get rained on in the yard (she hates getting wet).  When we came back, her kennel was split open and she was gone.  I wished that I'd left her in the back until I saw her dog run smashed flat by a fallen tree.  We called for her but could not find her.  The next day, we talked to our neighbors as they also dug through rubble.  They were home during the storm and immediately after came to our house to check on Dixie.  They had seen me leave, so they knew we were not at home but they spent quite a bit of time both days looking for her.  They were our greatest resource when we brought her home because they love their own dogs, and they were very concerned about our pup.  A day or two after the storm, when we were inside the house, someone called out that Dixie was back.  I did not see who brought her home, but someone said she'd been found a street over.  She was clearly shaken and pretty hungry, but otherwise unharmed.  She is currently staying in our friends' yard.  One of the first things we did after we took Jonah and Byron to the airport on Saturday was buy her some dog food (we'd borrowed some from a friend) and a new kennel.  She was hesitant to go in it at first, but she's fine in there now.

How is Jonah?
He is doing as well as could be expected.  He has seen the house and is obviously concerned about the house and our things.  Whenever anyone starts crying, he gets very still.  He wants to know what is wrong with his broken house.  He will tell anyone who listens, "my house is broken, but mommy is going to find me a new house", so I think he understands that we will not be going back.  The first few days he asked to go home to his broken house and if we could fix it.  The worst part was while Dixie was missing.  He would ask, "where is Dixie? Is she broken too?"  We were very glad to not have to have that conversation with him and he was delighted to see her.  He was not sleeping or eating well immediately after the storm, but he is currently with his grandparents, and they report he is doing well.  The first night was definitely the worst.  When Brother Waddoups showed up with that bag of toys, it made Jonah's night.  He carried them around for the next three days calling them his own special toys.

What next?
For us? We meet with the insurance representative on Wednesday and we're looking for a new place to live.  We fly out to see family and pick up Jonah on Friday.  For the town? Clean up, clean up, clean up.  There are still over 300 missing.  At this point, five days later, I don't know how many more survivors we can expect to find.  There is just so much destruction.  Half of town is still out of power, thousands of families have lost their homes, probably tens of thousands of trees will need to be chopped and moved (Alabama is a very green place...even typing that seems unreal, but there was one house we visited yesterday with over 30 trees on the property, so I believe that's an accurate guess).

What is being done in town?
Lots.  I know there is more to do and I hope people don't get tired of helping before it gets done (I'm predicting months at least), but there are people handing out food and water all over town, Tide's Loads of Hope is here, mobile claim RVs from most insurance companies are here, power companies from all over the region are here, the National Guard is here, our church is bringing in a crew and supplies (in addition to the crews of workers who just live here anyway), Home Depot is giving away boxes and plastic tubs, the grocery store is giving away tarps, and most neighborhoods seem to be banding together.  There has been looting and I've heard reports of rape, but most everyone I've seen is looking out for someone else.  It has been a life-changing experience.  I hope to write down some of the relief efforts I've seen but my fingers are falling off already.

How can we help?
If you are LDS, contact your bishop or branch president and he should have instructions.  The region here is already organized and a emergency storehouse is being set up at the stake center as we speak.  The schools have posted a list of things they need here.  I hesitate to say this, but some friends of ours set up a fund for us here.  Another friend who lost more than we did can be found here.  It's humbling to accept so much help, but we greatly appreciate everything which has been done for us.  We would do the same for those we love.  The major reason I hesitated to mention it (other than knowing times are tight for everyone..$3.89 for gas? really?) is that we are better off than many.  Most of our furniture is fine if it can be cleaned.  Our closets were all fine (there's a reason people hide in closets and bathtubs when storms come through!), so most of our clothes and some of our blankets and a lot of the kitchen cupboard contents were salvageable.  I joke that next time we move I'm putting the stuff I use every day in the cupboard and the stuff we never use on the counter, that way if another tornado hits, the cherry pitter is ruined but my toaster will be fine.  I'd much rather have all the books that were on my nightstand, for example, than my box labeled "junk", but since the latter was in the closet, it survived.

Thank you to everyone who has helped, sent love, wondered how we are.  If you have any other questions, let me know.

some observations

We are working from the time we wake up until dark every day.  We're pretty tired.  Here are some observations:

-We eat so much.  Wherever we are cleaning or packing or clearing trees, people will come by with food and drinks (the best? cold water or cold gatorade).  It's ridiculous how often it happens and yet someone always finds the need to eat.  Last night, we were getting hungry so we decided to leave the back of the house and stand on the road.  The people in the first truck offered us water.  The second: help and a truck.  The third: food.  It was amazing.  Then we headed back to Ally and Aaron's and I made a quadruple batch of that bean zucchini thing.  Seriously, it was SO much.  Maybe two gallons worth.  In 30 minutes, it was gone.  Then we ate dessert.  Apparently manual labor makes you hungry.

-Many people are still in shock.  Most want to talk.  Everywhere we go people are wanting to talk about it, repeating themselves.  I know I've told the same people the same story many times.  So...sorry about that.

-The things that have helped the most: showing up (the people who show up and start working when I or whoever is too disoriented to know what to ask for), food (especially real food as opposed to potato chips, but at this point, we'll take anything), cold drinks, knowing there are people worried about you, gloves, sunscreen, chapstick, tweezers, anyone telling jokes.  I'm not sure my sense of humor is quite ready for telling jokes yet, but it does feel good to laugh.

We're off to a quick one-hour church followed by more clean up.  I'm going to be so strong.