1st Week of March, 2019

This week ended up being very different!  First of all, the kids ended up having no school for the entire week.  Several of the families and teachers had tornado damage, as well as road damage and closures around homes.  I, unfortunately, did have class still.  Sort of.  My 8am and 9am class canceled because both teachers had damage from the tornado.  But, my 11 am class was still held, so I got to wait in the library for several hours :p

 The kids stayed home all day, obviously with no where to go.  Kaitlyn was sick on Monday, but managed to pass it around to Kari and Justin on Tuesday, and Kelsey on Wednesday.  Somehow, Dyl and I managed to not come down with it.  

By Tuesday, after gymnastics, we drove around a little bit to see what we could see.  Turns out, the tornado went right over/behind the kids school.  Besides damage to houses and roads, they couldn't go back to school until it was deemed safe.  This was the kids playground.  There used to be 2 sheds and more playground equipment in the area.

 This is at the corner where you turn into the school.  To be honest, I had no idea there was a house even there.  If you look closely at the trailer, you can see that a tree cut it right in half.

 You can see all the trees that had fallen down as the tornado came through.

 Wednesday was still a long day for me.  But this sign made me smile.  :)  At church that evening, Kaitlyn was set apart as the Beehive secretary.  We also met with the bishopric to get as much planning done for the tornado clean up effort that would happen that weekend.  Turns out, that the local authorities were kind of standing in our way.  They were afraid to let people go in and start cleaning without knowing exactly what was going on.  When the feds came in, they happened to see Chris Zeh standing there, with his neon yellow helping hands shirt on, and told them to move aside and let us do our stuff!  It was certainly gratifying hearing the story, and knowing that we have been able to help so many people in the past.  

 Thursday was my chem lab midterm (not my favorite) and a playdate for the kids (I am pretty sure that Lauren slept over the night before).  Who knew that playing inside a couch could be so fun?!?

 Friday hubby took off to go on a hog hunting trip paid for by one of his subs.  That info will be in a separate post.  

Friday night my parents also got in around 10pm.  Grandpa, hearing of the destruction and having been able to help with hurricane clean up down in Florida several times wanted to come up and help.  I was actually pretty excited for the opportunity to serve.  Hubby had been able to go clean up a few times, but I had always had babies at home, or it was too far away, or I didn't want to stay in a tent with children.  This time, even with hubby gone, I would be able to sleep in my own bed, and grandma would be able to watch the younger kids.  And Kari was old enough that she could come help me too!

Saturday we spent hauling trees and cutting woods.  Pics in a separate post.  We actually spent some time sitting around and not being able to be helpful, because the local area authorities wouldn't release areas to be cleaned, even though we had plenty of workers.

Sunday was church and rest.  Grandma and Grandpa left to go home (after a full day of working the day before) and hubby got home around midnight.