Making a House a Home Again

I feel awful it has taken me this long to update my blog! Austin is helping me create a new and improved blog. In the meantime, check out Rachel Halvorson's blog post about the flood!

http://www.nestegg.typepad.com/

Rachel is the sweetest person ever and she poured her heart into helping making our house a home again. We are forever grateful and so so so blessed!

Thank you Rachel!

Were Back!

Austin and I moved back into our house this past weekend!

We are very excited to be back and enjoying every minute in what feels like, well i guess it is, a brand new home!

We have had so many blessings and have been humbled along the way! I could not ask for better friends and family to have supported us and that continue to support us along the way.

We are hoping to have everything back in order in a couple of weeks!

I will post pictures and more soon!

June Happenings

I'm very behind in postings, but I thought I would give a shout out to my husband for making our 3 year anniversary so special, even in the midst of everything.

I was surprised at work with the lovely bouquet of flowers (shown above) and then a Coach purse!

I have never had a real designer purse so I was very excited! He did really well and I could not be happier!

My mom made a wonderful dinner and we were able to celebrate our anniversary, which I was not sure if we would be able to or not this year!

I am a very lucky and blessed girl!

Like I said in the previous post, this week has been C-R-A-Z-Y!

There are so many decisions when it comes to building a home. Cabinets, door knobs, paint colors, faucets, sinks. Those things don't just show up, someone has to pick them out.

Needless to say, I am now a Lowe's queen! Austin finally decided to go with the subway tile for the bathroom!

Things are really coming together! I can't wait to show the finished product!

Peace, Love, and Happiness- For a day!

This week has been quite busy. Luckily, we were able to escape for a night before it all started.

Last weekend I had a few hours to fill so I went to PD's in Downtown Franklin. Luckily (and I know i'm using this word twice), for Austin's sake, PD's is so far away from our house because if it was close I would probably find myself their every weekend. Take everything I have ever loved or would love to have in my home and you can find it in PD's.

After my PD's trip I snagged a massage! I didn't realize it had been 3 years since my last massage, oops!

THEN, Austin and I decided to go into town and stay at the Hutton Hotel and eat at Bricktops! I ate mussels for the first time. They were actually pretty good! A much needed day of shopping, relaxation, and quality time with the hubby!

41 Days Later

It has been over a month since the flood. We are so blessed to be as far along as we are.

There have been so many ups and downs. Sometimes I feel like a crazy person. I think when we are back in the house and everything is done I won't feel as crazy. Aside from the fact that we are literally displaced from our house, some days I feel completely displaced from the person I was before the flood. For the most part I am okay with that. Since Austin and I got married I have said many times, "okay, now I actually feel like a grown up." Well, "Okay, NOW I AM a grown up." It is not a feeling, it is a reality that you just get over.

One thing that has not really changed about me is my impatience. I am probably the most impatient person. Sometimes that is a good thing, but when your house is flooded and everything is literally everywhere and you are living out of a box, the level of impatience for an impatient person gets somewhat intolerable. Even though I get frustrated when I hear things are going to get pushed back or things are not going to be the same, I am amazed to see how patient Austin is.

I am so excited and of course impatient about what each day has to offer, but I am amazed at the lessons God is teaching me. I am not a perfect person and knowing that is the most freeing thing.

House Update

Reconstruction started this week!!!

Austin and I met with our contractor on Tuesday evening. I think we may have overwhelmed him a bit with our excitement, but he is the nicest guy and he is helping us in so many ways!

I also realized, I do not understand the world of construction, re-construction whatever! I would try and add sentences and words here and there between Edgar and Austin's conversations. They would just stop and sort of look at me. I finally just had to tell them to not listen to me. I guess it would be like if Austin was hanging out with me and my friends at a clothing store and telling us how to dress?

Also, cabinets have the first coat of paint!! They look much better than I thought they would. I was a little scared coming from having the cherry cabinets.

I will upload more pictures soon.

I can't wait to see what they have done this week.

You Look Tired

It has been a while since my last post. I am not very good about keeping up with this. Everyday I think about what to write and then I realize there is so much and then it just gets overwhelming.

So here is something, Austin and I went to Macy's last Saturday to get signed up with the "we are offering 20% off for flood victims" thing. When we got into Macy's Austin walked up to the make-up counter to ask about it. The lady thought we were trying to apply for Red Cross help and we needed to use her phone. After explaining to her again what we wanted she called a manager over to help.

The manager signed us up and it was pretty quick and painless. Then we decided to look around. I found some jeans, SUPRISE! and Austin found some shirts. Well then we went back to the make- up counter, not a great idea.

The manager came back over because the make- up counter woman was having trouble using our macy's gift card, red cross card, credit card, and the "we are offering 20% off for flood victims" card. Wheww! I felt bad for a minute and then I figured if they had lost their house in a flood they would probably be doing the same thing.

So Austin and the manager are trying to ring our stuff up when I realized we were taking over the make-up counter and not buying any make-up. So I decided to act interested. I started picking up random things on the counter and then I looked up at the woman.

She looked at me and said, "You look really tired." I wanted to jump over the counter and ring her neck. Of course I look tired!

Well, I decided to take the nicer route and just agreed because sadly she is right. I have not had a lot of time to really care or notice what my face looks like.

So I am now fully stocked with Eye Brightening Cream and a better concealer. Hopefully I have not offended the people I see on a regular basis the past couple of weeks.

Compared to everything else going on, this is nothing, but it seems easier to blog about these things than the really tough things.

Cindy's Dog and Pony Show

I love this picture. I took it on our way out to my parents house the day we moved in after the flood. It is hard to see Wyatt's face, but Milton looks so serious. I took it to document that they were cuddling, which we have not seen them do since they were little baby puppies.

After I took the picture and looked at it I got a little teary because I wondered maybe we scared them to death with the flood trauma. And then I started thinking about what bad puppy parents we were. Then I started thinking that was stupid because maybe dogs just don't really care. I did tell them the first night of the flood that this was something that was going to make them grow up, not that they really understood what I was saying.

Well, my worries have subsided now that Wyatt and Milton are guests at Cindy's Dog and Pony Show. My mom has been so good about taking care of them along with her two dogs. All four dogs have not been getting along too well, so my mom shifts them around from the backyard to the garage to different rooms in the house. So she started calling it her "Dog and Pony Show." If you call my parents house get ready for her to answer, "Cindy's Dog and Pony Show."

Wyatt and Milton have definitely grown up and are now "socialized." It is hard because we don't have as much time to spend with them now, but I cannot wait to get back in our house and all sit on the couch, well a new couch, but sit there and rest!

Toe Jam

I apologize to those that may take offense to the graphic picture. I took it this morning.

Yesterday, or Friday, May 21, I was at work and decided to work through lunch but I wanted to go grab a bite to eat and bring it back to my desk. I went down to Cheesburger Charlies and got a pretty good looking cheeseburger and I'm not going to lie, I was pretty excited about it.

I got of the elevator approaching the entrance to my office. As I started opening the modern metal/glass door I felt it scrape over my feet.

It wasn't pretty. I screamed and then looked down and was actually quite pissed off.

Well, if my co-workers had not done enough for me at that point, they were up again and rushing to my aid. A co-worker, Amy, whose desk was closest to the door grabbed me and put me in her chair. She told me not to look at my foot. People started gathering around and saying "she needs to go to the hospital."

I started bawling. Usually I would try and be a trooper about something like this and just suck it up. This was the last thing I needed to happen. I was about to sit down at my desk and finally make some headway in some work on my new team. Another set back.

Two co-workers took me to the ER and my mom and Austin met us there. I was nervous, I have not had stitches since I was five years old. It ended up not being that bad, once they gave me five numbing shots. Six stitches later and I am on my way to recovery.

I know that compared to losing our house in the flood and other things going on, this seems minimal, but it was actually what finally broke me.

I am now resting at my parents house and even though I wish I was at our home with Austin working on things, God must have known I just needed to rest this weekend.

Honestly, all you can do is laugh at this point!

Let's Begin

I thought I would post this blog I wrote for my company ServiceSource. Many posts to come, but this pretty much sums up what has been going on in Austin's and I's life as of lately.

On Sunday, May 2, around 8 AM I was laying on the couch watching TV with my husband and my two puppies.

It was raining really hard outside but we were safe inside and it was a typical weekend morning.

Around 10 AM our neighbors called us to tell us to go look at the Harpeth River which is two streets over from our house. We drove down to a field, where we normally take our puppies to play Frisbee. It was a lake. There was no sign of a field that ever existed there.


When we saw that we started to wonder if our street was going to become flooded, but then we decided not to panic. By the time we drove back up our street there were lines of cars coming down from other parts of the neighborhood to see the Harpeth rising.

At that point we thought it might be a possibility that the houses by the river could become flooded.

We went inside and tried to do normal things, such as make lunch. Although, the power was out at this point so my husband began to heat up left over pizza on our grill.

As he was doing that I walked outside and saw around 20 men getting out of trucks and taking bags of sand to the houses right by the river. I started to get a little nervous.

At that moment I looked down the street to my left and the water started filling the street. Then I looked to my right and it started filling the street from that side as well. There are two access points to the Harpeth River in our section of the neighborhood and both of them had started to completely overflow into our street.

I saw my neighbors starting to cry. I ran inside and told Austin we needed to help our neighbors by the river because their houses were going to start getting flooded. I was heartbroken at that point and it was not even a thought that it could get to our house.

We got on our boots and started walking towards the river to help and in a matter of seconds the water was up to our knees. The current got stronger and stronger. At that point I realized something was going to happen that was out of our control, something that sand bags could not do anything about.


I looked over at our house and saw the water swallowing our entire front yard. I told my husband I was going to go back into the house and get the puppies ready and grab anything I could find that we would need.

When I got back in the house I couldn’t think so I called my mom. She told me to grab my wedding dress and put it upstairs. And then she told me to grab my jewelry, which I had just organized into one container, so it was easy to grab. I saw my husband’s wallet and wedding ring on his bedside table and I grabbed those as well.

By the time I did those few things I told my mom on the phone that this was the last time I was going to see my husband and I’s first home this way. We had to get out and get out quick.

I hung up the phone and put the leashes on the dogs and Austin ran inside and helped me get out of the house. We were lucky in the fact that we were second to last on our side of the street and we were able to drive our cars out of our driveway by going through our neighbor’s front yard.

We drove up the street; it was pouring rain and lightning. I was in my car, my husband was in his. He stopped farther up the street where the water was not rushing in like the Ocoee River.

He turned off his car and ran back to our house. I jumped out of mine and yelled after him. He was going to get more things from our house.

I sprinted after him, wearing industrial boots a size too big and an oversized t-shirt that was soaking wet.

My husband’s life was more important than saving a piece of furniture.

By the time I caught up with my husband he was almost waist deep in water standing outside our front door. Neighbors cried and screamed around us. Men scrambled to put sandbags out, trying their hardest to fix a problem that was beyond their control.

I looked at our front porch and memories came into my mind of sitting on the porch with my husband and our beloved golden retriever who passed away last fall. Memories of watering my flowers, while my husband cut the grass, the beautiful things in life that we take for granted. In the second that I stood as far away from the rushing water screaming at my husband to come back to the car I realized that this was the most scared I have ever been in my life.

Austin told me to run fast and get out of the way because the water was coming right for me. He kept telling me to run and so I did. I sprinted back towards the car up the street. I was sobbing, soaking wet running in the hardest rain I have ever seen wondering if my husband was behind me.

When I got back to our cars one of our neighbors was sitting in her car sobbing. I stopped to console her. She was waiting on her friend that was still in her house and was not sure if she was going to make it out or not.

At that point my husband got back to the car. We started driving and then stopped up the street again. Where were we going to go?

There was no way we were going to get anywhere, the interstate was flooded and all the streets surrounding us were flooded. We decided to take our chances and start driving up as far as we could via interstate. We got off on the exit to my parents house, but all the roads were closed because of flooding, which thank God my parents house was okay, they were stranded for a few days.

We saw a motel and my husband got out to see if they had vacancy, but they did not. We sat in our cars for a minute watching the rain pour down, knowing every drop of that rain was adding to more and more flooding in our home.

We remembered our neighbors were going to their family’s house in Dickson, TN.

We gave them a call to see if we could possibly stay with them. They were gracious enough to let us. The interstate was only open from the exit we were at to our neighbor’s family’s house.

Once we got to the Gleason’s house we tried to calm ourselves down, trying to think of all the positive things that could have happened once we abandoned our home. Some more of our neighbors ended up at the Gleason’s because they were trapped as well.

We tried to stay positive.

Around 7 PM the news was on and we were watching it trying to get our minds off of what was happening close to home and realizing Nashville was becoming swallowed by water.

We were watching the news and all of the sudden the helicopter with a camera was over our neighborhood then right on top of our houses.

We could only see our roofs. We all cried.

I have always had a great fear of fire, but never did I think this was a possibility.

The next morning some neighbors that stayed farther up in our neighborhood walked down to our section to see if we could get in our houses. We were shocked to find out that the water had actually gone down and we could get in.

From the adrenaline of the shock and the trauma we started getting really anxious to go back to our homes.

That morning, Mary Bright sent me a text message to see if ServiceSource was going to be open. I sent her a text back and told her I was not sure because my home was flooded and I had not heard anything about work.

Around 10 AM we headed for our home to assess the damage.

When we drove into the neighborhood there were cars everywhere. Our quiet and sweet neighborhood was surrounded with volunteers, onlookers, and what we were dreading, potential looters.

We drove up to our house where we saw our neighbors across the street putting their dining room table out on their lawn. The memories came “flooding” in. We had spent many a nights sitting at that table laughing and sharing stories. Then I saw their couch, their brand new couch they were so proud of. I remember going over and seeing it for the first time. I was heartbroken.

My husband went into our home first. I followed behind. When I walked in the floors were wet and dirty and it smelled awful. Our dog’s crates were in opposite rooms from where they normally sat. Our furniture that I had spent many a night dreaming of purchasing and decorating, sat soaked and ruined. I was in shock until I walked in the bedroom and saw my laundry sitting on the bed from where I had started to fold it that Sunday morning. The crisp white and blue bedding was brown from the water. I screamed. I had to walk out of the house because being in there was too hard.



At that point, Mary Bright sent me another text message to see if we needed a water pump. I told her we didn’t need a pump but maybe some help because my family was trapped in their home and my husband’s mother was on her way. We needed immediate help. We stood outside in shock just staring at all of our losses. Mary sent me a message saying some SSI co-workers were on there way to our home. I was so relieved. Thinking around 5 or so people would show up.


My mother in law was able to make it out to our house and she started helping with all she could. We opened the cabinets up and I saw all of the gifts we had received at our wedding showers sitting in muddy water. I couldn’t be in the house.

I was walking around not really knowing what to do and then all of a sudden ServiceSource co-workers started pouring into our home. People that I have never even had a conversation with before were tearing out drywall and boxing up anything salvageable.

I was overwhelmed with gratitude and joy. My mother in law was able to leave and take our dogs, Wyatt and Milton, home with her into air conditioning. It was hot and sunny that Monday, completely opposite from the day before.

SSI co-workers were all over our house and yard. Our neighbors were asking where they all came from and I was so proud to say that they were all my co-workers.


Some girls helped me sort through clothes and items that had to be thrown away and then some got bags of dry cleaning together.

Co-workers piled their cars up with clothes and anything they could find that could maybe be saved.

SSI brought a U-Haul to our house and the guys started loading our soaking wet furniture into it to take it to the dump. That alone was a blessing. I cannot imagine having to load that furniture up and throw it away.

It was so overwhelming, but we were three days ahead all of our neighbors.

After everyone left our house around eight that night, my husband and I stood on our porch with a close friend and wondered what we were going to do with our belongings that we were so thankful to be able to save, but were sitting in our unlocked home. China, pictures, my husband’s desktop computer, Christmas decorations, and the list goes on. It wasn’t just the looting we were afraid of, there was the potential that when the power came back on that our houses could catch on fire or that some people would just start fires in their homes to see if insurance would pay. There were so many fearful thoughts running through our minds.

SSI came back on Wednesday that week and piled all of our salvageable items into a U-Haul and took it to storage. In all the hours that I have spent call shadowing and swapping sales techniques with my co-workers, I never would have pictured working together on the largest project I have ever had to tackle. But they were right there by my side.

My husband and I were so grateful because we were able to get everything that was left out of the house and were able to focus on what was next.

I am still overwhelmed and will always be overwhelmed with joy and gratitude towards ServiceSource and the people that make the Nashville branch what it is.

Even though there are so many things going on, I am so proud to walk into this office at ServiceSource and know that the hearts of my co-workers are so giving and so sacrificing.

I honestly have never seen or experienced such willingness to help.

My husband and I are living with my parents right now and working on rebuilding our home. We have begun a new chapter and a new journey in our lives.

"Someday"

I thought I would begin this blog with a song I heard on the way home from work tonight. It motivated me during this whole situation or should I say, life changing experience.

"Someday"

Rob Thomas

You can go

You can start all over again

You can try to find a way to make another day go by

You can hide

Hold all your feelings inside

You can try to carry on when all you want to do is cry

[Chorus:]

And maybe someday

We'll figure all this out

Try to put an end to all our doubt

Try to find a way to make things better now and

Maybe someday we'll live our lives out loud

We'll be better off somehow

Someday

Now wait

And try to find another mistake

If you throw it all away then maybe you can change your mind

You can run, oh

And when everything is over and done

You can shine a little light on everything around you

Man it's good to be someone

[Chorus]

And I don't want to wait

I just want to know

I just want to hear you tell me so

Give it to me straight

Tell it to me slow

Cause maybe someday

We'll figure all this out

We'll put an end to all our doubt

Try to find a way to just feel better now and

Maybe someday we'll live our lives out loud

We'll be better off somehow

Someday

[x2]

Cause sometimes we don't really notice

Just how good it can get

So maybe we should start all over

Start all over again