Community Helpers

We are alive, the tree has been removed and we are officially in "recovery" mode! The tree fell on Sunday morning and by Sunday evening, not only was our house and yard in shambles, but Lucy also got really sick. She caught her brother's cold (I blame pre-school!) and had terrible congestion. Every time we put her down she would get stuffed up and would wake up 10 minutes later - it was torture for her and us. We were trying all the the old tricks (steam baths, vapor rub, nose suctioning), even resorting to a steady stream of baby Tylenol which we rarely will give to the kids. None of us really slept on Sunday night and she was in so much discomfort all day Monday, that she never really napped. While that was going on, we were scrambling, trying to get the insurance people out here along with the tree guys and the contractors to start accessing the damage. Another draw back of living in a small town - all the professionals were doing their friends and families homes first so we ended up on the bottom of everyone's lists. It was incredibly frustrating. The standard answer - we will get there by the end of the week. By Tuesday, we were all a total wreck, but what goes down, must come up, right?!? Tuesday night, Lucy started feeling better and we finally got a tree company out to give us an estimate. Lucy slept really well on Tuesday night, giving Bruce and I the rest we desperately needed. By Wednesday we were all feeling much much better, we had a fantastic afternoon at the library and the tree was removed in the evening!!! YEAH! We are finally seeing some progress.
So that is our week, hope y'all feel updated. Thanks to those of you that called and e-mailed your support and concern - it means soooo much.

Miss Angel put together another incredibly awesome library program yesterday. It was "community helpers" day and the local fire department came out. For the kids, the highlight was getting to sit in the truck. For the parents though, the highlight was the program inside. Griffin has been lucky to interact with firefighters before but this was the first time he has been around a fireman in full gear. The fire chief made an excellent point, telling us that this age group tends to get scared of the firefighters and will hide from them, even if trapped by fire. They tend to hide in closets or under blankets, making the fireman's job so much harder. They proved the point by having one fireman put all his gear on, including turning on his breathing mask (very Darth Vader) and talking to the kids. Sure enough, there was more than one child scared, hiding behind Moms. Griffin was the first one up to shake his hand, being a guy who loves the thrill of being scared. Anyways, to you friends with young ones, if you have the chance, expose your kids to a similar situation...it may be an invaluable experience one day. Now, Bruce and my job is to put together some sort of fire escape plan and teach it to Griffin...better safe than sorry.
Miss Angel and her fan club.