May 2011

This month has been surprisingly eventful! For Mother's Day I got a beautiful patio set from Brevin and the kids.

I got it a little bit early and the day after I was outside with the daycare kids sitting under the umbrella when Hadley asked me to help her get into the swing. So, for about 10 seconds I was up helping Hadley, turned around to go back to the table and watched my brand new table and umbrella blow away in the wind! I was SOOO mad!! Mad at myself for leaving the umbrella up with me not right there and mad at the stupid gust of wind! Luckily the next day I got everything replaced (for FREE) from the places we had bought it just the day before :) SO Happy!!

Then came Aiden's birthday...The girls had a blast at the park riding their bikes and playing on the equipment.

Then on Sunday, May 22, 2011 came the devastation. The day started pretty normally. Hadley woke up with goopy eyes (I thought it was pink eye) so we decided she probably didn't need to go to church and share the wealth. So, I went to sacrament meeting by myself and then when I got home Brevin went to the rest of church so he could teach his Sunbeams class. We had plans after church to go to my mom's house for lunch and to help her out with getting her couponing binder set up (I love couponing!! But, that will have to wait for another post.) After lunch we made a last-minute decision to go to Brevin's parents house (in Carthage) since we hadn't seen them in a while. Jordan went outside with his bow to get a squirrel and the rest of us went out on the deck to watch him. We noticed the "popcorn clouds" and said how they usually don't mean good news. (Little did we know how much bad news those popcorn clouds would bring!) Jordan started to make a fire to cook his squirrel over (new rule at the White's house: You shoot it, you eat it!) when the rain started. It rained and rained and rained and HARD!! We had some thunderstorm warning and some tornado watches/warnings, but we weren't really worried...pretty normal for SW Missouri. It started to get really bad outside...that's when we started to see debris flying through the air. It was unreal the size of the things we were seeing flying through the sky like they were feathers! We decided we had better get in the basement. So, Tina grabbed her photo albums she wanted saved in case it got bad at their house (LOL!!) and we headed downstairs. We watched the skies from the basement and when it had calmed down we decided to head home (not really understanding what had just happened). We got in the car and headed towards Joplin with the radio on. We ran into some more bad rain and wind and heard on the radio what had just happened to Joplin and my heart sank. I just KNEW that we didn't have our home anymore! So, we took the kids back to the house to stay with grandma and grandpa and Brevin and I headed to our house...or what we thought would be left of it. We got to 20th street just outside of town (I live on 12th right in town) when traffic came to a screeching hault. We sat for a few minutes and Brevin decided he wanted to get out and run to the house. I stayed with the car and creeped my way to the house. As I got closer and closer to the house my heart sank more and more. Houses all around mine were gone, just GONE! I had seen all these houses just hours before and now they were reduced to rubble! I was certain that we wouldn't have anything left! I got to 13th and Duquesne (about 3 or 4 blocks from my house) and things started to look up. I got on my street and RELIEF!! We still had our home and so did our neighbors! No damage, no broken windows!! We had some trees down, but that was NOTHING!

My poor patio furniture...

I got lucky this time...only one tile broke!! One of the chairs was pretty banged up and in the neighbors yard, but still useable!

The swingset BARELY got missed!!

My favorite tree in the whole yard got crushed by one of the bigger ones :( It was a beautiful Redbud...I will miss the purple buds in the Spring!

The back porch was splattered with insulation and mud, but everything was still there!

Some sort of plastic hanging from the power lines...

I am so grateful that we werent at home when it happened and that our home is still here! Just three houses down from mine they are gone! Just a block away from my house is the 15th Street Wal-Mart and the Plaza Apartments!! We are so blessed! My heart aches for those that lost their homes and loved ones. I know that Joplin will rebuild and things will get back to somewhat normal, but nothing will replace those loved ones that so many lost. I am so grateful for the knowledge that I have that they will all be reunited one day. It will be a long road ahead.

Pepsi warehouse/offices:

Flying J:

Wal-Mart:

The Plaza Apartments:

On a much lighter note, next came Jordan's graduation.

Brevin and I went and left the kids with my mom. There were some bad storms coming into the area again that night, so as soon as it was over we darted to the house to be with the kids. We ended up in the basement again with the tornado sirens going off, but luckily nothing happened!

Then on Memorial Day we went over to Trudy and Brian's house to have a pool party. The girls absolutely LOVE swimming!! They are getting to be quite the little daredevils!!

Hadley on the slide:

Jayden on the slide:

Kaleb on the slide:

We put our house up for sale. There are a lot of people in Joplin looking for homes and buying homes without even seeing them! So, we figured we would take advantage of the newly developed housing market and try to get out of Joplin (something we have wanted for some time now!) We are hoping to find something to rent that is a much smaller payment than our house and save up for a while for the house of our dreams :) Also, Brevin has a business idea that we are hoping to get started on soon too! I think it is a great idea and Brevin is very enthusiastic about it!

Daycare is slow right now. I have two families that I babysit for that lost their homes completely. One family moved to Arkansas, but they still work in Joplin so I still get to watch one of their kids (the other is starting school next week and has been staying with grandma so they don't have to pay for her to come to me too) and the other is staying with family in Kansas City and I am not sure if she will be coming back any time soon. I am hoping to get back to my old routine with the kids, but it has been hard with everyone's new schedules due to the recent events. Things will eventually work themselves out and get back to normal or to a new sense of normal (the eventually part is what I don't like!)

Aspen and Hadley are getting so big and developing such wonderful personalities! They never cease to amaze me! I love those girls more than anything in the world and am so grateful to be their mother!