I had a birthday, Carson had a birthday, I got sick (and better) Carson got sick, Michigan won in basketball (semi-finals of Final 4), Carson got better, Michigan lost in the championship, Mallory got sick, Carson had his 4-yr old well-child visit, Mallory was still sick, Mallory got better, Rick felt sick and drank ginger ale and felt better.
And that, my friends, was the first two weeks of April.
Category: Miscellaneous
The Dexter Tornado ~ a year later
March 15, 2013. The anniversary of the tornado that messed up our neighborhood.
I wasn’t as emotional yesterday as I thought I was going to be (ill-behaved children and a Michigan basketball loss helped keep my mind off the anniversary), but it a milestone I was happy to pass.
I don’t need to re-write about what happened on March 15, 2012 – you can read about it here (March 15, 2012 post). And I don’t need to re-write about what the days were like after the tornado – you can read about that here (March 17, 2012 post). And I …
Two months out
I don’t know that I’ve ever written about how the storm affected the rest of Dexter. While our neighborhood suffered lots of damage, the main road north out of Dexter got hit pretty badly too.
Dexter-Pinckney Road is the road we take to get to our lake house. It was closed after the tornado and when we were finally able to drive out it 2+ weeks later, it was a huge shock to see the devastation out that way.
I don’t know if I’d just gotten used to seeing blue tarps and dumpsters and the signs of damage and rebuilding in our …
Five weeks after the tornado
I haven’t written about the tornado since we were a week-ish out.
It’s funny when I go back and read about the damage, or rather lack of damage, I thought we had. We knew we had some missing shingles and some damaged siding, and a busted up garage door and screen, but in the past month, we’ve discovered other damage.
We had a structural engineer come inspect our house a few weeks ago; he determined that we were very lucky in that we had lots of bracing in our attic space and that it probably saved our house from losing …
Durings & Afters
I took some after pictures of our neighbors’ homes today – just to compare what they looked like a week and two days ago.
It’s crazy to see how green the grass is, and how a new roof makes everything look brand new so fast!
The week after the tornado
We are a week and two days out from March 15.
And it’s hard to remember what life was like before that day.
Our life now involves having to give our address (and possibly show ID) to the sheriffs at the entrances to our subdivision. It involves looking down anytime you are in the yard so you can keep checking for the ever-elusive glass we keep finding. It involves giving hugs and support to your neighbors and friends who were more affected by the tornado. It involves seeing more dads at dance class on Monday, as everyone is sticking closer …
A little bit of normal
The day after the tornado, after spending most of the day talking to contractors (and watching our neighbors talk to disaster recovery people and dry-cleaning people) and picking up about a million pieces of glass, it seemed that there was nothing else to do but sit on our deck, and celebrate that we were alive and uninjured, and surrounded by great people.
Amy & Bob toasting to a covered roof.
The days after our tornado
We’ve had a pretty surreal couple of days. Waking up Friday morning and looking outside was numbing – our neighborhood looked like a warzone. The disaster relief and cleanup teams had rolled in Thursday night (to apply tarps to roofs and start securing homes), but waking up and seeing everything by the light of day was tough.
School was cancelled for Friday, so I planned on staying home that day, and I talked Rick into staying home for at least the morning. I didn’t know what we needed to do, but I felt it was best for us to stay …
The day we had a tornado
We experienced a tornado today. We were fortunate that our house is undamaged and everyone is safe, but homes in our neighborhood didn’t fare so well.
So – here is how our Thursday March 15, 2012 played out.
Carson had a dentist appointment after school (he did great, I think because he got to watch SportsCenter while the dentist cleaned his teeth), and then we hurried home to eat because Mallory had rock climbing.
The kids were playing outside and there were constant rumblings of thunder, like for 30 minutes straight. Then I heard the tornado sirens. I remember thinking “That’s weird. Why …
2011 Christmas Tree
Here is our Christmas tree this year. No, we don’t have crazy funky lights, it’s just a filter we used on the lens that makes the lights all extra glowy or whatever. And it is a little hard to see here, but I’ll try to get a better picture of all of the candy canes Carson put on the bottom of the tree.
I am so excited for Christmas this year. We will actually be home for Christmas (Rick too!) and I’m fired up to do up Santa (complete with footprints in the house and everything). SO EXCITED.