One Month Out

  It is hard to believe that it's been a month since our house fire.  It's strange - it seems that my memory has lost complete hours, days, and even weeks since the fire.  I was talking to my friend Erin about training for the St. Luke's Half Marathon in April.  She asked how many weeks I had to train and I told her 13 - she kind of looked at me and said that couldn't be right.  Later, I looked at my calendar and I was way off - I only had 10 weeks left.  I then remembered that I had counted up how many weeks I had to train the day before the fire -- and my brain just completely erased those three weeks from my memory.  It's so strange how the brain deals with trauma and stress!

 But anyway, we are doing very well.  We are pretty much moved into our temporary house...still finding it strange to have to be purchasing things that we don't have (the worse was when I didn't have a wine bottle opener - had the bottle, just no opener!!!) but things are starting to feel kind of normal there.  Our house is currently under demolition.  Here are a few pictures Mike took yesterday of the process.  Very happy they found a bell that belonged to my great grandmother, Maud Smith, who was a school teacher.

 People continually amaze Michael and me with their generosity and giving spirit.  Just last night, my students sang in the AllenCapella Showcase at William Allen High School.  Mike used to work with the director of this group and knew several of the students in the choir.  They donated $1,000 of the proceeds to the twins' college fund.  Simply amazing!!  All of this has inspired Michael and me to be more giving in the future as well.  We will be paying it forward!

 So, here we go -- our month in review!

The cats are doing very well...my plants in the background are a different story.  I am trying to nurse them back to life but they aren't looking too good...

Bath time has been an adventure lately.  Thank you to whoever gave us all the fun crafts for the bath!

 And when your temporary house has a jacuzzi...you use it!

Home on a snow day - time for bathing suits!!!

 Felt good to have our first family dinner post-fire..

 We've been enjoying all of the FUN stuff people have given us.  We make sure to remind the twins daily that everything we are being given is because people want to help us in our time of need.  We went through our blankets over the weekend and the twins donated a few to the church to those who are in need.  I am so glad that we are able to turn this disaster into a lesson of giving for the children!

Super cute outfit from Mrs. Richter!!  THANK YOU!

This is what it looks like when your clothes/blankets/curtains come back from the cleaners!

We've been very happy to see what has been saved from the fire...here is a blanket that Uncle Matty's mom sewed for the twins' baby shower!  You can see Cam's curtains that I sewed in the background - yeah!

 We finally made it up to Wyalusing.  We were supposed to have gone the weekend right after the fire.  I am so glad we were able to get up there to visit my Grandma and Grandpa, Mrs. Dibble and of course Bah-Bah and Shorty!

 Here we are hanging out at Grandpa Carr's pond.  It was a beautiful day!

 You know, just playing on a gas pad...doesn't everyone in northeast Pennsylvania do this??

 We had a nice visit with Mrs. Dibble....loved her "Prince" and "Princess" Chair!

 And the twins are doing much better.  We had a rough two weeks, but they seem to be doing ok now!

 Finally, we are very thankful for friends who are trying to replace things that are lost.

Picture on the left my friend Jamie instantly got printed for us.  Picture on the right was one of the many pictures Shawn Henfling got reprinted for us.

Our mantra for life moving forward.