May 2010

Well, it's been 3 weeks since the big flood. After all the flurry of activity, things are settling down and the real work begins. There is still work to be done and many people are still out of their homes because they are unlivable. The hard work has begun - I don't mean tearing out the dry-wall or looking for anything salvageable - I mean dealing with the government and the banks and all the other paperwork it's going to take to get things back to some semblance of normal. Please continue to keep those affected in your prayers.

My family and my home were not affected directly, but that does not mean we are not affected emotionally by this. The entire city - and possibly the entire state - is dealing with the emotional affects of all this rain. And while we have had sunny days, it has rained several times since the flood.

This is an amazing city. It is my favorite place. I love to visit different places, but will never live anywhere else. This is one of the best articles I have read regarding our city and this flood:

http://www.section303.com/we-are-nashville-4366

And these videos sums up the positive attitude here. The sun is out and we are recovering.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pFjaQoOdJvI
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nE9m63c3sBU&feature=channel

I still cry when I watch these and the pictures of the Grand Ole Opry House are so eerily like the Titanic pictures I have to close my eyes.

If you live here and can help go to http://www.hon.org/ and sign up to help. Or just check local city and community websites. Most are organizing cleanup days to help with public areas. For instance, Hendersonville (where we live), has most of the parks - or at least parts of them - still closed. And every baseball/softball in town with one exception was under water.

If you can help financially, there are many, many organizations helping out.

Second Harvest provides food and other necessities to people and organizations: http://www.secondharvestmidtn.org/?q=node/54

The Community Foundation of Middle Tennessee: http://cfmt.org/floodrelief/

Churches of Christ Disaster Relief: www.disasterreliefeffort.org/

Of course the Red Cross is also helping out.

The very best thing anyone out there can do to help is pray.

This is a strong city. Opryland Hotel and Opry Mills mall may be closed for 6 months, but I'm pretty sure, when they reopen, you won't be able to get near them for a while. Many people are displaced and shell-shocked, but all are working to recover. And I'm betting most will stay where they were. The Grand Ol' Opry House may be closed - but not one show was missed. Even the country music stars here were affected. Some lost their homes or had damage, some lost their instruments at Sound Check. But they were on the phone and donating their time and money to this amazing city - which for a lot of them is not their hometown, but their adopted home. Many, many businesses around here have donated a percentage of the proceeds on specific nights to local charities.

I am so proud (even though I live just outside the city) to call my self a Nashvillian!

It has been too long...

Since I've written anything. I can't even figure out what I've missed. Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Year's, Valentine's...Yeah, we do pretty much the same thing for those every year, so there's nothing interesting there. At least not to anyone but us. We're pretty traditional people. And while we don't plot out every minute during the holidays, we usually stick to the same "schedule" so we can see both families and still have time for our little family.

We've had an interesting winter here, that's for sure. My kids finally got to experience true sledding. Living in the south, that happens once every few years and my kids weren't old enough to enjoy that kind of snow last time. This time it was FUN! But, they've missed 10 days of school this year and that's cutting it close with the "built-in" days. We're already going right up to June with the new schedule and none of us wants it to go any longer.

I'm thinking that 9 & 5 are pretty good ages. Even though we're dealing with the smart mouth growing in on the 9 year old and the 5 year old's sudden inability to hear his name being called. But they truly are enjoying their lives and everything is new to them for some reason. That's fun to watch and it reminds us what it is to be amazed by every day life. And they're both remembering the fun.

Maybe I'll think of something more interesting next time...