Our New Normal

A HUGE thank you and HUGE hug to each and every person that left a comment on my blog, I've read every comment, emailed me and just sent good vibes to my family. Your words of kindness and love really helped and is helping me get though rough days. Another big hug to Summer & Brandi, who wrote the sweetest blog posts about my family, just because they cares about us. Thank you Summer & Brandi love you!! In the end, I feel blessed that my family is all good! That is the hugest blessing of all, that we are all a family together still. We are hanging in there and adjusting to our new normal, and I think once we progress begins on re-building our house I'll feel good and once we get though all the insurance mumbo jumbo I'll feel calm again. 

I wanted to say my many thank yous much earlier, but I just haven't had the words, which is odd for me, because if you've been reading my blog for a while you know I'm a wordy girl, lol. It feels good to type and write this post. Finally writing it all down is helping me, I've said before I love blogging and sharing and getting my thoughts & ideas out there. I guess I've needed time to compose my thoughts and it helped that we've settled into a temporary home, instead of bouncing around from hotel to hotel.

That day I was having lunch with one of my good girlfriends when I received a phone call from an unknown number, I normally never answer those. On the other end of the line was Hasani calling me out of breathe with panic in his voice, saying our fence was on fire. I wasn't freaked, I figured everything would be fine and it must be a little fire. Seconds later he called again, saying our garage was on fire, then the phone went dead. By this time I was almost to my car, when he called again saying the fire truck was there and it doesn't look to good. My body almost melted into the asphalt near my car, but I knew I couldn't have a breakdown in the parking lot, after-all Avery was with me and I needed to drive 30 mins back to our house, I knew our older son and my nephew who was over where fine, thank god, but I didn't know about Mojo. As I was driving I all I could think about were the words our house is on fire, and then I would think of Mojo and wonder if he was ok? What if he was in his crate and they forgot him inside our dining room, or what if he was in our backyard and couldn't escape the fire? Too many thoughts going on in my head. 

It was one of the longest drives of my life and I felt sick to my stomach, and dizzy. As I neared our street, I saw a massive fire hose in the middle of the street a street up from our home. I wasn't able to pull down our street, there were four of five fire trucks blocking our street. I went around the corner and parked at the very end of our street, I looked back and saw that Avery was asleep. I called Hasani and it went straight to voice mail. I got out of my car to see our neighbors staring at our house and the fire trucks. By the time I got their the fire was already out, and our home was still standing. But the whole thing was surreal, seeing the Fire Fighters hose down our home, it was crazy. I'm so thankful for the Fire Fighters for saving our home, as they told me it couldn't have been much worse, thinking of the much worse brings me to tears. I thank God every day for the blessings I have in my life. Though all of this, Hasani has been my Rock, the shoulder I've been able to cry on, lean on, complain to he's just an amazing person and father and I'm so luck to have (still) him in my life. 

As for what caused the fire, we have no clue, just that it started outside. They are investigating the origin of cause. Our Neighbors actually saw the fire and called 911 and Hasani heard the fire. I know that sounds strange, but he heard the crackling noise, which sounded like running water. When he realized it was a fire, he screamed for Tabari and my nephew to run out of the house. The fire quickly speared from our fence, to our garage then into our kitchen / dining room and into the living room. The whole house has smoke, and water damage. It spread super fast inside house because our AC Unit was running while the house was on fire. Fire smoke it the worst smell, it gets into every fiber and I do mean every fiber. 

A few days after our fire, our insurance company  had our home was tested for Lead and Asbestos { due to its age } Our home was positive for Asbestos in the linoleum which our faux wood floors were floating on and in the drywall (mud and tape). The Abatement company will be at our home this week, to remove the Asbestos. We are still in the early stages of putting our home back together, we've heard it may take three months which would be wonderful. Last week was a rough week for me, 97% of our personal belongings are gone either damaged by the fire or smoke and asbestos damaged. I know its just 'stuff.' but I love my stuff, I was telling my girlfriend its likes like 80% of our houses 'stuff' tells a story, our story. Then there's stuff we can never get back like pictures and my husbands wedding ring. He was doing dishes and took it off in the kitchen that morning, we still have found it. Plain and simple it just sucks. 

So I look into the future, that makes me smile. I look forward to filling our small home with lots of love again, and can't wait to hear the sound of laughter in our house. My family loves to laugh! I know it sounds strange, but I love my home even more now. Its filled with so many happy memories in the 3.5 years we've lived here. We had our Wedding Reception in the backyard, celebrated the Holidays here, and just last June brought home Avery and just recently celebrated his birthday in the backyard. Not to mention all the DIY Projects we've done, makes me love our little house even more. 

I hope to be back blogging 2-3 days a week, maybe starting this week? :) We have no Internet access at our home right now, boo! Hopefully we will find a new provider, its been tricky in our temporary apartment  they use fiber optics at home its DSL! So its hard to find one that can just move with us, back home :) Anyways, I'll get all that sorted it out soon. I'm able to use the Internet at the apartment office :)  Pretty soon, I hope to be blogging about the construction, picking out paint colors, fabric, looking at furniture and playing around with a few ideas and finally getting a pretty kitchen. We were so close, sigh.

Don't forget to follow me on Pinterest (thank goodness for smart phones, lol I can pin on mine!) I'm also on Instagram @mrsclh 

Here are a few of my recent Instagram pictures. Avery playing with his mail box! I found this little wood mail box on Amazon. He loves it :) It even came with wood mail: post cards, and stamps. 

Avery inspecting his homemade yogurt Popsicle. I'll share my little recipe I used soon. He loved his Popsicle, perfect healthy treat for summertime, heck anytime. In the background Hasani and Tabari are playing Nintendo. Notice the cords? They are playing old school Nintendo, for my childhood. My mom let us borrow it. I've had so much fun playing games I loved as a child with Tabari. Him and I love playing Mario Brothers 2 - I'm loving the retro graphics.

Thank you all again!! Your support really means the so much to me. Everything I hold dear to my heart it in the picture above, my boys, LOVE THEM

Update: I forgot to mention our little dog, is safe and sound! Tabari grabbed him when he ran out the door. Quick thinking on Tabari's part saved our beloved family member. He's adjusting really well to our new temporary spot!