Waiting...

I'm drawing pictures and floor plans, working nights (on a show), crying a bit more than usual (for all the positivity this is really hard), getting so frustrated with waiting - nothing is happening, not knowing - anything - it feels like, keeping close to my Tim, thinking about tiles and stainless steel kitchens (flood proofing), planning my ma's birthday cake (I love picking birthday cakes), listening to this band a lot. And yes, it's hard to have time to be here. I am still reading blogs when I can and getting excited about these two lovely ladies having babies. Normal blogging will resume but just like everything in my life at the moment, I have no idea when.

Nothing but thank you

This is an email we received from a member of the team that helped us clean the mud out of our house. They stayed with us for several hours and gave us lunch. We have no words to express how thankful we are for this team of volunteers. Volunteers people! We both tear up at the mere mention of the RFS now.
It's really hard, new and overwhelming being on the receiving end of charity. We've been inundated by support from our friends. People traveling down to help us scrub walls, people sending us cards and vouchers. Having to take feels strange and having nothing to offer back except thank you and a promise of a celebration when we have our home again.
It's weird being in a neighborhood that's been stripped. House after house stands empty, doors and windows open to let any dry air in, no lights on at night, no traffic, no people sounds - just frogs and mosquitoes. But whilst we are in this lonely place we don't feel alone. We feel comforted in our sadness - our shiny fledgling life that was just becoming familiar and stopped so suddenly, at least we have our friends and family and neighbors. We are so sad but so grateful. We are saying thank you thank you but we are speechless.

The email:

How to meet your neighbors...

Well, as I keep on saying to people, it's starting to look like we are renovating not that we've just been attacked by a metre and a half of muddy water. The streets are super quiet as not many can live in their homes at the moment and the careful reverence of the ultimate question to neighbors you meet for the first time at the giant skip on each street: Are you insured? A lot are. A lot aren't. "Ohh. Shit." If not. "Yes thank goodness" in reply. I think we're gonna be okay.
The fun stuff. Head down scrubbing, scrubbing then looking up as you finish off a door handle to see the room you once new, it was there all along. Ripping off covered up bits of the original house. We found both fireplaces, the original wood fired oven, the original cedar paneling... oh and a well.
Having friends over to help and hitting beer o'clock. Cleaning the bleach off our hands. Making list after list. Using the word Floodurtunity.
Still to do: Waiting on the final word from the insurers, meticulously clean each leaf of our plants that are trying to survive, hosing them doesn't work. Pulling nails out of walls, removing the entire kitchen and putting it in the skip... and more.
Oh and we've been on the front page of the local rag. Tim somehow already knew how to do the serious but hopeful look into the middle distance, I'm trying not to laugh about being asked to look serious but hopeful at the middle distance, Lola is pissed off about not being allowed to jump on the journalist short white dress (yeah nice choice to wear in a disaster zone lady!). I wish the giant MYSTERY headline was to do with us but alas no.

If you were wondering...

That's what a house that has had 5foot of flood water in it looks like. I'm not going to very present for the next little while. Whilst fixing the above, I need to try and work too. Thanks for all your kind comments and prayers. It's really appreciated.

Things to be Thankful For*

Today this is an especially easy but also an especially hard one to write. I can count my blessings until the cow jumps over the moon but at the moment its not really making me feel much better. None the less - in order to keep up appearances (fake it until you make it yes?).

* I'm thankful our house is still standing (stabely I hope)
* I'm thankful that i live in a country where it is organised enough to evacuate me (twice) in case of a disaster.
* I'm thankful we have friends who have a place for us to stay in their house and who make us feel at home.
* I'm thankful for all the offers of assistance physically and fiscally from dear dear friends.
* I'm thankful for peoples sympathy. So far I feel like everyone else has realised much more than I have what a crap thing this is.
* I'm thankful no one in my affected area has died (it's terrible that people in other flood affected areas have.)
* I'm thankful we have our booze collection with us and enough underpants to keep on rotation.
* I'm thankful I live near my parents and that we are in this together (they are also under water). Not that im thankful they got wet too. That sucks.
* I'm thankful to the local library for forgiving us the loss of some of their property.
* I'm thankful for distractions. For once.

Thanks for all your sweet comments. Your thoughts are something I am super thankful for too right now.

ps. Anyone want to send me some wellies right now? That'd be awesome. {image}

Linking up with Maxabella.

Under water.

Well that's the worst of it. We are the little blue house in the pictures. The waters receding now we hear and we are just waiting, feeling a bit dysfunctional, getting upset, feeling okay again, going to public meetings and cheering on the SES. We feel incredibly blessed to live in a first world country where grants and support are available to us. We're feeling incredibly tight for money. We're feeling incredibly close to each other, checking in on our feelings (or telling them to the dog) every few hours. We're feeling bored and confused about what to do while we wait. But mostly we're feeling lucky. Lucky to have building insurance at least. Lucky to have a place to stay, not being in an evacuation centre. Lucky to have so many offers of help. Lucky we've only got a dog so far not chooks and fish and goodness gracious babies!

wet, wet, wet.

This isn't one of those usual, I wish it would stop raining its been such a crap summer posts. In fact, right now the weather where I am is glorious. Except. I'm not at my house, we've been evacuated. With the river predicted to reach 10 metres, that means our house is going to get wet. Wet, wet,wet.
I spent most of yesterday pretending it wasn't happening. It was too annoying, too unfair and too unlikely. Everyone had said it wouldn't be as bad as the 2010 flood, and anyway, floods aren't meant to happen every 2 years, they happen every 20 years. In 2010, North Wagga got cut off and water inched up to the top of the levee banks, but it didn't make it over. All that moving, all that evacuation, it was all okay, not even a clean up needed. At 5pm yesterday, the SES realised it was going to be worse than 2010, and that means the levee could overflow.
We got most of our stuff out of our house in about 2 hours. Everyone was helping everyone else on our street. Two family friends rocked up to our house with their ute and burly son, and said "Hello we haven't seen you since you were a little little girl, what shall we move?". They took a lot of our stuff (including the smeg and piano!) up to their garage right on top of a hill. They just jumped in and did it, I was dithering and still telling myself, "Well we might have to evacuate but I'm sure the water won't come over, it'll be fine."
When we arrived at our (very new!) friends house in central Wagga at 10pm last night, I had a wave of panic. Crap. We should have gotten everything out. Stuff that was deemed not important and replacable has just been put up higher, but not 3 meters higher. It's okay. We are blessed in so many ways. We have beautiful friends to stay with - who even ave a super big and secure back yard for our Lola, we have insurance. We have each other. It's okay. It's just a freakin' bummer.
So, now we play the waiting game. Waiting for the river to peak, waiting for the water to subside, waiting to see what the damage is. Despite the annoying thing that we only just unpacked, we have so much less to loose. We only have a months worth of gardening to loose, only one rooms new paint job. It's gonna be fine. It's gonna be fine. It's gonna be fine.

{Pictures filched off the SES facebook page for the Riverina. The second is of the dam which is overflowing.}

Things to Be Thankful for*

* Free figs and jam, pictures above!
* All this rain, it's a little bit floody in the front garden, but our house is dry and it sounds marvelous on the tin roof.
* I've started my job teaching at the uni again. I have a big class, but it's okay. It's going a-ok.
* We made 2 new friends at the welcome to Wagga event! Hooray! Friends!
* Strepsils, tissues, honey and cough syrup. I've been batteling a cold turned cough all this week. le sigh.
* You sweet people! How nice to have so many of you here, saying lovely things and filling me with a sense of being!
* Bicycles. Having gone through enough car dramas these last few weeks to last me quite a while thankyouverymuch I will never complain about getting a flat tyre again!
* We do have our car back now.
* Marvelous autumn pumpkin.
* The SES. Hopefully we won't have to see them too much over the next couple of days...

Linking up with Maxabella...

Link Love for Friday*

* I need me this bear.
* Great article about angry cycling. I so understand this pov.
* Yay for colour!
* Wow. Beautiful.
* Do you love beards?
* Bitter sweet nothings.
* What all the money ever looks like.
* Ilove seeing Aussie homes on Design Sponge, and this one is such a winner!
* The oscars...
* Way cool backpack for cycling.
* Gorgeous organic looking jewelry.
* Excellent business cards.

Lots of lovelies for you lovelies today! This is what happens when I'm meant to be writing lesson plans and it's raining.... ohhhhh internet!