So Sorry Guys...

So sorry for not posting for a little while, but things have been a little busy lately.  This week Mark and I are attending Education Week on BYU campus, so there's not a lot of time for Internet.  I'm hoping I'll get to a real post next week to tell you about Mark's job search and everything.

I also wanted to apologize to some of my family members.  I have a birthday calendar that I hung in my last house that reminded me when to make phone calls for your birthdays.  However, that is currently in my storage unit, and I don't think I have a record of all those birthdays elsewhere...therefore, I don't know which ones I've missed in the month of August.  In fact, I will probably continue to miss them this year unless you inform me of when all your (and your kids') birthdays are.  This doesn't mean that I don't love you...just that I don't know when to show you my love!  :)

Until next time.... have a good one!!

Catch-Up Time

A lot has happened over the past month or so.  This may end up being a long post.  (Consider yourself warned!!)


After the Tornado
So, after the tornado, Mark and I volunteered some to help with the clean-up efforts through our church.  We even got the yellow "Mormon Helping Hands" t-shirts for our participation.  I didn't get to do a whole lot because Canon became super clingy and would not let anyone else watch him without throwing a fit.  However, it was so awesome to see so many people come together for the cause of serving others.  Our bishop informed us that there was well over 1000 man-hours put in, and the number was steadily growing.  The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints was recognized as an official disaster relief agency for the State of Massachusetts, so the state started sending work-orders to the Church.  It looks like there is a lot of work to be done, and there are over a hundred volunteers who will make sure it gets done.  It was so awesome to be a part of the relief efforts... and kind of sad that we had to move right in the middle of it.

Here area  few pictures of other parts of our neighborhood that show a little more of the destruction.  These were taken about a week after the storm.

The neighborhood behind our house...

we weren't really even allowed to walk in this area if we didn't live here...but we did anyway.

I hope there wasn't anyone in that truck when this happened!!

Most of these houses were condemned!  See the X?

The "sea of tarps" (as I called it)  show how many houses had damage to their roofs.

The whole neighborhood looks so different now.

Once we got things cleared out from the back yard, we found Mark's bike in 3 pieces.  The bed's box-spring was smashed too.

June in a Nutshell
The tornado brought on some stress to our neighbors, but it didn't really seem to affect Canon too badly.  I think the fact that we didn't obtain much damage has something to do with it.  Mark and I didn't own the property, so the stress of responsibility lay with the landlords, and we didn't have much to worry about.  In fact, I threw a "PartyLite Party" for my neighbor Stephanie who just started up her own PartyLite business.  She was so happy to have something "normal" to take her mind off of the tornado.  I only had 2 guests show up, but a couple others placed orders, and I earned $50 in hostess benefits.  That was way more than I expected, and it made me happy.

I pretty much spent the rest of the month packing and deciding which things keep or get rid of.  We held tag sale (what MA people call yard sales) and made over $150 and donated the rest of our unwanted stuff to the Salvation Army.  That night we also hosted a BBQ to say good-bye to everyone.  We had a ton of people from church come, which was pretty awesome.  Then the dark clouds rolled in and we had a major thunderstorm, which was not quite so awesome.  Everyone squished into our house to get refuge from the rain.  It would have been nicer to not have to cram in, but it got us all to be a little more friendly.  They all seemed to have a great time though!  Too bad I didn't get any pictures.  Sorry! :(

I'm going to miss our friends from Springfield, MA.  Moving to a new place is never easy, and I felt so at ease there.  It will take some getting used to back in the State of Utah.

The Move
Mark's parents flew out from Utah to help us with the move.  They drove the moving truck while Mark and I rode with Canon in the car. (There's no place for a car seat in the moving truck... so we couldn't just tow our car.)  Some friends came to help us load up the truck, and it all went pretty smoothly.  Our landlord didn't make me clean the whole house before leaving, so that saved us about 3 hours of work.  She said that they were going to have to be doing some work on the walls and stuff and that they'd end up having to clean up after that anyways, so we didn't need to bother.  S-W-E-E-T!!!

As for the drive, it was pretty uneventful, which is typically a good thing.  Thanks to our sister-in-law Tiffany, we were able to borrow a portable DVD player that hooked onto the back of my headrest.  Canon watched a couple movies each day, which was a total life-saver.  I don't like to have him watching so much TV, but it was worth it on such a long drive.  Canon doesn't really like riding in the car, and it was usually a struggle to get him back into the car once he's been out.  However, a few times turning on a movie was enough of a distraction to get him buckled in and on the road again.

Canon was AWESOME on this trip.  He could've been such a pain, but he was pretty well-behaved.  By the last two days of the trip I had to hold him in the back seat so that he would be comfortable enough to sleep.  It was little difficult to not be able to move around and stuff, but to have my baby sleeping was totally worth it.  It made the car ride silent and really boring for Mark (poor guy), but we made it through, safe and sound.

The Road-Trip
Knowing that this road-trip was going to be a long one from MA to UT, we needed to make a mini vacation out of it.  The day we loaded our truck we drove a  few hours to somewhere in PA.  We stopped at a hotel and shared a room with the 5 of us.  It turned out that NO ONE really got much sleep that night.  We decided that for the rest of the trip, Mark and I needed to get a room separate from his parents. (At least we tried it once to see if we could save that much money on hotels...too bad it didn't work out that way.)

The next day we drove to Lodi, OH to visit Uncle Andy's house.  We arrived in the afternoon and spent that night with them.  Canon certainly loved playing with Mark's cousins Erica and Trevar.  They have goats and horses...and we all took a walk out to the barn to see the new baby goats!  Canon wasn't so sure about that, but we thought they were fun.

Seeing the goats (1)

Seeing the goats (2)

Playing with Trevar

Mom holding a goat.

Canon playing with Erica in their wagon.

"I like this girl, Mom!  She plays with me!"

Look at those fine Dahl boys!  This is our cousin Trevar and Uncle Andy on the right.

This is the view I had of Canon during the drive.  Having a video to watch was very helpful!

After all that fun, Mark, Canon and I drove to my parents' house in Bolingbrook, IL.  We took my mom out to dinner with just enough time to take her to the outdoor theater where she and my dad performed in the opening night of The Music Man.  We didn't go to see it that night because we knew that Canon needed to get down to bed... it had been a long trip for him, and he wasn't eating very well.  I didn't want to push our luck with him.

On Saturday we hosted a BBQ for as many of my friends from the area could come.  We had a turn out of about 20 people (if you count all the kids).  It was such a boiling hot day, and there were a few people who didn't come even though they said they would.  I don't blame them.  I hardly wanted to be outside in that humidity, and after a while we eventually did go inside.  It was hard to give everyone some one-on-one time, but I think I did get to visit with everyone.  It was so great to visit with some old friends... but I forgot to to take any pictures.  *Drats!!  That night we got a babysitter while Mark and I went to The Music Man to see my parents perform.  That was really fun, except for the mosquitoes eating Mark alive.  My dad was in the barbershop quartet, which is a part he's always wanted to play, so that was fun to see.  My mom was a villager in the chorus, and that's the kind of part she likes.  They did a great job and I'm glad we got to see it.

Sunday was a normal day at church... as normal as you can expect when you visit a ward you were a part of growing up but had changed dramatically while you were gone.  It was great to see some old friends/mentors and just feel the spirit of love in that ward.  It kind of did feel like "home"!

Monday the ward had a picnic at a local park.  That was pretty great, except that it was sooo HOT!  I tried to find time to visit with everyone, but my attention was divided with the baby, going back home to get straws and a ball...going back home again to put the baby to bed...but overall, I enjoyed our time there.

Canon playing on the slide with Daddy.

My brother Dan and his wife Bonnie

Doug Carlisle with his baby girl Quinly

Doug and Stephanie Carlisle, with kids McKenna, Lana, Collin, and Quinly

Doug was one of my best friends from high school.

Stephanie, Mark and I were all friends from freshman year at BYU.  Steph was my roommate sophomore year, and then she met Doug when he came out for a visit.  They were married before that calendar year ended.  Mark and I got married almost exactly a year after that.

  That night we went to the Bolingbrook presentation of the fireworks.  It was pretty fun.

on the shuttle, going to the fireworks

having a little fun before the show

dancing to the live music

The look I was hoping for through the whole firework show... but no such luck!

Our little family celebrating Independence Day.

Canon was not as excited about the fireworks as I had hoped.  He was nervous at first, but once he got into it I think he did like it.  After only a few minutes though, he was more interested in pointing out the airplanes that  were in the sky.  I tried over and over to get him into the fireworks, but it just didn't hold his attention for that long.  I think he was genuinely frightened during the finale because he didn't like all the loud bangs.  It was a fun night though!

Here's a video or two for your viewing pleasure.

The next day Mark and I took Canon to the Brookfield Zoo.  It was yet another very hot day.  If it had been cooler, it would probably have been a more enjoyable trip.  As it was, we spent too much for what we got out of it, but we were still glad we went.  Here are a few pictures from our adventure:

Canon was not too interested in the giraffes.  :(

Canon was really uncomfortable in the heat, and the sunscreen in his eyes didn't help much.  Even the zebras couldn't keep his interest.

the monkey house was pretty cool

Canon during one of the few moments he was paying attention to the dolphin show

That night I helped my mom who hosted a baby shower for Rosalie, a friend of the family who just had a baby boy a couple weeks ago.  I was in charge of the games, and overall, I think it went really well.  My mom's living room was filled with people, so it was a success and a bunch of fun.

That was our last night before heading back out on the road.  We met up with Mark's parents somewhere on the road and stopped in Omaha, NE for the night.  The next day ended at Cheyenne, WY.   And the last day was a short drive (relatively) to the Dahl House in Draper, UT.

As for now, we've moved in with Mark's parents.  We have a storage unit for most of our stuff, and we've been adjusting to life back in Utah.  Hooray for the next chapter of life!!

Tornado Too Close to Home

You may have seen it on the news, but Springfield, MA just had a tornado on Wednesday, June 2 at about 4:30pm.  NOTE: This is going to be a long post with tons of pictures. Let me start by saying,

WE ARE ALL OKAY!!

Our house has very minor damage, but there's nothing to really worry about.  We've been without power since the event, but we stayed a couple nights with friends from the ward, and since the power box got ripped from the house, our landlord has been working hard to make sure that we can get power when the electric company turns it back on.  We're told that we should get power back today, but that's a little more optimistic than we expected.  

If you haven't heard our miracle story yet, read on.  If you have, or just don't care about all the details, you're welcome to just skip to the pictures of devastation.  :)

Miracles Do Happen

I usually leave about 4:15pm to go get Mark from work.  Wednesday I ended up leaving a little later than I wanted to, so I texted Mark to inform him.  I walked out the door and thought to myself, "This feels like tornado weather."  I brushed it off because I needed to get downtown to the courthouse to pick up Mark.  I was driving along Central St., (remember these street names!!...you may want to have a map of Springfield handy as you read this post!) and heard the radio emergency broadcast  mention a tornado warning in Western Massachusetts/ Northern Connecticut, but I missed about half of the warning because it went fuzzy.  Through the static I heard "Springfield" but couldn't tell what it was saying.  I started to get nervous but just didn't want to make a big deal of it.  Then I turned right onto Maple Rd.  I looked up and saw really low dark clouds that began circling.  It wasn't quite a funnel cloud, but it was still too close for comfort.  As I got to the intersection of Maple Rd. and State St., I could see tons of debris flying everywhere.  Debris was hitting my car (and Canon was in the back seat), and I just received a text from Mark to meet him by the mailboxes (which is where we go when it's raining).  I started praying for Mark's safety, hoping that he was okay, not outside where he could be blown away or hit with huge chunks of who-knows-what.  I turned left onto State St, watching debris still going everywhere, trying to get through to Mark who should have been only 2 blocks ahead of me.

Meanwhile, Mark was standing outside and saw that there was airborne debris and tried to get back into the courthouse.  It was locked but a security guard let him back in through the emergency exit.  He could see the tornado as it passed right over the highway and passed the courthouse and headed straight up toward Maple Rd. and the direction where I just came from.  So he was worrying for our lives.

My car seemed to be holding up just fine, no rocking from wind or anything, so I kept right on driving. When I got to the courthouse, Mark was standing outside at the top of the steps.  He got in the car and we drove around the block like we always do, but it was not an easy drive.  (I apologize for the fuzzy pictures.  These were taken by my phone in a moving vehicle.)

trees down by the courthouse

East Columbus Ave. blocked by fallen trees

On-Ramp to I-91 was stopped by fallen trees

We had to maneuver around this to drive along East Columbus Ave.

The old park in downtown had huge trees up-rooted everywhere.

This was our first view of the damage down by this tornado.

Canon and I were playing at this park the day before as we waited for Mark to get off of work.

We tried to drive back the same direction I came, but everyone was turning around.  We couldn't get through.  It looks like I drove parallel to the tornado and around it as it passed.  I just barely missed it.

This is the intersection of Maple Rd. with Central St.  That school on the left was surrounded by beautiful trees.  If you zoom in you might be able to see how broken they look.

This was the first bock we came to:  Central St. just minutes after I drove this very spot

 We turned around on Maple Rd. heading back toward State St.  We thought about using Union St. to get to Walnut, but then we saw a blockage before we even turned onto Union St.  So we continued to State St.  We turned right continued along until Walnut St.  Once we noticed the seriously long line of cars, we abandoned that idea and continued along State St. until Wilbraham Rd.  We finally got onto Island Pond Rd, which would lead us right home, but we came to another blockade, just a few blocks down from our street, right by a church.

Island Pond Rd. had some of the worst damage, but we couldn't get through to even see what happened. We heard there were several telephone poles were knocked down and many damaged homes.

St. Anthony Church used to be surrounded by a beautiful forest.

Here you can see some of those trees were uprooted and split.

 We were turned around on Island Pond, and we tried going up Overlook Dr. which goes between that St. Anthony Church and Bethesda Church and would take us into our neighborhood.

This car was parked on the side of Overlook Dr. when the tree was knocked over.  The uprooting action lifted the car off the ground.  The houses in the background are on Island Pond Rd.

 We drove along Overlook Dr. and turned right onto Wendover Dr. (getting soooo close to home...) but that was blocked off at the top of the hill.  Coming back to Overlook Dr, we couldn't turn right to make our way to Roosevelt Rd. because there was a blockage there too.  So we had to make our way back down to Island Pond Rd. and turn onto Roosevelt.  Turned out that was blocked off too.  Seriously, we were running out of options and couldn't find a way to get to our house.  So, after an hour of driving around and being redirected every route we chose, we just parked our car on Overlook Dr. (on the other side of the blockage) and hiked it home with Canon in the stroller.  

The top of Wendover Dr., after most of the way was cleared for foot traffic.

 As we walked over the hill, we heard that Cathedral High School was completely trashed.  Knowing how close to home that was, we were starting to worry about whether our house was even there anymore.  (Just to put it into perspective for you, Cathedral High (attached to St. Michael's Academy) is across the street from Mary Dryden Elementary (right next to another building for St. Michael's Academy), on the other side of the elementary school is a playing field/baseball diamond, and about 6-7 houses after the field is OUR HOUSE.)  On the other side of the hill were the schools, and we were shocked at what we saw.

St. Michael's Academy Pre-K to 12... note the overturned car and school in the background.

another view of the same parking lot...more overturned cars in view

a telephone pole down across Wendover Dr.

Cathedral/St. Michael's had windows blown out and doors missing.  We later  found that the football stadium was completely demplished.

The roof of Mary Dryden Elementary caved in...

and much of that roof ended up on the street.

another view of Mary Dryden Elementary

still Mary Dryden

the beautiful trees on Cathedral's campus all uprooted

Look at this tree at Mary Dryden.
The stop sign ahead is the intersection with Surry Rd...our street.  

it uprooted the SIDEWALK!!

Now on Surrey Rd, passing up Mary Dryden.

Another view of Mary Dryden and campus.  The fallen trees missed the playground.

Our neighborhood

Hurrying home along Surrey Rd. as the rain started up again.

The field used to have a backdrop of pretty trees...now they look like broken sticks.

Surrey Rd, coming closer to home

Didn't expect to be hiking through a jungle when I woke up that morning!!

   
Daddy took the stroller, Mommy took the baby through the jungle.

  
Canon didn't even seem the slightest bit phased by all of this.

My friend Melissa's house- she lives 4 doors down from us.

Stephanie's house, across the street from Melissa

A different angle of Steph's house

This is our house.  We're so glad I wasn't home because our car would've been right where that pile of trees and branches is.  I don't think it would have survived.

Once you get past the big pile, you could really only find one route to get in, the back yard.

The shed was destroyed, along with our lawnmower, box spring, bike and probably our rake (if we could find it).

The fence was broken too, but at least those were in big pieces and look like they can be nailed back together without too much effort.

 

I can't remember where this is, but it's a good example of what the neighborhoods look like now.

That night we had a few people from the ward come over to check on us and see if there was anything that they could do.  Since it was still storming and getting darker, we couldn't really do much until the morning.  We stayed the night at a friend's house because they had power.  (It was amazing that they were within walking distance and somehow had power, and the neighborhoods on the other side of them did not.  They were in a convenient pocket of electricity...but they didn't have internet...hence why this post didn't happen until today.) We stayed there the following night too, but the third night we stayed at home.  Since the weather cooled off, it's not too bad to be at home without AC.  We had to move all the food from the fridge to coolers with ice, but we still lost some of the food.  

We took some more pictures of what we saw the following day.  I will spare you the captions now since you probably have no idea what I'm talking about anyway, but you can get a look at the damage to our house and the rest of the neighborhood.

Missionaries and men from church came to help chop up the trees in our front yard.

Damage to our house...power box and meter ripped off 

Flying debris punctured a hole in the side of the house and knocked the trim off the wall in Canon's room.  Light shines in through this little hole.

This is the hole into Canon's room.

We think this is the board that caused said hole.

What used to be our shed in the back yard

The final product of all the work the ward members did for us.