First Day of School - Take One

 Today is the 1st first day of school for the children this school year. In about 5 weeks we will get to have our 2nd first day of school in Las Vegas. 

The next 5 weeks are kind of a big deal around here. Lucas is in half-day pre-k at the children's elementary school, which means I get two and a half blissful hours to myself (something that I have been day-dreaming about for the past decade). It is now a reality, but only for a short time. There is no public pre-k option in Las Vegas, so Lucas will be home with me all day once again when we move. Don't get me wrong, I love my children and I'm happy to have one-on-one time with him, but having all of my children in school is also a wonderful thing for my mental health as a homemaker. I'm sure many of you can sympathize. 

The second significant thing about the next 5 weeks is that ALL of my children will attend the same school. When we move, Howie will be entering Middle School. It starts in 6th grade in Las Vegas. Fortunately his current elementary school had been prepping the kids since 4th grade for the demands on Middle School. 

(left to right)

Erin - 5th grade

Howie - 6th grade

Jackson - 1st grade

Lucas - Pre-K

I love Lucas's expression. Initially he was not thrilled about the idea of starting Pre-K, but now that the concept has really sunk in, he's ecstatic about it. His class requires a tote bag that we were able to personalize. Lucas picked out the ribbon and letters for his name.

First day being at school ALL day. 

Jackson's first grade teacher is Karen Marinelli. She previously taught at Plaza Towers and saved the lives of three of her students in the tornado. She is still currently in a wheel chair, but has a substitute teacher in the classroom with her daily to help her as needed until she is walking again. She should be walking in the next few weeks. I've only spend a brief amount of time with her, but she has a heart of gold and truly is an angel. I'm so happy that Jackson gets to have her as his teacher for 5 weeks.

The video below is an interview that was done shortly after the tornado. She tells her story. 

The other children all have excellent teachers as well. We feel so very blessed to have amazing teachers at their school, caring for the children each and every day. They really are an inspiration! I'm going to miss Oakridge Elementary School when we move.

Erin's Special Week

We celebrated Erin's 10th birthday two days early so that we could do it all as a family. We hid her presents and made her search for them like we did Howie earlier this year. For her birthday dinner, she requested Red Lobster. Fortunately we all LOVE LOVE LOVE seafood. There were no complaints out of anyone.

 Her actual birthday was spent in St. Louis with me (her mom), siblings, Aunt Lisa, and cousins. We spent the day at the City Museum. It was wonderful, but brutally hot and humid. (Here is a link to last year's City Museum trip.) He topped it off with a trip to Dairy Queen on the way back from St. Louis. Howard stayed home in Oklahoma since he just took leave for our vacation out west earlier in the month. 

The reason why we're in Missouri is because we sent Erin to summer camp this year with her cousin. Howie went to outdoor school at Camp Classen for a week with his 5th grade class last year and also attended his first week-long Boy Scout camp this summer. Since we are moving soon, Erin was going to miss out on her 5th grade school camp. We didn't think that it was fair, so when my sister told me about Turkey Hill Ranch, a wonderful (and affordable) summer camp in central Missouri, we jumped at the chance. We sent the cousins together so that they could watch out for each other and not be too homesick. They are both participating in the Junior camp, geared for children ages 8-13. I'm really excited for her because she will have the opportunity to canoe, archery, horseback riding, swimming, etc. 

 Bunks are all set up and ready to go.

 Meeting their camp counselor for the week. The girl's cabin overlooks the lake. It's a breathtaking view! They are so lucky!

 All ready for her first swim at camp.

 My niece, Jackie. Ready to go swimming. The lake is right behind her.

 At the pool. 

At this point Erin was getting annoyed with me and told me to go home (she said it with kindness). They were ready to be independent and on their own.

One last wave before we left. Hope they have fun!!

Family Reunion & Vacation

We went on vacation last month to northern Utah for a family reunion. We took the route through Colorado to get there and on the way home we took the southern route through our future home of Las Vegas. I spent this vacation trying to enjoy myself, which meant that pictures were low on my priority list. This is basically all I have to share. 

 On our way through Colorado, we stopped at a scenic turnout. It was gorgeous! This shot was taken when I was framing the photo on the tripod. Jack poked Luke in the eye and Howard had to scold the boys for not standing still. 

 After a few shots, we got it right! I'm not very happy about the position of the sun, but the mountains and water were too pretty to not capture.

 The view.

 Playing in the water. It was COLD!!!

 We all enjoyed this stop the most. The weather was perfect and the scenery was idyllic.

 Mr. GQ

 Erin trying not to tumble into the frigid water.

Sticks and rocks filled Luke's attention.

Enjoying the sunshine on our faces. 

 Getting gas in Colorado.

 The last day of the family reunion. All of the grandkids (minus 1)

Group shot of the whole family (minus 3 who didn't make it).

Prior to the family reunion, we stayed in Utah a few extra days to visit some dear friends. We had a wonderful time catching up with each other and introducing our children to one another. I love how friendships can remain strong even after nearly a decade apart. 

After the reunion, we drove down to Las Vegas and stayed with some friends for one day and two nights. We had a pleasant time driving around town getting a feel for where we want to live while we are stationed there. We even made a brief trip to the base. 

In all, we spent about 47 hours in the car driving. Our kids were troopers and did fantastic. We even left our DVD player at home (on purpose). We spent a lot of time talking, reading books, listening to books on CD, music, looking out the window, and playing on the iPad. 

Garden Photos

 In early May I secretly photographed the children for a Father's Day project. I'm really happy with how the photos turned out. We went to our favorite park in downtown OKC -- Myriad Botanical Gardens. I've been waiting over a month to share these photos and I'm so happy I can now.

  

 

 

  

News Interview

I went to Plaza Towers today to pay my respects. While I was there I was interviewed by Channel 2 Tulsa. The interview lasted about 5 minutes, but they only used about 3 seconds of it.

When I first arrived, Jackson asked where his school was. I told him that it was supposed to be where we were standing. For a second he didn't get it because he asked a second time, "no Mommy, where's my school?" He finally understands that it is gone now.

Aftermath

On my way home from Missouri I had Howie take a few pictures on our usual route. A few days later I went on a little walking tour of the hardest hit neighborhoods nearest me. Briarwood Elementary, which is completely gone is less than a mile from my house. Pictures don't do it justice. The despair, heartache, and sense of grief hangs over the city. As I think about what I want to share with everyone, my mind freely flows. When I sit down to type it, I am at a loss for words that can adequately describe what the residents of Moore and OKC have gone through. I find it more therapeutic talking with a stranger in the grocery store about what happened than a friend or family member who does not live here. We share in each others pain and loss. When I went to the local Home Depot today, they knew my house was hit based upon what I was buying. They just knew. Now that I have been out into the community I can see that my house really only suffered minor damage. An inconvenience for our family - that is all. Seeing a lifetime of memories turned into rubble in a matter of seconds is just unimaginable. 

 This was a 7-Eleven. 

We went here for drinks on the day of the children's dance recital. This is where 3 people died.

 This was our doctor's office.

To my knowledge everyone got out safety.

 I drive past these homes every day. They are about a 1/2 mile from my house.

Stores I drive by every day. 

19th Street 

 19th Street

 I was standing in their dining room when I took this picture. Their home just a slab now.

 Not sure how anyone survived in this neighborhood hit by the EF-5.

 On my walk today I noticed flags everywhere. It is a beautiful sight among the carnage.

Another house on my walk. More homes I drive by every single day. 

Tornado

I spent Monday in bed with Luke, having a Blue's Clues Marathon before it expired on Netflix. I just had arm surgery on Friday, and Monday was the first day I was alone with Luke. Since I had been drugged up most of the weekend, I hadn't paid much attention to the weather. Howard called me around 1pm to ask if the kids were getting released early. Apparently, work was allowing people to leave early if their kids were getting released from school early. I knew our district policy, and it is to keep the children. I told him to leave work anyway and pick the children up early. This is primarily due to the fact that I am not currently able to drive. I knew if severe weather hit in the afternoon that I couldn't drive to the bus stop to pick them up. In my mind I was thinking heavy rain, hail, and lightening - not a tornado. 

Once they all arrived home we hung out for about 30 minutes when we decided we should turn on the news. I'm so glad we did. Once we saw that a tornado was forming in our area we had the kids get their shoes on and we casually put together a laundry basked of medicine, various chargers/electronics, a few stuffed animals, my purse, and 4 irreplaceable family photos dating as early as 1920. We were really not concerned at all because we've gone down into our shelter numerous times. 

Once the news said "SW 149th street" we knew we were in trouble. By the time we got in the shelter we watched news coverage on the laptop until we lost power. 

Once things got really serious, we started praying and crying…and some more crying. We reminded the children that we were safe in our shelter and that even if our house was not okay, we would be.  The noise was deafening and it felt like forever. I even remember the ground rumbling while we were down there. Once it quieted down, Howard opened the shelter and immediately saw our very damaged garage door. The children and I stayed put while Howard assessed the damage to the rest of the house. About 5 minutes later we came out of the shelter. Shell shocked and speechless pretty much describe how we felt. Our light pole was snapped in two, we have a 2x4 impaled in our roof, our mailbox (and mail inside it) are gone.  One of our trees snapped off. Our master bedroom window is busted out and we have debris in our bedroom. The vinyl siding to our house is also damaged. We have holes in our roof. Our backyard fence it mostly gone. We acquired random debris in our yard - notably insulation, trampoline parts, rags, vogue magazine, etc.  Our garage door had to be ripped off by two men so we could get our vehicles out.

Random things that did not blow away - my new wreath, patio furniture, and trash cans.  Yet the wind snapped a street light in half? Weird!  I've always heard about the random destruction of a tornado, but seeing it first hand is surreal.

We checked on our neighbors, turned off the gas in the homes on our street, and assessed the overall neighborhood damage. During this time we were unaware of the complete destruction across the field from our home. The smell of gas was strong. There was a break in a main line a few houses down. 

Our neighborhood is badly damaged, but not like what's on the news. The most serious damage occurred on the north side of the streets SW 149th and 19th. We live on the south side of the 149th.

Update: I typed this up Monday night. Since then I've just been mentally exhausted to write any more. I'm posting this incomplete because I know a lot of you wanted to see photos. Obviously our home is not like what you have been seeing on the news (thank goodness). We are so very fortunate that we still have a home to return to in the next week or so. Yesterday I was looking at the tornado track mapped out. Even though it was classified as an EF-5, my home was hit by the outskirt of it. Our damage is comparable to somewhere in between an EF-0 or EF-1 tornado.

Our front yard

Street light across the street

Neighbor

Our roof

Neighbors a/c unit, our shed  in the side yard

Master Bedroom

Back of my house

Garage door

View from my roof, facing south.

A view from my roof facing North East. The tan coloring behind the green trees is the rubble of SW 149th Street. The buildings would have been clearly visible a few days ago.

My next door neighbors to the north.

Irony. Calm Wind Drive is the street behind me. I live on the north end of Nightshade Dr if you want to google the map.

At the back of my neighborhood, where the really destructive part of the tornado hit.

New construction down from my house.

Links to our tornado shelter blog posts

http://htparkes.blogspot.com/2010/02/flat-safe-part-1.html

http://htparkes.blogspot.com/2010/02/flat-safe-part-ii.html