The Wind Beneath My Wings

Oh my gosh, I had just written this huge post and it just disappeared. How totally frustrating. &*%$#!!
Anyway, we have had a hectic week. We had a freak windstorm hit our house last Wednesday and it did a lot of damage. Our 30' tree blew down and knocked over about 50' of our fence, a window was broken, and our roof is pretty much ruined. We had shingles from our neighbors' roofs all over our yard, front and back. They were embedded in the lawn about 3 inches in some places and stuck into the fence. My mom was here with the kids and said she could hear the wind building and getting louder and louder and then it hit our house and broke the window. She called me at work to tell me and as we were on the phone some boys came by to tell her the tree had blown down. I figured they meant the lilac tree since the only other tree we have is the ash tree. I came home to find my yard a total mess. The front of the house and the underneath of the porch were splattered with large chunks of mud, the hot tub cover was ripped off and broken, the hot tub itself was moved about a foot and a half, the swingset was blown into the fence and the slide ended up in the neighbors tree. Our garage door is dented from a shingle hitting it. If the truck had been parked in the driveway, it would have been hit rather than the garage door, so thank goodness I was at work. My mom said she looked out the window when she heard the wind gusting and saw debris swirling around. I swear it was some sort of mini tornado because some things in our backyard never moved, like our BBQ which was right next to the hot tub. A sand bucket was still in the same place close to where the tree blew over. The force was so huge that the roots of the tree were snapped, not pulled up. I wish I could have seen it. Our neighbors said their windows shook for 15 seconds. Besides some roof damage around us and across the street, our house seemed to have gotten the worst of it. My wonderful dad came over that night to help my husband cover the bad areas on the roof. The next day we had people come give us estimates for the window and roof, and then the insurance adjustor came out. My husband stayed home on Thursday and worked all day getting the tree cut up. Then he replaced the fence on Saturday and Sunday. I got the outside all cleaned up so we are almost back to normal. We have to get a new window and a new roof, but other people will do that work.

I tried to log on to post this entry, but the website kept having server problems.

Well I am off to call a few roofing companies. Also have to call the doc because my daughter keeps saying her tummy and chest hurt. It's been going on a few weeks now so I don't think she is just imagining it. Better safe than sorry. Will keep you all posted.