It's Been A While - An Update!

Hello hello hello! 

LONG time no "see"! I have good reason, I promise and I have several new blog posts coming in the next few weeks. Boy, I've missed this! 

I figured since it's been so long, a little update was in store. My area of the world has been through a whirlwind of a past few months (if you follow me on instagram, you know what I mean) and I do plan on sharing more on our "life" during the storms and after in future posts. I love where I live and have absolutely no intention of moving, but this year has been a doozy on all of us. First corona and shut downs, then hurricane season...I'm more than a little ready to move beyond this time in our lives!

Hurricane Laura impacted my hometown and personal home back on August 27th (also my birthday - and one I'll never forget)! Three weeks later, Hurricane Delta hit our coast just 12 miles from where Hurricane Laura made landfall. Thankfully, we had no additional damage to our home from Delta, but a lot of friends and neighbors did. It's sad to drive around and see devastation everywhere. Even now, two and a half months since the storms and things still look rough and likely will for a long time. Debris litters the roadways, homes have blue tarps on their roofs, exposed beams, or no roofs at all. In several instances, only a concrete slab remains where a home once was. Some say it's going to take years to get back to "normal".  To top all of this off, the insurance companies have made the struggle of repairing homes insane and ridiculously difficult. I don't want to get into it all here, but there are facebook group after facebook group that describe the over the top struggles we are having to face, just to get our homes repaired. Yes, I realize insurance companies are a business, too...but y'all, these cases are just downright absurd. 

My intention for this wasn't to be all doom and gloom, but I wanted to paint a picture of our current situation - this is literally where we are at in this place in our lives. Yes, we still function. Yes, we still continue on with our lives, work, church, etc because it's our "community" that is so important - we need each other in these hard times. And yes, there is still a lot laughter. :) 

Needless to say, my running groove has taken an impact since the storms as well. Downed fences means lots and lots of stray animals. Debris in the roadways means sometimes only once car can pass and it's just simply not safe. Jason works at an oil and gas refinery and they have spent countless hours in the past two months trying to get everything back up and running so the rest of the US can carry on as normal. This means he hasn't been home as much and running consistently with a 40+ pound four year old isn't my idea of a fun time, especially with the roadways as they are. Thankfully, Jason's schedule has slowed down a lot and I am just now (this week) seeing more opportunities to run so YAY for that!

As far as damage to my personal home - we are going to need a new roof, new soffit/fascia around a lot of our home, new window screens, a new sing set, repairs to our shed, new deck rails, and a new chimney on the roof. We finally have everything set in motion, we are currently on a list, waiting for our turn for repairs. In the grand scheme of things, our damage was SO minimal and I'm grateful for that. It truly is sad when you drive around town and witness some of the damage others homes have sustained. 

On a positive and incredibly random note, we are still planning on going to WDW in February on what should have been the Princess Half Marathon weekend. I'm also still planning on running the races around the resort property so that should be fun! Our plane tickets were officially purchased last night! Anyone else still traveling to WDW during that week?

Well, there's my update! I'll be back with more from Halloween shindigs to belated birthday celebrations, evacuating for hurricanes, Brayden 4.5 year update, and more! 

As always, if you'd like to stay up to date with our current lives, you can follow us over on instagram!

I hope you all have a fabulous weekend! 

runDisney Haunted Mansion Virtual 5K

Hi there, friends! New blog post - who dis? 

Yes, it's been a LONG time, but I have very good reason. If you follow me on instagram, then you know that Hurricane Laura hit my home town of Lake Charles, LA as a category 4 hurricane and wreaked havoc everywhere. My initial intention to run the final leg of the runDisney summer virtual 5K series on my birthday (August 27th) changed as that was the day that Laura hit and pretty much ranks up there as one of the worst days I've had in a very long time. 

After returning home a week later, we spent a good bit of time cleaning up our yard and my parent's yard. We also lived at their house for three weeks with a generator, waiting on our electricity to turn back on. It's been an interesting road and one where I've tried to stay positive, but running has been hard for many reasons. 

So, my well laid plans of running the Haunted Mansion 5K on August 27th were altered and instead, the distance was completed on October 1st. Better late than never, right? 

This has been the first week in a while where I felt like I could truly breathe and had a little bit of extra "free" time in the evenings. Last night, Brayden and I set out on our 5K journey together and I felt like our route was fitting for the "theme" of this race - it was daunting with a hint of eerie mixed in. :)

Our start line began in front of the garage (complete with hurricane damage) and our remaining stash of MRE's - perfectly fitting for the three miles ahead! 

As we ran, we encountered a few doggies (thankfully the were on the smaller side), downed trees on the side of the road, tarped roofs on houses, and several friendly faces outside who waved as we passed. 

Trees like this are everywhere and it always amazes me to see - the root ball of the tree was literally ripped out of the ground! The powerful force of hurricanes completely blows my mind.

We reached mile 3 as the sun began to set, among the various debris lined streets.

At a month out from the storm, things around here are slowly starting to improve. Tree trucks make the rounds daily to pick up roadside tree debris. They haven't even started on the other debris yet (shingles, fencing, siding, etc). Although they are working hard, this is going to be a very slow and gradual process. I told Jason that I'm truly learning how to "chill" because I want everything done like a sprint and this will definitely be like a "marathon" to complete. 

Our finish line landed us right back in my front yard, complete with the remains of my fence I worked so hard to stain back in the spring (yes, I'm bitter about it)! 

...and with that, the three part runDisney Virtual 5K Summer Series turned Fall Series is complete! :)

I plan to return (soon) with more stories from our hurricane "adventures" and the cleanup process. This has been one of the most interesting experiences of my life and one I hope we don't have to go through again for a very very long time. 

Have a great weekend!