Timbbbbbbbbbbbberrrrrrrrrr.........

Saturday I sadly watched as ALL the trees in the yard were cut down. It was absolutely WILD to watch. With all the destruction, there were tree "specialists" literally trolling the streets in their big trucks with chainsaws and ropes in the back ready to work, and for a very high cost for sure.

It had to be done though... some of the trees could not stay up in their precarious position and there was no way any person without super human tree scaling capabilities could get on top of them with out go-go gadget extensions!

These guys just hopped up in the trees and started cutting away. They were more careful with the ones that could be saved but the ones that had to come all the way down - they just chopped away. It almost looked like they were cutting the trees out from under them and jumping down till they got back on the ground.

Also on Saturday afternoon, I went with my mom to bring food to some of her students families. She teaches ESL (English as a second language) and knows that most of her children and their families are very poor. So we went to Walmart and got some milk and cereal and sandwich stuff and some fruit and canned vegetables and took it around to their neighborhoods. It was amazing to meet the kids and their families. Some of the kids had suggestions of who else might need some food and they offered to share what was being given to them with others and hopped in the car with us and led us to where they knew there were people in need. It was very humbling and amazing to see the compassion of these 6th and 7th graders even in their own time of their families need. Even though I still didn't have power back at my house, I instantly became very grateful for the wood burning stove and gas range and the ability to cook and heat up water if I wanted, and took away all the boredom that I had felt for the past few days...

The remainder of the day light hours were spent learning the true origin of the game pick up sticks, as that is what we did... for a very long time! The city will be picking up all the debris but first it has to be stacked up on the side of the road. Here's the fort I made... it's super tall, taller than me for sure and as wide as the entire property line. And this is JUST the from the front yard.

It seems as if most people have their power back, about 30,000 people in Northwest Arkansas still do not have power. MZ's parents are in that #. They are at his house, it works out well because he's in Kansas City for the Sam's Club Year Beginning Meeting for most of the week. I know they are very ready to get back in their house and their routine. I pretty much hit my thresh hold of powerlessness after day 4... I would be freaking out right now without power. I finally had to give up and take a shower over at Zack and Lauren's house. I had had enough with boiling water to wash my hair and then sitting in front of the fire place to dry out...