I did it!!

I got an email yesterday... my picture was picked to be included in the guide to Chicago. Click here for the website. My photo is one of the revolving ones on the right hand side of the page under "DOWNTOWN". My name is there too. Not too shabby!!

fire update

We have a new house!!!! We are renting (possibly buying) a 3 bedroom duplex. :) We love it! This is going to be brief as I am exhausted from moving things in and cleaning them. Our beds are set up and we are staying here for the first time tonight!

fire.

Wednesday, July 14, 2010 will be a day that we will always remember. It was the day that our lives as we knew it would be turned upside down.

Emma left with my parents on Tuesday to go camping up north for the remainder of the week. It couldn't have been better timing. I headed off to work on Wed. and when I got there received a frantic message that I needed to get home, there was an emergency. I got back to my apartment complex to find multiple fire trucks, police cars and ambulances. I walked up to see my apartment in flames. Rob and Arabel were able to get out safely, so that was priority number one. Rob had called 911 and grabbed Arabel out of bed. He left the house without shoes or his cell phone. After the fire had been put out we met with the Red Cross when we were notified that the firefighters called our home a complete loss. Jason had come to get Arabel and take her back to my parent's house. They finally let us walk through the place at around 9:15pm.

What we saw was heartbreaking. There was no fire damage to the actual apartment, the fire had climbed the wall and moved across the roof. Due to the mass amounts of water (around 5,000 gallons according to the fire marshall) the ceilings had collapsed and our house was covered in drywall and insulation. The office, girls' room, bathrooms, master closet and laundry room were unharmed. We were unable to find the cats and we were worried. The living room, dining room, kitchen and master bedroom were ruined. We grabbed a few things that night that we could and headed to mom's.

Thursday morning we showed up ready to start digging through the rubble to salvage what we could of our lives. Thursday proved to be worse than anticipated. The fire has restarted sometime in the morning, needing an additional 1,000 gallons of water to be used. Now, the bathrooms, laundry room and master bedroom closet was covered like the rest of the place. The girls' room remained in tact so we were very thankful for that. After hours of digging through 1 1/2-2 feet of wet insulation we packed up what we could in a U-Haul and put it in a storage unit. The firefighters did take our electronics and throw a tarp over them so many of them were saved. They even grabbed my framed photos on the walls and covered them as well. Still no sign of the cats.

Friday we went and planned on getting the remainder of what we could and would then sign over the place to the reconstruction company. After about an hour of Rob and I sifting through rubble Zoe, one of our cats, strolls out of hiding. Rob then went on a mad hunt to find Oscar. Rob found him on the bottom shelf of a shelving unit in the laundry room. He was buried in, matted with insulation, hungry, thirsty and really upset. My aunt took them to her house. I am happy to report that they are doing well. We left Friday night knowing we would never be back.

Emma knows that we are getting a new place to live, that her toys, clothes and bed are safe. We are telling her just enough to keep her happy without over sharing.

The outpouring of support we have received from friends, family and strangers is overwhelming. We will never be able to express how thankful we are. At this point we are remaining positive and looking forward to what comes next. The tears have stopped for the most part and we are ready to move on from this tragedy.

If you need to contact us in anyway... we are staying at my (Kimm's) parent's house. Our cell phone numbers are the same and we can also be reached via facebook. (Kimm more so than Rob on the facebook thing.) If you need any specific information leave a comment and I will get you the information.

apparently, I am a photographer

I started a Flickr account so that it would be easier to share pictures with everyone. Well, I guess that it has paid off. I received an email yesterday that a photo that I took (and can be found on my Flickr account) is on the short list to be included in the twelfth edition of Schmap Chicago Guide. You can check out the eleventh edition here. It doesn't pay anything, the guide is free... but, if my picture is picked I get my name below a picture that I took.

Here is the picture that may be included.

This is the view out of our window while staying at the Doubletree. Lake Michigan can be seen between the buildings.

newish...

I just recently uploaded some pictures to Flickr, check them out on the sidebar. They are slightly old (a couple weeks), but they will have to work for now. I have been majorly slacking in the photo department.

Emma is going to be going camping with my mom and Russ in a week. She is pumped, and I think that grammy and papa are pretty excited too. This will be her 3rd year going with them. I am relying on them to take pictures for me. Arabel may get to go next year. This year she will have a week of alone time. I am not sure how she will handle being away from Emma for that long. They really are best friends right now. I assume Arabel will enjoy herself but will miss her big sister.

Nothing new on Rob & I, we are just working like normal.

I hope that everyone had a safe and enjoyable 4th of July. I will try and get some newer pictures up soon!

It's official

Emma is officially enrolled in school. We went last night to an open house at her elementary school. They immediately whisked the kids away to play on the playground. I was actually a little shocked that Em went with no hesitation. Parents were talked to, papers were handed out, then we met back up with the kids and had a scavenger hunt. We had to find all the important rooms in the school and get a sticker from each. We are all excited to have the process started. Now, all we do is wait for August to roll around to get her placement test done and await the posting of her teacher.

I am not going to lie, I was a little nervous about throwing her into a full day of school. She will actually get a couple "warm up" days. Her first day of school will be 1 1/2 hours long, and I will be with her the whole time. Day #2 is a half day and Day #3 starts her regular school day.

Score one for mom's intuition. Last night I had a nagging feeling that I needed to go and check on the girls. As I was walking back to their room Arabel coughed. I snatched her out of bed and though she felt hot. As I was getting some tylenol around to give her, she pukes. Less than one minute after I HAD to get up and get her out of bed. No mess was made, no bedding had to be changed, no clothes had to be washed (that is due to the fact that Arabel refuses to sleep in clothes). Something must have upset her stomach, but she was back to her normal self after she got sick. a couple of crackers and some water and she was as good as new.

Shots are NOT fun.

Emma's open house at school is tomorrow. I realized that we needed to get her immunizations up to date before they would officially enroll her in kindergarten. Let's just say that Emma was less than thrilled with that idea. She did great, until we got into the room to do the shots. Then, all hell broke loose. She was screaming and had to be held down. I was crying, it wasn't cute. We managed to make it through and treated ourselves with a frozen hot chocolate for Em, and an iced soy sugar bear for me from Biggby. Apparently, yummy coffee type drinks help heal all wounds. :)



I will let everyone know how everything goes tomorrow.