So, the last time I posted, I was about to embark on a weekend-long blog-a-thon to catch myself up on a number of posts--Easter, Country Music Marathon, Ellen's first steps and more! And then, as you might have heard, it started to rain here in Nashville and it didn't let up for 2 days straight. When it was all said and done, we'd had nearly 14 inches of rain--more than double previous records and more than double the usual rainfall for the whole month of May. I had no idea when I posted this as my facebook status: "Even after living through a few hurricanes and nor'easters, I don't think I've ever seen quite so much rain!!!!! It's been thundering since last night and I would literally have to swim if I tried to leave my house right now!!!!" where the weekend would take us. Many neighborhoods in Nashville were completely flooded and underwater. It was nothing like I have ever seen before. Here is a photo of our front yard on Saturday evening (the first day of rain):
And later on Saturday night:
The water came very close to coming in our house Saturday night, but eventually subsided and we went to sleep. When we woke up Sunday morning, I looked out the window and said to JP, "I think it's gotten higher than last night." We went downstairs and the water was very close to the front door. JP went to go outside to put some bags of mulch to block the water and once he opened the, the water started coming in the front door.
We immediately started tearing up carpet and trying to keep any more water from coming in. Around this time, the power also went out. Once we'd cut away the wet carpet and "mulch"-bagged the front door to the best of our ability, we relocated to Nancy's condo in River Plantation. Her power was out also but at least her place was dry. We spent about two hours there, the whole time watching the water level on the street rise. We called Nancy in China to see what she would want us to save in case her house flooded. After moving photos to the second level, we decided to leave Nancy's since the water was getting very close to her condo and relocated again. It took us a number of tries to get there after coming across many streets that were flooded out, but we finally arrived at the Erwins. We spent the day there along with a number of other displaced Bellevue residents & dogs :).
Finally by Sunday night, the rain had slowed down and our power came back on, so we returned home. Monday morning we were able to get out and about in the local neighborhoods and the devastation was unbelievable. Some areas were untouched--you wouldn't have even known it had rained--while other entire neighborhoods were underwater. Many have lost their homes, furniture, belongings, etc. It will take a while to rebuild but the spirit of volunteerism here in Nashville has been inspiring. We ended up out of school the whole week after the flood which allowed me to hang out with Ellen, while JP was able to go help friends who had to tear out drywall, flooring, etc. due to flooding. Ellen & I were able to run errands, pick up supplies, etc. Although we will have a number of projects to take care of at our house including replacing flooring in our living room, compared to so many others in the area, we are extremely lucky. For now, the house will be off the market at least until things get repaired and cleaned back up.
Hopefully that explains my absence from the blogging world! Once we got back into our old routines, I had our kindergarten graduation plus lots of end of the year activities at school to take care of. We have one week left of school (thank goodness they are not making us make up the post-flood days!!!!) & I promise to work on catching up on my posts. I've got so much to share, so I better get started!!!!!
Back in December, I signed myself up for the Country Music Half Marathon in the hopes of jumpstarting my exercise routine. January brought record-low temperatures here in Nashville & I didn't really want to start training in the freezing cold--especially when Ellen would have to accompany me on my run/walks. Anyway, after some uncooperative weather and many other lame excuses, it was April and the marathon was upon us. 
I suckered Melissa into signing up with me, and luckily she didn't have any luck jumpstarting her exercising either! So, we were both about to embark on our first half marathon sans any training of any sort...
Shockingly, we made it! And it was actually kind of fun! And we even ran a lot of it--or at least way more than I thought we would. The weather was cool that day here in Nashville although there were storms looming on the horizon all day. About mile 10, the rain started. At mile 11.5, I heard the tornado sirens and stepped it up (as much as possible!) for fear they would make us stop the race--not an option especially when we were so close to the finish line!
Thanks Melissa for crossing half marathon off the bucket list with me! Looking forward to the next one :)
