" Part 2 - The Flooded House "The soaking wet and abandoned home

Good Afternoon Happy Friends,

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Hope all is well in your camp........

I am a feeling a bit blah today, I truly think it is

all the rainy weather we have had this week.

It has been pretty much overcast everyday

so far, and today is no different. We have

50% chance of showers for today as well.

Hey, the grass and plants love it, and

so do I, less on the waterbill, and who

could complain about that!!

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Will continue my story from yesterday.

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We left the house around noon or so, I think,

this info is rather blury in my memory for some

reason or other. Know we got checked into our

hotel at some point. We did not have our lil

dog with us as some friends took him off our

hands till be knew we could find a place that

took animals, and fortunately, the hotel we

picked the La Quinta was pet friendly.

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We got checked in and we were talking about

how neat it was the Lord would not let us be

away from home this weekend, and what a mess it

would have been if we had not been here, and came

home Sunday Evening. I am sure we would

have had drywall damage for sure.

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We still didn't know for sure, but the fellows

that worked in our house felt pretty sure

there would be no drywall damage cause

the water was on the floor such a short

time. Somewhere between 4-5 hrs or

maybe less. We could not hear anything

in the bedroom, so it might have only been a

couple of hours or so for all we know.

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We decided to make the best of the rest

of the day since the only thing it was

costing us was inconvenience, and there

was nothing else we could do until the

next week. There was a store we both

love to go to near the hotel, called

"Old Time Pottery", unfortunately, the

have now closed it! Anyway, we decided

to go looking around just to get our mind

off of things and to try and have a lil fun

in the midst of the craziness.

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As we were looking around we came across

the picture you see as my header. It was

a $200.00 picture marked down to $49.95.

We both loved it immediately, yet we thought

we don't even know what our house is gonna

look like after this, new carpet colors or any

thing, but it was such a classy looking picture

and the price was great, so we decided to

get it and if we didn't think it would work

we could always take it back within a month

or so. I think we were either still in shock

or in denial one of the two!! lol

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I truly believe that was one more of the blessings

God had in mind for us, because that picture

has helped me make more decorating decisions

over the last 8 years. It used to be over our

fireplace in the beginning, it is now in the

dining room, but has been over my bed,

and in the foyer, and in the hallway.

She gets around!!

She is responsible for the color on the

outside of our house. We have the same

brick on the outside of our house that is on our

fireplace. Originally I was going to go with

a pine green, but saw a house similiar to

ours in that color and thought yuk!!

What do we do now, came home saw

the her hanging on the fireplace and

thought that blue looks really good

on that brick, so bingo had my colors,

and we have loved it!!

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Sorry I am spiderwebbing a bit.

Our daughter came home on Sunday

evening and we took her by the house

so she could see what it looked like,

course, there was no water or

carpeting at that time, then it

was on to the hotel.

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Come Monday, I started the phone

calls to the Ins. Co. and what have you,

and sort of set up a command central

there in my hotel room so I would have

all the papers and numbers avail that

I needed. Think we didn't get to meet

with the Ins. lady until Tues. or Wed.,

cause they had to get all the fans out

first. They left all the humidifiers for

a few more days. We were in the rainy

season like now, so it was even more

messy as we came and went daily.

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When I did meet with the Ins. lady,

she was a jewel, in fact, I have often

wondered if she truly were an angel

in disquise. She was so helpful, and

so sweet, and so understanding. They

have a company that works for them,

that come into homes and take care

of situations like these. So we could

either go with them or get our own

contractors, so we chose to go with them.

She said we should not have to do

anything! Course, it is our house so

we really didn't mind doing stuff.

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Unfortunately, 6 weeks went by and

I had met with some of the contractors

but nothing was getting done. We had

been home over a month by then,

and had taped paper drop clothes

to all the concrete to help keep the

concrete dust down, and cleaned the

hard floor in all the walkway areas,

and packed up more stuff to get it

out of the way. Plus we had a garage full

of water damaged furniture and stuff.

At this point we only

knew we were getting new carpeting

and that they were gonna try and

fix our cabinets.

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Finally, I called the Ins. lady again,

and told her nothing had been done,

and we were not sure where things

were at, so she got them moving.

We then found out we were also

getting new floors because there

were seams that were starting to

come up, and then they started

assessing the furniture damage and

anything that got water damaged.

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Once work started in the house,

we had all sorts of opportunities to

be kind, and patient, and helpful,

and to pray for or with some of the

workers, and to have conversations

about the Lord. We even had the

neatest reconciliation with one of

the men. He had yelled at me over

some business dealings, he wanted

all the $$ from the Ins. for that project

up front and I said, I'm sorry but I can

only give you half until the project is

completed. We have learned from

experience that you never give them

all the money up front.

That is not a smart business practice.

I believe he got ahead of himself,

and got in trouble financially and

took it out of me. My hubby called

and told him he did not appreciate

him coming into our home and yelling

at his wife, and he did not feel

comfortable using him as a contractor

now. I don't think he realized how loud

he was........my daughter was in her bedroom

with the door closed which is one the other

side of the house, where the cracked

potty was, and came out after he left

and said Mom, why was he yelling at you??

The contractor told my husband he wasn't

yelling and my husband said oh yes you

were, my daughter heard you all the

way across the house with her door closed.

He seemed shocked!! He did tell my husband

that he has already invested money in

the counter tops and my husband said

we would talk about it and see what

we could do. Anyway, the contractor

came over, very humbly and very

apologetic, he took full responsiblility

for not working out the details in writing

and said that he had gotten ahead of

himself, and that he had a temper and

sometimes it got the best of him,

and he was in a tight spot, but we felt

he was very sincere in his apology

and of course, I told him I was sorry

that I had made him feel like I didn't

trust him, it was just that I was

trying to be a wise business woman.

We also told him we felt the Lord would

have us give him another chance,

and we did and he accepted,

and he did a marvelous job!!

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We had never had such a neat

reconciliation with someone

that was so humble and sincerely

owned their mistakes like that.

It was truly an amazing experience

for us. He truly was a nice man.

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I mentioned the above because I don't know

if you have ever heard of the "prayer of Jabez"

or not, but just before I prayed for help with

the carpeting, I was also praying the Jabez prayer.

The prayer says,

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And Jabez called on the God of Israel saying, "Oh, that you

would bless me indeed and enlarge my territory, that your

hand would be with me, and that you would keep me from

evil, that I may not cause pain."

So God granted him what he requested.

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I Chronicles 4:10

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Now my understanding of that verse

was not to be so much blessed materially,

but it was about having your sphere

of influence with people enlarged. That

you would have more opportunities to

share and show the Love of christ.

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Well, I quickly saw how the Lord was

opening the door for those things to

happen and how we really needed to

be so mindful of that as we navigated

these waters of all sorts of workmen

in and out of our home. It was truly

a joyous and rewarding time.

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I felt much like a military strategist

at times from thinking okay, they

are coming to do this tomorrow, so

we need to move these boxes over

to this room, and also constantly praying

for and trying to figure

out how to be a blessing to those

coming into our home.

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It was a lot of hard work constantly moving

things around, and trying to keep the

dust down. Making choices when you don't

know what your furniture is going look like

and hoping you made the right choice,

constantly setting up appts, and having

someone in your home all the time.

We painted whole rooms, and reoiled all our

baseboards to get ready for the new carpeting and floors

But I have to say it was a neat time indeed!!

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God never ceases to amaze me how He

can do sooooooo much with one situation,

and work differently in everyones heart

all at the same time. Guess that is why

they call Him God!!

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Well, I just realized I have almost

written a book here, so I will stop for

today, hoping that I can finalize

the story on Friday!!

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So much happened it is hard to narrow

it all down, so sorry for being so wordy.

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Have a great evening,

and see ya tomorrow!!

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Love and Blessings,

Nellie