The day my world changed forever

So, it's taken me a long time to attempt to compose a blog post about the last few weeks. I'm not even sure how much detail I'm capable of giving and I'm in a public place so it's best if I don't cry. LOL!

Long story short - my birthday was Tuesday, August 9. It was fantastic and I thought, "44 is going to be my year, I just know it." That following week I was evacuating my house due to the flooding in/near Baton Rouge. I live in a suburb of Baton Rouge. (Totally possible I have these dates wrong, so forgive me if that happened).

To sum this up as best I can: We only got a foot/foot and a half of water (depending on which room in the house). We had to wait five days before the water receded enough for us to even see the damage to our house. When we walked in and saw it was a foot, we rejoiced.

Then we immediately started going through our stuff. Naturally all furniture and appliances had to be thrown out. We knew right away floors would have to be ripped out and sheetrock replaced.

We started going through our stuff - Emily's toys, my books, Rich's sports memorabilia. There was so much slime, even on things that were at the top of our closets. Turns out, the sewage pond behind our neighborhood flooded into people's homes in the neighborhood (only five streets in our neighborhood).

So there was the combination of swamp water, rain water, sewage and about 500 dead and living earthworms. That same water sat in our house for five days. The humidity apparently rising to the top of the closets.

There are no words to describe the first time seeing your house in this condition. No words.

Because we followed FEMA's directions (although I'll fully take responsibility for this decision being the biggest mistake of my life), we left one car there. Phone service was terrible, people were starting to panic. FEMA says to only take one car so you don't get separated. So we packed as fast as we could, put the cat in her kennel, shoved her in the car with us and left. Try explaining this to a 6-year-old......

Later I'll post about where we've been living, what are our future plans, talk about the lost car (we have since bought a used car from New Orleans) and the pros and cons I've seen from people during this time.

Where does this leave my running journey? That's coming up too. And yes, I do still have goals other than doing everything humanly possible to get my little family back into my little house as soon as possible.

I bid you adieu from the state that gets a lot of shit from northerners about our Cajun ways, but we are strong. We will rebuild. We did not wait for help from the government. We helped each other. We are taking care of business. This is south Louisiana.

Week 20 - my first run!

This morning was my first run after losing 15 pounds. My goal was one mile at a 14-minute pace. I made it a half mile. hahahah!

Mistake #1 - 5:30 a.m. as opposed to 5:00 a.m. - apparently that's the open season time for people to go to work. I had to dodge a few cars which slowed me down.

Mistake #2 - I started off way too fast. I was so focused on hitting my goal that I was completely spent by the half mile.

Mistake #3 - Not sure this is really a mistake, but a factor - there was heat lightning and I'm a scaredy cat when it comes to any type of lightning. It wasn't raining at all, but the lightning kind of freaked me out. Also ... HEAT. HUMIDITY. I had to take my phone for the music and I wasn't even outside one minute before the screen was soaked with dew.

I was disappointed I had to give up halfway in. I was dying though and I was worried I'd pass out. So naturally the walk back home was long and I had the sadz.

By the time I took my shower, got ready for work and drove into work - hell yeah, I'm going back out there Friday! It really is a mental game.

I have such a long way to go, but I definitely felt lighter without the extra junk in the trunk. I did keep looking at my watch and I'd see 12,13 and 14-minute numbers pop up so that was exciting. My numbers used to be 15-16.

I ate breakfast this morning after the run so I didn't weigh myself, but I'll count yesterday's weigh-in: 162.4. The weekend screwed me over. This weekend I'm determined to reign in the diet. Tuesday is my birthday so I'm having a Brewbacher's catfish platter and my husband and daughter are making me cupcakes to celebrate.

Last Friday my weight was 161.2 and oooooh I was so excited. I hadn't seen that number in four years. But alas, it was short-lived.

So there we go. It's going to take a lot of work and hopefully no injury. HOPEFULLY NO INJURY. This is my biggest fear.

And for posterity and because I need to include a pic:

My homemade salad. Quite a handy, quick meal.