day in the life of me...

ENK has a tee time...

He'll be playing golf for the first time with his friend Michael M. in Seattle.  I told this to my brother Josh and he always has these one liners...

I think he'll be either..."He'll be smoking hot" or "He'll be rusty"

ENK's clubs were soaked but he dragged the bag dripping with water because he's not an impulsive buyer.  He will take his time and get his clubs "fitted", whatever that means.  Meanwhile, we're enjoying a different scenery and enjoying spending time with friends. We'll deal with the mess when we return on Sunday.  We'll also go see a rental house later on Sunday.... hopefully all five of us will agree! 

What caused the fire?

Inconclusive evidence or insufficient evidence.  The origin was roof above the kitchen sink.  Nothing was cooking, nothing was on, nothing was burning, no candles were lit, the roof just started to burn and it burned fast.  There were many talks in the neighborhood about fireworks and the sounds of fireworks prior to the sirens. But they did not find any concrete evidence to pinpoint to this.  I don't know whether there will be further investigation from the police department but as far as we're concerned, it's done.  Those rocket launchers are illegal in Oregon...but people here know that you can easily cross the Columbia and get rocket launchers from Vancouver.  Something happened and it's still unclear. 

I went upstairs and took many more pictures of all the rooms.  Whose room was the worst?   I can't say, it's all bad.  Randy cried looking at pictures of his room, Allison didn't and couldn't get herself to see  her room and Lindsey sat in the corner and sobbed.  It was hard to see. 
After the fire: looking at the same blue wall.  That's her dresser on the right.  The drawers are all missing with a hole looking into the backyard!
Now that the investigation is done, dumping/cleaning crew will arrive in the morning with a biggest dumpster bin. I was feeling sick from all the dust, fumes and all the chee chee's in the house. 

On a positive note.  We went out to dinner and coincidentally met our beloved church family friends.  As they left they paid for our dinner.  They didn't have to but purely because they just wanted to.... we didn't know about this while eating dinner.  While we were finishing our dinner, another family came to our table and wanted to let us know that their vacation home in Sunriver is ours if we wanted to for the summer!  Mrs. F's daughter and Allison were classmates last year. She also wanted to share her favorite verse in the Bible and started to recite it.  Together we finished the verses...  That family walked out and ask to pay for our dinner.  The folks at the restaurant were perplexed.  Who are these scruffy looking Asian people?  Two complete patrons offering to pay for their meal?  They said that it was already paid for by the previous diners.  They left us a gift card on our table and gave us their love for our family.  I was completely in tears. 

Verse that the Falconers shared with us?
Numbers 6:22
The Lord bless you, and keep you;
The Lord make His face shine on you,
And be gracious to you;
The Lord lift up His countenance upon you,
And give you peace."'
So they shall invoke My name on the sons of Israel, and I
shall bless them."

Moving on...

We got five tubs for five of us yesterday.  It's filled up now.  We don't need much.  It's sad seeing this but it's enough.  Our host family is wonderful.  We are sleeping and eating well.

We went to the house once again today.  We met with multiple insurance agents. I'm not sure if I can remember them all.  So many components to filing a claim.  But we are in GOOD HANDS. Is that Allstate?  We noticed that folks are still driving by to "look" and businesses are coming by to promote whatever they are doing to help us through.  It's hard to know who/what in all this.  ENK starts work tomorrow.  I need to stand firm and face all them folks tomorrow alone.  We will sift through with the cleaners.  I guess they will ask me.... do you want to Keep, Trash or Restore.  It's an all day thing I guess.   Upstairs is easy.  There's nothing there to keep or restore.  We'll see.  I may be surprised to see something standing.  I feel bad for the kids.  They lost everything they own in their bedrooms.  Randy received a little stuffed doggy.  He is hugging it to sleep.  "Good night Bolt..." is what he said before falling asleep.  Gee.  it's hard to see that. 

Sheer devastation?

Just looking at the intense fire, neighbors thought the whole house would come down.  It was very hot and very intense.  You would think that nothing was spared...  but I was really amazed when I walked into the house this morning.  Everything that I wanted to see and to save....WAS SAVED!  Kid's music trophies... doesn't sound much but it was in perfect condition.  They don't like piano lessons but they really treasure these little trophies...

Our computer room was soaked but we were able to retrieve our documents. In the file cabinets are our past tax documents and our office documents. We were able to save the hard drive as well. 

This closet.  Although very messy, housed many of grandpa's old pictures from his earlier years in Korea.

This tiny closet is deep.  It has three selves deep inside.  I have about 10 photo albums of my GAA days and earlier pictures of my girls.   Josh, there is that black jacket you left behind in March! My wedding pictures and other family pictures were all saved.  I retrieved an original blueprint of our house, 3 Bibles and all my cookbook collections that I had over the years.  All safe.  Other than that... I didn't really care.  Everything was replaceable! 

My beautiful grand piano.  covered but completely destroyed... but that can be replaced easily!

Overall, Sheer devastation turned into sheer joy in finding things that were saved.  Once again, I'm reminded of God's grace.

Our house no more...

 

We are safe.  Our house was totalled. Found all our albums, baby videos, my favorite cookbooks, our Bibles... SAFE.  Everything else... gone.

Wish you were here...

   

Delicious cherries from Dundee, OR.  Want some?

Did you know that Dundee is Oregon's wine country?

It looks like Napa Valley but NO ONE is around.  It's very serene and quiet... 

Special time with Hermann's ohana....

I realized something.  When you have guests from Hawaii.  Don't bother making breakfast.  I made pastrami hash and eggs...  of course they can't wake up for breakfast! Why didn't I think about this?  (No worries, my kids ate it all up)   We drove around West Linn, Clackamas, Happy Valley, parts of Portland... but they said they like Tualatin!  Are you sure?    Anyways, they live near Waikiki Beach, walking distance to Ala Moana Shopping Center in Honolulu and they want to relocate to TUALATIN?  Our neck of the wood? Hey, we live here because we love it too!  ENK kept on asking Herm "now tell me why you want to move here?"  Hermann has siblings on the west coast and the cost of living is cheaper on the mainland.  We enjoyed our time with the Paks.  We'll see what you do Uncle Hermann... Oh, the baby... we fell in love with this little baby girl YUMI!

a baby is here...

 

...and we're all going goo goo ga ga over her.  This little girl is Uncle Hermann's baby girl... She's soo cute. 

Miata returns home....

Kevin gets chocked up when he talks about this... "Who just gives you a car to drive... just because?"  Well, he needed a car when he first moved here three years ago and we had an extra car in the driveway.  It all worked out.. he loved driving it more than he thought he would....  Kevin just got it freshly painted this week and brought it back to the big guy.   ENK drove the little car to work with the top down... 

Having so much fun...

 

Lindsey is always on the bottom and Ally A's always on the top... Would this ever reverse?   The two dudes on the bottom were unexpectantly in the middle of these gal's "great idea"... ha ha... Westley doesn't look amused and look at poor Christian!!