Heading East to West:: Part I

One minute you're laughing and smiling, cracking jokes, drinking a beer or a glass of wine, yelling at your kids to get their little behinds back in bed, kissing someone goodnight, or relaxing with a good book.  It was a minute of normalcy.  A minute you experience each and every night, but the last minute you experienced before your world was rocked.  Literally.

Next thing you remember is hearing sirens, looking at shattered glass on the floor of your home, then realizing your windows were blown out.  You run around, you check on your kids, your husband, your pets.....what happened?

WHAT.THE.HELL.JUST.HAPPENED.?

You're scared, your confused, you go running out of your home.  Police and rescue workers are everywhere.  Unable to answer questions but forcing you to evacuate your home.  What do you do?  What do you grab?  Will they allow you to grab anything?  What about my family, my friends, my pets?  Your heart is racing, your anxiety is at full force, and panic sets in.  Life is about to change drastically.  

On April 17th I watched what I just described unfold on every news station.  This happened in a town about 180 miles from my home, the tiny, little town of West, Texas.   

An explosion happened.  A fertilizer plant exploded.  It killed people.  Mostly firefighters who were there responding the fire that set this explosion in motion. Wives, lost their husbands that night, parents lost their sons, children lost their fathers, siblings lost their brothers.   With a town of only about 2,900 people you can probably imagine this has impacted each and every person in the city.  

Watching stories like this unfold before your eyes on the news makes you feel helpless.  I wanted to get in my car and go help that night.  What can you do though?  Unless you are a trained professional you are just kind of stuck.  Unless you are a trained professional, jumping in your car is useless.  You would just be in the way.  This was just so close to home though and sitting back and doing nothing is not an option.  

As I am scrolling through my Facebook news feed I see some other people posting about wanting to help.  One of my friends and blog sponsors, Origami Owl Living Lockets: Chelsey Ann Pope, Independent Designer, had posted that she was going to collect donations and take he SUV down there.  I thought this would be a perfect way for me to help too.  So, I told her she could use my house as a drop off location if need be and that if she had too much I would drive my car too.  

Well, holy smokes!!  The support from our local community was astounding!  So many people stepped up to help!  Donations poured in at a rate that would not allow us to fit everything in our vehicles.  We then receive a donation to help us rent a truck from Penske of Abilene.  It wasn't quite enough money though.  So, Penske cut us a fantastic deal on the rental.  We were so grateful for their generosity!  We also received a donation from someone to pay for gas.  We had other monetary donations come in.  One of those was from another one of my blog sponsors, Wrapped Away With Cori.  I was just amazed at the generosity from people!  

My dining room was packed!

When we realized how much stuff we had, we decided to have a little "organizing party".  Obviously that meant letting my good friend Christine, from Moore Organized Mayhem take the lead.  Being the generous hostess I am, I supplied my volunteers with the necessities, Wine, soda, pizza hut, and a half eaten cheese cake.  Don't judge, it was last minute and I had to work with what I had. 

That particular bottle was not easy to open!

We all chipped in, got things organized, loaded the truck, and with the help of the wine, loaded ourselves.  Even the kids got involved!  I was so proud of all of the kids that were here that night.  They WANTED to help.  We did not ask them for help or make them help.  They just stepped up and helped load the truck.  

The next day 3 of us made the trip.  I took my personal vehicle and my friends, Chelsey, and Taylor drove the big Penske truck. 

Chelsey and Taylor in front of me as we hit the highway!

 We only got the Penske one way so we needed a personal vehicle to get us home.  Then we were off to Hillsboro, TX.  Where the great folks at Hill College were all set up and waiting for our delivery.  They quickly helped us unload so that we could get the truck to it's destination about 30 miles south of there in Bellmeade, TX.  This is where things get a little difficult....emotionally.  

All of that being said, you will have to stay tuned for a part II....