Legal yucky stuff and crazy weather

This past week was filled with all kinds of things that weren't particularly pleasant. On Monday we had the re-scheduled conference call with the arbitrator in our case against our contractor. Basically the arbitrator was just setting the schedule of how things would go. The date for our hearing is April 24th! I'm learning one thing about the legal system...it moves at a snail's pace. It was also Martin Luther King day so no school...double whammy. To kill some time I took the kids to Mudpie to use the gift certificates Heather gave them for Christmas. I also started a cute project but didn't get it finished. I'll post pics of all projects once we have them back.

The weather this week was forcasted to be pretty nasty. The words "ice storm" and "winter storm warning" were heard over and over again on the news. I haven't heard those words in the entire 6 years we've lived here. Monday night I watched the news to see if school would be closed (even though the weather wasn't really doing anything but being cold). Lo and behold I see our school district name scroll across the bottom of the screen saying that school would be closed Tuesday AND Wednesday. WEDNESDAY??? What? It's Monday night and the weather's not even doing anything yet. At the very end of the newscast, the reporter came on and said that our district WAS having school after all and that a mistake had been made. "Whew!" was all I could say.

I woke up Tuesday morning to an e-mail from our school secretary explaining that someone sent a fake notice to the news stations making it look like it had come from the district public information office that school would be closed. Not a nice prank but kind of funny and pretty inventive.

I was glad there was school b/c we had a meeting with our attorney scheduled for Tuesday to prepare for our deposition in our Ford case that was scheduled for Wednesday. The preparation went okay but I did have to look at all the photos from the fire. I hadn't looked at those in a long time.

Wednesday a.m. we woke to more cold weather and rain. The kids were anxiously watching the news to see if our district would be closed. Thankfully, we dodged another bullet and our district remained open but most of the ones around us closed including Houston ISD. The temps in our area hovered around 33 - 34. Just one more degree lower and who knows...

Again, I was thankful that school was on so we wouldn't have to re-schedule our deposition. I really wanted to get that overwith. With that said, though, it was definitely one of the worst things I've ever had to do. I spent a grueling and emotional 5 hours being grilled by two different attorneys with only a 30 minute break for lunch. Then Jim spent another 3 hours being grilled himself by the same two guys. During a bathroom break I called one of my girlfriends to make sure she could pick Jensen up from school. She could tell I was emotional and had been crying so she gave me a pep talk I really needed. She said "Don't take any shit! They burned your house down!" I did much better after that. These are some of the photos I had too look at during the day. It really reminded me what the true cause of all this is. The first photo is my un-recognizable white 2002 Ford Expedition. The next photos are the remnants of

my house. The last photo is my house today. It's not done, but there is hope. I'll update the rest of the week later.