Terrified!!

I am not sure how to get the girls through this "terrifying" time. The minute it turns dark Aleeyah starts hanging on to me and literally won't let go. So I am spending all my night time hours trying to convince her that things are ok!! The NOAA weather radio went off last night (who knows why) and Aleeyah and Averrie was eating. I was standing at the end of the kitchen bar when they both came FLYING out of the bar chairs screaming!! It took me two hours to calm them down. This tornado has taken homes, lives, cars and my children's innocence. A child should have no cares in the world. They should be able to trust that things are ok. Averrie wants to know when the "dark" is coming back.

Aleeyah is just plain terrified!! She cries if she hears thunder, a train, the NOAA radio goes off, anything. I am not sure what to do with her!! I know that some have told me not to take her through the hit area. Well, I live in the hit area. To get to walmart I have to drive through it. To get home I have to go back through it. It is everywhere around me. There are no back streets for me!!! I mean think about this......I go to town, I have to take 8 west to Sampson...ok then I can't take main cause of damage..so I have to go over the mountain to Eagleton and back through 71. OHHHH but Gilcrest got hit, so there is damage!! So instead I take 8 w and go to peach orchard and take 375 back into Reine by the radio station. Yea, have you seen 375? DAMAGE!!!! It is every where!!!

I just don't know what to do with Aleeyah. Averrie is not having such a hard time with it, but Aleeyah is not doing good. I have just been leaving them home, or staying home while Sam gets what I need. I can't do that forever. Sam is volunteering and helping people with their homes, and goes to work at 1:00 pm. So that leaves me to take and get what I need. The girls are having to go with me. I am just lost at what to do. Maybe something will come soon!!

Let there be light!!

A United States flag hanging high in a tree. Where did it come from? Who really knows!!

I have electricity!!!!!!!!!! Finally after 2 1/2 days I have lights. I have heat, a stove and can wash clothes. I just am heartbroke that so many more families tonight don't have that luxury! They are in shelters without a home. Little children have lost their sense of security and comfort. I set and look at my two daughters laying in bed and it cuts me to the bone. To think that 400 more yards and there I would have been to. Pray for the families you guys. The ones in Arkansas and the ones in Tennessee. That young mother and newborn daughter gone in the blink of an eye. The weather forecast is calling for more storms tomorrow. I don't know where people will go. They have NO where to go! I set here tonight and for the first time I hear a train going through Mena. Showing that there is life coming back in this ravished town. I don't remember the tornado of "93" that much..but this one will be forever etched in my mind. The good, the bad, and the ugly. The hurt, the pain and the tears that I have shed for so many. So tonight I go to lay my head down in my bed and I pray for all those who are without a bed tonight. I ask the heavenly father to lift them up. For he is a mighty GOD, and a just GOD, and a loving GOD!!!!

Toto...we are not in "Mena" anymore!!

A truck next door to Brenda and Gary Moore's
Twin Oak Apartments, see the car on the sidewalk

Off of Hensley street on west boundary

On the corner of Averritt and West boundary less than 1/2 mile from the house

R&D industry

This is the honest truth about it all. Everything that we knew is gone. I went to see Brenda and Gary Moore today, and I had to walk there. AMAZING!! I could not believe it, I did not even know what street I was on. There were people setting and just holding their heads in their hands. Such a sense of loss and confusion. Then there were so many people laughing and hugging, and telling each other that we WILL RISE out of this. We will come back from this. Today is the first day that I have been able to get to west boundary. I live just a stones throw from west boundary. When we seen that twister on the ground it was hitting the field in front of me, and west boundary. I cried the whole time that I drove down that road today. God had his hand on my house, I now know that!! He did not see it time to take my home. I was to close to the destruction to be saved, YET I WAS!!! Thank you precious Lord for that!! They are now telling me that my electricity won't be on for another a few days. Up to five is the word. That is ok, we received information that Sam will have a job. He will work 1:30 to 7:30 at night. Thank goodness....... I wanted to share some more photos with you from around town. No one knows what I mean by the statement that we are not in "mena" anymore until you have seen it. I know that Holly, Kristy, Shauna and Kim know what I am talking about. To be in a place and not even know where you are!!! AMAZING!!

Another dark night.

Well it is another dark here in the Frost household. We have one phone line, and I have taken it over for this blog. Thankfully the laptop that Sam bought me is coming in handy. I have to stop every so often to charge the battery by the generator. We had to break down and get a generator today at Atwoods. Thankfully, they was open. We are use to a fan at night, the sound keeps us asleep. Last night we had no electricity, so that meant no fan. We were up all night with Aleeyah crying wondering if it was going to hit us again. Today, Averrie just keeps asking if the "dark" is coming back. I am having to reassure my children that life is safe. How do you do that when we have to drive through such devestation each time you go to town? Today, as we drove through the damage area, I was so happy to see Aleeyah and averrie asleep. I don't want them to see this stuff. To think that every storm is going to do this to the town. Sam got called to work tonight, to try to take care of some of the motors. They are trying to keep them dry, and tarp them. We all need to pray that they want to rebuild the motors plant. I just keep looking around and crying. I wonder what all these people will do. How will they rebuild? Did they have insurance? I have offered what i can and pray that I can help the best that my means will let me. You know, I don't really remember the tornado of "93" but they say this one was worse. I have never seen anything like this. To drive down a street that you have been living in and driving down that street all your life. Yet you don't know where your at!! To see people standing on the side of the road crying and trying to dig through their belongings tears my heart out. That could have been me and my family. Those first couple of hours when I could get no one that I knew on the phones, the feeling that my life was about to change. You know, tragedy's will bring out the best or worse in people. You know that Arkansans stick together through thick and thin, and they are proving to do the same this time. One thing, to you all in mena, we are to "love thy neighbor as thy self" please if you can find a way to help out please do!!

Devestation!!!

US Motors


Mena Hospital

US Motors

House on 375 West

US Motors

In the blink of an eye!!

Well, as many knows Mena was devastated by a tornado. We were getting ready to take cover in the closet, when we heard the windows vibrating. Sam looked out to see that the tornado was in the front yard. We could hear it, we could see it, and we could feel it. We ran to the closet and began praying for God's safety, and singing Father Abraham songs to the girls. In the blink of an eye it was gone. As quick as it came it was GONE!! As we get out this morning such devastation. Such pain!! I explain to my girls what has happened as I cry for these people who lost EVERYTHING. The tornado was HUGE and was ready to take lives. All our lives are changed, my husbands work is GONE! What will we do? As I come on to Reine it is TOTAL devastation, this is where the 3 deaths occurred. Moms car is totaled, and I have no electricity. Who knows when this will all end?!?! Please continue to pray for us all...we need it right now...

We don't like "dugs" daddy!!

So my husband has decided that it would be a wonderful experience for the girls to gather their own eggs. To teach them how to self sufficient! Yea, your talking about two girls who hate

1. Dirt

2. "Dugs" aka bugs

3. "niskittos" aka mosquito's

4. and snakes

He just insist on doing this, so I will let him entertain his self!! He tells us Sat that he wants us to go up to the chicken/rabbit pen and help him clean it out, and put the fence up. So out there we go. The day was beautiful with just the right weather. Aleeyah and Averrie was NOT happy with the fact that we was going to spend another day in that PEN! Aleeyah would not play, since the last time we were there I found a snake under the leaves. Averrie cried every time a gnat would land on her. Then Aleeyah said "Mom, we just ain't outside girls." Well at least she did not say "we AIN'T country girls." I mean with wording like that she would be fibbing. I think the girls agreed to stay out there 10 mins total when all heck broke loose and they seen a red wasp. Well, Aleeyah ran one way with her eyes closed, Averrie ran the other. Sam and myself stood wondering which one would stop before they realized that the wasp was not chasing them, and we were not following them. We are just at the step of getting it ready. If you knew my husband, you would know that he is a perfectionist!! Things have to be just right before he will let it be done. I agree, we need to make sure that the hawk (that flogged us twice) needs to be kept out, but he is unreal. He measures EVERYTHING twice, and then draws out his plan. Weeks later he finally gets to building it. He then informs me that he does not want "simple" rabbits and chickens. So he gets a book and locates some ornate chickens that I have never seen before. He also gets on the Internet and finds Lion Head rabbits.

So below will be the new additions to the Frost family "farm". Unsure of names but at least they are cute right?!?!

Chickens are another story. To me the worse thing in the world is gathering chicken eggs with the poop and snakes to bother with. Not to mention the fact that dear Mr. Rooster does not like anyone!! Ever been attacked by a rooster? NOT FUN!!!!!! If they have spurs you better defend yourself with something BEFORE you go in. Oh heaven help me what have I let him get me into?

So Sam tells Aleeyah "now honey, we are going to gather chicken eggs."

Aleeyah~ "Why?"

Sam~ "We are not going to have to buy eggs at the store anymore."

Aleeyah~ "Will I get dirty gathering eggs daddy?"

Sam~ "You might!"

Aleeyah~ "will there be dugs daddy?"

Sam~ "Probably."

Aleeyah~ "Well, we don't like dugs daddy sorry."

I mean at least she apologizes for hating bugs ha ha...

I told him this was not a good idea!!!!!