Hurricane Irene

{I started this post on Sunday afternoon. I really don’t want to go back and change the “tenses” to make it sound like I’m writing it today {Monday}
Let me start off by saying how blessed we were in the wake of Hurricane Irene. They were predicting it to be a lot worse, we were prepared for the duration, and we only had to go without power for 24 hours.
It's nice to be typing this with the AC running. Really nice! It's amazing how heat and humidity can make you go cRazY!! We did have a generator, which I am SO thankful for. The fridge was able to stay on, we had ceiling fans, and the TV {as long as the satellite was cooperating and the cable was still working.} The phones went out for a while, but we did have cell phone reception. We were able to have running water and we all took showers this morning.
The wind howled through the last 2 nights, making for some sleepless children! {Ben has been at work since 5am on Friday. He'll be home tomorrow. I can't wait to hear about his adventures.} The boys would wake up saying they were scared. So, I would hop into bed with them, until Parleigh would wake up wanting to nurse. Then Paisley would wake up and start rubbing my face. Erg! I really don't know how parents sleep with their children on a regular basis! It would drive.me.crazy!
Like I said, we faired really well. I can't believe the power is back on already. I'm not complaining. Trust me. I should be headed home this afternoon. It's been nice having extra hands to help with the kids. I'll be forever indebted to my in-laws!
Hurricanes are funny. You expect when there is a storm, for it to be chilly outside with all the rain and wind. But, it's the opposite. It's really warm. {From the storm coming from the tropics.} For the most part it was constantly windy. And then, we just had bands of wind and rain. The eye was predicted to come right over us, but it missed us passing just to the east of us. If the wind would have been about 10-15 miles per hour stronger, we might have been in a lot more trouble. But, I actually think we've had stronger Nor' Easters. Which are cold, not warm. {I think I would rather have the warm tropical rain!}
My in-laws did lose 2 trees. Which was almost to be expected. These trees are top heavy. And when hurricane Isabel hit,these same trees had tipped over and we had to stake them back up.

They also lost some siding on their house.

How blessed we are that we had minimal damage.
Coming home {sunday} evening, there was a beautiful sunset. And, we drove by our new church building and they are making excellent progress!


The extent of our damage! Thank goodness!

fish, fire station, earthquake, and hurricane

{but not in that order!}

What a fun, crazy, holy cow kind of week! I want to blame it on the fact that I came back from California ready to relax and enjoy the last couple of weeks before school starts and needing to get back into a routine. Not that it has been entirely crazy, but okay, I admit it, it has. Why? You ask? Why? Well, I’ll tell you.

{deep breath}

It took at least a week to get over my jet lag. At least a week. And at that point, I got strep throat. But, I caught it at the VERY beginning when I went in for Parleigh’s 6 month check-up and got on some heavy duty antibiotics. Just when I was feeling better, I got a never ending migraine. Never ending. That still hasn’t seemed to go away. {It’s been a week now!} Just when I think I am feeling better----BAM!----I get the “aura” and a headache from you-know-where.

Saturday Ben had an EQ social and I made cupcakes and cornbread salad for. Can I say YUMMO? Here’s pictures to prove it {although when I began posting this post, I hadn’t planned to blog about that!}

Anyway, I just side tracked. Sorry!

So, back to being crazy. Or busy. Or both.

Ben took the boys out fishing yesterday. I went and ran errands {aka went shopping with the girls} and came home to put Parleigh down for a nap. I came back into the living room to straighten up toys, put some dishes in the sink, and walked down the hall to throw clothes into my room. I came back into the kitchen and heard some dishes rattling on the fridge. I tried to think if I had just heard a helicopter fly over, which sometimes makes glass rattle if it’s not sitting straight. I glance at the sink and see a drinking glass rocking back and forth and I start racking my brain to remember if the dish that I previously put in there had moved it. Then I notice my hanging picture frames on the wall shaking. Once again, I try to think if I normally make them shake when I walk past. {All this happened in probably 15-20 seconds.) The rattling stops and I still try to strain to hear if there was something outside that would have caused it to happen. WEIRD! Could it have been an earthquake? Na, most likely not. But, since there was an earthquake in Colorado the night before I decided to check online, just in case. I googled the US geological website, and sure enough they said there was one, but still, in my mind, I was skeptical. How weird would that be? To have an earthquake here. {and for me to actually feel it!}

Who would have thought?

Anyway, like I said, Ben was out fishing. And he had a BLAST! And come to find out, he is pretty sure he saw the “wave” that the earthquake made.

He said there were a TON of cobia yesterday, and he was lucky enough to land a 58 lb one! 58 POUNDS! That is a HUGE fish! { and a citation!} And a yummy fish, too! I drove down to the docks to take some pictures.

This morning I took the boys to the fire station. Heather, Ben’s cousin, wanted to take her son, and we figured today was as good a day as any. It was a crazy, fun time. The boys were WILD from being out on the boat yesterday and not getting that much sleep last night. Once again, I will welcome the routine we’ll have in a few weeks!

And now, we are just watching the weather. If you don’t know, there is a hurricane in the tropics right now. It is headed this way. How much it will impact us, we still don’t know. But, we are preparing the best we can.

Just a tid bit of info---the first hurricane I experienced was Hurricane Isabel in 2003, right after Ben and I were married. I was TERRIFIED! This time around….not so much. Looking back, I actually had no clue what was going on. But, seriously, this is the storm that hit back then? Dang! No wonder I was terrified! Our power was out for a week! I’m praying that it won’t be that bad this time.

We’ll keep you updated. Irene, we have our eye on you!