Hurricane Irene

Our first official hurricane: IRENE.

Luckily we were already pretty prepared because of our church's teachings on being self-sufficient and keeping storage on hand. Friday I put our 72-hour-kits together, because that is one thing that we didn't have. We had enough drinking water to last us a few days, and the night before Irene came plowing down the runway we filled our bathtub, cooler, 5 gallon cooler, and washer with water for things like doing dishes and flushing the toilet. It is amazing how you don't really appreciate those little things--flushing the toilet. I'll tell you that the prospects of no running water and sitting around with that schtuff floating around is enough to make anyone queasy. Really.

Anyhoo~We began the day at 6:15 with Charlie and Jane coming in saying they looked outside, saw the wind, and got scared. We still had power and I thought, "Take advantage of it! BREAKFAST!" and downstairs we went to make mush (instant oatmeal) and have cold milk.

It didn't take long before the kids were playing and I was wishing I could just curl up with a good book. Jane asked over and over to go outside. She just couldn't understand what the big deal was. Finally, after she asked to go make hopscotch outside, I opened the front door to SHOW her why we couldn't. She saw the rain, the wind, the branches and leaves littering the ground and said, "Oh," but with a look of disappointment I just couldn't take. That's when I remembered the Spiderman Christmas wrapping paper Charlie picked out two years ago that I've been dying to get rid of! YES!

Roll it out with the white side up, use a marker, and voila! Hopscotch!

When we got bored of playing the game, we decorated it.

As the day wore on, we were increasingly surprised that we still had power, but wanted to utilize it to the fullest. Bart and Charlie pulled out the Legos. (If you nerds out there really want to know, Bart began building the Star Wars AT-AT. Super cool.)

I just had to put this up of Tommy. He's the cutest!

The rest of the day we just kind of played around doing whatever suited our fancy.

Bart and Tommy cooking us some grub. (WHAT? We STILL have electricity? I'm not saying that to brag--we really were flabbergasted!)

Saturday evening the kids and Bart decided to go on an adventure "into the hurricane" (since the biggest part of the storm had past) to the dumpster. The little dare devils.

This is what we found the next morning:

Our back yard "caved in." The trees hit the back of the unit 2 doors down from us, damaging the outside. We can usually run the span of the yard to the end of the building in the back of this picture, but now: not so much.

Uprooted trees (Bart and Charlie to the right by the roots.)

Trees snapped mid-trunk and a mail-"building" (about 30 boxes) down.

One single daffodil that managed to make it through the storm.

The kids were very concerned about the swing set being smashed and gratefully it wasn't.

One of our maintenance guys (in dark blue) clearing the road that was completely impassible with trees before.

SAVE THE ACORNS! begins as the kids realize that 100s of acorns are down without a home. I think they collected at least 30 of them before we said, "No more!"

More downed trees and debris.

Our drain completely clogged. When we went to bed last night there was a pool filled up to the sidewalk!

and leaf-plastered cars--all the new hype!

All-in-all we weathered the storm quite well. I feel almost guilty because we never lost power or had to use all that food storage that we had prepared when so many of our friends DID lose power (some still don't have it).

We are so blessed. We are blessed with good friends and family and are so thankful that everyone here is safe and secure--that Irene didn't claim any victims. Thanks to all of you for your well wishes!