Sandy's Aftermath

* I am sending this via my phone so please excuse any mistakes, and I'm sure there will be plenty! Monday arrived with an eerie dawn and worked its way to intense! We awoke to a slight breeze but nothing over the top. We lost power on Monday a little after 9am and by mid afternoon it was getting scary. There were wind gusts of 80 miles an hour! By mid afternoon the winds and weather were wild! I was upstairs organizing my closet, my lantern light, when I heard an extremely loud crack. I ran downstairs as fast as I could fearing the tree was going to land on our house and me! When the tree landed the impact shook the entire house! Thankfully it missed our home but ripped all the power lines off the house. It will take a significant amount of time to get that all back in place. Once high tide hit, with a full moon, things intensified well into the early morning hours. Neither one of us slept! Morning brought the realization of 5 downed trees ranging in 40-50 feet, many branches, all the leaves. Even with our damage, I am well aware that many others are far worse off. Many lost their homes and some their lives. My heart and prayers go out to them. School continues to be canceled due to power and road ways being blocked by downed trees. There will be no ghost or goblins trick or treating at our doors this evening. Halloween has been postponed until next week for safety reasons. To be honest, I'm not sure it's safe for me to have all this candy in my house with no other distractions! Boredom invites needless snacking! :) Thank you for all your kind words, sweet emails and prayers. They have been greatly appreciated!! For those of you celebrating, have a safe and happy Halloween!

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Hurricane Sandy

Let the wind and rain begin!

* the patio furniture is put away

* yard lanterns secured

* garage rearranged

* generator prepped and ready to go

* essentials on hand {see photo}

* house is clean {OCD}

* laundry done {OCD again}

The evacuations began this afternoon and the closings list has grown lengthy as the day has gone on.

My school, as with most schools on the coast, announced their closure early in the day. This was a huge relief since we have many rivers and streams near our home that quickly flood and make it nearly impossible to get to our subdivision. This was the case in the last hurricane and I almost had to stay over at a friend's simply because our district didn't make a safe call early enough.

At this time, our town and all neighboring towns have shut down in preparation for the storm. There is a strong sense of being in a ghost town. Only essential personal will be required to report Monday morning. I give the decision makers a lot of credit for making these calls, they are not taking any chances when it comes to people's safety. Thank you, it is greatly appreciated!

I am extremely thankful that my husband is home and not on travel which has been the case with serious storms in the past.

How the tables have turned, my son is calling and checking up on us to make sure we're safe in the impending storm :)

So sweet, Nicholas!

Keeping all those affected by hurricane Sandy in my prayers!

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Overwhelmed

This one word sums up how I've been feeling the past few weeks. I'm in hyper-drive the minute my feet hit the ground each morning.

Here are a few reasons why ...

Our lower patio is under reconstruction. A new drainage system is being put in place to alleviate water in the basement during heavy downpours. 

The second family room in the basement is in the midst of being remolded. The carpet was ripped up after the great flood of 2012 and new tile is being laid. I think it will look lovely once it's completed.

Our contractor, known as my husband, is doing all the work. His talents are impressive but his *real* job has been keeping him hopping so the home projects aren't coming along as quickly as desired.

Just keeping it real here ...

Our cook {aka Me!} decided to try out new recipes for our party that required the use of every single pot, pan, appliance and utensil in the kitchen! It's blurry but you get the gist.

In every day life, I'm crazy busy at school. I have a very challenging classroom this year. It's going to be a very fast past school year with lots of activity.

For my so called *free time* I'm taking a class, more on that later, this semester. I'm really enjoying it but the additional time and work load demands have required me to pull energy from other areas.

This past week I was dealt a health scare that has me going in for more testing. I'm concerned and nervous which isn't mixing well with everything else that's whirling around in my life.

Oh, how could I forget, this weekend we are having nearly 70 people in our home for our annual Oktoberfest party and our home looks like a bomb just exploded!

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