What's Done is Done.

And that includes the birthdays!! At least until mine comes next month.

 Jennah's cake decorations

 It was her first try using fondant

 This is Caleigh's expert photography skills

 "We're exactly the same" (I heard them claiming this--LOL)

 Caleigh loves to take pictures

 Opening presents

 lighting candles

 making some kind of wish...?

 we sang Happy Birthday in "lovely" harmonies

Tra la la la la

Stranger Things Have Happened.

So... Irene took down a lot of trees. Lots of people lost power. We didn't.

Its Tuesday and lots of businesses and homes still are without power, or cable or internet. I feel bad for them.

There was a major amount of scampering and preparing for the hurricane, and yet there are very few trucks on the road taking away tree limbs or repairing downed lines.

Nate took a spill on his motorcycle last night. He didn't get a single scratch or owie, thank God. His bike did though.

Its Jennah's birthday today, and I bought her a cake decorating kit and fondant when we were in Indiana last month as a gift. She asked if she could have her gift already so she could decorate her own cake.

I have to jump in the car to taxi kids from work to there first day of preseason practice. This would have been their 2nd day if not for Irene.

We're having Chinese food for Jennah's birthday.

I'm taking a much needed walk with Lillian now.

Stranger things have happened.

Hurricane Preparations and Boredom

So, if you are anywhere along the east coast (or on FB) you have been bombarded for the past several daze with the hurricane-Irene-hype. Its not that I don't believe we may still have a big storm to deal with when she FINALLY gets here, but... its just the same report over and over and over again. Hours upon hours upon hours. All the gas stations were out of gas by Friday afternoon. All the stores were out of batteries by Thursday. Everyone's running around trying to get everything they may need if we loose power. I just don't care. 

My husband works in an office alongside two Italians. They LOVE to get into the drama of storms and stuff. When there is a storm pending, he can come home from work in a much different head space than me about the pending doom. Last year, when hurricane Earl was coming, he was ready to evacuate Long Island. I was NOT going to evacuate!! As the time drew nearer it was obvious that the hurricane was going to turn out and we actually didn't even get any rain or wind from that one. It was a complete NO SHOW! 

I just find it interesting and sometimes frustrating that we are on such different pages with these storm things. So Irene is obviously coming. We haven't been instructed to evacuate and we aren't in a flood zone so It should be ok for us. I'm not sure about some of the homes on the beach. But these reports threats started on Wednesday. Its now Saturday and we won't even get anything from the storm until after midnight. The actually hurricane or tropical storm is said to hit NYC around 8 AM on Sunday. AGGHHHH!!! 

One thing we HAD to do was somehow get this HUGE branch down, which had been stuck precariously hanging from a very tall tree. Its been dangling over the cars in the driveway for quite some time now. (I think its called a widow-maker). Anyway, BJ finally brought it down... along with our cable and phone lines. The lines still work (yeah), but the anchors from the pole and the house have been yanked out so the wires are hanging down. No biggie. LOL.

We went to the grocery store. There were lots of people there, but it was fine. No one was nasty. I was very happy to get some peppercorn turkey breast. That sandwich was yummy.

When we got home, I wanted the big guy to call the utility company to deal with the hanging wires this morning before the storm started blowing and all. But no. He decided he wanted to wait. OK! Um. Alright, then. I needed to take a break, so I went to the store and the brought my camera... just in case I wanted to take some pictures.

 I think the lifeguards were bored too.

I found out tossed these shoes on the wire. We may add a few pair to the collection. Everyday there another pair. LOL.

When I returned from my errands BJ said he wanted to change out the dishwasher. We suddenly thought... why not get a stainless steel one to match the oven? PC Richards... "do you have any Hurricane Irene deals going on?" Terry went on his way. I needed to deal with something else on the homefront.

I discovered Hula girl on my dashboard again. I don't know who brought her back, but it made me smile.

I thought you might like to see Mr. Crabby Paddy. He's meant to scare Noah away from laying in my hostah's. Not really sure if its working.

 The welcome sign is more for Noah also. But you are, in fact, welcome.

We cleared away all the pool furniture... except for the volleyball net. Hopefully the pool will be fine after the storm.

Here's the new dishwasher. Its amazing. I can't even tell that its running. Never had such a quiet machine.

Caleigh and I went swimming to pass the time.

Her pants fell off so she decided to skinny dip. [gasp]

Dinner was delicious thanks to my amazing husband and we decided to take a look at the ocean. So I asked Noah... "Hey Noah... wanna go to the beach?"

Oh yes he did!!!

See how happy he is?

Those white blotches are rain drops.

I ditched the flash but it was quite dark. Such an amazing sight. The waves had really kicked up since earlier in the day and the tide was coming in, so the waves were coming over the top and down to the bay.

It was fun!

Caleigh was acting like an old man.

Noah was so happy. He pooped twice. Terry got the first batch in a poop bag, but the second batch was done right in the water--oops. Bad DOG!!

Everyone felt very free and alive.

Woohoo.

Oh happy day!

The waves were intense!

There were others there being silly and playing in the water coming over the top. Too funny. When Noah pooped in the water they had to play "Dodge the Bullet" LOL!!! Ew.

Well, I pray for all to be safe and for the storm to chill out. I'm hoping for minimal damage, especially in those flood zones.

Stay safe.

Happy Birthday to Anika--Jennah is Next

 She is how old????? SEVENTEEN???? Holy cow.

She's still very strange after all these years of teenagehood. Strange in a good way. A funny way. I can hardly get a straight-faced photo. Lizzy falls right in line with goofball sister.

Even Luke... I don't know where they get it from.

Caleigh looks like she is still playing the role of "pyscho mom" [refer to former post]. I let her light the candles on the cake.

Jennah proudly presented her work of art for Anika.

It was pretty cool. She used crayons, a glue gun and a blow dryer.

She also made and decorated the birthday cake with her new cake decorating kit. She wants to make her own birthday cake next week when she turns 15.

Anika is home sick with tonsillitis. Fun fun. She wasn't feeling well for the past few daze, but she held it together for cake. Those few daze were quite miserable for a variety of reasons. This won't go down as her most favorite birthday ever and for that I am not sorry. Hopefully next year will be a very different story.

Its been a rough week. I'm exhausted. Parenting is not necessarily a barrel of laughs at this stage. Its fun some of the time. There are rewards here and there, but I hate losing sleep, and that has been a big problem for me lately. I need to get back to exercising again. I think about it a LOT! If only that paid off in reality. Agh!

Besides driving out rebellion around here (calling it what it is), I'm discovering that I have to drive out rodents as well--the voles who are eating my perennial garden and... drum roll please... ANOTHER FREAKING RAT!!! (which I'm beginning to wonder if the compost is attracting them, but my husband refuses to believe it possible). Let's not forget to mention that blight that attacked the tomato plants in the garden and fungus that has shown up on the leaves of the zucchini plants. Weeds are everywhere in the mulch beds. Who will weed them? I can't keep up. I've been busy bringing kids to the orthodontist, the dentist, and the doctor. Next thing on the agenda is that BJ and I have to drive 16 hours up and back to pick up Luke's belongings from the frat house. He left them there because he was going to return to college this fall, when he actually got a job in the field he was studying. So, since he already received  his associates degree, he decided not to give up his job. Its better to be educated about the business, while getting paid, than to pay thousands of dollars to get the book learning with no guarantee of a job once you get the diploma and the loan payment book.

Well, I gotta run. Time to start the taxi rounds, picking up children from every corner of the town. I wish I could nap.

It's Been a Good Summer

First I have to say Happy Birthday to my oldest daughter, Anika. Today she is seventeen! But not officially until about 5:30 pm. The picture of her is an oldie. We need to do one more photo shoot before it gets away from us--Anika's photo shoot--and being that presently she's grounded... maybe that can be what we do for her birthday? (Don't ask about the grounding. I'm not pleased).

This past Saturday, my dear Hemby friends threw a beach party for India's birthday (at least that was the excuse--LOL). And it was too much fun--a perfect night!!! There were so many parties on the beach that night, which only made it more festive and fun. I love this annual party. YAY!

 Raul is hungry, Nicki!!!

 

 This is the Annual Beach Party Photo of Nicki. 

Corn on the grill is the BEST! Especially when its fresh picked from the field.

 Caanan grew this summer. Hee. He's 6'5".

Psycho Mom and Crazy Daughter

Caleigh and Paige role-played for much of the evening. When I walked over they told me that Caleigh was a pyscho mom making dinner for her crazy daughter, and the daughter was gathering things for the mud pies, like crab shells and seaweed and sticks. OoooKay!

 The sunset was lovely, but the stars were even better.

 Carolina was taking in the "beach party tradition" with sheer abandon. LOL.

 My lovely Chilean family of beautiful ladies.

 Lizzy loves the camera,

 And the camera loves her.

 I really enjoy this new tradition we learned in Jamaica... wishing lanterns. We sent off about 10 of them.

Its a beautiful and uplifting experience for some reason. You can see your prayers being raised to the heavens. There was another party across the bay sending off lanterns as well. We figured when we came home we would find them landed in our pool. haha

The moon rose late in the evening and we could see Venus with her 4 moons. The sky was an awesome sight. We also saw the space station pass around 11:30pm. Lots of sky activities on Saturday.

I do hope we get another beach party in before the summer ends. I haven't had enough beachtime yet. But I'm not going to pressure myself with that, because I have enough stress troubling me already. If I can get more beachtime I will, but if not... oh well. [deep sigh]

My next post will probably bring you pictures of Niagara Falls, but those photos have not been taken yet. I'm excited for the weekend.