Happenings Around My House and Town

Hurricane Sandy is old news. I didn't even post pics about it. We never lost power but we lost internet for a few days and its never quite been right since. 

Halloween still went on, although it wasn't so important to people because of the storm and destruction.

The Halloween parade was canceled at school (not that I cared about that! at all! whatsoever!) but I had donated prizes for the winners of the costume contest. They weren't needed and the prizes were returned. Caleigh was thrilled about the glasses.

Halloween night was a beautifully warm night. Jennah, dressed as supermangirl, and Hayley as Batmangirl went trick-or-treating as usual.

Just look at that sky.

Caleigh went as a jellyfish. Cute right?

We've had some pipes run for some of the renos that have taken place more recently in our home. Caleigh's bedroom looks like an attic. (I wish we had an attic space as large as her bedroom, but that's just not the case). I pulled out everything from the crawl-space-of-an-attic so the pipes could be run, and thats when Caleigh and her friends discovered a few bags full of costumes. They decided to entertain us. (This was post Halloween).

The sumo wrestler was hilarious! My friend has a video of her running down the hall. Total crack up.

Our new and improved bathroom is gorgeous, but we are still waiting on the glass doors to be installed. I'm told Monday. I won't hold my breath. I am, however, so thankful that the doors were held off because of the storm. Otherwise, the mirror that crashed down and shattered all over the new tiles, sink, toilet and shower, would most certainly have shattered the glass doors as well. It was horrible enough the way it happened. :-( But all is well. Still waiting on a new mirror also. I will take final pics once the doors and mirror are in. In the mean time, this is Caleigh, cleaning the shower.

I'm in the middle of a show called Joe Sent Me. We've had four performances and have five to go. Caleigh came on Sunday and I was proving to her that the cigarettes used on stage weren't real, even though they blow "smoke".

I gave her a tour of the set. Its a really cool set.

Thankful to have friends come see the show. I told Raul he wouldn't understand it, but he also wouldn't sleep through it. There is not a boring scene or any lag time in the entire show that would cause you to feel sleepy. You have to PAY ATTENTION! Its a murder mystery.

Here I am as Ethel, the piano bar player.

And yes, I have a cigar, bow tie and tux jacket.

Here I am as Sister McPherson, the 1920s evangelist.

 A side-by-side

This and other news...

My girls would often times use my reading glasses (a gift from my dear Ginger) for their silly videos they would make in my room on my computer. One day those glasses disappeared and no one knew what happened to them. >:-/ Well, my struggle with age and vision has become worse and I finally broke down and purchased a pair of reading glasses this summer. What I didn't know was about the magnification aspect and the ones I bought were too strong...  I couldn't comfortably use them. I could still read without them, but it was becoming tiring on my eyes and brain. More time passed. More time passed. Less reading took place. Weeks went by while trying to get through the same book.

Finally, yesterday I picked up another pair of reading glasses at Rite Aid for $12. This time I tested the strength before buying them. Yay me. +1.25 is just about right. Maybe I will finish my book this week.

Once the play is over, I'm going to get back to taking pictures again. I've lost some of the passion.

OK. So School's Back in Session!

Suddenly, I don't have much to do. Its a bit of a let down, really. Kids are in school and Nate and I are the only ones home during the morning hours (he's sleeping because works late). So, yesterday I started sorting through linens, towels and blankets in the closets and unwanted shoes and clothes. You see, there's a shipping container receiving donations which will be sent to those poor folks upstate NY that lost everything due to Irene's flooding. So much flooding (but you probably didn't see any of that on the news). Anyway, this project is simple. Its locals helping locals, so we're giving a fairly decent couch and a designer chair and a bunch of smaller items. I really hope the items we send will be useful.

Nate also asked me yesterday to go with him to the beach to take pictures of him surfing. Hurricane Katia has been kicking up the surf quite a bit. Surf's up! He went in with his board, making the dog and I very nervous and I took pictures while Noah whined and tried to be brave enough to go in (which he wasn't--good thing). The waves were big--not huge--but because there was a LOT of water, it made the surf quite a bit more tumultuous. Nate came right back out, realizing he wasn't going to catch anything good unless he headed to the third break--which was nearly impossible and the wind was not helping. No surfing for yesterday. Everyone say a prayer for Nate's safety. He's not as much of a risk-taker as Luke (say a prayer for Luke) but he does some of this stuff alone and I don't like that. God continues to protect him.

 Nate's heading in

 There are 3 breaks that this picture doesn't show so well

 Noah was happier when Nate was out of the water

The cut is still flowing

I got to see Jennah play her first volleyball game with the varsity team yesterday. That was awesome. The team plays really well, and I was proud. My back was KILLING me after sitting in the bleachers for 5 matches. AGH!

So, its not that my busy life won't pick up shortly... and there are plenty of things I COULD be doing, but those "could be" things are most likely the things I purposely procrastinate about doing. Ho hum.

What are some of my goals that I keep putting off?

1. Getting back to working out everyday and changing my diet to healthy again. (HELP! I have no real motivation except that I hate putting the weight on).

2. Playing the piano everyday and singing--maybe even starting a little regular worship night with my friends who like to worship God with music. (OK. I SAID IT! I've been resisting, but its out there).

3. Cleaning out the basement (that's not really my job, is it?).

4. Cleaning up my office and bedroom which happen to be in the same space (Boooo!).

5. Taking the car in for repairs (can we say serious procrastination!?!).

6. Doing some college visits with Anika. I think I could look forward to that. Wait till you see all the places we'll have to travel... LOL.

I did some research today and found colleges for her to consider. Anyone know anything about these:

Goucher College in Towson, MD
Liberty University in Lynchburg, VA
Warner Pacific College in Portland, OR
Gardner-Webb University in Boiling Springs, NC
Gordon College in Wenham MA
Colorado University in Denver, CO
Seattle Pacific University in Seattle, WA

Is it weird that I didn't find anything in NY? I'm not completely fond of these SUNY schools. But I did forget to check out NYC schools. That will be #7 on the list. Oh and Boston Schools. [$ching $ching]

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.