Wednesday, October 31, 2012

RIDING OUT THE STORM

Hurricane Sandy hit Monday early afternoon.
We lost power around 1:30pm
and thankfully it was restored about 30 hours later.
There are still people without in many, many places.



Mike, of course, was out with the fire department.
He stopped home in a rescue vehicle for a brief few minutes to survey the damage.

All day Monday and until about lunchtime on Tuesday he was gone.
There were a few calls later in the day as well.
We didn't get much rain, but boy oh boy, the wind was fierce.

As you can see, we had a very large tree come down..




Providentially, it missed the house.  I don't know if you can tell, but if it had fallen at a slightly different angle, we would have had some major damage.
As it was, it missed the dog coop and the hen house..but smashed the chick coop and the hen's enclosure.  It could have been sooo much worse.  The tree actually split into pieces, the hen house you can see is right in between.




We did (partial) schoolwork by flashlight..read books..and lit candles
  and the kids played some board games and colored.  
Our "playroom" though the chilliest, also has the best light with all the "windows" so we spent the majority of our time in there.




I don't know about you, but I did NOT sleep well that night.
Between the wind howling and gusting and Mike being out and hearing the cracking of trees and not being able to see if anything was happening outside...yeah.  Not so much.
The kids all slept soundly.
Something else I was thankful for.
Though, I was tempted to just gather them all up and have a big slumber party--it worked out.




Firewood for next season.
 We can be thankful for that.
Also, we are very thankful to our thoughtful neighbors who let us plug into their generator so we didn't lose any food.  We were able to plug in the freezer and fridge. 




Still no phone service, but at least we have internet and could reach people that way if absolutely necessary.   Gas is apparently an issue as is stoplights not working.  I don't HAVE to venture out until the end of the week, so hopefully it will be at least partially restored to order in the next couple of days.

Finally, I'm thankful this baby stayed put.
At this point in the game, it could be any time..but that would have been rough.
Even now, with no phone service and roads a mess it could be hairy if little one decides to come.
God is in control.
That is what we have to rest in.

Hope everyone else is hanging in there!

Saturday, October 20, 2012

LSC

This week we took a field trip to Liberty Science Center.
Last time we were there was when Carina was an infant.
She was in a stroller.
Want to hear something funny?  I am pretty positive that last time we went, Michael was wearing the  same shirt that Travis is wearing in these pictures!  Totally NOT intentional.

We finally got there after a brief trip to get the car checked out.

Here they are by a WTC beam.
It is nice going during the week, because it is fairly empty.
There were some school groups, but we avoided them and that way it seemed almost like we had the place to ourselves.







Word to the wise:  Pack your own lunch.
Lunch cost nearly as much as admission.




Alligator snapper.
Pretty funky looking.


Carina making some graffiti art..


3rd floor..3 year old.


4th floor animation studio. 


I think the kids enjoyed it.  Michael and Carina refused to go into the touch tunnel, but Rian loved it.
We saw a 3-D show on meerkats.  (Travis is too young to go into the Imax)  Interesting critters.
Unfortunately, they started closing up the exhibits right around time for rush hour traffic..so it took us a bit over 2 hours to get home :/ at which point EVERYONE is exhausted..but it was a nice day and we were happy to spend it as a family.  Most likely our last field trip for awhile.

There may be more pictures to come.

Tuesday, October 16, 2012

MACKEYS

We went apple picking as a family at the end of September.
We tried a new place and turns out it was pretty nice.
They had a large playground for the kids to play on while waiting for the hay ride..







and the hayride was more than just two minutes long..



The wagon dropped us off at the top of the hill..where the "apple sheriff" laid down the law.
We were pointed in the right direction and went to town..















You have to sample at least one apple to make sure you are getting a good variety!


Mike took a few pictures of Travis.
Just a few.













Back down to the stand where the kids played on the playground for a few more minutes while we snagged some donuts and cider.


It was a nice fall outing..
resulting in apple pie, apple crisp, apple sauce, apples for snack, and hopefully some apple butter.

(That gigantic apple--the picture doesn't even do it justice--is a Commodore, I believe)

What do you do with the apples you pick?