I used to wish I had a few trees in my yard; but after last night, I'm happy with my two sage bushes and morning glory vines.

Hurricane Irene came through last night, uprooting hundreds of trees nearby, flooding the low-lying areas, and causing us to spend $200 that we didn't have in hurricane preparation.  Luckily for us, our house (and neighborhood in general) survived the wind and rain without so much as a power outage. 
The neighborhood next to us was not so lucky.  Huge trees uprooted and fell over on cars, fences, and a couple roofs.

Hurricane Irene is responsible for 18 deaths across 8 states.  (Yahoo!) 

I count myself as particularly lucky that I could get my kids up and celebrate my youngest son's birthday today.  We have no damage, no power outage, and we still have our lives.  And while we breath a sigh of relief that Hurricane Irene "was overblown hype" and not nearly as bad as we thought it was going to be, the friends and family of those 18 people just lived through a nightmare they will never be able to forget. 

Edited to Add:  The death toll has now climbed to 38.  (Yahoo!)

I forgot the funniest part

My youngest son, Aidan, is slightly high-strung.  He is absolutely convinced that the earthquake only hit the elementary school, and it had to be someone's fault.  So he's adamant that he will not be going back in that building.  And yesterday, while we were waiting outside to pick up the boys from school, the Vice Principal came up to the group to chat.  Aidan turns my face to make me look at her, all the while slitting his little green eyes at her and making his angry face.  When I asked him what his problem was, he said, "She made the building shake.  She was standing in the hall when the building shook."  LOL

I did my best to convince him that it was not her fault, that everywhere shook, not just the school.  And that it was the ground that made everything shake.  I'm not sure how convincing I was.  We'll see if he continues to hold a grudge. 

Sheesh, what a week

This year, my two oldest are attending a brand new, state-of-the-art, elementary school.  This place is kinda badass.  It is huge.  There's not a chalkboard in the entire building.  Everything is done on smartboards, which is going to allow them to expand how they teach (which will be awesome for my oldest).  They even have a rock climbing wall in the new gym!  All in all, we're very excited about the new school year.  

So Tuesday, I load up the kiddos, and we go to the official Ribbon-Cutting Ceremony followed by an Open House where we were able to meet their new teachers. There's no telling how many people were there.  We were packed into that building like sardines.  And since all but one of the grade levels are on the second floor, that's where the majority of us were..............when the earthquake hit.  

Did I mention that they just finished building this building at the beginning of the summer?  

Y'all, we thought that building was coming down.  "Earthquake" never even entered my mind.  

I had been talking to my son's second grade teacher at the building seemed to sway like a strong gust of wind hit it, and the teacher said, "I hate when tall buildings sway in the wind."  And then it did it again, only stronger, and I said, "Yeah.  That's not cool AT ALL."  And then it started full-on shaking, and she got this panicked look on her face and was all, "I think we need to go."  

My 3 year old, who was in the middle of getting a drink of water out of the fountain in her room, turned, spit his drink everywhere, and came running at me screaming.  My older two turned white as sheets, and I pushed them out the door and down the stairs to the outside.  People were yelling, kids were crying and screaming, and all I could think was, "Damn, I was really looking forward to them going to school here."

Needless to say, we all made it out of the building in one piece.  People calmed down when they realized that the building wasn't collapsing under the weight of every family in the neighborhood.  When word got around that it was an earthquake, there was a collective moment of "What the fuck??  An earthquake?  Here??" and then people started filing back out to their cars and heading home.  

**My husband, who works on the top floor of a 9-story building made mostly of glass, was also fine.  Although much more shaken than we were.**

So, all in all, even though the West Coast is giggling hysterically at our major freak-out over a little 5.9 tremor, I have to say, we had a very stimulating day.  Now I have to go pick up my kids and go buy hurricane supplies.  Because apparently Mother Nature doesn't think our week has been exciting enough.

Annnndddddd.......we're back to our regular broadcasting

I did not die...,my computer's ability to connect to the internet did. It was touch and go there for a bit, but this techno-geek guy that I am sleeping with (also known as my husband and father to my children) worked his magic and fixed my baby (also known as "my life support" and "my sole connection to the outside world") right up.  

So I'm back.  Just in time too.  I'm sending my oldest two kiddos off to school again starting Wednesday, and I will have time and energy to focus on being better about posting random BS on here.  I know y'all can't wait.  


Until then, go see The Help.  

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