Seriously? 2 weeks ago, you would think that the world is ending if you lived on the east coast. So, first, we get Hurricane Sandy. It started blowing pretty hard on Sunday night and was ok, but not great on Monday morning. But, all schools and offices were closed due to the potential storm ahead. Smart idea. First of all - let me say that what we got in NO WAY compares to what NY and NJ got and I consider us very lucky because of it. However, what we did get? Actually, what we didn't get? Was power for a good 3 days. And, for those of you on a private well and septic like us? You know what this means. No shower. No toilet flushing. No washing dishes. AKA, Stinky people, stinky toilets and messy house. Take that back - we did use Josh's parent's house for a shower on Tuesday (as they are smart and have a generator) and we did use water THAT WE PURCHASED to flush our toilets. So, really, we had somewhat stinky people, really freaking expensive toilets and still...a messy house. Anyway - as I said, work and school were closed on Monday. But, then, my office opened on Tuesday and the kids' schools opened on Wednesday. Mind you, we still didn't have power on Wednesday morning. I decided that mornings were FAR worse than evenings without power. Evenings were kind of fun - we ate via candlelight and walked around with flashlights the entire night. The kids loved it. Mornings? Sucked. I mean, simple things like feeding deacon, finding an outfit in my closet (that doesn't need ironing, which is hard to come by), warming Alex's milk (yes, he's 3.5 years old and still drinks warm milk in the mornings - cut him some slack. It's good for him, so I say drink more milk..), washing my face, etc. was impossible, really dark, really cold, and really annoying. Well, FINALLY, on Halloween day, we got our power back. Mind you - I was supposed to host Halloween at our house and we were all going to go around our neighborhood for trick or treating, but I just couldn't deal. I needed to clean up and just relax, so for the first time ever (like, seriously), I actually cancelled a social event. Quite grown up of me if I do say so myself. Here is a video of the wind. You can't really tell too much, but it was pretty bad. Trust me.
Halloween was great. It started with a party at Avery's school. Man - when they ask for parents to help at this school? They aren't messing around! I feel badly for the head room parent, as she had to do all of the planning. But, even those of us who didn't do the planning definitely had our fair share of jobs when we got there. Somehow, I managed to sign myself up to lead the group in a craft. As most of you know, I'm not what is known as "crafty," but it worked. We made cute little mummy bookmarks using popsicle sticks, tissue paper and googly eyes. They were cute.
Oh, and I also signed myself up to make the "sweet" treat for the class (I'm involved like that). Of course, I did this prior to realizing that we were about to lose power for 3 days. So, the faces and stems were assembled via candlelight the night before and they were supposed to have green leaves, but I figured the kids wouldn't mind and the other parents would cut me some slack knowing our situation.
I took the rest of the afternoon off and brought both kids home for some much deserved TV/down time before trick or treating. I have to say - I was slightly bummed this year, as it was the first year that I couldn't "force" the kids to dress in coordinating costumes. They each actually had their own opinions as to what they wanted to be. Avery wanted to be an asian princess (because she saw it online as I was searching) and Alex, as you may imagine, wanted to be a baseball player. While they weren't coordinated, they were still pretty cute in their costumes (clearly Avery was done with photos at this point).
Oh - and, I can't forget mine and Josh's costumes. Granted, we didn't wear them on the day of, but more importantly, we wore them to a Halloween party the weekend before...
A pumpkin and the pumpkin seeds!
Unfortunately, I've decided that our town is just not a trick-or-treating town. First of all, all of the houses are really far apart. Second of all, the houses that are there are occupied by people in their mid to upper 80's who are done with kids and want nothing to do with them coming to their house all throughout the night asking for candy. Ok - that's not really true. But, there are a lot of old people around us and even those who aren't old don't want to participate for some reason. But, whatever. At this age, the kids really just want to run around at night - they don't care about the quantity of candy. So, they had fun. Mama? I was pretty bummed about the lack of candy. So, next year, we're finding a new spot. And, next year? Even though Alex doesn't like candy, I am going to threaten a time out when we get home if he does what he did this year and says "No thank you" when offered the candy bowl. Hello???? There are butterfingers staring me in the face and my kid is turning them down??!! Unacceptable.
So, just when we think we are in the clear weather-wise, in comes a NorEaster. I have to be honest - we did keep our power and had no damage, so it was fine. However, 3 solid days of terrential downpours and heavy winds just got really annoying - especially given what we had gone through the week before. It seems as though we have gotten back to normal, so let's hope it stays that way for a while...
