How we survived Hurricane Irene

After what I've been through with Hurricane Irene, I'm now calling myself "The Pioneer Woman". LOL  We lost power Saturday afternoon and then it came back on mid day Tuesday.  I am so glad I did some things ahead of time.  And I did learn some lessons on ways I can prepare if another one hits.

The first thing I'm glad I did was heed the warnings and fill my car up with gas.  Because the day after the hurricane it was insane.  Here are shots of one of the gas stations and the lines that spilled into the road. I heard people were getting into fist fights over ice.  Can you imagine?

Dh on the other hand did not fill his car up with gas.  He went to a gas station and waited in a line to have them run out right before him.  That prompted him to drive to an area about 20-25 minutes away from us and we found out they hadn't been hit as hard.   We were able to go to that area and eat at Arby's Sunday evening. 

Sunday evening Sawyer started running a fever, so Monday morning we went to the pediatrician. I've never felt so sorry for a kid to have a fever with no ac.  They gave us an antibiotic and knock on wood he is getting better.

During the storm we had a Coleman Lantern which I highly recommend.  That gave out the best light.  We had candles which I don't like to use as much with the little ones. I do have a candle sconce on the wall, so that helped that it was up high and out of their reach.

I wanted to share with you how I got creative for rigging up light sources for us.  You don't realize how dark it can get until you don't have light and even don't see light from your neighbor's houses. 

To back track, at the beginning of the summer Dollar Tree had some really cute Chinese Lanterns.  I bought them to take on vacation because I bought a bunch of flamingo themed things to decorate our beach house.  I remembered I had the lanterns so I pulled them out and hung them on the ceiling fan so they would provide some light and be out of reach of the kids.  The kids loved it and Sawyer was so cute and asked if we were having a birthday party since I was decorating and had lit candles. He was excited because he thought we would have cake.  LOL  I have decided I will definitely get more of these battery powered Chinese Lanterns to have.  I had four originally hanging from the fans, but I had to put one in Sawyer's room so he would have a night light.  So thanks Dollar Tree for saving us in that regard. I don't know what I would have done if we didn't have that lantern for him in his room.  As an FYI, I was at Dollar Tree last Thursday before the storm and they have super cute Halloween Lanterns. I bought two pumpkin lanterns and they had white and purple too. 

We did have some storm damage and had one of our big trees split in the back.  I tried to take some pictures to give you a perspective of how big this tree is.  We watched it split and were so blessed it went over our fence into our neighbors yard and didn't damage their property or ours. We had some neighbors who didn't fare as well and they had a tree go through the middle of their house .  They are ok, but they've had to move in with family and will probably be out of their house for months.

Here are pictures of the damage we sustained.  So glad it missed my fence and my kids new play set.

 Here are some other pictures of homes around me that didn't fair as well.  And some of these folks still don't have power. We can hear their generators still going in the distance.  As you can see, tree damage was severe and that is what has hampered the power company from getting power restored quickly.

I'm thankful to all the folks who are working on getting power restored as quickly as they can and are missing time with their families.  And some of their families still don't have power.  But the numbers are dropping quickly, so that is good. 

I am proud to say my family faired this storm fairly well and we were one of the folks who didn't have a generator.  But that came at a price and I lost all my food in the fridge and in the freezer in my kitchen.  But when I look at all our blessings that we are safe and have power again, that puts things in perspective.  Of course food can be replaced easily, your family can't be replaced.

So this is the what has been happening in my world.  How have you been? Did Irene mess anything up for you? Hope you all have stayed safe!

Water Table Wonder

As I mentioned yesterday this week is spring break.  So no preschool and what is a mom to do?  Never fear, Walgreen's is here! No, Walgreen's isn't paying for a plug on my blog and no they didn't send me anything free. But hey if they want to I wouldn't say no. LOL  I'm singing the praises of Walgreen's today because I was in my local Walgreen's about two weeks ago and I happened to go down the toy aisle and lo and behold they had a small water table for $20.  I was so excited because I've never seen one this reasonably priced before. And my boys LOVE playing in water.  I love shopping at Walgreen's because I always find really cool things.

Right after I purchased our water table I was with my mom and told her about it.  She immediately went to a Walgreen's near where we were and purchased one to have at her house for the grandchildren.  So I can see that good times will be had by all at our house and at Nonni's house. 

For $20 we got the table, a great cup for pouring, a water wheel and two boats.  The only sticky wicket was when we opened the set and put it together the water wheel was missing a wheel.  Since the boys had already started playing with the table, I decided to call the company and ask them to send us a replacement rather than try and get another one from.  DH called the company yesterday and they should be sending us a replacement.  My mom got her table out and it had all the pieces, so it was just dumb luck on our part.  But I'm not complaining because the table is still great and the boys haven't fussed because a wheel is missing. 

So if you are looking for some outdoor fun you might want to see if you can get a water table.  My mom works with kindergarden kids and she says in their classroom they will fill the tables with sand, rice, or beans.  So you can extend the use of the table into the cold winter months too.

We've also found some great little water squirters at Dollar Tree and they've had packs of those squishy water balls in the dollar spot at Target.  Great accessories to add to your table.

By the way, can you tell from Logan's shirt that we are ready for Cars 2?  We are huge Cars fans here. 

Hope you are having a great day in your neck of the woods!