Hurricane Irene

A few days before Hurricane Irene was scheduled to roll over Maryland, we had an earthquake.  I had just put Kara downstairs for a nap and Anna and Jack were in two different rooms.  So, the 4 of us were in 4 different places in the house.  When I realized what was going on, my sole thought was to get the children together.  I was worried that they were scared.  Mostly, I felt I needed us all together so I could protect them if protecting was needed.  I ran and ordered Jack and Anna to follow me downstairs.  But, they didn't immediately comply.   Jack thought his jumping on the bed had caused the house to shake and was trying to tell me there was nothing to worry about.  Anna was asking questions, "why do we need to go downstairs?  what's wrong?"  It seemed like forever, but was probably less than 20 seconds before they succumbed to my urgency and followed me to the basement.   So, what does this have to do with the hurricane?  Everything.  I realized that I can no longer physically handle all of my children.  When they were smaller, there were times where I literally picked them all up.  That is now impossible (at least for me).  In an emergency, I have to rely on their cooperation, which is frightening.  With Thomas out of town and the safety of our children resting squarely on my shoulders, I was a little more panicky about the hurricane than I think I otherwise would have been.   I grew up in Florida and I have prepped for many hurricanes over the years.  To me there was nothing particularly frightening about this particular storm, except now I had 3 kids relying on me.  So, I was not quite myself in the days leading up to the weekend.  Fortunately, by Friday, I was feeling prepared and ready.  A full pantry and a decent weather report (tropical storm versus hurricane) made all the difference. 

On Saturday, it started raining early.  We decided to get a pizza for lunch, that way we would have leftovers for dinner.   Here is Jack in the car on the way to get the pizza.  You can see that it is already raining outside (shortly after 11am).  I like this picture, because he spent the day wearing two of my ponytail holders on his ankles, and in this one had tucked one of their instruments in for safe keeping. 

 

Then, we decided to make cookies.  Pizza and cookies seemed like good hurricane food.  The kids love adding ingredients.  Kara loves tasting whatever she is adding, whether its chocolate chips or baking soda.  I also decided to skip naps, with the hopes that they would sleep through the storm in the evening.

After the cookies, we went outside and the kids played in the "windy storm".  There was no thunder or lightening, and they loved dancing in the rain (another unfortunate example of my bad picture taking skills).

Shortly after our walk in the rain, the power went out.  We had already gone downstairs and blown up our air mattresses.  Anna was so excited for our slumber party, that she insisted on changing into her pajamas. Even though it was barely 5 o'clock, she kept saying how tired she was and how we should probably just go to bed.  I managed to keep her entertained with some puzzles.

Back outside.  We set up our chairs and hung out on the porch for close to an hour. 

And, here is what we were looking at.  As you'll see below, not all the trees in this picture made it through the night.

The power actually came back on and we came inside around 8 to begin our slumber party.  The kids all wanted to sleep on the same mattress.  We watched a cartoon version of Puff the Magic Dragon (produced in 1978 and my kids LOVE it).  The power went out again and we decided it was time for bed.  Everyone wanted to sleep together, until Kara got annoyed at Jack and Anna and asked to sleep in her pack and play. I was planning on sleeping on one of the other air mattresses (we set up 3), but Jack and Anna wanted me to sleep with them, which meant I didn't sleep.  Anytime Anna woke up, she would poke me to make sure I was still there.  Jack would just ask, "are you there, Mommy."  I am not sure where they thought I would go.  It was actually very quiet in the basement.  Around 5, I moved to another air mattress, which did not go over very well.  So, I decided it was safe for us to go sleep upstairs.  They wanted to sleep in my room and I agreed to give it a try.
 

Once upstair, the fighting started again, this time over who was going to sleep where.  Jack wanted his head on my head.  I got poked in the eye a couple of times and finally reached my boiling point.  We were all tired.  At this point, there was enough light that I knew they wouldn't be scared, so I left them to go check on the outside of the house.  It was still raining and a bit windy, but I was glad to see there didn't appear to be any real damage.  We had had previous issuses with the fascia, so I was afraid that, the soffitts or the siding would be damaged.  When I came back inside, less than 5 minutes later, everyone was crying.  Amidst much protest, I put them all in their own beds. After lots more tears and frustration, everyone fell asleep.  I got up around 8:30, the kids slept until 9.  Here is a picture of the yard. There are two trees down.  Fortunately, neither one hit anything.

After breakfast, the kids and I went for a walk.  I was amazed at how saturated the ground was.  The yard felt very swampy.  We lost a lot of shingles and one tree.  We were glad to see that there was no real damage to any of our neighbors' houses.  I was thrilled when the power came back on Sunday around 4:30pm.   

It is now Monday, around noon.  There are still around 50,000 people in Southern Maryland without power, so we feel very fortunate.  The kids are ready for another slumber party and were very sad when I deflated the air mattresses. 

By the way, I do not fing blogger very user friendly, so please excuse odd picture/word placement, I am sure I missing something easy, but I can't quite figure out how to get things where I want them (and my lunch break is over).