Hurricane Ian & Jack's braces

We first became aware of Hurricane Ian about a week before landfall. The forecasters knew it was coming to Florida, but did not know precisely where or with what intensity. The Saturday before landfall, they seemed to settle on a path closer to the panhandle. The girls and I went to WalMart Saturday morning to grab something for a birthday party and Walmart was crazy. I couldn't figure out what was going on, it was like black Friday. Then, I realized it must be the hurricane. People that seemed panicky made me feel panicky, but I just grabbed what we came for and got out of there as quickly as possible. 

On Monday, they were forecasting it was going to hit Tampa Bay and then come up through Orlando early Thursday morning. It was only going to be a Category 2 at landfall, so not much for us inland to worry about. But, we did make sure we had water on hand. They cancelled school for Wednesday and Thursday. There were mandatory evacuations for Tampa Bay. Then less than 24 hours before landfall, the path shifted more south. It was now beelined for Fort Myers, and it was going to be a Category 4, maybe even a Category 5. That is when things really get scary. Again, not so much for us inland, but for those taking the direct hit, a Cat 4 is catastrophic. I felt really bad for those in the new path, I worried they didn't have enough time to evacuate and that it would be hard for them to find gas and places to go, since other parts of the coast had already left. Anyway, I knew it was going to be ugly. And, it was still forecasted to pass right over us, but since it was going to be so much stronger at landfall, it was slightly more worrisome.

Tuesday night, we ordered 6 large pizzas--one for each of us. We told everyone to make it last (and they have, it is now Saturday and we still have 2 left). We also did our last minute preparations of moving all the stuff from the pool deck and porch to the garage. Wednesday was rainy and windy. The girls went swimming in the rain. Thomas and I had to work and I had a lot of stuff to handle for end of fiscal year. Wednesday night was a little scary. The wind and rain were really loud and we were under tornado watches all night. Because of our previous flood issues, I got up a few times to make sure the roof wasn't leaking. And, when I did manage to fall asleep, my phone beeped me awake with flood warnings. I couldn't turn it off because we needed to be aware if the tornado watch turned into a warning. It was a looonnnngggg night. Thursday morning seemed better and the boys went swimming, but then the wind picked up again. There was a lot of flooding in the neighborhood, but fortunately, it seemed like most of our neighbors had little to no damage. We also never lost power.

By Thursday night, the rain had stopped completely and the wind was more mild. Kara and I went for a walk. We saw a few downed trees and lots of water in the streets, but it seemed mostly okay. School was canceled for Friday. Thomas and I still had to work, but it was a quiet day. Orlando had a lot of flooding. Apparently, the worst flooding in hundreds of years and it may have still been a category one when it hit us (that is what the reporters speculated, but the wind didn't seem that bad to me, so I want to see something official). And, the hurricane didn't pass directly over us, it ended up shifting quite a bit south. It makes me nervous for our future in Florida and what could happen if the storm had come in from the east and closer to where we live (we are closer to the east coast). As it was, we couldn't safely leave the neighborhood until Friday because of flooding.

This is in our back yard. The retention pond, which is normally about 10 houses away overflowed all the way past our house.

Always fun to swim in the rain.

Luke's school playground. There is normally not any water in this area.

Path he walks to school is under water.

Boys swam too, the water was much colder on Thursday than Wednesday

Water down the street. One of the neighbors measured it at over 15" deep at its deepest point

Also on Friday, Jack got his braces off! It was supposed to be next week, but they called on Thursday and asked if he could come in Friday instead. And, since there was no school, it was much easier for us. Plus Thomas had already taken leave for a dentist's appointment that was cancelled.  So, two kids down and two to go! 

He said he has to learn how to smile without braces.

School Drama

Luke is smart. He is in the gifted program, reads around a 6th grade level, and always tests in the 99th percentile for both math and reading (in fairness, that is on iReady, which I think is artificially inflated). Last year he was in an accelerated class. His school had one for each grade beginning in 2nd. Then, a new principal came and got rid of the classes. She believed it created a system of haves and have nots. The teachers also didn't like it. According to the new principal there was "no joy" in the school when she arrived. But, she failed to communicate this to any of the parents, who then arrived at open house to find their kids had been split into different classes (except for 5th, since they had been together the longest they allowed them to finish their elementary school career together). It didn't make as much difference to us since Luke had only been with the kids in his class for one year, it was the same as any other year. Although, we were a little disappointed as we liked the pacing of the accelerated class and it was a good group of kids. But, some parents were very angry. And, it lead to a whole thing. There were meetings at the school and the associate superintendent was called in. Lots of drama. I went to the meetings, but it was very frustrating. I actually left the second one early, because I couldn't take listening anymore. It was two sides who really didn't care to hear the opposing view.

My perspective is that there is very little incentive to ensure students like Luke are challenged. Schools (and teachers) get judged on student growth, at least in Florida. If a student is already maxing out the test, they really can't show much growth. I know that (most) teachers are doing their best for their students, but they are human and their time is limited. I also know that none of our older kids were in an accelerated class and I don't believe their academic growth has been stunted. It is another topic that has taken up more mental space than it deserves. That seems to be a theme for me this year. I don't know if there will be any more meetings, but I have decided I am out. No more meetings, no more getting involved in this debate.

In other news, and a topic that truly matters and deserves mental space--my niece is back in the hospital. Her experience has really made me lose a lot of faith in the medical profession. She has been sick since January and in and out of hospitals since May. I am really hopeful that she is finally on a path to recovery. But, every doctor seems to have a different idea of the best path forward and none of them seem to really communicate with each other. It is sad and frustrating and disappointing. Some of the doctors decided early on that an eating disorder was the root cause of all her issues. They ignored any evidence that didn't fit that theory, ignored what my niece and her family were telling them and literally wasted months. I don't feel like this is my story to tell, so I don't want to delve too far into the details. I just want to say that I am sad for what they are going through and I really hope the current path leads to good results.

In other, better news. Kara had her monologue and a group act selected for the thespians competition. She is really excited about it. All the kids had straight A's on their interim reports. 

I feel like we are all super busy. Almost every day somebody has something going on, frequently multiple people have different activities. It can be hectic, but most days I don't mind. With two kids in high school, time is going by faster than ever and I know the years with all 6 of us living under the same roof are limited. But, we still have enough time left that I don't have to feel stressed about it. It is actually a good position to be in.

To conclude: a few pictures from the past week.

We finally tried Crumbl Cookies. Well, the girls and I did. Luke wasn't interested and Thomas and Jack aren't eating added sugar.

Leu Gardens. Thomas was being silly, but these roses smelled amazing!

They had a scavenger hunt with fairy doors. These were 4 of my favorites.

Thomas went ice skating with Anna. She said he did great!

Halloween Horror Nights!

Last year, Kara and I had a great time at Halloween Horror Nights: 30 Years of Fear.  In preparation for this year, I looked for last year's blog to see if I had written anything that would help us successfully plan our day. Imagine my surprise when my search came up blank. Apparently, I didn't even mention it. That doesn't really seem like me, but maybe I don't know myself as well as I thought I did?

Anyway, our annual passes give us one free ticket to the event. Kara and I both really like this type of thing. No one else in our family does. It is odd, because I don't like scary movies or books, but I love me a haunted house! Kara complains that she doesn't know if she likes scary movies, because I won't let her watch any. But, at least she knows she loves a good Halloween event. 

We went on Sunday night. I was hoping a Sunday would mean lower crowds, but it was one of their more packed nights. Probably due to the fact that it was the first night in (seemingly) weeks that wasn't plagued with thunderstorms. We got to the park around 2:45 and rode the Mummy. Then, we basically just waited for the holding area to open. We managed to be first in line at our holding area (they have several around the park)! This was very exciting for us. Being in line so early meant lots of waiting, but we talked and played games and time went by quickly.

No one in front of us! 

Our first house, one of the event's most popular, was based on the movie Halloween and it was really fantastic: amazing set designs and some really cool elements. Our goal for the night was all 10 houses and 5 scare zones, plus a couple of snack breaks. They have two shows, but one was the same as last year and we didn't want to waste the time seeing it and the other we just missed (I could never find the show times). We had planned out the first four houses, but lines quickly started to build. So, we did a small pivot to try and chase some lower wait times as the park got more crowded. We were fairly successful. We did wait in a few long lines, but we chatted and made the best of most of the waits. The only frustrating one was Bugs: Eaten Alive which had a posted time of 45, but took 66 and we just crawled so slowly toward the front that it felt even longer. I was bitter about all the Express pass people who got to skip the line. I even texted Thomas wondering why I bothered with law school if it doesn't mean I can randomly buy express passes to save myself and my daughter from waiting in long lines at Halloween Horror Nights? Thomas reminded me I work for the Government. Then, Kara reminded me of my cruise habit and I decided to be more positive. If you are wondering, Express passes were $130. Each. Plus tax. 

Last year, Kara's favorite house was "Puppet Theater" which was in the same place as this year's "Descendant's of Destruction"

We did all 10 houses. My favorites were Halloween and Dead Man's Pier Winter Wake, which was absolutely stunning. Whoever designed that house is a visual genius.

I found this picture online. This is the first scene in Dead's Man's Pier. 

We got pretty tired as the night went on. Around 1130, we still had two houses left. One was The Weeknd (based on the performing artist) and it had a posted wait of 120 minutes! The other only said 50, so we did that one first and ended up waiting 33. We decided we would hope for the best and get in the line for The Weeknd, even if we ended up waiting 2 hours. When we got there, we were excited to see that the time had shortened to 95 minutes. Guess how long we ended up waiting... Wrong! 17 minutes! It was such a pleasant surprise to end the night. They changed the time to 35 right after we got in line and then we only waited half of that. We finished that one around 1245. We had outlasted most of the crowds, and briefly considered doing Dead Man's Pier again, but we were t.i.r.e.d. And, as Kara reminded me, she had school the next day (fortunately, her school doesn't start until 9:30, there is no way Jack or Anna with their 6:15 bus pickup time could have managed).

Last house of the night!

We had done what we set out to do--all 10 houses in one night. We felt very accomplished. Both Kara and I were sore and tired. I was trying to figure out why we would be sore. We walked around 17000 steps, which is a lot, but not unusual for people who spend a lot of time at theme parks without getting sore. I am guessing it is because of all the standing. We only sat twice in about 8.5 hours and that was to eat our snacks. Speaking of which, we had a brisket crepe, which we had tried for the first time at HHN30, and the chicken "offals." We liked both. We had also brought a few things in with us.

The "Offals" were really good. Sweet and spicy.

In conclusion, I liked almost every house. They all (except 1) had something interesting or fun about them. Kara and I rated each of them right after leaving the house on a scale of 1-10. Here are Kara's rankings (screen shots from Kara's phone, she kept track all night): 

Kara's rankings

My rankings weren't as descriptive, so I will just list them in my order of most to least favorite: Dead Man's Wharf; Halloween; Legend's Collide; Weeknd; Blumhouse; Chupacabra; Descendants; Hellblock; Bugs; Coven. 

And now, the rest of the pictures:

They change out the scareactors every 45 minutes or so and they all wear these long capes to hide their costumes and makeup.

From one of the scare zones.

As we were leaving, I commented to Kara that we never saw the Pumpkin King. Then, there he was.

And now, I have it all written down to help with planning in 2023!

Parenting

Friday night I volunteered in the concession stand for the football game. I had to be there at 4:30 and didn't leave until after 11. I was in the visitor's concession stand, which is out of the way and not busy at all. I was the only customer for most of the first half. In the third quarter, the visiting band came and bought food. We ended up doing $131 dollars in business. I believe the home stand did a few thousand. But, the other mom was very nice and we chatted and I was happy to support the band. We shut down after the third quarter and helped out in the home stand, which was much busier and had a view of the football game. As I was hauling stuff from the away to the home stand, I walked right in front of the band and Jack jumped up and loudly started yelling, "mom, mom, hi mom!". It reminded me of when they were little and always looked for us in the audience during their school performances. So cute and sweet and it made my night worthwhile. 

Anna has been having a little bit of trouble with her friend, Marie (fake name). Apparently, Marie's dad thinks we are too strict and Anna is boring and is going to "go wild" in a few years. And, Marie repeated all of that to Anna and has since made additional comments about how we need to loosen up and not push her so much (that was in reaction to Anna telling her we were going to volunteer this weekend to start accumulating hours for Bright Futures). Obviously, it has been bothering Anna. It doesn't hurt my feelings or make me question our parenting choices, but I do feel bad for Anna and I wonder what she has said to Marie that Marie repeated to her father that lead to the conversation. I am not sure why a grown man feels the need to insult our child or our parenting to his daughter, but it has created a bit of a rift for Anna in one of her previously strongest friendship. 

If parenting is a sliding scale, then we are certainly closer to strict than lenient. But, I can't think of a lot that our kids want to do that we have not allowed. Some of the things (like getting their own phone or wearing makeup) we made them wait for and we still don't allow social media (yet), so maybe we are strict. But, I still wouldn't say "too strict." Our goal is to ease them into this world so that they are prepared to build up to the bigger decisions. Now that they are in high school, I do believe Jack and Anna are ready to make some of those bigger decisions, but their brains are still growing and it in my opinion, it would be completely irresponsible for us not to be active participants in their lives. We are doing our best to raise strong, independent children with the ability to think for themselves and make good decisions. Obviously, we are making mistakes along the way and we know that they will too, but we do our best and keep moving along. Oh, and hopefully this goes without saying, but just in case--I assume that all parents are doing their best and do not generally judge the decisions others make.

Labor Day Weekend

Yay for a three-day weekend! Friday night, the band got to play at their first home game. Jack said it was a much more fun experience. Maybe because the team won or because it didn't involve a bus ride. We didn't go because the band still doesn't know the full half-time show and Jack suggested we wait. 

Saturday, Luke played in a baseball tournament. I stayed home with the girls and Jack. I took the girls to Goodwill. Like everyone else they have raised their prices significantly, which was disappointing, especially seeing things like a Walmart shirt marked at $5.99 that still had a Walmart tag for $5.  But, Anna found a jacket she liked for skating and Kara got a couple of things. 

Sunday, I went to Luke's tournament. Unfortunately, it wasn't much fun. Obviously, I enjoyed being with Thomas and supporting Luke. But, the games were kind of brutal. Luke was their starting pitching, but he didn't do great. He wasn't bad, just not great. And, his team made tons of errors. The final score was something like 6-8. The other team won, but didn't have a single hit. All 8 runs were scored on walks and errors. The second game was slightly better, but Luke's team still lost and there were still a ton of walks and errors. Luke did have a decent day batting, he got on base every time he was up (one hit and 3 walks) and stole a lot of bases.  And, I did enjoy the drive and sitting with Thomas, so it wasn't all bad. But, I will be happy when all the teams get a little better and it more about hits and defensive plays than walks and stolen bases on passed balls. 

Sunday night, we went to Universal. Again, there was no rain in the forecast. Again we got chased out by thunderstorms. We did ride Hagrid's and have frozen butterbeer, so not all bad.

Monday, we went to the mall. Jack needed new basketball sneakers and the girls have been asking to go to the mall. But, Anna chose not to go. When everyone was cranky at Universal, Anna had a snarky attitude, so I told her she lost her phone. She was still mad about it this morning and did not feel like being around me all day. Since she enjoys the mall far more than I do, I am not sure she made the smartest decision, but we managed to have fun without her (although, I wish she had come along). We had pretzel bites and Chick-Fil-A and everyone, except Thomas, got something (Kara and I each got a cruisey kind of dress, Luke got baseballs and some time in the arcade and Jack got new basketball sneakers). We stopped at Aldi on the way home to stock up on lunch foods for the school week. When we got home, Thomas and Luke went and tested the new baseballs and Jack and I watched Elvis, which I thought was a little depressing. Poor Elvis, that "Colonel" was despicable (at least in the movie).

The ice-skating rink was closed this weekend and Jack did not have a basketball game, so there was a lot less running around than usual.

The only picture I took all weekend. Kara and I were debating what color her eyes are. I told her I thought gray. She was unsure. I found a color finder app that confirmed my assessment. Her eyes are in the grey family.

Falling Asleep

 This is going to be my most random post yet. Because, why not?

I love going to bed at night. Most of the time I can fall asleep easily, staying asleep is another story, but falling asleep is generally quick. Not always though. And, often, I enjoy those nights too, because I pick something to imagine and on the nights when I can't fall asleep, I can go a lot deeper into my fantasy. So, what are these fantasies? Well, I have a few that I rotate. 

Every now and then I buy a lottery ticket. I will only buy it if the prize is big and the lottery drawing is at least 3 nights away, and I happen to be in a gas station, so, in other words, not very often. But, when those events align and I buy a ticket, I spend the three nights thinking about what I would do if I won. If it is a really big drawing, I think about all the people I will put on a never-ending loop of receiving the maximum tax exempt amount each year (currently $16k). In addition to the obvious people like close family and friends, sometimes, I use silly criteria, like who wished me a happy birthday on Facebook or via call or text this year. Or, I think about a charity I might support and who I will want to volunteer with after I inevitably quit my job. Most of my musings don't involve anything too crazy. Although, it would be nice to choose where we want to live--in an ideal world I would be a snowbird and never have to experience extreme cold or heat. And, sometimes I imagine a yard with our own private lazy river and all the traveling we would do and, the manner we would achieve that travel. 

Other nights, I think about if there is any decision I would go back and redo. This one is tricky because I have to consider how that redo would effect my current life. I like my life right now and I don't want to risk changing it. So, a good variation is thinking about times I would like to go back and relive. I would like to go back to when the big kids were toddlers and we lived on base in Millington and spend a day or two as 32-year old Kori. I would also love to relive any Christmas vacations. There are trips with Thomas that would be fun to do again. 

Similarly, my final common stream of imaginings involves going back in time. I imagine going back to high school and being able to feel what it was like to be the age my oldest are now.  The difference in this one is that I have to try and convince my family that I am from the future. I think about getting to spend time with my mom, I imagine my current self as inhibiting my younger self for a few days. And, I wonder what I could say to convince them that I truly am from the future. Then, I think about the advice I would offer and what helpful tips I can remember that might positively impact their future. Obviously, I would tell my mom about her cancer returning and implore her not to ignore the signs or let the doctors attribute her concerns to "getting older." I think about contacting Thomas and what I would tell him to convince him that this strange girl from Florida is really his wife 10 years down the road and he should listen to my advice on things I know he wishes he could redo (but, making sure he knows to find me if he does, because again, slippery timeline slope). 

So, I enjoy going to bed and letting my mind wander. Interestingly, I am realizing that I don't imagine what the future might hold. Even in the lottery dreams, I only imagine what I would do in the immediate future, not the long term. Hmm, I wonder what that means? I wonder if anyone will actually read this strange blog. Oh, sometimes, I also think about what I should put in my blog. And, last night, I thought I should blog about what I think about when I fall asleep. So, here we are.