a sweet West Virginny Thanksgivin'

We took a quick trip to West Virginia for Thanksgiving... hung out with my parents, and my brother and his wife. Had good times! We went out to eat for Thanksgiving because that's what they decided they wanted to do... and I sure wasn't going to ruin things by insisting on cooking! We all got to RELAX for the day instead of running around the kitchen cooking. It was a great change! We had a couple of very nice days there.

You know you are down south when you see lighters in the shape of rifles and shot guns... hahaha

Good to know....

Mother Dearest

Yesterday was my birthday. I wasn't looking forward to it. I hate getting old. It sucks big time. But by the end of the day, I was feeling completely blessed.  It was the first time in my life when I actually felt like if I died somebody would come to my funeral.  hahaha... yep.

Kyle sent me this fall bouquet of flowers in a basket.  I just love them.  But I told him he shouldn't be spending that much money, even though this was so sweet and thoughtful, just like Kyle.  So, Kyle in case you read this, save your money next year. 

And Ryan wrote me a beautiful letter that he posted on his blog.  I will share it with you here:  Mother Dearest.  Such sweet, beautiful words of love from my sweet beautiful son.  Thank you so much, Ryan.  I can't wait to sing with you... it's all that keeps me going!

My wonderful husband spoiled me at Bell's Mansion.  We definitely splurged.  Here is my dessert, which I did not need!!  I also got a couple of very nice gifts from him...  =)  Thank you, Darryl!! 

I had a most lovely day.  Tomorrow we are headed to West Virginia to hang with my parents and Scott and Flo for Thanksgiving.  It will be the first time I missed a Thanksgiving Service at church.  Sorry Pastor.   =)

and now you know the rest of the story...

We came home from Wayne on Thursday, so as not be in the way of the Pastor's family when they returned from sunny Florida.  But it was so very nice to have spent 4 nights there! We spent 2 more nights at home running the generator, and we were so thankful to have it.  Also thankful that our cable was up and running again.

Here we go...

1. This is one of the cute foxes that lives in our woods.

2. This is my Christmas Cactus, blooming so pretty amidst the storms of life.  Something that makes me smile.

3. Here's our Walmart cashing in on the need for generators and gas.

4. Here's a sign that was posted at the end of our driveway on Saturday.  Turns out there was a crew here from N. Carolina working to cut trees and branches, finding all the downed wires and getting us up back and running Sat. night.  It was such a glorious thing to have electricity again.  So exciting in fact, that our next door neighbor felt the need to shoot off some fireworks!

5. Here are a couple of trees that are down at the police station down the hill from our house.  They are really big evergreens!

I've learned that life does go on even if we're cold, and sitting in the dark for several days.
I've learned that I can read by flashlight, although it's not much fun.
I've learned that there are a few people in the world that will do something to help us out.
I've learned that it would be better to get a generator that will come on automatically so that we can offer our home to those who need warmth and shelter in the future.
I've learned I don't want to be helpless next time.

Superstorm Sandy Saga...

Last Monday night Hurricane Sandy made landfall into NJ. Our power went out right after supper so we spent the rest of the night listening to the very loud storm whipping through. I have to say, it was very intense, kinda scary. And since it was evening it was difficult to see what was going on out there. In the middle of the night there was a full moon and we couldn't sleep so we were watching the trees in our back yard being bent over by the extreme winds. Even if any fell over (which at least 2 did in our woods) we couldn't hear it because the wind was so loud. Even so, there is something so exciting and energizing about watching a big powerful storm doing what it does.

One of the first major effects, aside from having no power, is that there was almost an immediate gas shortage as only the few gas stations with generators were able to pump gas.  Here is a line of traffic that reaches all the way to the end of our road.  The following day we went to that gas station, a half mile from our home, we got there an hour before it opened and we still spent close to 2 1/2 hrs waiting for gas.  Since then, Gov. Christie has implemented gas rationing and odd/even gas days.

Here are some of the pictures I've taken along the way to record the events of the week.  This one was taken from our driveway.

There was a large police presence at the open gas stations, for the obvious reason to keep peace between angry and anxious drivers.  We were happy to see the police there!!

We were very fortunate to have a gas stove top that we could light with a match.  Here I was using the griddle top as an oven to cook up a pan of enchiladas that I didn't want to go bad.

Here is our refrigeration.  Several days after the storm our neighbor offered to take some of our frozen food and put it in his freezer so we did end up doing that and were able to save things.

We cooked with flashlights...it was like camping.

Darryl washed the dishes by candlelight/flashlight.  It was pretty stinking cold in there at night!

Most of the time we were pretty bundled up!!  For the first few days I simply could not get warm!

Our living room, where we spent each night reading by... yep, flashlights/candles... it was fun for a while....

Grocery stores simply cannot keep food, all the frozen food is gone, shelves are empty because they don't have enough fuel to run generators to keep freezers running. We did find ice for our cooler at a liquor store!!

I know these pictures aren't all that impressive, but there were so many trees down it was ridiculous.  Power lines down all over the place, trees, poles down, transformers had blown out during the storm.

This is down our road...

Cleaning out the freezer/fridge...

Late Friday night Paul and Michele drove out from Michigan with a generator.  We ran it Friday night for a few hours and then again for several hours on Saturday.  All I could think about is all the gas that thing is going to take to keep running...and how hard it would be to continue getting gas.

Sunday morning my wonderful Pastor invited us to come stay at his house while he's vacationing in Florida, so we were blessed to be able to come here to stay for a few days.  We still don't know when our power will be back on.  It might be tonight, or tomorrow, we just don't know.

Because of all the devastation in NJ now, we were able to vote for President in Wayne instead of driving back to Roxbury.

Oh yeah, there is a Nor'Easter headed our way tomorrow.  Not sure how that will interfere with power restoration efforts, but we will play it by ear, from day to day, to figure out when we should go home. I will keep you posted!