Snow Storm!

We had a pretty big snow storm this week! We measured about 27 inches of snow in our yard.

We got all prepared with firewood and lanterns but fortunately we didn't lose power.  Andrew had a blast going out to shovel with Daddy, wearing his new snowpants.

Brandon and I mostly stayed inside, but we ventured out once to play.  Brandon hated it so we didn't last long.

The storm happened over the weekend, but Aaron still got a couple of snow days since it took so long for our neighborhood to get plowed.  I was glad to have him cooped up at home with us rather than having him driving on dangerous roads.  It ended up being a fun weekend at home!

Family Time and Getting Caught in the Rain

I'm playing catch-up a little bit here, since I've been neglecting this blog lately.  Oops.

In May, Aaron had a work trip to Atlanta.  He left on Mother's Day (gee, thanks) and got back the day after our anniversary (again, thanks for that).  His trip also happened to fall the same week that my grandmother (Nan) was going to be visiting my parents.  So Andrew and I went to Lake Holiday and spent some time with my family while Aaron was gone.

My Mother's Day present to my mom :)

I was worried that Andrew would be super shy around Nan and his cousins he hasn't seen recently, but he was so friendly and had a great time.  He would chat with Nan and show her around the house, and he chased Archer around the house, laughing at all his cousin's funny faces.

One day while we were there, my dad and I decided to take Andrew and Amelia out for a canoe ride.  The clouds were starting to roll in as we walked down to the dock but we decided to go ahead and take them out for a short ride before the rain started.  Right after we got the canoe off its wheels, we looked up at the sky and realized the rain was coming- right away!  We were all wearing our life jackets already, but the drops were starting to fall so I took the kids and we started running up the hill to the clubhouse while my dad put the wheels back on the canoe and got it ready to bring home.  Suddenly we were drenched- the rain came down like a blanket and Amelia started crying.  Andrew doesn't mind being wet so he was just looking around in awe.  I picked up Andrew and grabbed Amelia's hand and we ran! Andrew kept slipping off my hip since we had our life jackets on but we finally made it to the clubhouse where we were rescued by my mom and sister-in-law.  It was quite the adventure!  Archer was especially proud that he got to be part of the rescue team :)

Andrew and I came home on Friday so we could pick up Aaron from the airport in the morning.  On Saturday we picked Aaron up at BWI and headed right back to my parents' place since this was the day the whole family would be there.  We had a really fun day together and even took some cute photos.  It was a real treat to have Nan with us for a week- we really don't get to see her (or any of our other extended family) very often, and I even got to hear some of her stories from her childhood.

A canoe full of grandkids!

Kookoopa and the boys

Hurricane Irene

Not only did we have an earthquake this week, but a hurricane too!  What excitement!

I guess I could have been more prepared for this storm, but I was convinced that it wouldn't be as bad as everyone was saying.

And in a way, I was right.

The worst part was being without power for about 20 hours.

It was a pretty violent storm, but not a scary storm.  The wind was blowing hard and the rain was coming down fast, but Aaron and I were safe and warm in our apartment.  We spent Saturday evening watching a movie and playing on the Wii until the power went out around 11:00pm.  After telling each other a few ghost stories in the living room, we went to bed.

We slept in on Sunday, knowing that church had already been cancelled because of the storm.  We worked on decorating the apartment a little bit, but that got boring quickly.  It wasn't raining anymore by noon.  There was still some light wind, but the sun had come out, taunting us for not having electricity.  There were leaves all over the parking lot, but no real damage that I could see.

After much boredom and dissatisfaction with the food available, the power came back on at around 6:00pm, just in time for dinner!

My facebook status after the power came back: "I have never been so happy to see a lamp turn on. We have power!"

Aaron's facebook status after the power came back: "The worst part about Irene was the melted ice cream =("

My office doesn't have power right now though, so I'm sitting at home wondering if it'll come back anytime today.  Those of us in the office are very limited without access to our computers so we're just waiting it out.  Aaron's work is still going on though, so I sent him off with the car.  If the power comes back and I need to go to work, my coworker Heather is going to have to pick me up.  I have a bunch of things I'd love to get done while I'm home, but I can't go much of anywhere without the car, and I don't feel like I can do anything that I couldn't stop right away and leave if I need to go to work.  That means I feel like I can't work out because then I'd need to come home to shower and everything really quickly if I need to go.

So I guess my shopping is going to have to wait until Aaron gets home tonight.

Earthquake

Can you even believe we just had an earthquake here?

"A magnitude-5.8 quake centered in Virginia rocked the East Coast, with tremors felt as far south as North Carolina, as far north as Buffalo and Boston, and as far west as Detroit. " USA Today

It was on August 23, 2011 and it was terrifying.  I haven't seen any real damage from the quake, but it was still scary.  Having never felt an earthquake, my coworkers and I weren't really sure what was happening.  I was with 2 of my coworkers- we had ordered an edible arrangement for our boss, whose birthday had been the day before (but took the day off) and it had just arrived in my office.  We were trying to decide how/when to give it to him.  Suddenly, we felt the room beginning to shake.  Heather's water bottle rippled, much like the glass of water on the dashboard in Jurrasic Park.

Paul opened the door that leads out to the warehouse and it looked and sounded like a tornado was in there- the stacks of baled and boxed metal scrap were swaying, near the tipping point.  The shaking suddenly stopped.  We looked around a little bit and saw the guy who was installing new lights- he was standing as still as he could at the top of his swaying scissor lift.

Heather: "Are you ok?"
Guy on scissor lift: "Uh... Yeah..."
Heather:  "I think you should come down now!"
Guy on scissor lift: "Okay!"

Immediately we were all calling our families to make sure everyone was fine.  Some of us got through, a lot of calls didn't go through.

Aaron was in orientation for his job- they ended early because of the quake.  Since I had the car, I left work just before 3:00 to go get him so he wouldn't be waiting until 5:15 for me to get to him.  I had planned to just drop him off at home and then go back to work for the rest of the work day, but traffic was so bad that we didn't get back to our apartment until about 4:20.  It takes me about 25 minutes in normal traffic to get to work, so I knew that if I went back, I wouldn't even get there until almost 5:00m so I called in and just stayed home.

I'm just glad there was no damage for anyone I know.