Oh Irene!

Last week we experienced Hurricane Irene. Well OK, I guess maybe it was a Tropical Storm by the time it reached us, but Hurricane sounds so much more exciting!

We were prepared for Irene … well sort of … we kept telling the kids ‘we need to prepare just in case we’re without electricity and water for a whole week’ … NEVER really thinking or believing that it COULD actually be a WHOLE week until our power was restored!

The first day, the day of the actual storm was actually kinda fun. I know, call me crazy but it wasn’t that bad! The storm was much weaker than they thought and all we had were some high winds and rain. We started getting the rain and wind late on Saturday night and woke up around 5am when we heard the power go out {we have a noise machine so we noticed when it went off}. Little did we know then that it would be almost 7 full days before it came on again.

These are some before pics around the yard … we took in ALL our outdoor furniture and took down the canopy that goes on our deck.

We have 3 very large, very old maples in our yard and I was so worried that they might fall in the storm! This one WOULD have fallen on our house but thankfully it remained standing.

Sunday was kind of a fun day. The girls were SO good about not having power and being stuck inside. They did art contests, American Girl fashion shows, puppet shows with their webkinz, and played ‘diner’ for hours. It was great to see them GETTING ALONG, using their imaginations and not being connected to electronic items!

I used the time to get our school stuff in order. I spent some time going over the lesson plans and putting the finishing touches on some schoolish items.

Hubby was a little stir crazy, he’s never one to sit still for long. So he went out and picked up some of the big branches that had fallen, and cooked us some yummy stuff on the grill. At that point our food in the fridge and freezer was still good.

Here are some of the branches that fell … this was really the extent of our damage, we were SO blessed!

Lunch was grilled burgers and chips – yum!

A coloring contest between the girls, the theme was ‘kitchen’ and they both drew their variations of our kitchen.

My afternoon snack. I prepared the day before by making some coffee and putting it in the fridge and by baking a batch of PB cookies. It was SOOO good!

The girls playing ‘diner’ in the kitchen.

We had LOTS of leaves down.

And lots of leaves in the pool, it doesn’t look like much but it was a lot and really icky trying to get them all out!

As the day wore on we played some board games…

And hubby made another awesome meal on the grill … pork tenderloin, rice and a fresh salad of cukes and tomatoes.

That evening we had some silly fun, played some more games like Yahtzee and took some fun pics …

All by candlelight of course! It’s a good thing I have SO many candles!

On Monday we did some clean up around the yard in the morning. Then ALL of us got in the pool and cleaned out all the yucky leaves. Then we got dressed and ready to head out since we just felt like we needed to get out of the house. We went to the town that Bob’s parents live in because THEY did have power. We went to the library, then to visit his parents for a bit. Then my friend called and asked if we wanted to come over for a ‘no power’ BBQ … we said ‘sure! why not?!’ and headed home to get our things. Bob’s Dad lent us their small generator, it was only big enough to hook up a couple of lamps or charge up our cell phones, but still, it was nice to have for the evenings for the rest of the week. That evening we went to the BBQ at my friends and didn’t get home until late, but it didn’t really matter since it was pitch black no matter what time it was!

TUESDAY – Once again we woke feeling the need to get out of the house. It’s funny cause the house is rather inviting during the day, when the sun is shining – and yet being there was just depressing so we left the house every single day! This was also the day we pretty much figured that every single thing in our 2 fridges and 2 freezers had to be thrown out. Even the stuff in the freezers was thawed at this point and we had no way to keep stuff cold anymore. We didn’t have a ton of food to throw away but we got rid of every single condiment in the fridge and even my canned strawberry jam and homemade applesauce from the freezer. It was kinda sad! 

On this day we went to Rhode Island to one of our fave beaches. We KNEW it would be wavy and fun after the recent storm and it did not disappoint! Our friends joined us there and we had a fun filled day discovering all kinds of neat treasures that had washed ashore.

SEA STARS!!! Something we NEVER get to see around here, yet on this day we found literally HUNDREDS of them!

A lobster that washed ashore!

The girls and their friends had a BLAST boogie boarding!

Another creature from the sea!

We figured this was our last ‘official’ day of summer since we planned to start school the next day – crossing our fingers that we would have power for school! After the beach we went to my Mom’s to shower {she had power}, then went out to dinner with her. The restaurants were PACKED, so many people were without power and had to find places to eat.

 

WEDNESDAY – We got up and realized we still had no power, so packed up all our stuff and headed to my Mom’s for the day. At this point we had stinky laundry and stinky dishes and no way to wash any of it so we brought that along too. We had our first day of school at my Mom’s and I did loads of dishes and laundry while we were there. Then when school and chores were done we went swimming {she lives in a condo complex with a community pool}, then we stayed there and had dinner with Mom when she got home from work. There was really no sense to rush home because we had no way to cook at home.

THURSDAY – Thursday morning was the day I cried. I had been feeling rather sick to my stomach all week and not sleeping well each night. There’s just something about when you’re not in your normal rhythm and not eating your normal foods or sleeping in your normal routine. I was tired of feeling sick and tired of feeling like the house was dirty and tired of feeling helpless about the fact that I had no way to prepare healthy, fresh foods because we had no way to keep anything cold! I sat and had my little pity party and my husband was so patient and reassuring with me. A friend of mine invited us to go to the beach and we gladly accepted … I know we were ‘supposed’ to do school, but we figured that with no power it was just easier to get out of the house and enjoy the last couple days of summer and plan to start school {again} the following week.

So we went to the beach and it was really nice. The girls and their friends played, my friend, her mom, and I talked and we just enjoyed the nice day. We got Subway for lunch which sort of felt like good, fresh, healthy food to me and it made me feel a little bit better about things. After that we went to my in law’s house so we could shower and check email and have dinner. She made a yummy {healthy} lasagna and we gobbled it right up, just loving the fact that we could have a good home cooked meal.

FRIDAY – I spent part of the morning cleaning up, I couldn’t really clean too well, but at least straightening up and sweeping and such made things seem a bit cleaner. Bob was working all day, then going to his Fantasy Football draft in the evening, then back to work very early on Saturday – so knowing that he basically wouldn’t be home the girls and I decided we would go to my Mom’s in the evening and just spend the night there. We went back to the beach again in the afternoon, then out for dinner at Chili’s, then back to Mom’s to watch movies and just chill. It felt SO good to sit and watch a movie and be comfortable and relaxed!

SATURDAY – We woke up at Mom’s and it was the BEST feeling to have fresh, hot coffee right away! We had breakfast and just had a quiet, relaxing morning. After lunch we decided we needed to pack up and head home, knowing that our power was still off and it was now Day 7. We read online that it MIGHT be back on by midnight on Sunday – so at least we went home with that hope in the back of our minds. While on Facebook I kept reading of more and more of our friends who WERE getting their power back on and while it SHOULD have been encouraging to me, it actually depressed me even further, I kept thinking we’d never have ours back!

We got home and unpacked. I was planning to go out with my girlfriends that night when Bob got home so I got mostly ready at Mom’s before coming home. Then we just sat around at home. The girls were playing and I was reading my book when I saw the power truck drive by our house … I called the girls and said ‘did you see that?!’ …. well don’t you know about 10 minutes later I heard a beep and all the power came back on! I started yelling to the girls and literally had tears in my eyes! It was a long, trying week and I was beside myself with joy to have the power/water on again!

The funny thing is, the first thing I did was clean out the fridge … at that point it was empty, but pretty dirty, and I knew I’d want it clean before refilling it, so I scrubbed it all out and it was SO nice and clean.

I just have to say I am so thankful. I know this post sounds like me being a big ol’ whiner. And yes I did have some pity parties for myself that week. But I also do realize how extremely fortunate we are compared to many others. We had no damage to our home, we had no flooding, and we had places we could go every day to have showers, get meals, etc. We ARE BLESSED. It was a hard, hard week, but I AM truly thankful that things were not that bad for us and that we all got through it.

I have to tell you – the one thing I missed the most without the power on – was my morning coffee! I didn’t miss the TV, internet, phone, even lights and A/C … but I’m a girl who gets up in the morning and immediately has my cup of coffee … so not having it right away was torture! A couple days I drove to another town that had power and waited in line at Dunkin’ Donuts for a half hour, another day I tried to boil water on the gas grill which took about 40 min, and another day I tried to make instant coffee with lukewarm water … it was NOT FUN! It’s funny how the little things like coffee can be such a mood lifter and day brightener and how much we miss them when they’re gone!

Now that it’s been a week since our power was restored I’m trying to remind myself every day how very blessed we are and how much we have to be thankful for. There are so many people in areas of the world who have NONE of the comforts that we have. Getting the very tiniest taste of how they live was tough and very eye opening to me. I am beyond grateful to live where I do and have all that we have.