Seriously?!

When Nick and I first got married, I gave up my cell phone and cell phone number to him so that I could get in touch with him whenever I needed to while I was at my desk at work.  That never bothered me until today!

I'm not eligible for an upgrade on my phone for another year.  Nick wasn't supposed to receive an upgrade on his phone until May next year.  While I was looking at our bill online I noticed that Nick's line is available for an upgrade now, and if he waits until May, he'll get more of a discount because of HIS continued loyalty with verizon wireless.  THAT WAS ORIGINALLY MY LINE THAT HE HAS!!!!!  I have wanted to get an iPhone for over a year, ever since I saw my brother's phone last summer.  Nick could care less about upgrading his phone.  I want that upgrade so bad!  It just really frustrates me.     

Over-Dressed

I sent the boys to their room to take a nap after lunch.  It took a little while for them all to fall asleep, but just when I thought they were asleep I heard Spencer's door open.  I go investigate and standing in the doorway was Spencer.  I immediately started laughing.  He looked like he pulled out every single shirt and pair of pants that he had and put them on.  It was pretty funny.  I start peeling off the shirts he put on, which happened to be only two on top of the t-shirt he was originally wearing, so that's three shirts.  I then started to peel off his pants, which were pajama pants.  I took off four pairs of pants before I finally got down to his shorts that I put on him this morning.  It just had to laugh.  I thought about taking a picture only after I'd taken off the extra clothes.  I need to be quicker about that! 

Spencer will definitely be our son who is the most interested in clothes.  As soon as we get home from church he runs and gets a new shirt and shorts.  They never match, but it's something he has to do every time.  I love that kid!

Earthquakes & Hurricanes

So we experienced our first ever, earthquake.  Apparently there was a 5.9 earthquake that happened not too far from where my aunt and uncle live near Fredericksburg, VA.  We felt the effects of it here, and all up the eastern seaboard to Martha's Vineyard, MA.  CRAZY!!  I wasn't sure what was happening.  I thought I was having a dizzy spell again, but this was way different.  I realized what it could be when I saw the swing moving, and the fans were swinging back and forth.  That is such an odd sensation! 

Later that same week we prepared for Hurricane Irene!!  This is the first real hurricane I've experienced in my life.  In 2003 we got the effects of Tropical Storm Isabelle, that was once a hurricane, and that was some heavy weather.  This time was completely different.  By Wednesday we knew the hurricane would be coming our way sometime Saturday night.  So I took Tanner and we went to get a few emergency essentials that we didn't have.  Things like water jugs, a couple extra flashlights, batteries, a few munchies, and extra diapers.  It was a good thing we did that on Wednesday because by Thursday night, everything emergency related was gone from the stores and the lines to buy water and other food stuffs was at least an hour wait to check out.  Nick and I debated to get a generator or not, but weren't sure if we could find one since everyone was sold out.  Amazingly, Friday afternoon, we found a place that had a few left for a little bit more than what we wanted to pay, but I was glad we got one.  We managed to get some extra gasoline for the generator and the cars, staked all the bigger things in the yard down, and prepared for the worst.  Irene was supposed to graze us off the eastern shoreline of the state as a category 2, but thankfully it was downgraded to a category 1.  Lemme tell you, that was bad enough. 

The weather started taking a turn for the worse Saturday morning.  The rain started and then early in the afternoon the wind started.  We were supposed to have sustained winds of 80+ mph, but thankfully we only had 25+ mph winds with gust of about 55mph.  The most intense part of the storm came between 6:30pm and 9:00pm Saturday evening.  We had a few horrific thunderstorm barrel through here with tornados all around.  We spent some time in the closet singing songs, and at my request, saying a few prayers.  The eye of the storm came past us around 2 in the morning Sunday.  I finally got a few hours of sleep after that.  I made the boys bring their mattresses in the living room and sleep there for my sake.  I didn't want to be very far away from them in case something happened.

Thankfully we never lost power.  Nick was peeved that we bought a generator and didn't have to use it.  I think of it as we're that much ahead of the game for the next storm, be it rain, snow, ice, or whatever comes our way.  We had a lot of downed trees in the area, and a lot of flooding.  Thankfully our house sustained no damage.  We were very fortunate and blessed to make it through without any problems. 

For the most part we were very well prepared for the storm.  We had all of our affairs in order beforehand, so we just had to ride it out.  We know what we can do better for the next time, and we plan to do better about that before it gets too late.  Now we need to get prepared for whatever winter storms we may get this year.  Things like getting our fireplace looked at and cleaned.  Getting more wood for the fireplace.  More food storage built up in case we're snowed in.  More water stored.  Things like that and we'll be golden to ride out whatever comes our way this winter.  It really does ring true that the more you're prepared the less you need fear.  I completely get that now.