Today, one week after our last visit, we were back in the Urgent care.   Miraculously enough, it wasn’t Levi for once!  Which is good because he just got his stitches taken out just yesterday.  At the park Reagan tried to open a heavy metal gate that didn’t work right and it came back and hit him in the head.  He got a nice gash on his eyebrow and a goose egg.  This time we just used the Liquid Bandage stuff that a friend had and closed it up well enough, but he was very pale and sleepy afterward so we took him in anyway.  The doctor congratulated me on my “stitching up” job and said he wouldn’t even need to do real ones.  He then did a full CAT scan on Reagan just to make sure his wooziness was nothing more than the heat and the trauma.  But we got to spend another 2 hours waiting around for the medical profession to proclaim us good to go which was not fun with Libby climbing the walls.  All in all it was a very pleasant experience as ER experiences tend to go (I’m becoming an expert, you know).  Reagan did great.  He didn’t even cry and is thrilled to have a real scar. 

He also loves his nice black eye. 

Let’s all say a small prayer that I will not have to go to the ER or Urgent Care again this week, shall we?

Well, we have survived our first hurricane. And boy was it a doozy. I spent all week stocking up on non perishables and beefing up my 3 month supply. Saturday morning there was no milk to be found at any store on the East coast and so I did the unthinkable. I took my life in my hands and braved Wal-Mart -the day before a a hurricane. I know. You are impressed by my dedication to family, by my bravery in the face of danger. The mother bear instinct really kicked in, I’m tellin ya.

Our neighbors, city personnel and governor told us that power outages would be rampant and that our basement would probably flood. So, never having owned a basement before, we believed them and spent the whole day cleaning and organizing our basement and then moving it all up a foot or two off the ground to protect it from the onslaught of water and muck that might very well rush in when the sump pump stopped working. We involved the boys telling them we were going to have a Hurricane party! “Let’s get our basement prepared and then we’ll eat all our ice cream and make forts upstairs with all our empty boxes when the power goes out!”

And then we waited. And watched the news. And tracked the amazing white clouds of Irene wreaking havoc in states south of us knowing it was heading straight for us. This week was like waiting for Christmas to come. Every night; “Is the “Huwicane” coming tonight, Mommy?” “When is the power going to go out?” “When is the flood going to come in the basement?” “Is it going to fill our house?” By 8:00 PM it was raining and that was it, so we sent the kids to bed prepared to wake up to a massive storm the next day. We finally went to bed as well, exhausted from our preparations.

THIS is the incredible damage that we woke up to. Be advised, there is some graphic material in the following photos.



Irene’s mean fighting windy machine. One branch down.

Needless to say the kids were pretty bummed when as the morning progressed all they had to show for their first hurricane were a few leaves in the yard, no power outage and some puddles that were already disappearing. Reagan bitterly said, “I can’t believe the puddles are already gone!” After all our work emptying and prepping the basement it looked more like the hurricane hit inside the house instead of out.

I am very grateful our home wasn’t flooded or destroyed. I know thousands of people were not so lucky. But even I was a little bummed that my first hurricane was such a wimp by the time it got to us. After 7 days without power following the windstorm in Duvall, we felt like veterans who could weather anything Irene wanted to throw at us. We were ready! We were prepared! Oh well. Better safe than sorry I guess.

“Does this mean we aren’t going to have a hurricane party, Mom?”

”Yep, no hurricane party this time, kids. But maybe we can have one next time we get to have a hurricane!”

Yup, we felt the 5.9 earthquake today that happened in VA. It gave the kids quite a scare as it was very obvious and lasted a long time. But it just shook things, nothing fell off the walls. We got a good rolling and shaking though. I put my Southern California training into practice and had all three boys stand in the doorway with me. All three were crying and I couldn’t help myself, I just started to laugh because never in my wildest dreams did I think that earthquakes would be something we’d experience in New Jersey. Once everyone calmed down we used it as a chance to study some seismology. Levi would NOT stop talking about it for the rest of the day. He nominated himself earthquake preparedness expert and went over and over the procedure we all have to follow if another “ewethquake “comes. (He was the most freaked out. lol) Rock hardly felt it at work in Manhattan, but they evacuated everyone from his building anyway and he got to walk down 25 flights of stairs because no one on the East Coast is ready or used to earthquakes.

Earthquakes in New Jersey, who knew!

Here is the extent of our damage:

This morning, as I was just about to sit down and finally blog about our Utah trip, Levi decided to fall against the kitchen counter and split his chin open just one cm from the scar he got a month ago when he tripped and fell against a cement step and cracked his chin open.  He should have gotten stitches then, but it was not gaping, so we didn’t take him in.  It healed fine, but he got a scar on his chin to add to his collection.  Today, thanks to his impeccable balance and agility, Levi took his second trip to the ER in less than two years to get six more stitches… and ANOTHER scar on his face.  That is a grand total of 22 stitches and  FOUR scars on his beautiful little face in less than two years. Two of which happened only one month apart.   I’m telling you, this kid is cursed.  And just in case that’s not it, I’ll be taking him to the doctor so they can check his depth perception!!!!!! 

And now you’ll have to wait till tomorrow for the Utah blog posts. 

We spent a week and a half with my parents in Washington and had a great time.   Here’s what we did;

 
Airplane ride to WA. 

Sarin and I flew with all 4 kids to Chicago and then on to Seattle.  In Newark we managed to get everyone through security, onto the plane and buckled when the captain came on and said, “Just kidding!  We won’t be leaving for an hour because of thunderstorms in Chicago.”   So there we sat.  And sat.  And sat.   The heat was almost unbearable for about 20 minutes and I was just about to to haul them all off the plane again when someone above took pity on me and convinced the flight attendants to turn on the ac even though they were not cleared to.  And once again, the wonders of modern technology saved me while we waited for the plane to take off.  

Chicago was a mess once we finally landed.  All the gates were switched around and the departure times delayed so we sat all four kids down on the floor in front of McDonald’s to feed them a quick lunch.   One of them (they still won’t admit who) stuck gum on the glass of the moving walkway, while the others rubbed their greasy fingers all over the glass and the hand rest of the walkway before I could stop them.  My apologies go out to all the Chicago airport travelers that day for our little germ fest and to the employee who got to clean up after us.  Turns out we very nearly missed our plane due to all the confusion, but it was my lucky day and we managed to get on our plane just in time.  It is written in the great book of Mothering that all mothers must have  an airport/airplane horror story.  So far, I’ve managed to escape such a fate, but I can’t see that lasting forever with my little brood.  When it does happen, though, I’m sure it will make for a great blog post.

While in WA we celebrated Cade’s 7th birthday.



Cade’s two loves, LEGO’s and drawing

We also went to Duvall to visit all of our wonderful friends we miss so much.  Reagan and his little friend, Sydney have known each other since they were 6 months old.  They saw each other at least 3 times a week their whole lives until we moved away.  They were the best of friends.  But this year Reagan decided girls were yucky.  On his door he would put up signs that said no girls allowed (except for Mom and Sydney).  But I knew it might be a little weird for him at first when he saw Syd again.  Sure enough, he hid from her or ran from her for the first 30 minutes we were at the park with them.  But they finally warmed up to each other and were inseparable the rest of the day.  We ended our day in Duvall at our favorite Mexican restaurant, Ixtapa.  Oh how we missed Ixtapa!!!!  You can’t get good Mexican food in NJ!
 


We love Ixtapa!

Even Liberty had a good time!

We helped out in the yard while at Grandma and Grandpa’s.

Liberty dressed up in her prettiest dress to impress the Aunts!

We also took the boys to see Mt. Rainier!  It was a perfect day and the kids did well even though it was a long day.

My very favorite view of Mt. Rainier 

Liberty did fantastic and even got in a nap (with a little help).  Her head kept flopping down so Rock finally took pity on her and held it up.

Our last stop at Mt. Rainier was the Grove of the Patriarchs.  A beautiful old growth forest.

Cool Roots!

Favorite picture of the day (sorry it’s blurry)

Hug a tree 

Thus ended our Mt. Rainier trip.  It was a great day with no major mishaps.  And I think we made Grandpa’s year by going up to the mountain.

One funny ‘Reaganism’ from this trip before I end this post.  At dinner one night, Reagan was, as always, asking questions and Grandpa said, “Reagan, I think they’re just going to put a ? on your tombstone.” Puzzled, Reagan, asked, “Why?” 
When everyone burst into laughter he asked, “What’s so funny?” 
Sigh.  At least his  personality is consistent!

We had a great time in WA and the boys were very sad to leave it again.  We sure do miss our friends and family there! 

Libby had lots of fun with her Aunts and they in turn had a lot of fun taking her picture.


At least when they were watching her…ahem….

We love you Alli and Sarin! Thank you for coming to play with us for a month! We will miss you!

I have been planning for the day when I could take my Liberty to the Statue of Liberty since the day we decided on her name a year and a half ago, and though it was a little anti-climatic (Liberty wasn’t overly excited to meet her namesake.  Go fig) it was still a day to remember.

“The Statue of Libby!” as Levi likes to say

Little Meets Big

Not a very good picture… but it was the best we could do.  Alli had to practically lay on the ground to get this one.

We had a fun ferry ride


Even though it was very hot!



We waved to Dad at work,

took lots of pictures,

resisted the urge to buy Liberty her first Barbie Doll for $50.00, (and a million other gift store paraphernalia that said “Liberty” on it)

And ended our very hot day with the best souvenir money could buy,

Ice cream!

 
G’night sweet girl!