Come on Irene!

For our family, this past weekend marked the end of summer vacation. Much to his displeasure, Scott must wake up this morning and return to work. He a full week of meetings and classroom preparations ahead of him in anticipation of students returning next Tuesday.

We had hoped to spend the past weekend outside celebrating the end of our summer vacation. Instead, we were forced inside by a tiny little storm named Irene. It's amazing how quickly a hurricane can derail a family picnic!

For days we were inundated with radar images and worst case scenario prophecies from the media. Living just south of DC, we were clearly in the path of this giant storm. We heeded the advice of all the experts. We had plenty of water and food that wouldn't spoil or would require heating, opting to fill our emergency provisions with Pop-Tarts, Rice Krispie treats and a chocolate cake. Scott and I spent an hour taking the batteries out of all of Robby's remote control cars so that they could be charged in anticipation of losing electricity. By the time the first rain drop fell on Saturday, we were ready for the hurricane Armageddon that had been predicted.

By the time Irene reached our house, her winds were downgraded to tropical storm status. Personally, I think that the demotion angered the storm because she seemed to be blowing pretty hard around here! Riding out a hurricane inside a house with floor to ceiling windows and in the middle of the woods is not a lot of fun.

I slept (or rather tried to sleep) with my liner on my stump all night. I felt more secure knowing that I would be able to move quickly if necessary. I kept having visions of our majestic trees falling onto our roof.

Thankfully my premonitions never materialized, and we awoke on Sunday to discover only a lot of downed branches. To my shock- and delight- we didn't lose any trees. Robby was elated that his tree house weathered its first hurricane unscathed with the exception of the pulley bucket which apparently blew away.

Sunday morning we all had chocolate cake for breakfast. (Don't judge me, after all I didn't want it to get stale!) I then went outside and spent the afternoon cleaning up branches and debris from our yard. Robby spent the afternoon helping Mr. Bill pick up sticks and branches that were littering his yard. I guess cleaning up sticks is more fun in a neighbor's yard!

I'm relieved and grateful that we survived the hurricane without damage or injury. We never lost power and nothing was damaged. Looking at the news reports I saw the destruction this storm heaped upon others, and I am feeling so lucky that, despite the predictions, we were spared!