Hurricane Irene

We had our first real hurricane threat of the year: Irene! I was tracking her for a good week before she hit and was happy that she was pushing East and I wasn't going to evacuate. Then as she narrowed in on the coast of Eastern NC she tracked back west and was heading right for us. Hmmmmmmmm.......what to do? I book a hotel just over the North/South Carolina border, I wanted to head in the opposite direction on every other person trying to escape as well. It really was a back up plan. I really hate evacuating. After much debate with myself and with Scott and God I went with my gut and stayed and am glad we did. I nearly changed my mind and grabbed our needed papers and such and left. I prayed for a sign and what pops on the news but a report of a family of five evacuating and they wrecked and the mother was killed. That was my sign, we were staying. My fear of something happening to us in the act of leaving was greater than my fear of being in real danger during the storm. It proved to be an amazing experience, one I/we welcomed, endured, and conquered!
In the above picture you see Brett, Addison and Brady chilling on the newly located patio furniture! I got all of the outside items anchored or put in. Reagan helped me with the table, grill and fire pit. Thanks, big girl!!
I will note that since Scott had just left his command did call to see if I needed any assistance, which I didn't, but I did appreciate the gesture. The neighbors were there if I needed them too.

I had called our friend Randal that grew up here in New Bern. I asked him what he thought I should do. He felt that since we had no trees and no water near us we would be fine as long as I was prepared for the power to go out for a day or so. Ok, no problem. I trust his judgment on "local" matters! The storm was a long one. I had the big kids sleep downstairs with me just so we were all right there together. Never once did I feel scared or worried. The storm just raged and we carried on. The power did go out so we just played as if it were a no TV day here. We ate the food the would 'go bad' without being cold. We put things like milk and fruit in the cooler on ice so we could get at it again and again without disturbing the coldness that was in the fridge.
The kids made a big fort to play in and played on the stairs with a sleeping bag....what a ride! They did well with just playing around.

Reagan and Brett playing some "Go Fish" with the Uno cards. We had some chats about all the things that use electricity and how thankful we were that it was invented!! The kids were wonderful at realizing that even if we were "without" there were others who were probably getting worse....damage, losing homes, etc.

Addison and Brady enjoying a snack.

They enjoyed playing with the flashlights too...which I didn't encourage, but they did get one that was for "play". We did a pretty good job of using the daylight until it wasn't possible and ate to candle light. When it was cool in the night we opened the windows and when it got hot in the day we closed up the house and pulled the curtains to conserve the cool air. We managed fine.

Imaginations were running wild. I think these two are playing Tae Kwon Do Barbies!

Once I realized the power was going to be out for a good while I had the big two eat the ice cream since it would have been trash anyways. They were SO pumped! WHAT? REALLY? They did their duty to "save" the ice cream from it's certain death in the defrosting freezer. We didn't have a whole of of things in the fridges and freezer that I was worried about losing. After they were losing their "cool" we adventured, and that's not an understatement, to get ice. I had heard that my favorite grocery store here, Harris Teeter, was giving out free bags but I figured by the time we got there they'd be gone so we headed to the Havelock Wal Mart which I'd heard had some too. We were greeted with a long line waiting for an ice truck, but no arrival time...no thanks! We decided to try Harris Teeter and yep, it was all gone. I drove as far as 40 minutes away to find ice with no luck. Harris Teeter employees said their may be another truck at 7pm, well, we happened to be driving back through that area from our adventure out so I decided to stop and pulled up just as they were handing out the free bags. Yippee! I got four bags. Two for the freezer stuff, one for the cooler we were using for the milk and such, and one to eat, cuz I love ice in my drink and I REALLY wanted a cold, icy diet coke!! Ends up a neighbor down the way wasn't able to get any ice so I gave them one bag so they could enjoy a nice cold beverage too! That ice all lasted a good 24 hours. We went out for more on Monday and were able to purchase some with less hassle as by then most of New Bern had their power back, half of our neighborhood did, in fact.

Pictureka by flash light adds a whole new challenge to the game!!!

It was just like camping! We cooked on the grill and used the burner which made it not a problem at all! I must have been doing bacon in this pic as you can see Buddy is just waiting for some to fall! Something about the smell of bacon cooking outside on a cool morning makes me think of camping as a kid. I could picture my uncle Jim all set up next to his camper with his griddle and the sizzle of the bacon teasing my ears and taste buds. Yum!
We may have eaten better with the power out than when it was on!!! Pork chops and taters, bacon, eggs, pancakes, toast. We even cooked some frozen pizzas on there.

I found this little guy in our garage after the storm. I'm not sure when he got in. I was using my truck to charge my cell phone and needed to start the truck to make sure its battery didn't die so I had the garage door open to release the fumes. The truck sat half out of the garage for not very long and when I got back there he was right by the recycle bin, which is up by the door to get into the house. Who knows but I told him I was glad he wasn't a snake! I scooted him onto a cereal box and took him down to the water near the neighbor's house.

As the hurricane neared I was sure to charge the DSI for the kids. When pretending got old they did take turns getting some video time in. All in all I'm actually thankful for the 'test' the hurricane provided us. My thoughts after the hurricane are this, “It is only when we silent the blaring sounds of our daily existence that we can finally hear the whispers of truth that life reveals to us, as it stands knocking on the doorsteps of our hearts.” K. T. Jong
We were without power for 65 hours. It came on after 60 hours of being off, was on over night then went out again for 5 hours on Tues. morning. I assume it was to hook others up to the lines. We lived. Some of our friends in a subdivision not to far from us didn't get power until 3 days after we did and some in the county to the North STILL don't have it as I type this, if you can imagine.
The cell phone service was shotty so Facebook proved to be a good way to communicate and update. Replying on there was simpler than replying to dozens of texts and phone calls. Several neighbors and friends in the area were checking up on us so we were in good hands. God had his arms around us as not one thing was damaged here and my usually anxious mind was at ease. Thank you, Jesus!