A Grateful Bummer

I have decided I should be grateful that the hurricane was such a bummer. The sky had lots of cool looking dark clouds Friday and Saturday. It rained a very little bit. The wind blew, sometimes pretty hard. One of our patio chairs fell over. Yep, the extent of the damage! We did not lose power or have any trees fall or our yard even pretend to flood. There were people around us that lost power for a while and some trees fell, but the Triangle was not in trouble. I have not watched the news to see what happened on the coast, but I know there was some actual damage out there. Some piers were toppled, some business and houses damaged, some power out. But, as the storm was downgraded to a category 1 from a category 4, the damage was much less than anticipated and for that we are grateful. Even though I was really looking forward to a good storm!

Hurricane Irene

Hurricane Irene is on the way to hit the coast of Carolina. It is a huge sized storm that will pack a pretty heavy punch on the coast. The Outer Banks and other coastal towns have been evacuated. We are supposed to get about an inch of rain with winds in the 30-50 mile per hour range. I hope it rains a lot! I love a good storm when I feel nice and safe. It smells really good outside right now! Currently, it is 5:00 on Friday night, there are lots of very dark clouds, some wind and some rain.

Soccer games for tomorrow have been canceled.

I am actually kind of excited to see what the storm brings. Hopefully, I will still be excited when it is all over.

Declan's Day

 

 

 

 

Happy birthday to Declan! I feel bad for him, his birthday is always the first day of school. Yesterday he had school and soccer and scouts so he waited so patiently to be able to open his presents. I did not even make a cake because he said he would rather have it for his friends tonight. He is having a few friends over for pizza and games and cake. Declan is a good boy. He has a fun sense of humor. He is smart. He is kind. He is cute. He is a good helper. He is now the official front lawn mower and actually looks forward to mowing. He plays soccer and basketball. He likes to try new things. He is one of my very favorites! We love you, Dec!

Milestones

I spent the day with Madsen today. First thing on the list head to high school to get drivers eligibility certificate followed by a trip to the DMV for his permit. What a strange thing to do. He passed his test and I signed papers one photo later and off we go. We went school shopping and then headed home. I let him drive the back road home. I am still shaking! He did just fine. He tends to lean a little to the right side of the road and was a little slower at turning and stopping than I was totally comfortable with. He will get better and I will better. He was trying to park as far up in the driveway as I do but he was too far over so I had to yell at him to stop before he crashed into the Saturn. I am not sure if I can handle riding with him all the time. Matt might have to be the responsible party for a while!

Cannon: Then and Now

 

 

 

 

Happy birthday to my Cannon Boy! I sure love that kid. He makes me laugh and he drives me crazy! He has the best giggle ever and a dimple that comes out with the giggle. He is getting big and smart and learning new things. This summer he finally learned how to ride a bike without training wheels! He is very proud of that! He has lost 6 baby teeth and has those big man teeth coming in. He loves Star Wars and playing wii. He is a little addicted to games! He decided to take a break from sports this fall season but has plans for the next few years! I hope we can find something he likes to play! He is a good, fun, smart, helpful boy and he has been and adventure and a blessing over the past 7 years! We love you Cannon!

Place mat projects

I have 2 sets of hand made place mats. One set of 7 that my mother made are quilted and an assortment of colors and patterns. I use these all the time. My only problem is that there are only seven and now I have a table that seats 8 so I need at least 1 more. I think I need 3 more so that when I have guests (Mom and Dad) we can all have a place mat. My other set is Turkeys that we obviously, only use at Thanksgiving. I made these several years (read pre-Waverly) ago so I only have 6. Now I need to make at least 1 more so Waverly can have her own turkey. I knew that I had saved the left over fabric from the turkeys just in case I ever felt like making extras to use with guests. I figure if I want a turkey for Waverly for this Thanksgiving, I should start working on it. I just went in the attic and dug out the fabric and... Happy surprise! Not only do I have the fabric but I actually have 5 turkeys cut out just waiting to be completed! The head/beak and gobbler are even sewn on. So maybe next week I will work on some turkeys. And maybe when the boys go back to school I will head to the fabric store to buy quilting fabric and see if I am talented enough to copy the place mats Mom made and make a few more. Or maybe Mom will read this and is in need of another project and she will make them for me?

15 more days...

Yep, I miss my boys. I know they are having fun. In some ways it is nice here without them, much less fighting. But, I miss them. It will be nice to have them home again and have our family back together and everything normal.