Alayna's Project 365: 2011 Week 16

Last week I took almost no photos but it looks like this week is very picture-heavy.

Saturday was very eventful. Not only did we have the usual soccer practice (which barely finished up before the rain started), but we had some "excitement" as well. After lunch we headed out to the movie, choosing a place about 40 min from our house. It was raining and windy, but not too badly. About half-way there we encountered a downed power pole in the middle of the road. No big deal, we drove around it. A few minutes later Sam decided we needed to turn on some music and were we in for a surprise. Emergency weather announcements kept coming at us every few minutes announcing one tornado or extreme weather watch after another. We had no clue if we were in a county that was affected at the time, but our home county was listed so we drove on to the movie, where the clouds were breaking up and the sun was shining above the theater. We had a good time watching the show (Hop) and only realized how bad the weather may have been when we were on the way home and saw some signs of destruction only a few miles into the drive. Downed trees, bent signs, complete power outages with cops directing traffic at lights, pieces of roofs missing. We also had to detour way around the place where they were fixing the downed power pole, which was a pretty little drive. And we were happy to find that our house showed no signs of storm damage at all (though we later saw that some of the neighbors fences and tress had sustained some damage).

We now realize how lucky we were. One reports states that "62 tornadoes repeatedly touched down in more than 20 counties" in NC. Many of them hit fairly close to us. The Lowes in Sanford (approx 25 min to the east) is completely on the ground. Dunn, a town 20 or so min to the north-east (ish) got hit. Miles of destruction on roads near the base (30 min south) had it and the freeway closed down entirely for a couple of days. Power outages lasted well into Sunday in Spring Lake (20 min in the same direction as the base)...
So so lucky. Kaitlyn was getting pretty disturbed by the radio announcements so we've been keeping her exposure (and thus our own) to reports on it to a minimum.

Also this week:
Tyler decided to draw on my dining table. Yup the new one. He thought it was great and was happily showing it off when I realized what he had done and scared him by yelling. Then I cried. Sam quickly promised he'd sand it down and refinish the whole top as soon as he could though so I'm trying not to be upset every time I see it.

I went to get a haircut with a friend one day this week (leaving Ty with Mom - nice). I'm not exactly happy with my hair and the humidy (and curls and the FRIZZ) and was hoping a good cut would help. Too bad the woman didn't listen to my instructions and cut my layers WAY too short. So still not exactly happy with my hair. *sigh* (or my silly attemt at taking a photo of it for you all using the bathroom mirror)

It has however, been mostly beautiful spring weather and we're gearing up for Easter. I boiled up 5 dozen eggs for my neighbor one morning - she was sick and looked miserable but insisted that she was going to dye them with her (FIVE) kids after school as she had promised them. So I took them off her hands and told her to go back to bed.

We've also been working on the fence - yay! We started sinking post holes on Sunday and I thought I'd be spending a lot of my time helping Sam with the installation. But the neighbor that shares part of our back fence quickly came out and offered to help and has been right with Sam working away on it every time he goes out there. Tyler was excited to help too. The first day he ran the hose. Then when they started putting on the boards he was happy to go get his tools and help them out too. But he quickly quit when he realized his plastic hammer wouldn't drive the nails in.

With the guys working away I was able to stain the sandbox and re-do the deck. That deck looks so pretty now! Then during the second fencing session yesterday, the three of us girls spent the time on the porch enjoying the weather. I read a book and Kaitlyn and Grandma did their nails.

I let the kids open the Easter package from Wyatt and Bonnie a bit early. The yellow thing she is holding is one of the paint-your-own bunnies from one of the kits in it. The kids loved everything in the baskets, and the baskets themselves were a hit too. Kaitlyn got Hello Kitty. And Tyler has been carrying around his fire truck basket every day since.

And this is how the back yard looks now (with the kids playing with some of the neighbors, as usual). Still a lot of work to go but it's getting there.