Goodnight Irene & {good riddance}

Irene.

You were an unwelcome guest.

You blew in with hell's fury; banging on our doors and windows.

You brought a few of your wicked tornado sisters with you to torture and torment.

For hours you continued to disturb many,

Cutting off power & pushing over 100 year old trees and utility poles like they were toothpicks.

You dumped your waters to flood many businesses and homes, including my own,

before deciding to move on.

Go goodbye and good riddance Irene

we are so glad you are gone.

You may have tested our patience and have broken our spirit for a while

but I want you to know;

although you destroyed many of our possessions and precious mementos

we will move on.

You could not take or destroy the faith or bond of this family

and that is my reason to smile!

***

We, like I am sure many others, were without power for almost 36 hours and lost 2 freezers full of food and almost everything being stored in our basement.  Jim & I have started the process of cleaning out by simply throwing much of our possessions up and out the basement windows.  Rubbermaid bins full of possessions were tossed and flipped around in the dank waters and destroyed.

These photos show about 1/3 of our basement contents.  About 75% of my craft stash was down there and is all lost, and yes, some of our family photos have also been destroyed.  The photos of my children when they were babies and tots is the hardest loss to swallow.  Even now I am a bit weepy, but also feeling ashamed.  So many more people have been touched by Irene.  Many have lost much much more, are still without utilities & some have lost their lives in Irene's destructive wake.

One thing I do know is that we are strong.  We will overcome this.

I will be forever grateful that we as a family were not harmed physically

and will continue to pray for others.

Possessions can be replaced, food can be bought.

The kindness of friends and family throughout all of this is humbling.

The caring of my blog family has also been extremely reassuring.

Thank You All

especially those who sent well wishes and concern via Face Book and emails with prayers and concern.  Your kindness is forever etched in my heart!

PB Inspiration and Irene

My sweet nephew Ryan celebrated his first birthday today with a wonderful party. 

 The kids, the MIL and my Mom made the 45 minute trek to his house this afternoon intending to stay a bit but not too long 'cause you see we are expecting company tonight. 

Her name is Irene.

(Image source)

She is not welcome company but she is coming non-the-less! 

So, the procrastinator in me pulled out the old paints this morning to make his gift.

What? don't judge...

Sorry, I had to wait in long lines yesterday fighting people for med refills, water and batteries.

Okay, not really... the stores are all sold out of batteries.

Water was going pretty quickly too!

I'da had to donkey kick somebody over the water...

I have never been the one to stock up on water before...but I felt it the adult thing to do.

AND

I had alot to do outside...dictating...to the hubby... to put away patio stuff, and pool stuff, and lawn mower stuff, propane, grill and anything else I think may take flight and crash through a window.

I digress... back to the gift.

I always stress over stuff like this, especially when I wait til the last possible minute to even start a project which needs to be prepped, painted and gift wrapped in under 2 hours!

{oh WHY can't I just go to Toys R Us and buy a gift?}

That's just NOT how I roll!

He was the lucky recipiant of the painted toy box you may remember from here

After a quick browse of an old PB Catalog I was inspired.

Please pardon the horribly blurry and washed out photos...I tried with 2 different cameras and got similar results.  The only cause I can think of is maybe because the air is SO humid here thanks to good old Irene coming.

Turned out sorta PB-esque {yes, that is my new word}

All painted free hand... name and all.

I tried to replicate the type style used in the PB catalogue...

I tried to enhance the colors in this last photo for you... still not quite right but closer.

He also got a DVD to watch tucked down in the gift bag.

Fast Forward, post party

 heading home... rain and wind starting to pick up but not too bad in my Momma's Kia Car.

Smooth Sailing I'm thinkin...

Now if you follow me on FB you already know that Awesome Austin is having a very hard time with scary nature stuff like Thunder and Lightening and Tuesday's earthquake and is OH so stressed out about Irene that he will not eat and his hair is standing straight up on his head.

{nervous habit of twirling and playing with his hair}

...half way down the highway, the sky decides to really open up.  Torrential rain and wind pounding the car;  really screwing up visability.  Silently, I'm praying...just wanna get my kids home safe.

The wipers were on high and we could hardly see 2 foot ahead...then

The windshield wipers STOPPED working!

Don't worry... we are safe... and I'm actually chuckling about it now.

Imagine being blinded,  Awesome is now freaking the flip out,  My mom's asking me what I did to her wipers,  Alexis is asking how we're going to get home, the Alzheimers MIL is going on and on about Hurricane Hazel that occured years before MY birth and about Air Raid drills from I think the 40's.

Which by the way... freaked Awesome out even more!

Thankfully after about 10 minutes of standing in the downpour, trying to figure out what happened, a bit of cussing and some prayer they started to work again! 

Now, I am getting off of here and attending to my family because a Tornado Warning has just interrupted our TV viewing and advised of a possible tornado in the area.

Hubby likes to blow these things off and be so nonchalant.

I on the other hand want to be the 'safety first' mommy without freaking my kids out anymore than they are now!

Praying for those who are also going through this horrible nightmare... please say a prayer for us tonight as well {it's greatly appreciated!}

Kim

linking here:

somedaycrafts.blogspot.com

crayonfreckles.blogspot.com

romantichome.blogspot.com

designergarden.blogspot.com

www.alittleknickknack.com