Our Big Bad Weekend...

Well, Ike came through!! We got hit from all sides last weekend!!!! First, our beloved Buckeyes fell in a crushing, humiliating defeat to USC. Add USC to the teams I love to hate (right up there with Michigan, Florida and LSU). While I will admit we were definitely not the better team, I will go on record as saying the officiating was CLEARLY biased!! Before we could lose to USC, Liam's football team suffered a huge loss to Fredericktown (27-0). Ouch!! He didn't get a whole lot of playing time and it was actually very boring and seemed like an abnormally long peewee game. After Liam's game we braved the pre-game (OSU) crowds at Wal-Mart because we had NO FOOD!! Let me just say that Wal-mart was a madhouse and 2 grocery carts/2 hours later we were glad to escape! We went over to the LaFever's house to watch the game and I have to admit I didn't watch very much of it. I couldn't. It was terrible, thank the Lord for good company at least. If I'd been at home I'd have gone to bed and cried myself to sleep. But, bless Johnny LaFever's heart...he talked me around and reminded me that it was after all JUST A GAME. Then, Sunday after church...HERE COMES IKE!! Now, no one in my family claims to have a lick of common sense...so of course, we went outside to play in it. There was no rain, just wind and when I say wind I'm talking hurricane force wind. Some places in Columbus clocked winds at 80mph. It was crazy. The fabulous, Jesus loves us, news is that we only lost our power for about 7 hours. So, we did not lose the 2 carts of groceries we bought Saturday! So many people here are STILL without power for going on the 4th day! We sustained no damage at all. We just enjoyed the whole thing (when we weren't worried about when the power was going to come back on). Jon and the boys ran around the yard like lunatics and tried to catch the leaves that were blowing off the trees.

Maggie attempted cartwheels. Let me tell you that wasn't easy considering that at one point the wind blew her little tail right onto the ground. Liam particularly enjoyed riding his bike in the wind. He discovered that if he went to the corner of the yard and rode with the wind he went really fast! Sam got hit shirtless with the Pokemon move Razor Leaf. We decided after experiencing "Razor Leaf" that it's a strong move!! According to Sam, leaves hitting your bare chest at high speeds really hurts. Mind you, it did not appear to hurt enough for him to go PUT A SHIRT ON!!

The maximum extent of our damage was that half of my butterfly bush ripped out at the roots.

The same cannot be said for our neighbors. They lost a rather large branch and as of right now it's still hanging there. I'm a bit concerned about it and am very thankful that it fell the way it did. I personally think the whole tree needs to go...they are so furtunate it wasn't the dead part that fell. And I'm a big 'ole tree hugger. So, if I say a tree needs cut down you can be assured that it's not safe!

So...a consequence of our big storm is that my kids have not been to school yet this week. SERIOUSLY, they have been out for 3 days and I have little hope that they'll go at all this week. There are SO MANY people without power in central Ohio that the crews don't know when they'll get to our schools. They are hitting the most populated areas first and I think we all realize that's not us! Which is posing a challenge for me. You see, Dad and Anne are coming to visit us this weekend (YIPPEE), and I have a compulsive need to clean, nay SCOUR, my house in preperation. Which is very difficult with 3 kids underfoot. They really need to go back to school!!!!!!! Oh Well, I'll get it done and I can't wait for them to come up!! Drive safe Dad, we'll be ready for you guys!! I'll post pics next week of their visit! Love to you all and rest assured we are all doing just fine (except for my sanity)!