My first hurricane - Ms. Irene

Well, we survived. Obviously... I'm writing this! But seriously... here is how the past several days went:

Wednesday
Talk of the coming hurricane was growing, and we decided tonight was the night to buy our supplies. I don't remember exactly what Ray and I did that day, only that we were both very busy, and I didn't go to Wal-Mart until about 9:00 that night. (And for those of you who do not know, since I've started working, I'm basically worthless by 10 pm.) I was starting to get a little worried that night so I was rushing around, making sure we had everything, and didn't end up going to bed until around 12 am.

Thursday
I was wanting to leave town. Seriously, by the time I got off work on my way home, I was ready to pack up everything and hit the road. I listened to the radio on the way home and freaked out enough for the both of us. All I saw on my way home was trucks hauling trailers and boats the opposite direction I was driving. I didn't want to have to worry about the water, the wind, the electricity, flooding, etc. Basically, I was scared. Ray was being logical and saying we were going to be fine, he's been through this before, it wasn't looking like it was going to be that bad, etc. (and it ended up, he was completely right).  However, Ray reassured me we would put plywood over the windows and everything would be ok.

Friday
It was a strange feeling going to work that day. I didn't know if I would work a full day or not, but I went in expecting to work all day. At about 11:30, my boss asked if anyone had gotten the mail yet (I usually get it on my lunch break around 2:00), and asked me to go ahead and get it. By the time I got back to the office, the rugs had been taken up off the floor, along with the electronics and everything was unplugged. Apparently we were leaving early! I ran the last few errands of the day and then the office closed up around 1:00. Now that was a strange drive home! Seeing "Hurricane Evacuation in Progress" on the electronic boards on the highway was a little eerie, especially considering I was heading east...

But, there was good news. Irene was now a category 2, as opposed to a category 3 like they had been predicting. We were just praying it stayed more east.

Now, here is where I get a little frustrated... Ray was supposed to be getting plywood from someone at work. Ray goes over to this guy's house around 4:30, and helps him some, then goes to pick up a buddy from the airport and take him to his house in New Bern, then has to come back to Havelock. By the time Ray gets home, it's beginning to get dark, has already been raining and the wind is starting to pick up. But the worst thing is that I can see Ray's frustration when the guys bring the plywood into the garage. Basically, it's crap and we'd only be able to cover one window with it. Here's what just plain ticks me off - Ray is one of the most giving people I know. He gives of his time, his effort, his hard work, to help someone - anyone. And what does he get in return. "Well... this is all there was." In a time where people should be coming together to help each other, people are just being rude and self-centered. I know for a fact, that if Ray and I had gotten plywood and someone would have asked if we could pick up some for them (because they don't have a truck or a way of hauling it) he would have said "no problem" and then he would help put it on. And if there wasn't hardly any left, he would have split it 50/50, even giving them the better pieces. Ok, vent over.

So ANYway... by the time we get things figured out how we could possibly use the plywood, we basically just say "meh" to the whole thing and decide against covering our windows in the rain and wind. Instead, I go inside, make beef stroganoff for dinner, muffins for breakfast for Saturday, and have a movie night.

Saturday
We wake up around 7:00 to more rain and wind. Still, nothing too terrible, but we have no power. We turn on the radio to find out what's happening with Irene. It ends up making landfall about 7:30 on Ocracoke Island as a category 1, so we didn't end up getting it too bad. In fact, throughout the day, the news kept reporting it was horrible, and destructive.... but quite frankly, it wasn't that bad. Now, let me say this: I have heard New Bern has had a lot of water, but New Bern doesn't drain very well to begin with because it's built up so much, annnnnnd it's on the river. Anyway... Saturday consisted of several naps and severe boredom. You don't know how addicted you are to something until it's taken away - internet. But, it was actually nice to spend quality time with the hubby. And bonus... Magma was extra lovey! We did get a little cabin fever and we headed out in town while there was a lull later that evening. We saw some downed trees and some flooded ditches, but nothing too terrible. Nonetheless... the media still played it up to be way worse than it was - I promise, Dad!!

Oh, haha... I almost forgot the best thing.... When the wind started blowing in from the west, it started blowing in water through the vents on the outside of the house. This meant we had water dripping from our bathroom in our bedroom, our front bathroom, above our pantry in the kitchen, and best of all... the bubble of water that was in between the paint and the wall (and yes, I will include that picture). We lost a couple singles, but other than that, everything was fine :)

Sunday
We woke up to a beautiful morning! Not a cloud in the sky, but still no power. Ray and I picked up some limbs and then started raking the yard. With the two of us, it took hardly any time at all. We talked to a couple of our neighbors (who have generators by the way... which we are thinking about making an investment in) after we were done. The power ended up coming back on a little before noon today. Which is awesome because we had heard it could be off for 3-7 days. THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU ELECTRICIAN PEOPLE!! YOU ARE AWESOME!!!!

Thank you for all your prayers and thoughts. We know we are very lucky and I thank God he protected us from what could have been a very dangerous situation. And now... what you've been waiting for... the water bubble:

I haven't shared any pictures in a while, so I thought I would include some :) I'll actually write later, but it's already past my bedtime and I still need to do a few things around the house. so... pictures will have to suffice. Loves to all!!

Magma and I on my birthday. My wonderful hubby got me clipless bike pedals and shoes (not in the giant box) and "Confessions of a Military Wife" - a book that was lovingly taped to the bottom of the giant box, hehe!

We have a mini! And not just a toy one - a real one!!

Missing home a little this week...

Friday at work, a sister of one of the ladies I work with came into the office. It was kind of comical to see how much they looked and sounded so alike. It definitely reminded me of Rachael and I. It seems like everyone tells us how much we sound alike and how you can definitely tell we're sisters. But to be honest, the whole experience just reminded me of how far away from my family I am. I know, I was having another pitty-party. But my thought process went something like this: 1) Haha! You and you're sister remind me of me and mine! 2) Aww, that's sweet that family members come in to say hi at work. 3) Aw... that makes me kind of bummmed... my family is too far away. 4) Stupid North Carolina! You're too far away from Missouri! 5) *pushing thoughts out of my head and trying to concentrate at work*

I don't know why it's bothering me so much lately. Maybe because Greg and Hilary (my brother and sister-in-law) got to go home last week and I won't be able to see family until Thanksgiving. I guess it just all hit home too hard. I normally don't dwell too long on it, just because it makes me sad so quickly. So I guess you could say my coping mechanism for that would be denial - I try not to think about it. And when I do think about it, I don't dwell on it and force myself to focus on something else.

Like even now, I had so many thoughts racing through my head, but when I try to "write" them all down, I don't want to make myself think about it. So instead, I'm going to go get ready for church.

Love you all. So much.

Happy birthday - To everyone in born in July!

Since it has been so long since I've been on here, I figured I needed to start with something simple such as telling all my family happy birthday! Ok, ok... not everyone has their birthday in July in my family, but a large portion does. So... here goes: Happy birthday to...
My uncle David - July 4th
My wonderful Dad - July 9th
My beautiful sister - July 11th
My uncle Aaron - July 13th
My aunt Sara - July 14th
My beloved Mommy - July 15th
My aunt Jan - July 17th
My aunt Julie - July 20th (and meee!)
My father-in-law Kent - July 24th

There are also several friends who have b-days in July... but I'm a slacker (clearly... you follow my blog, or at least when I post). Nonetheless, Happy birthday to Sam, Emily, and Jaime!
Oh my goodness! And congratulations to Erica and Malissa for each getting married! I wish more than anything I could have been there for you both, but time and distance don't always get along.  Erica - who would have known that a friendship that started out in one of the most difficult classes (International Relations) would have remained so strong. We went through so much together those last semesters - actually making it through IR, getting trampled at the football game, engagements, concerts.... we did it all :) I wish you and Ryan nothing but the best! Love you girl! Malissa - it would have been so great to get to celebrate with you in South Carolina. Your dress was gorgeous, as were you! You and Jason looked so happy!! All the best to you both :)
I promise that I thought about my blog almost once every night. Considering how long it's been since I've last blogged... that's several times people! But, if you haven't noticed by now, I failed Jillian Michaels. Ugh, I absolutely hate to write that since it was something that I enjoyed (when I wasn't in pain). I don't know if I'm going to start it back up again or not though. It was a great workout, but just thinking about how long level  1 was makes me unmotivated.

How do people do it? Work at their job, work out, take care of a family, get in their hobbies, get things done around the house. Right now, I'm still trying to establish a good schedule of work and making dinner for the hubby and I. Hmmm... I did a load of laundry tonight, I guess that's progress??

On a random note: I'm thinking of chopping off my hair again. I really do love it long, but it's so annoying in the heat and humidity. I generally pull it back in a pony tail for work, and It's starting to hurt my head. Buuuuut... I really like it long, and think I would miss it when the cooler weather comes around. Decisions, decisions. I know, life altering ones. Don't worry, I'll keep you "in the know" about the choices I'm facing - because I know everyone on blogger is eagerly awaiting my decision.

Well, it is now 10:30, 30 minutes past when my brain has shut off for the night, and I now wish I had started this earlier. Ok, well no promises on when I'm going to post again, but let's hope it's soon. Good night all. I love you :)

Happy Independence Day!!

Happy 4th of July everyone! I know this is where I need to gush my love for my country and for everyone who has sacrificed... but right now I'm just trying to keep my eyes open long enough to get this written. But just for the record, I'm pretty sure I live in the greatest country and am so incredibly lucky and proud to be an American.

Ok, that being said, I fail at life. I basically cannot get motivated enough to finish the 30 day shred, much less blog about it. Yeah, I could just lie to everyone and say how great I've been doing and I'm basically finished with it and blah blah blah... but of course, that would be completely untrue. Plus, I have a job now (Yay! Wahoo! Woot! Woot!) and that just gives me even more of an excuse not to find 20 minutes of my time to do the workout. Like I said - fail. Ugh. I don't really want to think about that right now. So, I'm moving on as of right now. I'll write more at a later time. (Hugh, funny how I do believe I said that in one of my previous posts... I need to look back at that.)

Ray and I have had a pretty good weekend. Friday we went and watched Transformers 3 and it was pretty good. Overall, it was a good movie experience - humor, suspense, action, etc. The downfall? Two and a half hours of it got a tad long... Nonetheless, I still give it a great review :) Saturday, we headed down (up? over? I don't know.) to Topsail Beach where our friends' family rents a beach house and hung out with them for the day. It was a very relaxing, just plain awesome day. I even found a sand dollar! It was alive when I found it, and then it ended up dying in the bucket by the end of the night. But that's ok, haha. I'll put a pic up of how it turned out once I bleached it and everything. Sunday we were lazy and just hung around the house. Today we went to Mindi and Dustin's house in Jacksonville for an afternoon bbq, then went and met up with Ray's cousin, Daniel and his family. We stayed there for a bit and then headed onto base (at Camp Lejeune) for the fireworks display. I would have attempted to take a picture but I didn't grab the memory card for the camera before we left - yet another fail. Ooooohhhh welllllll. Traffic was crazy on the way back tonight, specifically going into Jacksonville, which made me very happy we were going the opposite direction.

Well, I'm pooped and just want to go to bed. I'll include more interesting things and pictures on the next post. Love you all and sorry this was a little lackluster...

This week in recap, and Happy Father's Day!!

Ok Suzanne. Get with the blogging program! Man, I have really been slacking!

I had a great time this week! It started off by me hitting up Michael's (Craft Store) and finding some great deals. I went there originally wanting to pick up some letters to put above our bed. (It's sooooo plain in there!) There were some large wooden letters that would have been great for hanging and adding fabric or patterned paper to make them look really pretty. But then I realized, I'm not a very crafty person and who knows how they would have turned out. So, instead I picked out some paper and decided I'm going to spell LOVE above our bed, with each letter in its own picture frame. Now this is something I can do :) It took me a while to choose the patterns, but I finally found the ones I wanted. Yay! And then, because it started downpouring outside, I decided to check out the clearance aisle. I thought maybe they would have some cheap frames to put the letters in, but they were all too big to put above our bed. But I did find two vertical frames that would go on either side of our "*Last Name*" frame. And, I can now happily report that we have 2 of our 3 pictures hanging on our walls, YAY!! Haha! It's crazy how long it takes when you don't have everything you need right off the bat. Nonetheless, we just have one more picture to hang and I'm waiting on something to go underneath it so it's not just hanging in mid air (at least that's what I feel it needs).

So, that was pretty much my Monday. Oh, I did forget to say that that was the first day of level 2 of the 30 Day Shred. My oh my... that was hard! It's a fun workout, but man is it difficult! I thought I would be really sore when I woke up Tuesday, but it was mostly just my gluts! Anyway, Felicia and I went to Zumba Tuesday morning. Wow! Talk about being completely drenched in sweat (ewww, gross I know, but it's true). It was a lot of fun though, and the instructor is really nice. We went to the class that's offered on base (mostly because it's free) and it was very comfortable. I didn't feel judged or looked at weird like I thought I might. Don't ask me why, just being self-conscious I guess. We ate at a sub place on base and then went to the pool. We ended up seeing the Zumba instructor there so we talked to her for a little bit. The water felt great and we stayed for quite a while.

Wednesday I did my Jillian workout, ran some errands, and then went to my friend Mindi's house. Thursday was Zumba again and then Felicia and I just hung out. Friday, I was a complete bum. There's really no other way to put it. I told myself that I had earned a day off, and that was that. However, not doing anything put me in a weird funk, so I don't think I'll be doing that again for awhile. I made shrimp fettuccine alfredo last night and Ray and I took some to the guy who watched Magma for us while we were gone. I'm actually very glad I made a double batch, because that stuff is SO good! Then Ray and I went to the beach. It was a good night for it, not busy, and not too cool (since it was dark by this point). All-in-all it was a good week. Even better because Ray made pancakes this morning :)

I hope it won't be so long until the next time I blog - I need  to get better about it. Oh, and since my father is not on facebook and he cannot see my profile picture, I'll include in in here since Father's Day is tomorrow. Dad - your card is on it's way, but probably won't be there until Monday or Tuesday. Sorry! hehe.

Love to all, especially you Dad!!

Short Post :-)

Ok everyone, here's a little post so I can say that I'm slightly keeping up with this blog...

- Yesterday, Felicia and I went to the beach. It was a beautiful day! We got in the water a couple times even though it was pretty rough. However... I got EXTREMELY burnt! I know, I know... go figure Suzanne. Wow, you got burnt. What else is new? But I haven't ever gotten burnt on my backside like I did yesterday. It hurts to sit down. It was my own fault for using only tanning spray... you know that stuff with like 4 spf? But on a good note! I used regular sun screen on my arms, shoulders and face! So those didn't get burnt at all :)

- Today, I was lazy because of my horrific burn, so I physically could not do the workout. But hopefully my skin will actually not hate me tomorrow and will allow me to move my legs without causing extreme pain. Oh, I also made no bake cookies this evening :)

So.... um, I guess that's it! Nothing too exciting has gone on. We're lame. Right now, Ray is torturing Magma, trying to make her fit into a tiny box. I'll leave you on that note :)