What a Weekend!

Considering the governor has declared a state of emergency for NJ, I feel fortunate we survived the weekend with what little damage we have.

I have to admit, I didn't pay too much attention to the weather alerts until the 70 mph winds and flooding rains began.

On Saturday, at around 4:00 p.m., we lost electricity. By 4:45, all nine of us (our family plus 3 extra kids) had to use the bathroom. Of course we did. When you have a well, as we do, you can only flush each toilet once when the electricity is off.

By 6:00, there were only 6 of us. Katherine's friend, Ally, was here to stay because her parents couldn't get to us. We distracted the kids with a candlelight buffet of "all you can eat" lunch meat, crackers, cheese, tuna sandwiches, and St. Patrick's Day cookies followed by board games and truth-or-dare by the fireside. We were thankful for that fire because it was starting to get really cold in the house.

Katherine and Ally were excited to camp out by the fire. Thankfully, they were having fun because Sunday was Ally's birthday and we were hoping she would be okay with waking up, and possibly spending the whole day with us.

When we woke up on Sunday, the electricity was still off, and after a birthday breakfast of Fruit Loops and lukewarm milk, the kids gathered in the kitchen for more games. At this point, we were thinking the worse was behind us. That is, until I went to get play-doh from the basement and stepped in a puddle.

The sump pump, which drains the extra water away from the house, is powered by electricity - something we hadn't had for 19 hours at this point. So we started bailing. We bailed and bailed. For over 2 hours, we bailed several hundred gallons of water. The electricity finally came back on and the sump pump did the rest. We ended up with only a few puddles.

When we were finally able to get out and look around, we were shocked at the damage everywhere. Trees were down in almost every yard. Our neighbor's car had been crushed by one. Power lines were down. Traffic lights were out. Roads that weren't blocked by trees were flooded. Others weren't as fortunate as us and some people had over 4 feet of water in their basements. It was a mess.

Schools were closed today, and I'm not sure they'll open tomorrow. And, even though I can hardly turn my head after carrying so many buckets of water up from the basement, I'm not complaining! I was even happier when we finally got our telephone/cable/internet service again this evening.

I had to smile at a Facebook message Kim sent to me this weekend when she had no idea what we were going through:

"Here's wishing you a very positive week!"

Thanks Kim! Things are definitely looking up!