Hurricane Sandy

This has definitely been a very interesting end to October! The whole month has been really rainy, although I guess that's fairly normal for October, but it seemed to be extra rainy this year, with the exception of a few hot and sunny days last week. Then seemingly out of nowhere, last week we got word that Hurricane Sandy was forming in the Caribbean, and was headed straight for the East Coast. We've had hurricane weather and tropical storms in the past, but I was really worried this year because we lost some shingles a few months ago in a wind storm, and I discovered what appeared to be water damage in our upstairs ceiling back in September. We contacted the insurance company right away at the end of last month, and they had someone come out to look at it...they said it was indeed water damage, and made arrangements with a restoration company to get it taken care of, pending approval of the claim. Well, for 4 weeks now we've been waiting for the claim to be approved, and when I found out about the storm, I called on Friday to see if we could get an emergency tarp put on the roof, which is what they did the last time we had water damage from missing shingles (the roofs on these houses do not seem to be the best!). The restoration company said we needed to contact the insurance company before they could come out and do any emergency work. According to the insurance agent I then spoke with, they don't do emergency work, but I was advised to go to Home Depot, buy a tarp, and put it on the roof myself. Obviously, not what I wanted to hear...if I wanted to climb up on the roof and nail down a tarp, I would work in the roofing business lol! And in addition to not being what I wanted to hear, this information was also not correct, according to the NEXT agent I spoke with. However, by the time I was told that the information was wrong and they DO perform emergency work, which I am well aware of because they've done it before, the storm was on its way through and we discovered more damage in the ceiling, including a leak that was creating a puddle all over the floor. So we were not happy to discover that, but luckily because we only have to pay our deductible, it's really just more work and more money for the insurance company and the repair company, not for us. But the insurance company will definitely be getting a letter from me, that's for sure. There is no reason we should have had to wait for over a month for the claim to be approved, and then on top of that, to be told they would not perform emergency repair work 2 days before a hurricane, on a roof that is already missing shingles and has water damage. But I do have to say we were much luckier than a lot of people out there may have been; I can imagine there was flooding and fallen trees and, even worse, deaths from the storm, so an easily fixable roof and ceiling is nothing to complain about, in the grand scheme of things. And believe it or not, Josh and I actually had a lot of fun in the past couple of days. We were both off work yesterday and today..... unfortunately we had to use general leave for it, but since the government was closed, we literally couldn't go to work. We went to Buffalo Wing Factory on Sunday afternoon before the rain started, to watch both the Cowboys and Chiefs games. The Cowboys game started off as a total blowout, and then in the second half, they actually showed up and really played great (well, relatively speaking). Not as good as they could have, but good enough that they nearly won the game. It would have been an amazing ending if Dez Bryant's fingers hadn't been out of range of a touchdown. Bummer, but better than the Chiefs game, that's for sure. Started off really well, but they ended up getting killed. By the time we left the restaurant around 7:30pm, the rain and wind had started, and we headed home before it got too bad. By Monday morning, the heavy rain was starting, and the wind was picking up. We met up for lunch with my in-laws at Red Hot & Blue, one of the few places that was open, then stayed in the rest of the day with the puppies....spoiled babies didn't have to be in their crates much at all these past few days! We had enough food and water in the house that I wasn't too concerned about the storm in that sense, but all the stores were completely sold out of water, that's for sure! I think that happened everywhere around here. I didn't foresee the power going out, we've never had any issues with that since we've lived here, but since we have a gas stove and heater, I knew we'd at least be able to use the stove to cook, and stay warm if it got too cold. I remember a snowstorm back in Beaverdam when I was in middle school, and we were out of power for 2 weeks. Since we used electricity for the stove and the heat, I remember it being a very long, very cold 2 weeks lol! So we are definitely fortunate to have gas heat and stove, that's for sure. I saw on Facebook that some friends in the general area had lost power, so around 7pm I thought I better start cooking dinner just in case. And sure enough, literally the second I turned off the Foreman grill and the stove, the power went out. So we got out an apple-scented candle, turned on the flashlight app on Josh's cell phone (gotta love advanced technology!), and had dinner by candelight. Normally we would be watching TV but since we couldn't do that, we decided to play Scrabble instead. It almost seemed weird to be playing the board game version as opposed to Words With Friends on my cell phone, but we had a blast! The dogs weren't crazy about the power outage, they almost didn't know what to do with themselves, but they finally settled down; Toby ran upstairs and hid under the bed, and Lucy wore herself out running around the living room. After about 2 hours, the power came back, and we cuddled up on the couch to watch a movie. But we left the game out so we can continue playing, even with the power back on :). It'll probably be easier to see the score tiles on the board now, that's for sure! The heavy rain and wind continued all night, but we woke up to no further damage in the ceiling and the power was still on, and all four of us are safe and sound. So I have no big complaints at all about the past few days. I hope everyone else out there stayed safe as well! Unfortunately, trick-or-treating tomorrow will be cold and rainy for the kids, but it looks like November will start off dry, and hopefully with some new shingles on our roof!

With the flash it looked like the power wasn't even out!



Harpers Ferry

With Fall being my favorite season, I've been itching to do SOMETHING Autumn-related...we couldn't go to the Pumpkin Patch a few weeks ago with the weather being dreary, and last weekend we were gone out of state. So Josh surprised my the other day by announcing that we were going to Harpers Ferry for the day on Saturday! I had never been, but he said it would be the perfect time to go with the leaves changing colors. So we planned to head up there early in the day to have lunch and then walk around and maybe go for a hike. I didn't realize we were literally hiking, I thought it would just be some nature trails, so I probably didn't quite dress for the part, but we still had a great time! Of course we picked a hike that was described as having a difficulty level of "Difficult," as opposed to Easy or Moderate lol! Oh well, might as well dive right into the tough stuff! I made the mistake of not checking to make sure my camera battery was full, so it only had half the life of a full battery, but I managed to get almost all the pictures I wanted, so any others will have to wait until next time. Given the right attire and weather, I would love to go up there every weekend! It was such a great way to get exercise, and a lot of people brought lunch to eat up at the top of the cliff, which I would love to do next time. My poor calves may not agree today though, so our next trip will probably include more browsing the shops and visiting the cemetary, until next Spring when we go back for some hiking. They have a ton of trails there, so we will have a large variety to choose from, and you can usually do either the full trail or just half. We only did half of our trail yesterday, so next time we may give the whole thing a try. The half trail was enough for me on my first time hiking, and I'm not going to the lie, the frozen custard waiting for me when we were done is partly what got me back to town!! In addition to all the trails, they also offer kayaking which we really enjoyed on our trip to Florida, so we would love to give that a try as well. And on the way there and back, we spotted a TON of vineyards that we really want to visit, so we have lots of excursions we can plan for future weekends.

Michigan Trip

Five months ago, my parents gave Josh a birthday present of two tickets to a University of Michigan football game. Josh is a big U of M fan, and it just so happens that not only did many of my relatives attend the school, but my grandparents taught there in the past, and my Aunt Vivi currently works there. So my mom had me pick a game that we could attend, and she and my dad got tickets for Josh's birthday in May. I picked the October 13th game against Illinois, which ended up being Homecoming weekend for the Wolverines. So for the past 5 months, we have been eagerly anticipating our trip to Ann Arbor! With airline tickets being so expensive, we decided to drive the 8-9 hours instead. Josh and I have never taken a long road trip together, so I knew it would be a (hopefully) really fun adventure. On Thursday after work, we rented a car so we wouldn't have to put the miles on either of our vehicles, and Friday morning we left around 4:30am. We thought about leaving Thursday after work, but since we had never made the drive ourselves, we didn't want to make it at night for the first time. Plus, we were staying with my aunt, and I didn't think she would enjoy us showing up at 3:00 in the morning!  I've made the ride itself MULTIPLE times in my 28 years...almost every year we'd head up there for one of the holidays, ever since my brother and I were babies. With a set of grandparents, three uncles/aunts, and many cousins living in the area, it was a drive that we made constantly, and it was NOT always fun for me, as an 8-10 hour drive never is for a kid. And with my parents constantly hearing "Are we there yet?" it was probably not always fun for them! But now that I could share in the driving, I figured it would be much better. Parts of me that are STILL sore do not agree, but it ended up being an incredibly easy drive, not to mention GORGEOUS with all the green and red and orange leaves, and such a nice experience for Josh and me to make that drive together.

We reached Detroit around 1:30pm, and one request that Josh had made was to get a Coney dog, which are famous in Detroit. There are 2 restaurants next to each other that were featured on Food Wars, so Josh wanted to try at least one of them.....and it was definitely worth it! He said he has never eaten a hot dog that literally snapped when you bit into it. Now, I have never had a Coney dog, so I can't tell you one way or another what it was like, but my Greek salad with grilled chicken was pretty delicious!! After we left the restaurant, we went to visit my grandmother, whom we haven't seen since December. She recently moved into a new apartment, so we stopped to see her and take a look at her new place. We spent about an hour with her, then drove out to see my Uncle Rob and Aunt Rhonda, who live nearby and were leaving the next morning for a trip to Florida. So we were able to visit with them for about an hour and a half or so. We also wanted to visit my Uncle Peter and his family, but unfortunately schedules did not match up, so we'll have to try to get together next time! After we had made all our visits, we headed out to Ann Arbor to my Uncle Reyn and Aunt Vivi's house. We unpacked and had a yummy dinner (turkey meatloaf, which I never thought I'd try but it was amazing!), and then Josh and I headed into town to try to find U of M sweathshirts for the game. We weren't successful, but Josh got a hat and we got ponchos because there was rain in the forecast.

Saturday morning we had planned to wake up early and take a walk around campus before the game at 3:30pm, but we were so exhausted from the early morning and the long drive on Friday that we slept in a little later than planned. We ended up heading out around noon, and of course as soon as we got in the car, it started to rain. Friday was beautiful, and Sunday ended up being beautiful, but Saturday was of COURSE the one day with 100% chance of  "steady, soaking rain." Go figure, it started as soon as we headed out for the game. We tried to find the parking lot where my aunt had a pass, but they were all closed for the game, and cost $20 to park. So we somewhow ended up at the mall instead, and it turned out they offered shuttle rides to the stadium for $1.50 a person. Before catching the shuttle, we went into the mall and found our sweatshirts, which were really helpful considering how cold Michigan is in October, and the rain did not help lol! We got to the game, and even though the weather was not the best, the stadium was packed! And for their homecoming game, they definitely did not disappoint.....ended up scoring a touchdown in the first 5 minutes, and won the game 45-0! We were a little wet and cold, but definitely glad we went. The stadium was awesome...I would have loved to have taken pictures, but bags, including purses, aren't allowed in the stadium, so I had to leave my camera in the car since I didn't want to carry it in the rain without a bag. We're planning to take another trip in the future, and hopefully the weather will be nice enough that we can get to campus ahead of time and take pictures.

After the game, we went to a really cute restaurant called Karl's Cabin, and had a delicious dinner...followed by pumpkin cheesecake which I have never had, but I keep seeing it advertised everywhere and just had to try it. So we split a piece....amazing!!! Afterwards, we headed back to my aunt's house and went to bed early, since we were planning to leave at 4am Sunday morning. It was definitely a whirlwind weekend, but we had a great time and can't wait to do it again!! Maybe next time we will pick a September game so the weather will be a little warmer and hopefully drier!

Me and my grandma

My gloves!! Ignore the fact it's upside down...supposed to be an "M" lol...