We Survived Hurricane Irene!

Good morning to everyone out there in the blog-o-sphere! It's nice to be here with you. This is a picture heavy blog entry, so if you're ready for all the news that's fit to blog, read on!

I am more than grateful to report that we are back online as the power was turned back on yesterday afternoon. We lost power on Sunday morning around 6:15 and got it back at 4:15pm Monday. That's pretty good as there are more than 300,000 people on Long Island who are still in the dark! There were work crews in the neighborhood yesterday from as far away as Kansas, and new utility poles were flown in from Missouri.

After the storm passed Sunday afternoon we ventured out to see what Irene left in her wake. Our street was relatively untouched and we had no damage to our house, but on the street around the corner it was a completely different story.

Power lines were pulled down

Trees were down

Homes were damaged

I didn't get a picture of it, but there was also a car that was damaged. A very LARGE tree limb fell on it and crushed a VW Bug.

Some people out there might say that the media over hyped this storm, but I can tell you that it was scary. There were tornado warnings on Saturday night as the storm was slowly making its way up the east coast and after it moved through New York, it has caused havoc in some of the New England states, like Vermont. Personally, I would rather have the warnings, evacuation orders, and constant coverage so that I can know what is going on out there.

Hurricane Irene is a memory (although not a distant one, yet) and we now have to worry about Tropical Storm Katia that is making it's way across the Atlantic. Hopefully it will just head out to sea and stay there. I've had enough of storms for quite a while!

School starts here one week from today and it can not come a moment too soon! I'm sure that anyone out there with kids knows what it's like. It's the end of the summer and they SOOOOOO bored. Of course, the beginning of school has its own issues, like getting the kids out the door on time and getting homework finished in a reasonable amount of time. M is good about homework, but sometimes Z gives me a hassle about doing it. We'll have to wait and see what this school year holds for them (and me).

I recently ordered something new from one of the needlework catalogues:

I have wondered about this many times myself. Am I just hooked on a hobby? Or have I crossed the line into insanity? Hmmmmm...something to think about!

Just because there was a hurricane barreling down on Long Island, does not mean that I did not get some stitching accomplished. After all, I needed something to keep my nerves from getting the best of me!

The Mickey ornament is close to finished.

That space on the top of the wreath is for a big, red bow. Maybe someone out there can answer a question for me. This chart called for red French knots for the holly berries by the leaves, but as I have discussed many times here, I am French knot challenged (to put it mildly), so I decided that I would use red seed beads in their place. When I add the beads do I use floss that is the color of the beads, or the color of the background? People seem split on this. Some have said it should be the color of the beads, other say the background. Anyone know?

I did some work on the HAED sampler letter

I love this piece and I love working on it! It's so exciting to see the Pegasus's' wing taking shape with each stitch that I put in. I guess I can say that about any piece that I stitch, but this one seems to be have captured my attention for some reason. It's a joy to work on. Well, maybe all that sparkly floss is not a joy, but certainly looks nice!

Now that the power is back on, I have some catching up to do. Laundry piled up and I have to re-stock the freezer that melted. I had to throw out everything that was in the freezer in the kitchen because, for some reason, it did not stay cold. Ugh!! Throwing out all that food made me want to cry! So, now I have to re-stock so that I can feed my hungry boys. Off to the grocery store I go!