It Was a Dark and Stormy Night

Hurricane-force winds blew into our neck of the woods Tuesday evening, knocking out power and wreaking general havoc.

Early Wednesday morning, we ventured outside to assess the damage.

Our 12-year-old was so scared by the loud wind that she insisted on sleeping the entire stormy night in our room. I guess her fear of a tree crashing over her head wasn't so crazy after all . . . that top window looks into her bedroom. Fortunately, the only real damage was to the rain gutter.

We recently marked several dead trees on our property with yellow tape for my husband to cut down this month. Not a single one of them fell over during the windstorm, yet a perfectly healthy tree (being run across by my daughter in this photo) was uprooted!

Who'd guess that a skinny birch's root system would be so massive? Well, sure, a biologist would know, but English majors like me might be surprised to see how much ground comes up with a tree.

One of the trees that holds the girls' playhouse cracked during the storm and probably would have toppled over if it wasn't attached to the structure. You can't really tell in the photo, but the treehouse is now leaning at a weird angle. The girls aren't allowed to play in this area until we can take care of the problem.

The electricity at our place finally came back on yesterday, but the power over at the girls' school was out until this afternoon. The kids had three days off, so I put 'em to work picking up the branches all over the yard and sweeping up the piles and piles AND piles of leaves on the deck and driveway.



Dinner last night: orange chicken over rice

Exactly two years ago:

Going Postal

Do I Get Some Kind of Award?

School started today. I now have kids in each category:

One daughter in high school,

one daughter in middle school,

and two starting elementary school!

Dinner last night: wedge salad with blue cheese, baked salmon and halibut, and baby potatoes

Exactly three years ago:

Beauty is in the Eye of the Beholder

End of Summer

Per our family's annual tradition, we attended the Alaska State Fair over the weekend. I didn't take my good camera because it was raining, so pardon the blurry shots from my phone.

Our eldest daughter is proving herself to be a gaming genius. Or as George Costanzo would pronounce, jeen-ee-us.You know those carnival games that are impossible to win? She wins them. We thought it was a freak instance of luck when at age 6 she beat all the adults who were shooting at moving ducks, but she's continued to dominate as she's grown.

The rest of us plop down our money, miss the target, and walk away empty-handed. My daughter plops down her money, flings darts at balloons, and walks away with a huge yellow monkey.

The twins were obsessed with the farm animals, particularly the baby chicks.

I finally had to drag them away from the tub, so some of the other kids could have a chance to ooh and aah over the little cheepers.

As our husband led us over to look at the four-wheelers and R/V campers, we happened upon a booth containing a small group of face painting jeen-ee-us-es. The twins asked for the Jewel Princess look . . .

What an awesome job the make-up artists did (in about half the time and price as the other place we've used in the past). We'll be back to this booth next year!



Dinner last night: corn dogs, gyro sandwiches, cotton candy, kettle corn

Exactly two years ago:

Friday's Five: Karen