Hurricane Irene & A Few Other Disasters.

I haven't been able to find the energy to blog over the past few days.  I have been overwhelmed with all that has happened in the past week.  To begin, last Tuesday we had a 5.9 earthquake hit in Virginia and the effects were felt down here.  And I totally missed it.  I was on my lunch break, walking around Super Target (which is obviously really super, by the way) and I didn't feel or hear a thing!  I had left my phone in the car because I only carry my wallet (nowadays, I don't carry a purse. I carry a diaper bag with diapers, food, clothes & toys - which stays with the baby during the day) so I missed the phone call from Ed to make sure I was alright.  When I got to the car and called him back, I didn't believe him until I actually saw it on the news in Firehouse Subs.  Everyone back at work said it sounded like someone was dragging desks around the floor above us.  Ed's parents said they thought a helicopter was landing on the house because it was so loud and the house was shaking.  Deuce slept through it.  And Ed said his whole office shook for a good 30 seconds.  I'm slightly annoyed that I missed it...

Not sure if the earthquake is to blame or if it's some sort of payback for something I did or said, but our AC went out at home on Wednesday.  When Ed got home, the needle on the thermostat was beyond 90 degrees, the highest number on the thing!  Holy Cow!  So while he took TJ to football practice, he called the AC guys and told them that I would be there at 7 to let them in.  Except I didn't know I was going to be there at 7 to let them in, so I went to football practice instead.  When I pulled up, I was unloading Deuce when Ed told me that he thought I was going home.  So in my rush to throw Deuce at him and get back in the car to meet the AC people (because it was 7:15 at this point), I left my phone on top of my car.  When I realized it, it flew off and I saw it in my rear view just long enough to see a big Dodge Ram run it over.

I pulled over, got out and picked up all of the pieces.  The only thing I couldn't find was the mini-SD card, which really pissed me off.  That is what holds a years worth of pictures and videos of Deuce. Granted, I have put a lot of them on here and facebook already so they are not totally lost forever, but still.  I had also just made some super cute gifts for TJ's teacher for the first day of school and I had JUST taken pictures of them with my phone for the blog.  Guess you guys won't be seeing those. EVER.  After a trip to the Verizon store and a call to the phone insurance monsters, I still had to pay $99 for a replacement phone.  No phone + No AC = a really mad 5'2.5 person.  After 48 hours of gruelling time with no phone, I finally got the new one on Friday afternoon.  But our AC still wasn't repaired.

Friday night we went to the CHHS football game at East CHHS.  Deuce had not been to a CHHS football game yet and he had a great time running around the track and doing his best to get on the field.  Hurricane Irene brought a shower during the game so we spent most of the 2nd quarter huddled up under the bathroom overhang.

Saturday morning TJ had his first football scrimmage of the year.  He scored a touchdown and had a few big runs and some good tackles on defense.  Deuce just loves being at the field.  He was so tired after being at the football field from 9am until 1pm and then eating a big lunch, that he slept for over 3 hours on Saturday!  I mean good, drooling all over our bed type sleep.

While TJ was playing football Hurricane Irene was pounding the east coast.  My parents have a house in Beaufort, NC, which is on the IC waterway in an area called Merrimon (the red arrow).  Several of our family members have houses on Atlantic Beach as well (the green arrow).

Mom & Bob went down to the house yesterday to do some damage assessment.  These were the pictures they sent me.  There was no major damage to the house.  It appears to be mostly water damage and not wind related, as the roof and shingles were in good shape.  The poor dock... all that's left is the frame.  I believe mom said the boat lift is leaning also.

 The outdoor shower was also torn apart along with some of the siding on the lower level of the house.

The pump house was messed up too.

There is a shed way out in front of the house, several hundred feet away from the waterfront and it was hit with a tree and is now lopsided.  This houses the bikes, the lawnmower and other tool stuff.  It was raised up and the bottom of the shed/door was level with those cinder block stairs.

There are some other things missing from underneath the house, most importantly the infamous Margaritaville bar that my mom hand painted, but I think they were okay with the damage that was done.  I don't know if that's the right way to say it, because how can you ever be okay with any damage done to your house, but for a hurricane, it has been worse.  Bob did go down on Friday with the box trailer just in time and loaded up the kayaks and other stuff that would have gone missing.

Seriously, who has an earthquake and hurricane in the same week?

Well, we still have no AC in the house as of this morning but I am praying that it will be fixed by the time we get home.  After the AC guy was given the wrong part on Friday afternoon, he couldn't get back to the store until they opened today.  Poor guy felt so bad.  Oh, and did I mention that I had to spend $350+ on my car Saturday for a break job including rotors, alignment and whatever else they did. Geesh!

So in all of this chaos and disaster that has happened over the past week, there is one glimmer of happiness taking effect today...

I am now a permanent GSK employee!  YEA!!!!!!!  Today is my first official day as a regular, non-contractor, benefits & bonus earning, 4 weeks vacation employee! This has been a very long process {I applied for this job back in April!} but now that it's official, I can officially tell you!  And do you want to know the good part???  I am only working part time! I was able to negotiate my salary to comfortably close to what I was making as a full time contractor plus benefits, vacation & bonus!  FO' REAL!  So I will be working 24 hours a week, M,T,W leaving me TH & F to hang with my baby boy & work on my craft & decorating projects.  Hopefully, a full time position will open up and I will slide in to that, but the important thing is, is that I am a permanent employee of a great company!  Here are my new digs.  Since I am part time, I am job sharing with another part-timer so we share an office.

Hopefully this week will be much better than the last.  It has to be with the first Carolina football game on Saturday...

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