Oct 16, 2018 | North loving, southern living, What's going on |
Hello!
We’re alive and came out on the other side of the hurricane only slightly worse for the wear.
We knew the storm would hit sometime Wednesday so I spent most of Tuesday preparing and debating whether to evacuate or not. If I didn’t have Annabelle to worry about I would have stayed without much thought, but they were predicting the power would be out for days and that can be miserable with a 4-year-old. Had the powers that be announced we needed to evacuate it would have helped. It was being in the middle and having to decide for myself that I didn’t like. I’m a rule follower and like being pointed in the right direction. You say evacuate and I ask how far. I was worried leaving would make me a wimpy northerner. I was worried staying would make me irresponsible. After several phone calls with my mother in law and more texts with my advisory group, we ended up staying. Immediately after making the decision I second guessed it and yes, it is very exhausting to me in my head.
I did all the laundry in the house, filled up the tubs, cleared out the closet to use as a tornado shelter and got out every candle we owned. I stocked up on nonperishables and water bottles. Christopher did the same and brought home more food than we eat in three weeks. We still have so many packages of lunch meat and loaves of bread we could feed the county for months. Most important, we had hurricane chips and chocolates to see us through. We were as prepared as we could be.
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| Watching the storm roll in with a snack in hand. |
It started raining around supper time. By the time 8 o’clock rolled around the wind was howling and things were banging around. I HATED that it happened at night. Not only did I want to see what was being damaged, I wanted to fully experience my first hurricane. I could see nothing but darkness. The power kept going in and out so we lit all our scented candles and the house smelled like the little perfume stores at the mall. When the power went out for good we went to bad. At that time Annabelle decided it was too scary in her room so we brought her mattress into our room. She had the beginnings of a cold so she sniffled and snuffled all night. Christopher snored all night. I was as fresh as a drowned mouse the next morning.
We had some siding off and branches in the yard but we didn’t have one bit of real damage. We were so very fortunate. The neighbor’s side yard and our backyard are the same piece of land and they had several trees down as well as a few broken windows. All around us homes and cars are damaged and wires are down. It will take some people months to recover. We prepared to be without power for days but ours came back on within 20 hours. Several friends didn’t get power back until yesterday. I think God went easy on us because we’ve already had a tough year.
Due to our status as one of the only families in our friend group with power, we issued an open invitation for anyone to come to take showers. On Sunday we went to church and helped serve dinner. Not many people showed up but I’m glad we tried to help.
All in all, we had some siding down, some branches to clean up and a few extra wrinkles and gray hairs from stress.
Oct 10, 2018 | North loving, southern living |
There’s a storm a’brewing in our neighborhood.
Raise your hand if you haven’t been paying attention to the news and didn’t know until yesterday about the hurricane headed straight for Georgia. I’m raising my hand.
via GIPHY
It’s not that I don’t care about the weather. For years I’d check the temperature on the old outside thermometer every morning and evening. I was obsessed with knowing the exact temperature and comparing it to the previous day. I can tell how bad the humidity is from how frizzy my hair gets. Last week I put a lot of effort into keeping up with the supreme court situation so I had to take this week off from the news. I don’t know why our resident news addict with every news app on his phone didn’t tell me. I didn’t know about the hurricane until we were at a playdate yesterday and the mom said the girls might not have school on Wednesday. I asked why not and she looked at me funny look and said, “Because of the storm.” I tried to play it real cool even though I had no clue what she was talking about. I casually said, “It starts Wednesday? Really? It’s not Tuesday?” I was like a duck, cool and calm on the outside while I gathered information but little legs (my brain) going furiously underneath.
Let me remind you that I do not come from the land of the big three- hurricanes, tornadoes and earthquakes. I come from the place of snow and ice. Give me a snowstorm any day and I’ll stay inside in comfy clothes drinking hot chocolate. I never wanted to live in a place with any of the big three. When I reminded Christopher of that this evening, he said, “The only place that doesn’t get those things is the northeast.” MY POINT EXACTLY.
It may turn out to be nothing but a light shower, but we went to Walmart after swimming lessons to stock up on our normal snack rotation, provisions (ie. chocolate) for the storm and water. The parking lot looked like the mall on Black Friday. People were everywhere. The vegetable section was full but the chip aisle was almost bare. East, west, north or south everyone knows junk food is great comfort food. Nobody wants to be eating celery when the going gets rough.
Speaking of rough, there was a lot of discussions today about whether or not AB and I would drive a few hours north and stay somewhere with power. It was stressful because I didn’t know the best/safest thing to do. We still had the fryer out from when we made buffalo wings so I cut an onion into rings and made myself a bowl of onions rings. I don’t think fried onions fit into my diet but it made me feel better.
I’m embarrassed to have shared that story.
I need to eat more onion rings and hurricane chocolate to get over my embarrassment.
Sep 25, 2018 | North loving, southern living |
We had a rather unusual weekend. We went to a peanut festival.
Over the many years, we’ve spent our weekends at baseball games, our nations capital, museums, musical events, the occasional Octoberfest. We’ve spent several, several weekends at home. Never once have we gone to a peanut festival, but when in Rome!
I knew there would be a parade so when I was getting AB dressed I suggested a dress I thought was festive. She said the dress was “too much like another country flag. Kind of like an Africa flag. This is an America parade.” She settled on her disco dress.
The parade had the usual Shiners in their little cars, an Army band, and several pageant queens. I’ve not been around the pageant scene much so I didn’t know that the US National Forestry and Turpentine Pageants are apparently a Big Thing. The parade had all manner of Miss, Ms, Teen, Little Junior Miss, Tiny Miss, Teeny Miss and Baby Miss ladies. Would I sign my children up for pageants? No. Did their gorgeous crowns make me want to change my mind? Yes, they did.
I did a full face of makeup because I had heard that Jimmy Carter might be at the festival. As a former peanut farmer, he still supports the industry and is the main attraction when he shows up. I seldom wear eyeshadow these days as it’s too hot, but I wanted to make a good impression in case I bumped into Jimmy at the general store. It’s been a lifelong goal to meet a president and I wanted to make a good impression. I have a deep, deep fascination with the White House, presidents, and their families. It’s no secret that I’ve been running an eight-year-old campaign for Christopher to be president so I can be First Lady. I may not be a democrat but I am an equal opportunity citizen when it comes to meeting presidents so I purchased a ticket for his book signing. I was afraid to let this moment pass by because all the old presidents are aging rapidly and I was afraid JC might die before I met him.
The calendar may have said it was the first day of Fall, but the thermometer read over 100*. I was sweating from every part of my body as I waited in line. My foundation was melting. Mascara was in little drips under my eyes. I had put sunscreen on my face but not my feet and they were burning as I waited. I had an ice cream stain on my shirt. My once tidy hair was in a messy bun. I truly thought I was going to pass out. The lady two groups behind me was a know-it-all who wouldn’t stop talking. For almost an hour she shared her “knowledge” on every topic someone brought up. I am not my best self in the heat and I almost snapped. The only reason I didn’t was the lady directly behind me made the incorrect statement that everyone in line was a democrat. Since I am not, I didn’t want to give her stories for her next dinner party about the conservative girl who hit the woman in the head with a Jimmy Carter book about faith.
Eventually, I got to the front of the line and saw the man of the hour. It was a very quick in and out meeting. The man behind Jimmy’s right shoulder gave enough glares to get the point across that it wasn’t social hour. Keep moving, people! Get your signature and go back out into the heat!
It would have been nice if after my near experience with heat stroke I could have pulled up a chair to discuss the best rooms in the White House, but I can save that for next time. Now that I know where to find him I’ll be swinging by his house every weekend.
Jun 27, 2018 | North loving, southern living |
Setting: the airport and Massachusetts
Cast: the usual suspects
We walked 40 minutes across the airport only to have a windowless seat.
Our childhood home is being sold so this visit we’re trying to do all the lasts. I wanted to be sure Annabelle got to sleep in my old bedroom so we’ve been staying in there instead of the guest room. I told her all about the sleepovers and fun memories we have in this room.
We went strawberry picking this morning. The oldest and youngest in our group walk at the same pace so they stick together. I love that Sesame is old enough to remember these special times with Grandma.
Annabelle- water bottle, pajamas, blanket. Living the relaxed life.
Elizabeth- doing all the hard work
Mar 8, 2018 | North loving, southern living, What's going on |
We started the week as we always do by going to church. I dropped Annabelle off in her classroom and asked if she needed to use the potty before I left. She said no. The nice lady in charge of the children’s programs told Annabelle she could tell her if she needed the potty and she’d be happy to take her. AB nodded her head and said ok. Out of nowhere, a second lady in the room turned to Annabelle and demanded, “Say ‘yes, ma’am.'” I stared at her so hard I’m surprised I didn’t burn a hole through her. I’m fine with friends and family correcting Annabelle if need be, but I don’t know that woman. Annabelle didn’t do anything wrong. It’s not like she hit someone! That would have been a reasonable reason to correct my child. I told Christopher about it and he did not share in my huffiness.
Later that evening, Christopher went out back to talk to the neighbor. Said neighbor told him that if the grass isn’t kept short enough, we’ll be dealing with rattlesnakes and cooper heads in the warmer weather. POISONOUS SNAKES IN MY YARD. Mike Peedro the ex-convict neighbor told me about the rattlesnakes when we moved in but he doesn’t always tell the truth. A reliable neighbor passed on the information this time, so I believe him and have vowed to never walk in my yard again. Our grass is almost a foot long so there’s probably a hold herd (flock? group? huddle?) of snakes out there. Christopher did share my negative views about this situation.
As if snakes in the yard and frogs in/on my house isn’t enough, on Monday the landlord and her father came over to inspect a hole by the house. Richard stared at the hole for .6 seconds and announced, “Well. Looks like you have an armadillo under there.”
At this point I shouldn’t be surprised by anything. If someone tells me a lion lives across the street I’ll just smile and nod. Richard said to put a board over the hole. Seems to me that will present a new problem. What if the armadillo gets trapped and dies under there? What then, Richard? I hope you have a plan for that scenario.
No sooner had Richard left then Nine Fingered Larry showed up. The bathroom floor has water seeping through it which obviously is a problem. Larry came over a few weeks ago to fix an electrical problem. When he came that time he said he wasn’t an electrician but he knew a few things about electricity. I know a few things too. For example, if not handled properly bad things can happen. Maybe that’s why he’s missing a finger. He didn’t fix anything that time so I didn’t expect it to be any different when he was in my home this week. He said he wasn’t a plumber but he was going to look at the bathroom anyway. I showed him to the bathroom where he gave me a brief lesson in pipe location and other things I didn’t fully understand thanks to his accent. He talks so slow and makes comments I don’t understand. He finally diagnosed the problem. The toilet paper holder had fallen off the wall because of drywall issues. Christopher patched the hole but had yet to reattach the holder. According to Larry, when Christopher screwed the holder back in he hit a pipe which lead to leaking in the floor. Except Christopher had not screwed anything into the wall, which I pointed out to Nine Fingered Larry. That really took the wind out of his sails. He sauntered out, promising that the real plumbers would be by soon.
The plumbers did indeed come by and leave this lovely souvenir in our wall.
It really fits the aesthetic I’m going for in this house. Between that, the snake repellant and the peppermint oil/water mixure I use on the frogs it’s becoming a real Southern Living home around here.
Mar 2, 2018 | North loving, southern living |
Do come along on a tour of our new town. Don’t blink or you’ll miss it.
Did you catch it? There’s a gas station to the left of the brick building and a police station to the right of the blue awning, but that’s it. City hall, a lawyer, police station and gun shop. I wonder how much overlap there is between them.
I’ve always been fascinated by names and there is no shortage of unique names here. So far I’ve met a Sharetta, Shamonica, and a Nostalgia. When we were at Walmart, I saw a poster with photos and names. I thought it was a missing person board. I was reading the names and the name January stood out. I wouldn’t name my child January, but people use the months May and June as names. The last name was Winner which seemed like a confidence-boosting name. “I’m Miss Winner and I’m here to stay.” Anyway. As I read more names I saw February Winner. That’s when I realized it was an employee reward chart, not a board of missing people. I should not be taking myself out in public.
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| Me, about myself, 700 times a week. |
The first few weeks we were here we attended a mega church. We’re not mega-church people so while the people were nice enough (they’ve sent two separate groups to our house to visit), we moved on to greener pastures, or in this case, a smaller church. The church we’ve been to the last three weeks is much more our preferred size and style. I filled out a visitor card the first week and within three days, five people emailed me and welcomed us to the church. They have a very enthusiastic welcoming committee.
The following card was in the back of the pew in front of us on our first visit. Adolf Zitler, Berlin, Germany. I wonder if he also visited the mega church.
For reasons I don’t understand, many of the men in the church refer to their wives as their brides. Technically, a wife is a bride, but I don’t think the term needs to be used 15 years after the wedding when “wife” works just fine. The pastor was talking to us and said to Christopher, “Does your bride work?” I was standing right there and the first thing that popped into my head was, “Who’s Christopher’s bride?” I AM. HE WAS TALKING ABOUT ME.
I should not be responsible for raising a child.
