The Fugees

I remember when Hurricanes Katrina & Rita hit three years ago. The media kept calling the unfortunate people who had to leave "refugees" instead of "evacuees". It used to drive me nuts. We'll, now we are "refugees" ourselves. Never in a million years did I think we'd ever have a hurricane in Central Ohio, but we lived through a hurricane force wind storm (70+mph) on Sunday -- Ike as he rolled through town. We had almost 6 hours of cross winds on Sunday. It was pretty scary. We live in an "older" community (our house is almost 70 yrs old) and we have a lot of huge, mature trees. Actually, we have two HUGE trees in our front yard. So we cautiously watched as big limb after big limb came falling down. Our neighbors across the street lost half of their tree (and I'm sure it will all have to be cut down). Another neighbor had a huge chunk of their tree fall across the driveway and into the street. And most importantly another large tree took down some power lines about a block from our house. Our power went out at 3p on Sunday and we were told it would take 3 - 7 days to get it back (actually, the AEP rep told me we'd be lucky if we had it back before Sunday). Our area was one of the hardest hit -- lots of large trees and almost all of the power lines are above ground. Yuck.

So we made the executive decision to pack up and head two hours north to our parents house. The thought of no power (and possibly no hot water) for a week was a little too much. Plus we had just spent $$$$ at Costco over the weekend -- the thought of losing all of that food was a little to much, too. Tim's office has been closed all week and I am fortunate enough to be able to work remotely. We drove up to Canton yesterday afternoon -- me, the kids and their crap in my car and Tim, Tabasco and our coolers full of food in his car. Ugh. Hopefully we'll be back by Friday, but realistically we're prepared to stay through the weekend. We're very thankful that everyone is OK and that our house is OK.

Over 2 million people in OH were without power yesterday and I think I heard 84 out of 85 counties had some sort of wind damage. I think I also heard that the Governor declared the state under a state of emergency. Ugh.

I've attached a few pictures of the damage.



Our dinner by candlelight Sunday night (we probably had 40 candles going all over the house):


And Bennett playing in the dark:

A house divided

Tonight is the first Steelers vs. Browns game of the year (GO STEELERS!!). Nana & Papa sent B & K a nice big care box full of Browns gear (and to be fair -- a Steelers item for Bennett, but it is still hot outside so I'm not going to torture him in it -- it has long sleeves . . . and anyway Tim has informed me that Kendyll can be the Steelers fan. Nice!). Tim is from Northeast Ohio and therefore a Browns fan. I grew up in the "armpit" of Ohio, near the PA border and only 45 minutes from Pittsburgh, so I've been a Steelers fan my whole life (plus I went to the same college as Chuck Noll -- so cool!). If I had known Tim's NFL affiliation when I met him, I may not have married him (just kidding). But seriously, I have to admire Browns fans . . . they lost their team, got them back and have pretty much sucked every year. Ha! But I do like that they have Brady Quinn (a Dublin, OH native and former ND star) even though they aren't smart enough to ever play him. Oh and since this is my forum, I want to go on the record for my "wife of the year" status . . . last year, against my better judgement, I purchased a Brady Quinn Browns jersey for Tim for our anniversary. Now that is true love. :-)

I want to also send a MAJOR shout out to Tim's cousin, Eddie, in CA. He, too, is a Browns fan (and reads the blog) and I'm sure he will be sporting his Browns jersey this evening, too. Take care Eddie (and all our family in Cali!!)

*the last picture is Bennett doing his new trick . . . sticking his foot in his mouth.

7 Months!!!

Happy 7 months, Bennett & Kendyll (no, I didn't forget . . . we had a very busy day yesterday). More to come on their b-day soon. Stay tuned . . .

How did I get this way???

Remember I mentioned yesterday that I've been going back through some old pictures?? It occurred to me that I have turn into one of "those people" again. When I first found out we were having twins I swore to myself I would not dress them alike. They are two different people, they deserve to dress as two different personalities. Then when we found out it was a boy & a girl, I figured "whew" -- this will be very easy to make them individuals in the way they are dressed. But nooooo . . . what do I do?!?! I coordinate them in matching outfits ALL.THE.TIME!! It is so easy (and darn Baby Gap and Target, etc . for making the cutest coordinating b/g baby outfits that don't look like baby outfits!!!). Photo evidence below.

Bittersweet

Lots of changes going on for B & K. Let me rephrase that . . . lots of GROWING up going on, I should say. One major thing that has happened in the past few weeks is that we have officially retired our swings. I figured they would be bringing these darn things with them to college, but sadly they really aren't into them anymore. I can remember a time when they were napping in those swings while Tim & I were eating dinner and we were asking ourselves "what is the weight limit on these things?" and "how long can we use them?". But now that B & K have finally read the memo about napping in their cribs and sticking to a good schedule we can officially remove two pieces of baby crap from the family room. Of course we have replaced them with two other pieces of baby crap (that formally resided in the nursery, out of the way), but I'm all about moving on.

In the same vain, it is a little sad. I was looking back through the blog last night at some of the older pictures. B & K look so much less like babies and more like little kids. I know, I know, they are only almost 7 months, but still -- they have changed A LOT over the past few months. Sigh . . .

So I wanted to wish our beloved swings a fond farewell. They are going to a good home, though -- my former co-worker is expecting a little girl in December (yay!!) and she & her mom are taking them. I hope they bring them as much joy (and peace & quiet) as they have brought us.

And here is what has replaced them in our family room:

Go Irish!!

Although we live in the land of the Buckeyes, in our house we are mercifully Notre Dame fans (Tim is a Domer . . . he went there for his MBA and I grew up going to the same grade school as Lou Holtz. I love that little old man!). Thank goodness the Irish pulled one out today! B & K have been in their ND gear the past two days. Woo-hoo! (and don't worry OSU fans, we have plenty of Buckeye gear -- and UD gear for my school, too!).

Reminders of vacation

Most people (I assume) look for meaningful little mementos of their baby's first family vacation. If you know us in real life (or you've been reading this blog for a while) you know we are not those people. :-) In a moment of not feeling like crap and escaping "Faye the Storm" last week, Tim & I went on a mad search to find THE.PERFECT.SHIRT for Bennett & Kendyll. And like the responsible mommy that I've become, I washed them up yesterday only to have the "fine quality" cotton shrink down at least two sizes! So the dang things don't even FIT B & K now, but I still wanted to snap a picture, because to us they are the perfect reminders of our trip. Enjoy! (*click on the picture to see it in full-screen view . . . if you look closely at Bennett in his picture you can see the snaps of his onesie . . . now that is classy, peeps!)