Blown Away

The wind is roaring outside.  We spent the afternoon battening down the hatches...bringing in windchimes, folding up lawn chairs, and putting away all non-essentials.  We have plugged in a non-electric phone, and JP has the battery ready to back-up his CPAP should the power go out.  We have showered, packed lunches, and have extra water ready...just in case.  There have been warnings of high, damaging winds and severe thunderstorms tonight, so maybe, (just MAYBE,) if we are all prepared, the power will NOT go out!

It has been an eventful week.  We woke to an inch or two of snow on Monday morning.  It was beautiful!  The hay bales in the field past Mom & Dad's house looked like giant frosted shredded wheats.

My Mom celebrated her 70th birthday on Tuesday.  My little brother called about a week before hand, and told me that he was coming out to surprise her.  On Monday evening, a car pulled up in my parent's drive while I was there picking up the girls after work.  Mom said that she didn't recognize it, and then she said she didn't recognise the man walking up to the door.  When I asked if she was sure, she said "Oh my goodness!" and jumped out of her seat when it finally clicked that my brother was there!  We had dinner and cake at our house to celebrate.

Here's me & my baby bro with Mom.  You can see the neck brace she's been wearing for the past 2 + months.

 

The girls decided to wake themselves with the alarms on their phones on Friday morning.  These are old cell phones that JP and I are no longer using.  They don't have service, but the girls like to take pictures with them, and play with the ring tones.  They awoke well, and were able to watch the streaks of pink in the sky turn to dawn with me.

Over the past week, we gradually removed the last of the produce from the garden.  The potato crop was AMAZING, especially considering that what I planted were left over from the year before that had been forgotten in my basement until I discovered them growing arms and legs 12 inches long!  We also brought in red beets and parsnips.  I worked slowly and stopped frequently, trying not to flare up my back.

The little box in the back has "seed potatoes" for next year.  The ones laid out to dry should keep for several months.  The crate full in front have blemishes and need to be used ASAP.

 

This is the biggest - and WEIRDEST potato
that we dug up!

 

Last night, we had friends over for pasta and karaoke.  It was a lot of fun!  When we all trooped outside to wish them farewell afterwards, the moon was full and bright, and was surrounded by a rainbow aura...very cool.  It was the Beaver Moon, time to set your beaver traps everyone!

J went from this look at karaoke...

 

...to this one the following day.  Whatevs.

I'm not sure what exactly prompted the Goth look?

 

There is much going on this coming week as well, including J's 11th birthday!  (I ordered all of her presents from Amazon...LOVE that site.)  L and her class will be putting on a Thanksgiving play.  I have 2 days of PT scheduled, Library Board meeting tomorrow, and I am working 3 days instead of 2 this week. 

I must close before the really bad storms hit.  Wish us well!