All Cleaned Up

We finished the last of the piles of our downed tree this evening. Hopefully the town's crew will pick it up tomorrow, as advertised. We now have a hefty stack of firewood waiting to cure for next year. We'll still buy more wood for this season as emergency heat supply and ambiance. The kids keep saying that now Santa Clause can come since we have a fireplace.
With some of the older, dead twigs we made a small fire for our family home evening "treat". Maggie wasn't so convinced that it could substitute for a real treat, but she made do anyway.
We are also hoping that the water company will fix a leak that has been spurting up from the grass for a week now. We could have filled up our emergency water barrels many times over with all the water that has run down the road into the storm drain. It is almost painful to see all that water wasted, especially after been through such tough droughts in Colorado and Utah.

Cincinnati Zoo

We had a great time Saturday night at the Cincinnati Zoo. It was a special event for UC staff, students, alumni, and the perfect chance for us to finally get there. Highlights were the carousel, train ride, Dippin' Dots, but I think the best sight was Amy's look of amazement at the first animal we saw. I don't really remember what it was (maybe the white lions?), but her jaw dropped, her eyes widened, and she couldn't move for sheer amazement. So adorable!

The night got late quick, and we ended up happily exausted. Brian and I had to put off preparing our Sacrament Meeting talks for church until Sunday morning (which was probably going to happen anyway).

Happy Birthday to James!

After a crazy week (the kids didn't have school Monday or Tuesday because of the power outage--as of Sunday there were still people in our ward without power), we finally came to the grand celebration of James' birthday. I made a cake Saturday night. James requested a lemon cake with white frosting, coconut sprinkled on top, and a mini car cake surrounded by candles. Everything came out just as he requested except for the coconut. Who knew that coconut was so flammable when being toasted in the oven?? I must admit, I did not respond well to my first kitchen fire, small as it was. It was good that Brian had the common sense to take the tray over to the sink and douse it with water. In my mind I was wondering, "where is the baking soda?" Anyway, we now have a sure knowledge that the smoke detector works in the kitchen.
Sunday, the "big day," we made James wait until after church and dinner to open presents and have cake. His birthday dinner was tomato soup and grilled cheese sandwiches. As dinner was getting cleaned up, we noticed Paul was wandering around the dining room with what looked like butter all over his hands and mouth. Alas, the cake was not high enough to escape his outstretched hand, and we realized it was frosting and not butter all over him. (Now, every time he sees the cake he stretches out his arm and whines for a piece.) So, unfortunately James did not get the first bite of birthday cake.
James got some fun presents: cards and money from G.Grandma Nielson and Grandma Charlotte, an imaginary paint set from Maggie (it's a paper brush and paints colored on paper--Maggie told him, "you can use it to color on anything"--James colored more chocolate chips on the cookies he took to school today for his class); zoo tickets for Saturday from Brian and I; Scot make him a laminated writing board for their closet; and Paul gave him an i.o.u. for a scorpion puzzle at the scout office. Amy had started drawing him several pictures, but apparently none of them were worthy enough for the birthday boy. The best surprise by far was Grandma and Grandpa Nielson's gift. James loved the card with silly birthday jokes and was so excited for the sport stacking cups set. The boys are getting pretty good, but I think it'll take a while of steady practicing to challenge the record holders.
I think James had a great birthday. He practiced hard this week while school was out to learn to ride his bike up and down the hill, and now he goes out practically every day after school. Now when it's raining he can practice his speed stacking instead. The only downside to his birthday being over? Maggie asking how many days it is until hers!

Clean Up

Tonight's Family Home Evening was cleaning up the tree limbs. Everyone was very chipper and cooperative (honestly). The kids pulled the smaller branches over to the sidewalk; the bigger limbs sawed into manageable logs and stacked near the house. The boys quickly "called" their branches--which ones they would haul. A select few were even named. We got through about 2/3 thirds of the larger pile. A couple more evenings and the initial work will be done.

Timber!

Sunday we were hit with the remnants of Ike. We only received a sprinkling of rain, but winds were strong enough to blow down many tree limbs. I'm not sure how high the wind registered here, but in parts of Cincinnati it was up to 86 mph. As you can see, our front (and only) tree is now gone. We had gone to church just before 1 pm with the wind blustering, but not too serious. Not too long after Sacrament Meeting and in the middle of Primary opening exercises, the power cut out. There were plenty of windows to keep primary going, but the poor nursery kids, who meet in the cultural hall, were in pitch black darkness. I'm sure the nursery leaders wanted to cry themselves after gathering everyone/everything up to move to different room. Church continued till the end despite the dimness and lack of air-conditioning.
Driving home was a rather eerie sight. We passed small limbs and debris on the roads; half of the stop lights were out. Some people were out of their homes either trying to stay cool or assessing the damage. When we pulled into our neighborhood, however, the real damage became more apparent. There was a lot more debris and whole trees were toppled. People were pulling limbs out of the road. On the street before ours, there was a whole crew of people working to clear limbs. As we turned the corner to our home we could see that half of our tree had fallen onto the neighbors garage, and their tree had also lost a huge branch. We weren't sure that we would keep this tree, but to see it gone was quite a shock.
After changing out of our church clothes, we went out front to figure out the next step. As we were deciding, a neighbor down the street pulled up in his pick-up truck and asked if he could help. He'd already used his chainsaw on 4 downed trees in the neighborhood. Within minutes there was a small crew of neighbors pulling over branches and making piles.
After taking care of the fallen limbs, we decided to take down the rest of our tree since it was badly leaning toward the house. We will now have plenty of firewood for next year, but it will be plenty of work to chop it up and stack it.
The power stayed out until about 6am this morning. We made our dinner on the Camp Chef last night in the garage--pork tenderloin, quinoa, and stewed green beans (no one can ever doubt that we eat just as well camping as when we are at home:)). We were grateful to still have running water in the pipes and no running water in the basement. With rain and no power for the sump pump, we could have been in trouble. We are even more grateful to our wonderful neighbors who just showed up to help.
As an emergency situation, I know others have been through a lot, lot worse, and I'm grateful that this was small event. I think it helped us see where we need to improve our emergency prep--there are definitely a lot of holes to fill!

Half of the front tree leaning on the neighbor's garage.
Our neighbor's tree.
Close-up of the tree split.

Half of the piled up branches.

Friday Rain

It rained pretty much all day today. I'm grateful not to be evacuating from a hurricane. I can only imagine the fear and stress of those in Texas right now. Amy, Paul, and I did some laundry and cleaning this morning. Between chores we sang silly songs. She is fearless when it comes to singing and can belt out a great rendition of "Follow the Prophet." She knows the verse about Adam the best, but she always wants to sing about Jonah.




A new rain coat and boots from Grandma Nielson arrived just in time for Maggie to play in the rain after school. Maggie's request: "If it's still raining on Monday, can I wear it to school?"

Dinner Time

Paul laughed so hard when I took his picture. I think he thought I was playing peek-a-boo with him, plus he really liked the flash going off. This is a regular sight at the dinner table--food all over him and all over the floor. He loves to put his bowl up on the table, but it usually doesn't quite make it and slips (upsided down, of course). He usually sits in the corner between Scot and I. We just lift our legs up to avoid the splatter, then sigh and clean up the floor.
Also note his new hair cut. Is it better to have a bad hair cut or no hair cut? At least we have a "First Hair Cut" baggie to keep in his treasure box. We cut it a couple days ago. Paul wasn't very cooperative and would move just as Brian snipped the scissors. It looks much better when it's combed and void of extra sauce. In fact, he looks like a little boy again and maybe will avoid getting called a girl at the grocery store this week.

1st Week of September

Labor Day, Meet the Teacher nights, and cub scouts kept us busy the first part of this week. Nothing really fantastic for labor day, just working on organization and unpacking the lingering boxes around the house. Tuesday night I met James' teacher; Wednesday I met Scot's. The heat and humidity were high all week long, so the school cut these meetings short. Even with extra fans blowing it was hard for me to imagine the kids (and teachers) being in school all day in those conditions. At least the kindergarten wing has air-conditioning which makes life easy for Maggie. She's still having a great time and brought home her first project "Color Monsters." She enjoys reading the crayon colored booklet aloud to Amy and Paul.

This weekend involved dog-sitting, a trumpet for Scot, and Jungle Jim's. The boys agreed to watch the neighbor's dog, Pepee, for the weekend. They were very good about walking him, feeding him, and locking the door, until the key got locked (with the instructions) inside the house Saturday afternoon. Luckily, Pepee was outside with the boys when this happened, so we all got an extra visitor for the rest of the weekend. The girls really warmed up to him (which is a great improvement from the times when any animal sent Maggie into hysterics). Now Amy says she only likes "white dogs." Today she kept wanting to cover him with her blanket. Paul also liked him at the end and became a little thrill seeker. He'd walk as close as he dared, then run away shrieking and laughing. I say run, but he's not really running yet. He can walk very fast, and I'm sure he'll be running way too fast for me by next week.
As for the trumpet, Scot applied for 5th grade band and got his first choice instrument-- trumpet. Our first errand Saturday was to find him an instrument. Checking that off the list, we drove (and drove) to the Daniel Beard Council scout office somewhere up north. The boys got their new pack numbers and council patches. James got a new Bear hat, Scot a new style shirt in anticipation of being an 11-year old scout. We were lucky to get out with only a few items extra!
Finally, we rounded out the morning with a visit to Jungle Jim's. The kids (and I) were wowed with the vast array of ethnic foods, aisles of cheese, talking stuffed animals, and, of course, Robin Hood. Our fun purchase? Edam cheese.
The rest of the weekend we took care of Pepee and went to church. We look forward to a great September with no more dogs.