Franken. . .Storm. . .Night. . .

Well, this week ended up being a wild ride.  Each day has brought us it's own excitement and, I think, tried to outdo the previous day.

Sunday was a very anticipatory day.  We were all waiting on Hurricane Sandy to make her move and let us know which way she was going to go.  We knew our weather would be affected, but we really didn't know how much. 

After Aidan's hockey game, in which he scored as I previously posted about, we came home and got ready to take Aidan to a birthday party for one of his little football buddies.  They had decided to have a tailgate party during the Redskins game!  What a great idea!  The kids played inside and outside (when it wasn't sprinkling) and had a football pinata while us adults hung out by the big screen tv watching the game.  Aidan really enjoyed himself.  Although we didn't have to, we stayed because we really didn't know the people there.

Sunday evening, the rain began to pick up a bit and we got the call that Loudoun County Schools would be closed on  Monday due to the anticipated inclement weather.    We also heard that Winwood, Aidan's afterschool care, would make a decision about opening in the morning.  Luckily, Pat is still off with his ankle so we didn't have to worry about it.

I did have to go to work (I would have loved being home with my boys!), but we closed early on Monday, right about when the winds were really picking up.  They had been building all day and by the time I got home they were already bad enough that I was blown around a bit in my driveway.  I fixed some Potatoe soup and bread for us for dinner and we hunkered down to wait out the storm.

Well, let me tell you!  It ended up that we were within 100 miles of the eye, maybe closer.   The wind!!! Oh my goodness!!  I really don't ever want to hear that sound again.  We had winds of 60 miles per hour and ended up with 7.89 inches of rain.  Yikes!!!  Needless to say, Aidan slept with us that night.  Athough a bit uncomfortable, I was glad to have him close to me and know he was safe. 

There are creeks and streams around here that I have never seen before, although I suspect they may have once been here.  The known creeks, streams and the Potomac River are all flooded.  I hear Alexandria is really suffering with some flooding due to the tidal nature of the Potomac down there. 

Our house and cars were plastered with shredded leaves--weird how that happens!--and there was a lot of water around the yard, but none of it got into the house.  The siding and roof look great and we don't have any broken windows, Thanks be to God!  The only damage we have is a four foot section of fascia board that peeled up.  That's it.  Easily fixed this weekend.

The other casualty of Sandy was our Halloween Parade.  It was

: (  We were all very bummed about that.  But, we understood.  The town and county police were very busy wth signal outages at several intersections and many roads were closed due to some pretty bad flooding.  Plus, truthfully, that field you see there, is where the floats, trucks, cars, etc. line up and it was REALLY wet.  They probably would have sunk. 

But, the town extended trick or treating for the kids to 6:00 to 9:00 and told us property owners to make sure the sidewalks and areas leading to our houses were clear of debris and safe for the kids.  No problem there! 

Pat picked up Aidan at the bus stop and the two re-put up all of our Halloween decorations that we had taken down.

A friend of ours brought her daughter over (she was Tinkerbell!) and the kids went out with her and Pat from 6:00 until about 7:45 when, amazingly, the kids said they were done!  I was glad to have them back in, though, because it was really cold.

Here are some pictures of the pumpkins we carved and the cutie pie kids--the other little boy was Bat man/Superman. . .cute!!  But he had a really bad cough and laryngitis. . .I was really concerned about him while they were out. . .Anyway, the big reveal for Aidan's costume!!!!

We weren't very scary this year on our pumpkins.  I guess we had had enough of scary by the time we carved these!

And, here he is. . .Blackbeard!!!

Looking a little too happy, huh?

 

Arrgghhh!!!!  That's more like it!

 

Caught in the act of being witchy wile making dinner. . .

Trying to look menacing. . .my baby just can't pull that off completely!!

A shy Tinkerbell. . .

 

Creepy!!!

A sweet looking Tink. . .

Blackbeard and Tinkerbell...such good friends!

Isn't it time to go, yet???

 

Okay!  Here we go!!!

 

Trick or Treat!!!

After the fun. . .Can I have just one more piece of candy, Mama?  Please?????

I think I'm getting tired. . .maybe.. .

But, I'll smile sweetly one more time!

 

And there you have it.  Another Halloween come and gone.  Of course, I have o tell you, my little man is already talking about next year!  He hadn't even taken his costume off when he asked me what he was going to be for Hallween next year!  Oy!