Ladybugs & Stinkbugs

Well, we have finally gotten to a place where we are going to stay for more than 1 1/2 minutes, so I thought I'd finally post about our damage. We were blessed in that we did not have any structural damage. There are some spots on our roof that we will need to evaluate once we get home, but it is nothing that caused leaks or inconvenience while we were still in the house, so that is good news. The outside (yard fence trees etc) is that is ugly.

We are glad that we are out of the area right now. There is a lot of cleanup going on right now, but that also means that there are a lot of people there who need resources (water, ice, gas), and that makes long lines and short supplies. It's best for us to just get out of the way until things get back to normal.

Our first night without power wasn't that bad. For one thing, we didn't lose power until 2am or so, and the kids (except Matthew) were all asleep. We were also full of adrenaline and had other things (namely, 80-mph wind gusts) to worry about. The next day was alright because it was raining and we could go outside and get wet, and that was cooling. That night however, once we ended up all back in the house, was miserable! We gave the kids cold - COLD - baths. Jacob was the worst off. He was throwing up almost the whole night, and could not get cooled off. I made the kids sleep in their underwear (they were very confused), and none of us slept very well.

That made our decision. We didn't even need to spend ONE MORE NIGHT like that. We are having a LOT better time visiting family...even though the kids didn't get to swim. =(