The Beach

Daddy and I decided to take the kids to Manasquan today.  It was our first time to the beach since Hurricane Sandy.  We bundled the kids up and packed them in the car.  In the car, we reminded John about how the hurricance destroyed houses and the beachfront.  We also talked about Gee-Gee's.  For those of you that don't know, Gee-Gee's is a pizza place where Daddy and I met in high school.  We both worked there during the summers.  Gee-Gee's is very important to both of us, not only did we meet there, but we spent countless hours there.  A lot of our memories revolve around that building.  John knows Gee-Gee's as The Pizza Man (simply because employees wear t-shirts with a man holding a pizza).  Anyway, after reminding John that there may be some damage to the places he knows, he said "We can help clean up!"

We arrived at the beach.  Daddy and I wanted to see Gee-Gee's, John on the other hand was more concerned about the big piles of sand.  He kept saying "I'm going to the top of the highest mountain!"  I really didn't think anything of it, and said go ahead.  Then I turned around and noticed that one of the piles of sand by me had glass on it.  I didn't think.  Those piles of sand came from the streets or even from in front of Gee-Gee's where glass and all kinds of other debris were inside of them.  I didn't let John climb the piles by the boardwalk.  I took Gillian and John farther onto the beach so that they could play in the sand.  John was totally interested in all the debris in the sand.  Pieces of wood and wire and anything else.  We specifically told him and Gillian to not touch anything.  They ran up and down the piles of sand and even found a couple of shells.  After playing for a little while, Daddy and I put them back in the car and we drove to the inlet.

When we got to the inlet, John and Daddy started to walk along the rocks.  Since I had Gillian, we stuck to the beach.  We sat and watched a few surfers.  Then Gillian saw John and Daddy on the rocks.  She pointed to them and said "I go there!"  The rocks at the inlet are big and sturdy enough to walk all the way out, but carrying Gillian I was a little unsure.  I took her and walked along the rocks for a little bit.  She kept pointing to John and Daddy, who were about 20 feet ahead of us.  We ended up catching up with them and I handed Gillian off to Daddy.  I grew up in Manasquan, but I had never been that far out on the jetty.  Once Daddy head that I had never been out on the jetty, he made it a goal to get all the way out there.  I stuck with John for the second half.  He really got me worried.  The rocks are big, but there are also some big spaces between the rocks.  John would jump from rock to rock and all I could envision was him falling into the cracks.  He didn't fall.  He did a great job, but he did get Mommy a little worried.  We made it all the way to the concrete at the end of the jetty.  And stopped to take a few pictures. 

I took Gillian on the way back and Daddy took John.  I'm thankful that I had to carry Gillian, because on the way back, the wind started to blow really hard and I almost fell a couple of times.  Daddy had to deal with the wind and a little boy.  Overall, we had a great day at the beach. 

Whistle Not Nice

One silver lining to being stuck at home for Hurricane Sandy, was that Gillian has finally come to terms with the fire whistle.  I'm sure I have mentioned it before, but we have a fire station behind our house.  The fire whistle goes off occasionally and Gillian has been afraid of it for awhile now.  When the whistle would go off, Daddy and I would go running to find Gillian paralyzed and crying.  She would shake and cry until the whistle stopped.  During Hurricane Sandy, the whistle went off every couple of hours.  She progressively got better with the whistle every time it went off.  We are now at the point where she covers her ears and says "Whistle Not Nice!"  Even though she is really cool with the whistle now, it went off during her nap today.  Daddy went running to find her very upset.  That I can totally understand why she was upset, I would be crying too if a whistle woke me up from a nap. 

Post Hurricane Sandy

Well it's been almost a week since my last blog post. As many of you know we were hit with a hurricane on Monday, October 29th. Both my office and Daddy's office were closed on Monday in advance of the storm's arrival. We kept the kids home and we got prepared for the storm. We were lucky and didn't lose power until 8:30 on Monday night. Daddy didn't sleep much that night. He patrolled the neighborhood (we have quite a few large trees that could do some damage if they hit the house). Again, we were very lucky. One tree fell in the wires in front of our house but that was it.

Day one without power was fun for the kids. John and Gillian loved playing in their tent (I set it up in the living room). They seemed to eat none stop. Every time I turned around they wanted another snack. John understood about having no power. Gillian did not. Throughout the day she would ask "Micky Mouse? I watch TV?"

Day two was Halloween and still no power. We gave the kids a bath (we have a gas hot water heater) and dresser them in their Halloween costumes. The governor postponed Halloween to next Monday, but w decided it would be fun for the kids to dress up. Plus, we had a mission to find ice. Everyday without power we were slowly losing the contents of our fridge and freezer. Daddy and I found the Ice King in Neptune. We got in line behind easily 15 cars. We told John where we were and he said "He's the king of ice? A penguin?" We waited for our turn in line and as we pulled up to the gentleman selling ice, John rolled down his window. The ice guy laughed at John in his Flash costume. When we told the man it was Halloween. He was shocked. It's amazing how quickly you forget the little thing when you are worried about electric, water and heat for your family. I'm glad that we were able to make him smile at least for a few minutes. We got our ice and wet to visit Mimi and Poppy. Our next stop was Grandma and Grandpa's house. We couldn't stay long at either place we needed to get back home before it got dark. Daddy and I cleaned out the freezer and fridge.

Day three I took the kids to my friend Laura's house. Laura lives in Toms River and she got her power back. We work together so she was more than willing to let the kids watch tv while I got some work done. Plus she let us charge everything and fed us. I am very lucky to have a friend that would take us in for the day. While I was visiting Laura, Daddy was helping Mimi and Poppy with a little cleanup at the dealership. After dinner, we put our jammies on and piled into our bed and watched The Lorax on our iPad. Such a fun night snuggling with the kids watching a movie. We put the kids to bed that night and at 8:30 we got our power back.

Day four after Sandy, we spent the morning cleaning up the disaster of our house. You would be surprised how much of a mess you make with poor lighting. I also spent a good portion of the day doing laundry. I also tried to get caught up on some of my "day job" work. We offered our house to family and friends because we were the first in our family to get power back. The only visitor we received on November 2nd was Kristen. She needed a hot shower. I'm so glad that we could help with that. We also sent a really long extension cord over the back fence to Mr. Matt and Miss Brittany's house. They may live just behind us, but their power is still not on.

Day 5 after Sandy, I gave kids a bath. While I was cleaning out John's ears, he said "Can I see it (the q-tip)?" I showed him and he said "Eww! Ear boogers!" Daddy and John worked on cleaning up the leaves while Gillian and I did a little food shopping. I cooked what couldn't be refrozen plus some pumpkin muffins. It was nice to get back into a little routine of normal life.

I am very thankful for only losing power for three days. I'm also very thankful for nice people. Also for all the utility workers, without them working long hours away from their families we would have power now.

(Below are some pictures from our week)