yikes! it was ike!

although we're nowhere near texas, or any ocean for that matter, hurricane ike almost blew us away! we lost huge limbs, shingles, power, cable (no internet *gulp*), then my computer crashed (blaming the power surges), and it's just been chaotic with schools and businesses closed. it's almost back to normal now though. we cleaned outside for days then inside for days reinstalling programs and such (although i backup regularly, it's still a pain!).
we'd sent the kids outside to play in the windstorm. told them if they ran really fast into the wind they might fly (they're easy like that!). but then they ran back in yelling about branches falling so we kept them in. it was dangerous out there! we didn't realize how bad it was going to get. they had a ball cleaning up though, well playing in the big branches and fighting with all the sticks. i actually did a good job of lowering my expectations too and just worked and expected them *not* to work very hard. so i wasn't disappointed! and it got clean eventually.
em actually worked quite hard and was very proud of herself (unusual). usually cj (my normal) is the hardest worker and gets that title. well she wanted that title by golly and she sure got it! :)
i'll try to catch up on some of the happenings from the last few weeks soon!