Earthquakes, Hurricane and Tornados!

My goodness!!! What else could Mother Nature possibly throw at us?  I know...fire, but as wet as our yard is (if the mushrooms growing out there are any indication!), it couldn't possibly stay lit.  We have had our fair share of odd weather over the past few months.   As mentioned in the last blog, the earthquake was nothing really.  There is still mention of it from time to time because of how cool is it was to have an earthquake on the East Coast!!!  A few aftershocks have been felt but nothing down this far.

As for the hurricane...oh my!  I've been through a couple of them, but this one seemed to hang around FOREVER!  The winds and rain started here in Raliegh late Friday evening and I don't think they really let up until after nightfall on Saturday night.  Luckily for us, we were far enough inland that we really didn't get much damage.  Just a bit of leaves and old branches that needed to be cleaned out of the trees anyway.
This is the only "tree" damage we had...

Little did that tree know that at some point he was going to be taken out anyway.  Irene just has us take the tree out earlier than planned.

Jeff did a WONDERFUL thing and volunteered through the Home Depot to work the stores that had been affected by hurricane Irene.  He left Sunday morning, along with ~ 35 other associates from stores in this area, and made their way to the Hampton Roads area.  He spent the week being carted around to many different stores in the area and helping out where the stores needed the most assistance.  In most cases it was changing the stores from "Hurricane Prep" to "Business as Usual".  This meant taking the extra generators, gas cans, tarps and putting them away.  Then restocking the items that were highly sought after as the storm approached...flashlights, batteries...you get the idea!

The Bus

Madison waiting to wave goodbye

During one of his visits to the Kitty Hawk store, they gave them some free time to roam the beach and get their feet wet.  After all that hard work, they were rewarded with some "fun time".  Jeff scoured the beaches, trying to find JUST the right seashell to bring home for Madison.  She knew her daddy was helping clean up the beach.  He did find one, but not one that was as pretty as he was hoping for.  It didn't matter, when he got home and showed her that seashell, you would have thought he had just given her the world!!!

What was suppose to be a Sunday to Thursday trip turned into a Sunday to Saturday trip but it was worth it in the end.  I have never seen a little girl miss her daddy as much as Madison missed Jeff.  When he walked off that bus, she lit up brighter than the sun!!!  She grabbed her daddy's neck and held him SO VERY tight and didn't let go for 45 minutes.  All she could say on Saturday was, "I missed you daddy!"

With so much excitement on Saturday we took it easy on Sunday and just relished in the fact that Jeff was back home.  Madison wouldn't let him out of her sight and would still run up from time to time to give him hugs and kisses and to let him know he was missed very much!  What a sweet heart!!!

Jeff went back to work and Madison and I stayed home since it was the Labor Day holiday.  We are so glad to have Jeff back home safe and sound and can't thank him enough for the hard work he did last week for those who really needed the assistance!  Love You!