Sunday, November 4, 2012

Super Storm

We got back from our Hilton Head vacation just in time to prepare our home for the expected hurricane.  Josh had a conference in Pittsburgh and had plans to be gone for a few days.  He didn't want to leave us behind to face the high winds and possible damage that they were predicting alone.  Making the decision to go with him for me was kind of hard.  the news always makes things sound worse than they really are or going to be and everyone around us didn't really seem to think that it was going to be a big deal.  So I prayed about what we should do.  I was worried about the kids missing school and what about Halloween and my responsibilities to the school.....every time after we prayed we received promptings to go to Pittsburgh.  The first couple of times it was a phone call from Parents giving us council and the last time that I received an answer to my prayers was a call from the school saying that school was canceled.  After that last answer I put myself in gear and we got out in an hour. 

300 Miles away from home and still in the reach of Hurricane Sandy.
We stayed in Pittsburgh for a whole week.  The storm was worse than they predicted and it took several lives and destroyed over 73,000 homes in New Jersey alone.  We were very fortunate to get away with just a downed branch lost power from the house and lost food from the freezer and fridge.  Other than those small losses we were fine.  While we were away our neighbors said they would look after our lil pets but when because the power was down they couldn't get into our house through the garage (like they had been doing).  So for a week our fish and hamster survived with out care.  I prayed that they would be ok and I know that Heaven Father answered my prayers.  I full expected for the fish to be dead at least one of them but they were fine.  It just goes to show that what ever is important to you (your children) it is important to Heavenly Father.  I feel like our pets being a live was our family's miracle. 

Friday, November 2, 2012

Pittsburgh, PA

Our stay in Pittsburgh was a nice one.  I had a lot to be thankful for: power, entertainment for kids, maid service, fresh fruit every morning, someone else to wash the dishes, in-door pool, etc...  I felt pretty guilty that all of my friends were in NJ with out power and heat.  But everyone had family near by to go to so they could get warm and be comfortable.  If we had stayed we wouldn't have had a place to go so I'm super glad that we were able to go to Pittsburgh with Daddy. 

Our first full day there we got a family membership to the Children's Museum.  It is the best children's museum that I have ever been to.  They had a make shop where you can create anything that you can imagin.  That is where Zach and I went to on our first day.  He decided that he wanted to sew a bat.  So he picked out the fabric and signed off on the design that we came up with.  It was pretty cute.  Zach helped sew it and stuff it.  I really enjoyed spending some time with my sweet little guy. 

Josh had to go to his conference everyday but came back about 11:00 so that we could spend the rest of the day together.  We usually got lunch, Andrew took a nap and then we, went to the museum. 

While we were there in Pittsburgh we got to celebrate Halloween.  The boys dressed in their costumes for breakfast and later on that evening we took them out to trick-or-treat at a mall in the sub-burbers.  For the first 10 min it was nice but then everyone else in the city came and it was a mad house.  I heard on the news that the expected about 2,000 trick-or-treaters and got about 5,000.  WOW! 

My favorite part of our stay there is the city of Pittsburgh was our spur-of-the-moment trip to the curcius.  We were at dinner at TGIFriday accross the street from our hotel and someone mentioned that the it was opening night for the circus just up stairs.  So I sent to go and check it out and ended up getting tickets for me and the older boys.  It was my first time to go to the circus and it was an amazing show.  Zachary's favorite part was the human tourch.  a man that lit himself on fire and catepulted his accross the areana.  Adam's favorite act was the clowns.  And my favorite part was the acrobats.