Need Caffeine... Now!

Oh boy, it's one of those days... I am SO tired. It's nearly noon, and I feel like it is either 4:00 a.m. and I need to go back to bed... or it is 11:30 p.m. and I need to go to bed for the night.

We had a really nice, but tiring weekend. Saturday started out as usual with the kiddos swimming lessons. We came home for a quick lunch and headed off to Ohio... dropping Shasta at doggie daycare on the way. Poor doggie... Anyway, we got over to Doug's mom's house and enjoyed a nice dinner with them. Doug stayed up late watching Ohio State get pummeled by USC... I went to bed "early" with the kids... early meaning 10:30 or so.

Yesterday, both of Doug's sisters came over to his mom's house for a get together. Several of the "crazy cousins" were there, too. James played with one of his cousins nearly non-stop the whole time. It was so sweet to watch the two of them play together. The cousins that were Amanda's age didn't make it... but, she was still able to have fun.

Three big things made the day very memorable:
1. The reason we got together - One of our nephews is getting ready to leave for military training at the Great Lakes Naval Center in a few days. It was kind of like a little "good luck and farewell" get-together for him.
2. Hurricane Ike - even though we were in Central Ohio, it felt like Ike was going to literally blow us away. One house in their neighborhood lost nearly all of its siding on one side... Unbelievable! There were toys, patio furniture cushions, trash cans... you name it, it was flying by the windows. Several times the lights flickered but never did stay off.
3. Rock Band - Oh boy! This was FUN! I had played Guitar Hero at the neighbors house before, but this was kicking it up a notch. There was a drummer, a lead guitar and a bass guitar. Another option was to have a singer, but they had forgotten the microphone at home. I had so much fun... Doug even tried it this time, and he loved it, too!

Because of the high winds (some topped out in the high 70 m.p.h. range!), we wound up staying much later than we usually do. I think that we left around 8:00 p.m. or so. On the way out, I noticed a bunch of smoke and a huge... and I mean HUGE orange glow in the sky. Doug and I went back and forth on if we should check it out or not. After changing our minds two or three times, we decided to try and find out what it was. It was a gigantic mulch fire in a nearby city. I found a blurb about it online this morning and it said that it had been burning all day yesterday... wonder if they ever got it out?

Driving home was odd... especially in Ohio. There were several tree limbs, leaves and other items littering the shoulders of the roads. Even driving on the interstate was surreal at times. Most of the road was normal, but at times, we would encounter exits that had NO lights at all... even areas where there were hotels, restaurants and gas stations. I can't even begin to imagine what it would be like to live in an area that took a direct hit from a storm like this...

So, today we went and picked up Shasta. We're just trying to get through so that we can get a good night's rest tonight and try to be a bit more coherent tomorrow. Whew...