The Lieslands

We were able to enjoy a few hours of electricity last night, but now we are back in the dark.

Duke Energy’s Power Outage Map



As of Thursday Morning

The power came back on around 8:30 this evening, thanks to some help from some North Carolina crews, we believe. I was upstairs getting the kids to bed, but Susan said that she could hear a collective “Woohoo!” from the neighborhood.

Having the power back on meant that it was time for us to clean out the fridge – woohoo!

We are still one of the 300,000 people who belong in one of those dots. They hope to make a lot more progress today, and I hope they do.

Duke Energy’s Power Outage Map



As of Wednesday Morning

We have been powerless since Sunday afternoon, when the remains of Ike swept through. We didn’t get any rain, but we sure got a lot of wind. We emptied our freezers Sunday night, and put 10 1/2 gallons of ice cream in Ruth Ann’s freezer. Last night we took all of our refrigerated items to a friends house.

Not much has changed in our daily routine, other than trying to find creative ways to eat. This morning I grilled some goetta. Fun times. Hopefully the power will be back on soon, but I have been enjoying the peace.

Duke Energy’s Power Outage Map



As of Tuesday Morning

Last night we switched things up for our evening walk – Susan and I wore our rollerblades, Andrew Biked, Mari rode her scooter, and Elliot went in the stroller.

Things went pretty well. Mari freaked out about 1/4 of the way through, so we had to load her into the stroller, but after that it was smooth sailing. I had a great time.

We have never been sure what to do with Mari when it comes to school. She did not do so well when she went in for her observation day at the Waldorf School, but I guess that we were hoping she would grow out of the emotional roller coaster she is riding.

We recently heard that there may be some opening at the Waldorf School and we were thinking of having her go in for another observation. Susan decided to ask Mari about it. I think it went something like this:

Susan: Do you want to go to school?

Mari: Yeah, I am 3.

Susan: OK. You would be in nursery school, so you would have to go by yourself. Dad and I would not be able to go with you.

Mari: OK. I want you to take me. Last time dad took me I was scared.

Susan: OK, but I won’t be able to stay there with you.

Mari: I think I will wait until I am 4.

I guess that answers that.

We have been noticing some changes in the kids lately –

Elliot has been acting more and more like a little boy. He is becoming more independent and playing more with Andrew and Mari.

Mari has been having conversations with Andrew and playing well with him and his friends.

Andrew has been a lot more boisterous lately. He has been getting up early and staying up late (for him).

Fun times.

This morning the city picked up what was left of our fallen trees. Here are the numbers:
1 – Fires used to dispose of a lot of wood
4 – Chainsaws used to help clean up
5 – Trees affected
16 – People who helped with clean-up
29 – Bags of yard waste
80 – Total number of person-hours put in to get things cleaned up

Now we just need to plant some grass.

My dad came over last night to start cleaning things up. He was able to get the Mulberry tree totally liberated from the pine, but apparently the Mulberry and the pine were very close, because it looks like the Mulberry can stand on its own.

This evening we had another tree fall on the play set. Since we put the play set up a few months back, this is the second tree that we have had fall on it. I almost have all of the first tree cleaned up and disposed of, and now I have to deal with this one. The one that fell tonight was a nice-sized, but fairly young Oak. I would bet that it was 40 or 50 feet tall, but not very thick. It snapped about half way down (or up, I suppose), so I have not yet figured out the best way to clean it up.

Tonight we also lost the dead pine tree that has been standing watch over our back yard. I knew it was only a matter of time for this one. I want to get it cleaned up soon, so we can try to salvage the Mulberry Tree that it is trying to take with it.

While we were out surveying our damage our neighbor pointed out that about the top 1/3 of one of our white pine trees broke off and landed in his back yard. Our back yard looks a little different than it did a few hours ago.

We only got to look at it for a couple minutes before bedtime tonight, and I can’t wait until the morning to get a better look and start coming up with a clean-up plan. I will get some pictures as well, to share.

Mari and Elliot have really been in each others’ faces lately. Last night for about 10 minutes Elliot was just chasing Mari around pulling on her clothes, pushing her, and hitting her. He also tried to take a nice bite out of her shoulder earlier in the evening. We can tell that they are going to have an interesting relationship.

When I entered a few posts about our trip, I forgot to mention one interesting thing that happened while we were away: Elliot quit the pacifier.

All of our kids have used pacifiers. We are not huge fans, but they liked them, and they helped them all sleep, so we used them. Mari still uses hers, and if Andrew had his druthers, he would still be using one as well (the pacifier fairy came when he was four and switched his pacifiers out for Elizabeth, the stuffed frog, which he thinks is a bear). Elliot won’t have anything to do with his. We haven’t even tried giving him one in the last week, and all has gone well. Yea!