Hurricane Ike

I never expected to deal with a hurricane in Ohio, but on Sept. 14, we were hit by a huge windstorm (the remnants of Hurricane Ike) taking down many trees resulting in a widespread power outage in the Dayton area. It was a Sunday and we lost power around 3pm. Thankfully, even though we have woods right behind us, we had no damage from trees and relatively few limbs in the yard, although our neighbor had a tree fall on power lines. We spent most of the week without electricity, which for us also means without water since we're on a well. About this time a week ago, we still were without power when I heard a truck next door. I was giddy when I saw it was from the local power company! Another truck arrived and they proceeded to take care of the tree that had fallen at the house next door. We went to bed still without power, but woke up around midnight and noticed we were back on! Mark and I were so excited we got up and cleaned out our freezer and fridge. I'd saved most things from the fridge, but the freezer was emptied.

Being without electricity wasn't nearly as bad as I would have imagined... especially when we found out our good friends did have power and we were able to get a few hot meals and some showers/baths at their house. The weather was great, so no need for AC, although I didn't let the kids play outside since I knew I couldn't give them baths! We went to an indoor play area at the mall and took some other excursions just to get out of the house. Not horrible, but we are extremely grateful to have the power back.

In other exciting news, Mark has been promoted to General Manager and is at the Chipotle right down the road from our church! Of course, his first day was the day after the storm when the restaurant was one of only a few with power, so it was a crazy start to the new position. He's loving it, though, and is excited about his crew and store.

I don't have many recent pictures as our camera is acting up. Thankfully, it looks like Canon will fix it free of charge. Here is one of Carter, who recently has decided he wants to feed himself with utensils. I know he needs the practice, so from time to time I leave him alone and let him have at it. This is the typical result:

More pics from Maryland!

I got a CD from my Dad with more pics from our trip and we just got a new laptop so I can actually pull pictures off a CD (our desktop is having some issues).

The kids have not been well trained on the importance of sleeping in on vacation... instead they were up around 6am every morning. We'd often end up on the front porch swing and glider and a few mornings, we got to see the farm animals across the road close up (this same morning, a horse came right up to us and as Mark was petting it, I foolishly took a picture which scared the poor thing since it was still dark out and the flash went off).

One day we went to the Land of the Little Horses in Gettysburg. A bunch of the horses are out and about, ready to be fed... or hugged.

There were also wagon rides, tractor rides, swimming, bubbles, and general fun with Nana and Pap. You can check out the web album for more pictures of all that or see them scrolling in the corner. Toward the end of our vacation, my brother arrived with his family. Here's Ava with her cousin Abby. (We had to convince them they'd both fit in the car).We ended the trip with a Cartzendafner family reunion.