Never Too Many Legos

My kids love Legos.  I love Legos - I'm not as creative as they are, but I've done my fair share of "Mom, can you help me put this together?"  Rachel keeps threatening to buy me one of the bigger sets for me to "put together by myself" (fortunately, her budget is small).

But I love this.  It's a Ford Explorer, made of Legos, of course, recently completed for the opening of Legoland, Florida.

Florida?  That's a LOT closer than California, or any of the other Legolands.  Hmmm...

Random

Last night was back-to-school night at the Middle School.  Our middle school was originally one of two high schools in town, then as the demographics changed, they added on to the other high school and turned this one into the middle school.  Along the way, there have been a number of renovations and additions to the Middle School to create the spaces they need for the students.

Long story short, there are three 2-story wings off a very loooong central hall (sort of "E" shaped, with a really long spine on the "E").  And of course, whatever classes your child has will be spaced and timed in such a way as to require them to walk the longest distance possible.

So I went to BTS last night for Rachel.  John stayed home to drive to the various activities and wrangle the kids.  At some point in the evening, he texted me, "How is BTSN?".  I texted back, "One more class."  He replied, "Wow-still at it?"

I was walking (fast) down the hall at the time, so I texted my reply to him without looking too hard.

No, I accidentally texted to Twitter.

So the next time something really random pops up on my Twitter feed?  Don't worry that you feel like you missed half the conversation.

You did.

Settling Into a Routine

We made it through the first Monday of the new school year.  Everyone was a little slow this morning but got where they needed to go.  I made it to the gym and to printmaking (trace monotype, I'll try to put up pictures in a few days when it's dry!).  Rachel had her first dance class of the year.  William opted to play before he did his homework, but all his friends did theirs first and then wanted to play.  That meant he had just started when the doorbell rang.  I'm hoping he's learned his lesson and will get his homework done early tomorrow.

In honor of Monday, I made a chocolate cake.  All three children and John asked what it was for.  I guess I should bake for just us more often, eh?

Second Day of School

Again started WAY too early in the morning - this time with thunder and torrential rain.  Having a deja vu moment back to Irene.  Didn't we just do this?

JC drove to school in the rain.  It had slowed down a bit, fortunately.  Another traffic zoo - hoping that calms down in the next few days as the seniors get their parking assignments.

Rachel got out the door on her own, on time (with lunch!).  Her bus was even mostly on time.  She spent 30 minutes sitting on the bus at school yesterday afternoon because the driver couldn't get it to start.  Here's hoping THAT doesn't happen again today.

Got a robo call just after Rachel's bus came (on time) that buses were expected to be 10-15 minutes late because of road flooding.  Hmmm.  Made the choice to get William out the door at the regular time, figuring he'd noodle around up at the bus stop for 10 minutes.  Nope.  Bus was smack on time - the girl next door missed it because her father believed the message.

Now I'm puttering around the house, planning lunch with a friend, avoiding going to the gym.  THIS feels like the first real day of school.

First Day of School

Everyone got off on time, sort of. 

John had an early morning flight cancelled, so he got up at 4:45am to sit in the airport for two extra hours.

JC and I left 5 minutes late to drive him to school, so we hit extra traffic around the school, which meant that ...

Rachel was at the busstop when I got back, so I stopped there and hung out with her for a while.  But her bus was over 20 minutes late so I left her there and went home to wake up William - and realized just after her bus came that she had left the oh-so-important computer and weapons "contracts" and her info form on the counter at home.

William's bus came exactly on time.  Then I drove to the Middle School and brought Rachel her forms.

And now I have 30 minutes before I have a volunter meeting, which I will leave early to bring JC lunch at school before Marching Band practice this afternoon.

Somehow, I think tomorrow will feel a little more like the REAL beginning of school.

And the Rains Came Down and the Floods Came Up

The rain, it did come down.  In buckets.  And the floods, they are still coming up.  I haven't been out and about (the governor and the mayor both said, "stay home."  I've stayed.) but there are pictures up online of our town and area.  Not good.  It's not just the usual places this time; there is much flooding beyond the expected.  My favorite grocery store - the parking lot is flooded (hoping the store isn't too damaged).  The roller hockey rink JC played at  - you can just see the edge of the boards around the rink. 

Two nearby towns are severely affected, but according to this website, one of the rivers has crested and is dropping, the other might be soon.  (Check it out!  The colored dots take you to river level graphs.  I assume there are maps for the rest of the country, though I haven't looked.)

Fortunately, the rain stopped earlier than predicted.  Also fortunately, we did not lose power.  There are numerous power outages in the area, mostly from trees taking out lines.  But not us.  Thank you, God.  It was bad enough having three bored kids in the house yesterday.  Three bored kids and no electricity and Internet? ... I shudder to think.

We are still better off than when Hurricane Floyd dumped on New Jersey in 1999.  We had MUCH water in the basement then.  This time?  Just a bit.  Got the fans and dehumidifiers going and it'll be dry soon.

It could have been much worse.

Shake, Rattle, and Roll

(I was going to title this "I Feel The Earth Move Under My Feet" but now we're under a hurricane warning and it wasn't inclusive enough.)

This is one of those weeks that you start to wonder if Mother Nature really does have it in for us, or perhaps the Mayans had a little math error in their calculations of the end of the world.  I really did feel the earth move on Tuesday - of course, I initially thought I was having a moment of vertigo and it was just me.  Then John called and said it was an earthquake, so that was vaguely reassuring.

JC was at marching band practice - nobody quite fogged in that it was an earthquake, but everybody stumbled at the same point in the drill, and couple of people fell down.  They all thought that they just "had a moment" and started the drill over.

And now Irene is causing evacuations in coastal New Jersey and major issues in NYC.  They're shutting down the subways at noon tomorrow.  Do you have any idea how big that is?  They are SHUTTING DOWN all the subways in New York tomorrow.  I'm not sure they even did that for 9/11, people. Atlantic City is a ghost town under a mandatory evacuation order.  It's creepy, is what it is.

Of course, here in beautiful suburbia, sitting on our hill, we are merely under a tropical storm warning.  I'm expecting buckets of rain and some impressive (if not hurricane-force) wind.  We did take the precaution of actually picking up all the junk strewn about the yard and putting the (new!) shade umbrella in the shed.  We had one snap in a storm last year, so no taking chances this time.  And if nothing else, I finally got the kids motivated to help pick up the yard.

And of course, this Sunday I volunteered to host coffee hour at church.  I have a feeling attendance is going to be a bit thin...