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Enough With the Weather

Posted on September 9, 2011 12:00 am by TheAngelForever

Weather – not exactly the topic of choice for a blog post, yet it is one that is on my mind. You see, in my part of NY, we expect weather issues in the winter. Ice and snow often keep us home, make driving treacherous, and cause damage to our home. This is not usually true in the spring, summer, and fall. These seasons are relatively quiet most years.

Mother Nature apparently decided that she was going to get our attention this summer. Over the last two and a half weeks, it has been wild, wacky, and down right deadly in certain locations.

Tuesday, August 23 – The boys and I just got into our car that had been serviced. As I turned the key, the car started to buck violently. The boys did not seem to notice. I got out of the car. This is when I felt dizzy and like my knees were going to go out from underneath me. This should have been my clue, but I was tired and getting ready for a romantic 10th Anniversary getaway with TechyDad. Thanks to Twitter, I quickly learned that what I had felt was not my car – it was an earthquake. Yes, in NY we were experiencing the quake that started in Virginia. Linda Carmical wrote about the social media connection and how word spread.

Sunday, August 28 – Hurricane Irene, came up the east coast and left a major impression on regions that were a lot further inland than ever expected. Thanks to this monster storm, we had to cancel said trip to Disney World. Roads were flooded throughout NY, bridges closed, and rivers running into homes that are gone. We were so lucky, but so many others were not.

For a few days, the weather was quiet. The sun came out. People started to clean up, repair homes, and move back into areas that had been evacuated by the Mohawk and Hudson Rivers. Then it changed.

Sunday, September 4 – While at a birthday party, my father called us. He wanted to let us know that there were tornado warnings throughout the area. Sure enough, when we looked outside the wind was wild and the sky rather black. The party was over and we knew that closer to our house was getting better. As we left Chuck E Cheese, a clap of thunder shook the entire parking lot. A car alarm went off, and the sky was lit up with bolts of lightning. As we drove you could see the ominous sky fading behind us. By the time we reached our home the news of a tornado in Amsterdam had been confirmed. Here is a video that was filmed of the Tornado crossing the NY State Thruway (at about 5:48 in the video):

This seemed to open the rain up to the area again.

Monday to Thursday, September 5-8 – Yes, Mother Nature decided to dump more water on the area already inundated with flooding after Hurricane Irene. Welcome the remnants of Tropical Storm Lee. Pieces were not picked up and inches of water were back all this week. Back to school has been gray, rain filled, and nasty. The Mohawk and Hudson Rivers, along with countless other creeks and waterways are over their banks. Watching the reports out of Binghamton, NY and other areas just breaks my heart. At midnight on Wednesday, areas in Schenectady County that had been evacuated during Irene were once again in chaos. People were told to leave immediately as water started to spill into the streets.

My heart goes out to all of those who have been dealing with this horrible weather and damage. We will be working on a project to help locals with items that are needed. Of course, I so wish we could bring some of the water to those in Texas. Thanks to the drought that area could really use it to help stop the raging wildfires.

So my question to you this week:

Do you recall many natural disasters from your childhood? If you do what were they and how did they change your life? Dare I ask . . . how is the weather by you?

I hardly recall any other hurricanes in our area. I remember them going to Long Island and places south of us, but no flooding in our region like this. This week, we are expecting the sun to return, which is much needed. Of course, this flooding will be an on going issue with any additional rain for months.

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Thanks to Kailani at An Island Life for starting this fun for Friday. Please be sure to head over to her blog to say hello and sign the linky there if you are participating.

Aloha #168

Categories:
Aloha Friday bad news looking back messy photos real world news summer twitter weather

Getting to Know You Back-to-School – Catch Me There

Posted on September 6, 2011 12:00 am by TheAngelForever

This morning I will be taking my oldest son to his first day of third grade (photos coming later). My heart is hopeful for an amazing year. I think every parent wishes this for their children. Of course, no parent expects the worst and we experienced that last year. I did not write about it much because it was not needed. Bullying, bad classroom management, inexperienced administrators, bullying, and not following doctor notes just some of the issues.

Today, I will be putting on a brave face as I take NHL to school. He is excited to be in his new school and has already met his teacher. She asked to meet him this summer when she heard some of the events from last year. Yes, a teacher going above and beyond to ease a child’s fears. It made my summer to know this professional was thinking about my child.

As a teacher, I understood the need to get to know my students and use parents to help me with this. The more information you have the better things can get for the entire classroom family. Reality check here, it was SO much easier on the reverse side teaching the kids.

My latest post on The Disney Driven Life: Getting to Know You – Back-to-School is all about ways that teachers and families can get to know each other. I share what I did when teaching and the latest craze in back-to-school teacher gifts.

Please stop by to say hello and check out the other magical posts from my Disney Drive Life friends. My other posts there can be found under NDM183 – that’s me!

How do you help your child during this hectic back-to-school time when fears may be high?

Categories:
DisneyDrivenLife looking back My Other Projects nhl school

Back to School 2011

Posted on September 3, 2011 12:00 am by TheAngelForever

Dear NHL and JSL,

In just a few short days both of you will be heading back to school. We have had a lot of fun this summer. Neither of you went to camp, but we kept busy. We went to the library and crafting events, had adventures in the park, and just tried to stay cool any way possible.

Sure some days may have seemed like they were never going to end, but no matter how frazzled I was – I love spending my days with both of you. I am truly lucky to be able to watch both of you grow, learn, and laugh in front of my eyes. I do miss teaching, but this time with both of you is priceless.

Just four years ago I sent NHL off to school for the first time. Now JSL, you will be going to nursery school five days a week. I will miss those two special days that we had together last year. It was fun having these years home with you. I know we will work together on writing and pre-reading skills since you want to read like your big brother. Please be prepared that I will likely cry next year when you, my baby, go to kindergarten for the entire day.

This summer you conquered chapter books. You read a good amount of them and tried a few different series. I love watching you devour the books and chat with me about the story. NHL, I can not wait to see all that is out there for you to learn and discover in the third grade. We have met your teacher and I am positive it will be an amazing year. You want to do multiplication, division, and more. I know you can do anything you put your mind to and will show everyone just how smart and capable you are.

Boys, remember to follow your dreams, do the best that you can, and know that I will always be there for both of you cheering you on.

Love,

Mommy

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If you want to participate in Dear Kid Saturday, head on over to Cutest Kid Ever by clicking on the button below.

Categories:
arts and crafts Dear Kid Saturday fun jsl looking back nhl photos play time school summer

Baby Gifts

Posted on September 2, 2011 12:00 am by TheAngelForever

There are days that I would love to have another baby. I mean we have cute kids and it would be a lot of fun to add more laughter to our family. Then reality kicks me in the rear. I think about being up all night with an infant, diaper changes, and the cost. No, two kids is perfect for our family – we are complete!

Of course, I love making things and putting together gifts for new babies. When my life long friend told everyone that she was pregnant, I waited to find out if she was expecting a boy or a girl. The evening that she announced that it would be a little boy, I ran out to the store to get supplies. I had a mission to start a baby blanket for her little one.

This was THE baby blanket that created baby blanket envy with my boys. In the end the blanket was finished and ready to be part of a present for Baby Z.

Of course, I can not knit a baby blanket for every gift that we need. Here’s another baby gift that we recently gave.

You can see some of my knitted wash cloths, along with some other items that the boys require us to include. Yes, we must have a buddy, and rubber duck for bath time. Plus, I think it is nice to toss in some baby wash since you will be using a lot of that with a new born.

So my question to you this week:

What do you like to give as a gift for a new baby and why?

Pssst . . . if you knit or crochet – I am on Ravelry and have more photos of my items on there.

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Thanks to Kailani at An Island Life for starting this fun for Friday. Please be sure to head over to her blog to say hello and sign the linky there if you are participating.

Aloha #167

Categories:
Aloha Friday arts and crafts gift ideas knitting looking back me moments photos

Conquering Rope Bridges and Crocodiles

Posted on August 29, 2011 12:00 am by TheAngelForever

The opportunity to go on the Wild Africa Trek at Disney’s Animal Kingdom was something I could not pass up. As I have written earlier, the Trek is a behind the scenes tour that takes you to places you will otherwise not visit. Friends of mine had gone on media tours of the Trek and reported back with photos, video, and lots more. Of course, everyone spent a lot of time talking about the rope bridges. Even Disney’s own video did. Shannon and I laughed with each other for weeks about the two of us doing this part. Fact – Since I had my kids, I have a slight fear of heights.

So when I last left off we had finished with the hippos and Alex walked up to a skull marker on the path. *gulp* What you can’t tell is that Alex and Bethany are really into their roles. The entire time you go on the trek you are IN Africa – not Disney’s Animal Kingdom.

Then Bethany showed us a few more pieces of the puzzle. Check out these pearly whites that belong to some “critters” that we would soon be seeing from way up high.

Suddenly Bethany mentioned that the route that we should go on was not available to us. Instead we would have to be brave and go a different way – over the water. Insert dramatic music here! Yes, this involved heading up onto the platforms to the rope bridges that we had practiced for. I think Alex was having too much fun watching us. Some in the group could not wait to be first, others were just waiting and watching.

Bethany would head across the bridge first to show us how it was done. Conveniently, it would also place her across the way to take some photos of each member of the group as we made it across. This was the view from the top as we stood waiting.

This is a photo of members of our group waiting to be hooked up to the safety lines for the trip across.

I have to admit, I had lost a lot of my fear at this point. My biggest worry was TechyDad’s camera. Recall it was hanging around my neck and the lens cap was way back in the lockers. So imagine me on a slightly wobbly bridge trying not to knock said camera into the side of the ropes (being short it was perfect height for this).

Seriously, the bridges were not bad at all. The only moment I cringed a little was when one of the safari vehicles traveled under me when I was in the middle. Thanks to the vibrations from below the bridge swayed a bit. Here is a view just before I stepped onto the bridge for my second trek across a bridge.

When you travel across the second bridge – these are the critters that are looking up from below.

Here I am almost at the end of the second bridge. My bridge buddy is behind me. You can see I am more at ease now – the camera is going to be ok!

Of couse, I was not nearly as at ease as Alex. I mean check out how much fun he had watching all of us and then crossing the bridge.

From here we went down to wait for everyone to take their gear off. Yes, we no longer needed those contraptions on. We were heading to a safari vehicle for the next part of our adventure into the savannah and eventually to the Boma for a meal.

More about the African Trek coming soon. To read the previous parts of my adventure you can check them out here

Disclosure: Although we paid for our own trip to Disney World, we were given an incredible deal thanks to Disney. The sweet conference fee included 3 nights at the Grand Floridian, several meals for the entire family, 7 day park hoppers for everyone, conference/meals for me and some other items to take home. Also note that Disney never asked us to blog about this event. As a long time Disney fan, it is my pleasure to share my experiences from the event.