The Story of Us: Sandy, Hood Rats, and Autumn

Hurricane Sandy:

Well, it's Sunday night and our new friend, Sandy is on her way to grace us with her presence. Actually, Sandy is a hurricane who is threatening to flood our streets, leave us with no power, and who knows what else. Super rude of her.

I've never experienced a hurricane before, but we're taking the meteorologists pretty seriously when they say Sandy is HUGE and will do lots of damage to a lot of the East Coast. We live right smack dab in the middle of it all... right in Philadelphia. It's crazy they've shut down the subways and trains in NYC and in philly too. Nick's school has been canceled Monday and Tuesday for sure. ( I'm SO glad about that.) People around here are pretty nervous about this hurricane.

When I found out about it, I quickly researched 72 hour kits and what people put in them. I went to Target and got a lot of necessities that we may need this week after the storm hits. We're good on food, batteries, flashlights, lots of baby food and supplies, blankets, books and games ( of course.) We went to the store last night to try and find a radio that could run on batteries alone... It was discouraging when we went to 7 different stores, and they were all sold out. Finally and thankfully we found one. It was so weird seeing a lot of the food shelves empty ( like canned foods, bread, bottled water... EMPTY.) I was so thankful we are all prepared for whatever disaster we face.

It was a huge testimony builder to me that the prophets mean it when they tell us to have a good supply of food storage and 72 hour kits ready. What a blessing it is that we have a living prophet today to guide us and lead us under the direction of God himself.

I'm sure we'll be JUST fine. I've just been nervous about it because I don't know what to expect. It's especially nerve wracking because I have a sweet little baby girl to protect. Even though this is supposed to be a HUGE hurricane and might do lots of damage... I'm finding peace knowing we're prepared and we still have prayer to rely on... even if the power goes out and the phone lines are down. :) We've learned a lot in the past few days about the importance of being prepared and listening to the prophets' council. We truly are in the last days.

Hood rats:

So. We've had some little hooligans come harass our apartment every weekend since we've moved here. ( We've never seen them because they run off so fast, but we know they're little because when they yelled F bombs into our mail slot last weekend, they clearly haven't hit puberty yet.) Over the course of 5 weeks, they've yelled obscene things into our mail slot in our door, threw a tomato at our door, they bang on our windows at late hours of the night, and last night they shot an air soft gun at our windows and front door. That was the last straw for me. We called the cops and hopefully those little boogers don't come back. The cops never saw them, but they were really nice and told us to call them again if they come back. I've tried MANY times to get up to go strangle them, but Nick always holds me back. They for real need some SERIOUS cub scouting in their lives and WHERE are their parents?? Whatever happened to playing night games and tag with friends? Why are these adolescents out causing harm and hurting people?? NOT okay. I'm wishing I still had my air soft gun, because I have NO problem shooting them with it. Stinkers.

ANYWAY.

PUMPKIN PATCH:

We've done lots of really fun things this beautiful fall season together. It seriously is breathtaking out here in the fall! I LOVE this time of year ( minus hurricane season.) We took Madeline to her first pumpkin patch and we had a lot of fun. It was a family owned farm who raise their own dairy cows, pigs, and chickens. They even had a yummy ice cream parlor made from the fresh milk from their cows. ( Milky Way Farm.)

HALLOWEEN:

For Madeline's very first halloween, we dressed her up as a cute little Indian for our ward Halloween party. She is seriously SO much fun and she is VERY social. She thinks she's much older than she is because she is constantly wanting to crawl over to the 3 and 4 year olds to hang with them. She has no fear and doesn't know a stranger. She is often giving strangers courtesy smiles and totally winning their hearts over. She really is such a doll and so much fun. We also hosted another murder mystery dinner this year. This time, the setting was a wedding reception and the bride was stabbed in the back... literally. We had a yummy dinner and spent a few hours trying to figure out who the murderer was. It was a ton of fun!

OUR ANNIVERSARY:

I can't believe it's been 4 years since we've been married! I love Nick more today that I did the day we got married. He's such an amazing husband, father, and friend. I'm so glad we got married in October. There's always so many fun things to do. We take turns each year planning how to celebrate our anniversary and it was my turn this year. I surprised Nick and took him on a 3 hour dinner cruise on the Delaware River. It was a lot of fun. We rode on a beautiful yacht, ate delicious food, and sat on the top of the boat and enjoyed the beautiful lights, buildings, and bridges. It was so much fun.

FAMILY OUTING:

Last week was seriously PERFECT weather. It was in the 70's and we have passes to the Zoo here. I've been wanting to take Madeline and thought last week was the perfect week to go. IT WAS. I asked Nick if he could come along ( on a Wednesday) and he DID! I was so excited ( He never would have been able to do that if he was still at BYU. We are loving medical school so far!) It really was such a perfect day... probably one of the best days I've had in Philly since we've moved here. On top of the weather being SO great, there was hardly ANYONE at the zoo and that was awesome! Madeline had fun looking at all the animals and so did we. ( My favorites were the polar bears and the tigers & lions.) After that, we decided to try genos or pat's philly cheese steaks. ( VERY famous touristy spot in Philly for people who wanna eat cheese steaks.) Nick had already had Genos once before, so we had Pats.( I'll have to try Genos sometime.) It was delicious of course. After we ate, we walked across the street to the fenced in park ( it's in the middle of the city.) Normally, I would have been nervous about it... but it's weird how you just kind of start to get used to that kind of stuff and it doesn't seem as bad after you've lived in it for a while ( plus, I've seen MUCH worse neighborhoods than the one we were in.) Lots of people were out playing basketball and swinging on the swings. We decided madeline had been cooped up all day in her stroller, we took her to the swings ( one of her favorite things these days) and that was a lot of fun! Such a wonderful day.

OX is in the Mire:

Today in church, the bishop asked the elder's quorum to go and check on the people they home teach to make sure they're prepared for this storm ( food, water, etc.) So that's what the men did the third hour during church. Nick couldn't get ahold of one of his less active families he home teaches by phone, so he drove over to their house while I was in relief society. He came back and reported that their cupboards were empty because they're struggling to pay their bills this month. His wife is 8 months pregnant and my heart just goes out to them. Our wonderful bishop gave us the go-ahead to buy them food and water to help prepare them for this hurricane. After church, we ran to the store, got them much needed food, and dropped it off at their house. Nick said they were almost in tears, they were so grateful. They even asked Nick to stay for a prayer of gratitude as he was leaving. Bless their sweet hearts. I'm so grateful for the amazing people in our church who are there for each other. We truly have an amazing support system and the church is SO on top of things, especially during a natural disaster. My prayers go out to other less fortunate families that might not have anything in their cupboards tonight. I wish I could find and help them.

Now, we sit and wait for the storm. It's supposed to be at it's worst tomorrow afternoon and tuesday. We'll see how it all pans out. My prayers go out to everyone out here on the East coast.

Again, I'm sure we'll be fine. XOXO

And since this has been the longest post ever... I thought I'd make it even longer with a million pictures strait off my phone.

You're welcome.