Power Outage

  I have been a little absent from blogging for the past week or so because from Friday June 30th- Thursday, July 5th we were out of power.  For us that means no electricity and no running water! It was an adventure in camping at home.

On Saturday the house was still pretty cool and the kids enjoyed cuddling for a book. 

On Friday night we had a bad thunderstorm come through.  The kids were already asleep in bed when the lights started flickering, and then they stayed out.  We dug through the cabinets for candles and flashlights and ultimately decided just to go to bed and hoped the power would be on by morning.

Sometimes entertainment comes from stickers bought at the dollar bin at Target.  You can see all the bottled water in the background. 

No such luck.  On Saturday morning we used our phones to read the news and realized how extensive the power outage was.  We made the best of it by putting the refrigerator stuff we wanted to keep in coolers and tried to stay cool without A/C in the 100 degree heat! Saturday afternoon Trey and Jay braved going into town to look for ice.  It was kind of a mad house with everyone else buying up all the ice and people waiting for delivery trucks, but they were successful.  They also got bottled water and some bottles frappacinos for me, since I couldn't have my morning coffee without electricity!

Staying cool drinking bottled water through a straw.  You can see our dryer set up behind them.  After  swimming each night, I would hang out all the towels and bathing suits on the drying racks near the windows for them to dry off for the next night. 

That evening we took a bath in the creek to cool off.  The water felt like bath water and I never thought soaping up in creek water would feel so good!  In fact we felt clean enough to go to church the next day.  We just needed to get out of the house so we went to church and then bought some more provisions for food since we realized this was going to be a multiple day event.  Hello- juice boxes, poptarts, soda and other things I do not normally buy.  I also stocked up on canned fruit and those toddler food pouches that had a serving of fruit and veggies in them. Those things were expensive and I had never really seen them before except in chick-fil-a, but Charlotte LOVED them so she had one with every meal.  I tried to serve them pop tarts for breakfast, but neither of the kids would eat them.  They had never had one before and just didn't care for the taste.

Toddler food pouches.  It made me think about making green smoothies and my own pouches for Charlotte to eat since she seems to eat anything that comes out of this type of container.

Another way we adapted was all sleeping in the basement. We have a double bed down there already, so we set up Charlotte's pack 'n play in one corner and a mattress for Trey in another. They both did really good down there and it stayed around 70 degrees so we all woke up feeling refreshed and cool. 

This was dinner the last night we were at home.  We grilled the homemade french bread I had in the freezer that had thawed, and cut up tomatoes and garlic from the cooler that we had in the fridge before the power went out. 

During the days we tried to keep everyone cool and hydrated and we often drove into town just to stay cool and buy more ice for the cooler.  As meat thawed in the freezer we would cook it for the next meal.  I got a little tired of grilled chicken.  Every evening we would cool off and take a bath in the creek.  It really wasn't so bad not having power, except for finding out each day it would be longer and longer until it was restored.  On Tuesday we were running out of clean clothes and we found out it would later in the week when we got power (we were told originally it would be Monday night or Tuesday morning from the facebook messages by the power company) so we decided to pack up all the laundry and toiletry essentials and head to my parent's house in Richmond for some regular showers, A/C, and a bit of normalcy. 

Charlotte sat in the train box while she watched us fix food from the coolers.

Wordless Wednesday

Decorating on a Budget

I have mentioned before that we have put NOTHING on the walls in our house since we moved in last October.  For a while I was okay with that, but then after taking down the Christmas decorations at the end of the year the house looked kinda barren.  It needed a little something to go with the cream walls, white trim and beige furniture.  Besides just the two robins egg blue walls in the dining room. 

I am not much of a decorator and I don't really have a style.  Jay and I agreed on everything when we built the house, like the windows, trim, door pulls, etc, but when it came to colors and walls decorations we needed some time to compromise.  We also had a strict self imposed budget to adhere to for each month so this meant taking baby steps and tackling one small project at a time.  I am really pleased with the direction we are taking downstairs.  We have decided to let blue and yellow be prominent throughout the open floor plan with some grey accents.

Here is what we have been up to the past 2 weeks of summer break with our house projects.  We had a $75 budget for the month of June to spend on house decorating and we stuck to it really well. 

 Dining Room

Buffet table: Hand-me down from family

Mirror: Was silver in the old house and we spray painted it yellow.  Cost of spray paint $4. 

Hurricane Vases: Wedding Present

Decorative shells: Marshall's $6

Table Runner: Target $17 (used a gift card) 

Pictures frames: Mine from college that we spray painted with paint from another project. 

Total cost to us: $10

Living Room 

Artwork: Bought in Gatlinburg on our last vacation pre-kids in 2009. 

Framed wedding invitation: Wedding gift

Framed engagement picture: Frame from a wedding gift and picture we had.

Book stand: Had from the old house. No clue where it is from.

Brown frame: Micheal's $6

Willow Tree figurine: Gift from friends at Trey's birth

Lamps: Bought with gift cards after our wedding

Lamp shades: Target $17 a piece 

Total cost to us: $40

Kitchen

Chalkboard Project

Artwork from Salvation Army: $2 (Seriously!!)

Primer: $4 from Lowes

Red Spray Paint: $4 from Lowes

2 cans of Chalkboard Spray Paint: $10 from Lowes

Total Cost: $20   Great deal considering most smaller ones go for about $60 on Etsy. 

We also bought this fabric to make curtains for the living room and dining room downstairs.  We purchased it 60% off per yard with an additional 15% off the total purchase so I don't think we could have gotten a better deal. 

source 

We still have some more projects we are working on and hope to finish up in the next few weeks.  I will keep you updated with more pictures when we finish!

Quick Roadtrip

Last Saturday we made a quick road trip down I-81 to see Uncle Stephen and the kid's cousin Halle.  Halle always spends a week with us in the summer and Trey LOVES to see her.  He even refers to the tiny seat between his car seat and Charlotte's as Halle's seat.  If you set something there or he needs something near there he says it is in Halle's seat.

Charlotte and Halle together last fall.

 They were having a festival there so we went to explore.  There were bounce houses for the kids and I was proud of Trey for going in his first bounce house.  There was a smaller one that he started in to get his feet wet.  There was only one little girl in it so he was pretty comfortable.

Then he moved up to the big dinosaur.  Trey is usually intimidated by things like this, especially when he doesn't know all the bigger kids, but he did so well.  He started out clinging to the side where I helped him go in, but then Jay was on the other side of the bounce house taking pictures so Trey made his way over there and didn't want to get out!

Charlotte loved being in her stroller.  She is kinda noisy so she was content just people watching.  Then she got out to dance with the music.

 It was pretty sunny so we tried to get the kids to wear hats in addition to sunscreen.  Charlotte was not happy when I tied the hat on her!

Sweet Summertime

This summer we have three weeks where all four of us are home together.  After the fourth of July starts summer school for me in the mornings, VBS for the kids and Jay and then Jay going out of town for work.  We are soaking up these lazy days at home.  Each day starts with a to do list that usually gets interrupted by play time.  Luckily, with both of us home, we can tag team playing with the kids and getting stuff done around the house. We have learned it is impossible to try to do both at the same time!

A new favorite activity has been "painting" the patio with water.  It keeps them busy and entertained for quite a while.  

We usually spend the morning and late afternoon/ evening outside.  When it is too hot to go out Charlotte is busy playing with her dolls and trying to take care of them. Trey has rediscovered his train set after he got a new James car yesterday.  The trains have been going up and down mountains all over the house!

This afternoon I got Charlotte ready to go swimming in the creek when we realized it might start storming soon.  I left her in her new bathing suit since she gets so wet playing with the water table anyways.  Trey did not want to put on his bathing suit, but he was happy to wear his new hat and mow the lawn all evening.

Happy Father's Day!

Dear Daddy,

You are the best.  

You loved us when we were just tiny babies who ate, slept, and cried. 

You love to help us build things and never get upset when we knock down your creation. 

You carry all our stuff without complaint, and we have a lot of stuff!

You were there when we were born.

And you make us feel so special with your hugs and kisses!

We love listening to you read to us.

And just being in your lap. 

 Thanks for being our daddy!

Happy Father's Day! 

Love, 

Trey and Charlotte

Evening Walks

 Most evenings after dinner we like to go for a walk.  Last night was no exception only we had to wait for the rain to let up.  We were playing outside when it started to rain so we came in to watch it fall.  I had to make a quick escape out the front door to save the bubbles from being drowned on the front steps.  They could see the bubble container from the window and were both very upset that it was out in the rain!

 

Finally headed out. 

 Trey was excited about being outside, but he did not want me to take his picture.

When we started on the walk last night the sky was pretty overcast.  This is Trey saying,  "Whoa, it's pretty scary down there!" as he was looking down the path.

 Jay found some moss to keep him interested. 

Charlotte is usually pretty tired when we head out for the walk so she enjoys being pushed along in the stroller.  In fact when we go outside after dinner she tries to climb into her stroller by herself!