I'm Back!

It's been a while since I last posted, but felt the urge today to start my blogging again.

The weather is slowly starting to change. I feel Autumn creeping up on us and soon all the leaves will be bursting with beautiful reds, oranges and yellows. I love this time of year...smelling the wood and leaves burning in peoples stoves (including ours!), bundling up in cozy sweaters, wearing beautiful jackets, adorable hats, gloves and boots, seeing all the mums and pumpkins lining the steps of old pretty homes, coming home to one another in a warm home after being in the crisp cold, lighting candles, football games, pumpkin and apple pie...I could go on and on!

Am I sad the summer is coming to an end? I am a little! I will miss the pretty flowers and swimming in the river with Mike and Finnley. The summer did end on a kind of dramatic note. We've had a lot of terrible weather this past month. Hurricane Irene hit us really hard and we were victims of the storms wrath. Both of our cars were smashed by a huge tree in our backyard. They are now metal pancakes. So, we now have two "new" cars. A gorgeous dark blue 2003 Audi, which is all-wheel-drive. This is a MUST in the winter! My parents and sister are giving us the family car, which a navy blue Honda. We are so blessed to have such wonderful family and neighbors supporting us and offering us help during this difficult time. Our good neighbors helped us tremendously by using their machines to chop down the huge fallen tree. They are all contractors and engineers so they have the tools and machines at hand. They cut the tree into huge log chunks which was then cut into smaller pieces. We are trucking through this disaster and we're slowly recovering. The backyard looks like a tornado hit!

Mikes good friends from high school, Omer and Carlos, came up to visit and help Mike split the wood that was chopped down by our neighbors. One of our neighbors, Mike (it's a good name!), lent us his log splitter, which splits logs into usable fire wood. Mike and his friends worked so hard lifting those heavy logs and splitting them. Omer brought an old fashioned axe that is his fathers, which they also used. I brought out water and made a nice lunch which kept their energy levels up. When they were finished, they were physically exhausted. I had a big dinner prepared and the guys ate so hardily. Thanks to all of their hard work, we now have all the firewood we need to keep us warm all winter. I can not thank them enough for helping us.