Wordless Wednesday

Hope purple looks good on us....

Decision 2012

Well, election day is behind us!!! And to be done with all of the ads (You're DAMN right, in Wisconsin comes to mind), the endless phone calls and smack talk on facebook (seriously, people unfriend each other over this stuff! For Pete's sake, I married a man who often votes differently than I do!), makes me very happy. But I'm happy most of all that we have the freedom to make the decision of who will work to lead this country. I'm also happy that Arielle and Parker chose to exercise their right to vote as well. We all went at separate times, with Arielle having to wait in line the longest---she couldn't even see the area where our district votes when she walked in the building, HA! And, I'm pretty happy that "my" guy is sticking around so that Big Bird can stick around!

After the Storm

Eventually Sandy ran out of steam in NC and took her destructive self to the North and we were left with flat, wet, smooth beach. We had to brave a little water to get to it, as Brigette demonstrates, but it was worth wet feet. Chris and I found lots of shells to take home to our boys, a few unopened clams and SpongeBob Squarepants' friend Patrick Star, who clearly lost his green boxer shorts in the storm!!

Hurricane Sandy--as seen by a Wisconsinite!

I am usually a "people picture" type of gal, but when you plunk a Mid-western girl in the middle of a major weather event on the ocean, things shift gears =) These are just some pictures of the Atlantic doing its thing during our portion of Hurricane Sandy. On Monday the water found a way to get to us, without even coming up over the dunes and down the access road we used from the beach. And once it started coming, it came hard and ran fast!! You can see that the tire tracks stayed put during it all. Our house is about 3 rows back from the beach, so our yard/driveway never flooded, but the road right along the house did. That became a barrier to us being able to get out. Luckily we were able to tack a day on and the water went down enough for us to drive through it to get ourselves on the beach. Mother Nature is not someone to mess around with---especially water, it is a powerful force and I can understand how things (including people) get swept away in fast moving currents.

Our Unitvited Guest...

Well, our long-awaited girls weekend at the beach for five has turned into a weather event for 6. Hurricane Sandy is indeed at the beach with us =( Our beach (North Cordova) has not been evacuated (not that we'd have to leave anyway as we are considered "owners" not "renters") so we are staying put! That means that we aren't able to do many of the things we'd planned to do, like hit the little shops and do lunch in town (Duck or Nags Head), but we all brought our Nooks/Kindles, we have laptops, lots of movies, food and oh yes, maybe a bit of liquid refreshments! We did venture down to the beach on Thursday night when we got here, but it was a little too dark to get good pictures =( We came across 2 fishermen who were happy to take our pictures of the 5 of us, but mine didn't take and Brigettes are very blurry, so we have none of the 5 of us =(

Greetings from the OBX!!

WooHoo!! I am on a 5 day get away with 4 of my very favorite people in the world. We've come together from Canada, PA and 2 from VA and then drove down to the family beach house of Brigette's parents. We are right on the ocean in Corolla, NC. WHICH, if you're following the news at all, you know that another female is trying to join our little group---Hurricane Sandy! We are watching the weather closely, but also enjoying our girl time =) These pictures are of the view that I have from the deck outside of my room. That's the Atlantic Ocean, Baby!!

And Leading Off Your News Tonight....

Chances are, if you tuned into your local newscast tonight, MY local news was the lead (or close to it) story. I live in Wisconsin (no secret). Ours was the first state in the US to grant union rights to employees more than 50 years ago. And now we are in the news again with union-related headlines.
In the November elections, I'm told the majority of voters decided that Scott Walker was the man to lead us Wisconsinites (although I've yet to meet anyone who admits casting a vote for him). All along his campaign "promises" were about cutting big government and keeping "big brother" out of your business. Well, his first order of business is to take away the collective bargaining rights that are currently afforded to all State employees. My husband is a State employee--this affects us. The teachers that educate my children are State employees--this affects us. Prison Guards? Nurses? Firefighters? Yes, yes, yes. It is the topic of conversation everywhere you go. Entire school districts are having to cancel classes because the teachers are calling in sick.
For the moment, the final vote is stalled because all elected Democrats (and a couple of Republicans) are refusing to attend the session, which leaves them without a quorum. Juvenile? Maybe, but this whole announcement came less than a week ago---there needs to be time to process what it is this ONE man has decided is right for all of Wisconsin.
Sorry to get all political--not usually my style, I know! It's kind of big news though folks =) I promise that I'll be back to my "regular" blogging tomorrow. In the meantime, I've attached a couple of pictures from the Capitol building---25,000 protesters were there today....

I Remember...

...as so many others do where they were, what they were doing, and wondering "why" on this day 8 years ago. I was driving to work and the news on the radio said that a plane had crashed into one of the towers of the World Trade Center. It seemed to be maybe a small personal-type plane that had had some sort of accident. I said something about it when I got to work, and not long after that more news on the radio was reporting that another plane had hit the other tower and it was certainly no accident. My boss' daughter was in the air that day, she was flying to Newark to catch a connecting flight for a vacation abroad. Needless to say, her flilght was grounded, but until we heard where and that she was safe, it was a tense time. Kurt happened to have the day off and spent it glued to the TV (no children were neglected--the little boys weren't born yet and the big kids were in school!) so when I got home I told him I knew he had seen it all, but all I'd had was radio traffic so we spent the night channel-surfing in stunned silence.
I remember blood donors everywhere rolling up their sleeves to give a pint. In New York alone over 36,000 pints were collected. 258 pints were actually used.
I remember the pictures of hospitals with staff waiting in full garb at the ER doors ready and waiting for the patients and victims to arrive for treatment. And how un-busy those teams were.
I remember the face of President Bush as an aide leaned over to whisper in his ear to tell him of the attacks. The President paused with the children's story book in his hands as he listened.
I remember the crushed police cars and fire engines parked outside of the scene.
I remember the walls of fliers and photos placed by family members desperate for news of their loved ones who had left for work that mornings.
I remember seeing the first casualty of the FDNY being carried away from the scene on a chair by his brothers. The chaplain for the department.
I remember seeing countless news clips about Mayor Giuliani attending funeral after funeral for the fallen rescuers. Many accounts put that number at 200.
I remember reading articles about the wives of victims who were expecting children that will never know their fathers. A small number of those children had fathers who didn't even know they were on the way.
I remember the CEO of Cantor Fitzgerald saying "700 families. Cantor Fitzgerald lost 700 families today"
I remember seeing firefighters running into those buildings as citizens were running out.
I remember firefighters stopping their search and rescue efforts just long enough to receive communion stemming from a brothers funeral.

I remember...