I've been a bad blogger :( thanks to Irene

 Goodnight Irene

I apologize for being a bad blogger. I have been posting hops and socials that I see, but I haven't been doing my usual daily blog.

Last week was busy traveling all over and this weekend was Hurricane Irene! Now my daughter's middle name is Irene, she was named for her paternal grandmother who passed away when my husband was only 9 years old. When we were dating, I remember he said if he ever had a daughter, she would be named after his mom Irene. Well I honored that wish :) I was putting together all these names with Irene and then it hit, Megan Irene! I really like that name, don't you?

Megan was feeling special since this hurricane was named after her, but unfortunately it was one of the most devastating hurricanes that probably hit the New Jersey area. 

We were preparing and waiting for her to hit.  Got a lot of rain and it was very scary.  We were lucky not to lose power, but many surrounding streets did.  We were also lucky not to have any other damage, no trees fell and no water damage.  We helped neighbors and friends, in fact our generator is still at a friend's mom's house.  Many still do not have power and am horrified by some of the local neighborhood flooding.  The town of Cranford is literally like Venice.  I heard the National Guard was called in to help.

It was weird, the damage and power outages were 'spotty'.  Not sure how long it is going to take for some of the areas around here to recover.  Went for a walk around our neighborhood and couldn't believe all the trees that were down and uprooted.  A house down the street had the tree fall on the roof, it looked pretty bad.  I feel very lucky, we have had a lot of water damage during storms in the past, we've done all we could to keep the basement dry.  No trees on our property, but we are surround by big, old oaks!

The worse damage is at the Jersey shore.  That beach is our pride and joy.  Many cut their vacations short and many restaurants and bars near the beach were very damaged.

I did monitor Facebook (couldn't do much else!) and the outreaching of friends and neighbors was heartwarming!  Everyone volunteering to help, checking on friends and family.  Those without power using their phones to post updates.  The pictures posted were unbelievable!  New Jersey had an earthquake and hurricane in the same week, unprecedented!  That's it, we are done for the crazy weather, right?  Here are some Asbury Park and Belmar pics...want to hit the shore Friday and see how everything is.
Hope all my east coast friends are ok.
luv,
  mare