Hurricane Sandy: Home Sweet Home!

Yay! We're HOME! It feels so good. I was getting so anxious last night I decided to grab a luggage cart and pack it up for the morning. They only had 3 carts (I felt so sneaky!) haha. So we woke up at 7:30 this morning and got ready and headed downstairs to pack up the car. Even though we couldn't be back at housing until 12, we were packed and ready by 9:30. Noah and I went to breakfast and then left around 10:15. We made it early, so we stopped off and did a little grocery shopping. Driving home, I was feeling a little emotional. Not knowing what to expect and just feeling extremely lucky we weren't hit the way other parts of New Jersey were hit. I am so grateful for just having electricity!
So on the drive I didn't see much damage except for branches on the ground. A little water on the side of the parkway but nothing too noticeable. Driving into Cape May, if I didn't know there was a hurricane, I wouldn't have noticed a difference. Cape May still looked beautiful! BUT, once I got down to the beach area, there was more damage. As I said in the last blog, there was a good amount of sand covering each end of Beach Avenue. The west end was almost cleared but the east end was still packed with sand. So here is what you all have been waiting for! LOL

I did a quick drive around housing, and I think we might have the worst exterior. And from the response I got from the maintenance guys, I'm pretty sure I'm right :)

 Taking a drive down Beach Ave...

 Stopped to check out the west end of Beach Avenue...

We didn't walk down too far, but it looked like they may be almost done with this end.

 LOOK! Tractors!!

 

A little "pond" in the middle of the beach...

Here is a photo I saw on Facebook  (same spot as above)...

 Sitting and watching the tractors cleaning up the sand from the street...it was COLD!!

 East end of Beach Avenue. AKA my mom's favorite area!

So many beautiful homes. Obviously a lot of work to be done.

Felt bad seeing the people standing in their balconies just watching people walk around on the sand a.k.a. their street!

 (Click to view larger)

 Found a hole, not even close to the street..

 Pretty

 Hi Handsome Boy...He was loving the sand of course!

 Beach Avenue and Wilmington...

Getting it slowly cleaned up compared to this shot...

Feels good to be home! Like I said, I am extremely grateful for not only our safety, but our home. I feel so lucky to not have water damage and "minor" damage on the outside. I feel lucky to have electricity and water. Thank you AGAIN for all your thoughts and prayers :)

Loved that I got to see some of the Giants Parade today! Wish I could have been there to enjoy it but glad I could watch all the way over here! ;)

Hurricane Sandy: Hurrication in Full Force

Yesterday's hurricane was quite intense to watch on the news. As I sat in our room and watched as they said our poor little town of Cape May was about to get the eye of the storm any second, I hoped and prayed that our homes would survive. I have never felt so lucky. My friend said it the best, everyone's thoughts and prayers must have put a bubble over our homes. Although the winds were extremely high at 90mph at one point, Hurricane Sandy took a turn up north a little. Unfortunately, it had hit Atlantic City pretty bad and of course my thoughts and prayers go out to that city. But, selfish me feels extremely relieved. Not only have we heard that our homes are safe with none or minimal damage, but we get to go home tomorrow. Living the hotel life is not my way of fun. Although Noah had a good time, I look forward to getting back home to our things and our regular routine. As for Cape May the town, there is a lot of cleaning up and was declared a "disaster" this morning. The main street along the beach is no longer a street...but continuation of the beach. The storm left a layer of wet packed sand 6 feet deep down Beach Avenue. I honestly can't wait to walk the town and check out what Sandy left us. We are even so lucky to still have power!

Over here in Mt. Laurel, I really didn't feel like we were in a hurricane. The wind was intense but nothing scary. We weren't really able to go outside so we were all going a little crazy. Today, the weather was in the 40s. Very chilly but we were happy to get out. Tonight we enjoyed celebrating Halloween. We went to a couple rooms to Trick-or-Treat and then later went downstairs to do more. We gave candy to the front desk and restaurant so the kids could go Trick-or-Treating. We spent some time in the ballroom where we spread out candy and toys in the hallway and had all the kids come out (kind of like Easter). They had a blast and we parents had a pretty good time as well. 

Today was such a relief of stress. Knowing that our homes were okay and we could go home tomorrow was the best news you could give us. So we were all able to enjoy the day with ease. 

The Past 2 Days in Photos...

Mommy forgot small spoons, oops!

Who wouldn't want to eat cereal with a huge spoon? Haha.

 Lunch!

 Too fun in the room! Entertaining Noah in a hotel room is very interesting. 

Spinning on chairs, jumping off the bed, and...eating!

 So excited the Giants won the World Series! 

Noah and I made sure to sport our Giants gear both days! 

 Room Service!

Only did that once! ($$$$) lol.

 Noah refused to nap on "Hurricane Sandy Day" and ended up passing out at 5:30! 

Don't worry, woke him up after a half hour! ;)

 Playing in the Ballroom...always trying to keep the kids busy and burn off some energy

 Halloween Eve!

 Knock Knock!

 Front Desk Trick-or-Treating

 Hunting for Candy and Toys!

 Restaurant Trick-or-Treating

 Spreading out what they got!

Hurrication is almost over and we are all looking forward to going home. So all in all, we are doing well and will let you know how the town is when we get there! Hopefully my internet works when I get back ;) 

Thanks AGAIN for all your prayers, thoughts, texts, calls, messages, etc! 

Oh ya and....GO GIANTS!! WORLD SERIES CHAMPS HECK YA!!!

Hurricane Sandy: We are Safe

Well, we made it to our hotel safe and sound. Got up at 6:15 this morning to put more things upstairs. Noah was just excited to leave. I told him we were going to a hotel and we were going to carve pumpkins and go swimming and he was ready. The drive went very smoothly. We had a 5 car caravan going on and we all made it safely. We didn't hit any traffic either! We got to the hotel around 10:45 and of course our rooms weren't ready so we let the kids run around in one of the ballrooms here. For lunch we went to the McDonalds across the street where they had a big play structure. As much as I am not a fan of those things, because who knows how dirty they are, Noah had a blast and I didn't want to leave because he was so fun to watch. He would go all the way to the top and go down the big swirly slide no problem! He's such a big boy! Finally around 1:30 we were able to get our room. The Bellman who helped was very nice and patient with us. We had a TON of stuff. We are all settled in our room. I unpacked us as if we were staying a while! It's a perfect room for us with a nice little spot to play.

 Car Packed and Ready...It was pretty windy, that's what that face is ;) 

 Noah's Room with ALL his toys and the dinner chairs haha. 

At least part of our dining set won't get ruined :-/

Car all Packed up! I wishhhhh I took a photo of the Bellman rolling our stuff up. 

The cart was PACKED! LOL. Over packer over here! ;)

The only photo I took with my phone.

 Our Room. This will be the last Noah will sleep in a hotel crib. He just barely fits! But he's fast asleep now so doing well! Our room is perfect. A view of the parking lot, so I can watch my car and hope it doesn't get destroyed lol. Great spot to play with toys. Refrigerator for milk...and pickles :) King size comfy bed, and so on!

 Talking to Daddy, saying Goodnight!

Here's a video taken this morning at 8:30am on Beach Avenue (a mile from our house, by the beach). Hadn't even started raining yet. So sad and scary. 

This photo was put on facebook. It's just down the street from our house.

And an UPDATE....

(Click to View Larger)

As of now, we have been informed that there has been no damage to Coast Guard Housing. 

Lets just keep praying that it stays that way.

Thank you again for all your prayers, messages, calls, texts, etc. 

Noah and I are doing just fine. The fear of not knowing how our house really is is tiring, stressful, and scary. But the fact that Greg is doing well, we are safe and Noah is happy as a clam is all that matters.

We have to keep reminding ourselves that they are just things which we can replace, but you can't replace Noah and Melissa, so we are happy that we are in a nice hotel with supportive friends, safe and sound!

GO GIANTS!!!!!!

Hurricane Sandy

Oh Hurricane Sandy, how much I strongly dislike you. :) At first, it was exciting and crazy that we may be getting evacuated and would be witnessing my first hurricane. But after watching all this news and the weather channel, it is pretty scary. So everyone is wondering how we are doing. Well, watching the Weather Channel all day everyday gives you a major headache. And the thought of the "unknown" the past few days has been killing me. Yesterday the county of Cape May issued a mandatory evacuation for Sunday by 4pm and at that time, we had no clue when we, meaning us Coastie families, were to be evacuated from housing. Finally around 7pm we found out that we had to be out by Sunday at 9pm. I found that to be odd. But since then, they have changed it from 9pm, to 4pm, to 2pm, to checking on us at 8am to make sure we are getting ready to get out. It's a little stressful when everything keeps changing and there are all these people who are hearing different things. My head is spinning!
So again, how am I doing? I have a lot of emotions going on right now. Mainly they are negative. I am mainly sad because the hurricane is going to hit Cape May dead on which means we are going to be getting about 8 feet of rain. This means...housing will be flooded. I am sad because I have a little furniture that means a lot to me in this house, and if it's ruined I will honestly be devastated. We have a lot of nice furniture given to us by Greg's grandparents. Our couches (although I do hate the color) are only 2 years old. I worry about our TV, because it's awesome lol. But obviously I'm not "capable" of carrying it up the stairs. It is on a stand so hopefully it will be okay. I know we have renters insurance and that's what everyone keeps saying that it's fine, but that means going through the insurance company and dealing with them which could take forever! I just want all our stuff to be okay. I know I am jumping the gun here and housing may not flood but ahhh! I'm frustrated that I had to throw all my food away in my refrigerator because our electricity will be turned off tomorrow. Although I did take photos for insurance purposes. We are moving in December and I obviously don't want to buy all over again! And last but certainly not least, I'm feeling lonely without Greg here. I have great support here and a lot of people want to help, but it's not the same. The support from a husband is so comforting. I can handle carrying everything upstairs, helping Noah around the house, packing up the house, but just having Greg here would make things a whole lot easier (sorry babe!). But he is doing well, and obviously concerned for us. I feel lucky that we get to talk to him every day after work. It's so nice that he is back in the states!!
On a positive note, we are leaving tomorrow morning for Mt. Laurel (near Philadelphia). I feel extremely lucky to have so many friends who stick together. Our rooms are hopefully going to be all near each other and it should be a great time. There is an indoor pool for the kids, we are all bringing lots of food, and Tuesday night we are hoping to throw the kids a little Halloween party. I am bringing our pumpkins because Noah and I haven't carved ours yet. I honestly think it is going to be a great time! The weather in the Philadelphia area is suppose to be "Tropical Storm" weather so we are all hoping our cars end up okay!!

So here is what our wonderful friend Sandy is up to as of now until next week. Meteorologists seem to still be guessing the exact route of Sandy but this is what they have for now. (Click to view larger)

I've started to pack the car already, but here is "couple" other things I have set to go.

I probably over-packed but I would rather over-pack than not.

A box and bag of food. There is suppose to be power outages so I had to pack canned foods, water, snacks, flashlight, blankets, etc)

 Our closet is filling up with stuff from downstairs. 

We had a lot of our wedding glassware and gifts in boxes in our pantry so those are all stacked to the left. Good thing for a big closet! ;)

 Suitcases and box of important paperwork that we don't want to lose ;)

I had to put the BOB upstairs because I would die if something happened to it! HAHA! 

Some of Noah's toys have been moved upstairs, the rest will tomorrow. Our dinner chairs will also be moved upstairs tomorrow. But wow, looking at our house without toys, it's so boring! haha! 

Thank you for all your prayers, messages, comments, texts, phone calls, etc!!

I will do my best to update how we are doing. 

They do have free WiFi at the hotel!

GO GIANTS!!!!!