Sandy Sadness...

The second biggy that was going on in our lives and hearts over the last week or so...Hurricane Sandy. I am a Jersey girl...well, actually a NYC girl and Jersey girl all wrapped up into one. I spent the first half of my childhood growing up in NYC and the second half living in the suburbs of the city in Northern NJ.

My summers as a child were spent on Long Island, NY and then later, once we moved to NJ, on the Jersey Shore. Since our oldest was about 3, we have been spending a week each summer at the Shore on Long Beach Island. Beach Haven, our town, is my happy place. Our week there each year is our Christmas gift from my mom to my sisters and our families. All of our children (and us) live for this week. We are all relaxed and my mom is in her element. Others, might be confused - it isn't the most beautiful or glamorous place - but it is our happy place and nothing is like our time there or all the memories we share from our weeks together there.

I have spent so much time over the last two weeks watching youtube videos, googling photos of the hurricane and the damage at the shore. My heart breaks and the tears fall. Long Beach Island, like so many other places along the NJ (and NY) coast was completely underwater. To see the photos of all that has been lost and the damage and destruction - well, it has rocked me. Not sure we will even be able to go back next year. The photo at the top of our blog (at the time of this writing) is taken on the front porch of our rental home. Even that porch is our happy place.

My heart breaks for the families who have lost lives, homes, belongings, security in NJ and NY. My prayers are for their safety, restoration, and strength as they face the cleanup, the rebuilding, and the changes. Lord, please bless the people of the shore.

As we arrive to the island every summer, we all wait to be greeted by the LBI shack. It is a little shack 

(was originally a duck hunting club or something from way back in the 1920's). Over the years it has been many things and has been deserted for quite some time. When we started going to the beach there, it had a roof. Every year it gets more and more run down. Each year, John jokes that it's our beach house...and each year we all cheer when we see it.

The shack is the subject of many photographs and paintings found on the island. It is sort of a symbol. A symbol that you have arrived...that you can let out a long relaxing breath - that the long drive to the beach is over (it's quite a trip from Virginia with 6 noisy kids, just sayin'). It symbolizes vacation and family time and all the hopes the start of vacation holds. This summer as we passed it I took the picture above. I think it's the first time I ever took a picture of it. It is along the highway road that takes you onto the island. It sits in a field by the bay - alone, next to a billboard (which sits to the right, but not in the photo).

When the news starting coming out about the flooding, of course we worried for the wonderful beach houses, the amusement park that we visit each year on the island, our beach house and all our regular haunts. But my thoughts turned to the shack as well. Would it make it. There were actually people tweeting about the chances of the shack's ability to survive. There were reports throughout the weeks that it was still standing, that it was battered but still there.

By the end of last week, the final word on the shack's condition surfaced. It broke my heart.

It is gone.

 Rest in peace little shack. I'm gonna miss you...

I am grateful that my parents are doing well after the storm. Tho' they don't live at the Jersey shore, they still live in Northern NJ - they have only just today (nearly 2 weeks later) gotten their power back. They describe my hometown as a disaster zone - trees and power lines down everywhere. Streets undriveable, no heat, no power, no phone, no internet.  They stuck it out - they are very strong, independent, spunky 80 year olds (sorry mom, just trying to make a point here). They slept by their gas fireplace, wore gloves and sweaters, and got by for the first week. By the second week, they relented to staying in a hotel. They are glad to be back in their home, with power and heat. But their town will be cleaning up for a long time to come (and they live about an hour inland from the shore). Lord, please bless the people of New Jersey.

How to help :   Donate to the Red Cross   http://www.redcross.org/hurricane-sandy

Website about the LBI Shack including a short documentary link  http://www.savetheshack.com/

Days of Summer...

Ah...summer has been fabulous this year! We are enjoying each other more, doing more, and I am loving having all my kids here while life is carefree and fairly schedule-free. Personally, I am dreading the school schedule and daily grind that is fast approaching...

All four of the older kids were blessed to be able to attend youth conferences. The younger boys attended CIY-MIX in Knoxville TN, and the older two attended CIY-MOVE in Cleveland, TN. They traveled with our youth group, spent a week away from home, learned and worshiped lots, and had tons of fun. They were blessed to be able to do these trips through financial gifts the church received. All four spent their Thursday mornings this summer, serving at the church - cleaning, fixing, gardening, babysitting, etc in exchange for being able to attend the conferences. All around a win - they really learned to appreciate the gift of getting to attend (during a year when we are really trying to save), as well as felt real pride in the hard work they provided to God and our church each Thursday.

The little girls attended several VBS programs around town, took swimming lessons, and Kulate attended a few weeks of summer school. We hung out at the pool and the playground, and did crafts and lots of reading. We also had a great start to summer with a much needed trip to the Snell family and cousins up in Maryland. We always celebrate the July 4th with them in style with the best fireworks ever in PopPop's driveway!

Drew got to do some extra fun things this summer. He went "on tour" with his band (Raintree) and went up the East coast playing at house parties, festivals, and a few restaurants. They are a group of 5 extremely talented guys who compose their own music (most of it I like, some, well, not so much). They are wonderful guys and tho' I totally trust them all, this was a tough thing for me - to let Drew go with just a small amount of his own money, in a car with 5 guys and a trailer hitched on back. They had some idea of a plan and some booked shows, but everything else wasn't planned. They spent a few nights with relatives (my parents included), a few at hotels, and a few with new friends they met, and two in sleeping bags in a Wal-Mart parking lot (EE-GADS!!!). They went from VA all the way up to MA. So proud of my boy (and me too for not freaking out too much and letting him "follow his dream"). Thank you Lord for your protection.  He also got to do another fun short trip with his girl friend Zoe and her family - up to visit her relatives and the beach in DE.

We have recently returned from the family's favorite week of the year...the beach...the Jersey shore (THANKFULLY it is NOTHING like the Snooky's Jersey shore). We have gone to Long Beach Island now for 12 years. Having grown up in NJ and going "down-a-shore" for most of my childhood, my memories of our times at the beach are some of my happiest. So it is for my kids.

We go to the beach because my mom is AWESOME! She "gives" us this week each year. She arranges and pays for our house and provides us with towels, sheets, papergoods for the kitchen and always some wonderful foods she has lovingly prepared before. Spending this week with her each year is so special (especially this year - she just turned 80 and is just as energetic as ever). This year there were 17 of us at the house - other years there have been more but we were missing two of the husbands due to their work. The house is huge and the noise and laughter is huge and the memories will last forever!

God gave us glorious warm, sunny, breezy weather and we forgot about phones, and emails, and schedules, and worries, and just played in the ocean like little kids, built castles, rode rides at the Fantasy Island Amusement Park, celebrated Kulate's 6th bday, and enjoyed tea and coffee and long chats on our wonderful front porch. It was heavenly.

This year we ended our vacation with a two day stay at my mom's after the beach along with my sister and her family. Our little girls had never been there and were just as excited about seeing Grandma and Grandpa's house as they were going to the beach! 

**Notice my mom over our shoulders! (that's actually a reflection of her in the mirror behind us!). lol.

We spent one day in NYC (an outing I had long wanted to do) with my brother-in-law Jimmie as our driver (of our big ugly van) and tour guide. Little did we know that he is as good as any taxi driver there and can spout off history and knowledge about everything in the city as he makes his way through the crazy traffic. We could never have seen as much as we did without his help. It was a whirlwind tour of the city - we saw all the highlights without all the walking. We even saw a tv actor walk right by our car (Michael Emerson from Lost).

The most meaningful part of the tour to me was the 9/11 memorial. I haven't been back to the city since the event and it was so emotional to me to be there. Having been born in the city and spending my first nine years living in the city (Greenwich Village), I am a true New Yorker. It made me cry. The place is very peaceful and will be beautiful when all finished. Truly a place of beauty in a place that had seen such devastation. 

Before leaving mom's we went out to breakfast at a local NJ diner. Look who showed up and happily agreed to a picture? Chris Christie, governor of NJ (and keynote speaker at this year's upcoming Republican Convention).

After about a week back home in VA, we were able to journey back up to Maryland again to meet up  with my sister (who had stayed at my mom's for the week after our NYC tour) and her kids, at my other sister's home. The purpose of our trip was to visit DelGrosso Amusement Park in PA for a day. What a cool place - like something from another time. We spent half the day at the amusement rides, and several hours at the water park. Soooooo fun!!

Janie traveled back to VA with us as they were ultimately on route to  FL where they live. We got to have another few days with them (as well as with Jill's two older sons who came back home with us). We spent the days swimming, shopping, playing games, and eating! Jill made the trip down with her two little ones for a night to retrieve the boys. We had one more night all together before everyone had to return home to face the inevitable end of vacations, playing, and summer. Bleh... do I really have to  start to think about fall and plan our school and all this next school year will hold? 

Thank you God for family and summer and vacation and the beach. We are so blessed...

Bye-Bye Summer...

Waaaaaaa....I am always so sad when Summer is over. Even tho' I am thrilled to put away the pool stuff and start wearing my pants (yes, I am at that stage when I much rather cover my legs with pants than to expose my "mom legs" to the world), I yearn for the feeling that I have just knowing it is summer.

Every year I tell my kids that we will be doing school throughout the summer as it seems like a good idea so that we don't lose the math skills, etc, etc. They now laugh when I start in on the merits of year round schooling. They know me too well... It is me - even more than them - that can't wait for the start of summer, to whip out the flip flops and "chill" - they know all too well who will cave in and say "eh, let's just skip it this summer..."

This summer was a bit tough in some ways, too much down time, too much heat, but we did manage to have fun...gonna post some pics of the highlights. The truth is, that some of our fun summer moments went without cameras or photos...bye-bye summer!