TS Hanna

Tropical Storm Hanna turned out to be more of a rain event than a storm event for us here in Raleigh. Yesterday started out sunny and warm, and then around noon became cloudy. Around 1:30, mist started falling (not even rain). Mist throughout the afternoon turned to rain about 5 pm, and then rain on and off until about 5 am. No real wind to speak of, more of a breeze. The news says we've gotten about 5 inches of rain, which we did need, so that is good. Minor flooding is occuring in low level areas of Raleigh. We retained power throughout.

The coast got hit harder, with power outages, but I haven't heard about any serious damage yet. So, we're staying inside at least until this afternoon, when the sun is schedule to emerge once again.

I went to open house at the boys' school on Thursday night. I heard all good reports - they are adjusting to the new requirements of 3rd grade, making friends, and getting along well. They seem to come home very focused on completing their homework and overall happy. Homework amounts are definately manageable - a couple worksheet a night, and a spelling pre-test once a week. For Alek, it's a bit more than 2nd grade; for Ben, it's a lot less. It's been taking them between 5 and 10 minutes to get their homework done at night, and I LOVE that.

We didn't have friends over after school yesterday, but here's a video I took of the boys and their friends last Friday ... I made brownies and they ate them with ice cream and whipped cream ... pretty exciting ...

Tonight we're planning on going to church and staying for family time afterwards. We've never been able to stay before ... they eat dinner together and then have a family activity. Should be fun. Then my friend Eileen is coming over to watch The Women with me! I'm so looking forward to seeing it again ... I taped it before my surgery in April, and watched it during my recovery. It's from 1934, a Joan Crawford and Rosalind Russell movie. Very catty, and very dated! But loads of old fashioned fun ... back when movies had to tell a story and not rely on cgi. This movie is being redone and released in Nov (I think) with Meg Ryan, Candice Bergan, Annette Benning ... but I understand the story has been re-written somewhat - of course it would have to be since the original is so dated - but I'll probably go see it just to compare.

Alek is getting excited about Halloween - his Highlights magazine came yesterday and he's already pointing out all the Halloween crafts to do ... so, I'm going to have to get prepared. He says he wants to stay home and hand out candy this year and not go trick-or-treating, and Ben piped up and said he'd share half his candy with him. What a brief endearing moment of brotherly love. (have to document them when they happen ... they are so rare) HA!

I'm off to fold the laundry ... I got it all washed yesterday in anticipation of having no power today ... but we got lucky. Have a good week!

Oh, one more video ... Gary is obsessed with the mentos and coke thing, so he had to try it with FOUR mentos to see if it was better ...