HOMEOWNER FIRST

This week I experienced my first natural disasters as a homeowner.  This is a recap of my experience:

Natural Disaster #1: Earthquake - While I was at work during the earthquake, once I got my bearings I was genuinely concerned about my house.  Luckily...the parental unit was all on top of it.  They were able to get to my house before I was to assess the damage.  Thank the Lord the tremor was mild and the impact was a few items that fell off of the nightstand and vanity in the bedroom.

Natural Disaster #2: IRENE! - Irene was literally the bain of my existence this weekend.  And it became even moreso as it rolled through Maryland.  I decided to put my big girl panties on and stay at home by myself (in lieu of going to the parental unit's) once it was confirmed that Irene would not directly hit the area, but just cause high winds and heavy rain.  Around 7:00/8:00 the winds and rains really started to intensify.  Shortly thereafter, at approximately 8:30 my power went out.  My initial thought was "really, this early?"  I removed myself from the couch...grabbed the flashlight and a bottle of water and headed upstairs.  Thank God for the wisdom to have my phone completely charged.

I called mommy to update her on my status and went to bed.  I woke up intermittently to check on Dani, who also decided to hunker down by herself.  During one such moment...I realized no power meant my sump pump would not kick on to keep the water out of my basement and I would inevitably wake up to flooding.  I instantly went back to sleep.

I woke up the next morning to (still) no power and a basement full of about 2 inches of water.  Again I called the parental unit with an update.  Immediately daddy was on it.  A short time later the calvary parental unit was knocking at my door.  Daddy devised an ingenious plan.  He took our electrical cord and the electrical cord of my neighbor across the street (that side had power) and plugged the sump pump up and the water cleared out within a half-hour.  HE IS AWESOME! I honestly believe if I needed a mountain moved he would figure out a way to do it.

As for the power...once we dealt with the water situation I packed up some belongings and headed to their house for the day.  It was a highly productive day.  I got some internet tasks completed, washed and twisted my hair, had mommy and me movie time (we watched Jumping the Broom), and just enjoyed family time in general. 

I was praying hard all day that the Lord would restore my power (I really did not want to deal with the hassle of not having power for another day) and let me tell you...prayer does change things because at aproximately 6:30 PM my power was back up and running.

So...that is a nutshell are my first experiences with natural disasters as a homeowner.

Ms. K