2 Weddings and a Hurricane

Wow, was this week a busy one!  It was such a crazy, chaotic, busy week that I wasn't sure we'd make it through.  But we did! At the end of the week after much of the craziness, we had Greg and Kirsten's wedding Friday evening.  What a phenomenal time I had!  Love being witness to two people who are so truly in love!  I was in the photographer role and I am hoping I did a good job.  I haven't had but a second to upload the pictures on my computer and begin to edit.  Fingers crossed that I did my job well and captured the gorgeousness of these two love birds!  Saturday was Layla's Preschool Open House.  She really enjoyed playing with all the new, fun and exciting toys.  From there we headed home to get ready for cousin Jillian's wedding.  Another gorgeous bride and a fun evening amongst family.  We headed to 1149 in between the ceremony and reception and had ourselves a little party!  LOL  We don't get to do this often enough and it was a great time.  The reception was a lot of fun and it was so great to see the family I don't often get to see.  I hope both Greg and Kirsten and Jillian and Ronnie have wonderful, exciting, loving and healthy lives.  May they always see the stars in each other's eyes.  Hopefully I will have some pictures of the weddings edited and up soon! :)

Yesterday, well yesterday came good ol' Irene.  Not my mother, but the hurricane.  We were prepared for the worst at our house and somehow we skimmed by with just a few broken tree limbs.  Our power stayed on and the one tree we have left, did not fall through our living room like we thought it would.  We were lucky.  Many people were not.  My parents are still without power.  There are trees and electrical wires down everywhere.  I have seen a lot of cars crushed by uprooted trees.  I can't imagine what would have happened had we gotten the storm like they once broadcasted it to come.  As a category 3 hurricane, this would have been devastating. Thankfully, she was downgraded to a tropical storm by the time she reached us. Family out on Long Island didn't fare so well.  I am praying that the flood waters recede and that they can get back to some sort of normalcy in the near future.  Most importantly, I am just glad that everyone is safe.  These pictures below are of my brother in law's parent's house out on Long Island.  They live right on a canal.  Devastating!

The word on the beach house is that it is a mess down there, but it looks as though our little piece of RCB will survive Irene.  THANK YOU!  I have to send kisses to heaven and thank Jay for that one.  I don't know how on God's earth the ocean didn't take the Coop on this one!  We can clean up messes, but we can't replace the Chicken Coop and I am grateful that we will at least have another summer to make memories.  You can see some great shots of the beach if you go on http://www.RoyCarpenters.com. 


So after weathering out the storm most of the day and finally having a chance to be nothing but LAZY, I began to prepare for Layla's big day.  Packed her lunch, backpack, extra clothes, epi pen, etc.   Labeled everything.  Found and old dress in the attic that was Hannah's for her to wear on the first day (Who had time to shop for first day of school supplies?  NOT ME!)  The dress was perfect and exactly something that Layla would wear.  We complimented it with one of our favorite Cha Cha Headbands, found closed toe sparkly pink sneakers and she was set to go.  I kept my emotions in check all day and did not lose it once.  I laid down with the girls for bedtime and all three of us fell asleep easily.  I awoke an hour later and got up to finish some last minute preparations and that's when the tears began to stream down my face.


I'm nuts.  Crazy.  I get it.  I know.  I can't explain it though.  I remember when Hannah began Preschool.  She was tired and bored of being in the office with me.  She was all over the place and needed some other children her age to be around.  At the time, she was the only baby on both sides of our families.  She was also going to a Preschool run by someone who is considered family.  It was a smooth transition and I knew she would get special care.  This is different.  Layla is perfectly content to be with me here at the office.  She loves it actually.  We watch movies and play toys, sing and dance around like crazy monkeys.  She gives me kisses and hugs the entire day and makes me laugh at her silly antics.  While Hannah was restless at the office at this age, Layla is not. She loves being here with me and is truly like my little buddy.  I just cant believe that we are at this stage with her where she is ready and able to go to Preschool.  How did almost 4 years fly by so quickly?  How are we at this point already?  What I wouldn't do to keep this little love bug in my arms and cuddled up forever.  I just pray that we can all get through these first few weeks without much to do.  I pray that her environment there is safe and that she never gets her precious little hands into any peanut butter!  Breath in breath out.  UGH!


That being said, I cried myself to sleep last night.  I woke up this morning and put my game face on.  Got her ready for school, packed the car and headed out at 8 AM.  Until... ta da!!!  The Preschool was CLOSED!  I was so consumed with her going, that I never even thought to check the news before I went to bed last night to see if it was closed due to the hurricane.  They had said at the open house, that the school never closes, to be prepared for it to be open.  I checked my email a few times during the day and nothing came through, so I just figured it was open.  WRONG!  LOL  I am thrilled!  LOL  It gives me another 2 days to spend with my princess and another 2 days for her to get this cold and asthma flare up out of her system.  THANK YOU GOD!  I needed that!  Two more days to wrap my arms my cuddle bug and soak every last bit of her up!  xo