Hurricane Irene

It's pretty ironic that we lived in Virginia for over 3 yrs, we move to the gulf, where Hurricanes congregate, and instead one slams Virginia. I felt bad that my mom and brothers were still there, and couldn't afford to leave, but I am glad everything is almost back to normal. Sadly, an 11 yr old boy was killed when a tree fell through his apartment just south of Williamsburg...The power outtages were wide-spread, but I kept checking the dominion power site for my mom and saw how quickly they were working on getting their 2million customers back up to speed---and happily, it was restored for my mom today. She said there were lots of trees down, but the flooding wasn't too bad. She thankfully lives next to a store which had a generator and a starbucks and an atm lol...needless to say, they hiked up their prices and made a killing. While other stores gave out free ice and water. I can't imagine not having eletricity with my babies....the only time we went without electricity for a few days was in upstate NY during an ice storm...while John went to work, Susan and I were in the apartment, where you could literally see your breath. We eventually decided to stay in a motel one night, and then head west to the indian casino lol. So easy when you don't have babies!

   When we buy a house next spring, we will be buying further north so we won't be in any Hurricane zones...but for now everyone says once we get through september, we are in the clear...fingers crossed- one more month!

  I just heard from our renter and saw that one of our huge trees in the back unfortunately split in half (they are about a foot and a half wide...) and demolished a neighbor's shed, their fence, and another neighbor's fence. After reading extensive stories and legalese online about this very common occurence, as far as I can see, my neighbor's home insurance should cover it, especially since they are healthy trees which otherwise wouldn't have fallen, but for an act of God. We'll see..I don't know either of those neighbors so I'll wait to hear from the insurance companies. We were going to have all those trees taken out when we first moved in because they are right on our property line and I wanted a fenced in yard, but we got a quote for about $1000 EACH tree. So we went without a fence and kept our dogs leashed. I am so glad no one was hurt, but it's pretty scary. Well, I am going out there in October to get a new tenant in for the next term, so we'll see what damage is left then and talk to property managers about everything.