Vacation: Day Eight (Moving Back In)

We stayed at the Comfort Inn in town on Monday and Tuesday. It was better than the Holiday Inn Express (except for the breakfast bar but who really cares?) because of free HBO! I watched a Harry Potter movie-the fifth one-and we all watched Family Guy.

The electric box got fixed and we were reconnected with our electric, cable, and phone. The tree guys are still working but they are doing good. We saved most of the food from the refridgerator and freezer and worked up stuff for the insurance. I didn't pay much attention to that part.

Everything is pretty much back to normal...except the scenery is a little different.

Vacation: Day Seven (Getting Answers)

"So, do you have cable or power?"
"Noooo....but I did stay at a Holiday Inn Express last night."

I got to stay in a motel/hotel. This isn't my first time staying at one, but it is the first that I can remember. It was okay...but the air condtioner made the room freezing with, like, arctic temperatures.

Monday morning, we went back to see the house and see what needed what first. I wasn't really part of the whole money and insurance discussions but I do know that the tree guys came and got the pine tree out of our driveway. The electric guys came and looked at the broken gooseneck on our electric box and started to fix it.

We were making progress.

Vacation: Day Six (The Damage)

The pine tree in front of our home snapped about twenty feet up, falling across our driveway and snapping our electric, cable, and phone lines. There were scattered branches fallen all around the front and side of our house and garage. The nursing home next door was flooded and evacuated. The reports say the water from the storms was at three inches in forty-five minutes.

When you walk around to the back yard you can see our maple sorta kinda split in half with branches twenty feet up laying on the garage threatening to fall at any moment. The partial trunk laying in the yard clipped the guttering and the deck but, thankfully, there were no holes in the house.

No one was home when this happened, not even our dog. No one was hurt. We kept having to tell ourselves this.

Vacation: Day Five (Early Morning)

I was alarmed by the sound of crying about forty minutes after I went to bed. It was my mom who had just gotten a call from my dad. While he was at work, a tornado went through and knocked down quite a few trees and snapped all of our electric lines. He needed us home ASAP. Somehow we all managed to get through about four more hours until we called Megan's dad (my uncle). We went over there and he said 'of course I will take you home.' Perfect example of family always being there for family. We packed up in the next hour and left.

We stopped at a Denny's and ate. I wasn't very hungry andd I didn't like the hashbrowns but the eggs were good as were the biscuits. After Grama nazied the Strawberry Jam away from my uncle, we left. We were home in record time because we took an alternate route.

We got there...saw the damage...and were shocked.

Vacation: Day Four

I woke up Saturday morning and went to Meg's house. It was pouring down rain so we didn't swim...boo...but we stayed inside and helped my aunt make a cake for the cookout. My mom came to get me soon after that to take me to a completely different uncle's house (I have a very big family on that side, btw) and talked. Well, mom talked...I sat there...more talking...talk,talk,talkity talk, talk...okay done. Mom and Grama went off to go to church (catholic...I have baptist views and didn't want to go) and I played video games with my other cousin, Logan.

My other uncle (Meg's dad) came and picked me up, picked up my aunt and Meg, took Meg to the Subway where she works, and then we went to the store. We looked around and then I met an ex-boyfriend of my mom's...that was...interesting. After we got out of the store, we went to a restaurant where my aunt, uncle, cousin, his girlfriend, my great aunt, Grama, and Mom all ate. We got done there and went back to Grama's. I read while watching TV and then we all went to sleep...

for about 40 minutes...

Vacation: Day Three

Meg and I woke up and got ready to go to my aunt's house to see my little cousin, Nathan. He used to call me Cukoo because he couldn't say Cortny. But now he doesn't because he so grown up. I played a Wii for the first time EVER and SUCKED. Then Grama, Mom, Meg, Nathan and I all went to Megan's house for a swim. Nathan doesn't like to get his face wet, but he did this time which is apparently a first. We swam for a while and then everyone kinda fell asleep. My aunt got home and rushed my mom, Megan and me off to turn in 4-H stuff again. On the way home we got pizza and all of us (including my uncle, now) ate.

Nathan and his parents were leaving as we pulled in the drive with the pizza. We ate and then all the adults watched 'Man of the Year' with Robin Williams. Meg and I went upstairs and played Cranium...with only two people...difficult, but not impossible.

I went home (aka, Grama's house) alone, ready for the cookout that was supposed to happen in two days but never got to see it...

Vacation: Day Two

So when we woke up on the second day, the first thing we did was send dad off towards home. He left early with the hopes of avoiding the construction. We then waited for someone to wake up (cough, cough, Grama...) and when they did, we left for the Honeycreek Mall. First we had to stop so my grandmother could get her hair done. It's a nice little shop right out of a home and it's cozy enough to read the whole time. Grama also had some shirts to return and I wanted to look at books. I ended up getting some stuff from Bath and Body Works. It was lotion and body wash called Butterfly Flower that smelled really good in the store but after you get it home and use it, it just smells like citrus and banana peel...grrr. I also got the book Shadow Kiss by Rachelle Mead and this Harry Potter wristband with the Hogwarts crest on it. Did you know that the motto etched across the bottom of the crest means 'Never tickle a sleeping dragon' in English? Well, it does...my dad looked it up. As we were getting ready to leave (through Sears) my grandmother and mom saw some swimsuits so I obviously veered off towards the clearance racks in the juniors section...I love distractions. Well, I found this awesome shirt. It's all black with some sort of gray lacy pattern on it and the logo is a rainbowish colored peace sign with the word 'Peace' written above it...regular $19.99...I got it for $7.99! Yay! Cuz' I loved it!

So after the mall was food, Burger King. Always an adventure because when Grama orders she says 'hambooger' in stead of 'hamburger' and I always mumble the correct word under my breath while she orders. It's funnier when it's a big order and someone else is in the backseat with me. After we ate, we went to my uncle's house and I got to see my cousin, Megan. We laughed, we cried, we swam, we ate. I stayed there while my mom and grandma went to this school thing of Grama's. Megan had 4-H stuff to turn in and I went with her to do that and then we spent the night at Grama's. Which was funnier than usual because I pretended to be her while texting two friends of hers. They didn't know till I told and one is just so paranoid about it now.

All in all, it was a very good day. I had fun and promises of things to do while we were there...grrr to tornadoes for ruining everything...