Home, Sweet Home

Since I last posted, life has returned to semi-normalcy around here. Darren stayed home until Friday, and he cleaned up the yard and the house. Our power came back on around 5:30 Wednesday evening, and the landline came back on intermittently after that. Cable and internet are also back up, yay! Darren's office had damage, so he is working from home indefinitely. His company is looking for new office space, and in the meantime, rented some temporary space where they will meet every Thursday. We'll save money on gas and tolls, and won't have to wait until 6:30 for him to get home each day. It will be hard to go back to him being gone all the time. Or, all this togetherness might turn out to be bad...

The kids and I had a nice time with my parents, even though they are in the middle of a stressful bathroom remodel. Zach was able to spend some time with his cousin, we did some shopping, and my dad took us fishing at a catfish farm. Zachary caught his first fish, and was very excited. The kids and I also went out to dinner with an old friend from high school, and it was nice to catch up with him.

Darren came in Friday night, and we decided to go ahead and celebrate Zoe's birthday, a week early, while we were there. We spent Saturday preparing and shopping, then had everyone over that afternoon. I was a little disappointed in the turn-out; we had it there because we thought more of Darren's family members would come. It turned out to be his sister, her husband, and their daughter, and Mom and Dad's neighbors. It rained during the party, and Zach and his cousin Maggie had a great time playing in the rain. Zoe did a great job of smashing her cake, and ate an amazing amount for such a little person. We may do something small at our house this weekend, since we did invite people over.

Saturday night, we fried the fish that we caught Friday (plus extra fish that was store-bought). We also had homemade potato chips and hush puppies, and it was so yummy. Zach even ate some, so we'll have to fry fish at our house sometime soon. Yesterday, we left Mom and Dad's around noon, stopped to buy some cracklins (fried pork skin), and made it home around 4:45. There were no restrooms available near the state line, and there were several places where we saw power trucks and tents set up on our way back.

Once we made it home, we unloaded the car, including all of the laundry that my sweet mom washed and folded for us, then scrubbed out the fridge and freezer. We went to the grocery store to stock up on essentials, and picked up a pizza for dinner. I put a tired baby to bed, and Darren, Zach and I watched some TV. It was so nice to be able to do that!

Today, Zachary had school, and Zoe went back to her babysitter. I don't know when I will start work again; the church still doesn't have power. My classes start again tomorrow, and I am trying to get as much work done for my online classes as possible. With all of the new TV shows starting this week, I know I won't do a whole lot of school work. I do have a test this weekend in my Anatomy and Physiology class, so I'll have to carve out some time to study for that. My birthday is Wednesday, but finances are limited at the moment, so there won't be much of a celebration. I got an iPhone about a month ago, and that was my present. I love it, so I am okay with that. More later...