September 10 - 18, 2005

(Remember to click on the pictures to see them larger)

First let's start with a pic of Logan, Jacob, Gran and Papa.


Next, this was an interesting week. This was the week of Hurricane Ophelia. For those of you who don't live here in Carteret County, you may be thinking what was the big deal with Hurricane Ophelia. I mean this year we have seen the destruction of Katrina and Rita. While Ophelia was only a category one storm (compared to Katrina as a category 4), she was definitely nothing to sneeze at. It was a miserable time for Mitch and I even though we were very blessed and came out with only minor damage. Ophelia was a very slow storm and she battered us from early afternoon on Wednesday through Thursday morning. Mitch and I were both up most of the night because we couldn't sleep due to the howling winds hitting the front of the house. We lost power at 5pm on Wednesday and it was turned back on (but only partly - one of the phases was out for us and several neighbors) at around 5pm on Friday, and finally it was fully back on Saturday morning. Thankfully we had a generator to get our fridge, freezer and some other essentials through. We spent Wednesday night listening to the radio and various people calling in to describe damage and flooding. It felt like Isabel all over again, except we felt safe from flooding, but we spent a lot of time worrying about friends and neighbors in South River. We also spent a great deal of time watching the crazies who were out driving on Harkers Island Road. I can't believe how many people were out. At one point we noticed people kept slowing in front of our neighbors house and going off in their yard. We then saw with the help of headlights that there was a tree down on the road. Later you could tell the ones who had been driving awhile versus the ones who had just gone out - the ones who had been out awhile kept normal speed and went around it, others would slow to a dead stop, think about it and finally go around the tree. Thankfully most of the community was spared, but other areas in the county were hit hard. One restaurant in Salter Path even lost the whole backside of it's building. Finally on Thursday, the winds began to die down. I checked out our house, talked with mom and dad, and it seemed like all was fine. We lost a few shingles on the house (mainly on the upstairs dormer window), a few shingles on the small shed. A lot of limbs and all the pears from the pear tree and the pecan trees. A small piece of siding on the garage was ripped off and a slat of our vinyl siding was pulled back. Thankfully that was all. Here are some pics of our yard after the hurricane.




The week ended on a good note though - my nephew Hunter celebrated his first birthday with a large party for family and friends. Logan also headed off to Myrtle Beach with Gran and Papa for several days. I will update with pics and stories later when Gran writes down the stories for me. I know he had a blast!

Here are some pics of Hunter's birthday party, featuring the birthday boy and then some various pics of Jacob that day.