Blizzard 2013

The Blizzard of 2013 came to Massachusetts on Friday and Saturday and dumped between 2 and 3 feet of snow on us in less than 24 hours.  They expected us to lose power, but, we were lucky and that didn't happen.

Kristen, on the other hand, was subject to some frustration as she was stuck at work for 24 hours as other nurses were unable to get into work.

 Due to the 60 mph winds, snow drifted up against the house and made drifts that were over 6 ft high.  It drifted up against the house, trees and our garage doors.  It even piled up on the doorknob as you could see here when I opened the door in the morning.

 Here was one view of the pile in front of the garage door.  The perspective is lacking, but it at least gives a hint of the snow up against the house.

The front of the house is a winter wonderland.  Certianly not conducive to soccer despite the net still being out.

This was the parking lot at Kristen's work when we picked her up.  It gives you an idea of what she would have been dealing with if we hadn't dropped her off and picked her up.

Jacob's Birthday Party

It was Super-Bowl Sunday yesterday, but for the Moffitt household, 3 of Jacob's friends and some other family friends, it was Jacob's 8th birthday party at Coco-Keys, an indoor water park about 45 minutes from our house.



 

I think that all the boys had a great time, though the drive was long and Jacob really enjoyed hanging out with all three of his friends.  They prettty much all stayed together the whole time.

We were lucky to have Jamie's parents, John and Sara, come with us and spend some time hanging out with us in between chasing after children.  It made for an even more memorable event for all of us that we could have a couple more friends to hang out with for the special occasion.

We even got to make it home, after dropping off the kids, in time for the fun part of the SuperBowl...as San Francisco rallied to make it a game.  Overall, it was a really fun and enjoyable day and hopefully a memorable birthday party for Jacob.

As far as Jacob now being 8, we are really looking forward to this year and hoping that he ultimately is able to bridge the gap from his more baby-ish ways to being more mature.  We know it is a difficult balancing act for him...being between Jaden and Jude is not an easy place to be....but we hope that he just tries to be himself and get attention for good things rather than acting more like Jude to get attention.

Basement finished!



Quite a difference!



Here are just a couple of pictures to show the basement now that it is finished.  It is not furnished again, but it is finished with construction...which is very exciting. 

We are now going to start pulling things from the POD and trying to make it into a livable space again.

You can see that we have carpet now instead of wood and that in the process of the repair, we renovated as well and defined the space more.  So, we now have a couple of closets for storage and we even invested in a large screen TV for the entertainment area.  Everyone is excited for us to be down there and enjoy a movie night together!

Overall, not only did we end up with great contractors who did a great job, and we ended up with a great space, but the whole experience was helpful to us in a number of ways.

• We found out that we would likely have had another flood in the future because 2 pipes were in bad shape in the ceiling.
• Our kids realized that a bad thing happening is not the end of the world.  In fact, it can be turned into a positive.
• It is helping us realize that much more how much stuff we have and how much of it WE DON'T NEED...so, that is definitely on our minds as we wrestle with what to bring back in vs get rid of...
• Great appreciation for the space again now that we have it...I think for awhile anyway it will really help us appreciate our home and that we have these living spaces that afford us great things.  I continue to pray that we will use it as God wants us to and to appreciate it for the blessing it is to us.

Jaden's First Band Concert



Jaden is dressed up WITH someplace to go :)



Really enjoyed tonight as Jaden was in both Chorus and Band performances for the first time in middle school.  He has done very well with his saxophone despite not ever practicing at home.  He definitely seems to have a natural ability that we will try to encourage.  Ultimately, if he enjoys it, I am sure he will start to practice at home too.

Here is one of the pieces that the band played.  I think they did a very nice job.  A vast majority of the kids had never played an instrument before the beginning of the year...so, this is their first concert. 

And this is one of the songs that the chorus performed.  Jaden is tough to see in the video, but if you zoom in just to the right of the director on the second row, you will be able to see him.