who could have imagined

thursday september 8th, and i am not in school. crazy!

who would have thought that in a 2 1/2 week period of time our country would have experienced an earthquake, 2 hurricanes, a devastating fire, and a flood? and i have experienced 3 of those here in central PA!

two days before school i was in my room getting ready for the start of the year when i felt this weird rumbling. at first i thought it was the guy next door (he's pretty big so i could imagine if he was moving furniture against the wall i might feel it). but then i decided it was the roof that was shaking...no, the outside wall! i couldn't figure it out! i walked out of my room and several teachers were in the hallway asking if each other felt that. so weird. then we learned that VA had a 5.8 earthquake and we were getting the reverberations from it. an earthquake in PA! wow.

last sunday hurricane irene hit the coast of NC and moved north along the eastern seaboard. we saw quite a bit of rain, but thought that would be the end of it...then we saw our garden :( when we asked a tomato "specialist" to take a look, he pronounced it as late blight, which came in on the wings of the storm. irene killed our plans to make tomato sauce this year.

but the last two days have been the most interesting. hurricane lee (or tropical storm lee?) sent us some rain that has decided to not go away. we've been getting pummeled for the past 2 1/2 days. yesterday school let out early, and today it was canceled! crazy! some schools just started on tuesday! i've never seen anything like it. so i'll make the best of it and enjoy my day at home while praying for those who had to be evacuated.

speaking of evacuation...some friends in texas at this time are in the complete opposite extreme...they have no rain and a fire has already destroyed 600 homes. if only the rain we are getting could be transferred to them...

one thing i know in all of the craziness, and that is that God is in control. He's got a major plan in the works and I will praise Him for it and eagerly wait to see what He does. and if I don't ever see with my eyes the reason for these natural "disasters", I'll still be amazed by His goodness and love.

...and here comes...THE AMBULANCE!

yesterday was an interesting mix of work, play, and fun.

It started with a trip for breakfast (grocery shopping was on the list for the day) where I had a delectable French toast stickybun. Mmm!

I went to the garden to pick some beans and see if I could salvage any tomatoes (wiped out by late blight) then spent a lovely 3 hours prepping and blanching them.

The real story starts with the fireworks.

I rode to the fireworks in the engine (they were going to ensure safety) and was able to experience an amazing show in a front row seat. It was 10 when we were heading back to the firehouse, then home…or not. On our way, they got dispatched to a gas leak in a home in town. Thank goodness it wasn’t a fire call! We were there for nearly an hour (the non-firemen of the group - my nephew, another little boy, and myself – waited patiently in the engine). My first emergency response!

But it was when we got home that the real fun began…and the reason for the title of the blog. During our late night bowl of cereal we heard a police siren as it FLEW by our house…I mean flew! Over the radio, which my husband immediately turned on, we heard they were after someone who had been going 119mph. They lost him just past our house. We, of course, were interested and hung out outside and noted the goings on just up the street. We weren’t the only ones interested…numerous cops (state and local) all headed up this street looking for this car. While we stood near the garage, the area ambulance drove by. And then he drove by again. And again. And again. He did stop doing it after a while…instead of driving past our house, he would turn down the street right before it to make his loop. At one point my husband stated that we would let the ambulance be our guide. If it passed by one more time, he said, we’ll go in to bed. Immediately he regretted his words when what looked like the ambulance was coming one more time. Thankfully he got to stay outside a little while longer because it was just a white conversion van. ☺ We don't know the end of the story...we were tucked nicely in bed around 1:30.