Never a Dull Moment The Johnson-McCormick Family Blog ~

I have always felt like you need to go through all four seasons in a place before you really know it. When we moved to campus Braydon and I promised each other that we’d see our family through all four seasons before we made any firm proclamations about what we thought of this new life of ours. So, the snow seemed especially pronounced when it came for the first time this week.

The campus was beautiful, especially up here on the hill where we live. It was a bright white snow that stuck to the trees. Even the deer, that we see in the woods almost daily, seemed more breathtaking in the crisp white of it.

We don’t need to have the driveway plowed; we don’t need to shovel our paths; or lay down salt; or worry about a thing where our home is concerned. It is all done for us. By a budget that is not ours, and by people we so deeply appreciate. A year ago I couldn’t even imagine what it would feel like to have those burdens lifted. Now I just relish the relief of it.

But the most profound difference with this snow — compared to all the others in the past eight years — was that I could easily and seamlessly take a chunk of time away from my office/work/day to play in the snow with my child. I’ve forced myself in the past. But this time was different: it wasn’t forced. It felt easy and light. I was, after-all, right here.

When home is work and work is home it can sometimes feel like it is all work. But sometimes (lucky for me, it is often), it is actually the opposite– and it feels like all play.

Students at Sayre saw us playing. They walked past us on the pathways and they looked out their dorm room windows. I wondered what they were thinking as I watched them watch us, them trying to hide smiles, but with smiles creeping across their faces nonetheless. Here, at one of the biggest crunch times of the year, smack in the middle of the 2nd to last week of classes, when the pressure cooker is blasting on ‘high’ and we’re a week away from finals and the tension in the air of campus is so thick you could slice it with a knife… here, amidst all the stress and angst and aggravation… here, amidst the self-doubt and insecurity and desperation to prove ourselves… here, on campus, during the first snow, is a tenured professor building snowmen and making snow angels with her four-year-old sprightly daughter.

You couldn’t miss us in the lawn of Sayre– Meera with her pink snowsuit and shrill shrieking laughter as she ran in the snow-covered lawn and called out to students, with clumps of snow in her mittens, “You should taste this! It’s delicious!!!” I wondered then, and I wonder now, what those kids all thought, and felt.

We invited some of them to play with us, but most of them declined, unthinkingly, quickly saying, “I can’t! I have to study!” Meera knows they have to study. She hears it all the time. So she’d run off smiling, totally unaffected. “You know?” I’d call out, “You can learn so much more from this four year old than you ever could from those books in your backpack!” And they’d smile or chuckle and wave back at me as they shuffled off to the library to study.

This afternoon we celebrated the snow and worked really hard on this snow-individual. Meera insisted that it was not a “snowMAN,” but rather a “snowGIRL.” Our neighbor/friend/student Aymee is one of our favorites. She ran out into the snow to make sure she could get a picture of her with Meera and the “snowGIRL” in Lehigh’s first snow of the season. I love love love all three girls in this photo!

After the boys headed out for school, Meera had a chance to try out her “sled-board” with Niomi. Sometimes it doesn’t matter there isn’t really enough snow to sled; it’s all in the experience of it. Not sure Niomi had the same experience Meera did however.

The bambinos had the whole week of Thanksgiving off from school. Here’s our Top Ten Things We Did List (in chronological order):

1. Weekend get-away to Hope Lake Loge and Indoor Water Park.
2. Oh, yes, call us crazy: we volunteered to host Kyle’s school class pets for the week (two hamsters). Meera absolutely adored them.
3. We watched the premiere of Disney’s Sophia the First. Then watched it about a half dozen more times through the week.
4. Lots of downtime, at home, including lots of time at the art table– and not even just by Meera (K & O too! gasp!! and voluntarily!!!)
5. K & O got to see Meera’s gymnastics class (they are usually in school on Tuesdays when she has gymnastics). She’s been taking gymnastics since September, so it was a big deal for her brothers to get to watch her and cheer her on. Usually it is the other way around (Meera watching and cheering on her brothers’ sports). It was a really, really special time. It was the highlight of my week to see K & O’s pride and joy from watching Meera, and Meera’s pride and joy from having her brothers watch her.
6. A “First Friday” on a Tuesday. It was Meera and Papi’s turn (they went to Cosi for soup and salad, then painted pottery together). At home, K & O & Mommy had take-out and watched The Hunger Games. Not sure who had the best time because it was such good times all around. We love our First Fridays.
7. Thanksgiving! Our Thanksgiving was celebrated with a big visit from Grandpa Robert (from Georgia!), Gamma (from Massachusetts!), and Auntie Sabrina (from Washington, DC!)! They came Wednesday night and stayed until Saturday. Lots of time with them, and they got to see our new home. Highlights — according to the bambinos — were: playing football, watching football, and giving our special guests a walking tour of “our” campus.
8. We bought Thanksgiving dinner from Wegmans. This deserves its own line on this list because it made Mama’s life soooooo much easier! Thank you Wegmans!!! (Photo below of Kyle, who went with me to pick up the Wegmans order on Thanksgiving, and then helped me wheel it into our apartment, complete with basketball on top! love that boy!)
9. Over the course of the week I read to Kyle and Owen the entire first book of Amare’e Stoudemire’s STAT: Standing Tall and Talented series. They loved it (both the book, and getting to stay up much later than Meera for me to read it to them every night). P.S. Coming soon: I am planning a big blog post about some amazing books for black boys that we’ve read over the past several months.
10. We spent the last day of the school vacation week doing one of the things we love most — a day trip to NYC. First stop: the Macy’s Holiday Windows. So awesome. But the real reason we go to NYC: Joe’s Shanghai. Our beloved Chinatown restaurant with the most awe-inspiring soup dumplings on the planet. My mouth is watering just typing this. A trip to Joe’s Shanghai makes everything right. It is our family’s Happy Place (if you type “Joe’s Shanghai” into our search engine on the right side-bar of this blog you’ll see some examples of our times at Joe’s Shanghai… our kids are growing up going to this place). P.S. This time we reached a new level: we devoured a full FIVE steamer baskets of dumplings.

We left NYC, driving home, sipping our hot bubble tea, with a beautiful sunset over the highway. We came home to gear up for this week of back-to-school/work. We are ready for the holiday season. It was a good Thanksgiving Break Week.

In our decision to move to campus, Braydon and I always factored in that there would be certain weekends and times of year that we’d have to go away. We knew there were a few key times that would be important for us to exit the scene — mainly Lehigh-Lafayette weekend, and the Eagles Summer Training Camp (and, in addition, possibly some Greek Week/Rush times as well… although, at this point, I’m pretty confident we won’t need to worry too much about those).

For our first Lehigh-Lafayette Weekend Away we decided to do something totally kid-centric and very unlike our daily-life-on-campus. We decided to go somewhere where we’d be practically guaranteed to not run into any college-aged students. A true Get-Away Mini-Vaca!

There was very little we needed to do to prep for this trip… other than this for Meera and I the Sunday before:

Friday afternoon we picked up the kids from the bus with the car packed. And then made the short 3-hour trek, to the Fingerlakes Region of New York, to Hope Lake Lodge. The main attraction for us? The Cascades Indoor Waterpark. We had never been to an indoor water park. It did not disappoint. And everyone there was pretty much either a parent or a (relatively) youngish child (i.e., no college kids). It was a great place to take a break from our reality.

The bambinos were in heaven! Their favorite part? The water slides.

We knew K & O would be in their glory. But we hadn’t anticipated how much Meera would love the water slides too. She is just like her brothers: a fearless, water-loving, ear-to-ear-smiling, fully-immersed-in-the-moment-of-it, little dare-devil. She rode those water slides again and again and again.

We had hoped it would be a great way to spend the weekend. It was. It was also an amazing bonding experience to get away from campus, just the five of us, and focus in on just our little family. By mid-morning Saturday I could already see the sibling bonding that was happening — it was awesome to see it. I guess an indoor water park can be a great place for family bonding. Who knew?! (That, alone, was worth every penny.)

We just had so much fun.

My favorite part was the indoor-outdoor heated swimming pool. We spent a lot of time in that pool that day. (And we all got quite a kick out of seeing the lifeguards in parkas, boots, and wool hats!)

The resort was really nice, which was great, because we spent the rest of our time just hanging out in our room. We did our own food for breakfasts and lunch, and got room service both nights for dinner. The kids watched a lot of Disney Channel (funny thing: they have no clue that we have Disney Channel at home… they somehow think that this is something that is only available at hotels!?!!! We’re not doing anything to correct them on that anytime soon). Braydon and I drank gin & tonics and talked and talked (our favorite pastime). We all went to bed late and woke up even later. I don’t think we’ve ever had such a lazy, sit-around-the-hotel-room, trip. The fact that our room/suite was so clean, cozy, and well-equipped made it possible to truly just sink in deep and relax.

After I got Meera to bed Saturday night, Braydon took the boys back to the water park for some late-night fun to max out our water park passes. They probably could have stayed there forever. I think we went for just the perfect amount of time: a quick, 2-night, weekend of water-logged fun. And then we came back home to a very tame (and quiet, tired, hung-over) campus on Sunday afternoon. A great Lehigh-Lafayette weekend for the J-Ms!

Sometimes you have to just let things unfold. And when you do, it can be wonderful.

Catching up on research. Students carrying a keyboard into the lodge.  Boys asking to play soccer.  After a “stress relieving” game, discovering the piano leading to hanging out and playing four hands (or at least an 8-year old’s version, which includes sticking hands into the piano).

Learning to blend work with life:  for us, for students; as a role model.

Sometimes an impromptu transcends.

Lehigh-Lafayette Weekend. The energy on this campus right now is A-M-A-Z-I-N-G! When we decided to live on campus we knew from the start that we’d go away for this weekend. As exciting as it all is, it just isn’t the place for the bambinos to be (let alone their parents). Since living here we’ve remarked again and again and again that it is soooo much more quiet and soooo much more tame than we ever expected it would be. The last two nights have been the most rowdy — by far — and we’d rather not be here to witness whatever goes down for the next two. So, we’re glad we made this plan in advance. We’re exiting the scene for a couple of days. I keep telling students, “Have fun! And be safe!”… and I mean it.

GO LEHIGH!

We had a great day today with our dear friends the the Petsch family. A Saturday of tailgating, football gaming (Lehigh vs. Colgate… too bad, LU lost), and catching up by non-stop playing (the kids) and non-stop chatting (the parents). So much fun. True ‘family friends’ — like, when one whole family truly gets along with another whole family — are super special. And it is an extra special time in friendship when “new friends” start to become more like “old friends.” It is starting to feel like the Petsch’s and us go way, way back (check out this post: click here). We love you Lori, Shelli, and Zoe! xo

Amy Grant Concert!!! Hanover Theatre, Worcester Massachusetts — Fri, Nov 2, 2012

For a while this was planned… several weeks. But for even longer it was dreamed of… basically my entire life. Our family’s first Amy Grant concert!

Ok, you have to understand: I am a life-long Amy Grant fan. Some — mainly, the three members of my family-of-origin plus Braydon — would say that I am The World’s Greatest Amy Grant Fan. One day, when I was about 10 or 11 years old, my dad came home from a work trip to Nashville, Tennessee, and gave me an Amy Grant tape (this was back in the days of cassette tapes — something my digital-age-kids cannot comprehend). Anyway, I was immediately hooked and I listened to that tape until I wore it out. That tape kicked off a life-long relationship with Amy’s music. It has seen me through good times and bad, I have bought and memorized every single album she’s ever put out, and, while I’ve loved all sorts of music throughout various phases of my life, Amy Grant has always been the foundational musical background to my life. I’ve seen her in concert several times over the past 25 years, and I always dreamed of the day I’d bring my own kids to see an Amy show. I LOVE AMY GRANT. I’m going to try to stop there. But I could go on and on. But I won’t.

So, anyway… For months I’ve known that I needed to go to Boston for a work trip on Saturday, November 1. And then I found out that Amy Grant would be in Worcester the night before, and immediately snatched up five tickets. So, we planned for the whole family to go to Massachusetts for Mommy’s work trip.

My bambinos (who have been listening to Amy’s music for their whole lives as they ride in the backseat of my car), and my loyal husband (who inherited Amy’s music the day he met me), and me (Amy LOVER), had such a great time. I was shocked at how my kids know just about every single song by heart. Meera bounced in her seat to the music until she fell fast asleep on my lap halfway through the concert. Kyle quietly sang the lyrics and sat close to Braydon asking for explanations for everything happening all around him. Owen sat next to me, belting out every song at the top of his lungs, and so fully enthralled in the entire experience that I could barely contain him. It was everything I’d ever dreamed it would be. A major life highlight.

The next day brought us to Boston. While I was off giving my talk, Braydon met up with his mother, and they brought the bambinos to the Boston Children’s Museum. K, O, and M loved loved loved it.

There is not much these three kids love more than a night or two in a hotel. I swear!

And Monday it was back to school and work. Our goal for this week was to try to get back on track post-Hurricane-Sandy. Braydon took the photo below with his iPhone as the kids were headed off to school on Monday morning. We take a lot of pictures of our kids. Every once in a while, for whatever reason, a photo rises to the top. Somehow this one (below) just captures my heart and mind. I think the bambinos look exactly like them in this. It captures them, right now, just as they really are.

Monday afternoon was a freezing cold soccer game. Last game of the season. We fans froze our tushes off as we routed for our team.

K & O played on their school soccer team for the second year in a row this fall. They are the youngest players on the team, and “playing up” is very good for our uber-athletically-talented twin boys. Also very good for our uber-athletically-talented twin boys is the fact that their soccer team never won a single game this whole season. Yes, they lost every game. It keeps our sports-gifted duo humble. It is a good experience for them.

They still love it even when they lose (and even when they lose over and over and over again). And, win or lose, one thing is for sure about K & O: they play their hearts out.

Tuesday was the 2012 Presidential Election. Obama won. And we five were thrilled.

Wed-Thurs-Fri brought a nasty cold/flu bug for Kyle and Meera. Bummer. Threw our week way off track (just when we were trying to get in the groove). Such is life.

These days are filled with all sorts of things that don’t make it onto the blog. Kids’ fights; parents’ fights; annoyances and aggravations to the 9th degree; bedtime battles; school-day mornings’ hurry-hurry-hurry-rush-rush-rush; work stress; school drama; errands and bills and To Do lists; ridiculously complex coordination of schedules to fit it all in; juggling a million and one things. Life is crazy and complicated and it is very simple at the same time. We are grateful for the mess of it and the peace of it. These days us five have so, so much to be thankful for.

VOTE! VOTE! VOTE!

VOTE! VOTE! VOTE!

One of the things we loved most about our old neighborhood was Halloween (our Halloweens there were awesome! 2011; 2010; 2009; ETC!). All fall I wasn’t sure how to proceed with Halloween 2012 in our new scenario. Eventually we made grand plans for a Pumpkin Carving Party (to which we had invited all 150 residents of Sayre Village), complete with a pasta dinner (the catering had already been ordered), and then we were to go trick-or-treating with our good friends the Kishore-Famolari family in Easton (the only area near us that planned to trick-or-treat on the 31st instead the weekend before). It was a good plan. But Hurricane Sandy made short work of completely ruining it.

As with most everyone in our region of the county, all-things-Halloween were cancelled outright. We woke up on the morning of October 31st, as Hurricane Evacuees, in a hotel in Rhode Island, and the last thing on our minds was Halloween. In fact, it wasn’t until we reminded them, at around noon that day, that Kyle, Owen, and Meera even realized it was Halloween. When the ramifications of the situation hit them, they were truly distraught. This, one of their very most favorite days of the year — and definitely one of their top 2 or 3 holidays of the year — felt completely ruined. Owen and Meera both cried. Kyle stoically began trying to figure out how to solve the problem. And Braydon and I had bigger fish to fry: like, trying to get home and attempt to get life on track. We hit the road that day, headed back to Pennsylvania, with no plans whatsoever for Halloween 2012.

But I couldn’t stop thinking about the fact that sitting in a large plastic bin, in our basement storage area, were my kids’ 2012 Halloween costumes. Costumes I had worked hard to assemble over the past few weeks. Costumes that they had been so excited about. Costumes they’d probably outgrow by next year. And three big orange pumpkins were sitting in our apartment, just waiting to be carved. It seemed so wrong to just forego Halloween completely. Plus, there were still some students on campus. Students who surely had all sorts of crazy Halloween plans, that were now dashed. Granted, there weren’t many students around, but what were those few going to do?– just totally bypass Halloween this year? It all just seemed not right.

So, on the highway, as Braydon drove and the bambinos watched videos in the backseat, Mama and some exceptionally awesome LU students hatched a Halloween plan via text messaging.

Lehigh had been evacuated, but there were a few students still on campus, including about a dozen Gryphons (student resident assistants) and some Student-Athletes. These college students hadn’t had an easy past couple of days, and surely Halloween was just about the last thing on their minds, which made what they did for my three kids that night even that much more extraordinary.

By the time we got home, a plan was in place. A plan which turned out to give my kids the best Halloween EVER… thanks entirely to 7 Lehigh Gryphons and 4 Lehigh Football Players.

– – –

We carved pumpkins!

We turned off all our lights, listened to Night On Bald Mountain, and admired our jack-o-lanterns! (don’t worry LU Res Life! — no candles — those are battery-operated tea-lights inside)

And then we had the great reveal: Owen, Kyle, and Meera’s 2012 Halloween costumes!— Santa Claus, The Easter Bunny, and The Tooth Fairy!!!

(The costumes were Kyle’s idea and we ran with it. Best J-M costumes ever!!!)

The bambinos had never had so much attention on Halloween as they did that night! There was more clapping, cheering, oohing and ahhhing, and smart-phone-photo-taking-facebook-twitter-posting than all of their other Halloweens combined.

And then we all headed out for trick-or-treating. Trick-or-treating in Sayre.

We had it all planned out. We would trick-or-treat to the rooms of the only 4 other people in Sayre (all of whom were part of our evening’s little Halloween festivities group). So, while the group of us went to each of our four stops, the student who lived in each one would run ahead to get ready for our arrival.

First stop, the football players who live downstairs from us! Big knocks on their door, with loud shouts of: “trick or treat!!!”

These guys had just arrived back on campus less than an hour before, so Braydon and I had no idea what (if anything) they’d have to hand out when we trick-or-treated there. Much to my complete amazement, when the door opened, K, O, and M were each greeted with whole fully prepared goody bags full of treats. I was completely stunned. It will be a long time before I forget that completely pre-meditated, simply sweet, act of kindness on behalf of four huge football-playing guys to my three little in-costume bambinos.

Next stop, our Head Gryphon, Sarah’s, room!

Much to our complete surprise, Sarah had somehow managed to rush back to her room and change into complete Flapper costume before our arrival!!! My jaw hit the floor when I saw that she was in costume. A-M-A-Z-I-N-G! And then she gave each of the kids a mega-sized Hershey’s bar, which single-handedly led to Owen proclaiming this to be his “BEST NIGHT EVER!”

And we were off again!

When we got to Arielle’s, she was dressed up as a witch!

Kathryn and Olivia were dressed up when we got there too!

There were four stops on our Trick-or-Treat route this year. But each was crammed full of more Halloween spirit than 100 stops combined. And the love was spilling over, and it was just exactly right to make these three trick-or-treaters as happy as could be!

After trick-or-treating, we headed home…

…for pizza, and salad, and roasted pumpkin seeds, and Halloween candy, and playing.

It was all very heart-warming and soul-soothing in the midst of a very intense and draining hurricane of a week. And it was that for all of us that night — not just for my family of five, but for my much-loved friends/neighbors/students too.

Luckily, the Candy Witch had been prepared several days in advance this year. So, much to the bambinos’ delight, we even had a visit from the Candy Witch later that night!

We kept all of our Halloween traditions, only this time around they had lots of fabulous new twists. It was all good.

So, despite having moved, and despite a hurricane of historic proportions, and despite Halloween being officially cancelled, we ended up having the most unforgettable, most unique, most heart-warming Halloween ever.

– – –

Dear Kyle, Owen, and Meera,

This year you were The Easter Bunny, Santa Claus, and The Tooth Fairy for Halloween! It was awesome! You were so adorable, and so joyful, running around Sayre like the happiest three kids on the planet.

The three figures you dressed up as represent what can be the very best of childhood joy and magic. These mythical characters, in the imaginations of many, gift children all over the world with treats, presents, money, and — most of all — happy excited thrill. They make kids feel special. But in real life, it is real people who do these things for children. Not just parents, but everyone involved every step of the way, on the mornings of Easter, Christmas, after a tooth falls out, and every single day and night of the year. I hope that you three are learning well from living on campus. We have a community here. A community filled with lots of good people. And the fact that they are all 18-21 year olds means absolutely nothing in the grand scheme of true community. These are our neighbors and friends, and although they are also my students, we can learn from them. I want you to never forget the lessons they are teaching you about what it means to pull together, pull through, and make good happen. They made joy and magic for you this Halloween. And someday, I want you to follow their lead and do the same for others.

Happy Halloween my sweets! It was the best ever!

love, Mommy

– – –

I was writing this post throughout the past several days. I had hoped to be posting pieces of it in real time, but internet was very spotty and I was unable to upload anything from Monday morning onward.

For the sake of my Mom, for the sake of posterity, and (mostly) for the sake of my sanity (I tend to go stir crazy cooped up in times like this), I am going to attempt to document a little slice of the J-M experience with Hurricane Sandy.

Yesterday afternoon we went for a walk in the Fairy Forest (Meera’s name for the woods outside Sayre). Knowing that after Sandy, the leaves will all be off the trees, we tried hard to take in the beautiful fall foliage of 2012. The sky was pale with a thick cloud cover. There was an eery ‘calm before the storm’ up there at the top of South Mountain.

Came home from our walk to find email after email of cancellations for the next two days. Including K,O,M’s school cancelled. And all Lehigh classes/events cancelled. “Due to the increasingly severe weather forecast of Hurricane Sandy and possible power outages, all classes for Monday and Tuesday will be cancelled.” Got the kids to bed. Posted this to Facebook:

“State of PA has officially been declared to be in a state of emergency. Kyle, Owen, and Meera’s school closed for Monday. All Lehigh classes cancelled for Monday and Tuesday (the only other time I’ve known LU to cancel classes was a year ago during the Halloween snow storm of 2011). This will be our first major storm/state-of-emergency while living on campus… never a dull moment… tomorrow will bring the J-Ms and the rest of our dorm residents together ‘at home with no school.’ Now *that* should be INTERESTING.”

MONDAY, OCTOBER 29

Woke up this morning to very gray skies, steady wind, steady light rain, and a very quiet LU.

10:30am Our strategy for today = to attempt to enjoy the power/electricity as much as possible before it (potentially/probably) goes out. So, this morning was an iPad free-for-all for the boys while Meera watched her favorite music videos (Taylor Swift! Pink!) on Braydon’s laptop. The bambinos are now in the midst of a My Little Pony (Netflix) marathon. And we’re not letting ourselves feel one ounce of guilt for any of it.

2:00pm Just got back from lunch at Cort Dining Hall. The most laid-back and relaxed I’ve ever seen LU students (no classes, no meetings, no events for at least the next two days + exams and assignments postponed = a bunch of happy college kids!). Even the (many) students we saw studying were more toned down than usual and the sense of reduced stress is palpable. The bambinos had a great lunch then had a blast ‘working the room’ checking in with all the students they know (and of course many who they previously did not know). Everything feeling warm and fuzzy. On the way to the dining hall we saw lots of sandbags had been laid down around buildings. Trucks and vans very busy everywhere. University is clearly in emergency preparedness mode.

2:30 Cupcake Making! (and basketball in the hall)

3:45 The new Tinkerbell movie (Secret of the Wings), with our Head Gryphon, Sarah. Isn’t it a fabulous coincidence that we had bought it just in time for Sandy??!

Current weather models have Hurricane Sandy heading for the Lehigh Valley, with the anticipated peak of intensity taking place between 6 p.m. and midnight tonight. We urge all members of the Lehigh community to exercise extreme caution during this storm, which is expected to bring heavy rains and strong winds.

5:00 Wind picked up significantly and noticeably, exactly at the time predicted: 5:00pm.

5:15 “Leaf Sledding” outside our dorm with some of our favorite friends/neighbors/students! …then a tree fell just across the parking lot… which knocked down power lines… which sent massive sparks flying (K&O thought it was very exciting: “fireworks!!!”… M not so much: “scary!”… Mommy&Papi: “reality check! this thing’s for real!”)… which sent us immediately into the building, not to go back outside again anytime soon.

8:00 Kids are in bed. We still have power. The fraternity house directly behind our building has no power. Lots of people all around us without power. Wind is whipping, raining very hard. Very, very dark outside. Heavy strong winds against our windows are pretty scary at times. At the end of the day, I am amazed at the Lehigh students. My college roommate and I were emailing today, and we were both in agreement that — given the circumstances — and based on our own college experience (!) — we couldn’t believe how little drinking was going on here. Students we see seem to be taking it easy, hanging out, studying, and staying calm. Very little drama. When we saw a tree fall this afternoon (see above, 5:15), many students ran out of nearby buildings to make sure everyone was ok and to help out. True colors show in times like this, and I have to say: I’m really impressed with these LU kids.

8:46 Power went out. But came right back on.

9:30 Lost power completely. Bambinos stayed asleep. Emergency lighting goes on in the hallways. LU kids coming out of their rooms into our apartment. Everyone on their smartphones in the dark.

Late into the night — Sarah (our Head Gryphon/Friend/Neighbor/Student) hangs out in our apartment with Braydon and I. Sarah and I sat on the couch watching out the windows and listening together to the hurricane thrashing around us. The wind was extreme. Rain in gusts slashing against the window. Looking out over the city of Bethlehem was like watching a fireworks display as transformer after transformer exploded with huge dome-like flashes of neon blue light. One of the freakiest nights ever.

Finally went to bed that night with some raw nerves. We moved Meera into our bed with to sleep with me. We moved Meera’s bed mattress onto the floor in K & O’s room, so that Braydon could sleep with them. I fell asleep that night trying to comfort Meera as we lay there hearing the storm on the other side of the building’s wall.

—

TUESDAY, OCTOBER 30

Woke up to relative calm. Although still windy and gusty, the wind had died down a lot, and so had the rain. Facebook post:

Got through the night safe and sound. Wind has calmed. No power at Lehigh since about 9:30pm. Hoping the outage doesn’t last too long. In the meantime, grateful for the iPad battery’s long lifespan! Thinking this morning of the people in NYC/NJ/mid-Atlantic coast who were hit hardest… and friends locally with severe damage to homes, cars, etc… Given how intense it was here I can’t even imagine how scary it was/is there.

We discovered that the Lodge (the community center building in Sayre Village) was running on a generator, and thus had power. We packed up to camp out there for the morning. A few students joined us…

Soon we had to leave because the Lodge was quickly becoming Center of Operations for the crisis/emergency teams. We moved to the lounge in our building… for another viewing of Tinkerbell, this time on a battery-powered-laptop.

Around noon we got official word that all classes would be cancelled through Friday (to resume Monday), LU was being evacuated, we should not plan to return until Sunday, and we had to be out by 2:30pm. We had 2.5 hours to figure out where to go, and pack up to get out. Facebook post:

LU ALERT: Classes canceled Wednesday, Thursday and Friday. Will resume normal schedule on Monday. Stay updated at lehigh.edu. OMG! Unprecedented!

For months we had plans to be in Massachusetts this coming weekend, Friday – Sunday. I am giving a talk in Boston on Saturday, and we had decided to go as a family, stopping for a concert in Worcester on Friday night. This meant we had three nights to do something with ourselves. Trying to think quick, and make the most of it, we decided (for better or worse) to go to Providence, RI — a city that we like a lot, but haven’t visited in a long time — which would get us out of the direct path of Sandy, but still get us up toward where we’d need to be for the weekend. We quickly made a hotel reservation, and packed up. That was a crazy couple of hours.

Lehigh students who had nowhere to go were being directed to check into an Emergency Shelter set up in Grace Hall. We had to swing by my office to pick up a couple of books I needed, and on the way, we realized that the bambinos thought that the “Shelter” they kept hearing about meant that the students needed to go into the woods to create ‘forts’/shelters from branches in the woods. How, exactly, they had come to think this, I don’t know. But I thought it was really important for us to bring them into Grace Hall to see the “Shelter.” Grace is next door to my office, so we quickly stepped in. We saw a bunch of students we know and love there.

The bambinos felt much better knowing that the students would be inside a safe building being powered with a generator. With that all cleared up, we did a quick tour of the campus— to see the damage— before we hit the highway. It was really heartbreaking to see so many gorgeous, historic, iconic trees laying on the the ground all over campus. It was also amazing to see how little structural damage had been done to buildings— all things considered.

This is what they are looking at:

It was like this all over campus, and I was taken aback by how hard it hit me to see it.

We were on the highway by 3:30. Facebook post while driving away:

Lehigh evacuated. We are driving away now. Devastating tree damage on campus. Historic iconic trees down on UC lawn, side of Packard/Alumni Memorial, and all over campus. No idea when power will be restored.

None of us had eaten much of anything all day and we were all very hungry. We drove for a couple of hours straight, through New Jersey, without finding any exits with power on. Nothing open anywhere along the route. Finally, just into New York state, we found an exit with an open gas station and a lit-up McDonalds. Braydon waited in line to get gas while I waited in line to get McDonalds. Just as I was ordering there was a massive transformer explosion just across the street, and McDonalds lost their power completely. They turned everyone in line away, needing to shut down, but when they saw that I had three kids with me, and was willing to pay in cash, they gave us whatever they could. As gross as McDonalds is, it tasted like one of the best things we’d ever eaten… and we all ate every single bite as we drove down the pitch-dark highway.

After driving in the dark and rain for much of the trip, we made it to the hotel in Rhode Island around 9:30pm and we all collapsed into bed soon after. It had been a long, long day. Facebook post from that night:

We are cozied up in a hotel, now far from the devestation, evacuated from our Lehigh home, but safe and grateful to have had it so *relatively* easy.

—

WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 31

We didn’t get up until 8:00, which is highly unusual for the J-M bambinos. We woke up feeling rested and so grateful for warm, clean, well-equipped hotels and the ability to stay in them when needed. We had a leisurely morning eating breakfast at the hotel, then swimming in the pool. Nothing like a swimming pool for the bambinos to blow off steam, soothe their nerves, and take the edge off.

Just around noon, back in our room, the bambinos watched the Disney Channel while Braydon and I sat together trying to figure out what the heck we were going to do with our next couple of days. We were feeling really unsettled and discombobulated. And I got a text message saying that power had been restored to our apartment’s building, that it was safe to come back, and we were welcome to do so. And within just a minute of that text, we got a phone call saying that the kids’ school was going to re-open for Thursday. Braydon and I took one look at each other, I made a quick visit to the hotel’s front desk, and we decided to just pack it all back up and head home. We really, really, really felt strongly that we wanted to be home.

And so, within an hour, we were back in the car again, to head back to LU. We made a quick stop at Subway for lunch, ran into a grocery store for snacks for the ride, and we were back on the highway again, to make the trip back. Posted to Facebook from the car:

We are headed back to LU! Just got word that our family can return: power is on, and it is safe, in our specific building (not all of campus). What a crazy 48 hours we have had!!!

It was a crazy 3 days. But we were so fortunate. My Facebook post from last night:

We are back home again. Thanks to a bunch of amazing LU students/friends/neighbors we came home to have the best Halloween night ever (despite Halloween in our region being officially cancelled). So grateful for all we have in our lives right now. And so happy to be home sweet home! {it has been quite a crazy few days}

We came home to the best Halloween ever. That will have to be a whole other post… (coming soon).

We are grateful to have weathered this storm with such relative ease. And our hearts are heavy for those who are suffering so nearby. Please consider giving to help those impacted most by Hurricane Sandy. Here is a link to a trustworthy organization that will use our donations wisely, and which includes an option for prioritizing disaster relief not just for those areas affected in the U.S., but also for the Caribbean if you are so inclined (as we are):

http://library.constantcontact.com/download/get/file/1103945268066-302/Hurricane+Sandy_+bulletin+insert_103012.pdf