A hurricane in central Ohio??

Yes, Ike came for a visit yesterday. We didn't get any rain (Praise the Lord!), but we sure got the wind. Here are a few pictures from our neighborhood this morning.




















This tree belonged to our next door neighbor, Mark. For those of you who haven't been here, his yard is amazingly beautiful, full of ponds, trees and rock work. Down below you can see pics of Scott and Mark taking down the remainder of the tree.

We only lost some small limbs, one shingle and one piece of siding near the attic vent at the top of the house. Interesting fact: the wind came in through the attic vent and pulled up our attic access panel that's in the master closet. Very weird.

The kids ate lunch outside today, so they could watch the tree cutting next door. We lost our power yesterday afternoon a little after 3 p.m., and it's still not on yet. Our neighbors lost the power last night and they have it again. You can see a kitchen light on behind the kids because we thankfully have a generator that runs on natural gas. We're not exactly roughing it, but we're anxious to have the electricity back and be able to turn on all the lights!

We spent the morning outside cleaning up the yard, alongside our neighbors. I have to give kudos to Carol (who lives on the other side of Mark)--she mowed our front yard, (using the bagger to collect the remaining leaves) while Scott and Mark were cutting down Mark's tree. They say the people in Texas are friendlier than the northerners, but that hasn't been our experience. We have fantastic neighbors!