Back to Blogging!

It has been almost 3 months since I last blogged, but it's not my fault! I have been computerless for 2 months and I just got it fixed. It was such a frustrating time!

My battery died in March (so I was just using the power cord all the time), then my power cord stopped working in July (so I was using an extra one that the family I nanny for had), and then in August my motherboard battery died (making it so I couldn't use my computer at all). So 450 dollars and a lot of stress later, I have a working laptop again! So thanks to my cousin Jed for telling me what was wrong with my computer, my dad for ordering the parts, and Ryan for putting it all together!

So much has happened in the last 3 months, I don't really even know where to begin. I'll try to bullet point the major events :) 

• Earthquake! On August 23 I experienced my first earthquake. I've been warned about the big Utah earthquake my whole life and i've never felt one. Two months after moving to the DC area, (where earthquakes don't happen) I feel a big one. Other than a few knocked over pictures, no damage was done. It was such a weird feeling though! I had no idea what to do or where to go. The babies were napping so I ran up and checked on them and they were totally fine. They slept right through it!
• Hurricane Irene! Hurricane was supposed to hit the east coast pretty hard on the 27-28th of August. I was actually pretty excited to watch the storm play out. I love rain storms as long as I don't have to go out in them. Great Falls is farther inland, so we didn't get hit as hard as the coast. The worst of it came in about 2:30 Sunday morning. I woke up to leaves and branches all over the yard, but we were expecting it to be a lot worse so we were pretty lucky!

(These pictures aren't from Irene, but a storm we got a week later. It was so crazy! We got so much rain-way more than we had gotten the weekend before with the hurricane.)

 The water formed a little river that flowed down the side of the house right into the pool. 

 All the grass and the cement along the pool was covered in standing water. So much water!

Poor Ryan had just cleaned out the pool from all the leaves and dirt Irene blew in, and then it got filled with dirt again a week later! It even washed this huge nasty frog into the pool. I didn't get a picture of it on my camera, but it was gross!

• DC Adventures! I've been able to make some friends with some other nannies of twins in the area and we've been able to go out and do some fun things together. Melissa and other twin nanny moms bought their nannies a mani/pedi spa day at a salon in Dupont Circle. It was so much fun! The lady who did our toes was so funny. She was not impressed with the walking shoes we chose to wear that day and told us that we needed cute shoes. I'll stick to comfort though :)
• The next weekend Erin, Tana, and I went to DC for the national book festival and Museum Day. It was so much fun and I'm glad I went, but I would suggest NOT trying to ride the metro on those days! It was ridiculously crowded. I don't usually get claustrophobic, but I could barely breath with people pressed up against me on all sides. I had a migraine for the rest of the next day! It was pretty awful. But the whole day up until the metro ride was fun, so it was worth it! :)

Besides that, nothing is really new. I can hardly believe I've been here over 3 months. In some ways it feels like I've been out here much longer, but in other ways it seems like I just got here! The boys are getting so big and they are so much fun. I really love my job and I am so happy with how well things are working out! 

My family is coming to visit me soon, so I'm really excited to see them and to go do some more touristy things in the city. And only 11 weeks until Christmas, when I'll get to go home for a visit. So I've got lots of fun things to look forward too!! :)