Hurricane Sandy-- During

With the help of my parents, we were able to lift all of the brand new furniture about 8 inches off of the ground.  I bought 4 sets of bed risers that are normally used for college beds, and got them up off the ground.  Chase thinks it's amazing, but I am hoping to not need those 8 inches

 We were able to pile a lot of things on the pool table to get them off of the floor

 

 Since the fireplace is up so high, the 8 inches really only lifted it about 4-5 inches off the ground, but we'll take it

 Late last night, Walt and Ryan brought over this bad boy.  It's a pump that runs on gasoline so that if the power goes out, it can act as the sump pump so the basement doesn't flood.  I think it was an excellent $40 spent to give Jason some piece of mind

 

My parents were in Ocean City, New Jersey this past weekend for my Mom's birthday.  Since it is a whole different state, we thought that maybe their Lowes store would have better luck since ours were all sold out.  On Saturday, they told my parents that they would be getting a shipment in on Sunday morning and it was first come, first served.  So my parents got up at the crack of dawn like it was Black Friday and waited in line, only to find out that the shipment never came in.  Bummer #1

Then, the Lowes in West York said that they were getting a shipment in between 2:00-3:00 and it was first come, first served.  So over we were headed.  Only to find out then that they handed out numbers and they were gone before we could even get out of the neighborhood.  Bummer #2

My Aunt Jolene works at the Lowes in Carlisle and she called with 2 minutes for me to make a decision about a 5500 watt generator she put her name on at work.  I knew we didn't need that many watts, but our friends Ben and Amy did, so we got them hooked up with that one.  We knew we still needed one, but since Walt and Ryan were bringing the gas pump down, we thought it was only fair to get them that generator.

We went to bed last night hoping for the best and knowing we had the gas pump to use if need be.  Jason woke up every 2 hours to check on the basement, and I felt him get out of bed, but never knew what was going on other than him saying the basement was fine.  I woke up the best phone call ever-- MY DAD FOUND US A GENERATOR!!!!!  Our friend Kevin told us that Gander Mountain was getting a shipment in, but like all the rest, we figured the shipment wouldn't come, but my Dad checked it out anyway.  He was able to get us a generator and get one for his own house!!!  Dad saves the day!!

So here is the big sucker that has already been put to good use.

I started typing this post around 11:00 this afternoon and then we lost power.  It came back on about 15 minutes ago, so I was able to finish the post and get it published, so hopefully we don't need to use the generator again, but most likely we will at some point!!

Stay safe please, everyone!!!