Hurricane Sandy: Survived.

I loved the color of that tree.  Now all those leaves are on the ground!

For those of you who aren't local and aren't my Mom, we have survived our little hurricane just fine!  I guess it hit a lot harder in New Jersey, so I'm not trying to belittle Sandy, but here in Manassas, it sure wasn't a very big deal.  Basically, we had about 36 hours of rain, with the occasional big gusts of wind throughout.  A few people in the ward lost power for a couple hours, but we weren't one of them.  We had a big branch fall off the tree next to our driveway.  If we'd left the van parked there, it might have broken a window or something, but that tree loses branches EVERY time it gets windy, so we'd parked the car on the street.

So we're fine!

And I have been LOVING having my family all stuck at home with me for a couple days!  Yay for enforced vacations!

On a totally different note, our ward Halloween party was on Saturday, and I got second place in the chili cook-off!  First time my cooking has ever won a prize.  (Probably the first time it's ever been entered into a contest, too, but still!)  So, yeah, hurray for chipotle chicken chili!  My Grandpa Hansen used to always compete in chili cook-offs (and, if he didn't win, claim that the judges didn't know beans about chili), so I got to feel like a chip off the old block here.  It was nice.  AND, my big prize was a big plastic serving spoon, which was hilarious since the same night someone walked away with one of the ones we'd brought!  The Church giveth and the Church taketh away, I suppose. 

This isn't a particularly good picture, but it was the best we could get before Ryder ripped that hat off his head and refused to put it back on.  (No, I don't know why Kendra insisted on wearing her Minnie Mouse ears in the middle of her forehead.  No idea...)

Stay dry out there, everyone!