5 days, 2 hurricanes & 1 tropical storm, 32 hours of work

that's what's left in the countdown.

i am less concerned that our vacation is only 5 days away and i have packed not-one-little-thing or the fact that i work tuesday and wednesday night and then will be heading to my new part-time job only after 5 hours (if i'm lucky!) of sleep on thursday.  (more about this later).

i am definitely most concerned about the hurricanes in the atlantic.  yep.  hurricane danielle seems a small threat now and most likely just stirred up the waters near folly beach.  hurricane earl seems the biggest threat right now, but they say should make land fall on the north carolina coast thursday, so we'll at least know what we're dealing with before we leave on saturday.  and now fiona is a tropical storm.  and who knows where she might go.  let's hope she goes elsewhere, too.  don't these storms know i/we need a vacation?  can't they wait a week?  but these are the risks one takes when planning a beach vacation in september, in the midst of hurricane season.

fiona is the little read circled area behind earl.  maybe she'll fizzle out.  one can hope.  :)

back to the aforementioned part-time job... i have taken a part-time job at Christ School, which is a all-boys grades 7-12 boarding school, about 10 miles down the road from our house.  my job is in the wellness center as one of the nurses.  i will be working every thursday from 2-10pm and then take call from 10-7am.  i can do this from home because i live so closely unless we have a sick student or students, in which case i would have to stay there over night.  i would love for it to develop into more there and less at the hospital, but we'll see.  i will be going to work day shift at the hospital.  most of you know i am not a morning person (super huge understatement!) so we'll see how that works out.  no one seems to be able to give me an answer as to when that will happen so now you know as much as i do.

and that's about it for changes around here.  not much going on. ready for vacation.  come hell or high water or hurricanes, we will make it to the beach!

24 days and counting.

that's right, friends.  24 days.  or 3 weeks and 3 days as the counter to the right lists.  until what?  VACATION.  yes.  i have not typed such lovely words in the last few months.  i cannot wait until my toes are in the sand.  even better?  we will have sweet doggy toes in the sand, too.  cotton and barley also get to go to the beach for the first time ever.  we cannot wait to see that- we are placing bets on which one, if not both, bark and run away from the crashing waves.  we hope to have a little video recorder by then so we can share with everyone.

the timing worked out perfectly that we will be leaving the day after jay's birthday and will be there on our 4th anniversary.  and, of course, on the way we'll be stopping at the annual meeting for the upstate cruisers at aunt sue's.  (i.e. we'll have a good meal before getting on the road, however, it only takes 3 1/2 - 4 hours to get to the beach from here.)

yes.  we are going to folly beach, sc.  we spent a morning there during last year's beach trip and enjoyed the seclusion that day.  of course, we realize that the beginning of our trip does include labor day weekend, but kids will be back in school after that and that was what we enjoyed last year- the beach was almost empty until school let out.  dogs are not allowed on the beach from 10am-6pm so the girls will get to enjoy morning and evening walks and play time.  we found a house to rent that is across the street from the beach and just a short walk to the beach access.  the back yard doesn't back up to anything so we won't have anyone immediately behind us, just perhaps to the sides and across the road (which are the beachfront houses).  can you smell the ocean breeze yet?  i almost can.

here's where we'll be staying...

cannot.  wait.  but i think i said that already.  ☺

summer memories.