And when he got into the boat, his disciples followed him. And behold, there arose a great storm on the sea, so that the boat was being swamped by the waves; but he was asleep. And they went and woke him, saying, “Save us, Lord; we are perishing.” And he said to them, “Why are you afraid, O you of little faith?” Then he rose and rebuked the winds and the sea, and there was a great calm. And the men marveled, saying, “What sort of man is this, that even winds and sea obey him?  ~Matthew 8:23-27

Watching tropical storm Sandy, turning into hurricane Sandy has been exciting, especially since Sandy shot up the coastline and made a direct hit for New York, Pennsylvania and the Washington D.C. areas.  Technically speaking it ultimately covered a third of the nation.  In fact, the news reported that they closed down the transit system in New York and the tunnels so no one was allowed in our out, including the stock market.   Now I am not a cynical person and I don’t like to see damage and destruction happen to anyone, but this has been exciting!  Just tracking the storm and watching it as it slowly crept upward and moved toward our area was something to experience.  I don’t ever remember being the red section on the weather channel map before, at least not for a hurricane.  I guess this is our first hurricane since the 1930’s and before that it happened a century earlier.  Over the years we’ve experienced the backlashes and the after effects of such destructive storms, but nothing like this.  Sandy moved up the through the water and made a left hand turn to enter the land over our area.  What an historical event!

Actually, I found out how historic the weather has turned out to be.  Besides being humorously coined Frankenstorm or Superstorm, Sandy is also being called the perfect storm.  What?  Yep!  So now my question is, ‘What makes it a perfect storm?’.  From my understanding the last perfect storm we had was in October of 1991 off of Massachusetts.  It’s the trifecta of bad maxed out storm conditions, basically the combination of the hurricane (high pressure and low pressure), along with the nor’easter coming form the west.  I guess it was puzzling meteorologists because no one has ever seen anything like this.  The winds and rain certainly qualified as a hurricane but no hurricane has ever produced a blizzard before, they are usually warm weather storms.

Speaking of a storm a brewing, Kyle wasn’t feeling very well last night.  He said his tummy was upset and hurting.  He didn’t even turn on the TV as we sat in my living-room, he just asked me to read to him before his piano lessons.  He didn’t even want anything to eat.  I felt so bad for my little man, Kyle really wasn’t himself.  He said he felt sick as soon as he got home from school.  Hopefully it will pass with minimal damage, just like Sandy.  I know Kyle was excited for the two hour delay this morning.  He even flashed me an ornery grin when the comment was made.  Although his class was suppose to have their field trip to the symphony today, maybe it will be rescheduled.

During, Harry Potter and The Deathly Hallows, Casey called and was checking in on the “deer slayer”.  Living in West Virginia near Snowshoe, Casey was getting hit with snow, hard!  I heard they received a couple of feet of fresh, white snow in some places.  After Kyle got off the phone with Casey he said, “When are we getting snow?”  I said, “Hopefully soon!”  Kyle really started thinking and said, “Why are they getting all the snow and we aren’t?”  That’s funny, Kyle wasn’t worried about the hurricane, he wanted to be hit with a blizzard.  Can’t say that I blame him after the lack of snow from last season.

While driving home after Kyle’s lessons the reality of the storm was evident.  Wow!  The wind and the rain were crazy scary!  I’ll admit I didn’t see any trees down but there were electrical lines hanging along the road.  As far as I know, we were only touched by the outermost parts of the hurricane if any at all.  Just seeing the indirect damage Sandy caused really hit home and made me truly appreciate the power of God.  I can’t imagine those poor souls feeling the direct effects of a hurricane.

Kyle doesn’t handle bad weather well.  As we were driving he mentioned a few times, “Ok Aunt Heather let’s go a lot slower since there’s so much rain.”  I know an eleven year old is telling me how to drive, but I don’t care.  He was just being concerned and safe.  All I could respond was, “You’re right buddy. We’ll take it easy, we don’t want to drive through a swimming pool sized puddle.”  Through our travels, Kyle started picking my brain for my limited knowledge about hurricanes.  He was asking me about Sandy and where it’s going to hit.  During the day as we were tracking the storm’s whereabouts, it hadn’t hit land yet. Even though the coastline along the Carolina’s showed major damage from the winds, rain and waves.

Kyle grabbed my phone and looked up Fox news for the Breaking News alerts.  He sat there and scrolled down through the stories and gave me little highlights.  At one point he turned to me and said, “It hit land!”  Just to keep Kyle from additional worry, I said in a very blasé tone, “O ya? Wonder how your Aunt Nikki is doing?”  Kyle turned to me and said “Umm she’s good, remember I talked to her earlier.  She sounded good.”  That almost make me take a second glance because in crisis situations Kyle’s the first one reaching out to family, ensuring all is well in his world.  As to not start a panic, I replied, “Ya your probably right.”  Well, I got him home safe and did the same for myself before retiring for the night.

This morning, the status of hurricane Sandy turned back into a tropical storm.  My thoughts and prayers go out to those who have been effected by the hurricane.  God Speed.

“If you knew how to cook, maybe I would eat,” Jace muttered.  Isabelle froze, her spoon poised dangerously. “What did you say?”  Jace edged toward the fridge. “I said I’m going to look for a snack to eat.”  That’s what I thought you said.” Isabelle turned her attention to the soup.”  ~Cassandra Clare, City of Bones

Since it’s Friday, I thought I’d bring out another one of my lost archive videos that Kyle and I made.  A Cooking with Kyle episode.  It’s a fun little snack that I hope everyone has the chance to make, or modify to personal taste.

Every year since Kyle was about five or six, he would go and spend a week in the summer with my sister.  It has now been dubbed “Aunt Nikki and Kyle’s week of fun.”  It’s their chance to hang out with one another, just the two of them.  Kyle loves his Aunt Nikki very much and looks forward to going every year.  Usually Nicole surprises him with a different adventure.  She has taken him to downtown Washington, DC, which has been visited many many many times by the entire family over the years since there is so much to see and do.  One of our favorite destinations!  They have gone to National Aquarium in Maryland.  One year Nicole tried to plan for Kyle to swim with the dolphins, but that didn’t work out.  They go to the movies, they go shopping, swimming, you name it.  Not to mention my sister allows him to play his video games day and night, which is not permitted any other time.  But when he’s on vacation, he’s on vacation!

Last year was the big trip, New York City.  Nicole arranged for them to take a bus from the DC Metro Area to New York City for the week.  The trip was actually a surprise, until Kyle read the ticket and found out his final destination.  They did all the touristy stuff, Statue of Liberty, Empire State Building, and Central Park.  Nicole took him to Serendipity and other key places to eat.  Even though it was New York and Kyle never was in that city, there was another reason to visit the Big Apple, yep Lego’s!  Ever since Kyle saw the Lego’s store in the background while watching Dick Clark’s Rock’in Eve on TV one New Year’s Eve, he has been obsessed with the idea of a huge store dedicated to Lego’s.  That year we were looking for my sister on TV.  She was in New York City ringing in the New Year with her friends.  That’s when Kyle spotted the Lego store.  I will elaborate on the “Aunt Nikki and Kyle’s week of fun” another time.  Let’s get back to the subject at hand. Aunt Nikki’s Hors d’oeuvres.

It was during one of these ‘weeks of fun’ that Kyle and Nicole were grocery shopping and Kyle spotted the sample lady.  From my understanding, Kyle loved the snacks and had my sister buy all the ingredients to make them later.  After he came home, would you believe he told us all about his new favorite snack?  He had me get the ingredients because he wanted to show me how to make them.  Ever since then, he tells everyone about his healthy snack.

I hope you like them as much as Kyle does!