This has been one of the most exciting and exhausting weeks in my life. I will call it the "The Week That Was" because it had such wonderful "ups" and  exhausting "down." It all started over a week ago when I heard Esther and Russell talking about the water that came into her workbench area when the rains from Hurricane Frances were making their way to the northeast. This Pittsburgh area is generally not severely affected by hurricanes so I could tell by the tone of their voices that this was unusual. When the sun came out and everything dried off Esther let us take our rockers outside and enjoy the beautiful weather. She had gotten each of us a rocker when they had brunch at the nearby Cracker Barrel restaurant. As you see, the week started off just fine.

The next thing that happened was just wonderful. Esther discovered there was a lady only five miles away that had several Hittys! Imagine our delight. We had been under the impression that we were the only Hitty dolls in the area. Esther invited the lady to come visit and indeed she did. We got so excited and when they arrived we made friends immediately. The lady's name is Millie and I am sure we will be seeing more of her and her Hittys. The two ladies talked and talked and the afternoon just flew by. Well, that was the end of the 'up' part of the week.

I think Mother Nature must be upset with the world. Just two days after our delightful visit, another hurricane came this way. All the rivers and creeks in the area flooded and there was terrible devastation. I could hear people talking about the merciless treatment the state of Florida had received but we had no idea that this area would affected. This time Hurricane Ivan, which has been apply named, "Ivan the Terrible" came through here with record amounts of rain. So many people were in danger and there was wide spread flooding. This time we didn't get by with just water in the workbench area, it came through the footer drains and there was an inch of water in the guest room which is just off the display room where our rooms are located. All the furniture had to be moved into the display room where HittyBelle and Hitty Carol climbed up on the stacked mattresses. They wanted a high place to view all that was going on.

Esther and Russell worked for hours trying to soak up the water but it just didn't seem to help. Very early the next morning Russell was at the Home Depot store and was lucky to obtain one of two remaining ShopVacs. It is a powerful sweeper that can take up the water. All day long they kept taking turns running it. Of course, you might know, my two sisters just had to have a ride. Those two are always looking for an adventure no matter what the circumstances.

Everything has calmed down again and our life will soon be back to normal. It may take several days before everything is completely dry and the furniture can go back in the guest room but we are feeling very fortunate. There are so many in this area and in the path of the hurricanes that life will never be the same.