Mother Nature really loves to give the big eff-you to the Northeast around Halloween.

Last year, she graced us with “snowtober” which left us without power for about five days.

On day 3 we escaped to Meme’s house on Cape Cod after scoring the LAST four gallons of gas in our entire town. Those four gallons got us to the first rest stop on the highway. We survived but were under prepared in a lot of ways.

But we are all a year older and wiser as Hurricane Sandy makes her way up the East Coast .The radar and the news anchors who are going crazy tell me me that she’s due to grace us late Monday/Tuesday. Just in time to ruin Halloween AGAIN.

To my land locked family in the midwest, this is for you. So you will stop worrying for us just for a tiny bit. Without further ado.. how we’re preparing for Hurricane Sandy.

1. We are cramming as much Halloween fun into this weekend as humanly possible. We are trick or treating tonight a “trunk or treat” event, going to a Halloween party or 3 and hopefully tomorrow getting one last day at the pumpkin patch.

2. No power = debit card or the ATM machine is as useful as snow pants in Jamaica. Cash rules when the power goes out. I hit up the ATM machine this morning. Between that and what we’ve already got lurking around in the house we should be just fine.

3. Secondary illumination devices have been located and are secure. The candles already have the lighter next to them. The lantern has fresh batteries and I know the location of at least three other flashlights. We’ll put them all in the same spot so we don’t have to hunt around the house in the dark to find them. We tried that last year and it was a fail.

4. We’ve got tons of water, juice, and milk (both refrigerated and shelf stable). We’ll make extra coffee tomorrow morning and store it in the refrigerator. I got the last 18 pack of “juice box” style milk at the store today. The boys will use it for cereal and I’ll use it for the most important thing of all… my coffee.

5. Projecting food for this storm was tricky since we don’t eat a ton of canned stuff. I didn’t want to buy stuff that we weren’t going to eat anyway so I picked up some canned beans and mandarin oranges. I’d buy the beans anyway and Malone will love the special treat of the oranges (we usually eat fresh fruit). We also got apples, cereal, crackers, cheese, peanut butter, jelly, bread, cookies, mixed nuts etc. If we lose power we’ll be good for about a week. Day 1 is always eating through the fridge/freezer, Days 2-3 will be PB&J and anything after that will be from the pantry.

6. Speaking of food, have you ever had to do the dishes when the power is out? I’m not a fan of washing dishes in freezing water so I picked up disputable cutlery, bowls, and plates. I will atone for my environmental sins after the storm.

7. We have some more out and abouting to do today but we will fill our gas tanks up on our way home tonight or sometime Sunday.

8. My camera battery is charging as I write this. If I can’t prove it with a picture, did it really happen? We’ll also charge our phones, laptops, and Ipad.

9. We’ll park a bit further away from our house, where there are less trees and branches to potentially fall on our cars.

10. We just have a few things outside and in all honesty they need to come in anyway now that summer is over (water table and tricycle). There is a space in the basement just waiting for them to be stowed away.

We’re really trying not to worry and to be over prepared. Last year we were really thrown for a loop and were scrambling in a lot of ways.

How about you? Is Hurricane Sandy headed your way? What are you doing to prepare?