Hurricane Isaac......what a crazy storm it was!!
One day this storm was heading for Florida, then Alabama, then Mississippi. Who would have thought it would come to Louisiana?! I am not a fan of hurricanes. NOT AT ALL!!! But here we were, last weekend, trying to prepare for a hurricane.
Sunday afternoon we were at Jeremy's parents' house picking up everything in their yard. Let me just say, their backyard is beautiful! They recently had it landscaped. And they have a very nice patio area. So...with that being said, there was PLENTY of things to pick up and put away. I love my mother-in-law dearly, she is one of my best friends, but that woman has way too much stuff!!!!! :) With Ethan and Bradley's help, we got it all done.
We did go to three stores looking for batteries for our flashlights. I finally found some at CVS. They were buy one, get one half off. Yay!!
Bradley and Carter came to the grocery store with me. After seeing on facebook that Walmart was out of bread, water, etc. and Sam's was a crazy place, I decided to go to Cannata's. There was plenty of bread, water, canned goods, etc. So we got everything that we needed....or so I thought! Like I said in my last post, I did not buy "real" food. We had plenty of junk food to eat. Why didn't I think to buy food to cook? Our stove is gas. I could have still cooked. But, I do have some really great neighbors that fed us! ;) Although, I did grill hamburgers outside while we were in the eye of the storm.
We found out Sunday evening that the boys would not have school on Monday. I can't even begin to tell you how excited they were!!
Well, Monday was an absolutely beautiful day!! We have been having rain for about two months. And I hear that other parts of the country are in a drought....well, NOT US!! It was so nice to see the sun! The boys played outside a lot that day. And we figured it would be a good idea to get our house ready for the storm, since it was supposed to be making landfall soon. We didn't have much to do. Just picked up some things in the backyard, flipped over the trampoline, and picked up my ferns that were hanging in the front yard. Oh, and the boys don't have school on Tuesday and Wednesday. Even more excitement in our house!
Hurricane Isaac couldn't decide if he wanted to be a category 1 or category 2 hurricane. Everytime we watched the update, it would change. There was talk on facebook about people evacuating. Should we stay or should we go?
We evacuated for two hurricanes in the past, Katrina and Gustav. I am thankful that we did, but evacuating is work!! You don't know how long you will be gone. Therefore, you aren't sure of how much to pack. And the next question, where do you go??? I remember quite well, both of those evacuations.
Hurricane Katrina hit in August of 2005. Ethan was two years old. Bradley was two months old. We decided to head to Houston for the storm. Houston should only be about a five to six hour drive for us. It took TWELVE HOURS!!!! Everyone was trying to get out of that storm's way. The amount of people on the road was insane. Bradley rode in my lap for most of the trip because I swear we didn't seem to ever go over 20mph. I thought that was the longest trip ever! Little did I know that in three more years, we would be evacuating again.
Hurricane Gustav hit in September of 2008. We evacuated again. But this time we headed to Chattanooga. Might as well make a vacation out of it. The majority of Jeremy's family was with us. Ethan was five years old, Bradley was three, and I was nine months pregnant for Carter. Chattanooga is about a nine hour drive for us. Want to know how long it took us to get there??? 18 HOURS!!! Yes, you saw it right.....18 LONG HOURS!!!!! For some of Jeremy's family, it took 24. That is just insane! I will never forget how HUGE my legs and ankles were during that trip. We were driving at such a slow pace, that I got out and walked along the interstate just to be able to move my legs. I so hope that we never have to do that again.
So to answer my question from earlier, should we stay or should we go??? We were staying!!! After all, it was only going to be a category 1. We should be fine. (To be honest, if it would have been a 3, 4 or 5.....we would definitely leave. No doubt about it!!)
I tucked the boys in bed Tuesday night. They each had a flashlight under their pillow. I told them the lights should go out sometime that night while they were sleeping because the storm was coming. Can you believe they slept all night?! I thought for sure Bradley would be in bed with me. He is not a fan of bad weather. He has this really big fear of tornadoes. I'm not really sure why.
So, this is the difference between the hubster and me!!! Jeremy has the need to walk outside every 30 minutes during a hurricane to see what is going on. Me, on the other hand, am trying to sleep. For some reason he thinks I'm crazy for actually sleeping through a hurricane. He felt the need to wake me up every hour to update me. The wind woke me up a few times. But really people, I like my sleep.
Wednesday was kind of strange. I don't know if a hurricane has ever moved this slowly. We were in the eye of the storm for the majority of the morning. It was actually quite nice. I brought the boys across the street so they could get out of the house for awhile.
It was nice to get the boys out of the house. I think they enjoyed it.
I am very thankful that we had a generator! Our electricity went out Tuesday night while we were sleeping. Jeremy hooked up the generator. Oh, how nice that was!!! He had it hooked up to our refrigerator, a few box fans, and an air conditioner. So, we weren't too hot in our house. We camped out in the living room Wednesday night. (I can't believe that I didn't take a picture of that.) We rearranged our living room so we could all sleep in there together. The boys thought that it was a blast having a campout in the living room.
Yep! I let my kids play in the hurricane! :)
I love these silly boys!!!
Do you see my poor bottle brush tree behind the kids? I'm so glad that it is still there. We planted it this past spring.
Our lights came back on Thursday. Yay!!!! It was nice to be connected with the world again. We could finally talk to people on the phone, and watch the news to see what had been happening. Oh, and I found out that we were in a boil water advisory. I guess we still are now. Honestly, I have no idea. I need to check in to that.
After watching the news, I couldn't help but feel completely blessed that we were out of electricity for a day and a half and having to deal with a boil water advisory. Thank you God that we are all safe and our home is in great shape. To see all the homes that were under water....I am so sad for those people.
Friday was clean up day!!! We headed over to Mimi and PawPaw's house so the boys could start cleaning.
Oh, and Jeremy was definitely NOT HAPPY with the shirt Ethan decided to wear Friday ;)
Those boys worked so hard!! They did a great job!! Mimi and PawPaw were very happy to have their help! PawPaw told them that he would pay them some money after they finished cleaning. So, they were pretty excited. At one point I decided to go out and see how the boys were doing with the cleaning. And this was Bradley's comment: "You know what mom. Pawpaw really doesn't have to pay us for cleaning up. I am just happy to help seniors out."
My boy is so sweet!! :) But seniors......nope, not them. They are only 50! Everyone got a kick out of Bradley calling them "seniors".
And do you think the boys really wanted to help their parents the next day clean up our yard. I think not!! Our yard wasn't bad at all. Just leaves and a few small branches. I sure hope the garbage man comes today!
Is hurricane season over yet???
Oh, and for adoption news......our adoption agency received some files from their orphanage partnerships that they have been waiting on. So, please pray with us that maybe, just maybe, we will be matched with our daughter soon!!!!!
