After Ivan

Today we were loaned a generator from DH's work so I am able to blog again. We evacuated to Panama City only to be two blocks away from the tornado that hit a local restaurant and killed a man driving by in his car. Very scary. Wednesday night to early Thursday morning was pretty hairy but nothing like what they recieved at home. We were lucky. Our house did fine. No damage, just lots of huge tree limbs down in the yard. We are definitely counting our blessings.

We have no power, just got our phone back this morning, and water is very limited in the area. We are hoping our power comes on soon since we are on the same grid as the water treatment plant and they are working hard to get the power up over there since they are running low on diesel fuel and if they run out we have no more water.

My family is safe, as is our home. I can say too many times that we are counting our blessings. This area was hit so hard. We have been so lucky through all of this. I wish I could write more but it's late and the generator is loud.

Interesting times to say the least. They say we could be without power anywhere from 3 wks to 2 months. This is to be considered the kids school vacation. There is no power whatsoever in my county. We have to drive 20-25 miles for gas and hope to find a place open. Luckily Ft Walton Beach is almost back to normal and this afternoon we easily found a gas station, had to wait in line but were happy to do it. We were able to fill up the car and the truck today and a 5 gallon gas can. We treated the boys to TGIFridays. The one in FWB was open and had a/c. We have gotten so used to the heat that we all got really cold. The MREs(Meals Ready to Eat) have been a nice treat after Ramen noodles every meal for a couple of days. Gourmet no, tasty yes. On a positive note I have a gas stove and we've been able to make pancakes for breakfast and scrambled eggs. Three cheers for Hungry Jack complete pancake mix. Saved us for sure.

Things I will not ever take for granted again:

Cold milk
turkey sandwiches
a gas station on every corner
air conditioning
cash in hand
water
my washing machine and dryer

My kids are actually asking for vegetables. DS#2 ordered a salad. He ate every bite.

DS#3 seems to be experiencing a little post traumatic stress disorder. I think he's just realized what a serious situation this is and we've started talking to him letting him know that things are ok, we're in our house, school will eventually start back and life will gradually get more normal. Things are just "different" right now.

It's late and I'm tired. So I'll catch up some more tomorrow.