Irene & Her Evil Winds

3 days after the hurricane and everyone 80 miles west of the coast felt it, maybe even further. Preparations were made with intense house cleaning, full bathtub of water, gallons a water set aside, fridge turned all the way down to freezing, candles set out, maglight flashlights with new batteries, and a truck that can have small appliances plugged into it for cooking. Friday evening we were craving ice cream... Lo and Behold Walmart was still open and A braved the stormy weather to obtain chocolate chip ice cream which our son and I thoroughly enjoyed as desert that evening and breakfast the next morning. :)

Yea, I'm an awesome mommy who cannot stand the fact of good ice cream ever going to waste. :) Saturday around 2am I woke up to what felt like a steam room. Power outage, Irene had arrived. In and out of sleep until the morning, opened up some windows and let the storm's wind cool the house. Played battleship, napped while the boys watched a movie on the portable DVD player, read, and then A needed to play in the storm, hmmmm... Really 80 mph winds and you want to go work out? Ooook.... So I did what any good wife would do, I sat and watched while calling out the workouts based off of a full (including jokers) deck of playing cards. So, 54 different workouts, each consisting of its own workout based off the suit of the card (burpees, pushups, mountain climbers, air squats), number is for reps and face cards are 11,12,13, Ace 400meter run, Jokers- any random workout one that consisted of puddle push-ups ALL with his flak jacket on with sappy plates.... Recordings of this was definitely done, however he mooned the camera and can't post it. lol. This took a little under an hour of the day and come to find out was done during/after the eye of the storm. Sealfit.com, his drug. :)

 Done with the Hurricane Workout

 A then played star wars battles against J (our son's favorite indoor playtime activity). We needed to get out of the house and everything had calmed down for the most part, just some wind. So we went out for a drive. Mommy needed out of the house. Assessed damages off base (base at that time was shut down unless you lived on base). Electricity was still off, everywhere. Flooding is always a problem around here, and trees were broken over power lines in roads, debris everywhere...

Not much else to see so home we went. J's dinner was chicken noodle soup cooked in a rice cooker, one of his favorites that he happily scarffed down. The heat made me not so hungry... Cannot really remember what we ate, or if I even ate. 730-8pm, J's bed time dark enough outside to get him to sleep earlier. Sit in living room, read by candlelight. 9 decide to take it to the bedroom, read a little longer, and then pass out.


Wake up first thing the next morning eat cereal for breakfast, (quickly grabbing the milk and slamming the fridge door shut), make coffee in the back of the truck then get ready and out the door- 8am. To the base to assess damage for A's work. Shocked by the amount of trees that are gone... Nature can be a scary motha.... Cell phone service during all this and until yesterday Monday was little to none except in certain places throughout the city. After base we went toward the beach. Negative: Atlantic's bridge was closed except to those with a pass. So was Emerald Isles. Me: I so badly wanted to get out there to explore. No luck. Go to Lowe's pick up items needed to fix the gate, fence, and 2-4 missing shingles. Come home, nap. A fixed the gate and the fallen fence panel. POWER!!!!! Yes, sweet merciful power has been restored! 2pm Sunday. Grab the vacuum and get to cleaning. 4pm- needed to get out of the house and EI's bridge is open. To the BEACH!!! Again, tons of debris, but really no major (noticeable) damage to the beach front homes. Amazing. Clear. Hot. Many broken shells, yet managed to find a cargo pocket full of great whole ones. A continues to make fun of me collecting shells and states how glad he is we do not live at the beach, as our house would be made of shells... :) I add a few more to his cargo pocket. ;)

J runs in and out of the water, finds clams, finds a star fish and throws it back in the ocean, and both my guys find a huge, dead, horse shoe crab. Tires were seen often, to include many that had obviously been out there for awhile.

Came home and BBQ'd dinner. 

As Grandpa Ed said that someone has probably already made the t-shirts, We Survived Irene....  As A said, we made it through our first hurricane together without killing each other, we can survive anything. :)) 3 more days until the wedding. Must get J's shirt, get the dogs in the kennel for the weekend while we head to the mountains, and call and add a few more people to our dinner party!

Sidenote: Yes this was all done without a smoke... 16 days no cigs and growing stronger!