Hi friends and happy Wednesday. And I do mean happy. After 30 hours without power(yeah, I’m looking at you Irma) we are back in business and the air conditioning is cranking. I’ve lived in Florida a long time (43 years) and we’ve faced our share of storms. The hurricanes of 2004 (we had 3 come through our area) were the worst for us but we weren’t without power for very long. Less than a day actually. This time was different and I am eternally grateful our power was not out longer. It’s just too hot and humid here to be without air conditioning.
Although I hadn’t planned on posting anything today I thought I’d share a few pictures of what Irma did in my neighborhood. Our house fared pretty well. A few panels of screen were blown away from around our pool but thankfully our large oak trees are still standing and we had no water damage nor broken windows. It also seems our roof survived. All good news since Nolan’s trip to the Emergency Room on Saturday is going to cost us over $4,000.00!
The last time I fixed my hair or wore make up was Friday. When I was rushing Nolan off to the doctor and ER on Saturday I threw on my rain boots and rain coat because it was raining. Of course, as luck would have it, the rain stopped and the sun was shining brightly. I was stuck for hours looking RIDICULOUS and because I’m INSANE I felt the need to tell any human who would listen to me that when I left the house hours ago it was raining. Honestly no one cared, especially when Nolan had tonsils the size of Texas, but apparently I am more superficial than I’d like to admit! Anyhow, here’s a picture of my leopard print boots. I wore them with my hot pink rain coat. It could have been totally cute if I had washed my face, combed my hair, and slapped on a little make up but…
That was about as good as fashion got for me over the weekend! I sent that picture to my sister in law and she commented that she wanted boots too. Brace yourself for where mine are from…Walgreen’s! Yup, no fancy wellies for me. Our rainy season is when it’s hot so it just doesn’t make sense to invest in anything expensive. I keep these at work for when it rains and I have to load kids in cars. They do the job!
Up next are various pictures from our neighborhood. My husband and I took our dog out to survey the damage on Monday morning. 
Having no power and no internet was difficult! Being bored and hot is not a good combination. Add to that a curfew for our County that was in effect from Sunday evening until Monday night and we were stir crazy. We cleaned up the yard and the gutters out front. Once the curfew was lifted we sent the boys to sleep elsewhere so they could be in air conditioning. My husband and I stayed home and slept with the windows open.
He went into work on Tuesday and I stayed home and cleaned. I was bored so I cleaned bathrooms and dusted, even vacuumed since ours was charged up and ready to go! Last week I loaded my Kindle up too so I read like it was my job!
Speaking of jobs, schools are closed here through Thursday so no work for me. So many schools still have no power. I am praying this is resolved soon because so many of our kids rely on us for meals and stability. My heart hurts for my sweet babies who are at home in uncertain conditions. Without getting into too many details I know that some of our sweet students live in homes where adult supervision is questionable and I worry when the stress of a storm like this impacts their fragile home life.
I snapped this last picture Monday night. Despite all the craziness over the last few days with my sick man child and the wrath of hurricane Irma I am blessed beyond measure. The candle in the picture is my current favorite from Wal-mart. It is under $5 and smells AMAZING! Seriously, it’s a 3 wick candle and my house smells so yummy when I burn it. Go to Wal-mart and get one or 6 like I did, it’s Pumpkin Waffles and it was on the air freshener aisle!
I hope you’ll join me in saying, “Peace Out Irma!”
xo,
Kellyann
