The past few weeks have been incredibly busy- and a little bit stressful as well! Hurricane Irma was all over the place – tracking to the east, then tracking to the west, then back to the east…as a result, the entire state of Florida was evacuating…including us! At one point Irma looked like it was going right over Tallahassee, so Paige drove home to evacuate to the hotel inland with us. We packed up the house, rolled up rugs, put furniture on top of beds, packed books in plastic bins, tried to prepare (as much as possible) for the possibility that there might not be a house to return to. It’s a strange feeling. We froze gallon containers of water and put them in the refrigerator and freezer. We packed our cars with coolers of food for the hotel, and with flashlights and important papers and medications, and irreplaceable items and photos. And then we drove away. We waited as long as possible to leave…because…we were freezing water bottles and still trying to prep the house and because, honestly- I didn’t want to leave. It’s weird to leave your house and all your stuff and wonder if it’ll be there when you get back. 

The drive inland was crazy. The outer bands were already hitting us and the winds were starting to get really crazy and it was hard to keep the car on the road. Sand was whipping everywhere. Crazy! 

Once at the hotel, things were fine. We never even lost power! (Very unusual!) When we were finally allowed to come home, we found that our little beach town was just devasted. Homes were washed into the beach. Tornadoes ripped homes apart. The destruction was terrible. Thankfully, once again, our neighborhood fared pretty well. And our house only had minor soffit and screen damage and some minor roof damage. There was some flooding in the streets but nothing ever reached the homes. 

The good news is that we did not lose much food. Freezing the gallon jugs of water worked. While we did lose power for almost 5 days, our outside freezer had two frozen things of water, and everything in there stayed frozen! The inside fridge was still cold when we got home – we transferred most everything into the freezer – although we did throw out the milk and mayonnais, just to be safe. But everything else stayed cold and or frozen, so our frozen water jugs worked! 

We eventually got electricity and internet back, and in the meantime our battery operated fans were a lifesaver! Unfortunately, it took our neighborhood a month to get our beach access fixed (it was only restored yesterday), so that has been kind of a bummer. 

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In other news, Clay has started a new job, which he’s really enjoying. Paige has been having a lot of fun with her sorority. She met her “big,” went on a new member retreat, and she’s also been busy with Level Dance Club and teaching ESL to a local elementary student through FSU’s volunteer outreach. She also turned 21!