Hmm

Well, that wasn't as bad as it could have been. Hurricane Omar came and went with little damage. I got a little worried when Itchy came home early from school last Wednesday announcing that the school had sent everyone home so they could get ready for the hurricane. Even more worried when we went out to pick up a few last minutes supplies and we saw a lot of worried locals. Last year, they mocked us for preparing for Hurricane Dean. But this time, they were out in full force buying supplies.

Hurricane Omar's eye passed less than 100 miles from the Island. Little damage was done. A few streets flooded, a few coastal areas had residents evacuated, and trees were knocked down, etc. But there was no serious damage. Our neighboring island had much worse luck. I guess they got hit a little harder and had more serious damage.

One tree in our yard fell over. Itchy saw it happen. Yes. He sure was standing by the window. Whatever. Last year we drove around during the hurricane. At least we stayed home this time.

We lost power for 12 hours or so, but since we'd been dealing with power outages for more than 2 weeks prior to this, it wasn't a big deal.

Speaking of that, it seems as though they've got a temporary solution to the blackouts. I know they haven't fixed the burned electricity machines yet, but they've got some backups working right now. We've had continuous power since Thursday afternoon. *Knocks on wood*

Once again it's midsemester break. We went to the casino last night and lost $16. I know, high rollers and what not. We've got beach plans for Monday if the weather shapes up. I am really sick of the clouds and rain.

Oh, and if you happen to scroll all the way to the bottom of the blog you'll see that it's only about 6 more months until we leave the Island. Still don't know where we're going. Honestly, right now our top three choices aren't even the same as they were 2 months ago. Itchy and I don't even agree on a top three. I try not to think about it too much because it just stresses me out. It makes both of us cranky. It's fun to think about the nice things we can have when we get back though. I've been picking things out. It's fun. Then the logistics of moving again makes me cringe and I don't want anything. Much easier to move when you live out of a couple of suitcases.

Vacation Wrap Up

Ok, so we left off with a trip to the lake. The plan was that everyone was going to spend the weekend at the lake. However, since everyone had to work all day Friday, Sunshine and I decided to take the 3 kids (Princess and Moonshine belong to her) to the lake on Thursday night. We made individual pizzas, went out on the paddle boat trying to catch frogs and turtles, had scavenger hunts, watched movies, etc before all the adults got there. I had a lot of fun. Moonshine, Darlin', and Princess had fun too. Once everyone else got there we got to do more fun stuff.

The Warden made drinks for the adults and then we all went out on the pontoon. The kids, Sunshine, and I all had fun jumping off the boat and swimming. Darlin', J, and I rode on the tube on the way back. We 'fell off' 3 times. It was hilarious. We had cake for Princess's birthday. Lots of fun was had.

Once we were home from the lake, Sunshine, the 3 girls, and I went to get haircuts. Then we hit up Target (because I love it so and still needed to get Princess a birthday gift). After that we went to dinner.

Let's see, that puts us at Princess's birthday. We had a little party for her at daycare. That afternoon I took the Big daycare kids bowling. I felt bad not taking Princess, as it was her birthday, but I was already taking 5 kids. I'm sure one more kid wouldn't have been a problem but Princess likes to run off. I can't chase after her and watch 5 kids all at the same time. So we just waited until she was watching the nap time movie. I don't think she really knows we went. Next time, I'll take her with.

A few days later I took the girls to a nearby town to go to the zoo. There was a little bickering on the drive there. I just turned to radio up a little. They are old enough to figure it out on their own, right? Had it gotten to the next level I would have jumped in. We got a little lost on the way there. Oops. Stupid detours. And lack of signage. It was easy to miss. Once we finally got there we had fun. The zoo I once worked at had some of the same animals so it was fun to tell the girls about that. They also had baby goats that were adorable. I think I got some cute pictures. Princess was pretty good about not running off but she had a case of the "I wants". Once we had see everything we went to lunch.

We found a Chuck E. Cheese type place close to the zoo. I told them we weren't playing games though. Just eating. But they were so well behaved that I did give them each a few bucks to play games. Of course they won a bunch of tickets and got to pick out junk before we left.

This is where we should have ended the day. It was all downhill from there. I wanted to stop at the mall before we went to the farm place. It should have been quick and easy. We were just going to run in and return a pair of jeans. It took the rest of the day. Princess was awful. She would not listen. She ran off about every 3 seconds. Once we finally got to the necessary store I was already pulling my hair out. The older two girls went to look at clothes for them. Princess and I tried to return her jeans. Except she kept running away. Or spinning the racks of clothing. Or unfolding every shirt on the tables. It was embarrassing. The store employees were staring at us. Meanwhile, the older girls found clothes that they liked. But they needed to try them on. Princess was not helpful. With the running around and screaming. I just wanted to leave. Of course, the girls needed other sizes or other colors than what they had on the racks so we needed more help. The employees were more than willing to help, JUST TO GET US OUT OF THERE. After more than an hour and a half we finally left that one store. I had to carry Princess. She was not happy. I was not happy. The older girls were not happy. We did not get to go to the farm. There was no time. We had to get back home to pick up Sunshine from work. I owe them a trip to the farm. Or something. I'll let them decide.

My last day there was pretty fun too. Sunshine and I took the kids around the downtown area. They have these animal statues all over downtown and we took lots of silly pictures. The pictures make me laugh. I know, I know, it sucks that you can't see them. But I will email them out to the girls soon!

That was pretty much my vacation. It took way longer than I thought it would. But my break from blogging had a big part in that. Oh well.

It's not true

You can all ignore the post before this one. It's just not true. This place is nothing like a civilized country. NOTHING. I take it all back.

We don't even have electricity anymore. Well, I do right now but it's limited. We only get to have electricity for about 10 hours a day. Yeah. Totally serious. Right now our hours are about 6 pm to 5 am. Good thing we stay up late so we can make good use of it. Otherwise we'd be sleeping our share of the electricity away.

Our local power station had a little fire. And by little fire I mean a huge fire. The two largest engines are done for. They have generators powering the entire island. Well, different parts of the island at different times of the day.

This is suppose to take WEEKS to fix. Weeks people. This is not funny. No power means no air conditioning. So I can't sleep because it's too hot (and I need the white noise). But why should I get up? There's no internet. No tv. Nothing. Itchy's at school. Next week I might just go to school with Itchy. They have generators there.

Send happy 'fixing the electricity machine' thoughts my way.