October events + Hurricane Milton!

 My calendar for October is full to the brim.  Somedays I'm really tired of the go, go but then I remind myself that I actually do like when things are active.  I just need a breathe in between days!

This was gonna be a full week just looking at my calendar but all the things were so fun!!!!  Monday night, we attended a pretty wedding with our friends and to see kids grow and marry their best friends is always a great witness.  Weddings feel like date nights for Mike and I!

Then we attended Sight and Sounds Inspire Event Tuesday afternoon and evening and again .... so inspiring!  I loved the worship time!  Then we sat and watched the Daniel show which alone just brings the Bible to life and there's so much to learn and purpose!  We ate good food and captured the sunset on our way out!

Then on Wednesday, I attended a ladies event at the Star Barn and it's called The Wellness Collective Event.  My dear friends from church get this whole thing together and they do amazing at bringing in the best speakers and foods and coffee and shopping vendors!  The entire day was full of life, purpose and worship to Jesus!  Just loved it!!!!!

My mind is constantly on the Florida folks that are having to evacuate because of all the hurricane and storms that are ripping through the sunshine state!  There are hurricanes every year but when they hit places that we love and know so well, just makes me hurt for these folks!  I prayed for God's protection and kept watching the weather channel in hopes of the storm to weaken!

The sun always reminds me of just how good God is and that's He's got everything in His control!

I had a small window of time to harvest the rest of the foods in the garden before frost hits our land.  I plan to juice the tomatoes, can the peppers and enjoy the lettuce with everything!

On Thursday, I cleaned the house and spent some quiet time at home!  After three full days of events, I was needing this!  I had a hair appointment at 2 and I love this relaxing space!  Sadly, my hairdresser was sick but they had a fill in to help hind my grays and she did great with my hair!

While I was sitting there relaxing, letting the hairdresser do her job, Fannie Lynn texts me and says that they are planing to drive to Florida and help Mom and Dad there for the weekend.  What?  My parents had plans to drive a trailer down to Florida and install cabinets.  With the hurricane going through, they hopped to keep their plans.  Mike decided yesterday that he would drive with them down and help with any hurricane cleanup!  But, now that LaVern and Fannie are going with their kids, maybe we could all go along!?!  

We did some fast planning and by the time I was leaving the hair salon, we were all heading to Florida that  night!  With Mom and Dad.  In Dad's truck.  But, we also had chiropractor appointments for the kids at 4:30.  How was I to get them there on time and pack for the weekend and have Ashlyn ready to head out the door in one hour because she was traveling with LaVern's because they had room for one!!!!  Crazy!

Everyone helped pack their own belongings and Mike was out the door for an evening speaker event he had reservations with and I sent Ashlyn on her way to Florida awhile with LaVerns.  My head was spinning!  Matthew took Ginger to Sadies for me.  Mom and Dad picked us up at 9:15 PM!  Mike was back home and off we went!  Florida bound.

We never drove Florida since Austin was born so this was a new adventure for him.  To the rest of us, we knew it was gonna be a long haul.  We drove all night.  Austin was crashed out on the truck floor with Mike and I on the back seat!  Dad drove.  Mom kept him awake.

Matthew texted us before we left to look outside in the dark sky.  We were able to see the Northern Lights!  It was so cool and my first time seeing that!

Mike took the wheel in the middle of the night!  We had to detour once and ended up driving past cotton fields and we just had to stop and pick a piece of cotton!

Many stops for gas and we kept driving south!  The traffic was absolutely crazy by the time we hit the Florida line.  Many, many electrical trucks were heading south to help restore electric.  The hurricane went through Sarasota during the night but we had rain free weather as drove.  LaVerns arrived in good time but it took us 21 1/2 hours!!!!!!  We were so ready to be there!!!!!

We arrived at dark and we drove up to Mommy D's Florida home with no electric.  We unloaded and stretched and looked around to see the damage of her car port and fence all messed up from Hurricane Milton.  Just weeks before that Hurricane Helen went through and really damaged North Carolina!  And just week before that one, Tropical Storm Debby caused water to enter Mommy D's Florida home and that is why my parents had to go and gut out the home and are now making renovations.  It's a big story but here we are trying to help where we can!

Mom and I took some foods along to Florida because we didn't know if the grocery stores would be open or what we were gonna to find.  We were tired and ready to eat something and with no electricity we decided to go see if anything was open around us.  We found a Subway open and we walked inside.  We decided to not eat there and went next door to Dominos where they were cranking out the pizzas.  It really was something to witness.  People were out of electric and calling for pizza deliveries.  The man that took our food order in the store said that he's usually a pizza driver but he's out of gas and the gas lines are crazy!  He's just trying to help out in the shop.  We got pizza and headed back to Pinecraft to eat and sleep!

Mike's mom was so sweet and said we could stay in her home for the weekend.  She didn't have electric either when we arrived but as we walked up the street, the lights came on the streets!  We had electric!!!!!  This felt like a huge gift from God above!  Now we could take showers and use the AC and sleep in comfort!

Pinecraft didn't look terrible.  There were branches and trees uprooted and some shingles missing on roofs but no horrible damage!  You saw lots of bundles of sticks and trash along the road for the trash service to pick up.

We walked back from breakfast at Der Dutchman, yes, they were actually open, and stepped inside a leather shop!

The neighbor next to Mom's had a ton of branches in her back yard and we cleaned that up for her!  It was warm and we washed down the driveway, cleaned windows, helped dad, etc.......

The kids played at the park while we worked!

Men showed up to fix Mom Lapps roof!  Addison and Ashlyn played pickle ball.

Walking down the streets, you would see a lot of this!  Trees, branches, etc just all need picked up.

And the gas lines are crazy!  People need gas for their generators, vehicles and chain saws.  Fannie Lynn waited about an hour in line for the gas pumps to open up.  I never saw that before!

Mike got Ritchies bike charged up and rode around town.  Austin loved it.

LaVerns bought us Oola Bowls and juices from the Juice Bar and that was a fun treat.  Mom and Dad ended up coming over to live in with us at Mom Lapp's house because where they were gonna stay was still out of electric.

We took a drive out to the beaches and I just could not get over the amount of damage out there from the Hurricane!!!!  Home after home had piles, it looked like their whole house was dumped out on the street.  When things get wet, you need to clean it out so mold doesn't spread!  

Here's a boat pushed up on shore by the Marina Jack.

One street behind Lido Beach looked like this!  Trash just everywhere.  There was no hotel, motel or restaurant open and running out there.  St. Armonds Key was a ghost town.  Everything was under water with Hurricane Helen.

Eating out was a luxury.  We did take some foods along but it sure felt good to have a hot meal after all that driving and working!

Mike and I and the littles flew home out of Tampa airport on Monday morning.  We saw the Tropcicana Field Roof destroyed from the storm.  Sarasota airport was still not up and running because they had roof damage in one of the terminals.  There is just damage everywhere you look!

This was a very fast trip and it was good to see Ritchies home and Hannah as they also pick up tons of sticks and wash down dirty floors and just clean up from the storm.  We love Florida and seeing it all messed up is so sad to me.

After some Starbucks, we boarded the plane.

We could have each had our own seats because there was only 50 people on this flight.  So many are still evacuated or not coming to this storm place to vacation.

We love Florida and even though things could be much worse in Pinecraft, there are some of our most loved areas that got hit hard!  God, please be near them!

As we were packing up to leave, Mike and Austin dropped the rest of the foods we didn't eat at a lady's house behind Mommy D's.  Her trailer was flooded.  She's trying to clean up her home and live there with no electricity.  She's trying to keep her job.  She as very blessed after Mike prayed for her and handed her our leftover Lapp Valley milk, half a loaf a bread, some meats and juice.  

Let's continue to pray for those who are gutting out their homes.  Who need to start again with memories.  With so much to clean!  Neighborhoods will be different for awhile.  Businesses need to start up again.  Many have lost friends and loved ones in the storm.  

Jesus, heal our land!!!!