Rough Days in Pensacola, FL

May 2, 2014
Cards, Misc
Celebrate Add on Kit, Florida, Pensacola, Stippled Blossoms

Oh has it been a few ROUGH days in Pensacola, FL.

You know when I go THREE days without saying a word “something” must be going on. It’s hard to keep my jabber jaws SHUT.

Seriously, it’s been a whirlwind this week so let me sum it up for you and I DO have something pretty to show.

Monday my mom and I left for Birmingham, AL for the big Stampin’ Up! Catalog Premiere Event. We laughed all the way there until we found out the event had been cancelled due to weather. At first I thought my friend was pulling my leg when I received a message on Facebook about it. Then I called the company and the news was true. Because the area was expecting horrible weather they cancelled for the safety of others. Of course traveling 4.5 hours there we were heartbroken. We decided to go to the theater where the event was being held and the staff was there and they did give us our catalogs and a FREE stamp set. We were tickled. With our new catalog in hand we grabbed a BIG chocolate dessert and headed to our hotel to ride out the storm. Oh my LORD! Was that a storm. 6 times the tornado siren went off. I almost wet my pants. We spent most of the night in the bathroom either sitting on the toilet with pillows or in the tub with pillows over our heads. Scared? Ummm… TERRIFIED!!! Pray for that area. Many of the little towns were hit hard by the tornadoes.
We drove home bright and early the next morning. Excited to get OUT of there. They were expecting the same weather again and we didn’t want to be a part of it.
Made it home to Pensacola minutes before our storm was going to hit. Just a thunderstorm… NO biggie.
No biggie? What we left was nothing compared to what we came home too. I’ve never seen rain come down that fast nor lightening like I had seen. Over 75,000 lightening strikes. It was like a strobe light. Constant. The wind was terrible and the pool was overflowing. My smart husband who thinks he has 9 lives wobbled his way outside to drain our pool. BAM- Power went out. I was having a cow because I had so many things to get done. I decided it was best to just go to bed.
Woke up the next morning and power was back on. School was cancelled but I didn’t give it anymore thought. I just figured it was bad flooding around the area. Grabbed my coffee, went to my office to work. Started getting crazy texts from friends asking if we were okay. I thought that was odd, of course we are. Just a bad thunderstorm. I started noticing people walking in our neighborhood that I’d never seen before. Lots of people. ??? What is going on?
Doorbell rang and the neighbor kid asked if we wanted to ride bikes to see the bridges in or neighborhood that were GONE. WHAT???? I decided it was best to turn on the TV first. What was going on?
DEVASTATION! I couldn’t believe what I was seeing. All over my hometown of Pensacola was devastation from the 26″ of rain that fell. What I was seeing on the TV I couldn’t believe.
We walked to the bridges in our neighborhood and learned there was no way out. We were a little island because the bridges were either flooded over or completely GONE.

We new it was serious when we started hearing all of the roads that were washed away. I jumped on Facebook to check on friends in the area and was devastated to hear of so many whose homes are flooded. The worst is they have no flood insurance. We will be helping our community!
We are dry. I sat at my desk that night and felt guilty. God sure has looked out for us. From Monday night until now, HE made sure we were safe.
Please pray for my little community of great people. They will need it and our city has a long road ahead of it.

I’m happy to report we can get out of our neighborhood now. Still have to work your way around the city dodging closed roads. I’m sure you have seen a little of it on the National News. I’m glad we can make it out…. Russ and I are scheduled to leave on Sunday for our cruise with Stampin’ Up! Oh I can’t get on that boat FAST enough. Russ is so excited for a getaway!!

I’m not sure how much blogging I’ll get done before the trip. I’m not even packed yet. NOTHING in the suitcase. I told Russ I was going to on the ship. He looked at me with a mean face. He said I was grounded on the ship to relaxation only. Hmmm… I think he is funny!!

If I can’t convince him, no worries. You know I’ll be back and you know I’ll be sharing a lot of fun fun things.

Here is a fun card that I recently created using one of the kits from the Spring Occasions Catalog called Calypso Coral Celebration Add-on-It.