24 Weeks and a Hurricane

           24 weeks. The day before Hurricane Matthew was really sunny

Last week I was 24 weeks and my belly was feeling large and in charge. Monday was just like any other day that included work, school, Zumba and cooking. I had no idea that a storm had been brewing for the past few days (ahh the beauty of not having cable) but when I got home I started seeing more and more people post about it on Facebook. I got curious. It's been 11 years since the last time a big hurricane hit South Florida and I remember it well. I started to pay attention and figured I should keep track of this one.

Tuesday was also busy with more of the same routine except Facebook was kinda going crazy about the size of this storm and I started to get concerned. Honestly, the last thing I wanted to do was go through another Wilma (no power for a week, no water for 3 days, no gas at the pumps) at 5 months pregnant and with someone else's kid (my nephew) under my care. When I was in class we were told that school MIGHT be cancelled due to weather but to pay attention to the announcement they were going to e-mail the next day. 

Wednesday comes around and BAM! craziness. Apparently this monster storm grew to a huge category 5 in the ocean (just like Wilma and Katrina) and was expected to make landfall as a category 4 the next day. When I went to work on Wednesday, our manager decided that we should all leave early that day to finish preparations for the hurricane and that we would be closed for sure on Thursday and maybe Friday. I also received the school notification letting me know that classes were canceled for Thursday and Friday. As it turns out, this day was the day I was to go to the doctor for my glucose test, but they also called me to let me know they were closing early due to the storm and to come in right away. I left work at 11:45am and headed to the doctor. The roads were busy at around noon. Everyone trying to get home so they could finish boarding up or get to Home Depot to get stuff to board up or to Publix for water and supplies. Gas stations were packed, with lines of cars going around. Always the last minute stragglers. Thankfully I had been telling Hector to get supplies while they still had them on Tuesday (they ran out of water at Walmart though. He bought a 6 gallon camping jug and filled it with filtered water at home). We went to Hector's office to help him with last minute prep (putting computers away and securing windows)

I was trying to stay calm for my nephew because he's never been through a storm like this as we don't have them in Ecuador and I really wanted to be reassuring but was freaking out on the inside and it was hard for me to fall asleep.

Hurricane breakfast spread

                                                             

Thursday was D day. Or H day. We slept in and then made a big breakfast (lol, because I kept thinking we might never eat at this table again. Dramatic much?) Hector wisely used this extra day to study for his P.E. exam and my nephew and I wisely used it to park in front of the TV all day. We watched shows and a couple of movies including Titanic to kill as much time as possible while we waited for Matthew. As the day went by, it kept getting darker and darker and a little windier so you could definitely tell a storm was coming, but nothing too bad. I kept checking the news updates and it seemed like the hurricane was moving further away from us and more towards the ocean and by night time, we knew it was not going to hit us. Thank God! I was so relieved. Our office manager texted everyone to let us know the office would be closed on Friday anyway so that was pretty cool. Four day weekend here we come! We walked the dog at around 11pm and it was raining and windy but definitely no hurricane. 

The next day, Friday, was clear and we were bored and tired of staying home so we went for a ride to see the "damage" (aka, some fallen branches) and then my nephew and I went to the mall for a very long time to browse and shop. 

Saturday was spent doing baby shower stuff with my mom and best friend and then more hanging out at home and Sunday was just a day of church and rest for all of us. It was hard for everyone to get back into the groove of things after a 4.5 day weekend so Monday was ROUGH.