A quick vis to STL to pick up Nesi

A quick vis to STL to pick up Nesi

Nesya went to St. Louis to go to school and spend some fun times with our family there.  She flew by herself!!!  Overall it went really well (you can some cute airport pics in this post) but she was starting to get homesick by about day 5.  So the morning after driving back from our intense trip to Panama City (the AF base) I took David to STL to pick her up.  Thankfully active duty military dependents can get really good rates on SW Airlines so it was only $117 each way!  Made last minute planning a breeze.

We didn't know how long we'd stay in STL because I was feeling pretty worn out and had to see how David would manage.  I came with literally a backpack on my back and a stroller.  LOL.  Oh, and David's rolling Dora suitcase!  He wants to be like the other travelers at the airport.

I knew we'd have fun and rejuvenate with a little time with Tammy, Mark, the four cousins, Lisa, and Marshall.  We laid low and sorry to say, saw only a few friends while there.  It was really hard to leave them all and I just needed to hunker down and relax with the amount of things I was dealing with.  It would be nicer to visit when I felt a little more composed!  Meanwhile, Robert and Adira had a quiet yet fun week in Atlanta!  Nice for them to have time together, too.

We enjoyed a couple impromptu meet-ups with some special friends (again, SO sorry couldn't see everyone!!!  Can't wait to next time on a normal trip.)  This time we enjoyed dinner at the Cohen's, Kaufman Park with the Zitins, Pumpkin Land with the Greens, and Gokul with the Jacobsens, plus several long family hang out sessions at Mark and Tammy's.  So thankful for their wonderful and generous hospitality and warm TLC for Nesi, absolutely rising to the occasion to help her out.

I'm so glad we got to spend time in STL and again, am looking forward to a more normal visit :-P

Pictures of the times...

eating out and homework time with ATF+RJF

David getting excited to go to St. Louis.  Yes, he walked through the Atlanta (coca cola headquarters!!) airport looking just like the big travelers!

So fun to be back with the cousins!  This is at Shaw Park near Clayton HS.

And who did we run into there?  Zaida!  (Marshall)
OK, to be honest, I had guessed he may be there and when Tammy dropped us off there to go drive carpool, I texted him and asked if he was there.  Sure enough!!!  It was so sweet how David ran to him.  He walked us all the way back home later.

"SIT HERE!"  is David's command.  He usually wanted at least two couch-mates, often three.

NOOKS!  He yelled as we approached the store from Delmar.  He KNOWS this town!!!  What a smartie!  (And a free cookie lover...)

Irv Zeid Park- spinning on the spinner.  I love when David wants to ride on my back but he sometimes likes to bite me then.  Good thing for the hoodie as a deterrent!

Sweeties!!!

Theis Farm - Pumpkin Land!!!  
One of my all time favorite St. Louis activities.  There's nothing like being surrounded by the orchards, vegetable and berry rows, tons of haybales and awesome feats of engineering, all for the sake of play!  Long slides, corn maze, three haymazes, obstacle courses, two ziplines, etc.  We had a blast.  I was sooo sad Adira wasn't here for this!

They don't just stop at all the above.  They also provide a whole bunch of kiddie John Deer riding toys.

Yum yum Tutti Frutti

Goodbye hugs- all together now!

This picture may look fun but I really recommend NOT getting a gel manicure because you have to have a UV light to dry it and removing them is sooo difficult! I did get some simple pleasure in life from having the great looking nails for a couple weeks though. 

As for removing it...couldn't have done it without ya, Tammy!

#thatsallfornow

Visit to our house at Tyndall AFB

Photos of Tyndall AFB/Panama City hurricane wreckage

10/21/18

Look out for the extra large pics below for some dramatic views

Eufala, Alabama- a beautiful town with a lake (on the way to FL).  When you drive right through the middle of it you see some of its 500+ historic buildings.  Gorgeous homes that seem out of place with the rest of the rural area.  Antebellum south.

 That big peanut I mentioned before ;)

As we got closer to Panama City, we saw many, many (if not almost all!) trees broken in half, leaning over, or dramatically uprooted.  It was shocking.

 Across the street from our house- trees are missing most or all leaves.

our roof- three damage points and siding was off, also

 Front of our house- our house was largely spared, which was very fortunate. 

Another view across the street- palm trees didn't get stripped, the other types did.

Side/backyard view of our house, with the fence wrecked and stuff blown around.  No patio furniture was damaged, impressively!

Backyard looking pretty rough!

Robert's car needed new windshield and 2 new windows.  Seems that a stick got lodged here.

 These trees look decapitated.  (They may have been trimmed by the clean up crews.)

This, to me, looks like a tree stuck in a tree.  Debris all around.  (I could have taken tons of these types of pictures; it was sad to see such destruction.)

I think this was the front of the house we almost moved into- front corner damage as well as extensive back main room wall and roof damage (see below.)

This is the house we almost moved into, roof missing over dining/living room space.  This would have possibly wrecked all our unpacked boxes of books and maybe ruined our framed art which had been unpacked.  Thankfully our stuff wasn't there.

Seems like a fence crashed through here.

Tons of debris has been pushed to the side.  It will take so long to clean up all of it.

The road to the housing neighborhoods on base looks so barren.  There was so much more greenery; it was a beautiful forest all along the way.

We saw lots of vehicles turned on their sides.

Trees uprooted.  How nature ripped through!!!

One of the most dramatic views I saw. 

This cutie slept almost three hours of the five hour drive home.  I still felt tremendous pressure to make fast time back to Atlanta and concentrate very intensely to drive safely and get as many miles done while he slept. I had to go to St. Louis to get Nesya the next day and get back to ATL to get Adira before nighttime and get her ready for school, etc....was intense but thank G-d went well and I was pleased that I got it all done.

Two unexpectedly good blind photos- so many incredible miles of flowers between the highway sides, south of Atlanta 

Happy traveler (getting pampered by Mommy with traveling treats!)

A "whirlwind" of an update

Any good excuse for my slow blogging?
It took a while to catch up here because (wait for it........) a category four hurricane hit our new hometown!!!  It caused a lot of destruction, and was quite a shock, since we were just trying to settle in and be DONE with traveling!  Fortunately we've been coping quite well and just trying to stay flexible and content with day to day comforts, even if we don't know our long term plan now.

First- about the hurricane
Hurricane Michael touched ground at Tyndall AFB/Panama City Beach area on Wednesday 10/10/18.  The wind speeds were about 150 mph!  The onset was very rapid and the storm intensity increased as it approached land, so this time it was no false alarm like there's been lately, like we’d been hoping for.  Please read or watch the news to get a full scope because I can't do justice to it here!  But in my next blog post (when we return to the base to assess our house) I will share my personal photos.

The storm came just two days after we moved in- so we had unpacked on Monday 10/8, and had to evacuate the next day, Tuesday!  Then the storm hit on Wednesday midday.  We had to be at least 100 miles away, per order of the base commander.  We didn't bring much at all except our suitcases from the weekend before.  But we didn't really think it was going to hit at the force it did and were certainly hoping that it wouldn't be so devastating to the base.  The base suffered extensive damage, some of it "catastrophic," including the school and workplaces.  They did move dozens of fighter planes to safer places, though, so at $140 million each, we can breathe a sigh of relief that American taxpayers won't have to help rebuild them all.  It will take a long time to clean up and rebuild, and we don't even know if they will do so.  They might move most people elsewhere. Time will tell- we are eagerly waiting.  And praying for a good future plan without any extra moving around!  I'd like to find out if they are moving Robert's office to another base and just move there One. Time. and not have the kids need to switch schools any more.

For the record, we are really not in need of anything at the moment- the AF is a) still paying Robert despite his not being at "work," and b) providing quite good per diem, lodging, travel monies to all those on evacuation orders.  There even was a generous "stabilization grant" given by the AF Aid Society.  We hadn't heard of that before, but nice to know how well the military takes care of its personnel.

Keeping busy during displacement
Our first few days on the evacuation order were in Macon, GA.  We stayed near our friends Judah and Jessica Greenberg and their kids.  We had a fun time, including a great outing to Skyzone, an indoor trampoline park.

 COTTON FIELDS (and a cotton truck- now that's a lot of t-shirts!!!)
(Haven't seen any peaches but have seen a lot of pecan orchards)

 MUSEUM OF AVIATION in Georgia

Fun in the hotel

Skyzone!!!

Fun at the Greenbergs

Back to Atlanta

Still hoping this wasn't going to be a long term displacement, we headed to Atlanta for Shabbat.  And there we lived, happily ever after!  JK!  But we've been having a really good time, thank G-d. It's hard to think about those without as many resources for whom the evacuation and damage are an incredible hardship.  We hope they are able to rebuild quickly and efficiently!  There are tons of people providing aid, which is encouraging.  For us, it's just day by day while we wait for our plan to be made.

We are having a wonderful time spending so much time with the Feens, and also got to see old friends (Erica Krivoy Davis, Hebrew school carpool buddy from Beaverton, Oregon!) and Gila Daman Polon, Brandeis buddy!)

We enjoyed many good nearby hikes and walks, the fantastic botanical gardens, lots of great kosher food, and seeing cousin Wendy Gutman!

Then we decided for the sake of happiness and peace, Nesya would get her "wish" and go to St. Louis for a little while under the loving care of Aunt Tammy and Uncle Mark.  There she would go back to Epstein for a little bit!  Adira chose to stay in Atlanta and we signed her up for CMCH Elementary, another nice Jewish school.  They both are doing well!

SOOOO proud of this 6 year old!  She said the flight was "AMAZING!"  You rock, Nesi!

YAY for reunion for Leora and all the family and friends back in STL!

 Look at that smile!

This school has been SO warm about welcoming Adira!

David LOVES Aunt Adi and all the Feens!  They're the best surrogate family anyone could dream of!

The wonderful clothing gemach (yadlyad.com) which came in super helpful- I'd much rather get some short-term necessities there and give money to charity than buy something brand new at the store, when we have all this stuff in Florida, anyway!

Cousin Wendy!  Cousin Stephen, you're next ;)

 Our cutie, a terrific student and flexible young lady!

David is the youngest (and only) student in Morah Noa and Morah Adira's class :) <3

More fun at the Feens

Stay tuned for the next update...hopefully we'll have good plans in the works by then!