Is it March yet?

Oh the joys of Sicily. Beautiful countryside, true; however, whoever decided that building a base in the only low lying ground on the entire island (the rest is mountainous) was a "genious."

We woke up at about 2am to pouring rain and storms. I woke up again at 4, still pouring rain. I felt like it was going to be a long day. I couldn't sleep.

I got up at 6 and my backyard was already soaked/patio flooded as usual. It rains nearly every day here between Nov-Feb. This year seems to be worse than the last two, hardly a break at all from it. I had to drive D to work because we are down to one car and he rides his bicycle in, but obviously not when it's pouring. I had PWOC, Val had preschool and ballet, and I had a meeting! We dragged the kids out to the car and realized the car is covered in mud. Gross. Look up, the sky is full of *brown* clouds and it's pouring mud basically on all of us. Really awesome. Derrick said it's coming from Africa.

So we drive D to work and realize the river to NAS 2 (for you old Sig people) is flooding fast. This "river" usually is bone dry. The roads all the way to the other base were flooded. It was 7:45 and we had to stop at the grocery store to get a dessert to bring to pwoc (my bible study.) I drag the kids through the parking lot, which is flooded, and Val's shoes get completely soaked because I can only carry one kid at a time these days. So she's standing there sobbing, I'm yelling at her to run, we're all getting soaked. A nice lady carried her up to the door for me. Whoops, the commissary is closed today for training. again, really awesome. Tromp back to the car and sit there for 45 mins until preschool opens.. then trudge back in the rain to preschool.

We got to pwoc and had a lovely time until the commander of the entire base got on the intercoms and announced that the bases are closing and to go pick up your kids pronto! Wow. So we ran and got Val out of preschool and drove home. By this time my legs were soaked from the knee down, poor Ellie was drenched by the time we got to the other side of base to get Val. (yes, walking). The guards at the gate tell us all the roads going to Mineo (the other housing) were already closed. I'm feeling thankful that we don't live there.

Derrick was already home when I got there and luckily it was pretty safe driving home. There was atleast a foot of water on the road in front of our housing. Derrick started putting our important file boxes, computer, upstairs just incase. This afternoon it stopped raining, but as we were watching the dogs we saw another huge storm cloud coming in. The command was telling everyone to go home and put their valuables up. A few months before we moved here, there was a horrible flood here in which several feet of water flooded everyone's homes while they were sleeping at night!

So say a little prayer. I'd like to make it out of here before that happens again :)