Lights, Please

The last 24 hours have been very interesting indeed. Yesterday evening it started raining like we have NEVER seen it rain before. It came out of nowhere, too, and it honestly seemed like the clouds had been hanging on to that rain for about a year before they let go. The actual rainfall only lasted about an hour, but when it was over, the power was out.
And that was just the start of it.
It was about 7 pm when we lost power. When we woke up this morning (at - you guessed it - about 4 am), it still was not back on. We finally called the front desk at about 6 am to ask what was up. They told us the latest estimate had the power coming back on at around 9.
As it turns out, the loss of electricity was not the only emergency. The basement ended up completely flooded as well. So, as hour after hour rolled on by after 9 am with no light in sight, we started to get a little, well, stressed out. The water was shut off too at some point, I assume so that they could work on getting the power back up. Eventually, with no idea when they could have power restored, they decided to evacuate the building and move everyone to the other hotel across base.
We later found out our building, which houses all the temporary lodging units, was not the only one affected. There were about three entire towers of permanent housing without power. Amazingly, we were able to secure two rooms at the other hotel before they were completely booked. A lot of the other families were evacuated to the gym!
Unfortunately, the groceries in the fridge were wasted, but we will be reimbursed for that. I am just praising God that we have lights, air conditioning, and toilets that flush.
We had to hunt food down during all the craziness today, because for a while most of the base was without power. Jim's deputy drove us about five minutes off base, to a big shopping mall that houses H & M, GAP, and....... are you ready?? COLDSTONE CREAMERY!!!! YES!!!!!!!! So I will have better shopping (and ice cream) options in Japan than I did at my last location.
Lunch was at the food court, where the choices were many. Jim took one look around and suggested I go order from the KFC counter - I said "no way". We selected one of the Japanese places, and then I sat down with the kids while he went to order. Five minutes later he shows up with a pile of fried chicken and french fries. It was all about what was CHEAPER. He did go back up and get something from the local places, but I can't tell you what it was. Jacob ate a giant plate of noodles wrapped in an omelet and topped with mayo. We all sampled it and gave a thumbs up. I'm very proud of the kids for being willing to step up and try new foods. We're going to have to sign a contract agreeing to absolutely NO Mickey D's, or KFC for the next three years. Although I admit I'm very excited that the base has a Chili's.
We also were able to make it to the housing office today and were assigned to a house. And as exciting as it is to know we'll be moving in this Friday, it is frankly going to be....... a wee bit cramped. When you have 5 kids and live in military housing, you can pretty much count on being cramped, I guess. Unless you're my friend Kristina, in that ridiculously large mansion house she has at HER Air Force base. But I'm not going to gripe because it's no smaller than where we came from (well, the yard IS much smaller, but not the actual house), and because the location can't be beat. I don't think we're planning on spending much time IN the house anyhow.
I'll get pics up as soon as I get in there on Fri.
Our household goods aren't here yet, so we get loaner furniture from the base. They don't have cribs, and I got rid of my Pack N Play, so I guess it's time for Cy to experience the freedom of a big boy bed. I better go find a side rail somewhere...............