Semper Fi

Greg always jokes that the Marines "do it the hard way".  Normally I agree with him as some of the things Marines do, do seem as if it is the hardest way possible, but yesterday I was so glad that his old adage was true.

We are about half way between Fort Belvoir and Quantico, really we are closer to Fort Belvoir and they do have a bigger commissary but that place is cut throat.  The retirees in there just about run you over and God forbid anyone ever smile in that place.  It is ridiculous.  Quantico is smaller, but still has a nice selection and people are genuinely kind.  I don't mind driving the extra five miles or so to have a pleasant experience.  

On Wednesday tornadoes touched down in the DC area.  As you know from previous posts, the kids and I are a little wary of twisters.  I knew the weather seemed to be getting ominous but I figured I would just wait for my trusty sirens to go off before I wrestled everyone up from their naps.  Little did I know, there are NO SIRENS in this area.  How ludicrous is that??!  I've never lived somewhere that didn't have tornado sirens.  I am actually that odd person who is very comforted when they test them once a week!  Anywho, when the trees in our yard started blowing upwards and it got eery outside I finally decided we should probably head downstairs.  The school of course decided to keep the kids at school and had them in the hallways in the assumed tornado position.  Poor Sam said his little teeth were chattering.  Poor guy, they were still chattering when he finally got off the bus.  All that to say, because of the terrible weather, power was out all over the area.  Up in Bowie, Nancy and Ryan were without power for over 24 hours, thank goodness for their generator!  

When I got to the commissary yesterday morning there was a sign that said "Limited Shopping due to power outage", let's just say I was a little frustrated, we never lost power at our house so it never crossed my mind that it might be out farther south.   I have been really trying to stretch out the time between shopping trips so we were down to nothing at our house.  We had eaten cereal for dinner for the past three days.  I decided to make the best of my trip and besides milk, meat, cheese, and frozen items I was able to get almost everything I needed.  I got NutriGrain bars for $1.70 a box, I think that's the cheapest I've seen them in awhile (I bought 10 boxes!!).

Thank goodness for Marines and doing it the hard way.  Fort Belvoir would have totally shut down and then not reopen until the power was back on (trust me I know, I've been there when the power goes out...people scream, it's an interesting phenomenon!).  I didn't get everything I needed but I came pretty close, plus they also kept there exchange open and I got these oh so cute reef sandals for just $18.99:

Love them!  Super comfy, with a lot of arch support.  I just might have to go get the ones in brown too!!

SEMPER FI!!