September 19th

Friday, September 19
It’s still hot. We all got up and went to my dr. appt. The dr’s office had A/C! Everything looked good and we were quickly on our way. We heard Target had chicken and meat so we went there in search of that. We came home with chicken for dinner. YAY! We came home for a little bit. I started making cards again. Any kind of card you could think of, I’ve got ‘em! That afternoon, after Sam’s nap, we went to Open Play at Acrosports so that the kids could play and we could charge our cell phones. Katie and Shanee were there so the kids had friends to play with there. After they were worn out, we headed home presumably for another hot night. Jason was outside grilling the aforementioned chicken, I was inside, the kids were off in the front yard playing with the neighbor kids. The lights flickered once, then went off. Then the power came on again. THIS TIME IT STAYED. I ran outside and we were joined by the entire crew of Running Tide yelling and screaming with joy that the power had been restored. It was a great day. One of the first things I did was vacuum the living room! Oh the little things we come to appreciate when we don‘t have them…..

September 18th

Thursday, September 18
Going to Hitchcock again to get that generator. We waited in line for 2 hours but we got the hook-up from BP. Ice, food, paper towels, toilet paper, gloves, detergent, bleach, gas, AND a generator. We run it all home then go to Sam’s to get a window a/c unit and a box fan. After doing that, we went to get a real meal from Cracker Barrel. One of the best meals I’ve ever eaten. Almost as good as that Shoney’s meal after Hurricane Andrew. We go home and set up the generator. Life is almost good again. If only we could put on a video/t.v. for the kids, life would be PERFECT! They were so good this whole time. That box fan made life bearable again. That night was quite toasty. I didn’t sleep much b/c of the sound of the generator. The fan was wonderful, the generator noise was not.so.much. We started talking about me and the kids going back to BR until we get power. I was pretty miserable in the heat. The kids are out of school until further notice. Who knows when they’ll go back.

September 17th

Wednesday, September 17
Still no power. Jason checks in with BP and they inform him that he can come get a generator. They’ll be open until 5pm so we did things around the house and then went to Hitchcock, TX to get our new source of power. We got there and they had closed the line 30 minutes earlier. The guy tells us to come back tomorrow at 7:30am. We go home deflated. I start making cards. During Katrina, I made an entire set of all-occasion cards. This time, I made thank you cards, hello cards, and birthday cards. I ended up making a total of 84 cards. It was the only activity I could do sitting by the window, with no power, and the battery operated fan. Remember I am 7.5 months pregnant!! The kids spent a good amount of time playing outside. We got to know our neighbors and their kids during this week. It is this day that Jason decided to go up in the attic to check out the chimney to see if there was any damage. He never did find that out because he stepped on a loose beam up there. I looked up from my card-making and saw just a leg dangling from the ceiling in our den. Caroline described it well - - a leg piñata! He came down from the attic and headed to Lowes in search of something to patch the new hole in the den ceiling. Now I have masking tape holding it up. Yeah, we are classy. It’s still cool outside so sleeping isn’t so uncomfortable yet. We dined on Ramen noodles tonight.

September 16th

Tuesday, September 16
Around 10:30am, we start out on our journey home. Gas wasn’t too hard to find until you got close to the state line. Orange, Anahuac, and Beaumont are a mess. We are starting to see for ourselves what Ike has done. We pull into our driveway later that afternoon. Our neighborhood is a disaster. Lots of roofs are damaged, lots of insulation on the curb, fences tossed around, etc. Finally, we get inside the house and discover it’s not as bad as we had pictured. There is some water damage in the foyer where water got blown in under the door. There is part of the ceiling peeling around the chimney/fireplace, water in the kitchen area, and around the windows. Things could be WAY worse. Again, we are thankful. Still no power. It’s cool outside so it’s not too unbearable in the house. Dinner that night was mac and cheese, thanks to our gas stove! Mmmmmmm!

September 15

Monday, September 15
Still no power. This storm went right up I-45. Jason and I were very scared that our house was going to have MAJOR damage. Luckily, our friends Katie and Coy went by our house and snapped some pictures to prove to us that our house wasn’t all that bad. The fence was down and we have a row of shingles missing. The community pool house didn’t fare as well. It was completely destroyed. The house next door has part of the roof missing and water damage. Still no power. We decide to hang in BR for one more day and possibly head back to Friendswood tomorrow. We did lunch with Grandpa at Ruby Tuesday’s. Steak is GOOD! Dinner was at Kate’s that night. After dinner, we head to the grocery store to stock up to bring stuff back to Houston with us knowing that food, gas, and water are scarce. Thank goodness for the 5 day ice chest. We get yogurt for Sam, ham, bread, and milk. We can now survive a few days back home.

September 14

Sunday, September 14
We got to sleep in thanks to Nee Nee and Poppa. Most of the day was spent watching the live coverage online. We were slowly getting pics of Seabrook, Galveston, Texas City, League City, but NONE of Friendswood. It was not looking good. We did see where the storm surge wasn’t as bad as it was predicted. For that, we were VERY thankful. Seeing the pictures was so hard. Places we’ve been to many times in Galveston were gone and/ or under water. Not being in Houston was good for the kids. They barely knew what was going on. For that, we were very thankful, again. I ended up going to a mediocre lunch at Chili’s and some other places with Kate and Mom. We were in Bed, Bath, and Beyond when a rainstorm came up and the power went out in the store. I swear, I think the power curse was following us! It came on again about 10 minutes later. Phew! Sunday night, we crashed early. Lack of sleep was catching up to us.

We are safe.

Just wanted to let everyone know that we are safe. I'll post more when I have more time. I do have these pictures of our house and our community pool house that is about a block and a half from our house. My friend, Katie, sent these last night. THANKS SO MUCH, KATIE!! She reports to us that there is some minor shingle damage, the satellite took a beating, and we lost the fence.

Until next time....

September 13th

Saturday, September 13 - 1:20am - - Hurricane Ike makes landfall onto Galveston Island.

We got up early Saturday. Carol Ann made her typical big breakfast. I’ve missed those. The kids played outside for a long time with Carol Ann. They picked flowers and each filled an empty water bottle with “memberies” (memories for those who don’t speak “Sam-ese”). The kids enjoyed spending time with their Great Aunt. I remember doing these same things as a kid with Carol Ann and it was a welcome distraction to what was going on at our house. Around 10ish, we packed up the van and decided to go to Baton Rouge. We were really interested in watching the LSU/North Texas game and get somewhere familiar. The cat hadn’t eaten in 2 days at this point and we weren’t sure she had gone in the litter box in that time either. She was S-T-R-E-S-S-E-D to say the least. We got to BR around 4pm and went to Jason’s parent’s house. The cat was much better once we got there. Watching what was going on/what went on in Texas was hard. Again, I was thankful Jason talked me into leaving. I touched base with a few friends. Everyone was safe, as far as we knew. My mom and sister came over to see us and watch the LSU game for a bit. Cane’s was on the menu for dinner and boy were we all happy! We do miss our Cane’s chicken and sauce!

Friday, September 12th

Friday, September 12
Woke up to the power being out at Carol Ann’s house. What the heck?!?!? A transformer blew and we would subsequently be without power for the next 8 hours. Talked to many friends, touching base as to who went where and who stayed home. We were scattered all over the place. Jason and I decided to take the kids out of the house and try to find a McD’s or BK that had a play area for the kids to burn off some energy. Clearly, Monroe has none of those. We ended up eating at Caroline’s favorite place on Earth - - Piccadilly! Lunch was consumed by all and then we went back to the house to see what was happening and to put Sam down for a nap. Carol Ann has internet so we are watching live feed of the news stations in Houston. We are thanking the Lord that we left. Jason and I stayed up late again watching Ike start to batter Galveston Island. We admit to each other that we are scared. Scared for what we will find/not find when we get home.
I know that around 5:30pm, we lost power at our house. I had left our answering machine plugged in so that we could call and see if we had electricity.

Thursday, Sept. 11th

Thursday, September 11
We woke up at 4am, packed the van, woke up the kids, convinced Cleo, the cat, to get in the crate, and headed out of Texas. The kids were such troopers. We just told them there was a big storm coming and we wanted to protect them by leaving the house. They had a movie going in the back of the van, they were happy. The cat? Not so much. She meowed for a long time. Then decided turning in circles over and over in her carrier was her way of dealing. We used the navigation system to get us to Monroe. Evidently, the “quick” way to Monroe was by way of 7 miles of dirt road. Yes, folks, a DIRT road. We turned on it, because the Navigation told us to do it! We went over a wooden bridge that consisted of 2 planks thrown over a ditch. We had dogs chasing after our van as we went down the road. Country, dirt road in Texas. The kids thought it was great. We were wondering how the heck this road could lead us to US 59, but lo and behold, it did!! I got a phone call from Rebecca around 8:30am saying our zip code had been called for a mandatory evacuation. SO glad Jason convinced me to leave! I would be saying that many times in the next few days. We arrived at our destination around 2:30pm and got the key from Carol Ann and went on to her house. Once we got to the house, we let Cleo out and she wandered underneath a couch and remained there for the next 36 hours. Jason and I stayed up late watching The Weather Channel, Fox News, CNN, and MSNBC coverage of Ike. We wanted to see what was happening back “home.”

Ike

We are heading out of here. The new path of Ike has it coming directly our way. We will be leaving tomorrow morning around 4am and heading to Monroe to stay with Carol Ann. Schools are closed tomorrow and Friday and we just can't chance a big storm like this. Not after what Gustav did back home.



Jason and I are both taking our laptops with us. We'll try to keep everyone posted through here.


Pray that our house stays intact and that those who choose to stay are kept safe.

Until next time...


P.S. - Cleo will be making this trip with us. Things JUST.GOT.INTERESTING!!!

September 10th

We are keeping a close eye on Ike. For now, we are staying. Went to a Brownies meeting and came home. Jason decided we were not staying and started boarded up the house. He told me to start packing. I resisted, insisting that he was over-reacting. Waited until 10 o’clock news to see the new projections and decided maybe he was right. Made a few phone calls and we are heading to Monroe to stay with my Aunt Carol Ann. I did laundry like a mad woman and packed up our sentimental things in a Rubbermaid tub. Sentimental things like my pictures of my brother, Sam, scrapbooks, wedding pictures, my Cinderella cake topper and Snow White/7 dwarfs (priorities, priorities), important documents, and video tapes of the kids.
Jason and the neighbors were up well into the night boarding up. We finally fall into bed at 2am.