Why we did not go to ballet today...

Oh, why, oh, why, did I choose to gab with my friend instead of paying attention to the tire changing lesson in driver's ed all those years ago???

Back to Normal...Pretty Much...

Today we began our home-schooling again and life pretty much returned to normal.

We didn't get home until our power was restored Wednesday night, just in time to put the kids to bed. I was still feeling sick from whatever bug we'd all been passing around, starting at my brother's house during the evac. (my parents are currently suffering from it - sorry, Mom and Dad!!!). Therefore, nothing was accomplished on Thursday. I didn't even unpack our suitcases. But thankfully, I woke up feeling better on Friday and was able to not only unpack and put away the suitcases, but I also found the energy to do all of the laundry and put away some of the other various things that we'd either packed up or taken with us when we evacuated. I still wasn't feeling great, though, and took on most tasks at a slow pace. But I felt even better over the weekend and we were able to get a few more things done, including painting Amy's room - finally! I say "we", but all the credit goes to Bill. I simply went to bed with the kiddos while he stayed up until 3am painting. And he did an amazing job, might I add; I'll post pictures of her lovely girly room soon.

I'm still a little congested and woke with a headache today, but we did get through our school work and even did more than I'd planned. I was proud of the boys, who were more than ready to begin once we finally sat down to our school desk (we took our time getting started, after fresh baked cinnamon rolls and some t.v. down time :) ). In a little while, we'll be heading out for gymnastics. I feel a little overwhelmed when I think of our agenda for the week: school catch-up, two gymnastics classes (one a make-up), ballet, art, co-op, and the multitude of housework that still needs to be done, not to mention yardwork. But I really can't complain. We still can't go anywhere without lines of traffic at unpowered traffic lights, or blocked off sections of the neighborhood where workers are still picking up debris. But things are improving and I am just so relieved that, in general, life is back to normal.

Hello, Ike

How odd that when I went to post this message, I found that my last post was entitled "So Long, Gustav". Thus, the reason for this post's title "Hello, Ike". Unlike Gustav, we took a direct hit from Ike.

Last week we boarded up our windows and fled to San Antonio. We managed to book the perfect hotel for our evacuation. Not only did it provide a free continental breakfast every morning, but there were even some nights where they offered free dinner. I think this is a typical offering by this particular hotel, but I still wonder how much of the incredible hospitality we received came from the knowledge that most of the residents there were evacuees. We met people from all over the Texas gulf coast. It felt as though we were all part of one family - all waiting as patiently as possible for news on our homes.

Based on what I was hearing on the news as we watched the arrival of hurricane Ike, I thought for sure my house was going to be flooded. And even when it appeared that we'd been saved from the huge storm surge originally predicted, Bill continued to warn me not to let my guard down. We needed to expect the worst so that nothing would surprise us when we finally made it home.

At this point, we still haven't made it home. At least, not to stay. We are staying with my brother right now while we wait for power to be restored to our home and for the gas and food situation to improve. Bill has been back to our house and found it to be in good condition. We lost some of our fence and many branches from our main backyard tree. We also had one of our trees partly uprooted and leaning on our garage. Though there was a lot of debris in our yard, our house was in great shape. Unfortunately for many others, this was not the case. The pictures at the bottom of this post show some of the devastation in our neighborhood.

For the most part we are doing okay. Alex has a stomach bug and they're all a little hoarse, which we feel is due to the change in weather. Though I believe the cooler weather is a blessing to those who are still at home dealing with the lack of a/c. We are so grateful for our safety and for the condition of our home, but we're all a little anxious to get home and get back to some level of normalcy. My prayers go out to those who were not as fortunate as us.

Pictures of our home and yard:

All the pictures below were taken of either our neighbor's house, or around our neighborhood:

So Long, Gustav!

I feel so thankful that once again, we have been spared from the onslaught of a hurricane. Hurricane Gustav not only missed us, but it stayed far enough away that we haven't even seen a drop of rain. We did have some strong winds yesterday afternoon that I feel certain were related to the big storm, but nothing like what they are experiencing over in Louisiana. But I am relieved for them, too. What could have been a devastating category 4 or 5 hurricane weakened to a 3 and quickly to a 2 once making landfall. It also came in so quickly that it didn't produce the big storm surge everyone feared, nor did it drop the multitudes of rain that come with a slower hurricane.

Early on there was a possibility of Gustav coming our way, so we of course had our eyes glued to the news the last several days. My family almost skipped going to our annual family reunion this weekend because we weren't sure what was going to happen. We didn't want to be away from our house and not have enough time to prepare it should the storm head our way. Thankfully, Sunday morning, when we needed to leave for the reunion, we were able to make a fairly confident decision to go because it seemed definite that Gustav was not going to hit us. And even if it did, we believed we'd still have time to leave if necessary - we even had our reservations at a far away hotel just in case. I am glad we didn't end up needing them.

Bill spent all of Monday cutting plywood to fit every window of our house. So next time a storm does decide to strike, we won't have to worry so much about preparations. Now we just have to turn our attention to the other storms currently brewing out there and pray that they, too, stay far, far away!