Busy Week

Last Sunday was a wonderful day. Our large debris was picked up. Those of us with kids were sitting out and watching the big trucks take trees and brush away. It was pretty neat. Our lawn bags were picked up last week too, so now there is no evidence of Hurricane Ike around our house. Yeah!

Sydney and I were playing around and taking pictures. I let Sydney take a rare picture of me, so enjoy!

Last week was reading week at school. I love this week! The school and PTO really make it a lot of fun with a different theme each day. We also collected food to restock our local food pantry. Here are a few pictures. Anna, Sydney and friend Sarah are with Smokey on Walk to School Day. The girls had Storybook Parade on Friday. Hayden had fun entertaining parents before the parade.

After Ike

It's been 7 days since Ike hit. The Woodlands is starting to bounce back, but there are so many other places in the Houston metro area that are far from normal. Many communities are still without power, phone and water. A day or 2 without these things is manageable for most, but to go a week and more is just so difficult.

We have power, cable, Internet and phone service now. We never lost our water. The stores and some restaurants are open. Medical facilities outside the hospital are opening. The lines for gas are nearly gone in our area. Even though we have these things, life is still not normal. Schools are still closed with some opening on Monday. There are brush piles everywhere along with downed trees that have yet to be cleared. The reminders will be with us for some time, longer for others who have rebuilding and major repairs to deal with.

The pictures above are our house and street. We loaded 25 lawn bags full of debris and then ran out. The brush pile is very long and high along the driveway.

We have a few friends and neighbors that suffered damage. Others are still without power even now. What's been great is the sense of community. Everyone has been checking on their neighbors. Several have helped remove trees and shrubs. The trees in the picture on the left above are from a neighbor out of town. Their neighbors cleaned the trees out of the street and those good Samaritans had their own damage to deal with. I'm proud of everyone here in Houston!

On our way back from Dallas, I noticed that even in such tragedy Houston's gas prices are still lower than other parts of the state. Dallas gas was $3.69 in most stations while I saw $3.49 to $3.59 here.

Our school opens next week. Sports practice starts up again. Jason is working and we still have medical appointments. Life is moving on just as it should. I hope it happens for all in South East Texas soon.

Interesting "Ike" site

This is an interactive site that you can use to see where Ike's path is predicted to go and how close we are to it: http://abclocal.go.com/ktrk/feature?section=weather/hurricane&id=6381857.

If you start to zoom in and stay north of Houston, you will see the cities of Conroe and Spring. The Woodlands is between these 2 cities. The pink path line is just to the east of us.

I know the media is stating "certain death" for residents that don't flee. Rest assured that we are not one of those. Yes, we are facing a strong hurricane and we will see some kind of damage, but we are not in the low lying areas that are going to get hit with the high storm surge.

I'll keep this updated daily as long as we have power. Wish us luck!

Here comes Ike!

I know many of you are aware that Hurricane Ike is in the Gulf of Mexico and headed our way. Jason left work early today when his office closed for the weekend. The girls' school district is also closed tomorrow. I spent some time in the grocery store with another several hundred of my neighbors taking care of last minute shopping. We've cleared the back yard of all plants, bird feeders and other objects. We also have nearly full gas tanks. I think we are set for this storm.

Several coastal areas are under mandatory evacuation as of this morning. Luckily, we don't have to do that. We are about 80 miles north of Galveston Island. We are expecting all the wind and rain that comes with hurricanes along with a high likelihood of damage, but hopefully we shouldn't have flooding. The local media and authorities are advising areas north of Houston to "hunker down" and that's our plan.

We'll keep everyone posted after the storm passes to let you know that we survived.

To Dallas & Gustav

We are preparing to drive to Dallas for the weekend to see our dear friends Lance & Heather. We leave soon after the girls get out of school. As we are packing, I'm keeping an eye on TS Gustav. As of now, the projected path leads to Louisiana, but the tracking area covers Houston and we are preparing for that as well. We planned on coming home on Monday, but may have to do that on Sunday. If Gustav becomes a hurricane, comes to Houston, and Houston orders evacuations as it did with Rita, then we won't be able to come home at all. The main freeway, Highway 45, that goes north from Houston to Dallas will become a contraflow freeway. That means they open up all lanes of traffic to go north to accommodate 4 million people leaving the city.

Mom is staying here to watch the house and dogs for us. Should evacuations be needed, I have a friend that will get Mom and the dogs and come to Dallas. While I hate for Louisiana and Mississippi to have more destruction so soon after Katrina, I don't want the storm here either. Wish us luck and everyone have a great, safe weekend!

Tidbits

Today's topics: Hayden's birthday, TS Edouard, our new roof and the alphabet.

First, Hayden turned 2 on Sunday! That's also Grandpa Dean's birthday. (Happy birthday, Dad!) We had a nice day. We decided to take the kids to Chuck E Cheese for lunch which all the kids enjoyed. Hayden actually spent more time eating than running amok, his usual MO. Lunch was followed by a nice nap then his cake and presents. His 2 favorites were the tool set from us and tunnel/tent from the girls.

Next, Tropical Storm Edouard came right through our neck of the woods on Tuesday morning. Everyone spent the day before preparing for the worst, but luckily it wasn't bad at all. We've had worse thunderstorms since living here. There were some downed trees and several thousands of people near the area of landfall lost power, but we just got rain. I'm so glad we live north of Houston and not south. Jason did go into work, but stayed in the local Woodlands office which is about 10-15 minutes away.

Third, we are getting a new roof today. It was supposed to be Wednesday, but Edouard caused a few delays. The house is 18 years old and really needed a new roof. There has been enough hail damage over the years that we easily were able to have the claims adjuster approve everything. The guys started late yesterday and have been working today since 7 am. The house should be done today and the garage tomorrow. This was something that our inspector said needed to be replaced soon and, 2 years later, we are getting it done.

Finally, I've been trying to tape Hayden singing his ABCs for a few weeks now. He doesn't just sing, he belts it out! It's really cute, but we are also trying to get a before and after of him singing. Hopefully, this will sound a lot better once he's activated and has had some speech therapy. I hope you enjoy and I apologize for my singing.