y-IKES

Well, we survived!! I was up all night-yep not a wink of sleep the night of the storm. I was doing fine until around 2am when I saw tornado's flying around downtown Houston and I knew they were coming straight for our area. After that I was a mess and my stomach was turning. I got to watch it all happen as my electricity didn't go out until around 6am when the eye came through us. It may have only been a category 2 storm but it did WAY more damage than your typical cat 2 as I am sure you have all seen. Luckily we just lost our fence in three spots. We thought we were going to flood at one point but we didn't. The pool flooded and was making it's way up our foundation. Frank was out in the backyard trying not to blow over and shoveling water out of our pool. Meanwhile another part of our fence was buckling in the wind and about to snap...I was screaming "Get inside." Things settled down around 10am and the water from the creek behind our house and the water in front of our house slowly went back down.

For the last Five days it's been what I've been calling "glorified camping." With no power, that means no a/c, no lights so we go to bed early, spending all day outside and sleeping as a family every night. Luckily a cold front pushed through the second day but that first night was awfully hot. Hadley got a really bad heat rash that lasted a few days. She looked miserable- poor girl! We got a generator yesterday and as luck would have it, as soon as we buy one we get our electricity back. We are not complaining though as they told us it could be up to 4 weeks without electricity. Good Golly Miss Molly that would have been awful. We are lucky to be up and running but there are MANY people who still don't have power in our area. Probably most people in our town.

Gas stations are slowly opening but you must wait in a LONG line, some lines take hours to get gas. Grocery stores have no perishable goods. So no chicken, turkey, milk..nothing that has to stay cool. Everywhere was out of ice which was a necessity when we didn't have a fridge to try and keep some of things we had in a cooler. We were running out of batteries with no where open to buy any. Not good when your relying on a flashlight to get you around the house at night. Life was definitely different. Who knew that when the power came back on I would be so excited to run the dishwasher and washing machine. Our house is starting to smell a little less musty and we are trying to get things back to somewhat normal. Grocery lines are so long right now...people wait outside to get in and I really don't want to put the kids through all that again. Grocery stores close at 6 so by the time Frank gets home from work, it's too late to go. Soooo tomorrow I need some food and my neighbor and I are going to swap kids for awhile so we can battle the grocery without kids.

Anyway, it was a little stressful but actually kind of fun. We had a really good time with all of our neighbors. It was definitely a "bonding" experience. Rob and Tracy you guys are awesome- thanks for letting us hook a line to the RV and for hanging out nonstop the last few days. It's been fun!

Here are a few pictures from before and after the storm:

Our side yard before the storm:

From Hurricane Ike

And After:

From Hurricane Ike

Our Street before:

From Hurricane Ike

And After:

From Hurricane Ike

Picture from our front porch before:

From Hurricane Ike

And after:

From Hurricane Ike

Backyard fence before:

From Hurricane Ike

And After:

From Hurricane Ike

From Hurricane Ike

Our park across the street before:

From Hurricane Ike

Our Park After:

From Hurricane Ike

From Hurricane Ike

From Hurricane Ike

The sky a few hours before Ike found us:

From Hurricane Ike

Hunkering down and watching Ike travel towards us on the news:

From Hurricane Ike

Frank shoveling water out of the pool:

From Hurricane Ike

A few days later the first restaurant opens in a neighboring town- Chick fil a! It was worth the drive for some good food.

From Hurricane Ike

Kids loving playing in a/c at chick fil a:

From Hurricane Ike