And Then There Was Light

Friday, September, 12th at 9:50 pm - Lights go out!

Sunday, September 28th at 3:20 pm - Lights go back on!

Okay, when the hurricane came and Centerpoint announced that it could take 2-3 weeks for people to get their power back. I literally thought to myself, "Man, that's gonna suck for those people". Never in my wildest dreams did I think that I would be one of those people.

It has been an interesting two weeks and two days without power. It has brought out the best and worst in people. There were the good things. Kids playing outside, neighbors talking, lots of walks with the kids. And then there were the bad things. No air conditioning in 90 degree heat, whining children and PARENTS, bathing children in the near dark, washing dishes by hand, dragging the laundry to everyone's house to get done, no internet, no TV . . . the list could go on and on.

I wish I could say that I had made the most of two weeks without power. There was definitely some more quality time with the kids but even after a few days I seemed to just aimlessly go about my day. I think a lot of it had to do with the uncertainty of the whole situation. In my mind, my power was going to come on any second so why did I need to hook up all of this stuff to the generator. It was hard for me to figure out each day what I wanted to accomplish even though there was plenty to do. If I had known that we would have been without power for so long, I would have done things differently. I would have set up everything right the first time instead of just piece mealing the whole house set-up. Some things I did figure out by the end of the two weeks, your vacuum cleaning and curling irons work great with the generator power. Microwaves - not so good.

The other thing I found difficult about the time with no power was how disconnected you felt with the rest of the world and even your community. When all of Houston, didn't have power it wasn't so bad. You felt a bond with them -- we are all in this together. Then slowly, one by one, all of my friends power came on. You start to feel alone. You realized they were no longer part of "the club". A club that you so desperately wanted to get out of but didn't know how. You were very happy for your friends but you just couldn't help but feel a little sad to. They were moving on and you were still there with no power. Now, I am on the other side. There are a few people in my neighborhood who did not get power yesterday. I can see the same hurt in their eyes as they realize that we are now moving on without them.

The two weeks without power were filled with peeks and valleys as far as my attitude was concerned. There were moments that I felt I could be the covergirl for how to remain calm and be optimistic about the whole thing. I had moments where I knew that the world was bigger than just me and my family. It wasn't just about me and that one day soon, the electric linemen would be on my street. There was a lot for these people to do and I needed to just be patient. And then there were the other moments. The ones where I started acting like my 3 year old jumping up and down and screaming , "It's my turn - I want my electricity and I want it now!"

Now, for a word about the electric linemen. My hats are off to them. They came from all over the country. The ones in my neighborhood were from North Carolina. I enjoyed talking to them as they ate their lunch under my shade tree. This is one of the main parts of their job is to travel to other parts of the country restoring power after a disaster. They told me that they never know when they leave when they will make it back home. They worked very hard. There was some definite down time while waiting for parts or instructions but they were doing their best to get the lights on. It didn't help that these people were asked every 5 minutes when are the lights going to come back on. Well, at 3:20 pm yesterday - it was my turn and the light came back on.

Here are some pictures from the replacement of our transformer in the backyard.

Happy Birthday Reagan!

On our way out of town to Chilton, we went to Reagan's (my niece) 1st birthday party. She is a walking girl now! I have never seen a 1 year old go after the cake like she did.

Just to show that somethings don't change. On the night that Reagan was born, I watched the Aggies lose to Miami in the hospital. On the day of Reagan's 1st birthday, I watched the Aggies lose to Miami. Oh well!!

Happy 1st Birthday Reagan!!

Hurricane Ike

What can I say about this storm that hasn't already been said before? Not much, but I guess I must add my thoughts and reflections also.

We lost power before the storm even hit. It was about 9:50 pm on Friday evening. Andy was watching TV. I was half asleep on the couch. It didn't blink or anything it was just gone! We moved all of the sleeping children into the gameroom and Andy and I went to bed. I must admit - I didn't really sleep. The wind was very strong and I was nervous being on the second floor of our house. I could hear every noise and wondering what was that. It didn't matter much that I wasn't sleeping because by 2 am my children were not sleeping either. Finally, daybreak happened and we surveyed the damage.

We were very lucky. Not a single tree hit our house. If you have been to our neighborhood, you know we have lots of trees. We did have a neighbor's tree hit our fence and the power line. We had tons of debris. But the important parts were: we were fine - the house was fine. Let the fun begin!

We spent Saturday in between rain showers cleaning the front of our house. It was very strange with all of the neighbors outside. Everyone had a story. Everyone had a damage report. It was nice just talking to all of the people we are normally too busy to give but a passing wave. That night it was a little warm but not too bad with the windows opened. Of course, then it started raining about 2 am so Andy and I had to run around the house closing the windows. This, of course, woke up the baby.

We were all up early so I had a brilliant idea. Let's go to 7:30 am Mass so that way when it stops raining we will be ready to tackle the back yard. Well, I guess my sleep deprivation caught up with me because I just was not paying attention and I slammed my fingers into the garage door as I was manually closing it. Can we say, PAIN?!? Two of the fingers still hurt a week later. After my screaming fit, we were on our way. We turned on Cypresswood and were surprised to find out that it was flooded. Oops - back to Louetta we go. By the time, we got to Mass, they were on the Prayers of the Faithful. It was one of those moments where the Lord must look at our intention and not necessarily at what happened.

Andy decided to check on Amanda's house after church. She was away on vacation in Germany. Much to our surprise, we found out she had power. We quickly went through the refrigerator and freezer and grabbed what was still frozen and brought it over to her house. I must say it was a sad day for this "grocery game gal". I had to throw out a lot of frozen meals and ice cream that I had recently purchased on sale at Kroger. Boohoo! We spent the rest of the day cleaning our backyard.

The rest of the week was spent hanging out with neighbors, sharing meals and information. It is amazing how people can look out for one another. Everyone was sharing what store had gas, lights, etc. Meals were cooked out together. The kids played sun up to sun down with their friends. That is the part of the aftermath of the hurricane that I liked.

The part that I do not like is that it is over a week since the storm and there is no power at my house yet. The part that is hard is that I have yet to see anyone actually working in my neighborhood to restore it. The cold front that God blessed us with after the storm has left and it is getting pretty hot. After much consideration, I decided to spend the next few days in Chilton with Andy's parents. I finally realized that the kids would have a great time and I didn't have anything to prove by staying in my hot house. I am praying that the power will be back on by Tuesday when we return. The kids have to be at school on Wednesday.

So, here's to Hurricane Ike. God bless all of those that were in his path and still dealing with his fury but may the lessons of friendship and neighborly kindness last awhile longer. Here our some of our pictures.

Here is the tree that knocked out the fence and the power line.

Here is the gate that is no longer.

Here are all of the bags of debris that we had in our yard. We were so nice and bagged everything like we were told only to to get a notice that no bags will be picked up - NICE!!Here are the rest of limbs that we didn't bag. I guess we should have done this with all of the debris.

Here is a crazy game of Sorry compliments of a camping lantern.

One of our many meals with the neighbors and friends during this. This was our clean out your freezer party.

I can tell you one thing - I will never look at a storm in the gulf the same again!

Ready or Not!

The preparations have been made. There is nothing left to do but wait for Hurricane Ike. The winds are pretty strong right now but we haven't had any rain yet. After much debate, we decided to all sleep upstairs in the gameroom. We just don't really have a good inner room in our house. Brandon will be sleeping in his playpen in the game room closet. Let's hope it is a good night for all. That's something I really don't like about this storm is that it is coming in the middle of the night.

We have picked up all of the stuff outside, put the air down really low so it will be cooler for awhile after the power is off, added ice in jugs to the freezer. We have our water, food, batteries and flashlights. I guess the rest is up to Mother Nature.

I'll post pictures of the aftermath when we have power again after the storm. God protect us all!!

Garrett's 1st Day of Preschool

It has taken me a few days to post these pictures of Garrett's 1st day of preschool. I guess life sometimes just gets in the way of this blogging thing. After a not so great showing at Meet-the-Teacher, Garrett did great the 1st day of school. Of course, it didn't hurt that the day was focused on him. He was the birthday snack boy and the line leader!! Not bad for a 1st day. Of course, he might not be so happy this week, when he finds out he is not the line leader EVERY day!! Here are some pictures from his 1st day. Look out educational world - here I come!

I can do this learning thing!!

Happy Birthday Garrettman!

3 years ago I was given quite the surprise as the doctor announced "it's a boy!!". As a mother of 3 girls at the time, having a boy seemed a little too impossible at the time. What a 3 years it has been. Garrett is such a little boy sometimes, I just cannot even remember what is was like to have all girls. He loves his trains, cars and sports. He is my happy little boy who just wants to be a part of it all. Happy Birthday Garrettman!!

A few months ago, I had what seemed to be a brilliant idea. I wanted to do something special for Garrett's birthday but not have a kid party. I realized we had not had the opportunity to go to the beach this summer. I also realized that the kids had not been camping in over a year. I thought - let's kill 3 birds with one stone. Let's have a camping birthday party at the beach. Uhmmm, after it is all said and done - maybe there is a reason we don't kill 3 birds with one stone!

Let's just forget about the fact that I had to worry about a hurricane that was in the gulf that could ruin our plans. We had enough excitement without Gustav. It was a tad hotter than I remembered it being when camping out at Galveston before. I'm sure some of that had to do with the hurricane. But I can handle a little heat. One thing I was not expecting was the love bug invasion. I have never in my life seen so many love bugs!! It was crazy. They were all over us and everything. I don't even want to think about how many of them Brandon must have consumed while we were there. Here is a picture of them hanging out on our ice chest. Can we say "gross"!

I think I might have also underestimated how well everyone was going to sleep. We all had a great time but I think everyone was a little bit overtired. Garrett even gave himself a time out.

We couldn't keep the candles lit because of the wind. Garrett "thinks" he blew out his candles but we never got more than one lit. Garrett didn't care though - he loved his Thomas cake.

Another problem with camping, is when you have babies. There is no place to put them. We decided to put Brandon and Reagan in the pack-n-play. Brandon thought Reagan was the perfect thing to pull-up on. Obviously, this didn't last long.

It even started raining during the opening of the presents!! Have no fear - Nana and Papa rented a condo. Let's take the party indoors. It was actually a welcomed relief to have a little A/C. Garrett will no longer have to dress-up in princess attire. He got a pirates outfit, a cowboy outfit, and army outfit and an Aggie fan outfit. He is going to have to do a lot of rooting for the Aggies this year. Based on game #1 - they are going to need a lot of help.

Caitlyn decided she had enough of camping and wanted to sleep in the condo the last night. No problem, except for the fact she came to the condo in her swim suit. Here she is styling her new digs that she wore for our walk on the beach the next day. She is wearing my shirt as a dress and Papa's belt wrapped around her twice.

Despite all of the mishaps, a good time was had by all. Here are some of the pictures from the rest of the weekend. Here are Garrett and Daddy relaxing at the campsite.

Now, we know why mommy likes camping - Daddy does the cooking. Here is Andy making his famous silver turtles.You can't have camping without a camp fire and smores!And let's not forget our awesome tent setter uppers.

Here are some of the kids having fun at the beach.Brandon even did good letting everyone hold him. That made mommy very happy.We even got to see something that you do not see very often at Galveston. Surfers!! The hurricane went to Louisiana but his waves came to us. It was too strong to have the kids play in the surf today but we had fun watching the surfers!!
We really did have a good time in spite of the little hiccups along the way. And Garrett had the best time ever and that was what it was all about after all.