IKE Aftermath

The last few days have definitely been different here. School, work, church, have all been cancelled and so we have all had lots of time at home. School is suppose to start back tomorrow here and we will find out later today if Darin gets to go back to work yet. (Update: School cancelled the remainder of this week and Darin will be home all week as well. UGH!!!!!)

Darin and I went to the grocery store yesterday to get milk and luckily they had just received a shipment of it. The HEB by our house in the largest one in the Houston area so they are working hard to get it stocked. It was strange going through there and seeing so many shelves empty. No lunch meats, cheese, yogurts, juices, no bananas but they were stocking lots of the produce. People were leaving the store with baskets full of ice and water. Oh how thankful I am that we have power and water!! There are still so many people without power in our area and I am so thankful!

We have been greatly blessed with the cooler weather. We worked outside in the yard yesterday a long time and it was nice to have a cool breeze. We have definitely been blessed! We also drove around yesterday and viewed some of the destruction. Our neighbors parents will be staying with them for a while due to all the damage at their home.

With church being cancelled this last Sunday we were asked to hold our own devotionals in our homes. For part of ours we divided into two groups (Elizabeth, Eyn, and Trent and Mom, Dad and Amberly) and had to choose scripture stories and act them out without speaking. The other group had to guess which story it was. Monday night for family home evening we expounded on this had we had to pick Scripture stories and apply them to our time. I was really impressed with how great they did!! Everyone seemed to have lots of fun doing it and I loved how well E, E and Trent worked together. It was fun both days!

Darin went out today and did some power washing to our house and sidewalks. There was leaves and dirt splattered all over our house. It looks so much better now! Here is what our garbage pile looks like thus far. All of our backyard hasn't been picked up yet. Garbage was scheduled to be picked up yesterday, but there is no telling how long we will have to wait for it.

Update - 11:00 PM.

I'll hurry and give an update since Darin just told me our cable TV just went out and we have cable Internet so it will possibly be out soon.

The gusts are slowly picking up. We have been standing outside enjoying the wind. I think we are now getting between 40-50 mph gusts. We have only seen a few drops of rain. The rain is coming we are told.

It's hard to watch all that is happening just south of us. The destruction and flooding happening is really sobering. I'm thankful that we are not in that area. My in-laws are really worried about what their home will be like when they return to it. I think Sharon is so worried that she has gotten ill.

The monopoly game finally ended a while ago. Eyn won. They seemed to be having lots of fun. Amberly fell asleep on the couch exhausted. Bruce and Sharon went to bed and everyone else is outside. We are under a curfew until 10am. tomorrow. It's interesting to sit here and here the wind beating against the house.

Update on Ike

It is now 8:30 pm. and we have been feeling gusts of wind up to 35 miles per hour so far. We saw a big orange glow in the sky awhile ago and found out that lightening had hit a cable box not far from here. We also found out that an area not far from here is already out of power. We have our flashlights and candles ready if necessary. We went outside at sunset and watched the beautiful clouds glowing orange, purple and red. It was beautiful! The boys are all still deep into their game of monopoly. That's better than having the news coverage constantly on! We are ready for a long night!

Still Waiting for Ike

This morning before the winds picked up very much Darin and his Dad got to work trimming some of the limbs on our trees. If you haven't seen our yard we have LOTS of trees. There were just a few big ones hanging too close to the house that I wanted down if the wind gets bad. Darin had trimmed a few yesterday but was glad to have his Dads help today for the big ones.

I think Darin likes the power behind the chainsaw!

Amberly just had to climb the ladder and get in on the action! She's such a cute helper!

Let me just say that when they were outside doing this it was very hot and the humidity was high. As soon as they finished they both came inside and instantly took showers!

It is now 6:30 pm. The winds have started picking up more and we're expecting some feeder bands to be here in the next few hours. Darin, his Dad, and Eyn are in the middle of Monopoly, Amberly is watching, and Trent and Elizabeth are hiding out in her room doing something. Everyone is anxiously waiting for the storm to hit here. Galveston is already getting flooded really badly. We live about 70 miles Northeast of Galveston and are still expecting Hurricane strength winds here. I've decided that the worst part of the storm is waiting. Waiting to see what will happen and if it will. Waiting, Waiting, Waiting.

Waiting for Hurricane Ike

Our family is currently waiting for Hurricane Ike. It has been a long week watching and wondering exactly where it is going to make landfall. Now that the cone has shrunk our area of Texas has been put into high gear making sure everything is prepared. I feel like we are in pretty good shape. I completely filled the van with gas yesterday morning before the lines got long. Darin tried to get gas last night and the gas station closest to our house was out of gas. So, he went back early this morning after taking Elizabeth and Eyn to seminary and was able to get some without any problems. The lines today are really bad. Chevron closed their Houston offices early today so Darin has been home most of the day and the schools and all extracurricular act ivies have been canceled through the weekend. (Including Elizabeth's ACT test) Businesses will be closing up early tomorrow. Where we are located we are expected to get winds of up to 80 - 100 mph. Scary! But, we have been told to "hunker down" and shelter at home. Grandpa Bruce and Grandma Sharon will be coming up to stay with us during the storm. It should be an interesting weekend. I'm so thankful that we have prophets that have told us to have our food storage and be prepared. I've been told that the stores are horrible today and I'm just glad we don't have to deal with them. It will be interesting if we have to go without power and water for awhile, I can't stand the heat! As for now, I'm just trying to get all the laundry done and make sure things are in order in the house. Darin was outside this morning trimming a few of our trees to help protect our house.

Have a great weekend!