Absolutely Nothing

You guys - I have absolutely nothing left tonight... our carpool lanes haven't reopened since the hurricane, and everyone in the city is going back to work this week. What does that mean to you? Well, that it took me 2 hours to get to work - then 2.5 to get home tonight!! So as you can see - I'm ready to sit and do absolutely nothing but watch television and not move again until bed.

Scrap Pages

Here are some scrapbook pages that I did while on the hurricane vacation... aka being trapped at the house! Enjoy!

Last Ike Pics

These are my last remaining pictures from Ike. Mainly pictures from our trip to get the generator, and 3 of our refugees. Enjoy!

Update

Tonight I truly am exhausted, and pretty sunburned too - so I'm going to keep it short and try to rebuild some energy for church in the morning. We didn't get to have service last week because of the storm, and we're all pretty excited about getting back in the morning. John is leading worship in the morning too!

I've got lots to tell ya'll about the game, and some pictures to share too - but I'm going to save that for tomorrow - because I just don't have the energy to get the pics off the camera tonight.

An update on John's Memaw - because Kim asked and I thought I'd already written about it... but I guess not in all the craziness of the past week. (My days are still blending into one... so bare with me on that until I can get myself back to normal.)

John's grandmother came through the surgery very well, and spent the last couple of days in ICU. She was trying to get out of bed and had to have 24 hour watch from the family - or the hospital was going to put her in restraints... so John's Mom & Dad have been putting in a lot of time at the hospital helping make sure that Memaw is well taken care of.

I haven't personally seen her since the night before I went back to work - but from what I've heard she has moments of clarity and moments where she talks about completely random things... which I would think is to be expected when you've had brain surgery at 92 years old... or at any age, really.

She was moved to a regular room today, and I think started physical therapy as well - so hopefully she's on the mend again. I know that God is with her, and has really been helping her through this as only he can.

That is about all I know on her recovery - and praise God - John's parent's power came back on today... I'm so glad that his Mom doesn't have to try to get ready for work on Monday without power! Can you imagine? I know people at my office have managed this week doing it, but I certainly wouldn't want to do it!

One final note - today is Brooklyn's 1st birthday - so from Uncle John and Aunt Kim - we wish her a very Happy Birthday, and many more to come... it's hard to believe that she's already a year old... but time flies when you're having fun!

Can't Do It

Well, I've made it through another week, but am virtually brain dead at this point. I'm heading out tomorrow for a full day again... going to my sister's to see my Dad, and then off to the A&M football game. I was planning on a quiet afternoon at home, but I don't want John to go to the game alone - so maybe I'll spend Sunday afternoon doing ABSOLUTELY nothing!

I'm going on to bed because I'm seriously lacking on my sleep at this point... even though I know you can't catch up once sleep is gone... I'm hopeful that at some point I'll stop feeling utterly exhausted.

Respect

I don't have to tell you that Houston has been through a major hurricane within the last week. I don't even have to tell you that it's a scary thing, but I do want to give some insight into the situation.

You'll notice that this happened less than a week and it has literally dropped out of the national news. Not that I think that it should still be in the news, but seriously... lets all remember back to Katrina and how long we heard stories about that.

Now, I have a lot of respect for most of the state of Louisiana - but unfortunately during that time some of their worst citizens were seen all over the national news media doing things that were just unimaginable in most cases. They did go through some major trauma in the city of New Orleans, but lets face it folks - the people in the other main areas of destruction got overlooked because they went on with their lives and worked to get their cities back to normal.

I have to admit that even through the wake of that hurricane tragedy - I was unable to understand what those people had seen and experienced. Just like with the storms that go through all other areas of our country and neighbors - I just never understood what that experience was like.

Sort of like a blizzard or earthquake - I've never truly experienced it at a time that I remember. Now, I did live through Hurricane Alicia in Houston... and that was the storm by which all others were compared to in our area of the country - but I was 3 1/2 years old. So lets just say the only thing I remember was that I thought it was strange for my parents to open the windows of our house during a "rain storm".

I now understand that they were trying to prevent the pressure of the storm from shattering our windows, but did I remember the experience on a level where I knew what to expect from Ike - not one bit.

I think that the people of our area had been through so many false alarms with hurricanes in the last 3-4 years that we all had a little bit of a jaded approach to the preparations. I know I did - we've been warned so many times that a storm was coming "straight for us" only to watch it turn away at the last minute. So I've never really taken precautions like are advised... that being said - I did rush out for a few items the day before the storm hit, but it was too late at that point to truly have a plan.

As the storm drew closer and closer - we watched the news and saw the pre-storm coastal flooding and knew that this wasn't going to be a false alarm... and with each hour my anxiety got more and more intense. (I hopefully hid it a little from those around me... but probably not.)

When the wind picked up and the whistling/howling started - things got very real. We were sitting in our living room for what seemed like days... it was only about 6 hours or so... in the complete dark, and all you could do was watch transformers blow and pop in the distance providing a blue glow to the skyline for a second. Other than that - you were forced to listen to the power and sounds of the storm. Those sounds are almost indescribable - it literally sounds like a freight train is running over your house!

If there had been a train whistle - I would have sworn that was actually what was happening. In the end - all you can do is sit there and pray. We prayed (silently) for safety, for our house to be intact when it was all over, for our families, our friends, and our city in general.

In the aftermath, we realized that we hadn't suffered any major damage - but that didn't exclude us from power outages within our family and friends... or other minor storm displacements like no grocery stores or gas to help us get back to complete normal. (Not that any of us will ever be exactly as we were before.)

The thing that comes to my mind the most right now though is pride for how things are being handled by our citizens. Yes, we have some of the same disgraceful citizens that other cities do - and naturally they're the ones shown/talked about on the media... but the majority have so much to be proud of in the wake of a major natural disaster.

I feel confident that these types of stories were going on in the wake of Katrina and other major storms in areas like Florida... but the media didn't put them out there for the rest of us. I don't know what the rest of the country and world are seeing about our recovery from Ike, but remember to take it with a grain of salt - because for some reason the major news media in our country doesn't think that anything is news worthy if it's a positive story. Only the negative can be shown... and if they can't get it naturally - they will invent it.

There are two news reporters (probably more - but I only know of the two from ABC 13) in our area that I'd love to choke because of the way that they have attacked everyone they can to force a story. They desperately want to play the blame game on why they couldn't get to certain areas of destruction right away... they want to blame someone in government because the FEMA points of distribution were running 3 hours behind... and I just would love to shake them and tell them that people are doing the best they can in a bad situation - LAY OFF! (ok, end media rant)

I've seen stories, and watched with my own eyes within my work environment - of people stepping up to help. People also got out there as soon as the wind died down to start cleaning up around their own homes... neighbor helping neighbor... just to clean as much debris up as possible to help get the utility workers a path to get about restoring power.

People in the most heavily destroyed areas aren't whining about what has happened to them - they just want to get on with rebuilding their lives, and I feel confident that once some basic structures of water and power are restored to their areas - they will be allowed to do just that.

Sure, at times things are frustrating during this process - but over all we have weathered the storm very well.

The fundamental difference for me now though is that my life is forever changed... I will never see a story about a hurricane coming ashore and not feel something profound for the people going through that storm. I now know what it's like, and will remember that for the rest of my life.

Needing a Break

Tonight, I find myself barely able to comprehend what has gone on in the last week. I've hit the wall, my friends... at 90 miles per hour without any brakes!

It was a little over a week ago that I started back to work, after 4 months of leisure... stressful in and of itself, right? Three days later - we're gearing up for a major hurricane.

Lived through the storm that, I swear, wanted to terrify even the biggest cynics about hurricane preparedness. I think it'll be a loooooooong time before anyone in the Greater Houston area shrugs off a hurricane again.

Since the hurricane - John's family has been staying with us, which by itself isn't bad - but it is very different from what I'm used to... 6 extra people in the house for a couple of days is a lot to handle when you're used to it being just John and you.

Susan and her family have since gone home because they've gotten power restored at their place... but in the midst of that we found out that John's grandmother was sick... so last night we went to the hospital to check on her.

I had to go back to work this morning, which I'll tell you about in a minute... but John's grandmother had brain surgery this morning too - which was stressful for me because I desperately wanted to be at the hospital supporting my husband and his family during a tough time. Being so new to a job though - it wasn't a good idea to rock the boat just yet.

Going back to work has been eye opening and draining. We are the largest human service organization in the Greater Houston area - we have 60 different service locations providing everything from senior care to childcare... and our clients are in some of the hardest hit areas from Ike. So, my office is helping to coordinate some of the FEMA relief efforts among other relief efforts as well.

While I was carrying on my day - there were people running all over the place worried about getting our centers back up and running to serve the public, but also to help make sure that the population gets the help they need to start getting back on their feet.

Today, I truly became a useful part of the team though - they finally had a critical need for my position and I've been working nonstop all day on a project that lends itself well to my expertise. They have been very happy with my work so far (thank goodness!) and it was nice to be busy for a change... it certainly passed the time!

The work is so much more in line with things that I'm good at and interested in - so it was really nice to have things to do and not loathe the projects like I did at my last job. I hated it so much there for so many reasons that I just couldn't bring myself to do the work some days... I don't think that will be the case here... it's MUCH more in line with my interests.

So if I can't teach right now - at least I'm doing my second favorite thing, right?

That's pretty much the last week in a rundown - and the rest of this week and weekend don't show any signs of slowing down much... I might be brain-dead by the time we get done with church on Sunday...

Twists of Fate

Today is going to be another quick and dirty post because we're headed out to the hospital right now. We got in touch with one of John's Aunts today and they had to take his 92 year old grandmother to the hospital in the midst of the hurricane.

She apparently has a subdural hematoma, and the doctors are planning to do surgery to remove the clot from her brain tonight. This is a very scary time for John and his family - and I pray that God answers our prayers and safely carries Memaw through this.

I'm going back to work tomorrow as long as things go well tonight, and right now I'm going back to my regular office and not out to work with FEMA... but there is a possibility that things might change depending on the needs of my organization.

My in laws still have no power, but I think that my sister in law has gotten her refrigerator opened up so that the mildew doesn't take over... and she's gone over to John's parents to do the same... so hopefully that will help in some small way to speed up their cleanup process.

Correction

Well, FEMA isn't quite ready for us to hand out supplies at the location that we were to report for duty at tomorrow. So I've been released for the day... but am to stand by for Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday as we might be doing the FEMA volunteer work - or if the power is restored to my building... I might be going there to work and do whatever is needed for my department.

This new organization that I work for is much more of a human services organization, and therefore is more mission driven to help in the community. I've never worked for a place that steps in this quickly to help, but it's actually a little bit refreshing to see that it's not all about business as usual... it's more about where the greatest need is and filling those needs for the people.

In the meantime - I am still hanging out with John's family - we've all been fed for the evening, and some are watching the Dallas Cowboys game while others are upstairs watching The Jane Austen Book Club. I'm somewhere in between doing what I can to keep the place clean and everyone happy.... but work or no work - I'm quickly making my way to have a LONG meeting with my pillow.

The last few days have certainly been a ride that I will never forget - I can only pray that we don't have to go through it again... if we do - please God let it not be for a long while. For as long as I live - I will always know how it feels to go through a hurricane, and will pray harder than ever before for each and every soul going through that particular crisis.

Back to Work

Well, I'm back to work in the morning, but not my regularly assigned duties. One of our neighborhood centers is actually a FEMA Point of Distribution (POD) so they've asked us to come hand out Meals Ready to Eat (MRE), water, and ice to the people of the area that are without. It ought to make for an interesting, enlightening, empowering, and just all around eye opening day.

If there is anyone in the area that would like to take part in this with me - drop me a comment and I'll send you the information as to where we'll be and when.

Unbelievable

Well, Ike decided to go right through Columbus, Ohio on his way to where ever he decided to track through the US... and my poor Dad now doesn't have power for what they're predicting to be about a week! That is craziness!

The storm still had 70 mile per hour winds when it reached Ohio... certainly less than when it came through here - but unbelievable none the less.

Displacement from Ike

We're all still here and kicking, but we've started to spread out around the house for our entertainment. Susan and Brooklyn are upstairs watching lots of television and napping... Taylor has taken over the Wii and is playing with various opponents - either John, Paw Paw, or Maw Maw... and me a little bit. I've done some scrapbooking and continue to be interested in the news coverage of how things are going around the area.

Last night was so sweet, just about the time that the majority of us were going to bed - Taylor decided that we all needed to pray together. It was really nice to see her bring us all together around the bed that my in laws were going to be using... just a moment for us to all to thank God for how fortunate we have been throughout this storm. The six of them are displaced from their homes because of the power outage, but we still have plenty of food and water... and maybe even a little extra time to spend together.

There certainly are people everywhere you turn in the house, but at least we're all healthy and doing well. No major damage to speak of at any of our homes... there isn't much more we can ask for at this point.

Hawkins Shelter/Hotel

This evening we've taken in 6 refugees from Montgomery County, Texas... John's family is here with us because they don't have power at their houses. They rolled in about mid-afternoon... and immediately started cooking.

We've made a big pot of soup, baked a frozen pie that had partially thawed... and have plans of grilling some steaks this evening as well.

Naturally, we've had the news on all day - and I have to say that people are really hammering on FEMA and what is perceived as a lack of response... I find it really sad that in times like these the media really stirs the pot on issues.

I mean - the officials told us to prepare to be self sustaining for up to 3 days, and sure - we've been very lucky at our house... but it's been 24 hours since the storm hit, and people are already trying to blame the government for failing them because the FEMA trucks haven't arrived to all our citizens. I just find it flat amazing.

The vast majority of people are out there making due for themselves and doing the best they can. Stores have opened in some areas and people are doing the best that they can to provide for themselves... BUT relief has gotten to Galveston which is an area of great need... so I think that they are doing a great job.

I guess it is our nature to blame someone when we're hurting, but I hope that in the end people will realize that in reality things could have been so much worse.

My boss called earlier and our offices don't have power so we'll be closed tomorrow. She will call again tomorrow to let me know if they get power tomorrow, but none of us really expect that it'll be on there that quickly.

Cruel Joke

** I know that a lot of my readers are from the Houston area, and already know all of this information - but I'm keeping updates for family and friends that are watching to see how we're doing. **

Well, we had power again for a few hours only to lose it again from 11 until about 9 this morning. It seems to come back on whenever we start getting the generator ready to hook up. Poor John got it on the back porch, and had the fridge ready to plug in - but that's when the power came back on. If it weren't so frustrating - it would be funny.

I am so incredibly proud of how our city is handling this - whenever I'm able to watch the news coverage - everything looks orderly and people are hanging in there... so unlike the things we saw after Katrina.

We are watching the weather continue to be a mess as the rain is back again today, and threatens to get really bad this afternoon as a cold front moves in to the area. We got 5" of rain during the height of Ike, and last night got another 2" of rain... so we'll see what our total ends up being by the end of this whole situation.

Now we just have to see what happens now... and we'll see later when we will be asked to return to work. The main bummer for today is that our church had to cancel services today - and it would really be great to be able to get together as a group and thank God for getting us through this storm without any major events.

Retrospect

I have to say that overall - it might actually be a good thing that Ike came through over night while we were without power. I know that might seem strange to you, but here's my reasoning... I think it would have been worse if John and I would have been able to see the looks on our faces.

I know I would have been more scared to know that my strong, tough, protective, and loving husband was scared. He is after all my safety net!

Back in Business

Well - we lost power around 3 this morning while the storm was getting started... and can I just tell you that the sounds of a hurricane are some of the most frightening I've ever heard! From the sounds of the wind whistling and howling... to the sights of transformers blowing out every few minutes - it truly is nothing to take lightly.

John and I didn't sleep much more and nodding off for a couple of minutes in between the wind and water hitting the windows, and/or a flash of light that scared the mud out of us. Literally - in the dark of night while you're scared to death that your windows are going to blow out - and an orange light flashes... it will literally make you think that your house is on fire. Scary scary stuff!!

I've gone through the day vacillating between two extremes in my emotions... I've been weepy for what we've been through, and at the same time grateful for the community spirit that I've already seen around town. I guess it's normal to experience highs and lows after going through something semi-traumatic.

We took off this afternoon to my sisters in Brenham, to pick up their generator in order to get our fridge working and a few basic necessities... only to arrive back home to find our house fully powered up and cold!

It's a great problem to have all things considered - but surreal anyway.

On our way to Brenham, we saw caravans of state police and ambulances headed toward Houston... and it just made me weepy to watch that - we live in such a great state and country - to see people roll up their sleeves and jump right in to do whatever they can to help.

God Bless America... and Houston!

Part of me thinks of this as an opportunity for us to come together as a community again - just as we all get so wrapped up in our own lives. Just this evening, we had a guy just walk over to help John unload the generator from the truck... we've never met any of our neighbors... so I just thought that was great.

Beauty Before the Storm

Here are some pictures of the calm before the storm. The sunsets and sunrises during hurricanes can truly be remarkable... so I thought I'd take some pictures while it is safe. The wind is starting to pick up a bit, and is gusting... so as it gets dark - things will get crazy. We're praying that we don't lose power... but if we do - I'll see ya'll on the flip side!

Update

For those of you following our ride through the storm - things are looking very bad for Galveston Island already... that is about an hour from us. The rain hasn't started yet at this point, but they are saying that the rain bands are going to be beginning to make their way across the city very soon.

We're about to cook dinner while we have power and enjoy a hot meal before things start looking bad in our area.

John has turned the AC down to 70 in preparation for the power going out in our area - he figured that at least when it goes out... we can have it as cold as possible in here. So I've had to go outside and thaw my body out several times today!

It does look like this is coming in at the worst possible place for our area, but that doesn't mean that John and I are in any danger. One thing the news media has been saying over and over again is that this is something that we haven't seen in our area in modern times. It's sort of like a cross between Hurricanes Carla and Alicia... which were 50 (Carla) and 25 (Alicia) years ago... not to mention that our house is only a year old - so we don't know exactly what to expect in terms of wind and/or flooding.

The only thing that does help us feel some relief is that we have a retention pond at the back of our neighborhood, and we have a pumping station on our street to help remove any built up waters.

The scary thing is that this will come in during the night - so if we lose power -we'll have no way of watching to see what is happening out there. So hopefully we won't lose power for quite some time and can monitor how things are happening.

We have heard that 10,000 people in our area (the Greater Houston area = several million people) have lost power already at this point... so we're thankful that we aren't in that group.

Ready & Waiting

We've completed our preparations for the storm at this point, and I've taken some pictures to share with everyone. Right about now we're doing a lot of what you'll see in this first picture - watching the news... the storm hasn't even started to come in yet, but Galveston Island is already flooded - so this could be a long couple of days.

Missy is sitting with John - she's been very clingy... so I'm sure she won't get too far from either of us. She is afraid of storms to begin with - so a prolonged storm will mean lots of cuddling and shaking!

A closer view of Missy sitting with John, and of course Maggie's tail is in the way here.

Our patio furniture is all wired together and then strapped to the porch. The cushions are all in my breakfast room...it's a new look for September in Houston decorators!

The grill is strapped down as well... at least until we need it for cooking.

Maggie is sitting watching toward the coast in this shot - waiting for Ike to come in...

The girls are playing here - burning up some energy before we get stuck in the house.

Still playing here - and probably hoping that they don't have to potty in a flooded yard - like during Alison!

Here is a shot looking into our garage... and yes - that's a tree!

Our new tree - we bought this on Monday to replace the one that died, but didn't get it planted because of my interview at the school - so it's laying in the garage for now.

Our neighbor across the street is boarding up, and I thought I'd take a picture of that. They don't really have any cover over their windows to block the rain - we have porches covering almost all of ours.

I'll post more as things progress - I'll take as many pictures as I can of the sky and anything else that we see... I'll be sure to stay safe - so no one think that I'll be out there like a crazy reporter or anything!

Ike & Craziness

If you open this picture up - toward the top portion of the red section - you'll see a 6... I live in the red dot attached to that 6... or just above the 290... it's hard for me to tell exactly because I can't open the application to get a better view at my office.

In the last 24 hours or so - Ike has taken a turn for Houston. It actually might not be a direct hit on Houston itself, BUT if it goes through Freeport, Texas or anywhere north along the coast - we're in big trouble. (Which is exactly what we're looking at now)

In all honesty - I live a good hour to hour and a half from the coast, but believe me problems with these storms are widespread. My office has already closed for the day tomorrow, and it still remains to be seen if we end up working the entire day.... but that's not where the crazy is.

I started off this morning thinking about all the things that they tell us to have in our "Hurricane Preparedness Kit" - you know, the one that for at least the last 8 years... I've ignored needing. I'm not sure that it matters - because it doesn't matter what happens - every time a storm looms... people are out there stocking up on everything imaginable.

So anyway - this morning, I dropped John off at his office and started driving to mine... we had decided to fill up the car in the event that we have an extended power outage or gas problem and need to get by for a few days - or get out of dodge!

I pulled into the gas station, and start to get out of my car... and this lady in a ginormous SUV starts honking, shaking her finger, and yelling at me... apparently she wanted the pump I pulled into, and like a moment out of Fried Green Tomatoes - I must have swooped in and taken her spot. It didn't exactly happen that way - the pump was open and I pulled straight in... I don't even think she was there at the time! Crazy #1...

I then decided to use my lunch hour to get some supplies to make sure that John, the dogs, and I will be fine for a few days... and cue Crazy #2-2,000... I work in a smaller very yuppie-ish side of town now, and you don't typically expect people to act like they are today. I got to the store, and it was a complete madhouse! They still had water, but most of the other basic necessities were gone... so John and I have a few protein bars, water, peanut butter, crackers, and Oreos. (Yes, because you can't survive a hurricane without Oreos!)

I stood in line to check out for literally like 45 minutes for those few things!

Now, when you think about hurricane preparedness - what would you put in your cart? For me - it's water and some food items that we can eat for a short period while the power might be out... not these people! They were buying huge family packs of meat... yeah, cause when the power goes out - that'll be helpful. More than that though - the number 1 thing I saw people buying was alcohol.... wine and beer a plenty for these people.

I'm talking about several cases of beer in carts, or 6-8 bottles of wine... it's not a wedding people... it's a hurricane! Maybe I'm over sensitive to this because it's been literally 8 years since I've had a drink... and I'm not opposed to people doing it, but seriously - that's part of your survival kit?!

I worry about my dogs running out of food - but these people are worried about their buzz wearing off!

I just hope that the evacuation is going better this time because - I don't cherish the prospect of sitting on the freeway for hours to get home tonight.

On a very serious note:

You guys while you're praying over the next few days, please pray for safety from the storm, the relief efforts, and all those that will be recovering from damaged homes... or worse.

Also, please keep my friend Renee over at Right Foot Forward and her family in your hearts and prayers - she lost her uncle yesterday very unexpectedly and is dealing with the grief and mourning process.

I will update you guys on how we're doing with the storm as much as possible... but if for some reason - I can't blog - know that I'll be back as soon as is humanly possible.