More Pictures of Ike....

This is the tree that fell in our backyard.

Here is one of the lines for Kroger gas. It is hard to get the real idea from a picture but there are two lines that go about 1/2 a mile down the street just waiting to get in the station.

More of the Kroger gas line.

Our neighbors across the street. This tree fell on the roof of their garage. As it sat on there for a few days their garage sank in a little more.

Please keep praying for those that still do not have electricity and water. We don't realize until it is gone how much we depend on it. We didn't have it for five days and by day four I wasn't in the best of spirits so I can't imagine how those feel that have now not had it for over a week. We thankfully had some cool weather come in right after the storm but it is beginning to get warm up again so nights can be pretty hot. Also people are having to go back to work and school and when you can't get ready or do laundry or pack lunches that can make those tasks even more difficult to prepare for.

Children and hurricanes...

So what do children do in the aftermath of hurricanes? Well when we were able to go outside to begin the clean up process along with all of our neighbors we pulled out some toys from the garage for Lillie to play with since we knew we were going to be outside for a long time. She played with her rain gear for a little bit then she played with her easel then she found a mud puddle! Oh, boy she was covered from head to two in mud but she was having the best time! So here is what children do in the aftermath of hurricanes.....

Lillie with her rain gear even though is wasn't raining any more!
Lillie found the mud puddle then went to play with her easel.

Muddy Feet!

Oh, boy such fun! She was covering her shoes with mud.

LOVELY!

Aftermath of Ike...

Well the day after the hurricane we went out to survey the damage. Our neighborhood was hit hard. We had a tree fall on the back of our house and as it fell it hit another tree that broke off and also fell on our house. Our front and back yard had leaves and branches everywhere! Our neighbors across the street had a tree fall on the front of their garage that took them about three days to get removed. We also had large trees fall on the left and right side of us and blocked us in our street. After driving around the neighborhood we saw trees that had fallen on houses and broken in the roofs, one tree fell on a guys truck and into his neighbors yard. We drove out towards our parents house and there were down power lines everywhere. Electricity has been out almost everywhere. They said there were over 3 million people without electricity. Ours thankfully, came back on Tuesday evening and we were fortunate not to lose water. My parents lost water and have yet to get their electricity back on. They are saying it will still be another week before they are able to get it on again. I have friends in The Woodlands who are also still out of power. It has been very interesting. All of the stores have been closed until mid week last week and even the few that opened were only letting a few people in at a time. People going into the stores were told they had 15 minutes to shop and come back out. Those who went to the store were only able to buy canned goods, there was no meat, dairy, bread, water or ice to be found anywhere. They have set up PODS (Place of Distribution) around town for people to go and get some necessities but the lines are incredibly long. The gas lines have been like nothing I have ever seen before. Police officers have had to direct traffic around the gas stations because lines form that are about 3/4 of a mile long and people are just waiting to fill up. It has been interesting and even more interesting to explain to Lillie why we can't just stop and get fast food or buy something in a store because nobody has electricity. The phone lines have also been busy so to get a call out or in takes many many tries. We are just now getting back to "normal." The malls opened today along with several stores. I was going to make my parents dinner the other night and was unable to find meat anywhere. I did finally find milk at Walmart but that was the only dairy I was able to buy. They didn't have any cheese, yogurt, eggs, or anything that needed to be refrigerated. We have been out of school the whole week but are scheduled to go back on Monday. I have posted some pictures of our neighborhood and will include more in the next post.

This is our walkway looking from our front door.

This is our neighbors house across the street. This tree uprooted and landed on their garage.

Here is our other neighbors tree that fell on their fence and landed in the street.

Tree that fell on the mans truck in our neighborhood.

The back of our house and the trees that landed on it.

During Ike...

Well Ike came and went and boy has it been interesting. I thought I would explain this experience in several entries since there are too many pictures and stories to share. We prepared for the storm by buying water, bread, and getting our cars filled with gas. We also made sure all of the batteries were working in all of our flashlights and filled the bathtub with water just in case we lost water. The storm was supposed to blow through about midnight last Friday night so we decided to put Lillie in our room for the night just because we didn't know what to expect. The wind was coming so hard that we ended up moving to the entry way about 5:00am, that is the only place in our house that doesn't have windows. We, amazingly, still had electricity at this point and I had just talked to my mom on the phone telling her I couldn't believe we still had power, however, the minute I hung up it went off. :) It was funny timing. There was a lot of rain and powerful winds the whole night and part of the day. Every time we heard a loud bang we would all run to the windows and see what it was. Aren't you supposed to stay away from the windows during a hurricane? It has been interesting going through this with Lillie because she is very curious about it and I think has been worried at times. Here are some pictures from the night of the hurricane.

Lillie's mattress in the entry way.

Lillie made a pickle sandwich that day for lunch. (Kids do very interesting things)

Lillie eating her pickle sandwich. Notice she has on her princess dress there is never a time even without power that she doesn't dress up!

Ike is coming....

Our next door neighbors house. There are several in our neighborhood that have boarded up windows.
This is the gas station on the way to our parents house and Walmart. It is typical of most gas stations here!
Here's the pump.
This is our neighbor that lives across the street. He taped his windows so they wouldn't shatter.

Here is our garage filled with all of our potted plants, hose, shepherds hooks, grill, Lillie's playhouse, pool, picnic bench, patio furniture and so on!

Well for those of you that watch the news I am sure you have heard that Ike is coming to Houston. The attitude right now is similar to what it was when Rita came two years ago. Most of Houston evacuated then sitting on the freeways for long periods of time in the midst of horrible traffic! We took our dog, Maddie, and headed to Dallas for Rita. There was no gas, water, bread, or peanut butter to be found anywhere in Houston. A normal trip to Dallas for us would be about 3 and a half hours and it took us over seven to get there. So needless to say a lot of people are not interested in leaving town this time. It has become hard to get gas, bread, and water again though! Eric informed me yesterday that Ike had turned and that if I was going by the store, to pick up some water. At 6:00 on my way to school I stopped off at the store yesterday. The parking lot at that time normally has 3 cars in it and yesterday it was full, at 6 A.M.! I bought three cases of water and 2 loaves of bread. Then yesterday afternoon I was finally able to find a gas station with gas to top off my Explorer. It's always interesting to see how everyone reacts during times like this. WE have no idea what to expect this evening so from house to house the preparations have all been different. We brought in everything from our patio and front yard so our garage is full! We have also adopted a cat that lives out front named Chloe but this evening I am bringing her in to the laundry room. I am expecting heavy winds and a lot of rain and praying that the wind doesn't knock down any of our trees. We have HUGE trees in our backyard and I think that could potentially be the worst damage but we will see. We also run the risk of losing our electricity. Two years ago because so many people lost power they turned it back on and had "rolling blackouts." That basically meant that they turned power back on for an hour or two then turned it off for three -five hours. We never knew what the time period was going to be for them to be on or off. It was difficult and right now it would be HOT! But I just thought for those of you that don't live in areas like this I would share what the attitude has been around here! :) Pray that everything goes OK and that they are anticipating worse than what will really come! Thanks!

Funny things kids say....

I have no pictures but Mary Jo told me something funny that Lillie said today. Lillie gets really tired in the afternoons but doesn't want to admit that she is tired and needs a nap. This afternoon she apparently went into my bedroom, where the bed was left unmade, and started scrunching up all of the covers into a large circle. When Mary Jo came in to see what she was doing Lillie told her that she still had another egg to hatch and she needed to stay in the bed. (Her way of saying she wanted to lay down) Mary Jo noticed a small lump under the "nest" and when she looked it was Happy. I guess Happy was the egg. :) Our daughter is obsessed with birds and nests lately she draws them on everything. :) Anyway we both got a HUGE kick out of the comment Lillie made today and I thought I would share! :)

First day of school...

Lillie thrilled as always to be taking pictures

Her new backpack and lunch box

Another day after school.
Lillie posing!

Well the first day of school for Lillie was on August 13th but I am just now getting to the post about it. We have put her in at the school I am teaching at so that she could be close to me. My mother and father in law watched Lillie last year on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday last year but we felt bad that they gave up so much time so we were trying to not have to rely on them this year so they could have their life back. We had enrolled Lillie into the five day program at TWCA and after enrolling her I cried for about two weeks. I wasn't convinced it was the right decision but I didn't really feel like I had any other options. I just knew that once she started school that would be it and I didn't want it to be too much for her.



Well as always I believe God worked it out and I found out Lillie was the only one enrolled in the five day program. Eric and I didn't know what we were going to do. The school suggested we put her in Kindergarten two days a week or just put her straight into Kindergarten. Neither Eric nor myself like that idea and both of us felt like it wouldn't be beneficial to Lillie. The last thing I want to do as a parent or teacher is to start my child in school and it be a frustrating experience for her. I am a firm believer in not rushing children because by my grade level, fifth grade, you always know who are the younger ones in the group. It can always be seen through the maturity level of the student and sometimes academically. After a lot of thought we put Lillie in the three day program and John and Mary Jo graciously offered to keep Lillie on Tuesday's and Thursday's. We are very blessed that they are willing and able to watch her because I always think it is better for family to have her that loves her then someone we don't know.



Her class is going really well. She has two fantastic teachers and she does science and motor with a friend of mine who is also a wonderful teacher! She takes Spanish and gets to go to the library and check out books and goes to chapel. She is really enjoying it. She and I also have the same lunch time so I am able to go over and help her classmates open their food and get to know them. They are all so cute! One thing about our school is that we have uniforms so Lillie wears a uniform to school. We were concerned about that initially because Lillie has this thing that she just wants to wear "stretchy pants" she throws a fit if you put anything but "stretchy pants" on her. Stretchy pants are pants with elastic and we think she prefers those because she can get them up and down easily when she is needing to use the restroom. But all those cute clothing items for little girls don't come in stretchy pants so that is disappointing sometimes. She has finally given in to the uniforms after seeing that her classmates all have to wear them as well. Chapel days, Wednesday, they have a chapel dress which is a plaid jumper which she looks SO cute in!

I was worried about how I was still going to be able to get work done with her being with me but Eric and I have worked out a schedule where he gets her up and dressed in the morning then brings her in car line. On days that I need to fix her hair I meet her in the early morning line and put her hair up really fast. After school she goes to extended care, which she loves, while I finish up and get some work done. It is going well and we are really blessed to be where we are right now. It just amazes me how much she is learning this year and last. She knows her days of the week in order, she forgets Wednesday sometimes, she can write her name, she can count to 20, she knows all her colors and shapes and the alphabet and so much more! She even knows things like which hand on the clock does what - which shocked Eric and I! I am just amazed at what a sponge kids are and how they learn. I have posted some of her first day pictures. I obviously hadn't gotten to her hair yet but Eric had dried it and gotten her ready. He is doing a great job helping me out and we are all happy which is a good feeling.

I'm back....

Bryce and I with Junction Jack - Go STROS!

Mom wanted her picture with an animal too so she went and found the guys who dress up like Puma's!

Well after a long time having not blogged I wanted to post some this evening. I have started back to school so it has been really busy! I was going to start with an event we went to in August. The second weekend in August the Astros had Faith night. Lance Berkman ( love him!) our first baseman is a Christian and he gave his testimony that evening then afterwards Steven Curtis Chapman had a concert. After those events we stayed for the Astros/Diamondbacks game. It was a really neat evening. I was excited to hear Lance's testimony and what he had to say. I have liked him for a long time and feel like he is a very normal person. KSBJ, our Christian radio station in Houston has an annual Shareathon every year to raise money for the listener supported station and Lance volunteers during that time to answer phones. I just think he is a really great role model. After he spoke Steven came out and sang while talking about what has been going on in his life lately. As many of you know he lost his five year old daughter this summer after she was hit by the family SUV. I have listened to Steven Curtis Chapman since about 8th grade so it was interesting sitting in there listening to him now as a parent and at 33 years old. He was incredible and it broke my heart to listen to him. As hard as this experience is for him and his family I think God is using his family to touch more lives to further His kingdom. His faith has grown leaps and bounds and you can tell that he is humbled by what God is doing in his life. His two sons were also playing in the band with him, which was really neat. He seems very much like a family man. I had hoped he would not sing the "Cinderella" song but after he talked about it and how hard it had been to be able to sing it since Maria's death he sang it. I cried and cried. I had to leave because it was so upsetting to me. As a parent I think you automatically put yourself in their shoes and realize the pain that they must be going through. If you get an opportunity to go see Steven I would strongly suggest it. I think you won't leave the same as when you arrived!



While waiting for the game to begin Junction Jack, the Astros' mascot, came out and was greeting the kids and taking pictures. I wanted to get my picture with him too so Bryce and I went down and stood by the field hoping he would come our way. I have included the picture we took with him and the one my mom went and got after we took ours. We had a great time and I was glad I got to share that evening with my Dad, Mom, Bryce and Eric.