Power Update

Thank you for your prayers! My brother, aunt and uncle, and cousin all got power back over the weekend!

Still In The Dark

Please pray for my brother, his fiance, my cousin, his wife, and my aunt and uncle who are all still without power and are in the areas that they are now saying it will probably be after 9.22.08 before they regain power. None of them sustained any substantial damage to their homes but as you can imagine, the no power thing is really starting to wear on them.

My cousin, his wife, and my aunt and uncle live pretty close to us so they have been coming by to get ice, take showers (their hot water heaters are electric), and get things from their deep freeze that is plugged in at our house. While we love being able to help, they are getting tired of the set up. I really feel for them and wish there was more we could do. My aunt and uncle and cousin are a camping family so they are really handling it all very well but as we talked about last time they were here, it is getting old. The first time they came over for showers on Monday, it was kinda fun getting to hang out. The novelty has worn off for them. I told them our Bath House was open for business indefinitely but I know and understand that they much rather have their own electricity back. Please pray for strength for all of them. Here is a picture of us celebrating Amanda's (cousin-in-law) birthday on Monday night when they came over. It wasn't much but hopefully it was a nice distraction for all of them.

The other thing that has helped is that my Dad came to Houston on Wednesday to check on his employees and the office they have down in Webster (near NASA). He took them a commercial ice maker and then brought my brother ice and some other supplies. He then came up to us and brought us some luxuries like milk, butter, eggs, and cheese. He also brought us ice to give to my aunt and uncle. We had dinner and then he headed back to San Antonio. He had a long day but we and many others really appreciated it! Here is a picture of him with one of the company vans and the gas can he brought with him fearing that it was going to be tough to get gas in Houston. He said from driving around town and observing all the gas stations he passed that he could have gotten gas without any problem up by us.

The other thing that has helped is that my Dad came to Houston on Wednesday to check on his employees and the office they have down in Webster (near NASA). He took them a commercial ice maker and then brought my brother ice and some other supplies. He then came up to us and brought us some luxuries like milk, butter, eggs, and cheese. He also brought us ice to give to my aunt and uncle. We had dinner and then he headed back to San Antonio. He had a long day but we and many others really appreciated it! Here is a picture of him with one of the company vans and the gas can he brought with him fearing that it was going to be tough to get gas in Houston. He said from driving around town and observing all the gas stations he passed that he could have gotten gas without any problem up by us. Thanks again Dad!

On the other side

We are on the other side of the storm and we are in good shape. It was pretty scary Friday night/Saturday morning and I didn't get much sleep. I don't know how much rain we got but the wind is what made the biggest impression on me. It was pretty intense. I laid awake just waiting to hear glass breaking. Thankfully, I never heard any, although I heard a lot of other things that were pretty unsettling. We lost power about 1:15 AM on Saturday and from that point until I got out of bed around 8, I probably only got about four hours of sleep.

It didn't stop raining here until about 4 or 5 PM. The winds didn't stop until later but by the afternoon they had died down considerably. Around noon, Evan and I went out to walk our street and survey the damage. We were pretty surprised by what we saw. Because of how our house and fence are arranged, you actually cannot see our front yard or neighbors' yards from our front door. All we can see is our "back" yard and it didn't look too bad.  There were a few medium sized branches and tons of little branches and leaves in the yard. The only other damage was that a section of our back fence (about 10 ft. long) had fallen down. When we stepped into our front yard, the first thing we saw was the uprooted tree in our neighbors' front yard. Then two houses down, we saw that the brick wall (originally about 8 feet tall) in-front of their house had been knocked down by the wind. We made it to the end of the street before turning back because the rain had picked up again.

We headed out again around 4:30 and walked down to the front of the neighborhood. You can see all the pictures that I took here. Other than our tours of the neighborhood, we passed the time by playing chess, cards, and hanging out talking with neighbors. We started getting ready to go to sleep around 9:30. Just as Evan was headed to the garage to get more gas for the generator the power came back on. I don't think I have ever been so happy to have the power restored. We could have handled it if we would have had to go longer without power but I think I was so excited because I had started to accept the fact that it could be a week or more with out power and it was just so unexpected.

I didn't sleep much better last night because of the thunderstorm that rolled through early this morning. We got about five inches of rain in about a three hour period. Evan said he woke up in the middle of it and thought he was having a flashback of the previous night. I couldn't sleep because I was worried about water coming into our house since the ground was so saturated from the earlier storm. Thankfully, that wasn't a problem.

While things are progressing, the area as a whole is far from being back to "normal." I don't really know how to describe it but it is just chaotic in many places. I have not felt that it is chaotic in the sense that things are unsafe, but chaotic in the sense that people are getting restless and impatient. I told my brother today, who is still in San Antonio, that if I were him, I wouldn't come back until I had to.

Overall, we are very thankful, and consider ourselves blessed. Thank you for your prayers. Please continue to pray for the entire area and especially for those in leadership positions as they face many difficult decisions in the upcoming days and weeks. I think the thing we all need the most is patience.

Hunker Down!

Yes, there is a hurricane coming to Houston later tonight/tomorrow morning. We have been getting a lot of calls/emails from people wondering when we are leaving. We are not leaving. We are going to hunker down and ride out the storm. We are far enough north and not in a flood prone/low lying area that we should not experience any major problems. According to the latest reports we could get up to 8 inches of rain and up to 70 mph winds. We have got enough supplies (food, water, batteries, gas for the generator, etc.) to last us around 4 or 5 days. We have moved everything from outside into the garage or inside the house and are nailing down a few loose fence posts this morning. I am arranging everything this morning so that if need be we can be in the bathroom/closet for an extended period of time although we don't anticipate that we will have to do this. I like what the mayor said in one of the many press conferences from over the last couple of days..."this is not going to be fun, this is not going to be pleasant, but we will get through it." I paraphrased but I think you get the point. So far there have been tons of reports saying that the mandatory evacuations have gone very well. We are obviously not in a mandatory evacuation zone nor or we in a voluntary evacuation zone. My brother and his fiance, who both live in Deer Park, left yesterday afternoon to go to San Antonio around 2:00. They were not in a mandatory evacuation zone but their zip code is bordered on two sides by mandatory evacuation zones. Also, they were going to go to San Antonio this weekend anyway for Kim to get her bridal portrait done and for Eric to go to the UT vs. Arkansas game with my Dad. The game has been postponed but it looks like they will still have nice weather in San Antonio for Kim to get her bridal portrait taken. It took them about 6 hours to get to San Antonio where it ususally takes a little less than 4 hours from Deer Park.

We will have our cell phones but will be trying to conserve battery life so my Dad is our point of contact. We'll see you on the other side of the storm. For updates on the storm, this is the place we check most frequently along with the news: SciGuy Blog. He is a science writer for the Houston Chronicle and we always check in with him during hurricane season since he has what we feel is some of the best coverage without the hype.

Where were you? What were you doing?

I remember waking up to my clock-radio alarm in my dorm room. At first I didn't really pay attention to the DJs because I was half asleep but then I heard "the plane just crashed right into the side of the building." I sat up and moved in closer to the radio. They talked about how reports were just coming in about how a commercial plane had crashed into one of the World Trade Center Towers. I quickly got ready to go to class so that I could go downstairs to the lobby of the dorm since we didn't have a TV. I came into the lobby and people are frozen staring at a picture on the screen of a plane flying into one of the towers. Then video of the second plane into the second tower. Everyone was so confused. People were frantic on their cell phones calling family members to get more information. I watched as long as I could to gather information before I had to leave to go to class. As I passed a university maintenance vehicle parked by the sidewalk next to the building I was going to enter I stopped with others to listen to the radio and see if there were any new developments since I had left the dorm. I entered the lecture hall of my freshman chemistry class. There were a few students who didn't know about what had happened and those of us who did tried to explain what we ourselves still didn't really believe had occurred. Our professor came in a few minutes later to tell us that one of the towers had collapsed. He said class was cancelled but we all lingered and shared stories of what we had heard and seen so far.

I remember growing up and my Grandfather telling me about how everyone from his generation could tell you where they were and what they were doing when they heard the news about Pearl Harbor. I would tell him and myself, "I can't imagine what that must have been like" when he would tell me the stories. That morning, as I woke up in my dorm room, all of a sudden, I think I understood.

Let every nation know, whether it wishes us well of ill, whta we shall pay ANY price, bear any burden, meet any hardship, support any friend, oppose ANY foe, to assure the survival and success of liberty.

-J.F.K.

Celebrate in San Antonio

This past weekend we went to San Antonio for two big celebrations. The first was Elizabeth's 4th birthday party on Saturday. The second was for the Evan's parents' 40th wedding anniversary. It was a great weekend and we got a lot of family time with both families (Evan's and mine).

Elizabeth's birthday party was the first "event" I had been at in a long time with that many people under the age of 5. It was pretty crazy but a lot of fun. Page and Dave did an awesome job with the party and I think it was a huge success. I can't believe how fast both Elizabeth and James are growing up! I would always think it was weird how my aunts and uncles would go on and on about how fast we were growing up and how it seemed just like yesterday that they were holding us as babies....but now I am the one! Elizabeth was born about six months before Evan and I got engaged. I remember John and Judy picking me up from Austin on their way back to Dallas right after Elizabeth had been born so that I didn't have to drive up there alone. I remember John saying over and over "Wait to you see this girl!" referring to his first grandchild. It was a time that I felt so honored and special to be a part of, seeing as I wasn't technically a part of the family yet. I remember Evan waking up that first morning (very early) we were all staying at Page and Dave's house, to go get Elizabeth when she was done nursing but was not wanting to got to sleep, to give Page a chance to sleep. I remember getting even more excited about marrying him and someday it being our child that he was picking up and trying to get to go to sleep.

While we are not quite ready to start that adventure, we love seeing our nephew and niece and are thankful for getting to be a part of their lives thus far. Elizabeth is a great big sister to James and I love watching them together. I often find myself quite content playing with one or both of them at family gatherings and having to remind myself to make sure and talk to everyone else :)

Here are some pictures from the party:

Elizabeth's party had a beach theme. This is her sand castle cake that Page made. VERY impressive!

Beach cupcakes for those who prefer chocolate cake.

Elizabeth (right) playing in the kiddie pool with some of her friends.

The cool play-set that both sets of grandparents gave the kids for their birthdays. Yes, that is a rock wall on the left, a sand box at the bottom, and a tube slide in the back. Elizabeth calls the tube slide "

Me holding James just after he woke up from his nap at the beginning of the party. He wasn't real sure he wanted to be outside where it was so bright. I think it still made for a pretty cut picture though.

Elizabeth opening the birthday present from us. We gave her a book of crafts for kids and a box of craft supplies. I got this same gift from my aunt when I was a kid for Christmas and I thought it was the coolest present. I decided a long time ago that if we ever had a niece of child that was into crafts that I was going to give the same gift. Thankfully, Elizabeth is really into crafts so hopefully this will be fun for her.

On Saturday night we went to dinner with my parents and sister and had a great time catching up with them. My family is very busy with Lisa starting the North East Transitional School a few weeks ago and still going through driving lessons. The three of them also help my aging grandfather (my Dad's Dad) and grandma (my Mom's Mom) on a very regular basis since they are the only immediate family living in the same place as them. They always have great stories about the adventures of helping them. We went to one of my favorite Mexican restaurants, La Fonda's and I had the same cheese enchiladas I have been getting there since I was a kid. They are the cheese enchiladas I compare all other cheese enchiladas to. After dinner, we went for gelato where we talked politics. My Dad loves to talk politics and I guess you could say that keeping up with the news and political issues is almost a hobby of his. Evan and I both enjoy talking to him about the issues because thankfully we share most of the same views and it always makes for good conversation. When we got home we watched the first half of the UT vs UTEP game. UT was going to win so Evan and I went to bed at half-time even though I think my Dad stayed up to watch more of the game.

On Sunday we went to John and Judy's best friends' house for a lunch to celebrate their 40th wedding anniversary. Page, Dave, the kids, us, John and Judy, and the Murphy's all shared in great food and fond memories. During our sharing time, all of us attempted to tell J&J how much their marriage has meant to us. I wasn't the only one who couldn't get through mine without crying. It was a beautiful time and I hope that J&J were encouraged by all that was said. While there have been some rough times during their 40 years together, their marriage is a true testament to God's power and grace. Their marriage and the way they have allowed God to work through their marriage continues to be an inspiration and encouragement to Evan and I and many others. We are very thankful to have them as an example in our lives. Page and Dave actually wrote down what they said and Page has posted them on their blog, if you'd like to read them. Here are some pictures from the lunch:

Getting ready to sit down to eat the delicious meal.

The AMAZING coconut cupcakes Lynn made. Not that I was surprised seeing as EVERYTHING I have every tasted that she baked was delicious. Did I mention that she owned a bakery at one time? I wish I was eating one right now.

J&J attempting to read our card...the writing was pretty small :)

Bathroom Remodel - Part II: Prime and Paint

Last week we primed and painted the bathroom. I primed the bathroom during the day and Evan helped me paint in the evening on Wednesday. It took longer than I thought it would because of all the small spaces that needed to be done with a brush. While I was hoping to get more done on the bathroom last week, this is all that happened because of needing to get ready to go to San Antonio for the weekend on Thursday and Friday. Here are some pictures: