IKE the terrible

What a long two weeks! So Ike hit us dead on. It was the middle of the night, so Ryan and I slept in the hallway, away from any windows and we boarded up Nate's window. Randy had to fend for himself. :-) The power went out in the middle of the night. In the morning, Ike was still blowing until about 1 in the afternoon. I was watching the radar on my blackberry. Randy and Ryan put together a lego set. I played dominos and blocks and read to Nate.

When the wind stopped we went outside to assess things. Our house wasn't damaged at all. We lost a few boards from our rickety back fence, and there were limbs and leaves everywhere. Texting still worked on my phone, but it was difficult to get a phone call out b/c circuts were busy. So I went about texting everyone to make sure all was ok.

Everyone was fine. My mom's house had some minor damage when a tree limb fell on the eave of her roof. My dad lost 4 trees from his yard, one of which came crashing down on their dining room. It didn't come through the house but the sheetrock is cracked inside and tore up the roof and the frame of the house. I guess there is something good about living around no huge trees.

So, we had filled our cars with gas the night before and charged our phones, got some bags of ice and froze milk jugs full of water. We put the frozen milk jugs in the fridge and put some necessities like milk in an ice chest, things that we'd need frequently.

The city was devasted. The power was out everywhere, and lots of stores had damage, nothing was open for days. After a day or two some gas stations opened but there were lines hours long to get any gas. It was crazy.

After 2 days our power came back on. We were so lucky. That night Trevor, Christine, Lindsay, Jeff and Jackson stayed with us because they didn't have power yet. Luckily we got a cold front so the weather wasn't hot. The following night, Lisa, Ed and Laney stayed with us.

Over the next few days, Lindsay, Christine, my mom, Joy, aunt, and uncle all got power. It was still hard to find stores open. And when we did, the lines were crazy.

We spent one day at my dad's helping the cleanup around his house. It was a huge mess. When all was cleaned up there was a pile of trees, limbs, pine needles and leaves, 6 feet hight and 40 feet long along his curb. It was crazy.

So, over the next two weeks Ed, Lisa and Laney stayed with us. It was totally fun! My dad and step-mom got a generator and set up their fridge, and a/c unit and some lights. They came over frequently for dinner. It was like a big party out our house!

We watched the Centerpoint Energy website and more and more power was restored in Houston. I felt so guilty having power when my family didn't. After 12 days power was restored at Bret and Wendy's house. And last night, power was restored to Lisa and Eds AND my dad's house!!! All my peeps finally had power!!

We were all so happy! Lisa and I were a little sad though, b/c we'd had so much fun living together. Yesterday she said that we should buy a huge house and live together forever. :-) So, (you know me) I found a house for 2 mil that would fit us nicely! And even had a few extra bedrooms for when Ed and Lisa have more kids!

Anyway... we were all very lucky b/c so many homes were completely wiped clean down to their slabs in Galveston and along the coast.