A Wild Ride, but it could have been wilder! (so long Ike!)

After a night of listening in the dark to the winds howling, trees snapping, the upstairs shaking (during the worst of it), this is what we woke up to (not too bad, lost none of my trees, only branches, no damage to roof or house)-- With the power out (for 9 days, and some people in our city went even longer without), Lauren and Dan and girls moved in with us, since we had a generator. We were blessed with a cool front for most of the first week. It was so nice to have a generator to power our frige, freezer, a few lamps, box fans and T.V. (non-stop coverage on the hurricane recovery).

The hurricane was such an adventure and fun for the kids. Uncle TaTa introduced the girls to boxing. Jessica did neat crafts with them. Kyla says, "Next time we have a hurricane, Grammy, and we run out of food, we'll come over to your house and help you make lunch." (They were so grateful to have cold milk at our house, and normal meals.)
Thanks to our generator, we were also able to do some laundry. Dan enjoyed folding clothes.

It was a minor inconvenience being without electricity, compared to what folks went through who lived closer to the gulf. We feel so fortunate. This is a photo Philip took when he was with a Mormon "Helping Hands" crew in Galveston. When he knocked down a wall, and a hive of killer bees was exposed, he set a new personal best time in the mile, escaping with only one bee sting to his lip. The water line in the home, came up to his chest. Inches of water still stood in the home a week after the storm. The smell was so bad, it almost made him sick. The family had just bought new furniture a few weeks before the storm. All was ruined. It'll be a long time before the Galveston we knew gets back to "normal".

Yikes! It's Ike

We spent today boarding up windows, clearing the yard of any loose items. It's scary to have such a huge hurricane bearing down on us. Many of our neighbors are staying, including us. When I visited the police station today, they said we should be O.K. if our street has never flooded before. We've been here through some pretty bad tropical storm flooding situations, and have been high and dry. We're still feeing anxious. I'll let you know after the storm passes, and when the electricity gets back on, how we fared.

The stork is our new family pet!

These three gals, my daughters and daughter-in-law, are all expecting at the same time! Courtney is expecting her first, a boy, at the end of November. Lauren is expecting her first boy, after 3 girls, at the end of February. Emily is expecting her fourth, a girl, in the beginning of November. When these three are born, our grandkids will outnumber our kids. This Grammy is very excited to meet the new little ones. I love their mamas (and daddies) very much!