Thankful Thursday - Comforts of Life!

Having just survived Hurricane Ike with little to minimal damage; well, practically none, I have so much to be thankful for. Here is a link to some amazing Hurricane Ike Pictures. And here are just a few of things I am so thankful for.

1. Lights
2. Dishwasher
3. Washing Machine & Dryer
4. Refrigerator & Freezer
5. Ice
6. Roof Still over my Head
7. Batteries & Flashlights
8. 24 hour Media Coverage (sometimes)
9. Clean Water
10. Preparedness
11. Phones
12. Internet
13. Neighbors
14. Concerned Loved Ones
15. Rope, Stakes, Duck Tape & Tarps
16. Gas Stations with Gas
17. Grocery Stores with food
18. Cameras
19. A/C
20. Prayer

Steve's way of Preparing for IKE

Friday morning, about 15 hours before Ike hits us, Steve was feeling the strong urge to go for his last bike ride before the storm and all the flooding of the trails. He was not gone for too long before I got a phone call from him telling me he had crashed on his bike. He was going pretty fast down a narrow trail and he thinks his handle bar hit a tree and it threw him over his handlebars and he landed on his head and his left shoulder. After assessed the situation for a minute, he got up and rode his bike back two miles to his truck and was driving home when he called me. We ended up in the ER that afternoon before hurricane Ike was suppose to come. Luckily they weren't too busy. He was there for only 5 hours.

He has a separated shoulder. He is in a sling, with ice packs and little bit of pain meds. His head is fine and he has a few scratches and bruises here and there. His helmet however is not. It has quite a few cracks all throughout. He says he is feeling a lot lucky and little stupid (for going too fast in that section). We are just so glad he will be ok.



He went to the Orthopedic Surgeon Monday and he has a level 3 shoulder separation. Which means he is right in between surgery or no surgery level. The X-ray looks like his shoulder is broken, but it just shows how separated it is. There is suppose to be a ligament holding it together. We just have to hope and pray it heals well during the next four weeks while he keeps it in a sling.

Okay, our last post from this Hurricane Ike weekend!

It is Sunday now, church has been cancelled. There are still people in our ward who don't have electricity. So I am feeling just little guilty that I am on the computer, in my clean and air conditioned home. But we did call around to see where we could help. Our ward really didn't have many needs that weren't already being taken care of. I drove to a friends house to pick up her kids so they could have a break and enjoy some A/C for awhile. We will wait to see what we can do as the week goes on.

Then, to take advantage of not having 2:00pm church, we invited some families over for dinner. We had the Joneses and the Brunsons over for a BBQ. We actually thought we might have to have a big feast with all our meat in the freezer with no electricity, but it was all fine. The kids had a great time playing and getting out lots of energy playing football as you can see by this picture. But then we all started to get eaten alive by mosquitoes. This just might be an everyday occurrence for awhile around here with all this moisture. Here are some pictures. I couldn't pick my favorite.



School has been cancelled and Steve's Offices are closed for tomorrow. Things will be different around here for a while. But I just want to say thank you again to everyone for your phone calls, emails and prayers. We truly feel so blessed to have been able to weather this hurricane so well and to be able to enjoy all the comforts of life that we have and to be able to enjoy the peace that the gospel brings into our life. We asked the kids tonight what they were thankful for and electricity, lights, home, family and that Dad's accident wasn't worse were all on their lists. We hope that this hasn't been too traumatic for our children but that it was just enough for them to appreciate a little more all that they have. And our thoughts and prayers go out to all those who are without because of Hurricane Ike.

Our Hurricane Visitors!

I was walking down the stairs when I saw a car in our driveway. I didn't think anyone was out and about yet. But Amber and Mike were checking things out and stopped by to see how we were doing. They really came to save the day. It is always great to visit with them, but today we definitely needed the visit. It was starting to get a little warm, Steve was needing some quiet time and the kids needed more entertainment than I was able to provide.

My kids love entertaining Van also.

They hung out for a few ours with us, played some games, ate lunch and then when we were just about to all melt we decided to take a ride in the air conditioned car to Sugarland to see all the damage there and visit their home.

We did see a lot more damage in their area, big trees down, power lines down, roofs blown off and lots and lots of debris everywhere. BUT they had electricity, so we hung out with them for a while. Here we are with electricity. Yes, everyone had their own computer.

Rachel playing Nancy Drew

Matthew playing Chess and a few other games.

Lauren watching a movie

Ethan taking art lessons from Amber

This is what he started at their house and finished before he went to bed.

They actually all caught the art bug and have been busy sketching pictures ever since. I'll post those next.

But while we were there at about 6:00pm we got a phone call from our neigbors, the Tuckets, that our electricity was back on. YEAH!!! They also told us that Bryan was a little bored today so he fixed our fence for us. They truly are the best neighbors ever and not just because they fixed our fence.

Ready, Set, Go!

Here are just a few things we did to get ready for the Hurricane. I realize that after each hurricane we become a little bit more prepared. I think a generator will get on our Need List next. We really felt good about staying and knew we would be all right, but just weren't sure what was going to happen. I think the best thing was that the kids all fell sleep so quickly. We tucked them all in and I went to brush my teeth and got ready to come back and sleep with the kids and they were all asleep. And didn't wake up until the morning. I am not sure how they slept through the whole night. The wind and rain were so loud. It was a little scary. I got up quite a few times to check on everything and just kept praying the kids would be able to sleep through it all and they did.

Matthew did get up once to go to the bathroom in the dark. I was hoping he took a flashlight with him, but no such luck. I ended up cleaning our guest bathroom in the middle night, thinking that just in case we had to use that bathroom for shelter, I wanted it to be clean.

Steve got up a few times too, mostly because he was uncomfortable with his shoulder, the heat and the noise. He is the one that heard our front window blow in. It had already had some kind of malfunction that we hadn't fixed yet, and the wind blew it in. It was just one corner of it that we duck taped down, jammed a broom handle up against it with a kitchen chair on top of that. It really did work, if you can't get the picture.

Neighborhood IKE Party!

Lauren with her hair blowing in the wind. Notice her turtleneck sweater? Well, I was cleaning out under the stairs today and pulled out a bag of too small clothes for Lauren and she pulled some of her clothes out and just couldn't get rid of them. This is one item she insisted on keeping and wearing. Rachel enjoying the wind Rachel and Friend Isabele Matthew, Kyler, Jango Fett and a Stormtrooper Hula Hoop Games! Go Rachel! Ethan and his WindBoard! Friday night after dinner we told the kids we were all going to take a shower, make some muffins for breakfast the next morning and then make our beds in front of the TV and have a movie night till we all fell asleep while we were waiting for Hurricane IKE to come. Well, we ended up having a Hurricane Party in our cul-de-sac with all the neighbors. It was a great way to get the kids all ready for bed with no showers. They had lots of fun playing in the wind without any rain. All the mom's must have been inside relaxing while they could and the Dad's stood outside telling stories. Steve had the kids all go get skate boards and beach towels and built them a WindBoard to scoot down the street with. There is video below that also gives you an idea of how windy it was just starting to get. I was the only Mom outside because I couldn't relax. After getting Steve home from the hospital, I realized how I relieve stress. I clean. I could not stop cleaning and for what. I think the not knowing what was going to happen was really stressing me out. We were prepared, but there is always more that can be done and I just kept on doing. I finally stopped and went outside to spend time with my family. We were out there until about 9:45, when all the electricity went out.

You Know It's Bad When...

Wal-Mart is closed and boarded up.

Before & After IKE

View out our front door Friday Night

View out our front door Saturday Night

Our house Before Ike

Our house After Ike (We feel blessed, but do notice our two "Christmas Trees" leaning on both sides of the house.

Back door view Friday Night

Back door view Saturday Morning

Rachel standing next to our young tree blowing in the wind Friday Night

Rachel Standing next to our young tree Saturday Morning after the winds of IKE

Ike Update

Just a quick post to let everyone know we are doing fine. We had some visitors this morning, Amber and Mike from Sugarland, who stayed with us for a while and now we came to check out how their place weathered out. They have electricity, so here I am sending a post. We are a "little" humid and hot. We have no electricity since 10:00 pm last night, our back fence is down, a few leaks in some windows and a few leaning trees. The kids, not the parents, slept through the whole thing. The wind was loud.

Steve decided to take a quick joy ride on his mountain bike Friday morning before all the trails were flooded and had a nice crash that ended in a trip to the ER. He separated his shoulder and is in a lot of pain. He will visit our Orthopedic Surgeion on Monday. Otherwise, we are safe and will be fine. Thanks everyone for your calls and prayers.

I'll post lots of pictures and more info later.

Hurricane Ike

Just in case you were wondering what we are doing today....We are hunkering down. We think we are prepared for whatever may come our way. A friend told me this morning that my house is pretty strong, we'll see how strong it is or hopefully we won't have to.

Anyway, for those of you not in Texas and aren't getting the luxury of seeing the Hurricane Ike news everywhere you go, TV, Internet, grocery stores, gas stations, Home Depot, traffic lines, etc... You can follow Hurricane Ike here. School and all extracurricular activities have been cancelled starting tonight through the weekend and Steve's office has been closed for today and tomorrow.

Although, we have not been advised to evacuate like the many coastal counties, we have been advised to stay put inside. We should start to feel the affects of this Hurricane sometime late Friday night into the day on Saturday.

My first instinct is to clean my house, do all the laundry and cook some meals. But what to do with the kids? If we lose are electricity it will be a fun adventure, right?

We hope everyone has a safe weekend.