Abby's New Spectacles

Here are the pics:

Solo:

And with her sister:

Post Ike Pics - After the Cleanup

Here is the wall of debris after our cleanup:

(This is an older pic. Today, the wall is bigger.)

Post-Hurricane Ike Pics

As promised, here are some photos of the destruction around our house:

The following pics were taken the morning after.

View from the deck:

Front Yard:

Side Yard:

We're Done Camping!

OUR POWER IS BACK ON!!!!!
The power came back on about 2:00 pm today. It feels kind of weird having lights and TV and internet access and hot water. But it's a good feeling. Life can sort of get back to normal. Now we just need to get the girls back in school (high priority) and the brush and debris lining the streets as a five foot high wall on both sides of the street throughout the subdivision picked up (low priority). We're having pizza tonight to celebrate.

I will post the pics we have of the aftermath of the storm soon.

I also want to thank all of y'all out there concerned for us, thinking of us, praying for us, and offering help. Much appreciated. We are truly blessed.

Now, if you will excuse me, I am going to go take a long, hot shower.

Post-Ike Update

Just a few bullet points:
1. We still have no power.
2. We currently have use of a generator - giving us some relief.
3. Gasoline is increasing in availability and the lines have dropped significantly.
4. The weather is still holding out for us.
5. School will resume for the girls on Monday, the 22nd at the earliest.
6. God is merciful, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love.

Hurricane Ike Aftermath

We are still alive. Thanks be to God! This is the first chance I have had to get on the internet. The church office has power and internet. So for the time being, I will have to blog from here. My neighborhood currently has no power or telephone. But we did receive mail yesterday! We had a lot of limbs and branches down. One hit our chainlink fence and took out a section. We spent Saturday, Sunday afternoon, and Monday cleaning all that up and helping out our neighbors as well. If there is one bright spot out of all of this, it is how all our neighbors have come together to work together.
The hottest thing to have right now is a generator. There is the constant hum of generators throughout our subdivision. A number of subdivisions and a good part of the city core of Friendswood has power. We are hoping that we get power back again as well. Some grocery stores have opened. So we have been able to get some food. We were well stocked and we can go on for a number of more days, but it was good to get some more. Gas is very tough to get. But our cars are still well fueled from before the storm. Sheri's van still has almost a full tank and I have over half. We have been driving minimally. FEMA set up a a POD (point of distribution) this morning in a city park just past the church. And that was about two days too late. The cars are lined up almost as far as the eye can see. I think they are people from other areas. I am not counting on FEMA for anything right now. I hope they are doing a better job in the areas that were really hit hard by the surge and other flooding. Power company trucks are much more important than FEMA in my book.
The girls have been real troopers through this. They slept through the storm. They have been helping clean up. But they won't be back in school until the 22nd at the earliest.
Again, sorry for rambling. I will post as often as I can.

Hurricane Winds Here

As best as I can determine, the hurricane force winds are here. By my best guess (looking at various radar images) the eye wall is about 30 miles from us. The Gulf side of Galveston is going to be in the eye very soon. Granted, this eye is really wierd. There is sort of an "eyelash" north of the eye itself. Local weather guys are also saying that it's a weird formation brought on by dry air streaming in from the west along the coast. All the better for us. Maybe the dry air will help to disorganize the storm.

Still Okay

We are still okay. We still have power and utilities. Many people even north of us already are without power. It may have to do with particular providers and if electrical lines are buried. Fortunately, ours are in the ground. So, we may be able to hold out longer with power than others. Sheri and I probably won't get much sleep tonight.

Another Update

We put the girls to bed - trying to make everything as normal as possible for them. With everything boarded up, we for the most part don't hear the wind unless it gusts. It is hard to say how fast the winds are right now. We just heard on the news that Houston metro residents may be without power for upwards of 2 to 3 weeks. However, they also said that 7000+ electrical crew members were headed this way.
So we wait and see. Now I have a little picture of how Noah must have felt.

The door is shut

A big branch fell in the back yard right by the deck. In response, we boarded up the back door. We are sealed in (except for the side door off the garage).

Friday Evening Update

We are now experiencing tropical storm force winds from northeast to southwest. All the dead branches are blowing out of the trees. Still no rain or lightning. We still have power and utilities. We have not yet boarded up the back door. I will continue to blog as long as we have power.

Friday Afternoon Update

Not much change here in Friendswood. Everyone in the neighborhood is pretty much holed up in their homes. We have periodic gusts up to, I estimate, 20-30 MPH. Just sprinkles of rain from time to time. We still have power (obviously), water, sewer, etc. As we get closer to this evening, we will fill both bathtubs with water - to flush toilets if they turn off our water, for washing hands, and for the animals. We have not yet closed off the back door (kind of like closing the door of the ark!).
All that video you might be seeing on the news from Galveston Island just isn't happening here. Our Friendswood City website has announced that there is no danger in Friendswood from storm surge. However, those that live beside or near creeks may be in danger of flooding when the rains come. The creeks drain into Clear Lake. When the full brunt of the storm surge arrives, the creeks will back up. Once the eye crosses over, the storm surge will retreat back into the Gulf.
For good links to find out what's going on in the area go to:
http://www.click2houston.com/
http://www.nhc.noaa.gov/

Also, if you have Google Earth on your computer, you can enable "weather" layers. That will show you the current location of Ike and it's projected path. Plug in our address, and you will see how close the eye will come to us. Latest trends show the eye making landfall just east of Galveston Island. The more the eye moves east, the better for us; because we begin to be on the "clean side" or west side of the storm. But, worse off for someone else.

Morning Report from Fort Belmont

We woke up to a calm morning on Belmont Drive. However, it was tough to tell it was morning because all the windows are boarded up. We have left the back door unboarded for now. The board is on the deck, ready to go and will take about 30 seconds to install. We will wait as long as we can (probably this evening) to close out the back - that is our only window to the world right now. Both vehicles are in the garage - a first for us.
Right now, it's kind of like a breezy day in Friendswood. As far as we know, everything is closed. As you may have seen on TV, Galveston is seeing very high surf and the western end of the island is already under water. To give y'all an idea of geography: we are 27 miles from the coast and 13 miles from Clear Lake (the upper portion of Galveston Bay). We are at 33 feet above sea level. I checked the most current storm surge predictions: we are several miles beyond the 5% chance for storm surge line.
The local news stations have been broadcasting in "news mode" for the last 30 hours. Pretty impressive, but that has to be wearing on their personnel. But...this is the kind of stuff they live for.
Sorry for rambling. I will probably post again late this afternoon or evening.

Fort Belmont

We are probably as ready as we will ever be on Belmont Drive. As Hurricane Ike approaches, we have gased up the cars and boarded up the windows. We have about six to seven days worth of water, and probably at least ten days of food. We have made the decision to stay. We are at about 33 feet above sea level and over 27 miles from the coast. At least 90% of our subdivision is staying. I think our biggest obstacle will be loosing electricity and the uncertainty of when it will come back on.

I will continue to update as long as I can on the blog and will keep in touch with my parents via cell phone as long as that holds out. Pray that God will be merciful.

Four For Four

Yesterday, Sheri took Abby to the eye doctor. Abby has been showing all the signs that we saw with Emma: getting closer and closer to the TV and computer screen, wanting to get up close to books, and the like. And, she needs them. We knew it was inevitable. When it comes to eyesight, Abby didn't exactly have a great gene pool. We were kind of hoping Abby would go a bit longer - I didn't get glasses until 5th grade and Sheri until 7th. But, now we are four for four. Abby's correction is not huge. The doctor said she just needs them for school, reading, and TV. But we plan on her wearing them all the time.
Abby will get her glasses in about a week or so. As soon as she does, I will post pics here on the blog.