We Survived IKE!!

Tree & wind battle

the boys "Hunkering down"

Lilly slept right thru IKE


getting the cooler ready

the new band

What a long weekend it has been. It started off on Thursday, took the kids to school, went to visit Logan(my friend Addie had her baby) & headed out in the madhouse of shopping for the preparation for IKE. I was at HEB for two & ahalf hours. There was no bread, cereal, water, paper plates......CRAZY!! Friday the kids were out of school, so I knew there was a humongous chance we would be out of power for God knows how long, so what better way then to let the kids just tire themselves outside. In the meantime, Shane was receiving orders of mandatory work schedules & we were trying to get all of his things together. Honestly, it was scary not knowing when Daddy would get to come back home. He took extra clothes, uniforms, snacks, pillow & blanket. Off Daddy left around noon(he had to work 18hrs). So, Daddy was off & I was trying to get prepared, but also tire these kiddos out for the storm. I was worried about it getting hot & them waking up...basically, it could be a very long night with the kids in the dark.

We decided to "Hunker Down" for BIG Ike in our master closet. Our house is full of windows, so this was the safest place for us to be. "Hide from the wind & run from the water," was what Frank Billingsley said to do. So, we piled in our bunk around 11pm & watched DVDs until everyone fell asleep. I woke up to horrible howling noises, pitch black & walls shaking. It was scary! For the first time I didn't have anyone looking after me, but I was now in charge of these three sweet children. I grabbed the lantern & made the howling noise out to be the wind coming from the chimney. Got up at 6am to see the power was still off, but that my poor newly little tree was putting up a battle with the wind. I was ready to tackle the wind to save my little tree- pick on something else wind! The kids got up & we spent the rest of the day coloring, cutting & a lot of activities that you can do w/ no electricity. Shane got home that afternoon, but had to be back at 6pm. He has to work 6pm-6am everyday for the next month. Such a bummer, but that is his job & we have to support him, since he is supporting all of us! On Sat. we got our power back on around 4pm- thank you Lord! Our family came & stayed w/us & we had a fun time spending missed time together. We are very lucky & blessed to not have received any damage & have our power out for only a short amount of time.

My parents street looked like a pine tree was shaken upside down from the sky. Pine needle & cones covered over everything! My parents suffered from a fence falling down, but there neighbors on the other sides of them had uprooted trees! Please pray for the people who have yet to get their power back on(my parents & Shane's mom) & for Shane who is working tremendous overtime to stop criminals from stealing peoples things. Also, that Houston can come together & get things back to normal. We are so blessed! Thanks to everyone who has emailed us, called or posted comments on their blog. Sorry if I haven't called the phone lines are still tied up.