Got milk?

The past week has been a bit blah at times. We were preparing for Ike to show up and now we're 'recovering' from his visit. Thankfully, as mentioned in the post below, we don't have any major damage and no injuries because of his time spent here in Houston, but there's just kind of a general feeling of "eeriness" in the air. I had to go to 3 different stores the other day looking for regular 2% milk. I would have bought whole milk or fat free milk, but all I could find was lactose free 1/2 gallon and organic 1/2 gallon or smaller. I think the 1/2 gallon organic was even lactose free. I finally found some at the 3rd grocery store. I bought 2 gallons and eggs while there. It's just weird to try going in Kroger and see a sign that says 'no dairy' before you get inside and to go in Super Target and see no produce and yellow tape roping off the produce & frozen food section. Also, seeing security guards monitoring the line at the gas station....just strange! However, things are looking better each & every day!

I know we are so blessed with our own personal outcome from the storm, and I feel so badly for those still without power and/or with major damage to their homes. Hurricane Ike has certainly left his mark around here! Gracie is out of school for the whole week-her sweet teacher has sent numerous emails updating us on the status of school and asked us last night to let our kids know she says 'hello' and that she can't wait to see them on Monday morning.

Our church building still has no power so we aren't able to have nighttime services right now. We met with a few families last night, and it was nice to have a devotional in a small group setting.

Monday, Chris's office was closed because of the storm, so he was able to get some things done around here and go back to the apartment to do some things that needed to be done.Ellie enjoyed her first ride in her outside baby swing-well, for a few minutes anyway! Tuesday, he headed back to work and the girls & I went on a picnic at the playground and took a walk around the lake. I didn't quite realize how long the walk would be (over a mile) so by the time we got done Katie was READY, but it was a pretty walk. One benefit of Ike is that God has truly blessed us with beautiful, cool weather these past few days! It was a great day to be outside! Wednesday, the girls & I visited the local library and enjoyed getting new library cards. Both girls were able to check out some books & videos. We were very happy to learn that it is less than 10 minutes from the house as are most things around here we need to get to, except for church & Chris's work. Today, a sweet little friend of Katie's came over to play and we all enjoyed that. I enjoyed visiting with her mom too. We're planning to make this a weekly event to get the 2 of them together. Right now, Ellie is sleeping peacefully while Katie is supposed to be taking a nap although I'm not sure she's quite made it to dreamland yet. Gracie is having quiet time which would usually involve reading, but she's being punished for something that happened last night so she's not allowed to read today and she also had to clean the kitchen floor. Some kids may not care if their punishment is being told they can't read, but for her this is pretty much the worst thing we can do to her. I hate doing it, but she needs to learn a lesson.

This weekend, we look forward to going to a wedding reception for Chris's cousin that is here in our town since her husband used to live here. Katie most likely also has a birthday party to attend for her above mentioned friend. It was supposed to be last Friday night, BUT Ike made rescheduling it necessary.

Here are some sweet pictures of my little Ellie! My friend Holly made some bows for her and sent them to her this week. They are so cute, but she just doesn't quite have enough hair for it to stay in yet. She will soon though and then she'll be set as Holly was sweet enough to send her quite a few colors!

Ike has taken a hike and for that we are grateful!

Last week we started hearing lots of talk about 'Hurricane Ike' and the further into last week that we got the more obvious it seemed that he was really going to make his presence known here in Houston. Chris was told he didn't need to come into work Friday (although he has to either use one of his personal days or make it up!) and Gracie didn't have school. Chris came home early Thursday and we gathered together some supplies, although not having ever been in a hurricane we weren't sure exactly what to gather. Sure, they post lists on the news and stuff but until you've really been in one there's no way to really understand. We talked about boarding some windows but there weren't too many people doing that so we decided not to. However, the next day more & more people were doing it so we ended up doing some of them. I kind of wanted to leave town but we were told to "shelter in place" unless we were in an evacution zone so we did just that. We'd heard 'horror stories' of people trying to evacuate and getting stuck on the interstate for hours & hours (and longer!) and being simply miserable so we decided to stay put since we were being encouraged to do so anyway.

The weather started getting worse as Friday went on. Chris boarded up the front door, I helped him board up some of the windows (I helped him mark the size of the boards & held the ladder-I was so scared he was going to drop one of those boards on my head! He did drop a nail or two on me!) There were quite a few people out in the neighborhood working on boarding their own homes and there was an energy in the air that said something was about to happen. The wind was picking up and we tried to sleep hat afternoon since we figured we weren't going to get much sleep that night. It was eerie just waiting for this big thing to happen, not knowing exactly what it was going to be like and wondering if we'd done everything we needed to do. In addition to boarding the windows, we had tried to get loose things into the garage and had bottled water and non-perishable foods ready along with candles & a flashlight. We were watching tons of 'Hurricane Ike' coverage on t.v. and were just bracing for this inevitable thing.

We planned for the girls to sleep in the closet in the living room while Chris & I planned to sleep on air mattresses in the living room and Ellie would sleep in her pack 'n play near us. We moved the couch so it was between us & the wall of windows. Katie ended up going to bed early because she was so hyped up she couldn't calm down (that whole barometric pressure thing) so we put her to bed so she wouldn't keep getting in trouble! Gracie stayed up until around 10:30. The wind kept picking up more & more while the rain didn't start until pretty late. I can't remember for sure, but maybe it was sometime between 10-11 before it came.

Around 11:15 I decided to try to sleep. From what I remember (and I think I've blocked some of it from my memory!) the wind was blowing pretty good but I thought maybe I could sleep some. They had said the hurricane would make landfall by midnight at the earliest but probably closer to 1 or 2 am. In my naive state of mind, I thought if we could make it to 2:00-at the latest-we could brace for 30 minutes or so and then it would pass over and be gone. HA! At some point, Ellie was fussy so I got her and held her for awhile and watched more coverage. I guess Galveston was getting it about this point. (maybe 1:30 or so???) Ellie slept in my arms for awhile but then fussed when I put her down so Chris ended up staying up with her. I think she could hear the wind plus her tummy seemed to be hurting her.

Best I remember, it was around 3 or so that I woke up to horribly hard blowing wind. I remember getting up and Chris waking up & saying, "what?" I said, "I can't sleep through this!" I was really scared-I won't lie! I remember the power blinking once but coming back on. As Chris describes it, he says I just kept pacing back & forth. I suppose that is true. I would go look out the window next to the front door then I'd peek through the blinds in the dining room then I'd peek out the blinds in the family room or kitchen. A couple of times I went upstairs to look through those windows. The wind was simply amazing how hard it was blowing. If I'd been able to look into the future and know for sure that we'd be safe I probably would have enjoyed watching it, but I was scared out of my mind! I prayed & prayed that night! The girls were thankfully sleeping through it all-except Ellie was kind of fussy but not too bad. One of our friends tonight commented on the faith of our children that they were able to sleep through it all not being scared while the adults were the ones up worrying.

It was right before 3:45 am that the power went out for good. I remember sitting on the couch at that point just terrified, rocking back & forth, crying & praying because I really was scared. I think the thing that scared me the most was that it just kept going & going & going. Before, it would blow and then have really strong gusts that would be scary. At this point, it was like one strong continuous gust. It just would not stop and it was soooo strong. I just didn't see how our windows weren't going to break or how a tree (or our playset!) wasn't going to come through the windows. I kept looking at the playset and being thankful that it didn't seem to have moved! It's really close to our family room windows. I tried to sleep some but I would just doze and then wake up and be scared again. I was really tense and my body literally ached and I know it was from being so nervous! That may sound crazy to some of you-even some of you from Houston who experienced the same storm-but I've never done well with storms and this was a big one. I don't think there's any way to really know what it was like until you've been in one. I CANNOT imagine staying in Galveston like some people did. It had to have been TONS worse than what we got!

Right before the power went out, I had heard them say that Houston was probaby not going to get the 'eye' of the storm which would have been at least a calm break. Instead, because of the size of Ike, we were going to get the outside parts of the hurricane which would be strong the whole time. They had also said that we had 'several more hours' of the strong part of the storm so I kept looking at the time wondering exactly what 'several' really meant! Around 6:30 or so our time, I called my friend in Aiken to ask her to watch t.v. or something to tell me when it was going to stop! She actually didn't answer when I called but called me back soon after. Our cell phones had been-and continue to be-acting really weird so I'm thankful for each successfully completed call!

I guess it was around 7:30-8:00 that it finally started really calming down. I'd noticed for awhile that it was calming down some because although it was still strong, there were 'calmer' times in between stronger gusts rather than the continuous strong gust, but at some point it was quite a bit calmer although still windy & rainy. I called my parents to let them know we'd somewhat survived and didn't think we had any damage to the house although we hadn't gotten a chance to look around too much yet. I also had a call from Melissa checking on us (she sure was glad she came to visit last week rather than this week!)

Once it was obvious that it had calmed down quite a bit, the exhaustion hit big time! Of course, all 3 girls were up by this point, but Chris & I took turns getting some rest. I pretty much passed out! I guess it was around 8:00 am that our power came back on! After hearing that some people might be without power for weeks & weeks, we were so happy! One time in Aiken we lost our power on a Monday and didn't get it back until Saturday (during an ice storm) so we know how horrible it can be for something like that to happen!

At some point in the day, we went outside and were pleased to see that our home had no real damage. It looked a tad messy but was intact! We do have a small problem with part of our fence that connects our house to the garage, but it was in pretty bad shape anyway so we're not real surprised that the wind caused it to truly be on its last leg! At one point we lost power again for about 45 minutes but it came back. We walked around the neighborhood a little bit and napped some more and took down the rest of the boards and welcomed our friends, the Deisters, to stay the night with us since they had no power. It was fun having a 'sleepover!'

This morning our friends left for Oklahoma to visit family since they're out of power, and we headed to church. However, it was rainy, yucky and we got nervouse about the weather causing more flooding (our church is right off I-10 and parts of it were underwater-not parts we used but we were nervous about that changing!) and/or getting caught in weather related traffic, so we headed back home. Chris tried to go back to our apartment to get some things, but he met up with some flooding so he turned around and came back. Maybe tomorrow. This afternoon we went to have a small church service with some friends who live nearby then went to find something to eat. Believe it or not, the weather turned absolutely beautiful this evening so went home and got the girls' bikes and went for a walk in the neighborhood looking at some of the hurricane damage. It is amazing to see the power of a storm and what it can do to trees. It is good to know that God is more powerful than the wind! He made the trees. He made the wind. He can control the wind! I also think it's amazing that even though we've seen lots of fences down and trees uprooted, it doesn't appear that many trees have landed on cars or houses. Surely God had a hand in that!

Gracie doesn't have school for at least Monday or Tuesday and Chris doesn't have work for at least tomorrow. We will probably try to get the yard cleaned up and do some really fun things like that! We are so thankful to God for his protection from this storm. As strong as Ike was, God is so much stronger and I am thankful for that! There are so many who suffered loss of their homes, wind damage, FLOOD damage, and loss of power. These people need our prayers!

Below are some pictures of our preparation for Ike and of his aftermath, along with some of the beautiful skies God blessed us with both before & after Ike. Chris taking the canopy off the playset so it wouldn't rip. Chris & Ellie hanging out watching hurricane coverageThe girls beside an uprooted tree next to Gracie's school. Gracie found these cute acorns yesterday after the storm and turned them into our family!

a visit with a true friend

My wonderful friend Melissa came to visit this last week, and we had such a great time together! It is so good to have a friend who continues to be a friend even though many miles may separate us! We talk almost everyday even though we've moved (yea for mobile to mobile!) but it sure was nice to see each other in person and go do 'girly' things and just have fun being together. I was so happy for she & Ellie to get to meet too!

I want to remember this visit in detail so here goes.

Friday, Ellie & I picked her up from the airport. It was so good to see her and let her hold Ellie for the first time. She had borrowed a suitcase from her grandmother and to her disappointment we saw that it had been destroyed. The handle wouldn't work anymore, a wheel had come off, and there was a hole in the bottom of it where the wheel used to be! The customer service was good though and they replaced it with a brand new one. Too bad it was red and her grandmother has matching pieces for the blue one that had been messed up!

We drove towards home and stopped for lunch at one of my favorite places-Goode Company Barbeque! I love a good chopped beef brisket sandwich! YUM! After we ate, we headed home with a quick stop at Super Target (which is now about 5 minutes from home!) and she got to get the tour of our new house which was fun. We then went to pick up Gracie from school. We also went to get a pedicure before dinner. I had cooked dinner that night so we all ate together then Melissa & I snuck out for some 'girl time.' We went to a bakery I wanted to try called "Sweet & Salty-A Gourmet Bakery." It was a fun little place. We also browsed through "The Bookworm Shop" and walked around some. I then drove her around the area some showing her a little bit of our new town. The girls enjoyed being treated to a manicure/pedicure!

Saturday, we took it easy in the morning, eating breakfast all together and not leaving home until around 11:30. We left the girls home with Chris and headed out to explore Houston. We went to a fun store called Charming Charlie's, then to a neat children's clothing store called Chocolate Soup and a really nice store called The Accessory Place. At this point, we headed over to browse through Pottery Barn Kids, James Avery, and Brighton. We were getting hungry but were planning on eating a big dinner so we decided to just get something small at the food court in the Galleria. Once we finally got there, we ate something and shopped around a little bit. We also enjoyed people watching as there are many interesting people who hang out at the Galleria. I think some of them think they're walking a runway in New York City when in reality they're living in Houston, TEXAS! Too funny.

We then ate at The Cheesecake Factory! Yum-we had been looking forward to this for a long time! It was soooooooo good!

Sunday, we went to church and came home for lunch that I had put in the crockpot early that morning. That afternoon, we went to Katy Mills for a little bit. We headed to church that night and to Pei Wei aftewards for dinner. YUM again! I enjoyed being able to introduce Melissa to some of my new friends and all of us eating together.

Monday, we did some shopping around here and ate lunch at La Madeleine. I then drove her around some more and we went to another bakery we'd seen called "Ooh La La-A Dessert Boutique." It was really, really good and had such pretty things! They had these huge cupcakes and then other desserts as well-like mini cupcakes that are the perfect size for 4 year olds! I definitely want to go back again! We ate at home that night for dinner then went to a movie and picked up Starbucks and came home to eat one of the desserts we had brought home.

Today, we hung out here at home for most of the morning after walking Gracie to school then decided to eat out yet again at Saltgrass Steak House. I figured she needed to go off with a really good chicken fried steak! It was good, too! We then headed to the airport and said our good-byes. It was sad to see her go and I've been a bit 'blah' tonight since she left. However, we've already made tentative plans for a visit from her whole family, and I hope it really happens! I'm thankful that God has blessed me with such a true friend!

We're home!

I could probably write a really long post tonight about our new home and the last week in general, but I'm tired and Gracie starts another school week in the morning so I'd better make this short.

We LOVE our new house! I keep waiting to wake up and be told that it's all been a dream and that this isn't really our house. We are so happy about it for so many reasons and we love the neighborhood and general area so far too. Yesterday, we had a neighbor (the whole family) come over with an apple pie. (I didn't get to meet them, but Chris did.) Today, we had yet a different neighbor come over with a casserole & banana nut bread! wow!

We have been busy upacking and organizing with the help of Chris's parents who came to join in the fun! We had 4 guys from church come help with all the loading & moving Saturday while the wives of 2 of the guys kindly watched Gracie & Katie for us. We are so appreciative of the help of our new church friends! I only wish one of the guys hadn't lost his wedding ring.......

We feel so blessed and are so thankful to God for leading us to this area & house. I pray that we'll live a life here that makes God happy!

Chris says we're never moving again. I tend to agree with him. It feel so good to finally feel like we're where we're going to stay for a long, long time! This whole process of moving started back in January or February which resulted in the long trek to Houston in April while pregnant only to move into an apartment which we knew was temporary, but now we're in a house and I feel like I can breathe a little easier now knowing that there's not another move looming in the near future. Now if we can only hold ourselves back from eating out so often and I can keep myself from going to SuperTarget so we can make the house payment easier! *gulp*

We love that Gracie's school is a 6 minute walk down the sidewalk! No more waiting in carline!

We enjoyed walking to this playground tonight that is not far at all!

Gracie didn't appreciate us laughing at her when she almost wrecked into a tree! That girl definitely needs to wear her helmet-she lacks some coordination. She gets that honestly I'm afraid!

Katie's favorite place is the 'secret hiding place' underneath the stairs.

We still have many things we'd like to do to each room of the house, but here are Katie's (yellow) and Gracie's (blue) rooms for now. Gracie wants to paint hers hot pink and Katie wants yellow. It is already yellow, but she said it's not the right color yellow. Truth be told, it does need to be repainted. Some day maybe.....

We are all so excited that the previous owners left this great playset in the backyard!

Don't let these pictures fool you-Ellie hasn't been this happy throughout the whole moving & unpacking phase. Thank goodness Chris's mom has been here to help!

Dear Lord,

Thank you for all of your blessings specifically right now we are thankful for our new home. I am so appreciative to You for leading us to this house and I pray that we will live a life that is pleasing to You. I love the homey feel of the house and the friendly neighbors who have come over to welcome us. Thank you for all You do for us and I pray that we will be wise in all the decisions we make. We give You the glory for everything wonderful in our lives and acknowledge that we would have nothing without You.

In Jesus' Name,

Amen