Getting Back to Normal

The rest of our neighborhood, church and schools finally got power back up from Ike on Saturday, and in the process of that this week-end, we got our internet back up as well. I added pictures to Jake's birthday if you want to see the excited birthday boy in action.

There are still signs of the mess left behind everywhere, from the piles of trees on the lawns to traffic lights that are still out, but it great to be getting back to normal!


Today was the first real day back to school for the elementary school (Michael started Thursday), and everyone was excited to get back to school and normal schedules...well, almost normal. Trevor and Hayley came home from school with homework, but Michael's principal has announced there wouldn't be any homework this week from the middle school, as there are still a few areas without power.
Michael was devastated as I am sure you can imagine :)

Happy Birthday Jake!

Today is Jake's 4th birthday and he has been having a blast. We are still in Dallas (but will be heading home tomorrow), so Jake was able to party with cousins, uncles, grandparents and more. We helped Uncle Ben move from his old apartment to a new place, and took a break in the moving to go have fun at Chuck-e-Cheese. I think Jake had only been there once before and he LOVED it! We went mid-afternoon which was perfect, no crowds and we didn't have to eat dinner there :) Jake winning tickets at Chuck-e-Cheese Watch out for Jake!
Jake and his ultimate Chuck-e-Cheese fun pal, Uncle Ben...thanks for taking time out of moving to come play with us!

Later we meet up with Grandpa and Grandmommie and had a fun dinner, then back to Uncle Ben's for presents and a little Kung Fu cupcakes and chocolate cake.
The whole gang eating at Chili's...Michael enjoying his baby back ribs! Cake Time with lots of help!

Jake loves Star Wars and space things, like Planet Heroes that save the universe. I guess you could say the force was definitely with him this year.

Jake having fun opening presents Jake, aka Commander Fox, Clone Trooper Commander

He is looking forward to continuing his birthday tomorrow at home with Dad.

It seems like Jake's birthdays are often touched in some way by hurricanes. The evening of his 1st birthday was the night Rita hit, and now we are in Dallas because of Ike. Of course, Jake is a little like a hurricane himself sometimes, always blowing some adventure and laughs our way. He is such a fun part of our family and always makes things exciting. Happy Birthday Jake! We love you!

Ike Update

AROUND THE CORNER FROM OUR HOUSE...SCARY!

ONE OF THE STREETS NEXT TO US THE DAY AFTER THE STORM

I wanted to do a quick update and let everyone know we are doing good. We still don't have internet, but we were one of the really fortunate houses in our zipcode to actually get power back last Saturday afternoon. Ike left us in the dark for only about 13 hours! We did lose water pressure for a couple of days and have spotty phone service, but at least we have had air conditioning this week! I had plenty of water stored, so the water wasn't too big of an issue...who needs to shower, right?! Our schools still don't have power and won't be opening until at least Thursday, so this afternoon the kids and I drove to my brother's up in Dallas for some fun cousin time.

ONE SHOT OF OUR BACKYARD JUNGLE

A DIFFERENT SECTION OF OUR BACKYARD JUNGLE

Ike did leave us with a jungle in our backyard, a couple of trees uprooting on one side of our yard that we had to cut down this week (so they wouldn't fall on our neighbor's garage!), as well as a little water damage to our front room. But all in all, we were pretty blessed - no roof damage or real flooding, and everyone is safe. We have some fun pictures I will post once our internet gets up and running at home, and some fun stories to tell as well. Thanks to everyone for sending their thoughts and prayers our way!

Waiting for Ike

Now that we are "prepared", the waiting game begins. School was cancelled today so we had our own fun activities, like practicing drawing and writing...

"TAKE A HIKE IKE!"

Tonight we are having a little bonding time, camping out in the hallway together...



Well, the wind is really picking up and it has started to rain. Thanks to all for the nice messages, emails,phone calls, and prayers. We are expected to lose power, but will do our best to keep everyone up to date with the happenings here.

We love you!!

Prep for Ike

The last day or so has been filled with last minute preparation for Ike. We live in a zip code that is being advised to stay put during the storm, so we have been busy "securing the homefront". We've done everything from having trees cut down, to picking up yard toys and securing the trampoline, to filling water containers, making extra ice, bread and cookies. The kids had fun eating as much ice cream as they wanted, so I could have more room in the freezer for ice and water bottles.






Our 72 hour kit...just in case.

THE CALM....

BEFORE THE STORM...



More on our adventures with IKE coming soon :)

Busy Times

September is flying by fast. We've been busy with lots of back to school things, Scouts, church, meetings and more. We were supposed to start up with soccer and gymnastics this week-end, as well as have family come to town to visit, but it was all postponed due to an unwanted visitor named IKE!

But a couple of fun things we have gotten to do in the last week...

Michael came in second place in a speech contest they had with the youth and Scouts at the church. His assigned speech to present was a passionate anti-slavery speech by Frederick Douglass. He did a great job!



I also got the chance to play in our yearly women's Volleyball Tournament with my friends last Saturday. A group of us try to get together each week and play and this was a chance to show off our skills. We always have a lot of fun together, whether it's playing volleyball, basketball or going for ice cream when we don't have enough people show up to play. Good times!

Let's Go Fly a Kite!

After dinner tonight we decided it would be fun to take advantage of some of the crazy wind we have had today & go fly some kites at the park for FHE. The wind went in stages of being really strong, to really still, and then minutes later, picking up again. It made for some interesting kite patterns. It was fun for everyone to send the kites soaring high in the air. Some of the kites were flying so high, I couldn't get a picture of the kid and the kite together. Good times!

TREVOR AND HAYLEY RUNNING WITH THEIR KITES...GREAT EXERCISE!

TREVOR SENDING HIS KITE SOARING IN THE AIR (YOU CAN ALSO SEE HAYLEY'S KITE FLYING HIGH TOO!)

JAKE FLYING HIS KITE...HE MISSED THE TREES BUT DID GET THE LINE TANGLED ON THE BASEBALL BACKSTOP. BUT THE WIND PICKED UP AND WE GOT IT OFF WITH NO PROBLEMS!

DON TRYING HIS HAND AT FLYING MICHAEL'S KITE

HAYLEY HOLDING THE KITE BEFORE TAKE-OFF!