Helping Hands

Because of the storm, we have been able to spend a lot of time outside doing natural landscaping. The kids have gotten quite good at being helping hands in our yard and the neighborhood...





Michael and Don have also gotten to go out on several work crews and help out with larger projects. This past week-end Don had to work but Michael still got up early Saturday morning and went with a group of men to help clean up parts of town. I am proud of everyones hard work and helping hands to help put our town back together!

No Power, No Problem!

Since the kids had already been out of school for 2 weeks, their school did this...



Hayley and Trevor were excited to go and see friends and do fun activities outside for 2 hours. Lucky them, the school got power back the next night and it was back to school for real on Monday!

Powerless Activities

Things I don't recommend doing when you don't have power or water pressure...

PLAYING WITH MOON SAND. It's lots of fun until it is time to clean up the warm, sticky bodies and floor. Running water really is a fabulous invention. Thank goodness for wipes and the Swiffer mop!

Other fun Activities to do without power...

PLAYING GAMES LIKE UNO TOGETHER

FLASHLIGHT TAG WITH JAKE

PLAYING BATTERY CHARGED VIDEO GAMES

MAKE-OVERS WITH FRIENDS...DON'TCHA JUST LOVE THE NEW 'DO. IT WAS BETTER THAN UNWASHED HAIR LOOK :)

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 :)