Greetings from Hurricane Central

Just a quick post-storm update......

We are all fine. 

Our power went out at house before Ike even arrived.  The winds started whipping around so bad that the powerlines snapped behind our house.  Once we were in the growing dark, with a hurricane coming and a live power-line in the back yard, we decided to abandon ship and hoist the flag at his mothers house.  She's a mere 40 miles further inland than us, but at least we would still have power for a few more hours.

The storm itself roared through around 2am or so.  It was already raining and blowing pretty hard by midnight, but I have no idea what time the actual eye made landfall.  All I know is that I never want to stay in a house with a fireplace in a high wind again.  My heavens, the noises that fireplace made!  That scared Steph more than the storm!  I've never heard a fireplace moo before, but I SWEAR, it sounded like a herd of cattle with kazoos.  Honestly.   

Houston was without power, cable, cell phone service initially.  Power is still out to 70% of Houston.  Cell phone service came back online by Sunday afternoon but go figure, service is still spotty and unreliable.  For the most part, landline phones stayed intact.  Water service is disrupted in some areas.  There is still a boil order in effect, but my water is fine. 

Galveston is devistated.  Boliver Peninsula is destroyed.  There is one house that remains standing on Boliver right now, previously a booming seaside community.    

We sent Steph to stay with her Grandmother in Cypress since she has her power back on already.  She's not happy about it, but at least there is AC, TV, a way to charge the Nintendo DS battery (that thing has been a life-saving device!), and a kid about her age next door to keep her occupied.  There is not a single home in my zip code that has power, and we will remain in the dark until sometime next week.

We have a whole lotta fence damage, some roof damage and a collapsed ceiling at the house.  (I always wanted a skylight, anyway.....) And I've always hated those gutters .... so nice of Ike to rip them off my house the way he did....

I don't want to even think about all the science projects now growning in the fridge.  I'm afraid to look in there for fear something might attack me!  Sick sense of humor, yes, but at this point, you can either laugh or cry, y'know.

My neighborhood looks like a logging convention went bad ---- there are giant trees everywhere that the storm just uprooted.  Honestly, there are so many tree limbs stacked by the curbs, I actually missed my own driveway last night because I couldn't see my house over the tree debris!  And we didn't loose any big trees in our yard, probably because we don't have any .... thank goodness we had those 2 large dying ash trees cut down last year or I'm sure they would have come down on my house.  As it was, one of my neighbors sycamore trees just barely missed us.

The clinic's power came back up late last evening - it's already gone off a couple of times today but so far so good.  All the boarding animals did well.  They were thirsty when we got over here on Sunday morning but all tails were still wagging!  The clinic has damage to the signs, the roof, leaking ceilings, etc.  We really enjoyed cleaning the cages by candlelight.  That was really the most fun.  Oh yeah, and washing all those nasty kennel towels by hand .... that was really fun too.  I kept telling the girls that we should charge the clients extra for the candle light dining their dogs were enjoying.    Sadly, the soft romantic lighting effects were lost on the dogs.  The cats, on the other hand, felt that they are finally getting the sort of pampering they deserve.       

Oh the joys of living on the Gulf Coast!

My brother from Victoria rode into town yesterday like a one man Salvation Army with a truckload of supplies for us.  He brought us a generator, bottled water, groceries, a propane camp stove (and the propane), lanterns, 40 lbs of ice, homemade jelly (you need that in a crisis, you know!) and 15 gallons of gas.  When in doubt, call a Boy Scout! 

Time to go charge the laptop battery back up!

That's all from Storm Central.

Sarina

We No Like Ike

"What you do is you run from the water and hide from the wind."

~ KPRC Houston Meteorologist Anthony Yanez on Hurricane Ike's arrival.

........ Thanks, Tony, I feel so much safer now ........

Back to School

YIKES!

Third Grade?!?!?!?!

Where'd my baby go?????

School started last wednesday for Stephanie.  Her 8th birthday was the day before school started, so there was much drama at my house that day, let me tell you.  lol.  The cosmos was conspiring to ruin her life at the tender age of 8.  ROFL.  'Tis terrible, isn't it? 

But the day school stared she was up and dressed before the alarm.  That hasn't happened since, but it was a good start!    We were almost late for school though because she refused to believe me that she needed to wear her chapel uniform (since it was Wednesday and that's Chapel day...)     But other than that, the first day went well.....

Most of the other schools around started this week.  I was chuckling madly Monday afternoon when the little school kids dragged in to say hi with their long faces and heavy backpacks after their first day of school.   It was nice to have my day of drama over that particular subject out of the way. 

Annnnd we've already screwed up on the uniform front.  Wednesday is the day the entire school attends chapel and they are supposed to wear their chapel uniform (makes sense, huh?)  Unless your mother is a dork and can't remember what day it is.  LOL.  Oopsie.  It's the second week of school and already we don't know what day it is!   She came home yesterday and gave me that look (now if you don't know what look I'm talking about, you obviously have never had or been a child) and said  "Moooom, it was Wednesssssday"  Today I shall get her a calendar for her room and absolve myself from any future responsibility in the matter of daily uniform attire.  It's hardly difficult.   They have several uniform choices, and Friday they can even wear the school theme Tshirt instead of the uniform polo.  Wednesday is the only day that is different.  It should hardly be difficult, but around here, ya just never know!

I'm off today.

It's been a successful day for me .....

I cleared off the bar and kitchen counters and finally leveled my warlock to 70  in WOW.  And there was much rejoicing.......

Wheeeeeeeeeeeeeee!

Confessions of a Soccer Mom

Let's make one thing perfectly clear from the beginning:  I hate soccer.  Well, I'm not big on most sports really, but honestly, soccer????  Oh just shoot me now and be done with it. 

Baseball! 

Basketball! 

Gymnastics!

Volleyball!

Even football (American football, that is, just to clarify for my European friends.) 

Those are sports that I understand, actually know the rules of, and don't bore me to tears.

But God help me, she wants to play soccer.  Somebody just shoot me now.

So, that being said, imagine my joy when she declares in March that she loves soccer and wants to sign up.  Yeah, right, the kid is constantly complaining about how much they have to run in gym class and she declares on a regular basis that she hates running, so she wants to play a sport that involves running non-stop for 45 minutes......  We'll pretend those were tears of joy and move on, yes? 

A flyer came home from school about this program Upward Soccer being offered at one of the local churches.  Several of the kids Steph knows from school play in the league and they really highly recommended it.  Her father gleefully raced her over to sign up and then off to Academy Sports they went for soccer supplies.  He was in heaven.  But he's a sports guy, what can I say?

But, in my attempt to vie for Mother of the Year, I did manage to sit through each and every practice.  Okay, so some of them were spent chatting aimlessly with other mothers, or spent hiding in the car with my nose in a book, but I WAS THERE.  Yes, indeedy.  I considered it my own private pergatory.  Sort of a precurser to what's to come once I get to the pearly gates and St. Peter laughs hysterically in my face and sends me off for a soul cleansing before he lets me in.  [IF he doesn't give me a one way ticket south, that is!  ]

But I digress....

The games were on Saturday mornings, and conveniently, I have to work every Saturday so I thought I was off the hook for the games.  Her father and his parent's were over the moon.  His mom has wanted this child in sports since she could walk.  The happy grandparents were at almost every game.  Daddy made every game and dutifully reported her progress (or lack thereof) to me each week.  I made appropriate "yes dear, I'm listening" noises in order to give the illusion that I was interested.  I thought I was home free.  Then the tears started.  Two games left to go and I get this sad-eyed, lip-quivering "you haven't been to a single game".  Ugh.  You parents out there know the look, know the tone, know the "call the travel agent, book the guilt trip" heavy sigh.  Yeah.  Soooo, I re-arrange a few appointments, close early one day and badabing, badaboom, I'm watching the last 2 soccer games.  I survived.  The child is happy.  Life is good.   

Flash forward to today:  Soccer season has mercifully ended.  Thankfully, the heat being what it is down here, the coaches won't be offering a summer or fall league.  She got a trophy with her name on it and a soccer ball that each of her team-mates signed and even won a door-prize at the end of year party.  What was the door-prize you ask?  Why, a gift certificate for a free registration for next spring's league. 

Color me thrilled.

And life goes on........ 

I've never been a big fan on those Angel Emails everyone sends ....

But  I got this one today and ......

.... Ahem .....

Not so down on Angel Emails at the moment. 

Come on, admit it .... you tried to peek under the loin cloth, didn't you?

And really, I wonder what the model is thinking?  He's got this look on his face like they just told him to jump off the Empire State Building.  

Hysterical.