Update on Ike II

It is now 8:oo pm on Friday. I took this picture around 2:00 this afternoon from our front door. I plan to use it as a comparison later. I'll take some more pictures at daylight if it's safe. We are finally settled down. I made us a hearty dinner of meatloaf, new potatoes and corn. The meatloaf was the only thing I had planned to eat that would have been difficult to grill. I filled all of our pots and jugs full of water to use for cooking and cleaning. We have all of our food, water, light sources, and other needs all in one place.

We are beginning to hear the wind gust on occasion. Most of the area is under a tornado watch until 10:0o am. The last gust we had caused some noticable suction on the back door. The first of the rain bands are coming on shore now and some are beginning to reach the outskirts of Houston. The storm is just shy of a Catagory 3 and the lights just went out in Galveston.

The kids are in the playroom on their matresses. Tony and I are in the living room watching the weather reports. We plan to stay in here until the winds get stronger.

A View From Galveston

No, we didn't actually go down there now and take pictures! I'm not THAT crazy! These pictures were taken during the summer of 2007. We made it down to Galveston this past summer, but never went down to the beach. I'm watching images from Galveston as Hurricane Ike approaches. We are watching the waves crash over the exact same place where these photos were taken. Cooper was actually saying that our special swimming place was getting wrecked and he's right.

We are finishing up last minute preparations and are beginning to gather supplies where they will be handy later tonight. We can still expect tropical storm force winds around midnight and hurricane force winds around 7:00 am. That is at least 7 hours of very strong winds. We are prepared to sleep downstairs. Actually, I don't know how much sleep I will get, but whatever I'm doing, I'll be doing it downstairs!

In His grip,
Leila

Update on Ike

As Hurricane Ike approaches, evacuations and preparations are underway. We have been prepared for the storm, but I had a few things to pick up before it was too late. The store was very busy this morning with at least 6 customers in each line. Things went rather slow as the store was not prepared to handle the number of customers they had. At some point, there were sackers running the check-out lines. After my adventure at the grocery store, I went to find gas. When I dropped Cooper off at school, some of my friends were saying they were only able to find Premium gas the night before. I was hoping my "hidden" Shell station would not fail me. When I pulled in the station, it was busy, but only had about two cars at each pump. Since my tank was already pretty full, I added another $50 to insure I could make it far enough out of town and find more gas later.

I came home and did my dishes and started on the laundry. My goal was to do as much as I could while we still have power. Good thing you can't see dust in the dark!

Tony ended up leaving work at noon. He wanted to make sure he did not have to sit in hours of traffic with all of the evacuees. When he left at noon, there was a mandatory evacuation for Galveston, Matagorda and Brazoria Counties, and Zones A and B along the coast. In other words, plenty of people to share the road with. He ended up making it home in his usual time. This is what he would have sat in if he would have waited...

This is the traffic on I-45 northbound at 2:00.
It was bumper to bumper as far as the eye could see. I had to go pick Cooper up from school and thought it would be interesting to take some pictures. I was actually mad at myself for not taking pictures at the grocery store earlier. It's funny the things you think about documenting on a blog.
After taking an alternate route home to avoid the traffic, I was able to get this shot of the feeder too. It was also backed up. The last time I saw I-45 like this was when we evacuated for Hurricane Rita in 2005.
Cooper had a long day at school and was rather cranky when I picked him up. I was able to cheer him up a little when I told him Daddy was at home waiting for him. He fussed for a little while and then gave into his fatigue.

After arriving home, we had some cookies and milk and cheered up a little. The kids went upstairs and put their stuffed animals in their closets to protect them from the storm. Tony and I brought all of the potential projectiles into the garage.

Right now we are watching the news and keeping up with Ike's track. We are expected to have around 80mph winds as soon as late tomorrow night and into Saturday morning. All we can do is continue to watch and pray for our safety and protection until the storm has passed.

Ike's Shadow

It's around noon here on Thursday, September 11, 2008. I named this post Ike's shadow because we are currently monitoring Hurricane Ike in the Gulf of Mexico. It is forecast to hit the Texas coast around Brazoria County. We will continue to watch the updates and I will continue to post until the power goes out. In Ike's shadow are reminders of the events that unfolded on this day in 2001.

Seven years ago today I was pregnant with Brenna, and had dropped Avery off at her sitter's house. During my drive into work I was listening to the radio talk about the World Trade Center and that some kind of plane had flown into it. There was a lot of speculation at the time about the size of the plane and the circumstances that caused it to crash. At our office we had a small TV with a 5" screen. We pulled out the TV and watched the crisis unfold.

We all know the tragedy happened that day. Over the last 7 years we learned more about the people behind the attack and those that lost their lives that dreadful day. September 11th will be the Pearl Harbor of our generation. I pray that we never forget what happened that day and that we remember the men and women who continue to fight those who threaten our freedom. God bless the USA!

Girl Power

After posting pictures of Cooper the last few days, I thought I would post some of the girls.
Brenna. What child gives herself and her stuffed bear bunny ears? The answer, Brenna? If you are ever down or feeling blue, you can always count on Brenna for a smile. Then there is Avery....

Avery has been our girly girl without question. Avery loves playing in my make-up, she loves shopping for clothes and has started having an opinion on what she wears. In all of her girliness (sp?), her new "move" has made it's presence. Don't ask me what it means, because I have no idea. But it's cute and it suits her personality.

Mmmm...chips!

We are doing a little flashback here. I know some of you are wondering how things went with Cooper today, but I'll get to that in a minute.

This photo was taken on the way to get some half-priced slush's, and no, I was not driving at the time! Cooper had eyed a particular kind of chip truck and began salivating and licking his lips. The girls seemed to get a kick out of it!
Get that boy some chips!!

Cooper did really great this morning. After we sent him into the classroom on his own, I realized I was the problem. He walked on right in and had no problems (that I know of at least). I may never be able to post any pictures of him at his desk any time soon, but if that means his mornings (and mine) go a little easier, then I can go without pictures, for now.

Cooper starts Pre-K

Who knew almost 5 years ago that this day would come so soon? After going through the first day of school for the girls just the week before, I was ready for this day, both for Cooper and myself. We traditionally take a picture in front of our bench outside. Cooper did well with these pictures.


Then we got to school. I'm not sure what Cooper thought was in store for him on his first day, but it must not have been good. Being the avid scrapbooking mother I am, I had camera in hand and I was ready to get those precious first day of "school" shots to proudly display in his album. This is what I got instead....

That's Cooper's hand and backpack peeking from behind his nap mat. Yes, it gets better...
Hiding his face, crouched down between a toy kitchen and table is not what I had in mind for Cooper's first day. He was not crying or scared, I think he was more embarassed than anything. We (his teacher and I) were finally able to get him over to his desk and begin an assignment. It was here that I learned the approach he was taking when it came to school. Inside his notebook was a list of questions his teacher had asked him on meet the teacher day. The final question was "What is your favorite song?", his answer was "I don't like songs". Knowing that Cooper actually loved music and singing (be looking for a video clip of his rendition of "Funky Town"), I knew that he was going to be a harder egg to crack and that some of the things that the girls made easy for me, Cooper was going to make a little harder. I think I'm up for the challenge.