Ike Update!

Praise God....we survived Ike with no major damage. We've had a few inconveniences, but nothing like many in our area. Please pray for all those affected that power is restored, as well as life getting back to normal at some point. We definitely feel blessed that we are all ok!

We definitely have had some fun before the storm and after. We had our fun with our frozen hurricanes and virgin pinas. We decided to make homemade pizza with the kids, and then have a Wii tournament. By the way, I AM THE CHAMPION!!!! (Just in case anyone was wondering!) The storm passed overnight, and we didn't lose power until we had all gone to bed. We did our best the next day to keep the kids busy playing games and stuff until the rain and wind subsided. They were awesome during the whole event, even during the scary parts. At one point we had 2 adults, 3 kids, and 2 dogs in our bed.

After, we had some cleanup to do! We only had landscaping damage and a pool full of stuff. My next door neighbor, however, lost 2 big trees. That is the photo above of one of his. The kids were very helpful, even though it was very wet, hot, and sticky!!!! We had no power for about 42 hours, so that wasn't too fun. We finally decided to leave on Sunday morning for my parents' ranch in Brenham, where they had power and AIR! We were looking forward to kicking back, drinking a beer, and watching football. However, TV here has turned into all Ike, all the time, so no Sunday football for us :( Our power came back on Sunday evening, so Marcelo and I came home to tend to some things, while the kids fished and hung out with my folks at the ranch.

It seems like we have had an ongoing block party since the storm ended. The kids are out of school through Wednesday. Emma had a few friends show up on their bikes yesterday afternoon. They were still without power, so we had to take in Kylie and Carlie for the night! They did get power back last night at their houses so I'm told though, so they will be relieved when they get home. They put on a Grease show and played and played. I am attaching a video which I'm sure Emma will kill me for :)! 10 yr old girls are fun......Marcelo says we might need a bigger house. The air guitar is courtesy of our cute little 5 yr old neighbor Grayson. At least we are making memories in the midst of all of this.

All in all we are just grateful that we came through the storm as well as we did. We are praying that the recovery effort will be successful and rapid for those who didn't fare as well as us.