Ladybugs & Stinkbugs

Here are Matthew's thoughts on our evacuation:

Here are a couple of pictures from our news channel of around our area:

Here they come!!! These are the real heroes of the day:



And how would you like to see THIS in your backyard?? (NotMY backyard, thank you...)

Well, we have finally gotten to a place where we are going to stay for more than 1 1/2 minutes, so I thought I'd finally post about our damage. We were blessed in that we did not have any structural damage. There are some spots on our roof that we will need to evaluate once we get home, but it is nothing that caused leaks or inconvenience while we were still in the house, so that is good news. The outside (yard fence trees etc) is that is ugly.

We are glad that we are out of the area right now. There is a lot of cleanup going on right now, but that also means that there are a lot of people there who need resources (water, ice, gas), and that makes long lines and short supplies. It's best for us to just get out of the way until things get back to normal.

Our first night without power wasn't that bad. For one thing, we didn't lose power until 2am or so, and the kids (except Matthew) were all asleep. We were also full of adrenaline and had other things (namely, 80-mph wind gusts) to worry about. The next day was alright because it was raining and we could go outside and get wet, and that was cooling. That night however, once we ended up all back in the house, was miserable! We gave the kids cold - COLD - baths. Jacob was the worst off. He was throwing up almost the whole night, and could not get cooled off. I made the kids sleep in their underwear (they were very confused), and none of us slept very well.

That made our decision. We didn't even need to spend ONE MORE NIGHT like that. We are having a LOT better time visiting family...even though the kids didn't get to swim. =(

Well, we are in Wichita Falls...again! At the same hotel, same room, everything. We're just staying one day, though. Tomorrow we're going to Amarillo to see family. We will probably stay there for 1 or 2 days and then we'll head up to Colorado Springs!! (Yeah!)

I'll post pics and stuff of our house once we get up there. We fared pretty well in the storm...our fence didn't make it and we lost a fence, but no house damage. Our church, however, is a different story. Evidently we sustained some pretty bad damage...Beaumont is bad...Lumberton is starting to get power back, but we are still going to stay gone for an extra week or so just to give everyone time to adjust and the stores to get re-stocked, etc. It will still be "recovery mode" when we get back, but it won't be quite so bad.

Anyway, prayers are appreciated!

(Can you hear the "da-da-da da da da-da-da da" sounds of the news report beginning?)

This can't be a good omen. The gate to our fence has just been blown over by the wind. hmmm...

Well, so far the weather hasn't gotten bad here, yet. The wind is picking up, and we've had some scattered rain, but nothing worrisome. Water EVERYWHERE in Beaumont, though - already. And the storm still hasn't hit.

Here's the track it's taking right now:


And the weather report:

Continuing the theme of goofy or just plan strange things written about the hurricane, I came across the following comment early this morning:

His home saw several feet of storm surge damage during Hurricane Rita and he has dumped dozens of dollars into the improvements.

DOZENS of dollars? Seriously? I dumped dozens of dollars into hair products during my last trip to the store. Does that qualify as a national emergency?

Here we are now:



Expected landfall will be right over Galveston, as of now. They are talking a storm surge of 20 feet possibly. It shouldn't affect us where we are, but it may seriously affect our friends in Beaumont...we'll see.

On a side note, have you ever noticed the melodrama that totally invades the media-mindset during times like these? Check out the following headline from Foxnews:

Texans Told: Flee or 'Face Certain Death' as Ike Nears

I mean, come on - "face certain death?" This is gonna be a category TWO by the time all is said and done. I remember waiting out storms that were cat. 4's when I was a kid. When did a cat. 2 become cause for an evacuation, not to mention cause for panic and thoughts of "certain death"?

Oh, wait a minute - I know.

It was after Katrina.

Don't get me started.

They have called for an evacuation of the county adjacent to ours. We intend to stay, at this point, unless the storm makes a more north-ward turn. Here's the latest:

Can I come stay at your house? I can't believe we are seriously stocking up bottled water and baby food - again! We're going to try to stay (at this point they're saying probably tropical storm conditions), but we have to prepare for "no power". If the storm turns any more North (before it goes West), we will probably have to leave.

If it was just Jeremy & me, we'd probably tough it out. I mean, we have charcoal, and we know how to build a fire (lol). BUT I don't want to put Jake through that for who knows how long, so with the babies it's just safer to spend the $$ and get outta here for a little while.

Still, it may not be an issue at all - that's what's so hard with these storms! But...don't worry...I'll keep you posted. =)

P.S. - Can you believe "evacuation" and "hurricane" have been promoted to actual "tags" categories?