Its not over

Oh no-the storm sewers are backing up. The street smells like sewage.

Thanks!

Thank you to the Melbers for having us, thank you to all our neighbors for their friendship and support, thanks to all the kids for all the laughs, thanks for all your good thoughts and prayers and thanks to Ike for bringing us all together!

The End

We have electricity, phone and internet! One last neighborhood get together to celebrate!

WE HAVE POWER!

Matthew just called and we have power!! Cory and I went out to get groceries and saw a red light come on! Woo hoo!

Does it get much better than this?

3:30 The weather is great, the kids are staying busy, and the gang is all fed.

The refugee lunch buffet

Kerri's handiwork! Eat your heart out, Gary!
Kerri took one for the team and drove with Sonya to the grocery store in Cypress. On the phone, driving like a maniac, eating with all the traffic lights out......we all owe Kerri big time for risking her life!

An interview with Grant

So Grant, have you been having fun during the hurricane?
Answer: YUP!

So cute!

The boys playing....with a doll house.

Well- we don't really know what to do. Areas even with power still don't have gas. According to others who have been out in the real world say that the lines for gas are really long. There are lines at gas stations as far away as Brenham (an hour a way).
Ken brought home hot donuts this morning - can you believe that?!
Susan

Tuesday morning

Well--no power yet. The prospect of another day without is a little depressing but on the other hand, there have been some positives.

Matthew has been a delight without the Xbox Live fighting us for his attention. The kids, all ages, have been helping and playing outside each day. They play with each other-and Matthew is actually playing and talking with the little ones as well as all the girls. He has to! He has no one else!

He's also become extremely chatty with us since this started. We are his social group again! I like that. Its like he's the little chatter box he was when he was 4 or 5. Even after a full day, he and Cory blabbed for a good hour about boy nothings while in bed last night.

We usually spend so much time doing sports stuff, hustling to lessons, school, social things, watching movies, reading, cleaning, cooking, etc that I almost enjoy the fact that we can't do any of that this week! Simple is good. Is that nuts?

So, from, at least my POV, the bonding time for our family has been very agreeable and actually enjoyable for us. The entire situation has served to make me really appreciate the full love and support I have of my husband and son!

The flip side is that it I have seen that this kind of situation also brings out the CraZies for some families here and they are about to kill or ignore each other.....and that's all I'm going to say about that..... : )

No power yet

No power yet but it's getting close. Reports are floating in that neighborhoods very close by are getting electricity.
Another night with the neighbors-Robin whipped up an awesome chicken and rice casserole tonight.
It's a beautiful night out and we are very very optimistic!

Cutest pool boy ever!

Such a cutie patootie! He's been cleaning the pool for hours now.

A pretty sight

Among all the cleanup, the flowers and humming birds are smiling! The fire ants are MAD though and it makes getting in the flower beds treacherous.
The kids are happily using the small hose powered pool vacuum on the pools and that helps a lot. I forgot how much and how fast green grows without a pump or cleaner.
Gary-Cory and Kerri managed to right all your cypress trees!

Cleaning up

The cleanup crew hard at work.
Where's Gary when you need him?

Signs of normalcy

Yay! The trash people came by today and the newspaper came. These are all really good signs.
Our trash was filled with rotting food so I am really happy they came by.

Good morning!

Its Monday and I heard from several people that Ike winds have taken out the power in Ohio and western PA.
That is CraZie!

I think we all just had the best nights sleep in 2 nights. How nice not to worry about the storm, the rain and the rising waters.

The Melbers here have been so wonderful and nice. For my brother who is just joining us, LOL-we are in a 7000 sq ft house that is hooked up to a built in generator that runs of the natural gas line. Its like every other day here except for the hum of the giant thing. They have had up to 20 staying here. Their motto is as long as there is floor space, they are not full.

I update this blog via my blackberry and all the pictures you see are taken with my 8330 Curve. I have been THE only one on the street who can receive all emails, texts and even get phone service! End of Verizon ad.

I hadn't seen what the blog looked until last night when Kelly powered up her PC. Pretty impressive work!

Matthew and all the kids seem very unaffected by all of this. Last night, he and Grant were playing tag after dinner and was just Grant's squealing with laughter! Seeing them both running around and having fun made me stop and think how really really fortunate we are to have made it through the storm unscathed.

The picture is of Bark and me laying here thinking about what today will bring. Cory's already over at the house throwing out more freezer stuff and airing out the house.

Susan

Zip code 77379

Oh my gosh - as of 8pm, we have the zip code with the highest amount of power outages.
We are number 1!

http://www.centerpointenergy.com/staticfiles/CNP/Common/SiteAssets/doc/Ike%20outage%20map_9.14_8pm.pdf

Kelly and John's house

I forgot to post these this afternoon. Kelly and John probably had the worst damage in the neighborhood. ....but they have the best attitudes!! USAA insurance sounds like it is the best 0 Kelly called at 6am and got a live person!

We are here at the neighbor's house again tonight. Two other families are refugeed here as well. 9 left today so it is much quieter in the house tonight. We are all so thankful for making it through the storm as good as we have.

The mood around town is interesting. As the stress of no electric kicks in, I wonder how the city will deal with it. The great thing is that the weather is amazingly cool for this time of year so people are not just baking in their homes.

Community

Now this is nice-the neighbor "clean out your freezer" cook out. The weather is gorgeous right now. Its so nice to have such a nice caring street!

Drove around the area

Here's some of the area damage. Lots and lots of trees down.
I doubt Matt will have school this week. The school pool pavilion had the roof ripped off but the main part of the middle school looks OK. There is no electric in the area. There is no ice, no gas and the few places that are open are only accepting cash.
Every single place was closed except for a Chinese restaurant. Yuck- what are they serving?
Even with no gas, people, us included are driving around. Heck, the kids can watch a Dvd and there is lots of cold AC in the car.
I can see why the Katrina people stuck in NoLa were so bad off. People do not prepare. I think you forget what its like not to have everything at your disposal.

Clean up time

Now the fun begins.

All gone!

Look at this!

Ike refugees

Aren't they cute?

Yay!

Look at this! A street!

Wow!

Wow-a dry spot on our street!

Can you tell how excited I am?

You can see the line on the grass of where the water was. Boom, like that, in a matter of minutes, the street is draining.
Oh, by the way, we WILL be getting flood insurance and a generator!
Susan

Last back lake picture.....and now onto the next "thing"

.......Bad smells coming from the fridges....these should be interesting pictures NOT

The whirlpool at the back lake

Can you it? The lake has gone down a good half a foot or so already.

Its going down!

Its going down quickly now. The guy was diving in the lake and pulled up all sorts of debris. Kerri was out there and said you could see the drain start working.

He's still diving for debris!

Omg, he's back in the water making sure its all clear.

Can you see the vortex?

Junior is our hero! The drains are working and THE SUN IS OUT!

Cypress creek

This is the main drainage artery for the area. It looks bad but its not in bad shape.

A cautious Yee haw

The rumor is that the guy working for the developer told someone that he was able to clear the lake drain of "stuff". That is great news, even if its just a rumor.
The rain has finally come to a halt.
When we went driving around, the donut shop was open! I wish I could have taken a picture of the line. It was maybe 50 people long. So funny.
Susan

We're out and about

Well the damage is out here but I don't see any flooding like what we have on our street.

OK, well the generator down the street is failing - low coolant issues, so now they are on the hunt for coolant.

The other news is that there are 2 dudes in the lake swimming around looking at the drain. I should be out there videoing this because the lake is not only gross and yucky but I imagine it's pretty dangerous out there.

My phone is the only one working so all the families are using it to text and call, so text me versus calling me.

Going for a drive

Aunt peggy needs pills so we are going out for a short ride to their house.
The rain and the saga continues.......