Simple

I just want to take a moment to thank God for the simple things in my life. I am thankful for warm water, air conditioning, food to eat, a house to be safe in, a car to move me from place to place, time to myself, books to read, friends to chat with, kids to laugh at, puppies to talk baby talk to, snuggling little girls with bad dreams in the middle of the night, little boys that wake up when you tickle them- smiling with closed eyes, cinnamon toast crunch, a washer and dryer, a stove, cold weather, the holiday season, music, morning birds that chirp, soap, hobbies such as sewing, painting, and scrapbooking...there are so many things to be thankful for. These are just a few...

Hurricane Ike, the Ikester!

Well, Hurricane Ike has come and gone for us. We live in the northwest tip of Harris County...so, we are on what was considered the "clean side" of Ike. We did "hunker down", things were not too bad for us (you can probably tell because I have access to the internet which means that we have our electricity back)! We were glued to the TV watching the 24 hour coverage all day Friday (watching as Galveston was swallowed by the ocean!) We lost power around 10:30 Friday evening. We went to sleep (it was HOT!) and didn't wake up until around 3:30 am to the sound of a train!!! The winds were so loud and fast that they were spinning those fan things on the roof...but the fans couldn't spin fast enough so they got stuck and made a AWFUL noise! Because we live in a newer area, I wasn't too worried about trees- because there aren't any over about 10 feet! Also, we do not have electric poles, all of our wires run under ground. The most scary thing for me is that debris would come flying through the window. So, at 3:30, shrotly after Mark took the puppies out (yes, in the middle of the hurricane) to go to the bathroom, we moved the family from our room into our closet. We had enough space for the 4 (+ 2 dogs) of us to sleep on the floor. When we woke up that morning, the wind was still at about 30MPH, but it seemed a lot more calm. The damage to our home consisted of about 5 shingles falling off, and a leaning fence. We were so blessed. We were definitely counting our blessings. A few of our neighbors had derooted trees, and a few lost a majority of the shingles on their roofs. For the most part, God really spared our neighborhood. When leaving our neighborhood, it is VERY obvious that there had been a hurricane! One of the main roads close to our home had a strip of power lines, at least 6 or 7 of them had snapped and leaned over peoples' fences about a foot or so from their homes! There are fences down, trees tipped, roofs missing, traffic lights dangling by a thread! The Saturday night thunderstorms were NO help because most of the debris clogged the gutters- which means A LOT of flooded streets. Wow, what an experience. We did finally receive power back about 7pm last night...but there are still 1.6 million in our area without it. Luckily God knows the pain and sent a cold front!!! Please be praying for those that have lost their homes, and those that have no power. I do have to say that I am so glad I live in Texas for a disaster, there is nothing like a Texan helping a Texan! It's like on big happy family- the tragedy is overshadowed about love and caring of each other. Also, Mayor White and the City of Houston have done a great job keeping everyone informed and of the evacuation of the city- a lot better done than Rita!!! These sky pics are from the storm rolling in Friday night, and the one of the children is the playing the rain Saturday night which was very nice after a HOT day!