Ike Update

Well, all my family is doing well after Ike's havoc on Saturday. Everyone is still cleaning up but no major damage and no injuries. I can't say that for the rest of Houston, Galveston and the other coastal areas. Evacuees are still in shelters and homes all over Texas and can not return yet. Our church service was packed yesterday with several families in our church hosting about 50 people in their homes. Please pray for these families, the host families and the evacuees this week. Thanks.

Ike's Havoc

Hurricane Ike is moving through East Texas and causing havoc everywhere. I've been up since 6:00 a.m. I don't know why I woke up so early but I couldn't go back to sleep. I wanted to call my family at that time but didn't know if it would be too early or if they might be up yet because of Ike. My sister texted me when their power went out about 8:25 a.m. We texted for a short bit then talked by cell phone before they lost their cell towers and then talked by land line until they lost that. I have not talked to my parents yet. I can't get a hold of them by cell phone or land line. My sister talked to my mom earlier but I haven't been able to get a hold of them yet. I do know my parents are getting hit with a lot of rain and wind right now. They are right next to the eye of the hurricane right now (9:15 a.m.) and a thick band is going over them. When I talked to my sister earlier they were in between bands so they weren't getting hit hard at that moment. But they already had their generator up and running. Their back yard is full of limbs and their shop has been hit by limbs but so far their home is okay. Their neighbors house behind them had a tree fall on it this morning around 5:00 a.m. They are not home so she called 9-1-1 and the sheriff came out. I was just able to talk to my sister again by cell phone and a tree in a neighbor's yard fell on the power lines and that caused them to lose land lines. She said everyone was outside right now getting generators running and dealing with debris and everything else. Roger found a website where you can watch the four major Houston and Galveston television channels at the same time and listen to one or all of them. And all the areas they cover are getting hit hard by Ike and I'm amazed at the really not smart things people are doing right now during this storm. They knew it was going to be bad and they were forced to evacuate but they didn't and now they are begging for help but help can't get to them. It's crazy over there. All we are getting right now is some wind maybe 30 miles an hour but no rain yet. My mom just called me on her cell phone (9:40 a.m.). Their power has only gone out off and on but so far they have all power and phones. My dad might have been on the internet this morning when I was trying to call earlier. They are getting a lot of rain and wind but not much damage. Her uncle's funeral was scheduled for today but she's not driving in this weather so I'm sure not many other people are either. I'm sure they rescheduled it. My sister's about to get it hard. The eye wall is about to pass them by about 30 miles. So they are in for a doozy. Speaking of doozy, I looked up online how to spell doozy to make sure I spelled it correctly and the first result in my Google search was hilarious.

Burns & Bruises

I’m the kind of person who wears sun block religiously and does everything in my power to avoid getting sun burnt. I don’t like the word hate, but if I had to use it, I would with sunburn. I really hate getting sun burnt. All my face products have SPF 15 and 20 and I wear SPF 15 every day in my daily lotion. If there’s a chance of extended exposure I wear at least SPF 55 and for swimming and water sports I put sun block on at home before I even put on my swim suit so I don’t miss any spot. I’m a top of the ears, behind the neck and top of the feet person. I don’t miss any area and I reapply often and after I get out of the water.

So we spent the weekend at Sam Rayburn Reservoir with my sister and her family pseudo-camping. I say pseudo-camping because only one person regularly sleeps outside in a tent, my nephew William. Everyone else sleeps in an luxury travel trailer with all the modern amenities like air conditioning, full kitchen with microwave and toaster oven, full bath, television with satellite and play station. It even has hard wood floors and recliners. We weren’t really camping even though we were at a camp ground. But we did spend a lot of time on the water. Saturday and Sunday we went tubing, knee boarding, swimming and riding around the reservoir checking on trout lines and baiting fishing spots. I made sure to wear sun block at all daylight times. On Sunday afternoon, we spent about three hours on the water to get our last tubing and knee boarding in before we had to pack up and leave to start the four hour drive back to Austin. We all got back in the boat from swimming to head back to the campground and none of us thought of reapplying our sun block. Well, my niece Elizabeth did sort of because she’s always playing with the sun block. I should have paid more attention and reapplied because in that little short ride back to the campground I got sun burnt. And it is not comfortable at all, especially riding in a car for four hours. I didn’t realize how bad it was until we got home. I think I actually got a little sick from it. I’m feeling it today.

Another thing I noticed when we got home was several bruises on my legs and really bad ones on each elbow. I don’t know where the bruises on my legs came from but the bruises on my elbows were from knee boarding. I slammed them down once really hard on the knee board when trying to get up on the knee board while I was hitting the waves and the water pretty hard. They felt sore once I got on the boat, but they feel really sore today. My whole body feels achy but my elbows and shoulders feel the worst. Water sports take a lot of upper body strength which I don’t have and the pulling of the shoulder joints from being pulled behind a boat going no telling what speeds doesn’t help. I’m definitely feeling it today.

I guess burns and bruises are a good indicator of how good of a time you had getting them. You can see pictures of all the fun we had by clicking here or on the Flickr link to the right.

It's Official!

Okay, it's official. Here's the proof:



I made a B in my history class. Yeah!! I think I'll celebrate by buying a new car today. Just joking! I'm not that impulsive. Roger and I are going to test drive some vehicles this afternoon to figure out which we prefer the most. He will also hopefully be talking to the legal counsel assigned to him today to get more answers regarding his PEB and eventual medical retirement. There are so many details and scenarios. He wants to make sure fighting the PEB is worth it. Please pray he gets the clarification he needs to make the best decision.

We're having a great time together. I wish every day of his leave could be this laid back and relaxing. Of course, I'll have to work a little and we have holiday family obligations. And you know how much fun family events can end up being. I pray those are fun times too and we all remember and focus on the meaning of the season and how blessed we truly are.