Hurricane Ike

We are alive!!! Hurricane Ike came calling last Friday evening and Saturday morning. We watched the storm all week and at the beginning of the week we though it would head south of us, but as the week continued it took aim right at Houston. Shad had the day off Friday and we spent the day getting ready. We already had food, water, and gas and we made some last few trimmings to our trees so they were away from the power lines. It is definitely an interesting experience to know that a big storm is coming and to go to bed not knowing what the night will bring. We set up beds in our family room and put mattresses and a couch in front of our french doors so that we basically had a windowless room and then "Hunkered" down. The kids slept great and the winds started to blow more around 10:00 pm. A transformer blew and caught on fire two streets behind us about that time and the fire department got that out quickly. Around 11:30 we lost power and we are still without it (6 days so far). Shad was awake most of the night and kept up to minute on the radio what was happening. Around 2:00 in the morning we started getting a lot of rain and wind gusts in the 50-70 mph range and that was pretty continuous until about 4:45. That is when the eyewall came close. We never did see the "eye" but it passed about 3 miles to the east of us. With that being the case we had some 80-100 mph winds from about 4:45 to 6:00 am and that was constant. The noise was loud and trees branches were snapping and flying. It made for a tense hour but we made it. Around 7:00 it was still rainy and very breezy and our street was flooding. Shad, a neighbor, and Dad & Tyler went out trying to unclog the drains from all the debris. Once that was done the street drained in about an hour. Saturday was a long day. Shad was out cutting trees in the neighborhood and clearing drains to let the water flow. Sunday church was cancelled and groups from the church including the missionaries were in our neighborhood removing debris and cutting down trees. Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday were the same. Needless to say it has been a long week. The saving grace was a cold front and cooler weather. We are still without power and can't wait for it to be on. Shad has gone out looking for icecream the last few nights and finally found cream to make homeade icecream last night. The kids are doing great and love using the flashlights at night. Amy is just tired of having no power and keeps saying, "Have I told you that I don't want to live any closer to the gulf than we do now?" We are doing well and wanted to just post this since this is the first time we have had access to the internet all week. We will post pictures later.