Back to Normal?

I needed to take a break from posting all the details of the hurricane for a bit. And during that week I spent time finding out who needed help or had needs in our church and organized work parties to help them. I was able to give a few good days of physical help to one our church members who really needed it.
It was surreal to see what storm surge could do in terms of damage to a house. (Imagine 2 to 6 feet of water coming into your home.) I feel truly grateful that we were sparred. One home had not been opened for about 1 week past Ike's arrival. And there was so much mud, muck, and mold it was amazing. "Toto we are not in California anymore... that's for sure!" Texas and it's warm moisture can just about kill a house, throw in the rising water from a hurricane and, yuck! One foot of water through a house will force a home owner to pull carpet down to the slab, take up to 4 feet of drywall off the walls and pull out the insulation that fills the walls, now take a moment and look around the room that you are in; what things are on the floor? what stuff touches your walls? have you seen how black mold grows and stains? Do you know that in most homes, everyone has a cockroach or two, three, four... or more? What do you think your home would look like after sitting in 1 -4 ft of water for a few days?
Yes, in the areas we were in, you could drive down the road and see peoples lives dumped in piles outside of their now gutted homes. Making the familiar residential areas look more post war then an act of nature. (I was going to take some photos but then decided not to exploit others pain.)
Yes, the area is getting back to normal. More gas stations are opening, more areas have power, and traffic lights again. You can get fresh produce and eggs are not rare or hard to find items. Galveston, where Ike hit is still like a ghost town, traffic in mildly traffic like areas is now crazy/heavy/packed. And blue tarps look like a fashion statement in some areas of town. The children are now back in school as of today and some have "new" (aka displaced) students in class now, the school district was kind to offer FREE LUNCHES to all the children in the district for the next two weeks to help families who were affected by Ike or have/had no power. Yes, were are getting back to normal... many of us, who are fortunate to have suffered no real damages are feeling tired/exhausted and not able to focus on all that has to get done from the lost week or two. Will things be "normal"?, maybe but this natural event has changed us all in some way or another. I was given the gift of gratitude, and the gift of being able give to someone else, how lucky am I? I understand for real, what damage a hurricane can do and how truly evil mold is. I don't know if I ever want to be normal again, but were are working on it.
Merlova in her normal silly little girl state.

Normal things

Today being a Saturday, it felt more like a back to normal kind of day. It has taken a while for the lines to disappear from the gas stations, the grocery stores to not be so packed and some of the minor hurricane damage to be cleaned up. Glenn did a few church related helping tasks and then was able to mow the lawn and do the regular stuff about the house. The older two spent time with Papa Herman, Merlova was with me most of the day and then we got treated to a great Mexican food dinner. It was thanks for all the work that Glenn and other church men did to help one of the families in need. It was nice not to have to cook dinner. I felt spoiled. It will be nice to try an get back into the grove of activities for the children even though Akorren will not start school until the 29th of Sept. The school district needs to allow the new displaced children to get into a school program in our district and they will be doing registrations this week along with repairs to some of the damaged schools. I look forward to seeing our church members tomorrow at service and will get a better handle on who needs help by the end of the day. The photos are from damage done at the Kemah boardwalk area and a nice picture of Akorren with his soon-to-be grandma, Lois.

Squirrel thoughts

Here are some pictures of the little squirrel "Ike" that we tried to care for. He looked pretty good in these pictures. The children were very excited about him. It is funny, when we got home the other day from evacuating, I was looking at the library books we picked up before the hurricane, and we had one called Scaredy Squirrel by Melanie Watt it is an adorable story about a little squirrel who is afraid of life. It made me think of little Ike. Ike in the shoe box, Glenn looking in on Ike, Glenn & happy Zhivanna, Ike in Glenn's hands above box.

Getting back to Normal

Glenn went out fairly early to help some of our friends who had damage to their house. Today it was the Hibbetts who lived in Nassau Bay, they had about 4 feet of water come in through their home. It moved the pool table across the downstairs room. They lived right by the bay and, have an elevated house, so that means the water or storm surge was at 8 feet high when did the damage to their home. Wow! They are with other church friends to live with for a while until they can do more work on their home.
The kids and I woke to a lazy day at the house. The girls were very glad to be at home and just play with big brother in the morning. Lois went back to work today and Papa helped wrangle the crew in the AM so I could rest a bit. I then got up and got into phone call mode. I somehow got myself to be the contact for our church, in charge of setting up volunteers and work crew people to help other members who need to have fallen trees cut up and removed, pull out wet carpet or drywall damaged from storm surge water and in general see who needs what, and who can do what, to help who. So it basically means being in contact with our minster Rev. Matt Tittle and a few important super helpers at our church like Butch Cockrel. I wish I could be the one doing the work but since I have to care for the kids I am kind of stuck doing the phone call thing. I was able to make some lists send out email information and make about a dozen needed calls. The kids were getting wrestles around 11 AM and I was able to set up a play date and visit time with our friends the Dippels (Bailey, Zach and mommy Jennifer). We took over our scooters and Akorren's bike and played from 1:30 to about 4 PM, the mommies talked about all that had happened with the hurricane. Then it was back home and getting dinner ready for the family, daddy coming home from a full day of physical labor and work helping others, watching and older Star Trek movie then getting kids in bed for the night. By the time Glenn and I went to bed we were exhausted. It felt a little like life was getting back to normal other then the fact that Akorren had no school today. The girls in neighbors pink mustang car, Merlova ridding with neighbor boy in red mustang, playing in the cul-de-sac. Akoren was with Zach at the other end of the street on his bike, that is why he is missing from the photos.

Time to go HOME

We woke up early, I did the dishes and some laundry and then worked on getting things packed up to head back down South. We gave good-bye hugs to cousin Lester at about 8:30AM as is he was off to work. The kids just played and played together, now they were acting like they did not want to go home. We put together the linens that Doris & Orlando let us use, and I pulled a few photos of the kids, out of my collection to give to Daniel and the family. After a light lunch/snacks I finally said good-bye to Vanessa and drove by the Lanza home to say another thank you and good-bye. Vanessa by the way did not want us to leave. It was after 12:40 PM by the time I head out to go home.
It took forever to get on the 10 FWY from Fry Road. I decided to take the regular FWY's since things seemed like normal traffic. 10 East to the 610 South then I thought I would skip the 45 FWY, hearing that it was a mess with the Galveston traffic of people trying to get down there. So I took 610 most of the way down to right before the 45 and exited at the 35 South heading to Alvin. We were able to see some of the damage done by Ike on our drive; fallen street lights, sign posts, temporary buildings turned on their sides, the mess from all the fallen trees, billboard signs blown to bits and a few places where walls and homes looked destroyed. My dad called and around 2 PM and was wondering where we were at, he said the 45 FWY was clear so we got back on the FWY and made it home in about 2o minutes. Papa, Lois, and Akorren were happy to greet us and the girls went into get hugs and attention. I spent the rest of the day, checking in with friends and putting our things away, started laundry and such. It was nice to be home. I cooked beef soft tacos for us that night (I ate none) and gave my hard working hubby Glenn a big hug and kiss. He was doing so much these past few days to help other people clean up from the hurricane mess and I missed him. The kids all went to bed snug in their own beds, happy to be home with the whole family. The fence between our house and the neighbors that fell down (see sandbox puddle, yuck), the tree (that I could not stand) in our backyard that fell down, see poor little tree in front of fence that was Akorren's apple tree oops!

Heading Home

Glenn and my dad called me last night and said that the power was on in League City. YAY! So the girls and I are going to head home in a few hours. Vanessa is sad that we are leaving but was glad to have the company and the kids all know more about their primos (cousins) and seem to have a formed a good friendship. They are buddies now, and it means we will have to continue on doing things together MORE OFTEN. We are so grateful to Lester, Vanessa, Christina, Joshua, Doris, Orlando, and Daniel Lanza for all that they have done for us. It was so kind of them to take us in, feed us, and show concern and care for us during this time of evacuation from hurricane Ike. We could not have had such a successful plan if it was not for their support. Muchas Gracias por todos! Now we will look at cleaning up around the house when I get home and looking to set up work / lean up crews with Glenn in the lead and seeing which friends need what. I will be asking for some monetary help from you for a few people in the coming weeks. So please be ready to help with what you can. Thank you.

Time in Katy

Today Lester had to work so Vanessa and I took some time to let the kids play around the house. She did laundry (yes, POWER) and I was able to sneak out for a good 3 mile run. We cleaned up the house, and made plans to go to their local YMCA to take the kids swimming. We thought that would be a good diversion for them. We finally got our things together a little after 1:30 PM and made our way to the Y.
As I was pulling into the parking I saw an ambulance and a sign out front that said "POOL CLOSED". I went to park the car and Vanessa went inside to check out what was going on, she had called earlier to make sure they would be open. I looked in my rear view mirror and noticed that 3 of our 4 little passengers were asleep. By the time Vanessa returned, Joshua too had fallen fast asleep.
What she found out was that a teenager was running around the pool and had slipped (like he told he would) and hit his head badly on the walkway. So that meant no swimming for us this day. We then decided to head over the Lester's parents place to get the food that they were storing for Vanessa and Lester since their power was out. The kids of course woke up as soon as we arrived all wanting to play with Daniel. He had a good fan club.
We stayed for about 1 hour and then went back to Vanessa's place so she could make dinner for the whole family. She was glad to be able to cook. The children ate and tonight was the 1st night in several days that they could stick to our household routine. They ate dinner, had a bath, brushed teeth, then went to bed after a story. It was so nice. The adults ate late and I stayed up way to late that night writing in my journal and checking out what was on the TV. My dad, and then Glenn called around 10:30 PM to let me know that the POWER was on at home. YAY! So I guess I will get things ready in the morning to head on back down to home in League City.
Daniel showing off his set of Bionicles, Merlova with a Bionicle (Lego toy) on her shoulder.

In Katy with Cousins

I woke up early today and the girls did at their normal time. This was the 1st day that I felt like I got some real sleep. This was day 3 without power at Vanessa & Lester's. The weather was cooperative and was in the cool 60's for the morning. It was very nice. The girls got up and ate some cereal and went right to playing about the house with cousin's toys. I felt like doing a small Taebo work out and got about 35 min. into one before getting distracted with kids stuff to do. We needed to get ice today, so when Lester got up around 10 AM we decided to go out and look for ice.
Vanessa spoke to her sister Vicky in CA and got a listing of the places that were supposed to have ice, like the POD's (Points Of Delivery) for water ice and food rations. Lester and I went out to the ones on the list but unfortunately they did not have any ice. Just as we were heading back to the house, up a back road, a manager of a gas station on the corner was yelling out to the street saying that he had gas. I called out to him asking if they had ice, and he said yes. Lester made a quick right and got in line for gas just as it was getting busy. I jumped out of the car and ran inside to the market and came out with 2 bags of ice, YAY! I felt such a sense of gratitude for the most simple thing, ice. It was a strange feeling, because it was so really important that we have ice to keep milk for the children. And Vanessa was also very glad when we came home with some.
Lester had things to do at his parents house so he went over there early with Zhivanna. Vanessa and I took the 3 little ones Merlova, Joshua, and Christina to the park to play for about 1 hour. On our wagon ride back to the house we found a good sized snapping turtle and I moved him out of the way so he would not get run over by traffic. He put on a good show for the kids by trying to scratch at my hands and even snapped, making me jump a bit as I took hold of him.
On the way to Lester's parents place we noticed more of the signals working and the lines were not nearly as long at the gas stations, this was a good sign that things were getting back to normal. The Lanza's were kind again giving of their electricity, enjoying company, and sharing a wonderful seafood soup. We left their place about 8:45 PM and arrived back at Vanessa & Lesters' to see the lights. When the garage door opened we were delighted, (insert cheering here) yay they have POWER! The girls were so tired after not really getting a nap that it was easy to put them to bed. Now I only had to wonder how long it would be before I got POWER at my place in League City. Daniel, Merlova, Joshua, Vanessa, and Christina at the Lanza home.

Post Ike

We all got a better nights sleep despite the heat. Without the AC having cool weather is now so important to us. It was a real treat to sleep all night long without having children wake us up. This time Glenn & I had only to deal with the two dogs (Keeko & Panda) that became wrestles as soon as the post hurricane rains and thunder storms moved into our area starting in the early 4:00 AM hours of the night.
We all woke up later then normal and were treated to Vanessa's wonderful omelette's. We planned on making our way over the Lester's parents home later to use the electricity and food resources in the afternoon. No power put a limit on what we could do. At least the cool rains gave way to cooler weather and we could leave the windows open.
Glenn and I talked about what to do with going back and so Glenn made the decision to head back today. He took Akorren with him, as he was wanting to go home. Glenn wanted to take off the plywood and make sure that things were not bad around the house. I was in no hurry to get back to a home with no electricity. I just did not want to deal with that when I was in a comfortable place, call me spoiled. Phone service was in and out and I took some time to make contact with other friends who were effected by the aftermath of Ike. Most of our friends were well.
We did have a bit of sadness today, after checking in on our squirrel Ike this morning. It looks like the storm did too much damage to his little animal body. He was sneezing up what looked like blood and was moving around his little box very slowly. Then almost not at all. We let the children take one last look at him and say good-bye. We did a brief talk about how nature works sometime and that a little squirrel spending the whole night being toss around in the rain would have a hard time surviving. And that giving him some love and warmth and comfort in death was the right thing to do. Zhivanna shed a tear or two and then Glenn made sure that Ike made it back into the recycled part of nature. Good-bye little Ike.
My cousin Sherry (a niece on my dads side) was a great out of state contact who would look up information on the internet for me and relay back to me where places had power, which schools were open, where to get to a POD for ice, etc. I would then either text message or phone in that information to my dad and Glenn. You name it Sherry was extremely eager to help in any way that she could, we love and thank you for all your help gal! Glenn made it safely back to League City with Akorren and Herman and Lois seemed glad to have someone to care for. Ice was an issue put some was found. Yes, limited stores were open.
We had a very lovely dinner of aroz con pollo followed by delicious aroz con leche, and I again charged up the needed survival items: cell phones, DVD players , ipods, etc. The children all played together this time minus Akorren. But the little ones still seemed to keep Daniel busy, chasing him all around the house. Vanessa and I were able to get glimpses of the damage done to the areas around Clear Lake. I would catch a word here or there about League City by watching the local KHOU 13 news. It was hard to see the pictures of Kemah; streets flooded and the boardwalk looking a mess like piles of popsicle sticks and rubbish. Galveston made your heart sink and then to hear about all the people who stayed, the Strand water washed, homes gone, once beach front and now part of the beach. That area is going to take a long time to get back going on there feet.
This night ended much the same as the previous one, but this time Merlova and Zhivanna fell asleep before the movie ended. I took myself to sleep shortly after. I was glad and grateful to have my family all well and my home in tact. I know that some in our church and community will not be faring as well. I am looking at going back to League City around Thurs. or Friday of this week.

Ike Arrives

After a Friday evening at the Lanza home for dinner and play time with the kids we finally got them into bed. Knowing the pending rainy weather would wake them. Lester put in the Nicolas Cage movie Gone In 60 Seconds and I fell off to sleep around 12:30 PM. So I guess I would say my morning started sometime after midnight as the wind was kicking up pretty good around the Lanza home. The rain was hitting the windows as if someone was spraying them with a hose and fan. The wind was more of a disturbance, a constant howl combined with the rain made a kind of white noise that either made it impossible to sleep or it would put you right out, (especially if you were as exhausted as the adults in household were). I got a call from my dad (who stayed at our house) around 2:58 AM and he told me the power had just gone out. He said the winds seemed to be blowing around 100 miles per hour or so. About 10 minute later the power was out in Katy, too.

Then it seemed like that was the time when Akorren, Zhivanna , and Merlova took turns waking up all night long. One was fear of the storm, one was upset is was too dark in the room, the other needed a bathroom break and bug medicine, or wanted to sleep with mommy. Between all this I was able to get about 45 minutes of sleep until 4:30AM and then before I knew it, it was 6:00 AM and Merlova was ready to get up for the day, YAY! It was a bit rainy in the morning and the temperature had cooled down some. Which was nice since we needed to keep the windows open for lack of AC. Once all of the family started to get up we fed kids, let them play and got ourselves ready for a quite day around the house with out electricity. I checked in with my dad and Lois and they were fine minus power and said that there was minimal damage to the house. A few trees down and a fence part or two. 10 minutes late or so it seemed like making any calls out to Houston was a hit and a miss. Service was sparse.

We eventually made our way to Orlando and Dorris Lanza's home going slowly through all the powerless stop lights, seeing the fallen fences, bits of roof tile, and lots of tree branches around. They still had power, yay! that way we could charge all of our electronic devices and let the kids relax with a movie and playtime with Daniel (Lester's younger brother). Everyone in house was recovering from being up listening to the hurricane pass through, tired adults. The noise of the storm kept them awake most of the night too. (I can't image how loud it must have been at our house. )

Glenn of course, being the handyman that he is got right to work with the chainsaw and his tools to help the Lanza family and their neighbors get fallen trees removed. Orlando and Dorris had their entire back fence fell down. It will be a while before that can be fixed as the large Home Depot stores are closed. Zhivanna,the animal lover, found a lost, wet, baby gray squirrel on the side of the road by the house. It was a male, so of course we named him "Ike". We are warming him up and will see what to feed him later on once he gets stronger. I must mention in here how kind and generous Dorris & Orlando Lanza have been to us these past few days. They have been feeding us home cooked meals and welcoming us into ther home as family. Muchas gracias! Having use of their electricity to charge up our stuff has been a blessing as well.

We arrived back to Vanessa & Lester's place around 7:45 PM and the guys decided it would be a good idea to go make a store run. They had no luck getting any supplies as the mandatory curfew was now put in place and many stores did not have power. We did have enough milk and ice for the next day. The kids got to watch a movie on the portable DVD player in the dark. It was kind of fun for them like camping in the house with the lights all out, the windows open and snacks to munch on. I ended up falling asleep with the kids when I went to put them to bed after 9:30 PM. Glenn took the dogs out to walk and ended up playing a few card games with Vanessa before heading off to bed. Here is Merlova with Daniel Lestser's young brother, he was spinner her in the chair for fun.

Ike continued

I spoke to my dad tonight just about 20 minutes ago. He said it was windy but no real rain yet. He made it sound like he was going off to bed tonight. I figured this would be the last time I talk with him for about a week as I am assuming the power is going to be out for at least 1 week. I just enabled his text message feature, his cell phone # is 281-620-1286. Lois knows how to text message so I am going to test it out soon and send him some messages. I figure that is the only contact I will have with him. Here is the latest email from our city of League City.
Storm continues to track near Galveston and northwestward. We can expect 39 mph or greater winds until around 1p Saturday. Hurricane force winds of 74 mph or greater until 0600am Saturday and 58 mph winds until 10am Saturday. Storm surge forecasts continue to be to 20 feet. There are numerous power outages through out the City.
Fire/EMS & PD responses have been limited due to the sustained winds and personnel are standing down until the winds become more favorable for personnel to operate. Crews will assess the call prior to response.
We are just watching some news and trying to relax, I really don't expect to sleep much tonight. I am going to sign off for now and just be with my cousins and Glenn. When we get through all of this I am really going to give my dad a piece of my mind, a big one. We love all of you. No rain in Katy, yet, just some nice cool winds. Peace!

Ike begins

Well we have had a relaxing morning with the Lanza family. The kids got up at their regular time, Vanessa made us pancakes, I was able to go for a run, and help get everyone ready for the day. We are currently over at Lester's parents house for a nice late lunch/early dinner. The kids have been playing with the bunny rabbit, playing some video games, ridding bikes outside and have eaten well. We are trying not to watch to much of the TV stuff, but keep checking in on it. It was weird to see images from the Galveston area that we know flooded already with 4 ft. of water and the main part of the storm had not even began to hit land yet. The League City emergency management sent an email out saying that their will be a mandatory curfew started from 6 PM to 6 AM and that the hurricane is expected to have a significant impact on League City and that homes and people in low lying areas should expect flooding and need to move onto higher grounds. The city is still not a mandatory evacuation area though. I took time to call and check in with friends that are in lower lying areas and around in other cities. I was able to get in contact with 2 of the 4 I called. I know one who lives in the La Porte area and they are sure that their home will be flooded, it's going to be a question of just how bad at this point. Another friend of mine has a home that is only 3 blocks away from the beach at Galveston. I am sure she will have little to no home to go back to, (I hope I am wrong) but she is with family now and is out of the danger. I am in contact with my dad every 4 hours, for those of you who do not know...he and his fiance Lois along with our neighbors are ridding the storm out at the house. I will hear from him again around 8 PM then I expect by our 12 midnight check in I will loose phone contact with him. I have just sent our land line, Vonage phone to send messages to my cell phone after 30 seconds of ringing. So all messages will be sent to me if my dad can't pick up the phone. I guess this is the point in this thing where we watch and wait to see what kind of damages we have to deal with. I think because the current information still makes this hurricane a Cat 2 with a Cat 4 like surge is hard to project how bad it will get. I know I am supposed to think positive thoughts so what am thinking at this time is, may my father and Lois remain safe, I hope the house will be a good protection for them and that the water and wind damage are minimal. Know that the kids, Glenn, and I are in a place that is safe we are surrounded by family. I ask that you think, pray, meditate for other friends of ours who have a potential to loose so much more then us. When the time comes I may be calling on you in other states to help support us or others in need. I will see about posting something again after or when I speak to my dad in a few hours. We love you all and know that so many people are watching out for us. Thank you!

Ike Update

Glenn did what he wanted to do around the house to prepare for Ike's arrival and he made it up to the Lanza home before 8 PM. I was surprised to see him here so early, I really expected things to be much more crowded on the roads. It is hard to think back to the mass evacuation of Rita (what feels like a long time ago). I recall the gas stations running out of gas, cars broken down on the roads, people every where, my emotional break down on the side of road after becoming separated from Glenn. This time around things seem smoother. Or is it just that because I have not been stuck in a car for 19 hours in one day to get out of town, I find my self less stressed.The public and city government is doing what they need to do for the hurricane. Here is the current email sent to me from our League City emergency management system:
"The 4pm track is showing San Luis Pass to be the landfall of the storm around Midnight Friday Night. The Storm is now expected to make Landfall has a strong Category 2 or a Category 3 Storm. The City may experience 39+ mph winds starting around 10am Friday and continuing until late Saturday afternoon. Rainfall amounts could be as high as 10-15 inches. " This is a much better scenario then I am mentally preparing myself for. We have kept the main stream TV off for a while just to have a break. I was able to take a nap with the girls this afternoon and the kids have really enjoyed the time playing around the house with cousins Joshua and Christina. A new place and new toys is good distraction, now that dogs and daddy are here they seem more relaxed. I will be setting up the inflatable mattress soon and seeing about getting to bed. Just because we are sleeping someplace else does not mean that the kiddos won't be up at 6:00 AM to start the day. Have a restful sleep. I'll write more tomorrow.

Waiting in Katy,TX

Dear Family & Friends,
I am with the kids right now up in Katy,TX 50 + inland from where we live in League City, TX. We are staying with our cousins' Lester & Vanessa Lanza H 281-855-6816. Clyde (Glenn's Dad) is our contact outside of TX for our emergency plan. I plan to post as needed for how things shake out down here. Glenn just finished up with the church plywood and is at the house gathering a few things that he needs and he will be making a slow way up to Katy. He plans to avoid any and all major HWY's as a normal freeway drive would take him a little over an hour to get here. A current news broadcast for our area called for a voluntary evacuation of the League City area. I expect it to take Glenn about 3 hours minimum to get to where we are. We are now at the hands of mother nature and where she decides to land the hurricane. The winds are a worry for our home, but the main thing on my mind is the flooding. Now we are not right on the coast. Galveston is only about 45 minutes away and that is one of the areas on the projected pathway that shows a a potential landfall site. So that could mean a good sized storm surge for us and a flooded house. I suggest you look up Weather Underground on line ( I an not embedding it in this email) to get a good look at what is projected they have really informative charts on Ike.
Please keep us and all the other people facing this hurricane in your thoughts. They are saying now it looks like a Cat 4 by landfall Friday AM.

Voluntary evacuation!

Well just because so much can change in the next 2 days we have decided to evacuate for sure. With the potential of cat 3/4 at landfall and such, it makes no sense to stay. Here is the current posting from our local Fox Houston news
Galveston County
Mandatory evacuation for west end of Galveston Island including Jamaica Beach, as well as Bolivar Peninsula, San Leon, Bacliff, Bayou Vista, Omega Bay, Tiki Island, Dickinson, Kemah and Clear Lake Shores

• Voluntary evacuation for the rest of the county
  
• Voluntary evacuation for League City residents
• Galveston Island State Park has begun a mandatory evacuation of campers and planned to have the park shut down by Wednesday evening.
• Boliver Ferry Closes 11 p.m. Thursday, Sept. 11
• Hitchcock ISD
• Friendswood ISD- Until Sept. 12
• Clear Creek ISD-- Extra-curricular activities canceled Thursday; closed Friday
• La Marque ISD--Closed Friday, Sept. 12, activities canceled Thursday-Saturday, Sept. 11-12
• College of Mainland-- Closed from noon Thursday, Sept. 11- Sunday, Sept. 14
• Texas City ISD-- Closed Thursday, Sept. 11-Saturday, Sept. 13

So in the next 24 hours we will be preparing the house with boards, getting clothes and other things packed and head out as soon as we can. I will try and post again before we disconnect the computer either tonight or in the AM.

Ugh! Still watching/waiting

Okay so just as it is with hurricanes.... still watching/waiting...you can only predict and forecast so far out on the where and when it will make landfall. Today we were hoping to get a better idea of which direction it would go. And now on one of the current forecast projections at of 2:00 PM it shows one line landing a little more North right into the Houston area. See blue pathway on picture above. So what does that mean for us... a possible touch with the dirty side of a cat 3 hurricane, maybe. I just got word from the school district that we are in CCISD Clear Creek Independent School District that ..."Due to the treat of Hurricane Ike the CCISD will close schools on Friday Sept. 12th. All extracurricular activities and athletic events will cease at the close of school on Thursday. It is difficult to pinpoint when a storm is going going to make landfall and the best we can do is be prepared and informed....". With that said it means we are going to look into making a plan to evacuate to our cousins place in the next day or so. I am sure many of the other normal goings on in the area will change too in the next day or so. I am sure by Thursday night/Friday AM we will have made a definite decision on what we will do. Keep us in your thoughts. Ugh! I really miss the surprise of earthquakes, a little less stressful then the watching and waiting.

Yes, Another one to watch!

So we are now on hurricane watch again, this time it is Ike. Now we have missed having to do anything for the previous two that came through. By that I mean doing the evacuation thing, boarding up the house and kissing all that we own good-bye. But looking at the 5 day forecast it looks like Ike is in a straight line to bump into us. So what that means is we continue to keep an eye on it, of course it can always move and switch directions some as it goes across the gulf. We should know more by Wed. Since we are not in Galveston, which is right on the gulf we would not need to be the 1st of evacuate. Keep us in your thoughts. Our current plan for evacuating would put us going to my cousin Vanessa & Lester Lanaza's home in Katy, TX which is about 1 1/2 hours inland from where we are. Again it is hard to be in that mindset of "...I hope it's not us". We will keep you posted.
Ike's 5 day forecast as of Mon. Sept. 8, 2008 11:00 AM

The Engagement Photo

I know I have already blabbed my mouth and told my friends about my dad getting engaged to Lois. So it is now time to let everyone else know. I have taken a photo for them to use to share with the rest of our family and other friends. My dad is not always the best at keeping in contact with his family. And I knew that many of them would be very happy and surprised to hear his news, so I asked them to take a picture, so the family would have a special way of knowing. It will be a nice once I send the hard copies out that way the family can contact him by phone or email and he will then have to speak to more of them. I have emailed this image along with a little note from me, announcing the news. Since the photos have been taken Zhivanna keeps asking Ms. Lois "...when are you and Papa Herman going to get married? so I can start calling you Grandma." I love that gal, she can just tug at your heart sometimes. My Dad and Lois, so happy together.

What Am I Up To?

I have been posting a lot of stuff this past month. Much of it about the family events and what the kids have been up to. As I look over it I realize that most of what I write is not about me. A goal when I started this blog was that I wanted to make the blog "personal" and in it I share about family things. The part that I don't dedicate time to is,... What is Melissa doing? I guess I do this partly because I do not want to be seen as arrogant (like I'm so great, ya-ya-ya), when I was younger and single it was all about me, and now the me of 2008 is about being a mother 24/7. So it is hard to focus on my needs, desires, wants...things are just different now. Here is what I have been doing for my

• Health: I have given myself between 3 - 5 days a week to take (at least 1 hour) and exercise my body in some way; be that Taebo, running, lifting weights, walking, jumping rope, dancing, playing soccer, etc. I have been doing this now since last Dec./Jan. and have seen a real improvement in my body strength and size. I have slimmed down from a clothing size 10 to a 6/8 and have lost about 15 lbs. I am doing well with my health and have hit what they call in the exercise world as a plateau. I am not gaining weight nor loosing it and I need to make a decision; do I want to up my efforts and change up what I am doing to loose that last 5 pounds sitting on me? or not? I still have dreams of a flat stomach, the real question is weather I am dedicated enough to do what it takes to loose it. My soccer injured toe has kept me off the soccer field for 2 months+ now and I would really like to get back out there. I will have to give it a test run soon, my toe is still not 100% as I type this.
• Community involvement: I am secretary on the board of directors for my church Bay Area Unitarian Universalist Church and am really enjoying it. Being with others always charges me up and it gives me a chance to step out of the mommy role and have a purpose. It means 1 meeting a month + any other special meetings or trainings, as well as being a visible member of the church community. I like knowing so many people within the community. I will be teaching "Our Whole Lives" classes for the church with Glenn in the coming month as well as teach one weekend a month for the religious education program. I also lead one of the covenant groups at the church and am involved in the younger parents group there as well. I have not been going to Akorren's school, Gilmore, as much this past year. As I am waiting to see who is going to be the homeroom mom for 2nd grade and what things the teacher needs. My involvement here will change depending on what I end up doing career wise.
• Career plans: at this time I am gathering up the needed paperwork to become a substitute teacher for the school district. I also am seeing about doing this for St.Clare (a Catholic) school in the Clear Lake area. I am taking a break from teaching Kindermusik at this time as am I burnt out on it. My Homemade Gourmet stuff is just a hobby at this time as I am actively not looking for parties or booths to do. I am getting by off customer orders and what I purchase. I would not be surprised if this fades out at the end of the year. I am stepping back from this kind of stuff and just trying to enjoy the time I have at home to be with the kids and get the things done that need to in order to have a working household. The other thing I am doing is trying to keep my schedule open for the acting needs that Zhivanna may have. I will be her manager/secretary for getting her to auditions, so that my be what my job entails in the coming year. I still am trying to figure out what I want to be when I grow up...in that I mean I know I have a few years ahead of me being mostly at home. It will be about 3 years until Merlova is in school. The logical thing is to get back into teaching as I already have a credential for it and the background. I do keep running the idea through my head about doing something with health and fitness, but that would required extra money to get certified, and that is something I don't have a lot of at this time.
  

I guess that this is enough of an update on what I am up to for now. I will post more later on about the other things going on it my multi-tasking life. I still have so many things to get done and put in order around the home, like finishing all the scrapbooks, going through the filing cabinets and cleaning up the study. Me at gymnastics with my little metal winner.

The Big Girl

These past 2 weeks Merlova has made the jump from a little girl to a big girl. It started with her and mommy working on potty training. (Now I have to admit I had been going about this slowly, more lazy on my part, not wanting to deal with it) We decided that it was time to give up the paper panties (pull-ups) during the day and to wear big girl undies. So we got several pairs of the Gerber brand thick cotton training pants. She was excited about the idea, and they were soft and pink. That very same week she was warned about saying good-bye to her pacifier. Then later in the day she even helped to cut it up, we celebrated with a lollipop and high-five, she was not made to take a nap that day. Needless to say she fell asleep that night at the dinner table (nice). The remainder of the week was some trouble getting her down for naps. But as of this week, she is starting to sleep for naps and is putting up less of a fight to get to bed at night now without her "binky". Yesterday, she got to pick out her own big-big girl underwear, and she choose princess panties (of course). She said, "Now I have big girl panties like, Vanna has ... I am a big girl." And all the ride home she talked about wearing her new undergarments once home. She still has accidents if not reminded to "go", but we are really making good progress. I think the candy reward is working out as a good motivator as well. We are all so proud of the big girl in our house. Merlova all dress up at the Secrete Playhouse, the week before we hit the potty training.