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.