SCHOOL HAS POWER!

JUST got word that the girls school has just had power restored! FINALLY! SO, we'll be back to the normal life this Monday! Our neighborhood is another story. Still no power to about 66 out of 80 houses. Some neighborhoods are getting so desperate they have signs on the main road with arrows pointing to their neighborhood stating "NO POWER this WAY!" It's so sad.

I've called centerpoint many times for neighbors. What else can i do? Everytime you call, your given the run around that they'll be sending someone out soon. What else can they say, right? I feel sorry for the people answering the phones. I'm sure their not being treated very well these days. People are very angry...and i'm sure it's only going to get worse.

Why has it been FOURTEEN days and 8000 workers and still no power????

P.S. Dryer is working overtime...the darn guy finally came and fixed it two days ago...i'm so excited i can hardly stand it!

Oh Vanilla Ice is BACK! This one is a KEEPER!

A new song on the radio! Pretty funny!!

IKE, IKE BABY
Anyone that knows Vanilla Ice should know how this goes…… (You have to sing this out loud to thoroughly enjoy it...)

Ike Ike Baby, Ike Ike BabyAll right stop, evacuate and listenIke is here with some big ambitionPeople, close your homes up tightlyIt’s blowing like a hurricane daily and nightlyWhere will it stop? Yo-I don't knowTurn off the lights and let’s goTo the coastline Ike rocks like a vandalStart up the car and watch me drive like an animalDang, hardware store sales boomIke’s killing my plans like a poisonous mushroomDeadly, evacuate they tell meAnyone left will be charged with a felonyLove it or hate it, you better get awayIke will hit the bull's eye, the storm don't playIf you’re on vacation, Yo, Ike stalled itCheck out the eye while the bands revolve itHurricane Ike Ike Baby, Hurricane Ike Ike BabyHurricane Ike Ike Baby, Hurricane Ike Ike BabyNow that the people are jumpin’With their stuff packed up and the gas done pumpin'Quick to the road, to the road no fakin’Pass McD’s get a burger with baconBurnin’ ‘em and follow the symbolI go crazy when I hear some imbecileRevving, in a souped up PintoNow I can roll, it's time to crack the windowRollin’ in my Chevy TahoeWith my window down, I can feel Ike blowMy laptop’s on standby, Waiting for some Wi-fiThis spot hot? No – and I gotta flyKept on pursuing to the next blockI busted a left and I'm beating the clockThe light was redYo -- so I continued to I-37 to San AntonioWish I was there in a blink like a jeanieHow I’d love to be sippin’ a martiniJealous 'cause my girl’s living fineShe left yesterday and was there by nineReady to give my homies a callMy homies acting ill because their car just stalledHumidity, the air is sticky as hellIke’s on his way, the weatherman yellsMoving toward the gulf coast real fastI’m in my car, can’t give it no gasBumper to bumper the interstate’s packedI'm trying to get away before Ike attacksPolice on the scene, what can it mean?They hooked me up, now there’s another lane freeIf you’re on vacation, Yo, Ike stalled itCheck out the eye while the bands revolve itHurricane Ike Ike Baby, Hurricane Ike Ike BabyHurricane Ike Ike Baby, Hurricane Ike Ike BabyYo man, let's get out of here! Word to your mom!

Someone heard this on 104krbe today and a fellow mom forwarded this to the group! I had to share...it's hilarious & if your from my generation you've heard the real song, more times than you'll probably admit! :)

NEW POWER RESTORATION DATES...UGH!

Oh Dear, now they are saying that power to Hannah's school COULD be fixed by Sunday, that would be a total of FIFTEEN DAYS W/O POWER! It seems like they keep putting it further back each time i check. If you want to read more, you can read that HERE. The zip for the girls school is 77018. WHAT A MESS! I knew there were tons of trees down...as there are in our actual neighborhood...but what a mess. Here is another article with info. I'm soo sad for Hannah and the girls. Going back to school after being off for AT LEAST 2 weeks is going to be rough. ON TOP OF THAT..the girls missed the two weeks prior to that b/c of their nasty bug...so in all reality they have been in school ONE week out of FIVE weeks! It's going to be ROUGH when they actually go back.

The things i've learned from IKE:

to not take things for granted, esp: power, drying my clothes at home, our health, POWER, living and going to school in a nice neighborhood with beautiful big old trees...did i already say POWER!

Paul always says he's dreading moving out to the burbs b/c we LOVE these beautiful old BIG trees...guess there is always pros and cons to both! No big trees = Power won't take so long to come back on b/c there won't be downed power lines with trees on top. Living out in the burbs also means another 20 miles a storm would have to come to hit our house= less strength! I mean, there are pros and cons to both...there are always pros and cons of each decision we make. BUT, living out in the burbs means a longer drive for Paul, more wear and tear on a car, less time we'll see him, but did i mention FREE PUBLIC NICE NEW SCHOOLS! Ok, everyone knows where i'm going...guess i'm getting the 2 year itch(house hopping, LOL) and after this i'm ready to get out of here and move on to, what would be our FOURTH house in 7 years! I think this house moving thing is another rebellious thing from NEVER moving out of the one house i lived in my ENTIRE life. I love that house and my parents STILL live there...but now i like moving homes. Inside, i love redecorating and i really enjoy moving furniture around. Any room that i can move things around...i do. I think it may be another one of my OCD issues.

I think tomorrow will be a new day and IF the dryer gets fixed TODAY and i wash and dry clothes and sheets ALL day long, we'll get out of the house tomorrow. I wanted to go to a park...but it seems all the parks anywhere w/i a 20 mile radius are still a mess...so maybe we'll go to a bounce house or mall. We are all itching to get out of the house...but going outside around here just isn't a option b/c the mosquitos are SOO bad from all the rain and tree waste, which is a haven for mosquitos!

Pauls hospital visit pics & other pics..

I took these on my other camera...and almost forgot about them. This is Paul after the scope having his first soft food. He hadn't eaten since the day before at 9am...this was about 3p the next day...poor guy was starving! He devoured the jello, cream of chicken, tea, and popsicles! Food Pic...doesn't look good to a normal person. BUT, after you haven't eaten in a day and a half, anything looks good.

TOTALLY HAPPY and smiling away. Not very good pics...but a pic of the scope. Top left is the little bubble they put in to pop out the stone. Bottom left is the stone. Top right...blood from cutting a larger area so another stone doesn't get stuck again.
The pics below are as the tubes are going down his mouth and into his belly...i can't explain exactly what they are...the dr. was talking 100 mph and all i wanted to hear was that he was OK and everything was fixed. Once i heard that, everything else went in one ear and out the other.
While daddy was gone the girls had fun playing with papa & mama's puppy, Kelly! As things worked out...Kelly was finally comfortable with the girls the very last day they were here.

What a cutie...
A few pics of papa & the girls!Hannah was trying to pet kelly...The girls ALL loved the puppy...they are still talking about papa & the puppy...both go home. I think that means they miss them! 15x's zoom cameras are awesome! This is our sweet humming bird that comes to visit everyday! Even came back after IKE hit. A few more hair cut pics...Sam was first and did a great job!
Look at that sweet smile!

That's all for now...

Help from ALL OVER the U.S!

Just some ramblings:

Today is Tuesday, September TWENTY THIRD...still most of our neighborhood is without power, that means ELEVEN DAYS W/O POWER! THANK GOD we have it already. There are only about 14 people/homes out of 80 that are fortunate enough in our neighborhood to have it. We are the lucky ones. Today i also received an email that said Centerpoint energy marked our neighborhood as a HOT SPOT(which means we all had power), not the case. Paul said down the street he saw a sign outside a business that said "Center point energy: customers with broken/blown fuses"! I think we need to put a sign like that outside our neighborhood. They didn't even know we had wires down in our across the street neighbors backyard! WHAT????? OMG, how upsetting! I had our across the street neighbors over today. She has 2 little girls, adeline is 2 and Elizabeth is 6 months...it's got to be hard on them. We've invited them over a few times...she finally took me up on the offer...now if i could get them to come over and spend the night upstairs! No school as of yet. I check the website everyday. NO POWER...NO SCHOOL! WHAT A MESS! Paul saw on TV today, a news piece that said that if our school writes a note to the state they will exempt the kids from having to make up these days...sure hope the school does this, otherwise Hannah will just miss some school! I just wonder how people with kids are doing it if both parents are working and have already missed so much time?



Yesterday i drove to our normal grocery store(right by the girls school). They said they NEVER lost power. BUT, that entire neighborhood is without power.



It was funny, we were pulling in to Krogers and who do we see? Hannah's best friend Maddie with her Grandma! They wait for us, patiently(Maddies' Grandma and i have known each other since the girls were both 9 months). We gossip for a bit and then her lovely grandma takes the girls to look at the halloween stuff while i run through the store and grab some things. The girls had a blast playing together, even if only for a few minutes. When i went to go retrieve Hannah, i went down the Halloween isle, but no Hannah or Maddie in sight. I keep shopping b/c i wanted to get as much as i could done, before i had to fight 3 children in the grocery store. I was almost 3/4ths of the way done and i turn around to see two little girls running past my isle! LOL! I couldn't stop laughing, grab my purse, leave the girls(only long enough to run down the isle where my cart was and peek around the corner, still watching the girls in my cart that was PACKED full of groceries. Hannah and Mattie were giggling and her grandma looked like she was still faring well with two little 4 year olds in tow. It was pretty funny! Anyway, Hannah came back with me and we said our goodbyes and went on our way. We all miss school soo much. When we got in the car to leave poor Hannah said "Mommy, i miss Mattie so much already"! POOR GIRLS, the just don't understand why they aren't in school and have to stay home with her boring mommy everyday! I tried to explain it to her, but she's 4, how much can she really understand about the bad storm that came through and knocked out the power to her school?



Now, on to other things. the clean up in our neighborhood has begun. I will be the first to say, our mayor is doing a AWESOME job getting moving on the cleaning effort. He's contracted with companies from all over to come help clean up. Today, we watched as some nice young men from Missouri came to start cleaning up all the tree waste in our neighborhood. We sat out on the front driveway and watched as the big bulldozer and gigantic dump trucks with trailers came through to clean. The guys were so nice and waved to the girls and i as we sat outside and watched them clean. I talked to the guy with the dump truck and he said he was from Missouri and pretty much follows storms around to clean up the mess. The guy said he'll be here for a few months cleaning up...YIKES! That's a LONG time to clean up...but i'm sure he is going from neighborhood to neighborhood and from city to city. We are very lucky they are cleaning up already. Underneath all the tree waste, the grass was already dying. Plus the mosquitos are horrible from the debris and water and yucky wet/dead grass, a great place to live and produce more mosquitos!



Please keep praying for our city. It's looking better, but still very weird w/o power and stop lights. The gas situation has been conquered and we all have gas now...but lights are out...there are IKE recovery vehicles all over the city. It's very weird.

Here are a few random pics from the week:

S & S on Hannah's barbie Jeep!

Hannah playing in the sand and water table!
I gave the girls a hair cut this weekend! They did really well! Sarah with clippies in her hair!
Sarah still getting her hair cut, while Sam was watching.

On to the clean up process...this is looking down our street! Both side of the street are filled with tree waste!

The fence that is no longer seperating our yard from our neighbors!
Watching from inside the house!
Cleaning the house...AHH....I love a clean house!
Nice Saturday Picnic lunch! Trying to get back some normalcy!

BIG TRUCKS W/Trailers that picked up the tree waste...these guys were from Missouri! A BIG THANK YOU TO EVERYONE who dropped everything to come down and help get our city back to normal!

More tree waste!
Moving the tree waste over to one side of the street for easier clean up!
Watching the guy clean...but a little apprehensive of the bulldozer!
The guy using a claw to pick up the tree waste!

I'll have more pics soon!

BTW, Paul is on the mend and feeling much better. He did go back to the dr. yesterday to have his liver enzymes checked to make sure the levels were on the way down. We should get the results back friday! Please pray they are down and we are on the mend! It's really been one H-of a month...or better yet, one H-of a year! Sheesh, i'm ready for some good luck and good health!

Need some NORMALCY!

We are all back to normal...but the city is NOT. Our neighborhood is still w/o power except for about 20 houses...thank GOD we are one of those 20 w/power. The streets are now packed full of angry people. The street lights/traffic lights are still not up and running. Lines at fast food restaurants are still horribly packed. Still no gas, or not much. I have been very lucky to not have to drive to much..so i haven't needed gas yet. School is still out and they do NOT know when it will be open b/c of power. Hannah is wanting to go back to school pretty bad. I'm sure when the girls go back it's going to be hard on them since they haven't been in a while. Paul is doing much better. THANK YOU SOO MUCH FOR ALL YOUR THOUGHTS AND PRAYER! EVERYONE has been soo nice and concerned about him. I hope and pray my worries are over and that he's ok! I want our lives to get back to normal sooo bad. I'm sure many of you know how stressful it is to have sick family on top of having to take care of children...o yeah and then to add this hurricane to the mix. It's not fun. Oh yeah and did i mention, my dryer is still not fixed and it started to rain yesterday and we still have the tree branch lodged in the roof b/c our roof is too steep to get it out. SO, we're going to wait for the insurance people to get moving...but i'm sure that could take weeks...maybe more.

Either way, we are so glad to be back to normal. I feel a relief and did the minute Paul was in my car and we were on our way home(even with all the traffic lights out and walgreens drug store running on a massive generator just so people could get their meds).

Please keep praying for our city! It's going to take a LOT of time to get back to normal. Things are just different around here. Everybody is doing the best they can to get things up and running..it's just taking some time. At the same time, people are growing inpatient and wanting their lives to get back to normal. Unlike Katrina, which was a mess b/c of the damn breaking and flood waters. This hurricane did massive damage b/c of the wind, which means power lines down everywhere, trees uprooted everywhere, and just tons of wind damage. I know in my heart everything happens for a reason...but i just can't figure out why. Why was it that two days prior, the weather people still thought it was going Freeport. Why was it that two days before that, we were moving at all b/c we thought this massive storm was going straight to corpus christi?

Either way, thank goodness we are all fine and will recover from this. It will leave a mark on MY life forever...i'm sure i'll remember this one better than i did Alicia since now i'm much older.

Stones instead of pancreatitis...

It's been a busy day today. I am exhausted. We started out at our normal 515a and i haven't stopped all day. Mainly i got up took a shower, got the girls up and dressed, fed everyone breakfast, went to take dirty clothes to wash and fold since we still don't have a dryer, came home got my parents as organized for the day as i could. Paul then called and said they were going to take him back at 10a. THEN called back a few minutes later and said NO, they couldn't find an OR until 1230 or 1p. He then insisted that i go to the store to get some groceries. SO, i did that. Stood in line at the grocery store for a good 2o minutes(When i say in LINE i mean, in a line OUTSIDE the store, just to get IN the store). Got in, bought some groceries...walked out to hear a VM from Paul telling me they found an open OR and were taking him back at 1045. ERR...I then sped home to drop off Paul truck with all the groceries for my poor parents to unload and jumped in My car to rush off to the hospital(thank goodness it's only 5 minutes away from the house). Got there and ran up to the second floor OR. The kind lady told me at 1130ish they had just taken him back...i was a bit shocked since he called me earlier and said they were taking him back right away. I sat in the OR waiting room for about 30-45 minutes(so NOT long at all). The lady came out and said he was out of the OR and wide awake. A few minutes later the dr. came to talk to me. He was talking about 100 miles an hour in DR talk(not a language a normal person could really grasp, when all i was hearing was "yes, he's ok and will be just fine". Sadly, the rest went in one ear and out the other. Mainly, he has stones and they went in with a scope and found them and sucked them out while they were in there. He's fine now but they are keeping him in the hospital overnight again for observation and to take his blood in the morning to make sure his liver enzymes are going down. The dr. said they were FIVE times the norm, b/c the stones were blocking everything up in there. Tomorrow he should be getting out sometime in the morning. I'm ready for him to come home. The girls are really missing him and can't quite figure out why daddy isn't home. I keep telling them he's "at work" b/c that's the only way to explain to 2-2o month old's that he's not coming home today. Poor Hannah is suffering bad. She's mad at him one minute...and crying the next. It's hard for me to deal with. Today she was bawling and then i started crying and told her how much i loved her and what a great wonderful sweet daughter she was...you could tell that brightened her day. She did talk to him later in the day..to tell him all about the mailbox grandpa helped her put together. She's such a sweetie.

Other than that, i'm headed off to bed. I'll update more in the morning. just need a bit of shut eye tonight. As i said earlier, i'm exhausted.

BTW, please pray for Pauls mom tomorrow. She broke her foot while walking a trail in ND a few weeks ago. She just found out today, that she has more breaks than they originally thought and will have foot surgery tomorrow to put a metal plate in it. Right now their trip to S. texas is postponed b/c she can't put any weight on it for 6 weeks! Grandma M, we're all thinking of you and will be praying for you tomorrow!

love,
brenda

ER Visit/Hospitialization & FINALLY a Diagnosis!

Paul's belly started to hurt again. SOO bad that he drove himself to the ER but had a 4-5 hour wait and decided to come home and see what else could be done. He also told me he laid down on the floor in his office today because it hurt soo bad. After sitting in a scary ER for hours & AGAIN being saved by my parents and Prego sister who came over as fast as they could to come help out! Paul has pancretitis...he's in the hospital and will have a scope tomorrow morning. Please pray for him and for the girls. This has been a LONG month and a half of belly aches, ER visits and finally a hospitalization. I'm ready for him to get better! I miss the old non-sick Paul. I've been soo sick to my stomach all the time and worried...i think i'm almost underweight now! UGH! That's what stress does to you! Anyway, i'm headed back up to give him his things and then will go back up very early in the morning to wait for the dr. to scope him. it's going to be a long day for me and THANK GOD my parents have stepped in and taken over and the girls love them to death. And i can't say enough about Jennifer, Jeff & Allison, for coming over and eating, what i'm sure wasn't the best Jack n the box they've had, so i could rush Paul on over to the dr.'s office, which in turn was sent on over to a medical center. I can't say much about the medical center..but i wanted to give the dr. that diagnosed Paul(or semi diagnosed...but i'm pretty sure he's right) a big ole hug so tight i could cut his breath off...for finally helping us find an answer. NOT only that, he jumped through hoops to find a GI dr. to come to the hospital to scope Paul early in the morning...WHAT AN AMAZING DR! Who, by the way, is not even at his own hospital, which was flooded and shut down during the hurricane! AMAZING! I have hope in the dr.'s after all!

I was telling Paul tonight...although we don't know for sure, i feel like half the bricks that have been sitting on my shoulders are lifted..just him being there and having someone get down to the bottom of this all! THANK GOD! This past month and a half has been a nightmare from hell. ER after ER visit...and soo much stress and worrying. Of course Paul can't figure out why i worry so much...but i think that's just a part of being a man...not worrying about things. I, on the other hand, am a worry wart. I worry about EVERYTHING...even things i probably can't change. It's just my nature.

Anyway, Paul is set for the night. I went up to see him..in the darkness of the night since there are still TONS of lights out around here. He was starving. SOOO starving in fact he asked the nurse for some chicken broth! Yeah, the man that had said earlier, i can have soup...like chicken soup or other soups...not just chicken broth. LOL! He was devouring that broth like it was a nice filet of steak at the best steak house in texas! :)

Anyway, Please keep praying for Paul. He really does need your prayers.

During the whole thing..Hannah has made me so proud. She's been such a big help to my mom & dad...and everyone else. I swear she's like a 4 year old baby sitter. She helps soo much..knows where everything is(that may be a bad thing) and is willing to help and step up to the plate like an adult. It's amazing how blessed we are with such a self sufficient little girl.

Also, please keep praying for Houston & Galveston and all the other cities affected by IKE! It was a hit like we've never seen before. BUT, everyone is taking it fairly well. People are very courteous and as nice as they can be during this horrible time for our city.

I have to tell ya'll a short story to end this. As Paul got home today he was in horrible horrible pain. I was freaking out..but keeping my composure. I was so freaked out i went through the drive through for food for everyone and then we took off. On the drive up to the dr. before the ER, most of the lights were out. I have to confess...i have never been one to run a stop sign or light...BUT today i was moving soo fast...i "piggy backed" everyone that was in front of me at every light that was out or blinking. If you don't know what piggy backed is, it's where you just follow right behind the car in front of you instead of come to a complete stop and let the other three ways go first. It was bad...But, i had to. I was soo worried for Paul, i had never seen him SOO sick. Anyway, i felt the need to get that off of my chest...and now i feel much better! :)

Thanks for all your sweet comments...i hope to one day get our lives back to normal and have time to do the fun stuff i've grown to enjoy(checking and commenting on blogs)..but right now it's all about getting Paul well and taking care of my girls.

I took hundreds of shots from IKE.

Here is one from Pauls shop...no fence left there! Blurry...but the play system with stood the rain & wind, but looked like a lake around it!
This is the tree limb that was projected INTO the roof...it's the exact area it's dripping into the house/play room!

The extra antenna hanging off the roof!
The tubs of water from the leaking roof.
Another shot of the tree limb
Pauls shop..no fence left at all!

Our house..no fence left either...funny how much "stuff" our neighbor has hid behind that fence...looks like a junk yard!

All that junk is our neighbors...now i don't wonder why we have so many rats living around here, i KNOW!
Yep, that's me on the roof..cleaning off the leaves. I threatened Paul that if he didn't get well i was going to jump...Ok, maybe not. But he was EXTRA careful that i not get hurt...he didn't want to take care of the kids by HIMSELF...he knows it's not THAT easy! LOL!
All the limbs that were stuck on the roof!


The pile after we were done...it's HUGE!

Another shot.
I'm very very sad to report that we lost our orange tree. It split right down the middle. Anyone know if insurance will replace the orange tree?
Clean yard...Ahh..back to normal.
Clean roof!

And then of course, what would life be around here w/o a fashion show!

Getting ready for the show!

Posing for the camera!
Uh...total model material!

Striking a pose!
Look at that smile...and ne "up do"!Look at that cutie!