Closing out the IKE chapter of our Lives...

It's finally come to a close. NOT for some people...but for our family it has ended. The IKE chapter is finally over. Power has been restored to the entire neighborhood...school is opening Monday. Now, don't get me wrong. We still have many things left to do, to really get our family back to normal. We still have a roof with a limb projected into it, a fence completly down on one entire side of the house, and many places inside that will need to be patched up-where water came through into the house. BUT, those are all small things...and i can't tell you how greatful i am that we are all safe and sound and have our home is in one piece.

I pray daily for those that have lost everything. One of my very good friends/neighbors, had a church friend that lost their entire house...when i mean lost i mean completely GONE...nothing left but the steps that go up into the house and the 2 x 4's holding up the bottom floor. The house was GONE. The power lines were GONE...nothing left. To those people, i am praying for you to make peace with this...and move on, rebuild and THANK GOD that most lives were spared.

Our city will probably take years to rebuild and repair...there will be signs of IKE everywhere we go. This won't go away in a day or so. This won't even go away once everyone has power. It will take years to move on and put this all in the back of our mind. I know it's something i will never forget...we LIVED through it. We braved the storm, rain, wind and one day i'm sure we'll brave another one. In the back of my mind i keep wondering if hannah will remember this. Will she remember us being up all night...getting the girls up in the pitch black of the night and all moving out to the living room to try to get an hour or two of sleep...while the wind was whipping 90-100 mph and gusting more than that, while i would push at the front door during a wind gust and it sounded like a freight train until i pushed really hard, then it stopped. Will she remember sitting in the little side window trying to see through the bushes that hit the front of our house...watching as the LARGEST TREE in our yard swayed like a noodle, almost wondering if it would fall right on our house...right into the girls bedroom, where they should have been sleeping. THANK GOD, Paul thought fast and pushed to get them up and move them to a safe room. I don't even want to think about the what if's of that...of the tree falling right on the girls room.

I want to apologize to my hubby for making fun of him and telling him it was RIDICULOUS to have the generator guy come out and get that all house generator working. WOW...was i wrong on that one. I'm embarassed to say that WE could have been w/0 power for a few days(OUR real power came on the following Tuesday, and YES, we were the ones everyone probably hated...all house generator AND electricity restored)...instead, because of my wonderful awesome hubby, we had power hours after the storm finished marking it's territory. We were very lucky. We may have blown out a clothes dryer and a/c unit...but that generator REALLY saved us. We had a/c, we saved all our food, we had a few lights to see, and most importantly, we had our 60 inch T.V.! LOL! Ok, so maybe i went a bit far with the T.V. thing...but we did need it to see the news and keep up with the news conferences about IKE!

Now, we begin the waiting process. We wait and wait and wait for our good ole' insurance company to call to make arrangements for our repairs. We had two fence guys come out and give us estimates on a new fence...still waiting on that to come back. Then we need to get a roofer to come out and give us estimates on roofing and see if we need a new roof or just some shingles replaced. I'm guessing and hoping that we'll get a new roof...there were shingles strewn all over the yard...so the chances are high, we'll get a new roof.

I'm not one to cuss on my blog, since i plan to let Hannah and the twins read through it one day, but i saw a very humorous post from a fellow Houston blogger that i had to quote. She was driving through her neighborhood(in Garden Oaks right by the girls school) and took a pic of a house with the following quote on their boarded up window:"GO HOME IKE, TINA'S MY BITCH NOW"! Now, i'm embarassed to say, when i first saw the quote, i had no idea what that house was talking about. I guess that means i'm a little younger than the owner of that house. BUT, my husband reminded me that Ike & Tina were a couple back when, and then it all fell into place. Every once in a while that little sign sticks out in my head and it makes me giggle. Who would have thought about that while we were preparing for a Hurricane? Ah, the humor...i love it. Still thinking about it, makes me giggle!

On that note, i have a few last pics to post. I think i must have posted hundreds of pics of this event...i've turned into a MAJOR camera freak. Rob, Stacey's husband(our neighbors), was laughing at me today, as i was picking the few pecans we have left in the front yard with the girls & a camera hanging around my neck. I guess it's just something i really want to remember b/c i know it's a day in time that most will talk about forever. I mean people still talk about Alicia like

it was yesterday, so IKE isn't going to be any different.

BYE BYE CENTER POINT ENGERY! THANK YOU! There were Power trucks ALL over our neighborhood for the past TWO days...it was the best sound ever!This is our HERO..My new secret boyfriend...our all house generator. I thought he deserved a pic since he helped us save our sanity for the few days our power was out. We're actually now contemplating putting our house on the market sooner than later. There have to be tons of people looking for a house with a generator like this right now & the housing market in Houston just isn't as bad as they say...so we'll see.

This is the tree that was swaying like a noodle..you truly wouldn't believe how scared we were when we saw this tree moving in the wind. I really thought it was going to crash on the house and still think the circular drive saved it. Since there is all that concrete around the tree roots...i just don't think it could have come up with any amount of wind...but you never know.

This tree is not getting cut down no matter what...Paul is 100% sure it saves us TONS of money on our a/c bill since it covers the entire house. Part of my orange tree didn't make it...SOO SAD!
BUT, the other side is hanging in there...and look at my oranges! AWESOME!!!Darn tree split right down the middle...ERRR..soo sad. But that side is still looking good so far. And one last thing...today as we were walking in to the house we found our little humming bird had rammed into the back windows one too many times. It was soo sad. Paul found him right by the window. Hannah was very sad...and if i had known we would have got rid of him before she saw him. I kept wondering why they weren't swarming today and watching the nectar feeder like starving vultures...soo sad.

Also, wish us luck as we get back into our routine this week. Tomorrow is Hannah's first day back..and the girls start Tuesday, which means getting up at 515 for me and 545 for the girls..who by the way slept until 7AM this morning. WHOA, i couldn't believe it! I don't know what i'm going to do with myself on Tuesday...one full day of no children in home after almost 5 weeks(between the hurricane and pooping virus). Hmm...i hear Target calling my name already!