Birth of ME

Well, today is my 32nd Birthday. Wow. Firmly planted in my 30s. It is really interesting.

Today is also my husband, Steve's 32nd birthday. Weird, I know.

Friday night we went out to a delicious dinner at Houston's on Kirby. This afternoon I will take my niece Madison to Maddie Brown's 4th birthday party (it's a cowgirl party!!) and then out with Tiff for a fun night of catching up.

I would love to go out and do karaoke with friends VERY soon. Who else wants to sing with me??

Happy Birthdays all Around!!

With the recent visit of Hurricane Ike, I have fallen behind on birthday wishes to special people in my life! Let me take a minute to say





to the following special people:

• September 4 - Aunt Connie - Thank you for letting us crash at your place for a week and enjoy the wonderful whole-house generator! Steve, Pico and I all appreciate it a lot!

• September 11 - My beautiful sister, Sarah - Unfortunately, another tragic event has preempted your birthday... We will celebrate soon. Love you!

• September 13 - Maddie Brown - Happy Birthday, cowgirl! It isn't every day that you turn the big 4!!!

• September 23 - My best friend, Monica - You have always been there for me, and I adore you!

Some upcoming birthdays - 9/26 (Blythe and Chelsea), 9/27 (Myself & Steve)

Power

After 6 days with no power, we finally moved back home Thursday night. We were planning to stay with my mother until the power came back on so we could at least be close to our apartment. I was here about 5:45 pm getting a few things and all of the sudden I heard a hum that had to be electric. Our AC was back on. I ran to the bathroom and flipped on the switch - And there was light. Oh happy day! I was thrilled. I was so tired of being displaced, even though my family was amazing to take us (and 6 other familial refugees) and the dog in for nearly a week. There is just something about being at home in your own bed...

Today (Saturday) I braved the grocery store. Everything in our fridge and freezer had to be thrown out, so I picked up a few replacement items. Life is starting to get back to normal. My family still doesn't have power, and might not until late next week. The whole experience has been exhausting for everyone. I have also seen just how amazing the City of Houston can be. Neighbors helping each other, helping strangers... it is a true testament to the friendliness and love than can be found here.

We had no physical property damage, which was great, but the memory of Ike will linger on for a while. I will upload my pictures from the rest of the storm soon.

Suck It, Ike

I have been without internet since early Saturday morning. I didn't know just how dependent I was on this thing until it was gone.

Hurricane Ike Recap:

The storm came through really early Saturday morning. We had very high winds (110 mph) and rain. About 3 am, I woke up and huddled around a little TV with my Aunt Linda and cousin Lindsey watching Brennan's restaurant burn to the ground. Lindsey was very sad, as her soon-to-be sister-in-law was to have her rehearsal dinner there in just a week's time.

We awoke Saturday morning to find that Larry & Connie's fences had not survived the night, but no other damage to speak of. It continued to rain for a while, but we had a generator, light,s and air conditioning, so we were very fortunate. Sunday afternoon, we cleaned up all of the leaves and branches and enjoyed the cool front that blew through.

Yesterday, we were all still hanging out since work was cancelled. Steve and I have still not been back to our apartment. We have been told there is no power and not to bother coming back home for a few days. My best friend's mother drove by our place and said there didn't appear to be any damage. I may try to run down there tonight and check things out. I am at work today, so at least I have internet.

I do have a ton of things we would like to mock about the media's coverage of the storm, but it is still a little too fresh. I will give it a few days. But, for now, we are safe and sound.

Hurricane Ike - Update

Well, we ended up evacuating. When I woke up this morning, I just didn't feel right staying so close to the storm surge. Blah. I tried to get my mother to come in with us to my aunt & uncle's house, but she refused. I did not want to leave her, but short of konking her on the head and stuffing her into the trunk (which I did not do, FBI search bot), I had to go.


My family's house is far enough into Houston where we shouldn't have any trouble with water (I hope) but we might get some wind. I don't know what will happen at our apartment. I am keeping my fingers crossed and hoping for the best.

But meanwhile, we have been having a blast making fun of reporters, and stupid reporter buzz words. I will soon have a blog post of annoying phrases we never want to hear again. Stay tuned!!


Here are a few pictures of our evacuation and Hurricane party, so far:

Pico evacuated

Lindsey & Linda preparing the essentials - beer & junk food

Preparing to "hunker down" and "shelter in place"

Watching the news... bashing reporters

Chillaxin'

The wind... uh... not blowing

Faux-reporter, Aunt Linda, being blown away by the power of the storm

The twins - Aunt Linda and Uncle Larry

Hunkered Down - Blessitt Style (Liz, Lindsey, Linda, & Connie)

The Flying Nun

The Boys are playing Wii

Lindsey is Big Pimpin'

Wii Baseball Showdown - Doug vs. Steve

I just know I will regret making fun of this later. I am very concerned about the condition of my apartment. This is just a way to keep from thinking about it.

PSA - The media in Houston is ridiculous.

Hurricane Ike

I am so sick of hurricane season. Remind me again WHY I live on the Gulf Coast?? I guess there are dangerous acts of nature anywhere, but this storm season has been pretty stressful. Of course, the media plays right into that. OH MY GOD!!! WE ARE ALL GOING TO BE WIPED OUT! FLEE!! Oops... nothing. The hurricane that was supposed to hit us last week - Gustav... not one single drop of rain.

But Ikey boy seems to be bearing down on us, and I am not sure we will be so lucky this time. This morning, they posted a mandatory evacuation for my zip code starting at noon today. I am not going to be stuck in the evacuation nightmare like we did with Rita in 2005. 9 hours to get to College Station (usually 1.5 hours, tops). This time, I think we are going to ride out the storm at my mother's house. It is a little further south than I would like, but she has it baracaded like a fortress, and bought a generator after Rita... so, hopefully things will be ok. If it looks really bad, we will high-tail it over to my aunt's house on the West side of Houston.

But, I will say this... apparently, it take a hurricane to get me to FINALLY clean out my spare bedroom. But, it is clean now! Now I just need to finish moving things off the porch and we will be all ready. Stupid storm. Grrrrrr.

A Beautiful Day for the Park

On Saturday, Sarah and I decided to take Madison to the park. She is 14 months old now and very active! Maddy and I went to pick Sarah up at work during her lunch hour and we went over to Hermann Park. It was a gorgeous day. It wasn't hot, for once, and there was very little humidity! It really was a perfect day!! Here are a few pictures, but you can see them all on my SmugMug site under Children>Madison 1 year old.

A good time was had by all! I am looking forward to our next outting - Maddie Brown's Cowgirl Birthday Party!!