Ike update

Hello everyone! We are very lucky because we're all ok. We rode out the storm at our house with my parents, brothers and sister-in-law. Our home sustained no damage at all. The streets are full of fallen trees, branches, debris and such—a lot—everywhere you look. We haven't had any power since Saturday at 1am. Our fridge is melting away and we obviously had to get rid of everything we had in there. I'm writing this from my parent's house where we are since this morning.

The storm itself was fierce. The power of the wind was incredible. I've never experienced anything like that. Fortunately, we were all so exhausted that we slept through most of it. I'm glad the kids didn't hear any of it. We didn't have to deal with them being scared. Typically I sleep like a log. Nothing wakes me up. Interestingly I woke up because all of the sudden there was no noise. Basically, we were in the eye of the hurricane. That must have been around 5am (Saturday). I was tempted to get up and take a peek but sleep won over curiosity.

In the morning, we all sat out on our mini-porch and enjoyed the remaining gusts of wind (probably still about 40mph). It felt great because the fact that we had no AC was starting to take its toll. By mid-morning we all fell asleep again to get some real rest.

My parents really wanted to know the condition of their home so they took off by mid-afternoon. It turns out that they live in one of the few areas that do have power. We have no idea when our electricity will be up and running.

Judging by what we've heard on the news and what we saw on our way here, we were extremely lucky. I feel so badly for those that have lost their homes to the flooding. It's all a huge mess further south from us. Please keep all those people in your thoughts and prayers.

Thank you for all your messages. It was so heart warming to get them this morning - when my iPhone finally was able to pick up a signal. I was on Twitter until all signals went down and hadn't been able to post anything until today.

All in all I can't complain. I do want the comfort of getting back to our routine but in the meantime it definitely doesn't hurt to be at my Mom's house.

How are the Houston/South East Texas area bloggers - Dang & Blast, Sarah, Tisa, anyone else? Check in whenever you can. I hope that you're all doing well.