The Adseros: September 2008

Wednesday, September 17, 2008

The Flight from Hurricane Ike

Hurricane season is just over half way through, but I'm ready for it to be over! Matt and I spend a lot of time watching the weather channel to see if the latest tropical storm from off the western coast of Africa is headed our way or not. We've had several scares, but Hurricane Ike was the real deal. We initially thought that Ike was going to head further south towards Corpus Christi, but Wednesday night, September 10th, we were watching the weather channel with our neighbors in Beaumont, and heard it was headed towards the Houston area. Our neighbors ate dinner with us and then jumped in their car and went to Dallas. Late Wednesday night, Matt and I hurried back to Houston to grab our important documents, and our 72 hour kit and move our journals and photo albums to higher ground in case our apartment flooded. We slept there that night and then headed back to Beaumont early in the morning so Matt could make it to work.

As we made our way onto the freeway, the Mayor's voice came over the radio and listed off 15 or so zip codes that were under mandatory evacuation. He said that those who did not heed the warning would be in danger of imminent death. Our apartment is 50 miles from the coast so we weren't in danger of flooding due to the 20' wave surge that pounded Galveston, but who knew what kind of rain there would be? We weren't about to stick around to find out. As we continued to drive, my heart was racing. We wanted to beat the crowds that would soon be leaving Houston. I kind of felt like we were in a movie called "Apocalypse". I know that I can be a little on the dramatic side sometimes. For Houston locals, they rarely take hurricane warnings too seriously cause a lot of times they fizzle or change direction. Some people didn't even leave Galveston!

After we were nearly half way to Beaumont, Matt's boss called him to tell him work was cancelled, and all of Beaumont was under mandatory evacuation. We hustled back to Beaumont, stuffed our clothes in a bag, jumped in the car and left, not knowing where we were going to go. As we were leaving, we saw several other people with their cars loaded up, and lines and lines of people waiting to get gas. We had to decide fast where to go so we could get on the freeway and beat most of the people. Since we had a long weekend, Matt suggested we make a vacation of it and go visit his sister, Jenny, and her family in Chattanooga, Tennessee....so we did. It took us 13 hours!!!!

Here are some photos of our vacation:

The bridge that crosses the Mississippi River near Baton Rouge, LA.

The family crossing the freakiest bridge of all time (the picture doesn't do it justice) heading to Fall Creek Falls:

Madison and Hunter on a big rock:

Hunter, Chris, Madison, Jenny and Matt:

Fall Creek Falls (check out the people swimming and on the rocks at the bottom to get the scale of how big this thing is):

The kids playing with Lucy and living their dream of having a dog:

We had a lot of fun in Tennessee, but after a few days, it was time to go and face reality. On our drive back, we saw bazillions cherry-pickers and other emergency response vehicles heading towards Houston. It was amazing to see the support from neighboring states in times of crisis.

As we neared Beaumont (which is right near the LA and TX border), we saw many sights similar to the trampoline stuck in the electrical wires shown below.

There were fallen trees EVERYWHERE. It's no wonder that 2 million people were without power!

This is our apartment complex in Beaumont. There was siding and shutters EVERYWHERE! Lots of trees were uprooted.

Matt's car that we left in Beaumont could have been destroyed by the fence, but it held on by a nail or two.

Those of you who have read previous blogs of ours may recognize this picture. This is the view from our apartment BEFORE the hurricane:

This is the view AFTER the hurricane:

Since the power had been out for days in both Houston and Beaumont, we were welcomed home by two putrid refrigerators. Matt and I were unaware that milk turns yellow and translucent when unrefrigerated. We had lots of meat juices in our freezer and nasty spinach juices to clean up.

Many gas stations on our drive home looked like the one shown below. This problem even reached into Tennessee. Closer to Houston, the issue maybe wasn't that there was literally no gas but that there was no power to pump the gas.

Other gas stations that did happen to have power and gas had half a mile long lines and cops directing people to the pumps. SO NUTSO!!!

Much of the neighborhood surrounding our apartment looked like this. Several large trees fell, and sometimes on houses. There is still lots of cleanup to do.

Matt and I were prepared to be without power for as long as it took. We cooked our first meal on our camp stove on our deck. Just as we finished eating, the power came back on. Cheers could be heard from all over the apartment complex. Things are more or less back to normal at our Houston apartment, but Matt still doesn't have work in Beaumont and it has been said that it may be into October before all of Beaumont has power. More than anything, this experience has made me so grateful for the prophet's council to be prepared financially, spiritually, and with food storage for when disasters strike. The food storage Matt and I have collected since moving here is meager but, we've been trying and have been blessed for it. There were many people lined up at Red Cross stations around Beaumont and Houston in desperate need of food and water, but we weren't one of them!

Monday, September 8, 2008

Love Bug Haters

NOTE: The following blog is rated M (for mature audiences only).

These are love bugs...and we hate them! Love bugs, for those of you who do not live on the Gulf Coast, are much like Box Elder bugs, however, they do not live as long (thank goodness), and while they are alive, they are copulating the whole time....hence the name. They even continue to mate while in flight. They really are quite curious. Love bugs come out in swarms twice a year...late Spring and late Summer. On our commute between Beaumont and Houston, we encountered quite a few. The love bug killing machine and Matt are pictured below:

Our license plate:

A close up of the love bug graveyard that is the front of our car:

So why do we hate love bugs? Well, it took us HOURS to scrape them off our car. If you don't get them off immediately, their guts do permanent damage to your paint job. So...we're love bug haters. For more information about love bugs, please refer to: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Love_bug.

Thursday, September 4, 2008

One Year Down....

One year down and a bazillion to go. It's funny how time works...sometimes it seems long, and sometimes it seems short, but it never seems quite the length of time that it actually has been. Some may disagree...for instance, when I informed my dad over the phone that our first year anniversary was approaching, I said, "Can you believe it's been a year, dad?" and he pragmatically and unenthusiastically replied, "Well, yeah...it seems like it's been about a year". That's dad for you though, doesn't get too riled up about much of anything (except while driving and playing sports, of course, and then he starts calling people sons of bunnies and sugar muffins). When I reflect on what's happened this past year: two thesis' completed, two graduations, full time jobs, trip to Hong Kong, moving to Houston, moving to Beaumont etc etc the year seems like it's been pretty long. When I think about last summer, and returning home from our study abroad it doesn't seem like a year at all. Well, regardless, we're excited to have a year under our belts.

We celebrated by eating cinnamon rolls and lemon cake for breakfast. I gave Matt some sunglasses, and a guitar stand. He gave me 3 pair of good scissors. We have one pair of butcher scissors that previously met all our cutting needs: opening various packages, cutting my hair, sewing, art projects, wrapping birthday presents and sometimes they were used for what they were meant to do...cutting meat. Gross?? Matt thought so, but I'd always bleach them between uses. Don't worry. So you think our gifts aren't very romantic, huh? Well they're not, and neither are we. Matt and I LOVE practical gifts and just keeping it real in general. Let it be known that Matt did throw in a bouquet of lillies lest ye think it was altogether non-romantic.

We then drove downtown to the natural science museum and looked at lots of bugs and butterflies. The butterfly atrium was 3 stories tall with a waterfall that fell all three storis. Pretty awesome. Matt and I decided after watching a video clip there that we want to be bee keepers when we settle down in a house for a few years. I'll let you know how that goes. Here are some photos of what we saw:

Stick Bugs:

Roaches:

Millipedes:

Lots of Butterflies:

In the afternoon, we attended the baptism of Darin Garrett. I worked at Darin's costume shop for a few weeks doing alterations and whatever else there was to do around the shop. Darin is so awesome, and really has such a great testimony. As a missionary, I always hoped that my converts would have the kind of testimony that Darin does. I spoke at his baptism and Matt baptized him. We finished the day out with a good meal at Pappasitos. Yum!!! All in all...a pretty good day and a pretty good year.

Highlights of the Adsero Family Reunion Table Rock Lake, Missouri August 6-9th 2008

Here is Jared giving someone the tube ride of their life while Jenny watches calmly in the shade:

Here are the baby cousin cuties (Drew (L) and Noa (R)):

Matt and Hanna chillin' like villians:

The Adsero Family cooling off in the biggest bathroom in the Ozarks (L-R: Hunter, Grandpa Richard, Hanna, Marie, Noa, and Gammy Laila in the corner):

Kylie and Madison carefully giving Lucy her favorite treat...ice cubes!!!:

Laila taking care of the babies as usual:

Dare devils Chris and Hunter rasing all heck on the tube:

Madison, Marrissa and Kylie looking VERY happy before the fateful incodent that will not be soon forgotten by Kylie:

Steve, Marissa and baby Drew:

Babes in the sun, Kylie and Madison:

Wednesday, September 3, 2008

Ren Jian Sheng

After communicating with one of our ward members, Alan, for over a year via the internet, Ren Jian Sheng came to Houston in July. They had met face to face previously, but just three days after her arrival, they decided to get married. A month later she decided to get baptized, and requested that I speak at her baptism. Her English isn't super, and he doesn't speak Chinese, but it works for them! I had the priviledge of getting to know her quite well between their marriage and her baptism. We became fast friends since I was the first person she met in America that could speak Chinese. I was nervous speaking in Chinese, but it was such an awesome feeling to be there. It reminded me so much of my mission. She is so humble and sweet.

The day before she got married, she and I went to an art gallery in downtown Houston. On the drive and told her about eternal marriage and how it's different. She said she wanted to get married in the temple. I told her that she could only go there a year after she got baptized. She said then, that she wanted to be baptized, and I told her generally what all that entailed but she was so willing and excited! So sweet!! She is a professor in China and can't retire for another few years, so she went back to China the day after she got baptized for the next semester. Alan, meanwhile, has to stay here and work, but we started having chinese classes at our house, so he's learning chinese. What fun!

The Beaumont Abode

Here is our Beaumont Apartment. Matt and I will be staying here 5 days a week for the next 5 months while he works on a Liquified Natural Gas (LNG though I commonly refer to it as his LGN project) terminal. You can see Lucy on our deck on the second floor. Exxon is paying for everything including groceries! The apartment came furnished. Here it is:

A view from the front door:

The Living Room/Office: (Really not all that bad...except the couch is kinda a "taco couch")

Our Kitchen: (The washer and dryer are in the closet. We have hardly any dishes, so it stays pretty clean in there)

The Bedroom: (It has a nice walk-in closet and a big window)

The Bathroom: (I don't love that there are two doors...one from the dining room and one from the bedroom. The bathroom doors always collide with the door to our bedroom)

The Deck: (We love that Lucy can go out there and watch the world go by. She'll spend hours out there and not mind)

The View: (This is from our balcony...not so bad minus the dumpster)