Sunday, September 21, 2008
100th post
We started this blog in July of 2006, before Brian was born. We didn't know then how much "blogging" would catch on, but we love being able to share our thoughts and pictures with our friends and family around the world. Here's a not so quick family recap to celebrate post number 100!
Go Us!
Due to the aftermath and cleanup of Hurricane Ike, school has been out this past week and Paul has been working at home all week. We've had the opportunity to hang out at home quite a bit and have gotten a lot accomplished. Here's some of what we have done.
BOTH:
We went to my moms house and helped her clean out all the food from her freezers (the power was out for too long there) and checked out her lake house. Luckily neither home sustained any major damage, she just lost some food and her 30 year old freezer never came back on. Thursday night we went out on a date and tried a new Latin restaurant we had coupons for and rented some movies, Lars and the Real Girl and Juno. Both shows were....thought provoking. We enjoyed them, but thought they were "interesting."
JEN:
My mom is a great cook and she taught me well. I cook a lot and enjoy it (dishes are something else though!) After this storm I helped mom make 30+ jars of strawberry jam since the berries had been in her freezer and were now defrosted. YUMMM!!!
One thing my mom doesn't cook though, and therefore never taught me how to make, is bread. I checked out a book from the library called The Best Make Ahead Recipe which talks about foods you can make ahead of time and put in the fridge for a few days or in the freezer for a month and I decided to be brave and make some bread. The rolls never really rose, I don't think it got warm enough in my kitchen, but I kept trying and decided to make cinnamon rolls and they turned out pretty good. I was proud of myself for being brave and trying bread!
Paul:
Granted Katy TX wasn't hit as hard as east Houston, but there were still some trees down, fences blown over, and roof damage. Paul went out on Saturday, Sunday, and Monday and helped folks clean up. He got to put his new chain saw to use. (purchased 3 years ago after hurrican Rita, just in case) One of the neighbors captured some pictures of him cutting down an uprooted oak tree in their backyard. There will be many weekends filled with 'work parties' going to east Houston to help clean out homes, and clean up debris.
BOTH:
We went to my moms house and helped her clean out all the food from her freezers (the power was out for too long there) and checked out her lake house. Luckily neither home sustained any major damage, she just lost some food and her 30 year old freezer never came back on. Thursday night we went out on a date and tried a new Latin restaurant we had coupons for and rented some movies, Lars and the Real Girl and Juno. Both shows were....thought provoking. We enjoyed them, but thought they were "interesting."
JEN:
My mom is a great cook and she taught me well. I cook a lot and enjoy it (dishes are something else though!) After this storm I helped mom make 30+ jars of strawberry jam since the berries had been in her freezer and were now defrosted. YUMMM!!!
One thing my mom doesn't cook though, and therefore never taught me how to make, is bread. I checked out a book from the library called The Best Make Ahead Recipe which talks about foods you can make ahead of time and put in the fridge for a few days or in the freezer for a month and I decided to be brave and make some bread. The rolls never really rose, I don't think it got warm enough in my kitchen, but I kept trying and decided to make cinnamon rolls and they turned out pretty good. I was proud of myself for being brave and trying bread!
Paul:
Granted Katy TX wasn't hit as hard as east Houston, but there were still some trees down, fences blown over, and roof damage. Paul went out on Saturday, Sunday, and Monday and helped folks clean up. He got to put his new chain saw to use. (purchased 3 years ago after hurrican Rita, just in case) One of the neighbors captured some pictures of him cutting down an uprooted oak tree in their backyard. There will be many weekends filled with 'work parties' going to east Houston to help clean out homes, and clean up debris.
Once we got the minivan we cleaned out one side of the garage to put it in, but we hadn't bought a garage door opener until last week. The garage was pre-wired for it (we are pretty sure the previous owners took the garage door openers with them when they left!) so we thought it would be easy to install. Paul got to use his circular saw, his dremmel tool and lots of other tools so he was pretty happy. We actually had a difficult time with the wiring because it wasn't labeled, but we finally got it done and we are SO happy! Now we just have to clean out the other half of the garage and HOPE we can fit Paul's car in. The garage is really quite small though, so with the workbench and bicycles and tools and such we aren't sure if it will fit or not.
Also, my computer which I purchased in 2000 finally went the way of all the earth. (Anyone know of any good electronic recycling programs?) We purchased a very inexpensive pc, and continue to use our old 17" monintor. Paul set it up and configured it with all the software we use and cleaned off all the garbage software that we don't. It's much faster and has much more capacity than my old computer. I hope it lasts me another 8 years.
Also, my computer which I purchased in 2000 finally went the way of all the earth. (Anyone know of any good electronic recycling programs?) We purchased a very inexpensive pc, and continue to use our old 17" monintor. Paul set it up and configured it with all the software we use and cleaned off all the garbage software that we don't. It's much faster and has much more capacity than my old computer. I hope it lasts me another 8 years.
Sexy Huh!
Sunday, September 14, 2008
We blogged too soon?
We thought our adventure was over yesterday afternoon when the power came back on, but not quite. Early this morning, like 3:30am or so, a huge thunderstorm came through our part of town. The power went out again and when we woke up this morning our rain gauge had overflowed, meaning we had received OVER 5 inches overnight. Parts of the city are flooding again, but our street is nice and clear. We are very pleased with how our neighborhood has fared with the storm. Power and water were restored about 10:30am so we were only inconvenienced for about 7 more hours.
We drove around Katy today and saw TONS of fences down, tree branches down, whole trees snapped in half or uprooted, traffic signs and lights down...Katy wasn't hit very bad at all, but there still was a lot of damage and we got off pretty easy. Paul is out with our church group helping clean up now. I bet he'll have even more stories to tell when he gets home. My mom is still without power in her house, and while there is no damage to her home, there is tons of debris in her yard. If her power doesn't come back soon she'll loose the food in her 4 fridges and freezers.
Let's hope this is the end of our adventure, but again, we can't complain, we feel pretty blessed.
We drove around Katy today and saw TONS of fences down, tree branches down, whole trees snapped in half or uprooted, traffic signs and lights down...Katy wasn't hit very bad at all, but there still was a lot of damage and we got off pretty easy. Paul is out with our church group helping clean up now. I bet he'll have even more stories to tell when he gets home. My mom is still without power in her house, and while there is no damage to her home, there is tons of debris in her yard. If her power doesn't come back soon she'll loose the food in her 4 fridges and freezers.
Let's hope this is the end of our adventure, but again, we can't complain, we feel pretty blessed.
Saturday, September 13, 2008
We survived IKE!
For those who read our blog who live near us, you can probably skip this entry, it's similar to several of the entries you have posted already. But for our friends and family who don't live in Houston, here's our summary of what we experienced with Hurricane Ike.
The good thing about hurricanes is that you know they are coming, you can track them, and you can be prepared. The bad thing about hurricanes (other than the obvious) is that you wait and wait and get nervous and nervous. That's where I sat with Ike. Thursday at 1pm the tracking models showed the eye of the storm would pass directly over our home, go to my moms house, then continue to her place at Lake Conroe. Great! But tracking models change a lot and by later that evening the experts had it on the track it would stay on and actually take, going through East Houston, not West.
Paul had the day off on Friday as the entire city was essentially shut down for preparations. The coast began seeing huge waves pretty early and we sat and waited for the rain. We made sure all our preparations were in place, including packing a bag for each of us in the car just in case we had to leave at a moment's notice. We nervously sat around all day, all afternoon and all evening...nothing happened.
At 11pm the electricity flickered and we decided it was time to get down to business and bring the sleeping kids down to our room for the night, Aaron on a bed on the floor and Brian in bed with us. The power did finally go out at 11:30pm and we saw our first drops of rain about midnight. Brian tossed and turned all night, so between that and the storm Paul and I didn't sleep well. The wind and the rain was pretty intense, kinda scary at times, but wasn't nearly as bad as it could have been.
In surveying the damage after the fact, we've lost a few dozen shingles, received 4 3/4 inches rain, were without power for 15.5 hours and didn't have running water for probably 12 hours. That's it! Our fence is fine, our windows are fine, we are fine, we really can't complain. Several others in our ward had tree or fence damage, some evacuated, but everyone we know of is fine. There are parts of town that have major damage, especially those nearer the water and those directly in the path of the storm, but we feel very blessed.
Here's some pics we took of our "damage" such as it was.
The good thing about hurricanes is that you know they are coming, you can track them, and you can be prepared. The bad thing about hurricanes (other than the obvious) is that you wait and wait and get nervous and nervous. That's where I sat with Ike. Thursday at 1pm the tracking models showed the eye of the storm would pass directly over our home, go to my moms house, then continue to her place at Lake Conroe. Great! But tracking models change a lot and by later that evening the experts had it on the track it would stay on and actually take, going through East Houston, not West.
Paul had the day off on Friday as the entire city was essentially shut down for preparations. The coast began seeing huge waves pretty early and we sat and waited for the rain. We made sure all our preparations were in place, including packing a bag for each of us in the car just in case we had to leave at a moment's notice. We nervously sat around all day, all afternoon and all evening...nothing happened.
At 11pm the electricity flickered and we decided it was time to get down to business and bring the sleeping kids down to our room for the night, Aaron on a bed on the floor and Brian in bed with us. The power did finally go out at 11:30pm and we saw our first drops of rain about midnight. Brian tossed and turned all night, so between that and the storm Paul and I didn't sleep well. The wind and the rain was pretty intense, kinda scary at times, but wasn't nearly as bad as it could have been.
In surveying the damage after the fact, we've lost a few dozen shingles, received 4 3/4 inches rain, were without power for 15.5 hours and didn't have running water for probably 12 hours. That's it! Our fence is fine, our windows are fine, we are fine, we really can't complain. Several others in our ward had tree or fence damage, some evacuated, but everyone we know of is fine. There are parts of town that have major damage, especially those nearer the water and those directly in the path of the storm, but we feel very blessed.
Here's some pics we took of our "damage" such as it was.
Saturday, September 06, 2008
Silver Streak
Today was Aaron's very first soccer game. 3-on-3 soccer with 4 year olds is a lot of fun. Let the pictures speak for themselves. One thing I might not have mentioned. I (Paul) am the coach. I haven't played soccer since I was 10. My understanding of the game is just above that of my players. But... we have fun!
Falling down the stairs
The first time I heard Brian flying down the stairs I jumped up and ran to see the crying mangled boy at the bottom of the stairs. Instead I see a laughing, smiling, "I love you daddy!" Still the sound of him going down the stairs like this can make me jump.
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