Ike, yikes!

So I’m a little behind – mostly because of Hurricane Ike but I’ll do my best to catch up!

Things have actually been pretty good despite the hurricane – overall it’s the aftermath of Ike that is still a hassle but we were very lucky so I feel very blessed! I was at the house for the actual storm, along with Curt’s mom, stepdad, stepbrother, and stepbrother’s friend so we had a house full! We lost power the night of the hurricane, and we all tried to tough it out, but they all left for Ledbetter and I followed about a day and half later (Curt’s grandparents place is there).

By the time I got to Ledbetter Curt’s mom and fam had gone back to Clear Lake as they had power, so I spent the rest of the week there relaxing and hanging out with Nonnie, PaPa, and Heidi (Curt’s Aunt) and they are just awesome. We watched movies, I slept a LOT (I also happened to get sick soon after Ike which was another wrench) to recover, and we went antiquing and exploring, it was a ton of fun! Maverick and Kinsley had a great time, too – Kinsley is their beautiful chocolate cocker spaniel and he’s adorable. They were fast friends!

Through the actual storm, though, I was totally scared… I kept listening for the freight train sound (signal of oncoming tornado) as hurricanes spawn tornados, and the wind was whipping HUGE trees around like they were noodles. The house shook from the wind and although I did sleep, I woke up often to check on things in general. The transformer blew at around 4:30 a.m. on Friday night so then the fun began… Like I said though we didn’t have any damage, just an oleander bush that was flattened to the ground, which is now tied and staked upright again and looks like it will be fine, so far!

Curt is now back from China (on Monday night) and has yet to get on the roof to make sure we have all of our shingles, etc. but we were definitely lucky!

And yes, Curt was in China the entire time, and I was in Dallas for training right before Ike – the Houston participants all rushed home on Thursday/Friday and I was SUPPOSED to go to China on Saturday morning, which of course didn’t happen because Ike was a big ol’ monster… by the time the airlines could get me out (Tuesday was the earliest) I would have only had a few days before it would have been time to turn around and hop on a plane back with Curt, so China didn’t happen. I of course was bummed but it’s not the end of the world as I’ll probably get another chance sometime this fall (I hope?).

So in the aftermath of everything I’m thinking it will take quite awhile to restock the fridge/freezer as literally everything had to go unless it was soda or something, and what is crazier is a lot of Houston is still without power so it’s hard for us to get back to normal. Traffic is awful, and the mood in the air is definitely still in recovery mode… some of the pictures are just unbelievable! My heart goes out to the many who lost anything and everything – how devastating. Here's a link someone forwarded me via email that has a lot of pictures to give an idea at how much destruction there is: Click Here for pics.

Besides Ike, all is well and things are beginning to return to normal. I’ve been out trying to rollerblade since the hurricane which is comical as there is so much debris on the paths that it really is hazardous. I am pretty good at rollerblading (no tricks or anything crazy) but I can go fast and I don’t fall (knock on wood) but I had some pretty funny recoveries over the past few days when I couldn’t avoid every single twig! LOL! On my “route” there are currently 3 huge trees that block my way so I literally have to climb over them… last night I got attacked by mosquitoes so I was trying to go super fast, swat my entire body, avoid twigs so jumping and swerving, and trying not to fall… sigh! But it’s fine which is why I do it…

Other than that it’s great to have Curt home and to start Fall activities… Fall is my FAVORITE season so I’m looking forward to everything that comes with it. Football has already begun (yea), Young Life is starting, Renaissance Festival is set for October, and we also have our anniversary as well as a trip to NYC. It’s gonna be great!

And as a sidenote, I have a few new favorite songs that I can’t get enough of:

Forever – Chris Brown
Come on Get Higher – Matt Nathanson
Famous in a Small Town – Miranda Lambert
Love Story – Taylor Swift

Love them!

Tasha xx