Hurricane Ike

Most of you know that Hurricane Ike hit Houston this past week. Tim, Chris' brother, and his family are all safe. Lydia was worried about Tim, b/c he is a police officer in the city of Houston and while everyone else was evacuating he stayed to help. He was exhausted, but safe.

We also felt the affects of Ike. It came through here Sunday afternoon into the night. We left for church and there was a strong wind blowing. While waiting for Caleb to finish up with the youth group the top of a huge evergreen tree fell onto the service road leading to the church. When we left the men had it under control, but as we rounded the church we saw another beautiful tree laying on it's side. It wasn't blocking the road, so we were able to leave. We were over half way home when we saw a firetruck. It was leaving the scene of a fire along the road...hmmm. When we passed the guardrail, it was black and still smoking from the electrical line that had fallen on it b/c of a downed tree. We thought we would probably not have power when we got home. Correct assumption. When we arrived here the back patio was a complete mess. I got a picture half way through the clean up. We had to secure our plants and keep our swing from flying away. The mudroom where the dogs stay while we are gone has no windows. The dogs were completely stressed by the time we arrived home. Lydia had to calm and reassure them. It was amazing b/c when Lydia took them out to do their business neither would do anything. They sat at complete attention aware that something was wrong.

I also got a picture of the neighbor's trees. This past summer I really felt a need to get them cut back. When we had the ice storm several years back the pine tree had several branches that fell off, one of which broke our bedroom window. There were several branches that didn't break, but afterward they hung much lower than before. I had a tree service come and they took out the tree that we were allowed to remove and they trimmed the remaining tree limbs that hung over my house. During the storm on Sunday I was so thankful that those branches were gone, b/c they very well could have fallen on my house. I was still concerned as I watched the wind bend that tree right in the direction of my house. I prayed that if it did fall we would not be hurt.

We were without electric for 22 hours. It was a chance to remind the children how blessed we are to have electric power. Lydia played the piano. Later Lydia and I sat on the front porch in the total darkness enjoying the strong wind. I love my new front porch. For lunch on Monday we had what we call hobo dinners. We took pieces of tin foil and loaded them with potatoes, carrots, mushrooms pieces of leftover hamburger and some cream soup. We then rolled the ends up and put them on the grill. YUM! We do this often, but they tasted really good yesterday.

The mission was also without power so I didn't have to go to work. The children and I were able to get so much school work done. We anticipate another day of working hard...much to mom's delight and the children's chagrin.