Unintended bloggy break

Tuesday afternoon I sat down at my computer to write some e-mails and to blog only to find that I had no internet connection. I quickly fired up the troubleshooting software to find out what the heck was wrong only to find that I also had no phone lines. I called our company to report the problem only to be told that they were experiencing an extremely high call voulume due to damage done by Hurricane Ike (also known as the hurricane that just keeps on giving). Yesterday afternoon, I saw that a large telephone pole had fallen (a few days AFTER Ike passed through) and there were all kinds of phone trucks and phone guys working on it. So I'm guessing that was my problem. My original plan of action was to just ignore the problem. At least until after we got back from Disney. I figured if it were a system wide problem, it would be fixed by then, and if not, well, then maybe the call volume wouldn't be so high and I would be able to get through. But it looks like it's going to get fixed. I may call my house soon to see if my machine picks up meaning that the line went through.

So that's why I wasn't around this week. TOMORROW, I'm getting on a plane headed to the place where dreams come true. I'm so excited. Really, I just want the Cap'n Crunch Chicken Fingers at Planet Hollywood. I've been craving those for a few weeks. Anyway, I don't know if I'll find a place to get to the internet during that time, so I probably won't be blogging this coming week, either. But I'll be back at the beginnning of NEXT week with all the pictures and details of our excitement. Oh, and please pray for safe travels and good weather. It's supposed to be thunderstorming every single day we're there. Boo.

Oh, and speaking of excitement...someone came to look at our house yesterday (only the SECOND person ever) and liked it so much they wanted to come look at it again today. YAY! Maybe maybe maybe we'll get an offer while we're on vacation!

Have a great week, y'all! Stay out of trouble! Love all around.

All is well

It's 1:42pm. The worst is over. The weather is still really nasty and it's almost creepy outside. But we're safe. The house has no damage. Let me repeat--we are safe, and the house has no damage. I'm feeling a bit overwhelmed right now at how blessed we are. We're still out of power, but my in-law's have it, so that's where we are right now. We just had a nice, hot meal that my mother-in-law cooked instead of the spaghettios and boiled eggs we had planned. We drove around for a little bit before we came out here just to see how the town looked. There are downed limbs, trees, power lines and rooves all over the place. The tin roof of one business in town is literally wrapped around the power pole in front of the building. Another business lost it's roof completely. It's laying in the parking lot. One light pole was literally twisted and broken in half.

At one point in the night, about 4am, I was surprised to hear what I thought were cars going by in front of our house. I realized that that must be a lot of cars and therefor it couldn't be cars. It turned out to be the wind. I got up to go look outside and it was bad. Our large live oak in the backyard was twisting and turning. It was scary. Just by listening to the storm inside the house, we had no idea how bad it was outside. I was expecting creaking and moaning and bumps and thumps. I never heard any of that and so we all actually slept pretty well, even though we were up early because it was so hot. The lights went out about 4am. I realized last night how well our house is built. It's a sturdy little house.

Sweet Hubby just texted me to tell me we have power now (he went back to get some stuff out of our fridge).

We didn't even lose a single limb. There's lots of little leaves and branches along with a couple unfortunate animals (ew), but other than that, we're no worse for wear.

I can't even describe the relief.

What's the right way to pray during a time like this?

So it looks like the storm has indeed moved to the east a little and last I heard about our area, we may only be getting 60-75 mph winds. In which case, it still might be a little scary, but we might not even lose power. That's better than the eye passing right through us. I heard that some transformers are built to go out in 75 mph winds because those winds are strong enough to down power lines so if the lines do go down, there won't be live wires all over the place. That's smart. I wondered about that.

During all this I've been praying, but it feels a little sticky . Obviously, stranger things have happened, but let's face it, this storm isn't just going to go away. It's not going to just disappear from the gulf. So when I pray for us to not get a hit, I feel like I'm basically praying for it to be sent upon someone else. That just feels wrong. I don't want a direct hit or danger in my household, but I certainly don't want to wish it on someone else. So I've just started praying that no matter what happens, that my family is safe and that there is minimal damage to my home. Really, I just want this to pass fast enough that we can go on our big trip next week without having to think about whatever we're still dealing with after this storm. That's the goal.

Batten the hatches

We're home. And I couldn't help but get my ol' 'puter hooked back up.

We're staying put during Ike. That's all we can do. We filled up our gas tanks this morning and I went to Wal-Mart (I was there before 8am and it was already a madhouse). I tried to get as many supplies as I could within our budget, but I'm a little worried about our food supply if we're out of electricity for more than a couple of days.

We actually got plywood for the windows since they were talking about 80-110+ mph winds here where we live (and we live pretty far inland). That was several hours ago...I'm hoping things have changed a little bit. Before they were talking about the eye (where the strongest winds are) would be coming straight up through our little town. But last I looked, they said it had moved east and the eye would be passing about 30ish miles east of us. Whatever happens, we'll be boarding up and all camping out in Marc-Adam's room tomorrow night. My in-laws are coming to hunker down with us, too. It should be an interesting night with 3 small kids, 4 adults and 2 dogs in a 10x11 room. But I guess people all over the world live like that every day. We can do it. I told my father-in-law that it might not be pleasant, but safe trumps pleasant.

I might check in once or twice tomorrow morning, but otherwise I'll get back on to let you all know what's going on as soon as we have electricity.

If you are in the path of this sucker, stay safe and take care.

Edited to add: This is the song that I've been singing in my head all day. It's been my prayer today.

Just so you know

I'm at my parents right now. I'm going home today, but it looks like Ike is headed straight for us. Our little town so far from the coast could be getting hurricane force winds. We're in the process of deciding now what we're going to do--stay or leave. Whatever we do, we've already unhooked our CPU at home, so I won't be around for a few days, so I'm posting now to let you know what's going on so you don't worry or wonder where I am while this thing is hitting. I'll get back to the blog as soon as I can.

Love all around.

Oh y'all....

This is scaring me.

Normally, I would be slightly worried about this. And no time is good. But now is just so not a good time to be dealing with a major hurricane. Not now. Just.not.now.