....On the Other Side of Hurricane IKE

September 11 - School cancelled; mandatory evacuation issued for Orange County at 6:15 a.m. Collin and Babs leave for Irving, TX; Jerry reports and stays with Storm Crew with the plant
September 12-13 - Hurricane IKE blows throw Galveston, Houston and the "dirty side" of the Hurricane is Jefferson and Orange County, TX
September 14 - Babs picks up generators in Arlington to deliver to family that stayed behind
September 15 - Collin and Babs head south with tons of other folks on I45 South. No gas available south of Centerville, TX. We head east on 190 to check out my parent's lake house on Lake Livingston. No home damage; dock and boat house damage. LOTS of pine tress down. No electrcity there. We stay with Oma and Opa in Baytown --thank goodness for cool weather and a generator :)
September 16 - Return home -- purchased groceries in Beaumont after waiting "our turn" to enter the store at HEB Plus. 8108 - HOME SWEET HOME "debris" in front yard; ELECTRICITY CABLE AND WATER ARE ON! Hooray. Jerry's outdoor kitchen lost it's roof and the pool is a mess--- absolutely no big deal! Praise God.
September 18-19 - Jerry gets to come home from Storm Duty. Couldn't be more tired. Dear friends from Bridge City stayed with us Thursday-Friday as they received several feet of water in their home. PRAY FOR BRIDGE CITY- a sister community of Orange. The surge affected the whole town! It is devastating! We live north of I10 in Orange and the flooding was south of I10. Visit www.kogt.com to see pictures.
I pray that God uses us as servants to help others in need. Our beaches are gone--the two beach houses that we loved to go to are now slabs. PRAY for strength, restoration, and perserverance during this time. I THANK GOD for our safe keeping, safe passage and the health and willingness to help others. I THANK GOD for family in the DFW area that fed us and entertained us during our evacuation.

Life is full of uncertainties

Rollercoaster. That's all I can say. You know, I don't remember there being so many hurricanes as a kid. In fact, I don't remember there being so many until just the past 5-10 years. I guess that in the real world of "grown-ups" you notice things more. HA
IKE the hurricane is nearing...IKE the hurricane is not.... Let's just put it this way; our bags are not unpacked from GUSTAV. Our lawn furniture and plants are still nestled closely to our back patio wall.
Jerry took on the job as Emerg. Response Coord. on 9/1. I would call that initiation by submersion! He has had about 15 conference calls with the state officials and national meterologists since 9/1---- planning ahead and predicting outcomes that noone really knows. At school, we are submitting "3 week" grades and we have only attended 8 days of class because of storms.
I'm going with the flow........ we learn that we just have to do what we can. Those that used to know me as a TYPE A personality.....well, I'm changing. I'm becoming more of the "whatever" personality :)
High school is agreeing with Collin and Krista will turn 22 tomorrow! Where is time going?????? I guess this only means that we're getting older, too. Like my dad says.....Old Age is a good thing; it's better than the alternative.
Please join us as prayer warriors against bad weather. I am always reminded of our many, many blessings. (to a tune....counting them one by one)!

On the other side...

We received some rain and wind gusts throughout the evening. Praise God that it isn't much to comment about. We go back to school/work on Thursday. I'm hoping that we won't have to make up the weather days as we were under a mandatory evacuation. Jerry is home for the day and is resting comfortably in his own bed...much better than an army cot in his office at work! We plan to leave our home "hurricane ready" until we see what Hanna, Ike and Josephine do. It appears we're free of worry from Hanna---we'll see about the other two. We have our lawn/pool items out of the way, etc.. We give God the praise and glory for His protection over us.

Hurricane Magnet?

Good evening all! What an eventful week.... Hurricane Gustav was lurking in the Caribbean all week which sent our family in overdrive. Evacuation preparations began around our house Thursday evening with the prediction of the storm entering the gulf and threatening the Louisiana coast/ Southeast Texas coast. We had to get the yard mowed short, put up outdoor furniture and pool items, etc. and then the indoor things of securing photo albums, etc.. Collin and I left Saturday afternoon for Lufkin where we stayed in a hotel that had several rooms blocked with Jerry's company. It was comforting to have a group of us there. HOWEVER, it certainly didn't take the place of having Jerry with us. Collin and I went to the Lufkin Zoo (I'm very impressed with how good it was!) and then bowling. He whipped his mom on that one. Jerry had to stay back and work and will be at the plant 24/7 this week. We are blessed to be back home now and are only expecting 30-40 mph winds with some rain here. Dodged that bullet!! Thanks to all for the thoughts and prayers during this time.

RAIN, BEACH & FIRST DAY OF SCHOOL

Can you tell by the look on his face? "OK, MOM---get the "first day of school" picture over with!" HA HA

1. RAIN RAIN RAIN all last week! It's finally starting to dry out ....and it appears that the Tropical Storm/ Hurricane that is in the Carribean will be in the Gulf by Saturday. UGHH

2. Jerry and I spent a wonderful day Saturday driving to the beach and grabbing a bite to eat by the water. Collin went with some buddies to Artesian Springs in Newton County and had a great time.

3. School started 8/25. Hooooooray???? Collin had an eventful first day. Our high school was on "lock down" from 10:15 - 3:40 as there was an armed robber in a nearby neighborhood--close to the schools. This robber was involved with a shooting the night before and as a precautionary measure...the schoools "locked down". Better to be safe than sorry. The suspect was apprehended about 2:30. Hopefully--Tuesday will be a "normal" day.

RIP Boo Boo

August 1998- August 2008
Boo Boo was our parakeet that we got as soon as we moved to Orange. About 5 days ago, he began losing his balance and fluttering around on the bottom of his birdcage. I "researched" online to find that parakeets usually only live 5-7 years. Boo Boo had longevity! 10 YEARS. He passed away on Thursday, Aug. 14th...my first day back at work. Although not the same feeling as losing a dog or cat, we were so used to him singing in the background of our sunroom. He'll be missed. Not something I wanted to do on the first day back at work.....bury my bird on my lunch hour! Take care---and, listen to the birds sing !

Back at W-O-R-K....S-C-H-O-O-L

Thursday was my first day back at work. I'm quite excited as my good friend is now my Principal. Although change is often uncomfortable at the workplace, it is a necessity. She is implementing alot of great ideas at the high school and is a "take charge" type of gal. I can already feel the "culture" of the campus change.

I've been busy arranging my classroom and typing up the "first of the year" handouts. It would be nice to email classroom procedures to my students and save the trees!

Collin will go to "fish camp" on Wednesday, get his schedule (although I already have it), find his classrooms, etc... It's a blessing (for me) to be on HIS campus and a curse (for him) to be on MY campus :) HA HA He'll find there are lots of perks for mom being "handy".

Krista and Amber will start their college classes on Monday, the 25th. Looks like they both will have a full load. Krista will do her "block" of education courses and is looking forward to graduating December 09.