time for a big boy bed

Guess who has learned how to climb out of his crib? Lonnie couldn't wait for this day because who knew it meant I would agree to converting the crib to a toddler bed. Unfortunately I'm not as happy as he is. When I got home from taking Shelby to gymnastics he had already converted the crib and taught Tucker to say he was a "big boy". Tucker doesn't get that a big boy bed means it's time to get rid of the binky. He's not going to be to thrilled about it. He's as addicted to his binky as Shelby was.

guess who has power?????

Mom and Dad's power came back on tonight!!! WOOOO-HOOOO!!!!

ike ike baby

Sarah sent me this. This is to the tune of Ice Ice Baby - Vanilla Ice. Cracks me up!!!!!! (If you don't know the song Ice Ice Baby, you mine as well skip over this post b/c you probably won't get it.)

Ike, Ike, Baby...Yo, TX, Let's kick it!

Ike Ike Baby, Ike Ike Baby
All right stop, evacuate and listen
Ike is here with some big ambition
People, close your homes up tightly
It's blowing like a hurricane daily and nightly
Where will it stop? Yo-I don't know
Turn off the lights and let's go
To the coastline Ike rocks like a vandal
Start up the car and watch me drive like an animal

Dang, hardware store sales boom
Ike's killing my plans like a poisonous mushroom
Deadly, evacuate they tell me
Anyone left will be charged with a felony
Love it or hate it, you better get away
Ike will hit the bull's eye, the storm don't play
If you're on vacation, Yo, Ike stalled it
Check out the eye while the bands revolve it

Hurricane Ike Ike Baby, Hurricane Ike Ike Baby
Hurricane Ike Ike Baby, Hurricane Ike Ike Baby

Now that the people are jumpin'
With their stuff packed up and the gas done pumpin'
Quick to the road, to the road no fakin'
Pass McD's get a burger with bacon
Burnin' 'em and follow the symbol
I go crazy when I hear some imbecile
Revving, in a souped up Pinto
Now I can roll, it's time to crack the window
Rollin' in my Chevy Tahoe
With my window down, I can feel Ike blow
My laptop's on standby, Waiting for some Wi-fi
This spot hot? No - and I gotta fly
Kept on pursuing to the next block
I busted a left and I'm beating the clock
The light was red

Yo -- so I continued to I-37 to San Antonio
Wish I was there in a blink like a jeanie
How I'd love to be sippin' a martini
Jealous 'cause my girl's living fine
She left yesterday and was there by nine
Ready to give my homies a call
My homies acting ill because their car just stalled
Humidity, the air is sticky as hell
Ike's on his way, the weatherman yells
Moving toward the gulf coast real fast
I'm in my car, can't give it no gas
Bumper to bumper the interstate's packed
I'm trying to get away before Ike attacks
Police on the scene, what can it mean?
They hooked me up, now there's another lane free
If you're on vacation, Yo, Ike stalled it
Check out the eye while the bands revolve it

Hurricane Ike Ike Baby, Hurricane Ike Ike Baby
Hurricane Ike Ike Baby, Hurricane Ike Ike Baby

Yo man, let's get out of here! Word to your mother!

a little bit of everything

Yesterday was Lonnie's birthday. He's now 34. We had a mini surprise party for him. More like Shelby and Tucker hid in the pantry and jumped out and yelled surprise and I laid on the couch with a migraine. I'm such a party pooper. Shelby wanted a star wars theme for him so that's what we did.

Yesterday my cable and internet came back on. HALLELUIAH!!!! Mom and dad still don't have power. But they do have their tv plugged in to the generator and they have satellite.

It took me 2.5 hours to get to work this morning. They have got to open the gulf freeway HOV lane. It's killing me! DOJ is not going to let me work from home!

In kiddo news, mom called me on my drive in and said Tucker climbed out of his crib, opened his door, and came into the kitchen to see her. Apparently this has happend 3 days in a row now. She thought I knew he was doing this. Uh, no!!!! Looks like Lonnie's going to win the crib battle. We will be converting the crib to a toddler bed this weekend probably. (sniff sniff)

great news!

No, mom and dad don't have power yet, but, I think they would agree that this is even better news! Lee and Theresa got "the call".

HURRICANE FATIGUE

Hurricane Fatigue is setting in. I know the utility workers are busting their tails right now but I sure wish they would get to my parent's neighborhood. There's no since of normalcy for them at all. They aren't complaining, but I sure do worry about them. Maybe by me saying this outloud they'll get their power back today. (fingers crossed!) Oh, and looting has set in back in the back, towards Karon's house.

tucker starts gymnastics

Shelby's gymnastics class is at the same time a "mommy and me" class is going on for Tucker's age group. We decided to give it a try. Tucker had his own agenda. It was a tough 45 minutes. We are going to keep giving it a try and hope that he will eventually follow the rest of the class. LOL

downtown houston

This is 3 blocks from my building in downtown Houston. Fortunately my window was still here when I returned.

kemah boardwalk

Most of you know that we practically live at the Kemah Boardwalk. I've mentioned it in many past posts. Well, it's pretty much destroyed. It WILL be rebuilt and I'm sure the process has already started. Here are some post Ike Boardwalk photos.

This is landry's.
This was the carousel.

FEMA meals

While the kids and I were gone Lonnie was working with FEMA at the Clear Lake Park off of Nasa Rd 1. They gave him a MRE's, water, and some boxes with "meals" in them.

getting back to normal...kind of

Monday is my first day back at work. The kids will be going back to school and MDO starting Wednesday. Mom and Dad are still without power but they bought an a/c window unit to plug in to the generator so that's giving them a cool bedroom at night. Mom's watching the kiddos at my house until the power comes back on at her house. Lonnie's going to be working a lot these next few weeks. He's going to be working security at the kemah boardwalk as they begin to rebuild it. Mom and dad came over for dinner last night. I made them homemade lasagna. It's 1 of 2 things I know how to make well. The other is taco stew, which I brought to them on Friday. All in all, we are doing well. Just hoping mom and dad get power soon. They are handling it well though.

FEMA trucks are still all over and so are the utility workers. Grocery stores are restocked about 75% and there's not an issue finding gas anymore on our side of town. Fire ants and mosquitos are awful. We still have to boil our water.

post evacuation

Monday morning I decided that I was going to take the kids down to Corpus Christi for a few days. At least until we had power back, the gas stations had gas, and the grocery stores had food. Lonnie's family was down there. The first day I took the kids (all cousins included) to the park and then the next day I took Shelby and Tucker to the aquarium. We were the only ones there which was great b/c my kids could run around and act nutty and nobody would care. We even got a dolphin show all to ourselves!

we are home

We are home! It took longer to get home than normal because Shelby was sick and I had to pull over every 30 minutes for her to throw up on the side of the road. Fun times I tell you. For all our family and friends who are without power, you are more than welcome to come wash clothes at our house. There is a line so call first! LOL Apparently Dickinson still has an early curfew because everything shuts down at 6pm. I will go back to work Monday. Shelby's school has trees on it and her classroom flooded. My parents are still without power and cleanup is crazy. So mom will be able to watch the kiddos starting next week again. Mom and dad are doing okay. I'm glad to be home so I can help them out more. Plus once I can find some groceries we will be able to cook for them and they can come over for dinner. Dad went back to work yesterday at BP. Lee and Theresa got power back a few days ago.

I have tons of pics to post but will wait I until we have cable and internet working again. Right now I'm using Lonnie's laptop that has an aircard.

wednesday update

Not a whole lot to report. Slowly it's getting better. Day by day more people get power. My parents are still without. BP had generators for all their employees so my parents went to pick up a generator. They had to wait in line for over 3 hours but they finally got it. HEB now has a little dairy but still no meat. Lonnie said another gas station opened up with gas. The kids and I are heading back home tomorrow.

i think today is tuesday

I think today is Tuesday but I'm not for sure.

The kids and I are still down in Corpus. Lonnie's cousins were flooded out in LaPorte and now they are down here too. I got the best news in the world overnight from my neighbor that wanted to make me cry. WE HAVE POWER!!! Holy smokes it felt like Christmas! I was thinking about going home tomorrow and getting back to work, but then I realized HOW??? There's not enough gas to get to work and back for several days and Metro in my area is not running. Plus my mom does not need to deal with my kids this week. They still don't have power. Then there's the grocery issue. Stores aren't fully stocked with food. Oh, and then there's the fact that a tree landed on Shelby's school and crushed it. So I think I may just have to not go to work this week and pray that by this weekend we are as back to normal as possible.

Lonnie is still working a FEMA trailer in Seabrook. There is plenty of food, water and ice and the line takes about 20 minutes. FEMA is everywhere. I just wish we could get gas in all the gas stations! UGH!!!

For those that can't get a hold of mom, feel free to email me messages and I will pass them along. Phone service here is a mess. My email is jamielblev@earthlink.net

If you want more pics and info from the hurricane and what's going on check out http://www.chron.com/ They have great photos and articles.

Continue to keep us in your thoughts and prayers. It's going to be a while to get back to "normal" probably but the power companies are working like crazy to get everyone's power back.

we left town

Lee and Theresa lost power again last night. We (the kids and I) are now in Corpus Christi staying with Lonnie's family. Lonnie had to stay back b/c he's on duty. He's manning a FEMA trailer today and was able to get 3 boxes of MRE's and a case of water. We are still without power and so are my parents. We are still under orders to boil water, but can't boil water b/c we don't have power. Mom and dad are doing well since we gave them our generator. A cool front came through so that has helped reduce the heat and humidity drastically. Unfortunately the mosquitos are awful. Some grocery stores have reopened for a few hours a day along with a few gas stations. My parents were able to get gas this morning for the generator to last several more days. The lines are hours long. Lee and Theresa are ok. They were coming down to Corpus also to buy generators and a/c window units that can be plugged into the generators. All of this sucks so much but I am sooooooooo grateful how lucky we are. It could have been so much worse. We are all hanging in there. Just keep us in your thoughts and prayers.

For those of you wanting to come home, call and see if you have power. If you come home, stock up on grocery, water and gas before you get home. Mosquitos are awful so make sure you have some spray. Check houston transtar to see if you can make it down the freeways. Kemah/Seabrook/LaPorte is a mess and you can't get through there at all. There are boats all over the road, same with on Nasa Rd 1. Most HEB's are open but there's a curfew so most close at curfew time.

photo damages

This is my mom's neighborhood.

These people live behind my parents. 

This is the Bott house. Tree fell on it while homeowners inside. They were okay.

Karon - this is your house.

Karon - here's a close up. You won't be getting mail for a while.

This house had spray painted the boards that said "you loot i shoot".

Sorry - I wasn't able to rotate picture. 

These people had 3 trees land on their house.

These are the roads in mom's neighborhood. Luckily a neighbor had a tractor and they were able to move some debris after chainsawing the trees. 

Mom and dad's house. No trees landed on their house. They lost part of their patio cover, their shed and the big dog kennel.

quick update

This is a cut and pasted for some of you that I already emailed.

Sorry for the mass email, but I don't have a whole lot of energy to write individually. We are all okay. We lost power about 9:30 last night. The kids were already asleep. Shelby managed to sleep thru the entire hurricane and Lonnie seemed to get some sleep too. Tucker and I were up the entire night. The first wall was bad but not to the point we needed to seek shelter in the closet. The eye hit us about 2am. It was dead calm, no wind, no rain, no nothing. That lasted about an hour. Then we got hammered with the 2nd wall which brought the winds the complete opposite way. I woke Lonnie and we moved the kids to the closet. Shelby never woke up. The 2nd wall was rough. It sounded like the plywood was ripping off our windows (it didn't but it sure tried). That lasted about an hour and then it lightened up enough that Tucker and I left the closet to play. It was pretty much all over by 8am. Lonnie got up with Shelby and Tucker and I went to bed finally. We received minor damage compared to our neighbors. Most had severe roof damage and lost their fences and trees. We lost some fence but it was salvageable. Our roof had 6 missing shingles, that's it. There was no flooding and no storm surge near my area. My parents neighborhood looks like a war zone. Neighbors were out there with tractors pushing what they could off the roads. Dad climbed on a neighbors roof who wasn't home to tarp up his huge hole. 100 year old pine trees were uprooted and crushing homes. My parents are fine and so is there house. They have days worth of clean up ahead of them. It was so crushing to see. The bayou was up, but there was NO FLOODING. I have to admit I was very nervous about their house but they came thru fine. We are without power. Everywhere is pitch dark at night. It's hotter than heck in our house. It is so humid that our tile and wood floors are wet. It's so gross. We decided to pack it up and drive south 5 hours to Lonnie's mom's house in Corpus Christi, but then my brother sent me a text saying that they had power in Pearland which is 25 minutes from us. So we are now at my brother's very nice air conditioned home. We are EXHAUSTED to say the least. I have no idea what the damage is to our surrounding areas b/c we've had no tv and we've been busy doing clean up. I've received a lot of text messages that downtown houston took a hit with the highrises. I'm glad we didn't try to seek shelter at my office! So there's the run down from what I can remember for now. I'm so tired. We all are. I have TONS of photos that I'll post once I get power at home. We are praying we get power tomorrow but we are being told it could be several days. I have hope since my brother got it back! :) Oh, Shelby's quite upset. A huge pine tree crushed the chapel at her school. I don't think she'll be going back to school this week. Oh, and text messaging is about the only way to get thru to someone on cell phone right now in our area. It takes calling about 50 times before you can get thru to someone. Okay, heading to bed. Thanks for all the prayers. We are okay.

8pm update

I know, I'm totally cheesy. But I went outside and took a little video so y'all could see what it's like right now in Dickinson.

the calm before the storm

Yes! We are STILL staying. Lonnie and I went and checked out some of the local areas that the newscasters are showing to be horrible....and they aren't THAT bad. I took some pics of the bay front over by the Kemah Boardwalk. Kemah Boardwalk was NOT underwater like the news is saying. The water is starting to come over the bulkheads into the parking lot. But it's not flooded...yet. The Kemah police showed up and ordered everyone to leave saying we weren't following evacuation orders if we resided in Kemah (which we don't) and if we don't live in Kemah then we were tresspassing. (Such a party pooper! LOL)

Kemah bay front.

Kemah Walmart all boarded up.

Here's Lonnie with the boat we will use to boat out if we have too. ;-)

Here's our house all boarded up.

My photo date pics are still a day off. It's right on my camera though. Not sure what the deal is. These pics were taken about 1 hour ago.