We are really staying

Looters beware!

Back porch secured as much as possible...yikes hope those
windows make it!


Trampoline secured to the tree...no worries
Andrew.

Whew!! we did it and still enough room for 2 cars!

Wow! the yard looks so bare. Nice job mowing J.Michael.

Basketball goal...we'll see if this worked!

Baby is secured...both of us!

Emily is chronicling the Hurricane Ike experience

Playhouse secured thanks J.Michael for all the help! Good Job!

Okay today has been fun tying all of our yard furniture to trees and shoving everything else into the garage. Emily and I have also had fun baking (making our own hurricane peanut butter oatmeal cookies--the kind you can grab and eat and keep on working while you are cleaning up from the hurricane) and cooking so we are prepared to minimize cooking over the next few days.
It has actually been a beautiful day...hard to believe this huge storm is bearing down us. We will soon see how bad it will really be...pray for A and K as this may be very scary for them. So far A is really excited...well except for the thought of the trampoline flying around! As one of my friends encouraged me "it will be a good time of bonding for your family"...to hear the fierce storm, but we are together now they are not alone. I don't know what storms sounded like in Arkhangelsk but, I know they have never been through a hurricane so it will be a first for all of us. We have enjoyed our crash course in meteorology over the past few days. It has also been a wonderful opportunity for us to talk about the awesome power of the Lord, his creation, provision and protection.

I am not sure how long we will be without power or internet so this may be the last post for a while.

Update
It is now 9pm as I am just now finishing this post. The wind is picking up, but it looks like it will still be a Cat. 1 by the time it gets to us, which means 85-90 mph winds, likely tree limbs down, but not likely structural damage--still possible to have trees down but less likely. Since the storm might be coming straight over us, it could do more damage than we think, but it has slowed a bit over what was forecasted a few days ago.