Power Restored

Kathlena is glad that power is restored because
generators are loud and hurt your ears!

Many are still without power and you can see why from this
picture.

PTL we have our full power restored to the house and by some miracle we actually have internet too! Hats off to ENTERGY for their quick repairs. I missed my photo op of J.Michael and Andrew sitting at the end of the driveway as the convoy of Entergy trucks were leaving our subdivision. At the time we only thought that they were surveying the damage but they were in fact repairing it. Our neighbor across the street came over to tell us he had power and see if we did. At this point we were still running the generator so David switched it over to find that we indeed did have power and we were so excited!!! It seems slowly we are getting back to normal. Our friends the Hoods are bringing us more fresh supplies of fruit, veggies, and perishables today which are huge luxury items in these parts right now. Thank you sweet Hood family for caring for us during this time.

We are so grateful to the Lord for His mercy during this time as many are returning to nothing but slabs/piers...total loss. We are just now getting a newspaper and able to see some of the pictures from downtown Houston and Galveston. It seems unbelievable. Our favorite beach house we like to visit and had planned to go to in Oct. we are afraid is not even standing. We are so disappointed for the owners and for Andrew and Kathlena as we had hoped to take them to this place that they had only seen pictures of in their photo albums from us. David found some pictures from the beach house that a man who is a Volunteer Fireman is taking of damaged areas in Galveston for homeowners who are still not allowed back in the area to see what is left. Here are the picks from Treasure Island where we stayed at Tuck's Landing...it is still standing and appears to be in good shape!! We may get to go on that beach trip after all...We'll see.

David is working on his post on How to hook up your generator to power the house. Complete with pictures too! Here are a few more pictures from our fun "vacation" this past week.


Kathlena plotting to take Chase's bone...nothing left to do
but harass the dog.

Kathlena caught in the act...Chase gives it up quite
easily.

Chase say "Cheese" Poor Chase he is glad for power to be
restored so he can get back to his less entertaining lifestyle.

Okay guys everybody off I am not a horse!

Okay maybe I am but I am not posing for this
embarrassing picture and I am going on record
that dogs should not be ridden like ponies!
Thank you Emily for capturing all of these sweet moments
for us while we were keeping the camp running! You are a
huge blessing to your family.

I married the smartest man

Daddy teaching kids about the different wires and J.M. standing

next to the now wired in generator.

We woke up today to a dismal start as water was still off and we knew our septic system was already to the overflow point. It did not seem like it was going to be a good day. This of course did not stop the ingenuity of my dear husband who only saw this as another challenge to his already highly skilled survival mode repertoire. He began the day by building us an outdoor latrine that would immediately alleviate the bathroom issue. While I greatly appreciated his hard work I personally was not sold on using this open outdoor facility, but continued to use my pan in the potty invention from the night before (I will never look at a foil baking pan the same again).

So my hubby not being satisfied with the potty situation set out to find a sunk pump to at least pump out our septic enough to use. Fortunately, the water was restored around noon so things were looking up! While out David spoke to his Dad who told him he could talk him through wiring the generator into the main circuit panel to the house. David picked up the necessary items and came home with a renewed vision to get us back up and running...we would not need to evacuate and by the end of the day it would almost seem like pre-Ike time.

Tomorrow David is going to post how to hook up your generator to your house's main circuit panel with pictures included of the materials you need. His Dad (who is one of the three smartest men i know, my Dad being the other and of course my husband) walked David through the process of splicing in the generator to the circuit panel of our house and voila! we have power including sewer sprinklers up and running!!! We are back to somewhat normal living...bye bye extension cord mix master highways!

A welcomed site our sewer sprinklers running. Sewer sprinkler

high water alarm, but a good sign as it means we have power!
Most of the day went on as usual. Cooking on the back porch using the dutch oven and eating outside on the picnic table. Although tonight we ate at the dinner table for the first time in several days as we had light to eat by and fans running. I need to get more dutch oven recipes this was so fun and consumed so little fuel. We could make one bag of charcoal go a long way!

The new outdoor kitchen and Dutch oven dinners

Emily spooning up our

stew.

Andrew helping bail bath water...he works for Reeses pieces.

Thank you big boy...what a great helper you are.
The boys have had a great time building the Rokenbok and just having some fun brother time. Kathlena manages to get in the mix some but looks forward to her afternoon stroller naps.

J.Michael catching up on the

comics and keeping cool.

J.Michael takes time out

from helping Dad to hold

his younger sister!

This sign has been posted at

the front of our subdivision

since the day after the storm.

Yep! we are in the right neighborhood!

PTL...it feels like fall

Vita Mix Kefir pancakes
alla generator for breakfast


Sisters doing hair...cure
woofie Kathlena

Yard clean up...a great way to
pass the time.

Another great way to pass the time
is napping...Kathlena taking advantage
of cooler temps.

Emily and J.Michael catching up
on some good books.



Today we awoke to a nice reprieve from the hot muggy temperatures Houston usually has this time of year. We had a wonderful day outside. The trampoline was reassembled as the yard is beginning to look like normal again. It has been nice to see so many neighbors out walking and riding bikes. Strange how different life would be with little to no luxury electronic entertainment of course I not give up my computer!) ...it seems many are using what little power they have for necessities only and spending more time outside. In some ways the past few days feel like we have stepped back in time. It is so quiet and it gets so dark at night as there are no street lights. It seems that we are living in a national park...wildlife included. I think even the deer are confused as they have so much greenery to feast on!
Our dear friends stopped by on their way out of town today bringing us 2 tanks of gas for our generator. It was so nice to see friends and we greatly appreciated their generosity...thank you Wes, Mitzi and Bami ya'll are too good to us. We have been without phone even cell phone service except for text messaging since the storm hit. It was a real treat to see our friends and talk to them. We have been able to make a few calls to family to let them know we were okay when we headed out on our gas runs but other than that we have had little contact with the outside world. Posting to the blog has been good to be able to write and preserve this time of making memories.
We had some great family time last night...Andrew was talking up a storm telling us stories about his life at "the home". We are just starting to get a glimpse of what life was like through his eyes. Sometimes it is hard to distinguish fact from tall tale as he has quite an imagination, but he so enjoys talking to us about it that you can't help but think part of him misses this place that was once his home. Once again we were given the opportunity to reinforce that we are his family and that we will always be his family. We are his home now. It was sweet to hear him say this to himself and smile. One day at a time we are gaining his trust and he is becoming more sure of his place in his home.
With each of these connections I am reminded of 1 Corinthians 13:4-8;13 Love is patient, kind, bears all things... We are to be the representative love of Christ as Andrew's (and all of our children's) parents. Imperfectly we strive for this daily. There are many days that it seems so little progress is made then days like the last few are a reminder that time is one of our greatest tools. It is not the leaps and bounds but the daily stacking of tiny grains of sand that build up the reservoir of trust and love in our children's hearts. It is our great desire to have our children's hearts so that upon the Lord's calling them to repent and believe in Him it woudl be with joy and grateful hearts that have been sown to love the one who gave them life and sustains our every breath.
Andrew has been saying prayers at the dinner table for a few months now. It started out as a simple prayer thanking the Lord for the day and our food. He is now growing in grace and sees so much more to be grateful and thankful for that his prayers are quite lengthy...it is so very precious. He has such a tender heart and throughout this time since Ike has taken away our power the Lord has shown his awesome redemptive power in our family and especially in our little boy, Andrew, as he begins to be able to tell us in his own words about himself.
Ike has shown his fury to take away many of life's conveniences, but through this we have been given a tremendous gift of T-I-M-E together and strength to endure that overshadows the loss. For many of our neighbors south of us, the hardship is much greater than loss of conveniences, but loss of loved ones and property. We continue to pray for those in need in the aftermath of Ike and happily wait patiently as there are many who need power restored more than us as they are trying to put the pieces of their lives back together. Many are returning to nothing or flooded homes that will be long roads to recovery of normal life. Today, we are thankful for the cooler temperatures that most assuredly bring relief to the many men who are working diligently to restore power to the greater Houston area. Thank you to the unsung heroes who are pouring into the Houston area now to work countless hours to help restore power to our area.
Just as I was about to post this we realized that we are now without water. Hopefully, this is just a tempory back up generator failure and we will wake up tomorrow to the water being back on. Life without power is doable but life without water is extrememly difficult. We will see what new mercies tomorrow brings.

Hurricane Ike…life without power

Time with Dad building

We survived the storm. To be honest we all slept through the worst of it. Thankfully, the Lord gave us rest as we would need it to begin surviving without power. It is funny to me how quickly we forget what life is like without electricity. Things I rarely think about anymore that run automatically by electricity…like our septic system suddenly become the most important necessity. I am not even sure that I knew how or what the septic system was powered by or how it worked, but I can tell you we do now!
When Rita hit three yrs ago David and I survived four days without power or water. The Lord provided for us through a friend the use of a generator that was the key to surviving the last 2 days. Before we had the generator we cooked on a propane gas burner and had to go in search for water. Everything was abandoned and closed in total darkness except for The Home Depot. Home Depot had lights and water and we were able to fill some bottles and ice chests with water enough to take a bath and cook. It was rough…so when we heard about Ike we made much better preparations.
Although, we did not buy a generator…still thinking we could do without this large short term investment, but when a friend (thanks, Kenny) told us of a group selling generators up at 1488 the day after the storm hit we decided this was the Lord’s provision. We did however have both sets of parents on standby to meet us with a generator to borrow, but we were not sure we would be able to come back once we left and we decided it was time we had one anyway since hurricanes seem to be a way of life in this part of the country.
Living without power has made us grateful for the yearly camping trips we try to make as a family. Our camping trips have been great times of “electric age” de-tox and gave our children the opportunity to practice real life survival skills. My husband grew up tent camping with his family, which cultivated a love for the outdoors and a knowledge of survival skills that is often lacking in our generation. In his wisdom my husband saw the need for his children to be trained in survival skills…knowing how to help themselves in times of crisis and to help others in need. In our current situation it has paid off. Our children have not been panicked, but have been a blessing and have seen this time as an adventure and opportunity to work together towards a common goal…making the most out of little. How valuable this time has been for them to see how the Lord continues to provide for us daily and how He has protected us from harm.
Judging by our yard we thought that our area had not sustained the damage that was predicted. After driving around our neighborhood we saw otherwise. Many homes had trees on top of them including our neighbor just two doors down from us. Huge pine and hardwood trees laying in the streets and yards with 5-10ft root balls sticking up in the air of an 80ft tree. Power lines are down all over the place, and even utility poles snapped in half with transformers on the ground. We also thought that flooding was not so bad until we saw that many homes in our subdivision had water up to their porches…their entire yard a lake. We came home praising the Lord for his protection we did not deserve, but He clearly gave us.

Our driveway

The backyard

Tree behind the tree house...
fortunately it fell away from the
treehouse.

One of our neighbors yard under water

Near our subdivision...in the
words of Andrew "this is not beautiful tree"

Not good!

Whole tree just pushed over

All four of our children have weathered the aftermath of the storm with a good attitude and a serving spirit. Much of their routine is the same other than more time with Daddy and some extra yard clean up. I must say it has been nice to have so much time together without easy computer access and other electronics. I definitely see how much time we spend doing individual pursuits and have had a renewed commitment to the simpler life from this experience. Emily and I have had fun washing dishes together instead of using the dishwasher and Daddy cooking out on the grill with the dutch oven has been nice since we are all working together to make it. Sleeping arrangements have changed slightly as we had to centralize by putting all of the children in one room in order to devote enough fans to keep everyone cool enough to sleep. Boys are in their regular beds while we moved Kathlena’s mattress to the floor in the boys room and both girls are sleeping on it. It has worked out great so far…they actually like being all together and have a great time working out what music they all get to listen to before bed.
So far temperatures have stayed relatively mild and nights are getting cooler. On our second night we have had to open a few windows and prop fans in them in order to get the inside temp down as it had gotten over 80 degrees in the house and as Emily would say the air was “smuficating”. The growing problem besides the septic issue is the uprising of mosquito armies that are threating to carry us away. Kathlena was nearly airborne but we got to her in time *smile* This might be the straw that breaks the camels back that leads to us evacuating north for some family visits.
We have gained limited internet access through a wireless signal (hence this getting posted) but our best access is outside in our front yard a.k.a. the red zone of the mosquito army! We have also been able to gain access to a short list of area stores and gas stations open. Last night we drove to College Station before we found gas and could only get 18gallons max as the station had limited it. It was enough for us to recoup the gas we had used for the trip and fill up two gas cans that we needed for the generator so it was worth trip…not to mention a/c for 3hrs!!!! All four kids slept for most of the trip and upon our return at 11:40 we were stopped by the Sheriff as we were about to turn off of 1488 because a curfew had been placed on our area for 11pm. He let us go and was very nice…it was somewhat a comfort to know that law enforcement was keeping an eye out for looters and suspicious activity. The reports we are hearing for power to be restored are anywhere from 2-4 weeks. After Rita we were without power for 6 days in our area, but we had rolling blackouts for 6wks following. Entergy our electric company has said this is “the worst natural disaster in their history…a catastrophic failure of their power system” as 99% of their customers are without power.

*had more pictures to post but connection is so slow and times out easily so this is all I could post for now...will try again in the next few days.

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.

Bracing for the Storm

Thank you to the many friends and family who have been calling and checking on us. It does seem that Ike is bearing down on us and evacuations have started today in Galveston and south Houston areas. For now we are staying put and starting to prepare with the necessities in case of power outages.
When we first moved here we were greeted by Rita as our first real experience with a hurricane on the home front. We evacuated then, came back the day after it hit to no electricity and water for a week...camping in our house--now that was an adventure. The worst was no water which thankfully our subdivision has rectified by purchasing a backup generator(through our subdivision fees) so that in the event of power outage we will at least be able to have water.
The difference in Rita and Ike is we are on target to be on the wet side and closer to the eye of the hurricane where we were on the drier side with Rita hitting east of us. Our biggest concern is downed trees since we live in a forest with lots of shallow rooted, 80 foot pines. We are securing what we can and praying for the best for us and our fellow Houstonians.

Prayer Requests:
People on the road now evacuating.
People on the coast securing property and leaving.
Ike will not gain strength it is currently at a category 2.

Hurricane Ike Storm Tracker

National Hurricane Center