Safety News

Just posting a note quickly to let everyone know that we are all safe. Olen had to go on a call to Wharton County right before the storm hit, but came back safely before the storm really hit our side of town. Thank God. It was scary waking up to the winds howling like a tornado outside our windows. We had no damage to the house or our vehicle. Our fence got blown done some. Some trees fell in the neighborhood. But God has blessed us with the most awesome neighbors in the whole world. Abiel and Rosie have a generator and asked if we'd like to plug our fridge into it, so we only lost a half gallon of ice cream. Abiel also made sure that our fence got fixed so that we could let the dog outside without worrying since Olen was having to work constantly. He also ran a mower over our front lawn to knock the debris off. Plus, a huge tree portion (I'd say limb, but that doesn't quite cover it) from another neighbor's tree that was in the street in front of our house "mysteriously" disappeared. So if you feel like praying some massive blessings into someone's life, send them Abiel and Rosie's life.
In general, everyone that I've been able to hear from has survived the storm. I did have one friend who, as she puts it, has a new skylight in her bedroom. My cousin Alicia has power down in Pasadena and so do a few people that my mom works with, but most still don't have any power. We were lucky and still have running water. My mom wasn't as lucky in that area, so we (Aiden, mom, and I) have come over to San Antonio for a few days.
When Abiel and another neighbor stopped a Centerpoint worker in our area, he told them that it would be a minimum of 4 days or a maximum of 4 weeks before we got power back. That was on Monday. As of this morning, when I talked to Olen, our neighbors behind us had gotten power, but we hadn't yet. So, at least we have hope that they are working in the area! I hope that the rest of you that I haven't heard from are okay. To the rest of the world....Enjoy having lights!!

Aiden's F150

One of Aiden's birthday presents from his grandma was a Ford F150. It's so cute! He had a blast riding it around the back yard. We finally got the yard all cleaned up so he could drive it around and now Hurricane Ike is about to hit. So, Aiden gets one day to ride it around outside before the 100% chance of rain hits. He rode it 'til his battery wore down. Just like any other Texas boy!! Now, I just need to figure out how to re-charge it!

Day before Ike

This is just a small video of Aiden taking advantage of the beautiful weather before Hurricane Ike hits the coast. The whole city is planning on shutting down tomorrow. The libraries, the schools, and even my mom's office building. So, I have water, my books, and hopefully electricity to face down the storm. Good luck to all...

Birthday Lunch

Today was Aiden's 2nd birthday. So, we figured that we'd take him to Texas Roadhouse Steakhouse for his birthday. They had cute girl waitresses and he loves girls. They sing happy birthday and burst into dancing occasionally. Well, that's what happened the last time we had gone. This time was different. We had a guy waiter, not a girl. Ok. We can live with that. But then we realized they don't dance anymore. Sad face. Ok. Well, we're here. So, now comes birthday time....They put Aiden up on a saddle. He's ok with that. Then they announce his name and age and ask everyone to yell "YeeHaw!" The good news is that Aiden was too stunned to cry! :-) Bad news is that he looked like he was trying to figure out why he was in trouble when he hadn't done anything. Hehe. More bad news....two camcorders going and one camera and we got ZIP. Yup, you read right. We got nothing. Us two camcorder handlers didn't get the buttons pushed correctly, so no footage. yup. simple camcorder, not so simple operators. hmm....well, we did take some pictures of him while he was sitting at the table. I'll have to post those when I don't have a toddler hanging on me!