All is quiet

Well, the last of our "evacuees" just went home. It seems strangely quiet now. I'm glad that we were able to provide a place for them to stay during the storm and until their electrical power and water were restored. But, I know that they were all glad to be able to return to their own homes. My parents house sustained pretty significant damage, so it will be a while before things return to normal for them. Their roof was stripped down to the ply wood in several places, so they have lots of water damage inside. Alisa and Michael's house had some damage to the outside walls, but not much water inside. My grandfather's house had some water blown in, so he will probably be getting new carpet. Aunt Shirley and Uncle Paul lost some shingles, but they aren't sure about the inside of their house yet. I guess they will find out tonight when they get home. It's amazing the destruction that a hurricane can cause. It's so sad to look at the pictures of my parents home and the surrounding land and seeing all the trees broken and shingles littering the ground. It's horrible to think of the people in Galveston and Bolivar who didn't survive the storm. I'm sure there were many who were swept out into the Gulf and will never be found. We were very blessed here in College Station. The hurricane shifted just a bit before it made landfall, so we had tropical storm winds here instead of the forecasted hurricane winds. We didn't have any damage at our home and didn't lose power at all. I'll be glad when hurricane season is over.

Hurricane Ike

It's 2:30 am and I can't sleep. Hurricane Ike should be to our area in the next hour or so. The wind is only gusting to about 30 mph so far, but it's going to get much worse soon. I managed to go to sleep a little bit, but every time I do, I wake up from flashback/nightmares about the tornado. I have only had tornado "flashbacks" about 3 times since the tornado, and tonight was one of them. I know that if I hear glass breaking, that is going to be the trigger and all my memories of that night will come back. Just the bits and pieces that I have remembered over the last few years are terrifying enough. I don't want anymore. But, I don't want to scare Natalie and Lily, so I thought I would just go downstairs where I won't hear the windows rattle so much. Coult is having to stay at the hospital tonight because they want to make sure that all those on shift tomorrow will be able to be there. Steven is here, so that makes me feel better. But, I still wish Coult was here. He's always been there to give me a hug and calm me down after a flashback dream. I'm so worried about my family in Nome right now too. I know they're getting pounded by the storm right now. I can't imagine how scared they must be with the wind speeds so high where they are. This hurricane is crazy! It's huge! I thought when we moved here that we would be far enough away that we wouldn't have to worry about hurricanes anymore. Not so. My family would have evacuated here, but the weather here probably won't be much better. I keep thinking about how Galveston Island may never be the same. We have gone there numerous times and it's hard to imagine it being under water. I will be so glad when this hurricane is over. Earlier today, Coult and I found out that his maternal grandmother had been evacuated from a nursing home and flown to our town. We found her in Reed Arena where they are housing many special needs patients. It was a sight I will never forget when we walked into the arena and saw row upon row of mostly elderly and/or handicapped people laying on cots. They were being cared for by many military doctors and nurses as well as volunteers from the area. I still can't believe how many people were there and what "organized chaos" it was. I mean, they were doing there best under the circumstances, but no one should end up like that. We were able to give them some helpful info about his grandmother and we tried to comfort her as best we could. I don't know if she knew who we were or not, but she seemed to have some recognition in her eyes when she heard our voices. Thankfully, the doctor assigned to her agreed that they couldn't care for her properly in that facility and they were able to transfer her to a local nursing home. As soon as the weather clears, we will go and check on her. She's actually only a few miles away from us on the same road that Coult's hospital is on. I don't think she was sent here by accident. I know Heavenly Father had a hand in getting her to a city where she has family that could look after her. Coult's parents had to evacuate to another area, so they are unable to be here for her right now and I know that is very difficult on Coult's mom. I hope that we were able to put her mind at ease somewhat. At least now she knows that her mom will be looked after until they can all return home after the hurricane. I really should try to get some sleep now.

Lily: Queen of the day!

Today Lily was chosen to be the "Queen of the day" in her kindergarten class. She got to wear a beautiful crown and have a book written about her. She and her classmates even drew pictures of her to put in the book. Lily did an excellent job drawing her picture and writing her name!

Busy couple of weeks..

Sorry for the lack of updates lately. The last couple of weeks have been pretty crazy around here! First, the new school year started. Natalie and Lily seem to be enjoying their new school year so far. Lily loves her teacher and the para that works with her. We have been blessed that Natalie and Lily have always had great teachers working with them. Natalie is enjoying being the big kid on campus. She's in 6th grade this year, so this is her last year on the intermediate campus. She even got to choose her own locker this year! She picked a top one, of course. Last year she had a bottom locker and things kept getting dropped on her head. Remember those days? She wasn't thrilled about having to "dress-out" in PE this year. But now that she's done it a couple of times, I think she's getting accustomed to it. Lily is in kindergarten this year! She did great the first week! She says she likes kindergarten. Unfortunately, this week she has been sick. She came home with a high temp. Tuesday afternoon and wasn't able to go back to school for the rest of this week. Her temp is finally down today, so hopefully she's on the mend. Earlier this week, several members of my family (my mom, dad, grandpa, brother, sister, and brother-in-law) all evacuated to our house because of Hurricane Gustav. Thankfully, southeast Texas was spared. They're all back home now. I'm so glad that we were able to provide a place for them to evacuate to. We had lots of fun while they were here. We had air mattresses everywhere at night, but I don't think anyone was too uncomfortable. We really hated to see them go, but life goes on. Here are some pics of the first day of school:

Fun with cousins!

Tye, Kenadie, Aunt Alisa and Grandma came to visit us earlier this week. We had lots of fun while they were here! We tried to get a pic of all the cousins together, but they just wouldn't cooperate too well! LOL Lily absolutely refused to have anything to do with a "group picture". And we couldn't keep Tye or Kenadie still long enough. But, we got some cute pictures anyway. I especially love the one of Tye waving at me and the one of Kenadie trying to walk in Lily's tennis shoes! It was hilarious! Enjoy the pics!

Mini-golf, bowling, and food--oh my!

Aunt Shirley and PaPaw came to visit us this week. We had so much fun while they were here! We played glow-in-the-dark mini golf one afternoon. Unfortunately, it was so dark in there that the pictures didn't turn out. We introduced them to a couple of new restaurants, as well: Fish Daddy's and Hullabaloo's. PaPaw really enjoyed the fried catfish at Fish Daddy's! He even ate some cold for breakfast the next morning! We also went to a diner called Hullabaloo's. A little background on Hullabaloo's: Coult and I like to watch some of the shows on Food Network, including Diner, Drive-in's and Dives (something like that). Anyway, I decided to see if the host had visited any restaurants in Texas. I was shocked to find one that he visited is about two minutes from our house! So, when my parents were up here visiting about a month ago, we all decided to try out Hullabaloo's. We figured it couldn't be too bad considering it was on Food Network. It was really great! It's in an old diner car that was brought down to Texas by the owner/cook who is from the Northeast. The food is great! So, we decided to go eat there again while Aunt Shirley and PaPaw were here. PaPaw loved their liver and onions and Aunt Shirley was excited to find that they cook an authentic grilled ham sandwich. It was so big she couldn't eat it all even in two meals! While they were here, we also went bowling. We forgot the camera, but Coult managed to take a few pics on his cell phone. We had a great time! It was Lily's idea to go, but then she got scared. Coult helped her and she ended up being in second place! I found out that even though I'm a pro at Wii bowling, I completely stink at the real thing! I was in last place! Oh well, it was still lots of fun!

I finished painting the kitchen!!

Natalie and I painted part of our kitchen a couple of weeks ago. She was a big help! She and Lily are in Galveston this week with Aunt Shirley and some family friends. I know they're having a great time! We miss them a lot! I decided that since I have the house to myself during the day, it would be a good time to finish painting the kitchen. The true color is kinda hard to see in the pics, but it's a pale, soft aqua blue color. Anyway, here's some pics of the finished product:

Farewell to the syringe...

I know this is an odd picture to post. But this syringe (well, not always this one, but ones just like it) have been part of our lives since Lily was 3 weeks old and began taking compounded Prevacid. We took her for her yearly appt. with her gastro doctor on Wed. and we finally felt like Lily was ready to try some of the Prevacid granules mixed into her applesauce. We've tried in the past and we've tried the solutabs that are supposed to melt on your tongue. But, Lily always ended up vomiting immediately due to the texture of the medicine "beads". This time she did great! I called the little beads "polka-dots" and told her it was big-girl Prevacid and she took it without hesitation! We are so excited to finally be done with the liquid compound. We had to have it shipped to us every month and it has to be refrigerated, so it was not exactly convenient. So, after almost 6 years, we say farewell to the syringe that has been such a part of Lily's life. We are very grateful for the Prevacid though, because without it Lily would be unable to keep her food down and would have to have major surgery or a feeding tube. She came so close to that as an infant and when I think back on those days, I'm so incredibly grateful that she responded well to the Prevacid. Maybe some day she will even be able to swallow the Prevacid pill. But, I guess I'm getting ahead of myself, huh? ;)

Tea Party!

The girls and I had a lovely tea party this afternoon after church. Well, technically it was pink lemonade, but it was quite delicious! They wanted cookies to go with our "tea", so I made some milk-free, egg-free cookies so that Lily could have some too. That little stinker wouldn't even try them! LOL Oh well, at least they tasted yummy! Lily ate her old stand-by--golden oreos. It was a really fun time! I'm so glad that Lily has learned to play with Natalie and I hope that someday she will want to have a tea party with some girls her age too. Notice our "guests"? We enjoyed the company of Hello Kitty and Niki the Bear during our party. Don't you just love our accessories? The girls insisted I wear the crown and Lily even wore her boa. Natalie was dressed as a princess. Here are some pics:

We're all moved in!

Our new home:



Sorry about the lack of updates lately, but we've been super busy getting settled into our new home. It's so wonderful to finally be moved in. We're still waiting for our appliances to be delivered (fridge, washer, dryer) due to a back order. But other than that, we're doing well. The girls loved the paint in their new rooms! I'm so grateful to my mom and my friend Heather for helping to paint. Coult and Steven helped out as well when they finished moving our mountain of boxes! We're also very grateful to my friend Cynthia for providing such a delicious meal for us the night we moved in. Also, it was so helpful to have several men and their sons from our church come to help move our furniture. Our move would not have gone so smoothly without all the help we received from our loving family and friends.

Lily has been having some issues with anxiety lately, so it was really wonderful to see her playing so well with Natalie last night. They put on a "dress-up" show for us last night. Yes, Lily is the surgeon and Natalie is her patient! Enjoy the pics: