And Then There Was Light...

at our home! Wow! Hurricane Ike was NOT very nice to us here in Texas!! He was Mean and Stayed alot longer than we wanted him to. He started to arrive about 9pm with his tropical Storm force winds and crazy looking sky. The sky really looked spooky. Our power surged a little after 9 pm and really went out totally a little after midnight...Much too soon for me as you know I was glued to either the net or the tv. The boys went to sleep rather early before any noisy winds came in. For most of the storm, Scott and I sat on the couch in the living room rather fearful. We all slept in the masterbedroom...we wanted the boys with us because we anticipated losing power. By far the noisiest areas in the house were the master bedroom and the living room..our back of the house windows.

To help you to understand the amount of noise that the wind made, we literally could not hear each other talking...that is how loud it was! Ike's winds were very scary..it was mostly winds til about 2:30 am when the Rain started in with the winds...it literally sounded like rocks hitting our window and Scott had to look more than once to see if anything actually hit our windows. It was sooo dark outside that it just looked black or gray...you could see absolutely NOTHING! We attempted to go to bed or lay with the boys around 4 am thinking that the worst may be over..NOPE it wasn't! In fact it got only louder that neither Scott or I slept..may have dozed off for about an hour the entire night. I kept thinking...No way! It cannot get any worse...but it always did! It was just unbelievable! The Whistling and howling of the wind was soooo scary. When I think about it or talk about it, I get goose bumps. It is something that I don't want to recall many more times. I know that it was worse here because we had the eye wall. YOU don't want to be in the eye wall! It is stronger.

About 7:30 am, the boys woke up and Noah asked us what that noise was...I told him it was a Hurricane and that is not even noisy compared to what we heard all night. I called my mom and she informed me that we were in the eye and that is why it was calmer and that we had not experienced the back of Ike yet! OMG!!! I was in disbelief that we would have to endure more hours of this...the winds just would not stop...battering and battering...I then looked out our front window and saw the neighbor's house across the street and that their roof was coming off in an area! I was so worried. I was wondering if our roof did the same thing. Scott attempted to go out there and a strong gust almost threw him into the bricks of our house! It was really scary.
So for more hours we had wind and rain, wind and rain...it maybe was finished at 3pm or later. It was really rough!

Luckily our house did NOT sustain any damage. It was a miracle. Only one of our trees was leaning a little, but we fixed it. Now for the aftermath of Ike...NO power..for how long?? It was really misrable. The only positive thing was that a cool front came through the next night that cooled us off from the Texas heat with no power. Don't get me wrong..it was HOT, but NOT as hot as it could have been. We ventured out on Sunday to see what life existed...it was really bad.. NOTHING open, NO power...it was a ghost town..flooded in our subdivision and we could only get through because we had a truck..NO cars could pass in that deep water.

We went without power for 10 days and yesterday evening...the lights came on!! OMG! I am so grateful for Electricity. I lost the stuff in my freezer and fridge. We had access to a generator only at night because Scott needed it for work, YES he went to work. We only had 2 flashlights..do you know how hard it is to sit in the dark with 2 kids, no lights, no air, No nothing! IT IS MISERABLE!!! I was trying to stay upbeat but it was very difficult..I had many mini breakdowns...Just wanting to feel normal again! The last 2 nights without elec were not as bad because my neighbor let me use her generator because she went back to Louisiana....I actually thought I was in paradise...had a window unit in my bedroom...plugged in the tv..let the kids watch a dvd! wow!!! and also one of my other friends let me borrow 2 lanterns because she had her power restored...and OMG! what a difference 2 lanterns can make in your life! I was so grateful for this. I headed to store after store looking for a darn flashlight or a lantern and I never could find anything.. the evening before our power was restored I managed to find 2 lanterns at Lowe's..they were the last 2 in the store...I love those things. they made so much light. If I had only had this from the beginning..it may not have been as bad for us.

As a result of living like that for 10 days...Last night, I slept with a flashlight and lantern next to my bed "just in case" the power happened to go out again...I have forgotten to turn on the lights and have headed back out of a dark room for a flashlight and then I think "OH we have power" and I flick the light on...Lights are the best things in the world!

Through all of this, we have actually eaten out alot when things started opening again...I mean, we had no food at home, the lines for gas were about 45 minutes long if you could find gas and the groc stores (if they were open) really had nothing but junk food left. Most of them were running on generators and did lose all of their frozen food...what a bummer since I eat alot of frozen dinners (on my diet).

Sorry but I have NO pictures to show. I really wasn't in a picture taking mood (we were in the dark), nothing was really funny and Ike is something that I really don't care to remember. There are still people without electricity.. I hope and pray that the lights come back soon for them. Noah is back at school, the groc stores are still empty, it is easier to get gas now...so life goes on and I learn that I am stronger because of this and really appreciate my electricity. Through this all, I could live without cable, internet, even AIR conditioning...I really need my lights and my phone. When you have no way to communicate with people you love, It feels lonely and scary. The main thing that I kept wanting for 10 days was to feel normal and live my normal life again..so here goes!

And please continue to pray for all along the Coast who have lost their homes to Hurricane Ike. I have recently seen the photos and I am in disbelief.