Crosby made the news~

http://www.khou.com/news/local/stories/khou080924_ks_crosby.a9bcd87d.html?npc

postive kudos for crosby :)

more hsm3 fun!

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a little hsm3 fun

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Ike Blogging: Tuesday 9/16/08

got the call last night that school would be out till at least next monday! praying that the power will be up way before that! good news from penske- everyone that works with tim is ok. tim shines his brightest through adversity and his quick thinking & decisions are second to none. he got a call from his boss's boss and he thanked tim for all his hard work & dedication :)

last night was another family-neighbor dinner at my in law's house. we had some awesome stew that tina made- * note to self- get the recipe for the soup we had the night before & the stew :)* salad, fries, & fried catfish. between 4 families- we had a feast! tonight we are pulling together & having spaghetti and meat sauce. i'm so thankful that we had our deep freezer filed with goodies to be defrosted.

the weather today is even cooler than yesterday! God's perfect timing! but i had to get some laundry done, so i pulled out the detergent & washed some clothes in the kitchen sink this morning. they got done & hung outside to (hopefully) dry sooner than later. they got done none the less. house is fairly clean and everyone slept so well last night. i can't help but compare ike to katrina experiences....how unprepared we were, how people were fighting over gas, food, ice...here we see so many people pulling together and helping each other.

on a kinda selfish note- i am praying for power to be restored for us all, but also- the new season premiers come on soon!!! but the kids are keeping busy with coloring, drawing, putting on shows & reading. i have actually finished a book that i had been trying to finish for a while now and will start a new one soon :)

Ike Blogging: Monday 9/15/08 10:40am

a new week has started & God has revealed His blessings to us again. i'm not sure if my spirits would be as high if the storm had come as early as lat week. there's a wonderful cool breeze flowing through the house right now. fall is coming!

i am truly drawing from lessons learned from our katrina experience. this morning i cleaned the fridge out completely . over night things were getting a little gross, so first thing after making the kids breakfast i hit the fridge with awesome lavender cleaner- thanks mom!- & trash bags. it wasn't yucky, but would have been if i had left it for a little later.

tim's working today. i haven't heard form him yet, i'm hoping all of his employees are safe too. oh- tears filled my eyes and ran down my face- the kids were all eating breakfast & coloring at the table today- listening to our Christan radio station ksbj when a familiar song came on. cayley & trav started singing "blessed be your name" with such joy! i honestly thank the Lord that our children know that we are being blessed even through these difficult days. i feel Him strengthening our fab five of a family every minute throughout this.

No Power Blogging: Ike Sunday 9/14/08 11:50am

so here's my attempt to blog- a written old school account of the next few days. thursday- kids went to school. it was grandparents day for both cayley & travis. tim called that morning and strongly suggested that my mom head home to lv that morning instead of waiting till after lunch time- traffic was already picking up as as few zip codes were being evacuated. so she left for home after taking cayley to breakfast :)

the automated school system called & let us know that there was not going to be school on friday and then a little later called again saying there would be an early release @1145 on thursday. so i rushed around here at home making sure the house was clean & all laundry done. after katrina 3 years ago- i immediately thought of what made having to go w/out power even more miserable- so i made sure we had a clean house to spend the long weekend in with each other. for sure we were better prepared this time around. still no generator, but the house was boarded up, clean clothes were put away, & the fridge & freezer packed with meals for the next few days.

we lost power at home earlier than i thought we would. no wind or rain , but lost it at 6pm! so kids got a shower and i got a margarita :) & all went to bed. the wind and rain picked up around 10pm and lasted all night. knowing our windows were boarded up gave us some peace of mind when we'd hear crashes & banging on the house. the kids slept soundly in our bedroom and i was up around 3am-4am listening to the battery powered radio for storm updates. the eye of ike had yet to pass us- so things were very loud & rough sounding in the dark outside.

i went back to bed and woke again @ 6:30am - everyone was ready to see what was going on and eat breakfast- so pancake day! then the sky began to lighten up so we could see what the wind & rain were doing. we sat by the kitchen window and watched as our back gate was ripped off it's hinges and thrown into the air. besides a few trees down, broken gate, lots of limbs & branches around, & no power- all in all we are doing well. - a tad uncomfortable, but so incredibly grateful that we are safe & well. we can weather this storm , as with God's help in all life's"storms".

thank you family & friends for prayers & concern! tim's back to work tomorrow & by the listening to the radio- lots of businesses are opening & getting our metro area up & running again.

thankful for: a wonderful cool breeze, cold juice boxes & frozen propels, radio stations & tv news that work 24/7, & gas stoves!

Weather Watching is getting OLD!

Just had to post this pic I did of my wedding ring. I did this a while ago, but wanted to share what I was thinking about when I saw this again. In Hebrew it says "My beloved is mine and I am his." There should be an added verse somewhere saying - and so is my big, wonderful, slightly silly, amazing family. and vice versa :) See the big Lopez-Chetwood-Lett Family Photo!!!

We made the long awaited trip to SA for Labor Day weekend. Our main goal was to meet up with some of my family for a big group portrait. It was fun! A lot of corraling, bribing, yelling "cheeeeese", and laughing. I was exhausted afterwards for sure- and I know I wasn't the only one, lol. Most of our trip was spent chatting, eating great food at both parents houses, and watching the weather channel. Yes- another hurricane is now heading our way again. Our area was spared a week ago, but here's another one coming to test us.

This is a busy school week. It's grandparents week - my mom is coming up to spend some time with us, it's open house at Cayley's school on Thursday, I'm running up to the kindergarten to help with grandparent's day pics on Wednesday, and of course watching the weather!!!