Home Again

Mom drove the girls' and me home yesterday afternoon. (I had some cute pictures on my phone of the girls playing at my parent's house, only I lost my phone at dinner one night.) I am glad my mom decided to stay the night with us instead of driving all the way back to Hockley that night. Ashlyn always thinks it is a special treat when her grandparents stay the night. Mom left early this morning before I took the girls to school. Ashlyn had a good day at Pre-school. Jadie on the other hand has had some issues adjusting. It's hard to drop her off knowing that she is miserable....I'm only hoping it gets better, sooner than later.

On the road again!

The girls and I will pack up Thursday night and head back to my parents for the weekend. Johnathan is going on nights for a while and it's too hard to keep the girls quiet during the day while he sleeps.

Headed Home

Johnathan had to be back at work this morning, (Monday). So yesterday afternoon Johnathan dropped the girls and me off at my parents. My parents had power and we still did not. A few minutes after Johnathan arrived home one of our neighbors stuck her head out and shouted "We have power!" Since the girls and I were already here...we decided to stay two nights and visit with my family. Mom has chemo tomorrow morning so we will go ahead and pack up and get out of her hair so she can rest afterwards. I'm excited about finally headed home and getting our angels back in a routine!

Feeding Uncle Brody's Koi Fish

Playing Ring Around the Rosie!

Jadie Playing in the Sand

Jadie Listening to Grandpa K. Read her a Story.

Leaving Seaworld

In just a few hours we will be packing up again. This time Johnathan will be dropping the girls and me off at my parents' house, and then he will head out to Beaumont. He has to be at work Monday morning. We still don't have power at the house so John is planning on borrowing my parents, since they no longer need it. We all had a great time at Seaworld. The best part in my eyes was the 4d movie we went and saw! In the past we haven't gone because it is a movie about pirates. (I don't think I've ever seen a movie about pirates that wouldn't scare a kid.). However this time we saw a whole bunch of little ones going in with their parents...so we went! Ashlyn was excited because everyone got to wear these cool red glasses. That excitement turned to uncertainty within a minute of the movie's start. The seats had extra effects that went along with the movie. For instance...a guy was in a cave and got caught in a spider web...you see the spidercoming down (and since it is 3d it looks like it's coming at you.) then the spider SPITS! Everyone in the place got sprayed with water! At that point Ashlyn was terrified and said...."I'm going to have nightmares!". Johnathan and I must be bad parents because it was hysterical! I didn't take any pictures at Seaworld...my little camera's battery died and I didn't want to bring my big one and worry about it getting wet. I'm glad too since we not only got a little wet at the movie but we sat in the splash zone at the Shamu show. Fortunately we were at the far back of it so we stayed dry....it was neat to sit that close to such amazing creatures!

Grandma and Grandpa K. have POWER

My parents called this morning and told me that they had power. We will head there on Sunday. Yesterday, I booked us two nights in San Antonio so we can take the girls to Seaworld. Johnathan had saved a bunch of vacation so that we could use it to do work on the new house...now that he will basically be back in a "turn around" like work roll...vacation days will be almost impossible to come by...therefore we have decided to make the most of Ike's desire to keep us from our home.

Carey and Ashlyn Playing in the Hotel Lobby after Breakfast.

Update

Tuesday afternoon Hillary and her little boy, Jackson drove the girls and me down to College Station. The boys, Johnathan and Jay met us at the Ramada where we had reservations to stay the night! The boys showered and got cleaned up while Hillary and I went to Harbor Freight to get some water pumps for Brody. While we were there I overheard that they had a few generators! I was able to purchase one for my parents who have been searching for one!!! Mom and Dad happened to be coming to A&M to pick up Sally since the hotel we were going to stay at wouldn't accept pets...so it truly was perfect timing. While they were here they stopped at HEB to pick up some groceries and enjoyed a hot shower and what would a trip to A&M be without a stop at Freebirds! We met up with Stefany, Troy, Carey, and Richard Glyn there too. We also got to see their Nanna and Papa Rick. Since it was such a large group (12) we let Carey and Ashlyn have their own table! The two girls insisted on RG sitting with them. All three of them had a blast!
This morning we went down to breakfast with Courtni, Alexander, and Maddie J. After that we met Stefany and her crew at the local children's museum in Bryan! I wish we could have stayed longer but we still had to get back to the hotel, packup and check out before noon. We didn't get into our new hotel until 3:00, so we killed time at wings n more! Another one of my favorite restaraunts here in CS.
Right now the girls are taking a nap in the room. I haven't made plans for dinner yet...it depends on what Stefany and Courtni have going on! Johnathan and James, Courtni's husband are recruiting at A&M, so they have been out of pocket all day and already have dinner plans to take their favorite canidates out to dinner.
Courtni asked me to take pictures of her kids under the century trees here on campus... I'm sure hoping we can find time to do that!!! I'd love to add that to my portfolio! We are also wanting to show the girls the campus...and try to develop Ashlyn's interest in A&M. We talk about being an Aggie a lot and I'm sure it seems kind of abstract to her...hopefully this trip will let her better understand what we are talking about.

So far...

We left Beaumont at 1am early Thursday morning. We were headed up to Keller, Tx where one of Johnathan's college roomate lives. He and his wife, Katie, hosted our family. On Saturday, we all drove to Plano, Tx to stay a couple of nights with another one of John's buddies from gradeschool. (Thank you...Chuck and Katie) (Thank you...Jay and Hillary)!!!
Tuesday John is supposed to recruit at Texas A&M. So that is our next location. We are slowly making it closer to home!
As for our home...John and jay drove down there tonight...John says everything looks okay...we will have to wait till daylight to check for water stains on the ceilings (which we got during Rita and Umberto). Of course, like everyone else effected by Ike, we are without power, water, or sewer.
Now the new house didn't fair as well! From what my friend Freenea saw, we have about three inches of standing water. We have a couple of missing shingles and the front doors were blown open, so the insulation that had been installed littered the interior of the house. Sounds like it will be a nice insulation mud mess!
My parents house in northwest Houston lost some shingles, and they lost a few trees and power but otherwise made it through okay. Johnathan's parents place in Baytown got hit pretty hard. I don't actually know the extent of the damage except they definitely think a tornado came through with all the trees snapped off the way they were. As for their new farm near Rusk, I haven't heard any news on it...they haven't been up there yet to check it out.
We also aren't very optimistic about the camphouse...supposibly khou.com has aerial footage of titlam tatum, however, I don't know enough landmarks down there to figure out if it's still there.

We are Evacuating....AGAIN!

Enough said! I'll write more whenever I have Internet Access. We are leaving in 2 hours. (1 am).

Brick Work has Started

The brick layers were out there this afternoon. In addition to that, most of the insulation has been completed within the house. I understand now why Johnathan has been telling me...if you think you want an outlet there...get it now, because I'm not running it later! (The walls are packed with insulation for sound reduction, so it isn't like running wires in our current house, where I can pretty much have him run them where ever I like.)

Standing at the Entry Way and Looking into the House

Standing at the Kitchen Sink and Looking Into the Game Room.

Playtime with the Girl's Cousins!

After school on Friday, I drove the girls out to my mom's. Johnathan is having to work the weekend and possibly nights, so we decided to go play with Ryley and Brenlee. On the way into town I drove through Kingwood (thank you Laura for allowing us to swing by and rehydrate), and dropped off some pictures I had taken of a family a while ago. I was supposed to deliver them last weekend at the beach, but due to Gustav, never made it out there. Speaking of Hurricanes, now I am sitting here again, wandering, if I should head back to Beaumont (as originally planned) or stay a little longer and watch what Hurricane Ike is going to do. As of right now, (they don't have it quite reaching shore yet on the models), they have it headed towards Galveston and taking a northerly track just before landfall. Which would mean, Beaumont, would get quite a punch and be on the East (the bad) side of the storm!
While we have been here, the cousins have all gotten to play with each other. Jadie follows Brenlee around and wants whatever she has. Only a few battles came about.

Ashlyn wanted to go to the pet store while we were here. She got to feed a 5 foot caimen. She actually wouldn't do it, so the store owner, held it out there (using huge tweezers) and fed the caimen a little white mouse. Ashlyn loved it. They also had an Asian Water Monitor, lots of taratutlas, and just about every venomous snake known. They had lots of salt water fish and every type of gecko, lizard, iguana, and turtle imaginable. He also has a lone parrot, and a ferret.

I did manage to take a few pictures of the girls while we have been here. I got a couple of cute ones of the girls and Jack. Jack is a dog that lives out on my parent's property.

Jadie's First Day of MDO and Ashlyn's First Day of her Last Year of Pre-School!

Our girls are growing up too fast! Tomorrow, I will take the girls to their new "school". It will be Jadyn's First Official Day of Mother's Day Out! It will be Ashlyn's First Day of Pre-School, and her Last Year of Pre-School.

Jadie's New Word!

Jadie surprised us yesterday when we gave her a sippy cup with water instead of her usual milk. She looked up at us and said "Wah". So, Johnathan and I both showed her the sign for it, anytime we gave it to her today. Tonight, she said water, and did the sign for it too! She is such a smarty!

We Are HOME!!!

First off, Thank You Danni for letting us stay at your house! Courtni and I packed up the kids and left today at 12:45pm. We arrived back in Beaumont around 6:00pm. Traffic was bad, however, we were not only fighting people trying to get back into town, but it was also Labor Day Weekend.

Johnathan is thinking he might have the day off tomorrow, since we are supposed to experience Tropical Storm winds this evening and early tomorrow morning.

I am looking forward to sleeping in my own bed!