60% off gift cards thru Tuesday the 30th

Hey guys!

I emailed this to most of my friends and family but in case you didn't get it you can go HERE.

Find gift cards for restaurants and a whole lot of other things. Use the discount code FALL. And get 60% off!

That's a $25 gift card for $4!!!!!

You can't beat that!

I'm sorry!.... NOT!!

Ok so I got in trouble for my last post. Apparently it hurt someone's feelings. Well here's what I think about that:

Ok so maybe that doesn't make things better. But I could have sworn this was MY blog and I can post what EVER I want!! I mean seriously ..... if you don't like what I have to say DON'T READ IT. This blog isn't for you!! And if you think thats mean well I think:
And to my sister just remember:AND
And now I wonder how long it will be before she gets a phone call and gets cussed out and then she calls me and returns the favor :)

Sorry I'm just:Peace out!!

Happy Birthday to my LITTLE sister!

I didn't know what to get my sister BECKY . Because she OBVIOUSLY has it all. But I saw this on another friend's blog and thought I would post it for her to steal. I think she'll really like it :)

This one's for you Becka-Sue-Lou-Lou!!

A few pictures of the Ike aftermath

If you look at one of the posts below you can see pictures of the sky before the storm, probably around 5-6pm that night. Here's a picture of the sky just before it got dark and just before we lost power, around 7-8pm:

Isn't it beautiful? You can't see it but the clouds are moving REALLY fast, it was an amazing site. Who know this would be the sky just hours later:
This was taken out my patio window in my bedroom with my cellphone so its not the best quality and you can't really see the gusting but trust me, it was skeery! Then once the sun came out and the hurricane had all but past we had tons of rain and tons of wind. The drainage ditch for our little area (in the picture above) is RIGHT outside my patio. It was getting clogged up with leaves & tree branches so the girls decided to go out and help clean up. I should get mother of the year award for letting my kids play in the hurricane!!
Of course Ashlee had to give the "thumbs up" sign so Grandma would know we were ok :). Then we decided to take a walk around the complex to see what kind of damage was done. We got lucky and had none but I knew that wouldn't be the case for everyone.

This tree was snapped in half and landed on a person's balcony:
This tree was uprooted and landed on the building. I can only imagine how LOUD that was at 2am!!

Another tree snapped in half, luckily it didn't damage any property just a b*tch to clean up I'm sure!

This is our pool, so much for a pool party for Ayanna's birthday!
anyone for a swim? YUCK!!
So then we decided to drive around a little bit and see what was going on around town. (shhh don't tell the Mayor he said we should all stay home .. SUUUURE).
More snapped trees:

This tree is blocking one of the entrances into work. Darn no work today!

This parking lot was completely flooded in the middle. Notice the "Waterbed" sign ... LOL

This is what's left of a gas station canopy. Its completely turned inside out with the pumps somewhere underneath:

The we come to the lines for gas. Funny thing is, Whataburger opened on Monday and I swear their line was longer than the gas lines. LOL

Then when we got back home we started to settle into what would be our rountine for the next 4 days without power. Spaghettios (out of the can), Checkers & Friends what more could we need?

Monday I finally was able to get to WalMart and get a VERY small charcoal grill and a local grocery store got some fresh meat. We had no ice to keep it cold so we had to eat it that night. Was the best meal EVER after turkey sandwiches!!

So there you have it, straight from the camera of an Ike Survivor :)

Help out Houston - spread the word!!

Mayor Bill White has established the Houston Ike Relief Fund to aid those affected by Hurricane Ike.

The fund will address the immediate needs of the community, according to a spokeswoman with the mayor’s office.

Money may be used for water, medicine, diapers or something like repairing a hole in a roof.

To make a check donation, send to:

Houston Ike Relief Fund
c/o Greater Houston Community Foundation
4550 Post Oak Place, Suite 100
Houston, TX 77027

Another Update

So now its Tuesday afternooon. Still No power at home :(

They have power at work so my boss asked whoever could to come in so here I am! I went ahead and came in because we have a huge kitchen with a big screen TV so the kids hit the snack machine and are watching TV.

Still no idea when we'll have power at home but at least its not hot. We've been very blessed with the weather. Its been low 80's with very little humidity getting down to mid 50's at night so we can sleep with all the windows open and actually get a little cold at night. HUGE BLESSING. I can't imagine how horrible it would be if this cold front hadn't come in!! It would be SO humid and SO hot. Literally an inside sauna.

I took pictures mostly with my phone so once i have power at home I will upload them and post all my pictures.

Everyone keeps asking me if its as bad as it looks on TV. YES IT IS!! Acutally if you are IN IT its WORSE.

Just imagine waiting on line for 2 hours just to get a bag of ice, knowing that if you DON'T get it, you have to throw out even MORE food.

Sitting on the highway for 2 hours waiting to get a tank of gas hoping they still have some by the time you get there.

Driving around for hours (burning that precious gas) looking for ice & gas only to have them be OUT by the time you get there.

Cellphone service is spotty at best. So you are glued to your radio and text your friends with ice / gas information.

Is not fun people. Trust me YEAR SUPPLY!!

I really had no idea how much its affected me until about midnight last night an ex-boyfriend dropped by to check on me and see how we were and I had a complete break down. Guess I've been holding it all in to hide it from the kids but yeah ... worst experience of my life.

Once we're out of this and have time to collect myself I'll put together a list of MUST HAVES. And I expect EVERYONE OF YOU to go out and get EVERYTHING on this list!! lol

Update

Just a quick update as to the happenin's over here. Hurricane Ike was no joke. We have had no power since Friday night at 9pm. We finally went to sleep around midnight. I think we slept thru the worst of the storm. I was woke up at 5am on Saturday when someone called to see how we were.

The kids were asleep so I wandered around the house making sure everything was still standing. The storm was still going full force. Everything was still standing and we were ok. I went into the girls' room to look out their window (Ayanna was sleeping in my bed and Ashlee was on the couch) and the floor next to their exterior wall was soaked. It seems to be seeping up through the foundation. Unfortunately that's where Ashlee keeps ALL her "crap" so I woke them up quickly and we worked on getting it all up and were able to save everything.

We still have no power. Its been 2 1/2 days. NOT FUN. Luckily its still drizzing rain and there's a breeze so we're not terribly hot. Its just boring!! We're currently at a co-worker's house that has power. Thank goodness! I have been fighting a cold and just felt like it was getting worse. That hot shower made a huge difference. The kids have no school until at least Thursday. I'm still waiting for an update at work to see when we go back to work but I'm guessing it will be a few days.

There are currently over TWO MILLION people without power. They are working 24/7 to get them up and running but say it COULD be up to 2 weeks!! We are located by a lot of major business, the mall AND a hospital so I think that's a good sign for us that we'll be have power soon (dunno when SOON is tho!). We have running water (just not hot). We have plenty of bottled water, plenty of canned food and snacks, plus stores are beginning to open up so we can restock as needed. Plus great friends/co workers that let us come over and feed and bathe us when needed :)

When I get power back I'll upload some pictures of the devastation. I'm sure everyone has seen some on the news but it doesn't even compare to being here in person. I've never been through ANYTHING like this before and hope I never have to again. We were so blessed and so lucky to come out as well as we did. So many people lost EVERYTHING!!

Waves in Galveston

I have nothing better to do so I'll be blogging a lot lol

You can go HERE to see live video of the waves in Galveston.

My trip to Walmart to finish preparing for Hurricane Ike

So I just went up to WalMart to get some last minute items I had forgotten. Milk, Peanut Butter, Butter and some books to read.

First, here's the sky when I left.

Not too bad, its not as dark as it looks but there's definitely a storm coming. Still just a slight breeze, nothing major. Here's what I saw when I pulled up to Wal Mart's front door.


They've put all their pallets and potting soil bags in front of every entrance, every window, every door. And the parking lot was EMP-TY!

So my only option was to try Target, across the street, I was worried they would be closed but they weren't they were PACKED and here's what I found on the shelves.

No bread (good thing I didn't need any)


No water (nope didn't need that either got some Coke tho lol)


And no flashlights, yup already got that so we're good.

Hope no one procrastinated!!

More tracking

Here's another good link to track the hurricane. The purple line is the eye of the storm. Its now moved NorthEast which is a good thing for us. We'll now be on the west side of the eye which is where we want to be. If you zoom in on Houston my house sits right were 249 & 1960 meet. If you zoom into the 249 to about the city level you can see 1960, it shows up as "Deco" on the map (no clue what that means lol). I was actually able to zoom all the way in and actually see my apartment .. pretty cool LOL

The latest I've seen/heard is that we'll get about 70mph winds which obviously isn't GOOD but its not as bad as it could be. They say with 70mph winds you'll get almost no structural damage just a lot of debris from anything not secured down.

keep your fingers crossed!

It's time to ....

Track Ike

Well Ike is definitely going to hit us, its just a matter of WHEN and how HARD. A lot can happen between now and Friday night/Sat morning when it hits land but everyone agrees we'll definitely get a lot of wind and rain. You can go HERE to track Ike.

They're starting to evacuate the coast cities and so far no evacuations from Houston. Just an FYI unless someone comes to my house and PHYSICALLY removes me, I'm not going anywhere. Trust me its for the best. I can either ride it out in my HOUSE or ride it out in my car STUCK on the freeway. Its already getting crazy around here.

Kroger is by far the cheapest gas and there was a line halfway down the block today. I went to Wal Mart after work to load up on bottled water & canned food and they were ALREADY almost out of water so its just going to get worse.

At work they're flying some of my co-workers to Phoenix because that's our closest hub. Chances are our building will be without power so we'll need people to get our jobs out. I really wish I could go, but I can't leave the girls and my job won't pay for them to fly SOOO we'll be here!!

I'll keep everyone updated. If we lose power I'll have all our cellphones charged and we have plenty of water and batteries and canned food so we'll be fine.

.... And Another one

Yes my friends it is offically hurricane season. Next hurricane up to bat is IKE ... I swear who picks these names anyway? I'ma google that and find out ... brb....

Ok so APPARENTLY there's a LIST. I knew hurricanes go in Alphabetical order alternating between male and female (and you thought I didn't no nothin). But here's a list for the next few years .. go ahead and file this under "useless information"

Names for Atlantic Basin Tropical Cyclones

2008 Arthur Bertha Cristobal Dolly Edouard Fay Gustav Hanna Ike Josephine Kyle Laura Marco Nana Omar Paloma Rene Sally Teddy Vicky Wilfred

2009 Ana Bill Claudette Danny Erika Fred Grace Henri Ida Joaquin Kate Larry Mindy Nicholas Odette Peter Rose Sam Teresa Victor Wanda

2010 Alex Bonnie Colin Danielle Earl Fiona Gaston Hermine Igor Julia Karl Lisa Matthew Nicole Otto Paula Richard Shary Tomas Virginie Walter

2011 Arlene Bret Cindy Don Emily Franklin Gert Harvey Irene Jose Katia Lee Maria Nate Ophelia Philippe Rina Sean Tammy Vince Whitney

2012 Alberto Beryl Chris Debby Ernesto Florence Gordon Helene Isaac Joyce Kirk Leslie Michael Nadine Oscar Patty Rafael Sandy Tony Valerie William

2013 Andrea Barry Chantal Dorian Erin Fernand Gabrielle Humberto Ingrid Jerry Karen Lorenzo Melissa Nestor Olga Pablo Rebekah Sebastien Tanya Van Wendy

When I think of "Ike" I think of "Ike Turner" so I sure hope this storm isn't as abusive :)

Wow I crack myself up sometimes.

Anywhoooo Ike is heading for us, supposed to hit on Saturday. Luckily there's a lot of distance between us and "him" so he could go either way. Sorry Florida but I'm voting for EAST.

Update

So we didn't even get rain. Not even a drop, from Gustav. Which I am thankful we made it through ok. However, not everyone did. So much emphasis has been placed on New Orleans because of Katrina, the news doesn't seem to be showing what DID happen. Sure New Orleans got lucky also and didn't get what they expected. But there are plenty who weren't so lucky.

Cleaning up in Chauvin, Louisiana

This lady and her daughter are waiting for gas so they can get back home.

825 evacuees were housed in this shelter in Tyler, TX , with over 6,000 spread out over the city

This is in Gulfport, Mississippi

This is probably the biggest improvement since Katrina. They now make all interstates contraflo, so all southbound traffic is now northbound, doubling the amount of traffic that can get OUT of the city. During Katrina & Rita, some people were sitting in traffic for over 24 hours from Galveston to Houston .. which is a ONE hour drive.

So needless to say, I feel very lucky and very thankful and very BLESSED that in the 3 years I have been here, we haven't had to go through HALF of what these people have experienced.

Gustav

Hurricane Gustav was downgraded to a level 2 hurricane. It hit landfall this morning west of New Orleans so its closer to Houston, but by the time it hits us we'll just get lots of rain and wind. So its all gravy baby!