Hurricane Ike

Well, what can I say. We are alive and well. Now where to start. Two weekends ago everyone in Houston was watching the news closely to see where Ike was heading. As Monday came along, it was obvious that Houston was going to see some of the storm, but no one knew for sure how much. Tuesday morning Tom calls me and says that he has to go to Oklahoma City for work. He was obviously concerned about the storm and we had talked about Logan and I going with him. the problem with that was that I don't really have vacation time to waste and still no one could predict if Houston would see more than wind and rain. Tom headed north and Ike headed in.

Throughout the week everyone watched in anticipation of where Ike would land as we all prepared for the worst. Even I had to run out and get extra dog food not knowing what to expect. Logan and I took everything out of the yard, we dragged the outdoor tables and chairs into the living room. (By the way it's still in our living room. I took it all down now Tom can put it away. We don't want him to miss ALL of the fun, do we?) We took down all the hoses, yard lights, pool toys, etc. We stacked everything we would need in the kitchen: flashlights, candles, matches, water, weather radio. It looked like we were packing to go camping. (and now I know I wouldn't enjoy roughing it, it was too much work). We had talked to our neighbors and were preparing for lord only knew what. By Thursday night we were anticipating getting hit really hard here in Katy. The predictions were showing the eye of Ike coming up just west of Houston. Right where we were.

Then Tom, my parents, my in-laws, and everyone else in the world wouldn't let us stay in the house by ourselves. I thought about staying anyway for all of split second but then I realized that if we did I would likely be divorced and disowned by all of the above. So, with Logan in tow we headed to one our dearest and best friends house, the Fitzsimmons. LeeAnn's mom was staying the night, as well as here brother who was stationed here from the Florida Coast Guard to help after the storm. There was a Hurricane party on Kendall Shay Court Friday evening. The weather was beautiful and the sunset was gorgeous. Logan played with the kids and then we headed in for dinner. The wind started to pick up about 6 pm. Then it started to spit rain. The winds really started getting back around 8 and it just went downhill from there.

It's hard for me to explain the storm. It was strange. One minute it wouldn't be really windy at all and then the wind would shake the house. Then you could see lightening and then the wind would push the rain. I don't think it ever really rained that hard it was just the wind that made the rain hard. The weird part was there was no thunder. Other than the wind gusts the storm was quiet. Logan and I would fall asleep for a few minutes and sleep rather peacefully then we would wake up to the howling gusting wind. It was a long night. Oddly enough I wasn't frightened at all. I was quite at peace with what was happening. There was one time in the middle of the night that the wind started to pick up and I thought that if it got any worse that we would be experiencing a tornado and not the hurricane. After thinking about it and talking with LeeAnn she agreed, it was much more like being in a tornado than in a severe storm. The rain and wind went on until about 8 am the next morning. Surprisingly they never lost power at the house.

Logan and I headed for home in the drizzling rain about 10. We drove through streets that were covered in tree limb debris. We drove up to our house and immediately noticed that a large chunk of our neighbors fence had been blown down and then we saw part of our fence had torn down as well. We didn't have electricity, we had no gate to the back yard, a few shingles were gone off the roof, the pool was full of branches and leaves, two spots in the house on the first floor had water leaks that were minor and thank goodness for the big trees in the back corner of the yard or we would have lost the entire fence. All in all, we made out like bandits. The devastation for some parts of Texas is horrific. Some of the most popular tourist areas, that neither Tom nor I have had a chance to visit, don't exist now. The storm changed direction in the middle of the night and the eye of the storm was just east of Houston proper, not west where we were. The lord was watching out for us.

Where we are now. Tom got back into town Monday afternoon. Cell phone service is more stable. There is very little gas to be found because many stations still don't have power to pump it. The grocery stores are bare practically no sales of cold goods and they have cases of spoiled frozen food. It's a strange site. Yet little by little every day things go back to normal. We forget the niceties that we have and take for granted the things we do on a daily basis. But, if it weren't for electricity and computers and cell phone I wouldn't be able to communicate and share a very shortened version of our first hurricane experience, which don't forget Tom missed. Tom better be in town for our next hurricane. As the people here in Texas have said to me lightheartedly, Welcome to Texas and Happy Hurricaning.

P.S. The building picture is of Chase tower, downtown Houston. This is the office building that Tom works from most of the time. I understand that above the 30th or 40th floor, where Tom's office is, the building is fine. It wasn't the hurricane force winds that destroyed the windows, it was the flying debris.

Roadkill

It was 4:15 a.m. this morning when Logan got out of bed and started pacing to go outside. So I pulled myself out of bed half asleep, down the stairs to the back door. I flipped the switch for the outside flood light, unlocked the door, and opened the screen for Logan to head out first. Then my heart jumped and my eyes widened as Logan bolted for the back of the yard. I immediately knew there was another animal back there. My first reaction was not to yell too loudly to wake up the neighbors and then to figure out how I would explain that Logan bullied one of the wandering neighborhood cats. Yes, they have collars and belong to someone who let's them roam the neighborhood.

As I tried quietly to yell at the dog to leave whatever it was, which I still couldn't see, I notice a shadow go up the back of the tree. No I didn't get closer to see what it was, Are you kidding me there's spiders out there. And the poor dog who apparently doesn't have much of a sense of smell, like me, was just sniffing around the back of yard not sure where the creature went. He did his business when I happened to look up to the top of the fence into the black eyes of the biggest hugest Possum I'd ever seen. Ok, my first thought was "I know what that is, but I've never seen one that wasn't lying along the side of the road. You know, roadkill". Then I giggled to myself because I called it a Possum. For you Northerners, that's Opossum. However, I must tell you that I didn't call it that because we live in Texas, I called it that because that's what my Tennessee born mother and family calls them.

Back to the story...I couldn't believe how big this thing was. I also couldn't believe when I saw what it was that Logan hadn't caught it. Possum's aren't the fastest things in the world, and this one was fat. My next thought turned to how quickly I could get my camera that was sitting by the back door in the house. By the time I got it and focused in the dark, the Possum was down into the neighbors back yard. So, no the picture is not from this morning, but I figured many of you probably haven't seen one in a long time so it's just a reminder.

Later I was thinking I didn't know enough about having a Possum for a neighbor so I did a little research. Come to find out that they aren't always aggressive creatures in fact they are fairly timid unless they decide that it's time to pester the household pets. I also found out that they eat lots of icky bugs, like cockroaches. I didn't know anything would eat cockroaches. After that, I prayed that Logan didn't scare him off for good. Because there are BIG cockroaches in Texas. And no I'm not taking a picture! Next thing you know, I'll be adding up the creatures in the Marchione Family Zoo.

There's this stuff called.....rain

Do you believe it? There's this wet stuff, rain, that falls from the sky and makes the grass grow. Oh yeah, we have grass here too. And green trees and an assortment of other pretty flowers and stuff.

Ok, so I cheated a little, this picture was actually taken last week when we had the storms from the outskirts of Hurricane Dolly. But hey, I just started blogging so I figured I needed to catch up. I took this picture sitting at a stop light trying to find my way home during my first week of work. It's hard to tell, but you can't see across the street with the heavy rain. It was quite interesting. The roads can flood here and people still don't know how to drive in it, but it was cool.

It was a true thunder storm. There was lightning and thunder and downpours that you couldn't see through. And when it was all over there was this wonderful smell. You might not be able to relate, but to me it smelled like late summer nights in Tennessee. I think it had more to do with the excitement of the rain and being here in Houston that brought on the summer vacation memories. But the smell was distinct. Maybe the whole South smells the same after it rains. I'll have to test that out the next time it rains.

The bad part about rain, Logan hates it. You would think a dog that likes to get a bath would like rain, but noooo. He only goes outside to do his "business" when he just can't hold it anymore. Then he runs out, does his thing, and runs in. Of course then you have to dry him off before he rubs his wet fur into the carpet.

As much as I like our pool, I actually can't wait for a good, heavy thunderstorm on a weekend (hopefully in the Fall when it's cooler) so we can sit in front of the fireplace and enjoy it.

God Bless Texas

First of all, I want to thank those of you who pushed me to start a blog (Jaime Lea) as it is a really great venue to keep friends and loved ones in the loop on our lives.

For those of you who may not know, we've recently started a new chapter in our lives - Houston, Texas. Most recently Tom and I have been "reunited" with the purchase of our Texas home and that I got a job here. The dog is slowly settling in and he is enjoying his new backyard. Logan's still not sure about the pool. Logan is a sports fan and he loves soccer and football. I really thought he was going to take a flying leap into the deep-end because the pool thermometer is a floating football. For once, he really listened and stopped before jumping in the pool.

You'll have to excuse this first post and how it may not seem quite coherent. I painted the entire first week in the house and I think I'm still suffering from a paint fume high. I'll be posting pictures later as we get the rooms settled. By the way, after 7 whole days of painting I only got 3, YES 3, rooms done. I never remembered painting taking so long. Oh well.

We're here, together as a family again, and living in the warm and humid climate of Houston. We are together and well and thankful everyday for that.