Hurricane Ike

As my 1st post as a "blogger", I am posting photos of Hurricane, Ike, that hit us 1 week ago. We are still without power and it looks that it will not be restored for another week, at least. We are dealing with it as best as can be expected. They told us to stay put and (in TX terms) "Hunker down, y'all". So hunker we did. Our house shook and howled with the wind and torrential rains. We heard trees falling all around us and were terrified we would be hit with 1 of the many trees that are here in The Woodlands. Luckily our home had NO damage. Our yard, however, was completely taken away. We lost 7 pine trees(not my favorite, so I wasn't too disappointed) and all went into the neighbors yard, causing only fence damage. The storm allowed us a lot of family game time. Britt was home from college as they used her college as a Red Cross Station. Her 19th birthday happened to fall when Ike arrived. Happy Birthday, Princess! They told us to 'hunker down' and then there were  no generators, groceries or gas. I am still With the storm passing we had major clean up. Tony was able to repair the fences and the 3 neighbors fences. We had the trees cut and hauled. Tony had someone cut the remainder of pines in the front of our house this a.m. They were leaning into the house and would fall with a wind of any strength. Life will slowly return to normal. The kids start school again on Monday, which we find questionable since we have no power. Tony scored a wonderful generator and we have been hooked up to that for a few days. That means we power our refrigerator and I can use the washing machine, no dryer though. The humidity and heat arrived today. We have been blessed with cooler than normal weather and limited humidity. For those who have not experienced the Houston Heat, it is unbearable. Tony also, in fore thought, scored a room air conditioner and figured how to power the Direct TV. As I write this in heat, he is in the bedroom in cool comfort watching his Broncos!