a Picture Tag from Kristy Sinks

The rules of the game. Go to your pictures folder and take the fourth picture from the fourth file and post it. That's it. Then tag four friends:)

This picture is from Easter this year. The Library hosted an easter egg hunt on a day that I think Quentin must have been home "sick" or maybe it was during spring break, not sure.. Anyhoo, this is him helping Baby Joely. Funny thing is today, she's wearing the same pants,

How fun to get tagged for pictures, I was tagged for recipes before. This is way more fun!

I tag Hiedie, Aryn, Meghan, Karla, Jan and Renae!

Home Sweet Home, or an Inconvenient Truth

We are home now and we have power, cable, internet,phone and cell service!!!

Good times, Good Times!

A few days ago my friend Jan Mason posted the following quote on her blog and it really gave me pause and made me think about this little inconvenience we went through for 12 days- I wanted to steal the quote right away but I thought it would be nicer if I waited a few days, today it's very appropriate.

“One of life's best coping mechanisms is to know the difference between an inconvenience and a problem. If you break your neck, if you have nothing to eat, if your house is on fire, then you've got a problem. Everything else is an inconvenience. Life is inconvenient. Life is lumpy. A lump in the oatmeal, a lump in the throat and a lump in the breast are not the same kind of lump. One needs to learn the difference.”~Robert Fulghum

I have to admit that I felt like things were horrible but really in hindsight, it was just an inconvenience, we had no loss to our property, everyone was healthy and safe and we had plenty to eat. Also when it got bleak we had places of refuge. The kids and I were pampered in Austin (I have my savage tan back) and Robert was able to get back to work pretty quickly. Some people are still out of work and that is a problem, who can afford to be out of work for 1/2 a month or longer?

The kids are back in school today, if you ask David he'd say that's a problem, but Alice felt the whole two weeks off was very inconvenient, after all Mrs. Randolph really misses her! Quentin is getting over a flu (an inconvenience that delayed our trip home by one day) but I think he'll go to school after gym today.

Two material things I'm greatful for are our propane grill (and propane products) and our little am/fm radio. It was great to hear the news without the luxury of tv and warm food was great-.

As promised here is my photo log of the days of Ike.

This is Friday Night when the power went out a full 8 hours before the storm even hit.

These are some pictures that my husband took when he went out into the EYE of the storm, even though they say NEVER GO OUT IN THE EYE OF THE STORM- I was yelling at him from my mattress in the house.

I guess it was pretty cool, but I was afraid to go out there and then get blown to OZ or something.

Assessing the Damage, aka the Morning After

Our front yard, we lost 5 trees from the front and back, but none landed on the house!

The Port O Can on Port O Call

Livin' Like Refugees

The Monkey's Uncle

Since we were with mom and dad for 9 days we actually got to see Brian on his days off- He's nocturnal but made a day appearance in the pool to appease Quentin. When he came out I thought maybe the Jonas Brothers or Hannah Montana had came out- because everyone was screaiming with Delight. Even Joely became friends with Uncle Brian on this trip, I think the Oreo cookies helped, but now she's a fan. He spent a couple hours being jumped on by the boys and appeasing many requests to "throw me, throw me" and "one more time, please" And for some reason I only got pictures of him and Alice, but he was bombarded on all sides. Thanks for being a good sport Uncle Brian.

At the wildflower center of Miss Ladybird's fame

The wildflower center was celebrating the launch of it's spanish language website, so it was all about latin america, good food and fun crafts all for a buck!

Day ten, still no power

Power is coming back to Crosby, just not where we live. A couple of friends in the neighborhood report power and we are supposed to have it by end of business today. We shall see.

Robert has spent evenings with his parents in Baytown, they got power back on Friday and we are still in Austin. We have been swimming non-stop and seeing a couple of old friends (ann and luci). On Friday night we went to the wildflower center in way south austin, in fact I've never been so far south on MoPac before, it was an adventure. It was a lot of fun and the admission was only one dollar for the "nature night" which included food and crafts. It's usually the exhorbitant amount fo $7 for adults and $5 for kids and it's not worth that, but it's worth a buck buck buck! I took pictures and will post them when we get back to Crosby with power.(shout out to Jan- they have these about ten times a year, they would be a great cheap activity girls or scout activity- the next one is in October-you probably already know this though!)

The superintendent of Crosby ISD informed us school will resume on Thursday, so I hope that means we'll have power before that. Robert reports that Sammi Jo is very very very unhappy with the turn of events and hates being an outside dog. Quentin really missed his dad yesterday, he didn't watch any football, good thing it was just the cowboys! Alice said she missed dad so much her stomach hurt.