Costumes are In

Can you guess who this is? He picked out his costume today -- Raphael, Ninja Turtle.

You don't see this everyday

It's not everyday you walk outside your home in a suburban neighborhood and see cows wondering the streets. Apparently there is a farm somewhere nearby and at least 50 cows escaped and were grazing in the soccer fields and some areas zoned for new homes. One of our neighbors said that during soccer practice that evening, the coach thought he stepped in dog poop. One of the kids said "coach, I hate to tell you this but it ain't dog poop". When they looked around they saw cow patty's everywhere. Someone needs to get their pooper scooper out. :)

Guess who has stitches?

You guessed it! Josh. We arrived back in town after evacuting to Dallas for the week following Hurricane Ike. Michael decided to take the boys to the park to give mom a break from the boys. Next thing you know I got a call from Michael to have bandaids and washclothes ready becasue Josh had hurt his chin bad. When they arrived home I was waiting outside the house for him to arrive. When we got him in the house and I washed away the blood, his chin had been split open. I knew this was not something that batman bandaids could cure. So we rushed him to the emergency room and 3 hours and 4 stitches later, voila! He is very proud of his stitches and did not cry once at the hospital. In fact, at one point he was yelling for the doctor, "Where's the doctor? I want my stitches!" When the doctors and Nurses told him he was brave, he replied "yep". They were all in disbelief with his pain tolerance. They said they were doing things to him that adults can't even take. Of course, this makes Josh's chest puff out more. He was very proud to show the receptionist his stitches on his way out. What's next for this child?

Hurricane Ike

We survived our first hurricane since moving to the Houston area. Hurricane Ike made land fall Saturday morning and we felt the hurricane force winds beginning at 4am. We lost power at 6am. Here is what we learned:

1. You are supposed to make a sign or something about the name of the hurricane: 2. The sky will turn an eerie purple & orange color prior to it hitting:

3. Small trees are very resiliant in high winds: (all of our trees survived but needed a little straightening)
4. The bigger they are, the harder they fall:

5. Traffic lights don't hold up real well:


6. If you are missing your street sign, wait a while and someone will place it back close to where it belongs:
All in all, our neighborhood was not hit relatively hard. We were without power for 36 hours and it appears that 80% of the Houston area is still without power. Galveston & S. Houston were hit considerably worse and the destruction is already in the billions. I have a feeling they haven't even found the worst of it until they are able to see all of Galveston after the water recedes. I pray for those hundreds of thousands of families devasted by the hurricane. May God bless you.

IKE

So far, all is well here in Cypress. The winds have picked up to about 30-40 miles per hour but we have not had any rain. It looks as though all of Galveston has lost power and we anticipate losing power in a couple of hours. Flooding began in Galveston around midday before any of the winds had picked up. The worst we have seen so far is this fire that has been reported to move from house to house and the firefighters are unable to get to it in Galveston due to rising water.

Ike Update

Hurricane Ike (Category 2 for now) is about 19 hours away at this point and the mass hysteria has calmed down from yesterday. Most of those who are evacuating are now gone and all others are "hunkered down" (heard this term about 500 times yesterday). We are staying put along with the rest of our neighbors hoping we don't see any damage or loss of power too long. Here are some pictures of the craziness from yesterday.

Hurricane Ike

With each passing hour, it appears this hurricane will be making landfall very close to Houston. As we have seen with each storm this season, the city goes bananas with groceries, gas, and fear. Up until now I couldn't believe the frenzy everyone gets worked up into, but I think this storm may be the real deal for this area. Several mandatory evacuations have been ordered along the coastal areas and schools are beginning to announce closures. I don't know if our district will close down but I don't think we will be evacuating since we are 80 miles inland. Should be an interesting couple of days.

Super Dad

After we put the boys to bed tonight, Joshua came out of his room as he always does. Michael went to put him back in bed. The following conversation took place

Setting: Josh standing in the hallway with his blanket and pillow in his hand. Michael walks up.

Josh: "I want to weep (sleep) with you"
Michael: "Why? You need to sleep in your bed"
Josh: "The monsters are going to get me"
Michael: "There are no monsters"
Josh: "Well, the storm troopers and Darh Vader are going to jump out of the pictures and get me"
Michael: "They won't jump out of the picture"
Josh: "If they do, I want you to fight them"
Michael: "Ok, I will fight them"

Too cute!! Dad to the rescue.

Joshy's first day of Preschool

Josh attended his first day of preschool. He was so excited and thought he was riding a bus just like Jake. When I told him that I was the bus driver and the bus was the minivan he was none to thrilled. He quickly got over it. He kept rehearsing his day "I go to preschool, play, eat lunch, come home, and then do 4 "B's". He even asked me to spike his hair. When we were walking in he told me that the teachers would love his spikey hair. He is so sweet and I just know that he will love Preschool. I think that my smile was as big as his when I dropped him off. I'm not sure, but I may have got caught skipping out of his class and all the way to the van.