A weird product review...

I decided that I would look on the internet and find some weird products that I would review and put on my blog! So I found one. I ordered it and it got here the day before Ike! So I have had this for a while but we just used the product last night. It is... drumroll!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The Fizz....

IT is a RootBeer Float on the Go!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Is the thought behind this not ingenious???

The straw somehow acts as a sucker upper (NOT the technical term, I am sure!)

So you screw your 20 oz drink of choice onto the bottom and put your cup of icecream on top, and you have an on the go float!

Kaitlin really enjoyed it!

On a product review note, the cups are expensive, 10 dollars for 6, they are reusable although unsure of how many uses they will last through. You really need to follow the directions of putting the lid on first before you screw it all down or the beverage can come out although not much. Also, the icecream needs to be a little soft or it is hard to get it into the cup. But all in all a pretty good product, I will wait and see if it hits the shelfs! Patent Pending...

Monday, Monday...and all that's gone on

There are reasons there are so many songs about this day! Why no songs about Tuesday? Well because Tuesday is just not as hard as Monday? I used to like Mondays- fresh starts, new beginnings and all that but now Mondays feel like a drudgery- the beginning of yet ANOTHER new week. Yes I know my attitude stinks. Okay changing my attitude. It is a beautiful day, it feels awesome outside and yet we are sitting in the school room doing math, etc and spelling test! Why oh why are we not outside! Well I will tell you why, because on all the other not so beautiful days I wasnt in the school room so now on this beautiful day I AM! Serves me right! I am at least opening the window so the fresh air can pour down on us!

We are doing the verse...

And he will be called Wonderful, Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. Isaiah 9:6

I downloaded the song Emmanuel from ITunes, you know the one Amy Grant did way back in the good ol' days of Amy Grant! The kids really like and we have listened to it each morning along with working on our verse and doing our Bible lesson. I like doing our Bible this way, we have a short story, a few questions, scripture memory verse and it feels peaceful and not overdone! I do have some fun sheets to do as we get more into the stories but for now we are just doing simple and it feels right.

Kate was doing her math this morning, it was a section that I didnt have time to "teach" her the other day so we skipped it and are going back. It is word problems, which are especially hard for her. She always has trouble figuring out what do, is it add or subtract or multiply? So we are crossing out unneccesary information in the word sentence and circling clue words. We will see if this helps! i will keep you posted.

Emily is giving me reason to bang my head against the wall! The phonics thing is killing me... I know TIME! Seriously I know, I just mistakenly thought that maybe this would be the child who I didnt have this problem with. I just thought she would breeze through it. The problem is that I really still do think she can breeze through it and she is only being difficult. She is just that child! But I know time...

Matt is doing great in math. He can do all the 'thinkin' just fine, he understand the concepts, no problem! I jsut cannot read his writin' for the life of me sometimes! This is so frustating. I know I could have a worse problem but it is very frustrating. If I make him rewrite it he just gets mad because it is right and that frustrates him. So who deserves to be frustrated??? Me or him????

We went and saw FireProof last night. Its content was amazing and I could have replayed a number of scenes for many instances in our marriage. It was good but piercing if you know what I mean. So anyway, I do lots of nice things for my husband but that doesnt mean i always do them in the right spirit? Anybody ever do that??? So I have purposed (yes dh I know you are reading this) to pay attention to the attitude in which the kind act is given so that it truly is KINDNESS! You wouldnt think that would be so hard but sometimes it is. My youth pastor always used to say...If you dont feel like reading your Bible, than read it until you do!!! So I dont always feel like being kind but I will do things until I do feel like being kind. But in my case I am going to basically just work on actually FEELING KIND. So how was that for honestly on the blog front!

So Kate has art today, I have meaning to post her drawing of an eye for a while now but have never gotten to it so here it is..

I am personally very impressed by it!

We are starting History today. Yes I know I was supposed to start WEEKS ago but give me a break I am starting now! YEAH. The kids are sooooooo excited. They love history! We are doing The Story of the World 3. We will go from Charles V all the way to the Califonia gold rush. That is a LOT of histry! I am excited about this year though, I am hoping to retain much more than we did last year! I plan to focus on the hands on that my kids learn so much through. I dont care if this year takes us two years we will get through it all the way I want to! We have plenty of time to go through it again! I am going to NOT stress about history.

So in two weeks we are having a garage sale. I really, really want to get rid of some stuff! So I am going through every drawer and bucket! I dont care so much about making money off a garage sale although that would be a wonderful bonus, I care about getting rid of STUFF!

I guess you could call this post a personal update!

To weigh or not to weigh...

Okay do you believe in weighing yourself? I have a friend who weighs herself every morning, another who weighs every once in a while and one who never weighs herself. I have decided I am really not a person who likes to weigh. I do weigh WAY to much but I dont think it has to do with this. I just think I like to see weight loss results through how my clothes fit! So why are some people bothered by the numbers but otheres not? I mean personally I do not understand society at larges preoccupation by "the number". There are just so many variable, so many factors that make that number mean nothing? Your height, your bone structure, your family history, your age! The number should not mean anything to us. If you are healthy, if you feel good, if you fit into the clothing you want to and like how you look...why the number thing.

I went on a diet a few years ago and lost weight like nothing! It was hard but I lost the weight easily if that makes sense? In like less than 15 weeks I had lost over 40 lbs. I looked really great. Now I am MUCH heavier than I was at the beginning of that diet. I am the absolutely heaviest I have ever been. So now is the time. But I am not going to measure, I am not going to weight. I will let the pictures tell the truth. I am not posting the pictures right now, I might post them as I see progress and feel a little better about myself.

I ate a pint of Rocky Road Icecream last and as I finished it I told my dh okay this is it for 6 weeks. I say 6 weeks because I have to do this in parts. I KNOW I can get through 6 weeks so I will just do this 6 weeks at a time.

MY Goal is simply lose a clothes size or possible two for now.
My Way is simply EAT LESS

I will Eat Way less! I will watch my carbs. no more than 45 a day for the most part
I will eat no desserts, even diet ones for the 1st 6 weeks.
I will eat nothing fried.
I will drink two large classes of OO-Long tea (green tea has a natural appetite suppressant)
I will drink large quantities of water starting with a minimum of 8- 8oz glasses a day. I am also not allowing my self a diet coke until my 8 cup water quota is met.
I will make sure to meet my calorie number for the day- this is sometimes hard to do if you are eating right!
I will excersie ( but this is loosely meaning I will get up off my butt and do something not speficially walk x amount of time or so many times of the week or lift weights?
I will, I will, I will.

I have to give myself very stringent rules, I am a rule follower so this helps me personally to write down what I will and will not do.

I will link with Brenda on Friday. I will not mention this diet thing except on Fitness Fridays so dont worry about the blog becoming ALL ABOUT MY EATING HABITS!

I am so sorry but I had to post it!!!!!

Someone had some SERIOUS time on their hands!

So think of the song Ice, Ice Baby when you read this!!!

Yo, Texas , Let's kick it!

Ike Ike Baby, Ike Ike Baby

All right
stop, evacuate and listen
Ike is here with some big ambition
People,
close your homes up tightly
It's blowing like a hurricane daily and nightly
Where will it stop? Yo-I don't know
Turn off the lights and let's go
To the coastline Ike rocks like a vandal
Start up the car and watch me
drive like an animal

Dang, hardware store sales boom
Ike's killing
my plans like a poisonous mushroom
Deadly, evacuate they tell me
Anyone
left will be charged with a felony
Love it or hate it, you better
get away
Ike will hit the bull's eye, the storm don't play
If you're on
vacation, Yo, Ike stalled it
Check out the eye while the bands revolve it

Hurricane Ike Ike Baby, Hurricane Ike Ike Baby
Hurricane Ike Ike
Baby, Hurricane Ike Ike Baby

Now that the people are jumpin'
With
their stuff packed up and the gas done pumpin'
Quick to the road, to the
road no fakin'
Pass McD's get a burg er with bacon
Burnin' 'em and
follow the symbol
I go crazy when I hear some imbecile
Revving, in a
souped up Pinto
Now I can roll, it's time to crack the window
Rollin' in
my Chevy Tahoe
With my window down, I can feel Ike blow
My laptop's on
standby, Waiting for some Wi-fi
This spot hot? No - and I gotta fly
Kept
on pursuing to the next block
I busted a left and I'm beating the clock
The light was red

Yo -- so I continued to I-37 to San Antonio
Wish I was there in a blink like a jeanie
How I'd love to be sippin' a
martini
Jealous 'cause my girl's living fine
She left yesterday and was
there by nine
Ready to give my homies a call
My homies acting ill
because their car just stalled
Humidity, the air is sticky as hell
Ike's
on his way, the weatherman yells
Moving toward the gulf coast real fast
I'm in my car, can't give it no gas
Bumper to bumper the interstate's
packed
I'm trying to get away before Ike attacks
Police on the scene,
what can it mean?
They hooked me up, now there's another lane free
If
you're on vacation, Yo, Ike stalled it
Check out the eye, while the bands
revolve it

Hurricane Ike Ike Baby, Hurricane Ike Ike Baby
Hurricane
Ike Ike Baby, Hurricane Ike Ike Baby

Yo man, let's get out of here! Word
to your mother!

Author UNKNOWN but surely credit is due!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Lesson plans...am I equipped???

Okay, Brenda @ The Family Revised posted about lesson plans. I started typing in all sorts of question and decided this is a post for me! Now Brenda was a teacher... I mean a "real" public school teacher. She was a teacher who went to school and was taught all sorts of 'tricks' for teaching young uns! I am jealous of those moms who home school their children and have all this schooling! I know that it doesnt always help them, I understand that I dont believe the public school system works, I know that Brenda still struggles with her children and schooling! So why am I jealous??? I dont know, I just am so the secret is out!


I always question myself. I question the curriculum choice, I question the method, I question my sanity for thinking this is okay. I question every aspect of home schooling! Why, you ask, why would such a big mouth proponent of home schooling question it? Because I do not believe in myself or my abilities. I am just not that smart.



I talked to my sister this morning and she doesnt feel at all jealous of these people.

My sister feels the opposite of me, she feels like it might work against a teacher to become a home schooler, she feels like they have to throw the majority of what they learned out the window. She feels like there might be aspects that are useful but for the most part it wouldnt be overly helpful.


God doesnt call the equipped he equips you??? So just because these teachers are equipped to teach a class full of children does not mean they are equipped to teach their own? Or does it mean since I am not equipped He will equip me? O does it mean He will equip each of us for what we need equipping for??? I go with number three. He just equips each of us for what we need equipping for. So why all the questioning and fear???



I was reading the newest Lori Wick book. It is called Jessie and is pretty good. There is a part where one of the characters is possible miscarrying and the husband is going to get the doctor. He had taken his son with him to get the doctor. Later he was recounting the story to his congregation and his sermon went something like this... I wasnt exactly hurrying but I did want to get to the doctor quickly and the longer it took to get there the more panic I began to feel inside. But my son was in my arms and I had a thought... my son does not have any fear. My son is just as happy as he can be in my arms, he has NO fear that I will drop him. It probably wouldnt even occur to him that I would drop him. So why would I think any less of my Heavenly Father? He has no intention of dropping me, so I do not need to fear. He is holding me. I am safe....



I really liked this analogy. I mean what business do I have questioning my Heavenly Father. He has called me to home school. He WILL EQUIP me. He will not equip me to teach a school full of children. He will not equip me to make lesson plans in a particular method. He will not equip me to preform brain surgery in my spare time. WHY??? Because He does not need to. He called me to school my children, and to be a wife and home maker. HE is equipping me for that job.



I know this post went in circles but I really worked something out and that is what is important.



What do you fear that you shouldnt? In what way is God equipping you???

Wordless Wednesday...

Carrie in a recovering TEXAS

I am awarding a blog award...

I am awarding this Best Post Award to Texan Mama @ Who Put Me in Charge of These People, she wrote a post on grocery cart etiquette! It is hilarious and so totally true! I have major problems with the whole grocery cart situation! Don't get me started on improper merging! So anyway, go check out her post!

Update...

Well we got more done last week than you would have thought.
We got a fair amount done yesterday but not so much today! But anyway, here is our week in review!





We are memorizing Psalms 23

Kaitlins math
Emily's math
Matt is doing really good, I actually moved him up a

a few lessons in math because I felt like his work was
just to easy I am still having him review the addition facts

This is our George Washington Lapbook,

we will do one for each president.

We are reading, actually listening via Librivox

to Robinson Crusoe. The kids are writing a journal or

a record of sorts. They are picking something out

of a chapter and drawing a picture of it. We will make

a book out of it later.

We started our Latin. To be honest I meant

to start it weeks ago! I was scared of it. I have

very little faith that I can do it and not getting much

encouragement so I just kept putting it off. But we

started and we will keep going. I will do all I can!!!!

We also played RushHour today, we picked

up an add on pack and Barnes and Noble and

decided to play. All the kids do really well with it!

A joke for you...

Q: How does a homeschooler change a light bulb?

A: First, mom checks three books on electricity out of the library, then the kids make models of
light bulbs, read a biography of Thomas Edison and do a skit based on his life. Next, everyone studies the history of lighting methods, wrapping up with dipping their own candles. Next, everyone takes a trip to the store where they compare types of light bulbs as well as prices and figure out how much change they'll get if they buy two bulbs for $1.99 and pay with a five dollar bill. On the way home, a discussion develops over the history of money and also Abraham Lincoln, as his picture is on the five dollar bill. Finally, after building a homemade ladder out of branches dragged from the woods, the light bulb is installed. And there is light. ~Author Unknown

So they came and now they are gone...

My sister, neice and nephew came Thursday the 11th, just in time for Ike! We didnt get to do anything fun at all for obvious reasons! We finally on Friday went to the mall, is was kindof of far away but we thought we would have better luch with stores being open, and my sister and his girl friend were able to meet us which was a bonus! We had fun at the mall, hit some great sales at the Disney Store and Gymboree and had foodcourt food! yeah! Kristal and the kids came to our house on Saturday and spent the day, we watched Toy Story and Toy Story 2 and Buzz Lightyear! Conner is on a "woody" kick! Camille played and did pretty well even when Kristal and mom left to get her hair cut. We had a good time. Today we went and ate lunch with them by the airport before their plane left. We spent lots of family time with evacutating together, but with stress and no power and general craziness it could have been a beter visit! But the cousins had fun and got to know each other again and I got to visit with my sis! MOVE BACK KRISTAL! These are some pics of the cousins! Back on the plane to Tennessee!

The check in...and a lot of rambling

So I spent a good party of yesterday calling all of our homeschool support groups members. I hadnt heard via email from many of them and wanted to make sure they were good. We have reached most of them but some are still unaccounted for. I know they are either without phone service, electricity or possibly still evacuated. It is hard the not knowing. The wondering. I understand that this is what I shouldnt do as I put my trust in God but I still cant seem to help but think and worry and wonder. I am working on that. I have not been frantic which is good. In fact I dont think I was frantic the entire time except with the possibility of being 10 minutes from our hotel that we were evacuating to and my transmission dropped! I lost the power to reverse and shift to overdrive. So I have my vehicle to concern me now. Not good.

But no I think I handled the whole event for the most part without being frantic. I have never been away from my family in a hurricane... I grew up here in this big ol' state and have been runnin from hurricanes since I can remember. I have always been with my family, but for two and a half days I was only with MY immediate family although I got to talk to my mom and dad and sisters. It felt extremely weird and I felt out of place. On one hand it felt good, a weird sort of Independence thing. On the other hand I felt slightly forgotten? that is not a good description but cant really place the feeling... At one point I called to get a news update because they still had cable at this point and I just started crying. I wasnt overly upset, I think everything that was happening and the enormity of the storm and damage occurring just finally got to me and I cried. But by the end of the conversation I was fine, I felt better and have been fine since. Until today. Today, I have felt weepy. I got to see pictures of some of the devastation and I am amazed at the power of water. Things I have seen for the better part of 10 years or for my entire lifetime are gone. Gone either washed completely out to sea or left in a pile of lumber and twisted metal. It is heartbreaking... the loss of life has been so far really minimal althought I know there are many to be recovered still, but the loss of places that are landmarks of this city is very sad.

Brennan's downtown burned to the ground. This is a wonderful restaurant and my husband and I just celebrated our 11 anniversary there! My husband knows the owners and we were so saddened to see that it burned during the night while firefighters practically had to watch it happen. Kemah which I just showed yall pic of few days ago... is practically destroyed. We were just there on Labor Day! We had such a wonderful relaxed day and now it will months and month until they are able to restore and rebuild. Murdocks in Galveston, it was my absolute favorite place to be! It had recently in the past few years added on a beautiful deck with rockers and I have so many family pic of us standing on the deck our back to the gulf! It is gone, washed to sea or sitting in a pile of wood on Seawall Blvd. The San Luis, still standing but heavily damaged, we honeymooned there! I know there are just places, not homes or people and they can be rebuilt but I am still just sad...

*********I started this post yesterday but did not post. We are completely restored electricity wise and went to Walmart today. It was very crowded and there was so little on the shelfs. The grocery section is very slowly getting restocked. People were friendly though. A few restaraunts up and down Fairmont were open and VERY crowded. Still not back to normal but we are working on it.

I will post pic of what all we did during our evacuation later!

Carrie in Texas

Back to normal... my random thoughts

It doesn't feel like things will get back to normal for a long time. I know our power will eventually come back on, and I know that we will not always have to wait in a line for an hour and a half to get gasoline, and I know that you will not always have to go into a store hoping you got there in time to get bread or ice because they had ten pallets delivered that day, and I know that it will not always feel like "the usual thing" when you drive and see neighbors hauling those red gas cans to and fro. I know that, but for right now that is our normal. Did I lose my house, NO. Did I lose any family members, NO. Am I complaining, NO. I just want to say how I feel and that is normal, but its not normal. Get it?

We came home today and we are blessed with a generator and have even gotten it hooked to a neighbors fridge so they have that. We had limb damage, fences, shingles, possible water in the attic ( that is still unconfirmed for some reason) nothing bad or unfixable, certainly not much damage in the face of such a terrible "threat". We have some lights on, and fans. We even got to wash our clothes today!!!!!!!! We had a gas dryer, so as long as we dont wash and dry at the same time than we can use them! Yeah. Clean UND***. You get my drift and let me tell you that is a BLESSING. Seriously. I had a shower with hot water, and feel clean!

I have friends who are still evacuated, friends with out roofs, friends without a house, friends with the remains of a house... many people in serious conditions. But God kept each and every one of them. they are safe and for right now have food, water and clothes on their backs. We will help in any way we can.

Today was my grandpa's 80th birthday, we celebrated with a cake, that we found in a Krogers with no lights on! It was a blessing! We had princess party ware, leftovers from a different party... and you know what we had a great time! It was weird and not normal but who cares, we celebrated the 80 years he has live in Texas and think of how many hurricanes he has survived!

I am using my hubbies work Sprint card as we still dont have Internet or cable or anything like that but I will update as I can. I have so many thoughts running around my head! I have only watched local TV in the last few days and wonder what is going on in the rest of the world and what the world is saying about the Gulf coast. I think our mayor and Judge Ed Emmit have done a wonderful job and need to be commended, those men along with so many city workers, police, military, volunteers everyone have been so wonderful and I am proud of my city! We have had some problems and people should have evacuated when they were told but other than that I think we have done a great job and our leaders are doing awesome!

I will let you know as I began to feel normal again...

Carrie in a recovering Texas

Thanks to all those who sent their thoughts and worried about me and my family. I really, really appreciated it just wanted to say thank you so much.

hello, out there...

I am just very quickly updating that we are okay... we are in the Woodlands, with no power or water but obviously Internet...isnt that sad! No really my dh borrowed the hotel guys Verizon card so I could "see" what is happening! I love him! We had chips and nutella sandwiches since yesterday around 4, but we are surviving! We just had an incredible blessing, the people at the Courtyard Marriott where we are staying have been INCREDIBLE! My dh charged one of the managers laptops out in his car and when the people who worked here cooked up a bunch of stuff out of the freezer on a grill outside they gave him two plates of it. So we just literally ate our hearts our on some awesome bar b q chicken and sausage! Oh and ice tea! Seriously it was a blessing. Emily said after we were practically done eating, mom we didnt thank God and I said you are so right and we stopped right than and there and thanked God. Dave said a wonderful prayer and we know that we are safe, and our family was not harmed and everything else is just not as important. We are 99% sure our house is only minus some siding and a fence! We will hopefully find out tomorrow night IF we can even get there! I will update as necessary, but guys it is really, really bad here... I am thankful for so few deaths in such a catastrophic event!

Keep praying and sending your thoughts here and to all those who have lost so much...

Carrie in a very deluged Texas...

It's coming...

Updated post*******
The winds are not going to be as bad as we thougth, but the storm surge is going to be worse! It is coming in at the west end of Galveston and it is already cresting teh sea wall, without the surge!!!!!!!!!! This is going to be really bad.*********


It is getting bigger, not stronger, just bigger. It is unbelievable how large this storm is getting. They say that that right now and now meaning at least 12 hours before landfall, it is 100 miles of hurricane 120 miles per hour winds, and 225 miles of tropical storm winds possbibly 70-80 miles per hour winds. That means we will have wind over possible 70 miles per hour for over a 24 hour period if the storm stays moving 10 miles per hour. I didnt do all the exact math for that equation but it is pretty accurate give or take a few hours. Anyway, that is alot of wind! I hope it dies down a lot when it hits and does not sustain itself for very long! This storm is big!


I was 5 when Alecia hit but I dont remember anything other than being at my great grandmothers house. We always evacuated to Nennys house, she lived the farthest North and had gas so she was the host. I remember it being great! Granny brought all kinds of junk and treats and we played and had a good ole time. I remember taking a bath in my Nennys tub, it wasnt like a clawfoot tub or anything but it was pretty old. I remember it having a strange smell ( I dont mean dirty or yucky) just undefinable now in my memory. The drain had a little chain attached to it and I think it didnt hold water to well. (okay I just had to call my sister to confirm my memories! She said it did have a little chain that was attached and that the faucet's were the old fashioned kind. She said they were hard to turn and rusty and I remember that now. I also asked her about the smell and she said it was Camphofenic, which I totally remember. I loved my nennies house, it was older and had a hall between the two bedrooms with a little shelf that held a phone and I guess a phone book. I also liked the doors that had old knobs and the bathroom and kitchen cabinets had little knobs that turned and you could open the door, the knobs were oval and it felt neat to turn them...this is all child hood memories! We played every Sunday afternoon at my Nenny's house, every Easter, every hurricane. I remember somewhat vaguely everything about her house because it is wrapped up in so many of my child hood memories.

This post took a turn but it was a good turn because although it made me tear up as my Nenny passed away over 5 years ago, it brought back many happy memories too!

Remember...

As you recall September 11, always remember that we were attacked not for what we do wrong but for what we do right. Remember the spirit of that day -- the day America showed what makes us a great people and a great nation; the day the true character of our nation triumphed over unspeakable evil; the day that freedom and democracy prevailed yet again over oppression and tyranny.

--------George Pataki, CNN Affiliate

I remember this day vividly, I remember everything about it, every detail. I remember the absolute fear and unbelief. I remember having to drop my dh off at Chase Tower, downtown which is the tallest building and a major financial institute in one of the largest cities in the country and literally watching a plane fly over downtown Houston, before they were landed.

I remember fear. I do not remember doing what was right- trusting God. I do not remember being glad it wasnt worse- I couldnt believe it happened in the first place. I don't remember feeling like a great nation- I remember feeling failure. I dont remember feeling strong- I felt weak. I dont remember feeling safe- I felt vulnerable. I dont remember triumphing over tyranny or unspeakable evil- I felt evil prevailed.

It wasnt until later that I remembered to pray. It wasnt until later that I remember to be glad it wasnt worse- to give my utmost thanks from the bottom of my hear to the plane full of Americans who gave their life so it wasnt worse. It wasnt until later that I remember feeling like a great nation- a nation standing together, as one, with no color or race or party or bank account mattering. It wasnt until later that I remember feeling strong- that we had options, that death wasnt the worst thing we could face because I have the hope of Jesus Christ and the promise of eternal life with Him. It wasnt until later that I began to feel safe- when I knew that no matter if the terrorist came again that we were the country God meant us to be and that I had to trust Him to keep us in His arms. It wasnt until later that I felt we triumphed over unspeakable evil- that evil did not prevail. Yes he killed and wounded, and hurt, and did damage but that evil could NEVER take freedom, hope, love, peace, joy and God from us no matter what evil tries to do.

Remember today, remember what you thought.

Remember who to think of those who died.

Remember to think of those still dying and to send a prayer for them.

Remember to always remember because to forget is wrong.

Remember...

Preparing for departure...

Ha, since you know I live in Texas I bet you thought I meant IKE, but I didnt! I meant my sister, nephew and niece! They are boarding their plane at 11:15 in the morning and making there way to Houston! I am very excited, I havent seen them for a year and cannot wait. Cami was so little when they left and Conner just barely turned two and they are just growing up so fast without us seeing it! That makes me sad. But they are coming, even admist the storm! I just cannot wait.

But truthfully we are preparing to depart, we are evacuating. I just do not like being in a situation where I am stuck and feel safer and better farther away! So we are packin up and movin out! Keep the Texas coastal area in your prayers, it looks like we are gonna take quite a hit!