Tail End

Well, here we are on the flip side of Hurricane Ike ... with power!! We are so lucky! Apparently we're very much in the minority. We lost it around 3:00 am and got it back about 10:30 this morning. It was such a great surprise because we were prepared to be without it for the long haul!

Avery and Ella slept in our room. Unfortunately we realized a little too late that we were probably in the scariest-sounding room of the house. As the wind grew stronger and the rain pelted the window, it sounded extremely bad from our perspective. There was also a really loud thumping noise on the roof over our bedroom that grew louder with each gust. (Of course at this point I'm wondering just how much longer we have until we completely lose our roof.) I was feeling pretty terrified, but trying to be brave for Avery as she clung to me, telling her, "It's just a little rain." Ben went into the attic to investigate (against my wishes!) and found a leak, so he did some damage-control up there.

Finally, after a few hours, we decided to move the girls into Avery's room because it felt MUCH safer and quieter in there. That side of the house was more sheltered from the storm. Man, I wish we would have thought to do that earlier, and we might have gotten a lot more sleep! By this point Avery was awake, and having a lot of fun playing with the flashlights. I think she thought we were sitting in a pitch-dark house just for her light-shining enjoyment!

Mom and Dennis, who were in the front of the house, slept through most of the bad part.

Ike only scored a few points against us: Leak in the attic, loss of our little Live Oak in the back, some water that came in under the windows and door, and a strip of shingles that blew off the roof. We're feeling pretty blessed right now.

Speech

Those of you who have spoken with Avery know that she has a speech problem and has difficulty saying some of her sounds. For example, love is yuv, three is fwee, cat is tat, etc. I personally think it's adorable, but don't worry, I'm working on getting a speech evaluation.

Anyway, she has this Hello Kitty doll that has been part of her sleeping entourage for a couple of years. Last night she was running around the living room shirtless (as she usually is) and having us feel how soft Kitty is. As she was doing this she announced, "Evweebody yuvs to touch my titty!!"

I think Ben grew 20 more gray hairs on the spot.

Baptism

Our precious baby was baptised yesterday. She wore the same dress that Avery wore when she was baptised, and was just a doll throughout the whole service. She even fell asleep during the sermon (no offense to the pastor, who gave a great message!)

Avery, as usual, stole the spotlight away from her, though. During the praise and worship singing, she danced back and forth in our row, jumping, turning, and throwing her hands up in the air as if to say, "Hallelujah! Praise Jesus!" It was pretty cute, although if you asked the other members of the congregation, they might not agree. Then, as Ella was being baptised and the four of us were all up on the stage, Avery found Nemaw, Grandpa, Mimi, Pawpaw, and Aunt Pat in the audience and couldn't resist the urge to wave enthusiastically at them several times.

Thank you to our wonderful, loving family for being there in support of Ella, and for our extended family, Doug and Leanne being there, too. We love you all.