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.