Still no power, but still so blessed

Well, just a quick update here - - - we've still no power at home. HALF of he little strip of apartments behind the parsonage has power now, as well as our neighbors on our street... the remainder of the apartments and the parsonage where we live do not - it seems they are on another transformer... Bo suspects that it must be gone.

As far as the church goes - evidently there was a line DOWN... and now it's just GONE. Bo said he thought that the power company must have cut it to get it out of the way and done something to enable them to restore power to the houses on Citadel Street behind the church... so we have to wait until they can come back and fix that, too... so tomorrow we will be worshipping without benefit of electricity... that won't stop us from praising God for His mercies throughout all this.

Do I want to be home? Surely... but I have to say - my house is safe, my dogs and cat (and betta fish) are all well, I am staying in an airconditioned HOME with mom and dad and Bo where I come home to a cooked meal (that part is spoiling me, lol), and I don't have feet of mud and yuck to clean out of my house when I do get to go back home***. Yeah - it's annoying and frustrating on some levels, and I want to be in my own space, but I am so blessed and so grateful to have what I have and I know it!

***Have you SEEN what some of these poor people are having to deal with in going back home? Inches or feet of mud and debris in their house or business - and let me tell you - this stuff STINKS!!!! Belongings and mementos, family pictures, scrapbooks, etc, knocked down into this stinky mess? Plus, some of these people will be living in hotels or FEMA housing for ages! We aren't talking good clean earthy mudpies your kids can make in your back yard! Man, I am SO blessed!

SpOoKy sPiDeR pRomO

This just in!!!!!

Stampin'Up! has decided to make the SPOOKY SPIDER Decór Element available to you NOW! So if you want me to add that to my order this month, let me know asap! Customers may officially order it as of September 19 (um...that's TODAY!). See the flyer inserted below, or if you're on my yahoo group, check out the whole pretty PDF (more readable as a pdf than as a picture inserted here :).

Here is a close-up of the ordering chart! Prices shown do not include shipping and tax.

and a screenshot of the sizes that you may be able to read better :)

IF YOU WANT IT - ORDER NOW, because after Halloween, this SpOoKy sPiDeR is GONE!

Blessed

In the dark of the midnight

Have I oft hid my face

While the storms howl above me

And there’s no hiding place

Midst the crash of the thunder

Precious Lord, hear my cry

Keep me safe till the storm passes by

Till the storm passes over

Till the thunder sounds no more

Till the clouds roll forever from the sky

Hold me fast, let me stand in the hollow of Thy hand

Keep me safe till the storm passes by

~Mosie Lister

The song "Til the Storm Passes Over" has always been special to me, but even more so after experiencing Hurricane Ike over the past 24 hours. Our electricity went out for the 4th (or 5th, lol) and final time about 26-27 hours ago, so we packed it in and headed a mile or two away to my mom and dad's as 1) they still had power and 2) mom was fretting about us...

We spent the night in the 'new' room (now about 25 years old, lol) that has its own window unit so we had control of our temperature (they sleep at about 80 degrees.... we sleep about 12 degrees cooler than that, lol). About 3 this morning, their electricity went out as Ike passed through the area. About 3 hours later, Kari called to tell us that they had lost electricity, too, out in Waller where we will building a house this year on the back acre of the property we are buying with them... not only that, but Clementine, their part Blue Heeler, part Red Heeler, decided to have her puppies in the midst of the storm in their laundry room.... NINE puppies she had :) Of course the first boy is named Ike. Mama and babies are doing fine.

We slept a bit fitfully since we were hot - me especially after the power went off and Bo throw his part of the blanket over me :). Anyway, after his dad checked in with us at 8, he got up and went to check on our dogs and house. The wind was still blowing wildly enough I was a little concerned about his sanity... but he was on his way home when I texted him to check on him. We were still at mom and dad's when my sister called a bit after lunch and said that her daughter and son-in-law were at Costco in Austin and they had plenty of generators, and asked if we wanted him to get it and meet us halfway with it... so Bo and I hopped in the truck and drove to Buccee's in Giddings to meet him:)

As soon as they loaded the thing in our truck, Mom called and said that the power was back on at their house, lol - but at least now we have the generator we were planning to buy when we get our house built out by Kari and Garrett's!

In all of this, there has been, of course, a tad of discomfort, but I feel so very blessed. All of my family is safe. We have minimal property damage, consisting mostly of downed tree limbs in the yard. In both our neighborhoods, we spied trees on houses and cars, trees and limbs in the street, pieces of trees in our yards from God-knows-where.... but all the people (and pets) are safe... and now we have a generator to plug our refrigerator into, lol!

Hopefully our power will be restored within the next couple of days... I confess that I'm actually a bit more concerned about the water at the moment as there isn't enough to take a bath at the moment - this could get ugly! But I know that God will continue to hold us safe in the hollow of His hand. For all of you who have sent me emails that you are praying for our safety - thank you - it is appreciated, and if you know me, you know that I believe in the power of prayer.

"Hold me fast, let me stand in the hollow of Thy hand
Keep me safe till the storm passes by"

I know that there will be other hurricanes - some even bigger and badder than Ike, but I am so blessed... and I know that God will continue to hold us in the hollow of His hand. Do you?

Baseball, hurricanes, banana bread and traffic jams

I was singing the old Chevrolet ad song when I typed that title for this post - - - you remember? Baseball, hot dogs, apple pie and Chevrolet....

My apologies to the jingle writer, lol!

Anyway - the Astros are doing well - they started playing - I mean REALLY playing, after the All-Star break as usual :) Go 'Stros!!!!! 3 games out of the Wild Card slot....

Banana bread (yeah, I skipped the hurricane for a moment) - so my mom buys bananas.... and they never eat them all.... so she gives them to me to make banana bread (now, this is a really obscure reference... but a Christian singer who has long since gone Home to be with Jesus - Keith Green - wrote and recorded a song called, "So you wanna go back to Egypt"... anyway - one of the lines in it is "baMANNA bread" - you'd have to know the song, but it makes me chuckle anyway :) - so my mom buys bananas, as I said, gives me some that are past their prime and PERFECT for making Banana bread (or baMANNA bread, if you prefer).... so the other day I bring these home, and Bo brings them in, and the next day when I go to make the bread....no bananas!!!! I found them a couple of days later... in the freezer.... with about a dozen other bananas in packets of about 3 or so each.... Anyway, when I picked up Ava from my mom (Mamaw) today, she handed me 3 bananas that were READY! So when I got Little Bit and I in the house, I got the bananas (which had fallen off the stem, thank you, and had to be picked up from various locations in my car, garage and kitchen - I thought my load was getting lighter:) - put Ava in the little crib my granddaddy made when I was born, and rolled it in the kitchen. We had a great time, with her kind of playing with her crib toy and me singing along and mixing up the bread. I baked it as a flat cake rather than a loaf... it came out of the oven about 10 minutes before Kari and Garrett got here to pick up Ava.... it is now over half gone - guess it was ok, lol!!!

Traffic jams - when Hurricane Rita hit in 2005, Hwy 290 was backed up to a stop - people were running out of gas on the highway by the time they got to Waller (where I work, about a 40 minute drive from Houston normally) - it was really bad, and they had to open up some of our schools for shelters because people couldn't get away that way. Well, we were expecting more of the same today, but this time, people evidently actually did what the authorities asked them to. The evacuation appears to be leaving the coastal areas in an orderly way, at the times they were asked to. Traffic heading out of Houston on 290 as I drove back in to get home this afternoon was MUCH worse than normal, but it was moving. They just announced on the news that they don't need to make the contraflow lanes at this time because traffic is moving out on all the routes... awesome!!!!!! Kari and Garrett headed home to Waller via Tomball on 249 and made it in about an hour or so, so it is MUCh better than during Rita, thank God!

Back to the hurricanes... as you may know, Hurricane Ike is headed down our throats. While we are aware and prepared, and know we may lose power tomorrow, we also know that God is in charge and we will be fine. So as you pray, do remember the Texas Gulf Coast residents, the first responders, those who are foolish enough to dodge the mandatory evacuations, etc. Do pray that loss of life will be none and loss of property minimal. Pray for the elderly that have chosen not to leave their homes.

It is a serious thing, a hurricane like Ike. Many people are afraid... the young teachers at school - especially those from other areas who haven't experienced a hurricane before and are away from family - they were having a hard time with this today! Pray for them that they may be safe, and feel God's peace with them.

As for me...

"Whatever my lot, Thou hast taught me to say...'It is well, it is well, with my soul' ".

Be well, be blessed, and if you are in the Gulf area (as we say in Texas) - Hunker down, hon and be safe!