Our Beautiful Journey

Take a hike...Ike!

So far so good...I am sitting in the club room at the Crowne Plaza hotel in Dallas as I type. Hurricane Ike hit Houston with a vengeance. We were able to evacuate with very little problems. Brian had to stay at work until 3 PM on Thursday. I spent the morning packing all our important documents, clothing and necessities. When Brian arrived home, we quickly pulled in everything off our patio and packed the car - we were on our way by 4:30.

Thanks to the GPS (a big thanks to Bri's mom!) we were able to take the back roads out of Houston and then up through Brenham (the home of Bluebell ice cream!) and Waco...we didn't really see a lot of traffic and we got to go 70 most of the time. It took us about 8 hours (normally a 4 hour drive). It would have taken much longer if we would have stayed on I-45 - it was jam packed. Brian was fielding calls the entire time - it was one crisis after another at work.

Jack did really well on the 8 hour drive. He either slept in his crate in the back seat or he sat on Brian's lap with his head hanging out the window doing his best bat-dog impression. He started whining the last 30 minutes on the road and Brian pacified him by slathering the front bars of his crate with peanut butter...the continuous licking noises from the back seat kept us smiling during this stressful time. The Crowne Plaza usually doesn't take dogs, but they made an exception since we were evacuating - thank goodness they did, as we were in the midst of evacuating when I called to confirm (Brian's company had originally booked us in the dog-friendly Candlewood Suites, but they changed the reservations at the last minute). By the time we checked in to the hotel, we were both cranky and exhausted - we crashed by 2:30 AM, only to be awakened at 6:30 AM. Brian had to go back into work after only 4 hours of sleep...yuck!!! We did a lot of praying that morning - asking Heavenly Father to help Brian get through the day. I drove Brian to work and then came back to the hotel and crashed for a couple of hours.

Funny side-note: I found out later that I had dropped Brian off at the wrong site (we had the wrong address). Brian spent 20 minutes walking around (lugging 3 laptops and a work bag), before someone picked him up and drove him down to the other company building a half mile away. Brian said that it was a blessing in disguise - he was pretty awake after the vigorous exercise. He said that it really helped him get through the day.

I spent most of the day with my family who are staying about 15 minutes away. My grandfather is doing much better - he collapsed in the hotel lobby on Thursday when they arrived. The EMTs thought he was suffering from a heart attack or stroke, but it turned out that it was just exhaustion and stress fatique. Once they got him some food and his medication, he was fine. I am so relieved! That was scary. Brian and I said some fervent prayers when we first found out (we were still evacuating at the time). When we found out that Papa was ok, Brian said..."well, you did ask Heavenly Father for a speedy recovery...he definitely delivers!" I am so grateful everything worked out.

I have spoken with a couple of friends this morning and they are all doing well...they said that they weathered the storm...our friends who live near by watched their fence blow away this morning and some of our other friends that live in our neighborhood got some shingles blown off their roof and leakage. Our friends drove by our home a few minutes ago and they said it looks fine from the front, just some small tree branches down...and no shingles blown off that they could see. We don't know about the back of our home yet...the important things are safe - our family and friends...so I am content. We will update you as we know more...love y'all!