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Saturday, September 20, 2008

Oh, Ike!

I still don't have power. This is day 8. My mom's turned on last night. We skittered over here speedy quick. Ike has driven me into believing I'm a pioneer. Yesterday I thought about putting on a long skirt, pantaloons and a bonnet. By the grace of heaven, I can now blow dry my hair and turn on the TV while I eat all the food in Nana's pantry.

It's been a crazy 8 days. Hurricane hangover. Not fun. We feel so out of touch with the world. Its interesting what happens when there is no electricity. My kids reaction has been fascinating. Not once have they complained that they can't turn on the TV or play a gameboy. They haven't even complained about not having any lights at night. They just want to play with their friends, ride bikes and cover themselves in the mounting mud across the street. Delightful.

Ike hit during the night. It was quite scary to hear 90 mph winds and trees snapping, but not be able to see anything. We didn't get any sleep. Worry can keep you up at night. Here is a small snapshot of the aftermath:


A tree fell on the corner of our garage. Can you see the beam that is barely resting on our water barrel and not on Todd's car...just another testament that if you follow the prophet and store your water, it will save your car.

This picture is the back side of the garage. The tree also took out a portion of our fence.

This is our neighbor's house. Ginormous tree fell from across the street. Makell, Addie and a friend are waiting for chainsaws. This is the morning after the hurricane. We are all outside, drenched because it is still raining. We had huge trees down all throughout my portion of the neighborhood. A group of men started cutting the trees into sections and pulling them out with chains and a truck. The rest of us pulled branches and cleared debris for hours.

This is what a lot of the trees look like around my house. This one is around the corner from me.

This is the view as you drive down my street. At one point, there were trees laying across this road and we couldn't get out of our neighborhood.

This house is just slightly around the corner from us. They also had a gas leek.


This is a view from Makell's bedroom window. Our house backs up to open space with lots of trees. At least a third of them were torn down in the hurricane winds. Directly to the right of this picture is a huge section of big trees. If the winds had been blowing in any other direction, they would have taken out our house. Blessings.

The girls standing on one of the trees behind our house.

This generator is my new best friend. I'm adding her to my christmas card list because she was so good to us. We stole this generator from my mom's house. She was in Hawaii, sunbathing in her bikini. So we put this to good use. We couldn't run it all day because of the availability of gas. A lot of the gas stations were not up an running again, and those that were had a 2-3 hour wait. We ran it at night so that we could sleep with a fan and not melt into our sheets. The first two days after the hurricane were unbearably hot--94 degrees with 85% humidity. But then our blessings showed back up again, and the weather cooled down. We could open the windows and it cooled the house down. I just love blessings.

I have never washed clothes by hand....until now. Love the little girl panties.

It's so nice to know that people (OK, 3 of you) have been checking my blog, looking for signs of life from the Fosters. We are well, we have just been living like pioneers....who had shelter and running water. Yesterday I had lost all patience to deal with this any longer. Its trying. School has been canceled since last Friday, and won't start until next Wednesday (if you're counting, that's 8 full school days). But alas, I am now at Nana's and I can wash all our muddy laundry.

Trying times are, well....trying. And, you gain perspective and gratitude. Compared to what I've been through over the last year, Ike hasn't been too bad, he's just made life crazy inconvenient. But, he has made us see that a shattered garage doesn't compare to a destryoed house and that eating peanut butter sandwiches every day doesn't compare to personal safety and amazing neighbors.

I'm off to make chocolate chip cookies. I haven't had fresh baked goods in 8 days! Cookies from the oven are blessings too.



19 comments :

Rachelle Woolley said...

It is SO great to hear that your family is safe. I have been checking your blog everyday to see what has happened. I'm sorry about your garage, but grateful it wasn't your home! Hang in there, and enjoy your cookies!! We love you!
The Woolleys

Quelly said...

Hooray!!! The Queen is back on her throne!!! The throne may be at Nana's but location is not an issue. So glad to hear you are all good. I told Todd that I had pictured all of you gathered around candles reading your scriptures aloud every night. It still makes me giggle to think about it!

Much Love!!!

Anonymous said...

So, So , So glad to hear from you and that you are hanging in there pretty well! Now that you have cookies, it should be MUCH better! :) Thankfully your mom has power- so she can come home to air conditioning now :)! Please keep us posted- we've been anxiously waiting to hear that all was well (and that you had power).
Luv ya-
Candy and fam

chillywillyk said...

please thank your handsome prince for texting me the other day & removing the stress of worrying about y'all from my life. (up until then i would close my eyes everytime i refreshed your blog...hoping there would be an update) i knew that ike was no match for queen lisa & her circus! everyone here on ginger root has been asking about you...and we all just wished u were still here (sorry, i just had to say that). we love & miss you all so very much!!!! fiona & shrek p.s. the corleys send their love, too!

Anonymous said...

Everytime we saw something on the news or in the paper about Ike, we wondered how you had fared. Glad that you had water even if you didn't have power & that you had the generator. Hopefully it will be a once in a lifetime experience!

Tillia said...

I am so glad you guys have survived, I remember when I was a kid and we had a snow storm and was out of power for over a week and as a kid i thought it was great-I don't think my mom felt the same way.
8 days of no school and no power is a REALLY long time.

love ya Lisa and glad you are back to the land of blogging.

Becky Leland said...

Lisa, Happy Day!!! We are soooo glad to hear from you again.

I talked to Tyler and your Mom about y'all and kept you in our thoughts and prayers. I just talked to your Mom again 5 mins ago. Many blessings came to you.

Love you and family

Tana said...

Thank Goodness that a little hurricane can't take you out. I missed my Lisa-isms. Luckily, Wade kept us informed of the damage and progress. So happy you are safe and making cookies.

Anonymous said...

Wow, Crazy!!!!!!! So glad you're ok and eating cookies. 8 days out of school? That's just wrong.

Ash & Tim said...

Glad that all is well -we have been getting the updates from my parents. Hopefully your power will come back on soon as well -until then enjoy your parents power and those fresh baked cookies.

Amy Bell said...

Good to have you back. I knew somehow you would keep your humor and remember the blessings that come in trying times. Your a champ- wish I had some of your cookies right now. I need to go fill up some more blue water jugs for around our cars :) thanks for the tip. Love you all Amy

Alesha LeMmon said...

Let me grab my fruit pie and pull up a chair - we are ready to travel with the circus!

Alesha LeMmon said...

Sorry, that last comment auto-filled. What I meant to say was we are glad that you are all okay and safe. Blessings are a great thing. We love you. The LeMmons

Madi said...

Stay stay safe you guys! And you know, We have a guest room in our house, and me and sam could sleep in our room, and josh and kelly can sleep in his room, or maybe somewhere else, and ella and addie can sleep in ella's room. We are all set! My mom is beck so we can acually get food now and so you guys come as soon as you can find a ticket. I'll tell my mom to prepare.....

Shannon said...

Glad to hear from you. I must admit I was one of those 3 people checking for signs of life. I know what Texas sized rain can be like. But havn't had anything like that. Hope all is well. Hope school starts soon - in the mean time eat lots of chocolate.

Kristin said...

So good to have you back in Blogland! It's so interesting to see others' hurricane pictures and hear their stories. Gotta love all those blessings!

Mel said...

I must know. When we all have to go to Missouri will "generator" be coming with you in your handcart? So glad the car made it without a scratch. You are truely a "pioneer woman"! Love yea.

the dehart family said...

Lisa and family--so great to hear that you guys are safe--what a scare! We were praying for you! Isn't just like kids to find the best of every situation! Keep in touch!

Stacie Cooper said...

It's great to hear from you and that all is well, or at least that you made it safe and somewhat sound. I can only imagine 8 days without power, you're amazing!