New Braunfels

It's rough being a hurricane evacuee.

While Mark, Max and I have been in New Braunfels at his parents house we have been relaxing and fishing everyday. Mark's sister and nephew are staying here as well. So Mark is getting a little practice before wesley arrives. Mark has taken up a new hobby of fly fishing and Max swimming. We still have no power as of today (Thursday, September 18th) and will not until around October 5th. We took the opportunity to take a few family pictures since the weather has been in the lower 80's everyday.

Weathering Hurricane IKE

Mark worked very hard on this diagram to show you the path of the storm in it's relevance to the house.

We made it through our first hurricane. Mark and I were not as prepared as we thought we were (no generator, not enough batteries). On Friday night IKE began to show his presence with winds and rain showing up about 9:00 p.m. I went to sleep until midnight and woke up to no power. As soon as the power went out Mark, Max and I made our way into the guest bathroom to stay until the storm was over. It was pitch dark in the bathroom, you could not see your hand in front of your face. When we got in the bathroom Max and Mark took a little nap and I stayed up to listen to the radio for tornado alerts. About 5:00 a.m. the eye of the storm passed over our town and it was the total opposite outside. There was no wind or rain for about 45 minutes. Mark took Max outside to use the restroom and he also walked around the house to see if there was any damage. He found that there was no damage to the roof or windows, but our tree in the front feel over and several trees around the street had fallen over. The rest of the storm was very windy and rainy. Once the sun came out you could see more of what was going on, which was not as scary as it being pitch dark. The storm came to an end around noon Saturday.
Mark, Max and I got up and walked around the neighbor hood (along with several other people) to see the damage. We saw that several large pine trees had fallen and a few fences had fallen due to either a tree or the wind. Mark began to replant our tree in the front and stacked it up. We still had no power that night so we went to our friend’s house that had a generator and soaked up their fan for a while, while eating dinner.
After dinner we went back to our smoldering hot house and tried to sleep (this was not a good night because there was no breeze). At about 3:00 a.m. a lightning storm rolled through and dumped another two inches of rain. Mark and I got up at 7:30 and he began to take the boards off of the windows (in the lightning storm) so that we could pack up and go to New Braunfels.
As of now (Monday morning) we still do not have power or water in our neighbor hood. Mark is waiting to hear back from his work as to when he will go back. We drove by to assess the damage at his work as we were leaving town and they had big limbs down, also no power or water.
We will keep you in touch.

Turn up the volume to hear the rain and wind. This video was taken at around 7:00 a.m., so the wind is not as bad as in the middle of the night.

Getting prepared for IKE

Mark and I debated on putting boards up on the windows. He went golfing Friday morning with a friend and came back with his mind set to put boards up. Mark and our neighbor Matt screwed boards up to our dinning room, study and entry way windows. Thanks Matt!! We have our tubs filled up and radio ready.

Trip to Galveston

This weekend Mark and I decided to go explore Galveston. They have houses that date back to the 1800's that you can go and tour. We toured the Bishop's Palace. It was very interesting to see the new technology they used for their time. Here are some pictures to show you.

Play Ball!!!

Mark was given tickets to go see the Astros play on Sunday afternoon. This was Wesley's first baseball game and I think he liked it!! It was perfect weather and the Astros ended up winning!! Mark and I can't wait until we are able to take Wesley to his first baseball game. (24 1/2 weeks pregnant)