The Before, During and After Hurricane Ike

On Friday, we took everything off the porches and cleaned up anything and everything outside. The school district canceled school, so the kids had a day off. Since we did not have Labor Day off it was so refreshing to have one day to recuperate after all the early mornings. Finally, a day to sleep in . Bill worked at home and didn't have to travel, thank goodness. We have bad memories of him trying to get back to Texas after Katrina, so it was a relief to have him home.

Saturday the hurricane hit us, winds blowing about 40 miles an hour, rain blowing, and lots of trees swaying back and forth. By 8:00 a.m. we had a tree down, it didn't fall completely to the ground, instead it fell onto another tree but didn't knock it down. After an entire morning and afternoon of blowing rain, all I have to clean is the outside of the windows. They are now covered by a thin layer of dirt. We feel very blessed to have very little clean-up and that we never lost power.

BEFORE:

Friday afternoon clouds, the calm before the storm. (facing south)

We put my car far enough away from anything that could fall on it and closest to the garage. We couldn't put it in the garage since the garage is still full of boxes we relocated before the house renovation started.

We had to protect the birdies.

DURING:

Allison and Belle watching the Weather Channel

Alex hanging out in the TV room with Allison.

AFTER:

The tree we lost.
We had a Canadian Goose in our yard after the hurricane.
The small amount of debris from the trees.
On Saturday night we all got together, ate dinner and played Mario Kart on Wii, it was a blast.