Water!

Praise the Lord! We have water!
Water update: We still have water, but are hearing that it is only temporary. I have done all the dishes and am trying to do as much laundry as possible before we lose it again. I am hoping that the rumors are false and our water is back for good. :)

More Pictures

Irrigation controller on the golf course

The flooded road between our subdivision and the golf course.

A building in Magnolia

Tuesday Update:

We have power, but still little water. The kids and I went to a friend's house last night to take showers. They have power and water but no phones. We have power and phones, but no water. Another friend was there for showers, and her family has no power, phones, or water.

Many people are still without power. High Meadow is still relying on generators to keep food from spoiling. Lines for gas are very long and directed by law enforcement, in many cases.

Magnolia ISD is out for the entire week. We have heard that the water supply in Magnolia is not sufficient enough for the residents and the schools. Some schools have water in them and significant damage. Food is spoiled in cafeterias.

Hurricane Party

Saturday night we were fortunate to get to eat hand-cut ribeyes from the golf course. Cody, Greg, and Matt cooked them for us and the families around us, because they were going to go bad. We ate a very romantic supper by candlelight and car headlights in our neighbor's garage. Everyone brought what they had to share, and we were grateful for ribeyes, potato salad, hot dogs, Hawaiian punch, and gatorade.

Monday Update

Here are a few more pictures. I'll post more when I am feeling more patient.


This trampoline has definitely seen better days!


There is not usually a lake in this fairway.

Today's Update
We still do not have water, but our electricity is up and running. Thank goodness for air conditioning. We all got a good night's sleep--probably since Cody turned the AC down to 68.


Thanks for all the thoughts and prayers!

Electricity

Top Ten Reasons Why We Need Electricity:

1. Air Conditioning

2. WATER--toilet, baths, showers, washing dishes, drinking-- did I say baths?

3. Going to the bathroom and actually being able to see the toilet paper (and flush)

4. TV (Cody would put this much higher on the list!)

5. Air Conditioning

6. Microwave (maybe people who don't have small children wouldn't miss this so much--we need hot dogs, popcorn, spaghetti-o's...)

7. Lights (especially when small children keep accidently breaking flashlights)

8. Internet access--you would think this would be no big deal, but we seem to be very dependant on the Internet for information

9. Hair Dryer & Curling Iron (I know this is a little shallow, but having bad hair puts you in a bad mood. And when it's hot and you have no prospect of bathing, you don't want to wear a cap!)

10. Air Conditioning

*Trying to explain the concept of no electricity to a 3-year old is difficult. Jake kept sitting down with the remote and trying to turn on the TV. At one point, after we had been without electicity for quite a while, he tried unsuccessfully to turn on the TV, and said, "What happened, Mama?" This morning, he triumphantly brought me a bag of microwave popcorn and was crushed when the microwave still didn't work.

Assessing the Damage

Saturday afternoon, Cody asked me to go with him to the golf course to take pictures of damage. I'll let the pictures speak for themselves. The first ones are on the way to High Meadow and in the subdivision, and most of the rest are on the golf course.

More pictures to come soon.

Riding Out the Storm

We thought we were prepared to ride out Hurricane Ike on Friday night and Saturday. We made sure we had plenty of food, water, ice, and batteries. We didn't have school on Friday, but Cody worked until about 5:00. They had quite a few golfers considering the weather forecast. We first lost power early in the evening (6:00ish). We were surprised to lose power so early since it was not really storming yet. The wind was beginning to get stronger, but otherwise nothing was happening. It turned out that the loss of power was temporary and not weather-related. Apparently a fatal car accident in Pinehurst caused the electricity to go off.

Here we are hanging out with our neighborhood friends

in our driveway during our first power outage.

We put the kids to bed downstairs thinking that the electricity was gone for good, but it came back on about 10:30 and stayed on until a little after midnight. The sound of the wind was the scariest part of the night. Thankfully the kids slept through the night. We "camped out" in the living room all morning, playing with blocks and coloring.

As it became light, we were able to tell that our yard and fence seemed fine. Our neighbors two doors down had a small tree laid over, but otherwise, our street seemed to fare fine. We found out later that someone a little farther down the street had their fence blow down and then their trampoline flew on top of the next neighbor's house. It wasn't until later in the day that we went out to assess the damage beyond our street. Then we realized how fortunate we were.