Job Update

Even though I have been "offered" a job at a school, employment is still pending. I have two more interviews tomorrow. Keep me in your prayers. One is pretty far away, but it is more of what I want to do, running an office.





R is going to literally rip out the side of our house tonight while I'm at Bible study. I have to take dessert. There is a major leak on the side by our kitchen. This will make the plumbing bill lower. I was actually shocked today when I signed the proposal; it was lower than I expected. BUT he had to fix K15's bathtub. I felt that, compared to the leak bill, the tub bill was too high. It took the guy all of ten minutes to fix the tub.

We now have A/C on both sides of the house!

I have not had good cell phone coverage since the storm. It is so frustrating!!!!! I would have thought our coverage would be better by now.

Above are some more current photos of David Larible. I hope he comes back to Houston soon!!!! Hmmm. I need to get my David Larible doll out of the closet again. And go back on youtube to cheer me up.

Glad it is getting cool!

Lots of news today.
1. We have power! Still no a/c on one side of the house.
2. I got a job! (pending references and FBI fingerprinting)

Next time there is a storm, I am NOT going to buy soup! No one wanted it because it was too hot! I have lots of soup left, and we can start eating it now because it is finally getting cool!

I was offered a job yesterday at a small, private Montessori school in Spring, Texas. If everything goes through, I will be starting an elementary school for them. My hours will be 8:30 to 4:30. 3:30 - 4:30 will be my planning time, so the director says that if it is slow I can leave early.

Today is my mom's birthday! Happy 70th!!!!!

I have to go grocery shopping today, my least favorite thing. I am going to start slowly; no since in buying things we don't need right away. I don't know how many of partially used salad dressings I threw away.

I slammed the back door this morning, and three of the four braces fell from the ceiling. We still have a large hole in our sitting area. Now we have a leak outside the kitchen, and our water is a dark brown when we try to get water in the kitchen. Hope it is storm-related. It would make sense since that is approximately where the tree hit. Probably a small piece of galvanized pipe needs to be replaced.

A and R, I hope you have power now! Guess I will find out today!
R, I have been trying to reach you, but keep getting a fax machine, and I know how you don't like to use your cell phone! You have been so sweet calling everyday and letting K15 come over!
You know what I just figured out? I have about five friends whose names start with R! Oh, well, you know who you are.

I slept upstairs last night for the first time in a week or so. It wasn't too bad. When I woke up it was 73! Welcome Fall! It is my favorite time of the year!

POWERless

It's funny how these days instead of asking if you have electricity, people ask you if you have POWER. No, we still do not have power. I have learned some things during our power outage:
1. It takes me three days to drink one bottle of water.
2. It is not necessary to shine a flashlight in someone's face to speak to them.
3. When you turn the shower on, it is not necessary to stand there and water for the water to heat up. IT WON'T!
4. When you are in the dark, be careful where you sit. I sat on a tube of hydrocortizone cream and busted it big time!
5. Cell phones make excellent flashlights.

My friends R and K call me everyday to ask if I have power. Tomorrow the girls and I are going to my parents' house to wash clothes, and we have a lot! The girls will also do schoolwork over there and, hopefully, get ahead for the weekend.

My grandmother came through her surgery fine. She has to leave the stint in for 6 weeks. She sounded great this morning.

L, I'm going to stay away from you! You Swiffer people's faces!

Gotta go!

Tuesday Update

Update: Yesterday, the electric company took two of our trees off the power lines. They left the trees there; said we had to get rid of them ourselves. There is still a wire on the ground. Our next door neighbors still have a tree down on the lines behind their house.

We turned the generator on last night, and, wow, we have cable! We didn't even have cable one week before the storm!

Tonight we are going back to J and K's for dinner and then Bible study.

K18 and I are at L's again today; I wish she had a cot! I am soooo tired!

K15 is doing a presentation on a Renaissance painting about now. She was so nervous when I dropped her off.

I am so tired of going out in public and seeing signs that are misspelled or have grammatical errors. I was having a margarita the other night and looked up at the huge sign above the restaurant door saying, "Muchas Gracias!" I can't write it here, but to be correct, there should be an upside down exclamation point in front of "Muchas" and an accent mark over the first "a" in "gracias." Drove me so crazy, I had to change seats so I didn't have to look at it. Along 2920, there used to be a sign that said, "Trees for sell." Drove me nuts. Okay, so now I will probably get e-mails from you guys correcting my spelling and grammatical errors on my blog. Those don't count. Ha ha! Especially today because L will not stop talking while I am typing.

Monday Monday

Good news! We borrowed a generator! We slept with fans last night!
I am starting to panic about a job. Going to give my resume to a friend tonight that might know of an opening near the hospital.
I'm at L's store right now, listening to her discuss Christian bands with a customer. Think I will go home soon and clean out the frig. Yuck! The food is gone, but there is still a bad odor. We might splurge tonight and watch a DVD on the big screen TV. I heard some bad things about the Emmys last night, but I wasn't able to watch it until the end.
Everyone is stressed right now. Things will not seem normal until we have electricity, can vacuum the carpet, and my Sonic opens back up.
Some more good news! I have lost 22 pounds! I am hoping to go down another dress size soon! My goal is to get back down to my normal weight by swimsuit season. "Normal" for me is still overweight, just not hideous! LOL Just so that I can invite friends over to swim and not beg everyone to turn around while I dive in! Ha ha!

Sunday

Well, we are still around. Still haven't seen an electric truck. There are rumors in the neighborhood that it will be three to four more weeks without power. We are looking into getting a generator, especially for the refrigerator.

Right now, we are at K and J's house for a healthy, hot meal and to use their internet. K15 is printing out her paper. We had mesquite grilled chicken, caesar salad, brocolli, and roasted potatoes. Yummy! We had some great cookies for dessert!

R and the girls are going to church picnic and baptism today -- free food! I am going to hang out with a friend for the afternoon/evening. I hope she doesn't want to go to the mall! Went there yesterday, and it was packed!

Well, I will check in again tomorrow. Thanks for all your calls and e-mails. We are really okay.

Hurricane Ike

Thanks so much for the ladies on TM who prayed for us. We are fine. Still without power. The roofing company came yesterday and removed the two trees from our roof and patched the hole. Still haven't seen an insurance rep or an electric truck on our end of the subdivision.

I now equate the north side of a hurricane to labor. I was lying on the couch, and I could hear the wind coming around the back of the house and towards the front. Just as it came around the front, I would hold my breath and say, "Please, God, let this be the last one!" Ha ha! My brother rode out the storm and said that the south side of the storm was much worse, a constant whirling wind for four hours. Everytime he went outside with his camera, it would take another couple of people to close the door with him.

We are now boycotting a local news reporter. He put my brother's friend in grave danger for three days. The station finally let A go home after he complained. The news reporter has six kids -- yeah, you know who you are -- and was willing to risk his life and A's to get sensational footage. I'm sorry, but that is just STUPID! And a female reporter from the station will also be ignored from now on. I have lost total respect for you, lady.

We are staying at my brother's house in Houston but not for much longer. I am ready to go home. The house is starting to smell from the wet insulation and wood in the attic. I'm going to attack the whole house with Febreeze. I am hoping the carpet will be okay. It only got wet from the splashing of water in the tubs and when transferring the water.

What I will remember: using the pool to bathe, flush toilets, wash dishes, and wash towels (don't worry, these will all be re-washed) ; throwing out a frig full of food (ugh!); flicking on the lightswitch by habit; watching the hummingbirds after the storm; no cell phone coverage; hunkering down with my family in the den; thanking God that we are safe. It is just a house and fence. I will miss my favorite bird bath, though.

My friend T and her family got hit very hard in Magnolia. Please pray for them. Don't think we will be having piano lessons over there for awhile.

I want to thank K for letting us shower at her place. Sorry I didn't make it to the movie night last night. I want to thank R & R for bringing us ice and checking on us. I want to thank all of the friends who called to see if we were okay or needed anything, some of whom used their precious cell phone battery to do so. I especially want to thank B & N for letting us invade your home. The internet access has also been a godsend so I can search for a job and we can communicate with our friends and family.

I will post pictures when I have my internet back. Until then, take care!