It ain't over til it's over

In the early hours of this morning, a storm was upon us. We had drained our bathtubs, let our phones run out of charge, and basically taken a nice deep breath.

But from our bed we could hear the rain pounding and thunder booming, and the lightning looked like it was in our backyard, at least from what we could see through the cracks of our still boarded up windows. And then we lost our power.

And all I could think was, "Oh my gosh, it's not over!" It was disconcerting mostly because we thought we'd made it and the hurricane was gone.

Luckily, after a handful of hours the power was back.

Dan jokingly said that we didn't lose our power on Saturday because God wanted him to be able to see BYU whip the patooties out of UCLA.

And yes, Dan made it home, thank goodness. I can't tell you what a welcome sight this car was.
And this is Ava saying, "Come out, Dad, come out!"




Literally just a few hours before Ike's arrival. Like a good daddy does when returning from a long trip, he came bearing gifts.



These life savers for the kids are especially meaningful as they are what my dad always brought us kids after a trip.

He got me a present too. Supposedly arriving next week, I'm not positive what it is, but I have an idea. I'm not even gonna type what my guess is, because I won't believe it till it's in my hands.


He walked off one of the last planes to land at Bush airport and straight into hurricane preparations. I had been busting my bum trying to get things ready. He got back just in time to help board up the windows. (Thank you Lee and Dave, for your invaluable help and tools and work!)



I had cleaned out the garage so we could park Dan's car, Pearl, in the other side. And I set up our "slumber party closet".



We disassembled the bricks,



and now all that remains is the grave of my garden.



This picture doesn't quite capture it, but by about 7:30 pm, it was so eery outside with this purple/orange glow.




It was a long and scary night. Dan was so exhausted he fell asleep when the kids did. I was too anxious to sleep and spent a good part of the night glued to the TV.


We each got up a couple of times to peek out the windows. When I looked out the front our trees were being blown at a 45 degree angle.


In the morning, we were frankly shocked that we still had power.





We were relieved that the worst of our damage only consisted of 2 of our fence panels being blown down.

The trees were back to their upright and locked positions, though it was quite telling that the twine supporting our littlest tree was snapped in the night.


These trees down the street were not as lucky!





Out where we live would technically be considered a "flood plain". But when they develop a big community like this, there are alot of measures taken to elevate the ground so that it won't flood.

But on the road out to our house, there are some homes not associated with a "community" that perhaps are not so equipped to deal with the flooding. And I think that most of the problems we are having out our direction are from today's storm, combined with the high waters left from the hurricane.

And for reference, in normal conditions there is no water here. Your not seeing overflowing ponds, lakes or rivers. Any water in these pictures is not normally there.




This is "Grandma's donkey's" pasture (a cute miniature donkey that my mom loves). Hopefully he got put somewhere safe before the storm. This water would probably be up to his belly!




And here's the road, rounding the bend to our neighborhood.



Church was canceled, work is canceled, thousands of people are without power, homes, and/or have major damage. We feel very lucky to be safe and sound.

Our phones are very spotty, but I really appreciate everyone who has called and left messages. Really, on Friday, before the hurricane, when Dan was still gone, and impending doom was upon us, one by one I got a call from each of my siblings. I don't know why that should make me so emotional, but it meant so much. Just to know people were worried, concerned and thinking and praying for us, made me feel comforted.

Dan got home, we survived the storm, and BYU won. Life is good.