Hurricane Ike Damage

Brinley and I flew home from Arkansas yesterday morning. It was very shocking to see all the damage on the way home from the airport. It was so strange to see all the trees, billboards and freeway signs snapped in half. Brinley fell asleep in the car immediately (I think she was so relieved to see her Daddy and be home) and slept the whole way home. Once we got home, I put her in her bed, opened the window (no power) and she slept for the next three hours even with all the buzz saws going in the neighborhood! Luckily, a cool front has made the weather gorgeous and bearable to stand outside.

I took a look around our house to see the damage. I am most saddened by our front yard tree. It was this massive, full oak tree that covered our entire yard. The middle part snapped in half and is now hanging on the other branches that did survive and is in the shape of a Y. We are hoping to get a tree guy here to see if there is a way to trim it so we can save the tree and not have to cut it down.
Our fence fell down on the front, left side and back (right side is still standing!) Which is making it hard to let Rylee outside to go to the bathroom. We have to go out with her because she thinks she has a huge back yard now!

Many shingles were blown off our roof as well as all the protective gravel. Jason saw no problem until it rained Sunday and it leaked into the attic. He got some aluminum spray to temporarily fix the leak until insurance adjuster takes a look at it.

Our extremely tall backyard is still standing but there are tons of big broken branches just sitting on others waiting to fall. We will have to get someone out to professionally trim this tree because it is so tall. Hopefully no big winds will occur until we get this done.

Our neighbor behind us had the side of their house blown off. You can see into their attic and 2nd floor of their house!
After Brinley woke up from her nap, we headed into Baytown to see my parents house. I almost came to tears when I saw the neighborhood I grew up in. Trees laying in houses, flattened cars from trees, and cranes being used to remove the massive trees, it was so devastating! The back part of their neighborhood is on the bay, so we drove back there and saw houses in utter ruins! One house was completely gutted by the water to the point where you could see through the house to the bay (siding, windows, everything gone!) The contents of the house were in trees and scattered around the front yard. My parents house looked bare without their big backyard trees and they will be without power for a while (they are predicting a month) but are thankful for a house that is standing.

On our way home, I prayed the entire time for us to have power. The closer we got, the more I realized it wasn't happening! I was almost in tears as we drove into our black street. As soon as we drove into our driveway and turned the car off the street lights came on...HALLELUJAH!!! Our power was back and everyone in the neighborhood was cheering...some even set off fireworks! Jason was the happiest, who had been living in the dark for 4 days! After a hot shower, we all went to bed and got a great nights sleep!

I went to the grocery store today to attempt to restock my completely empty fridge and freezer and was excited to see them stocking fresh fruit and meat. So we can have a kinda normal dinner tonight (I was expecting to eat PB&J sandwiches for the next week).

I will post later about Kylie's wedding and our visit with the Lipsey's. but this post is already to long!