Can I buy you a beer?

OK, so I know I said that this week's posts were going to be football related, but I'm deviating from that today. For good reason. The only thing football related to this post is the use of the word beer. Confused? Well let me try to straighten you out.

Eight years ago today (the date, not the actual day... it was actually a Wednesday, but who remembers this stuff anyway?) I met Jay. My cousin called me late while I was still in the office, and wanted to know if I could meet her for a beer. Of course I could. Back then I was in my early 20's and didn't say no to a beer. So we went out to this little hole in the wall ice house called The Rose Garden. I have no idea how she ever found this place, but now that I look back on it, I'm kinda glad she did. She and I were talking, minding our own business, when the table next to us starts talking about a one-armed stripper and getting in to a big black truck with "Bubba" written across the back. You all know me... my nosy self couldn't keep my mouth shut, so I had to say a smart-ass remark, something along the lines of "the fact that he had 'Bubba' written across the back of his truck should have been your first clue not to get in." The next thing I know we had two fresh, cold Coors Lights on our table, courtesy of a guy in Wranglers, boots and a polo shirt. Little did I know that eight years later I'd be madly in love with the guy who got in the "Bubba" truck.

Jay didn't get my phone number that night (typical guy), but one of the ladies who worked with him did (smart woman that Miss Judy!). She called me about a week later and said they were all heading back up to The Rose Garden and that I should come. I happened to be sitting in the Columbus, Ohio, airport, on my way back from a job interview at Ohio State. I said I might, knowing full well that The Rose Garden was on my way back from the airport and that I had every intention to stop in, and that there was a chance Jay would be there, so I stopped. And let me tell you... I was wearing a suit (again, just finished up with a job interview), and I turned some heads when I walked in that place. I still remember the looks on some people's faces. It was quite priceless, because I was a little over dressed. But, they welcomed me in to their table, bought me a beer, and the rest is kinda history.

Jay got my digits that night (even walked me out to my car), and here we are today, eight years later. I'd list all the shit (good and bad) that we've been through, but that would make for the longest blog post ever, and I don't want to bore you all. I adore Jay, and love him with all my heart. He makes me laugh, he comforts me when I'm sad, he knows how to push my buttons, and he would do anything to make me happy. I love you honey!!!!!!!

Finders Keepers??

We all know the saying "Finders Keepers" right? I always say that when I find money in Jay's pants pockets after I've just washed them; or if find something laying around the house that I might be able to use. You get the point. Well, the last couple of days we've been working on getting all of the debris out of the back yard. This has been no easy task. Besides a bunch of trees and branches, here's a list of what else we found. I'll let you decide if finders should be keepers.

• Office chair (the kind with wheels and arm rests)
• Flip flop (just one. And no, Melissa, it isn't mine!)
• Igloo cooler, complete with the Texans logo
• Buoy
• Oyster basket
• About a dozen plastic oyster containers
• Pieces (yes, multiple) of Maribel's (for those of you who don't know, this is... er, was... a bar in Seabrook. It used to be an old whore house, so the whole outside was painted bright pink. Unfortunately, Ike wiped out the whole thing. There literally is nothing left.) We did keep a couple boards to hang in our new house. We had to. It's not every day that part of a bar you frequent ends up in your yard!
• A lid to something with a return address label for a lady in Seabrook (two towns over)
• Plastic inflatable floaty ring (like the kids use in the pool)
• A piece of a pier

We continue to wait on FEMA and insurance. We understand from our adjuster that he is submitting our preliminary claim to the insurance company this weekend, so maybe (fingers crossed!) we'll hear something this week.

Goodbye stuff; waiting game

The debris removal contractor for the island finally got to our house on Monday. It was quite exciting. A nice break from our now normal, everyday clean up routine. I thought I might cry when the big machine scooped up our belongings, but I didn't. Instead I breathed a big sigh of relief and snapped some photos (see below).

Now we're playing the waiting game with insurance and FEMA. We're supposed to hear something from the insurance company about the claim on our house within two weeks. Then, we can move forward with FEMA, although FEMA is also supposed to be sending out an inspector within 10 days of us filing our claim. We're at day 7 now, so hopefully by this weekend we'll have some movement on that.

In the meantime, it's the same ol, same ol. We got most of the yard debris gone in both the front and back, and we still have some work to do on the stuff from the garage, so that's the plan for the rest of the week.

As always, thank you to each and every one of you who continue to pray for us, and call and send texts. That helps us get through each and every day, and we can't thank you enough!

The Latest

I don't really have all that much to report today. We've been working our asses off at the house, like we have for the past week. The insurance adjuster did come out yesterday. Didn't say much. Just did a lot of measuring and taking notes. He said he hopes to have our flood claim on the house (not contents) done in two weeks, and then he'll be back to do the wind claim. We have to make a very detailed inventory list of all the contents, which we have started, but it's going to take some time as they want make, model, price, etc.

So, today we're hoping to get the house pressurewashed one last time, finish cleaning out the garage, and get everything from the front yard to the street for pick-up.

Friends are bringing the best lunch in the world... TEXADELPHIA... and I couldn't be happier about it.

That's really it. Like I said, more of the same. Hopefully sometime this week I can begin to get our lives somewhat back to normal at the townhouse, so we're not living out of suitcases and trash bags. I'm still off work this week. They're hoping to get us back on the 29th, but not so sure with the damages that the College suffered.

Thanks to everyone, again, who has called or texted. We can't tell you how much that means to us. If anyone know of a good contractor, we're looking for one!!!! :)

Bad News and Really Bad News

So another day down. Today was easier. Not great, but easier.

First, the bad news. We started to gut the house today. Our insurance adjuster still hasn't come, but if we have any hope of saving the house, we had to get into the walls. And what a mess we found! Gross, gross, gross, gross. Wet insulation is nasty! Our house is old (from the '70s) so it had the old-fashioned paneling on most of the walls, so that made it easier. The sheetrock... now that's a different story. We learned a lot a lot about our house today. That's the bad news. It's a little worse than we initially thought.

The really bad news is that they found two dead bodies in the debris rubble in our neighborhood. One of them was in the park across the street from us. So, not only are we dealing with the loss of our house, but we had to witness that. Just when I think I've seen it all, I haven't.

That's the latest update from us. Tomorrow is more of the same. Thanks to everyone who has sent messages and called. Your thoughts and prayers mean everything to us.

Ike's Fury (Long Post)

I finally have Internet access at my parent's townhouse, so I'm able to update you all on the latest news. I'm not sure where to start, so I guess I'll pick up where I left off.

We had a mandatory evacuation from Clear Lake Shores last Thursday, and headed North to mom and dad's in The Woodlands (about 50 miles North of Clear Lake Shores, and about 75 from the coast). Hurricane Ike started to come ashore on the east end of Galveston Island late Friday night. We started feeling the winds in The Woodlands early Saturday morning at about 4 a.m. The really strong winds came at about 6 a.m., and lasted for several hours. We lost power in The Woodlands at about 6:20 Saturday morning. We brought a generator, so we fired that up and were able to watch the news and run the refrigerator and some lights.

Mom and dad had minimal damage. A branch hit the roof and ripped off some flashing which caused a little leak in the roof, but nothing major. The winds were pretty fierce and there was a lot of debris down all over the place.

It was about late Saturday before we started seeing pictures from the Kemah area, and I immediately lost it. The suspense of not knowing what happened to our house was killing me. What we saw on the news was everything under water, so we knew it wasn't good for us.

We got a call on our cell's Sunday from our City Administrator who said residents could enter the City to assess damage, so we immediately headed down. I was prepared for what I was going to see, but at the same time I wasn't. We could barely get down the roads because of trees and boats and crap.

We pulled up to our house and saw a cedar tree down in the back yard across the fence and street. We closed the gates on either end of the driveway before we left, and the amount of crap that was up against those gates was unbelievable. As we walked up to the house, we could barely get through the yard. There were more trees in our yard then we had before!

The house was a mess. I cried the whole way through as I walked around to see the damage. The water had just receded, because the carpet was so soaking wet and muddy. There was still about an inch of mud in the kitchen. We could see the water line, which was about chest high on me, so roughly 4-5 feet. So we figure the tidal surge was about 11 - 12 feet (our house sits at about 8 feet above sea level). Surprisingly, no windows were broke.

Furniture had been tossed around like toys. Shit from the kitchen was in the bedroom and stuff from the guest room in the living room. The trash can in the bathroom ended up in the sink. The TV trays (a set of four plus the stand) from the dining room was in the office. The refrigerator had floated up and landed face first diagonal in the kitchen. Everything in the bottom cupboards was a wet muddy mess. About half of the stuff in the pantry was ruined, including all of my small appliances (Cuisinart food processor, mini processor, hand mixer, sandwich maker, waffle maker, etc.). Nothing in the garage survived, and Jay is sick about that. All of his tools, big machines, etc.

The bedroom was just as bad. We lost every television in the house (not that we're going to complain because we've been wanting a plasma flat screen). We pretty much lost everything that we didn't bring with us. Jay had some clothes up high that weren't touched, so we were able to save those. We tried to save pots and pans and some bowls, but the smell was so strong that it stays with stuff and pretty much ruins it. It's a smell I'll never forget, that's for sure.

We started to pull the carpet out on Sunday in hopes of preventing mold, etc. We got the living room cleared and then had to leave because of curfew. We've been working from dusk to dawn since then, and finally got everything out of the house yesterday.

So, we've now got everything piled up in the front hard, waiting for the insurance adjuster to get here. We filed our claim on Saturday right after we saw the pictures on the news (pretty much before the hurricane was even out of the area). We filed with FEMA yesterday (it took me that long to get through to them). The National Guard is here handing out bottled water, ice and MREs (meals ready to eat). Funny story... the National Guard unit that is here at the Target in Clear Lake Shores is from Lima, Ohio. That's where most of our family lives. Small world.

I feel so helpless. Usually I'm the one out there helping people, and now I'm the one who needs help. It sucks. Don't get me wrong... I'm thankful to be alive. That's what's most important, and I know that. The rest is just stuff, and that's what we have insurance for, but for all that we have been through to buy this house, and to have a major hurricane hit 9 days later is a pretty sick feeling.

I drove around the island for the first time yesterday and everyone else is in just as bad a shape as we are. There are boats from nearby marinas tossed around in lawns like toy boats. A 60 foot yacht ended up in between two houses on the north side of the island. How it didn't hit one of those houses I have no idea. Boats in the marinas are on top of each other, sinking, flipped over... it's really an unbelievable sight. But, we're going to pull through this as a community. We're a small community and pretty tight-knit, and were all in the same boat (no pun intended). We've had great support from our neighbors. They have power and brought us soup yesterday and let us use their powerwasher.

Thank you all for your thoughts and prayers. It means a lot to us. And thanks to those of you that have offered your help, furniture, clothes, food, etc. I can't even begin to tell you what that means to us.

We're going to be staying in my parents townhouse until we can get the house remodeled. They are here as well, as The Woodlands is expected to be without power for about another 2 weeks or so. They have been incredible through this, first letting us evacuate to their place, and then standing side-by-side with us in cleaning out the house. It was a very dirty job - literally - and they didn't blink at all. They rolled up their sleeves and dove right in with us. That's not to say there weren't a few tense moments with emotions running high, but that's to be expected when you lose everything. We're thankful to them as well.

I'm off work until further notice. The College had some damage, and I believe there still is no power. That is fine with me, as I'll have my hands full for the next few weeks anyway. Unfortunately, Jay's business is about to pick up like he's never seen as all of the refineries try to get back online and repair the damage, so he's trying to get as much done at the house now before he can't even see straight from work.

I'll try to get some pictures and videos posted later.

Ike Update

We made it to my parents house in The Woodlands, and are hunkering down. It took us 2 1/2 hours to get here the first time (yes, we made two trips... one to bring my car and the boat, the other to bring us, the both trucks, and everything else). The second trip took the normal time. No evacuation traffic at all.

If any of you were watching the Weather Channel this morning, then you saw one of their reporters, Mike Betts, reporting live from the northwest side of our island we call "A Little Slice of Paradise," and that would be Clear Lake Shores. It's probably never a good thing when the Weather Channel is broadcasting live from where you live.

With that said, Ike is now predicted to hit Galveston directly, which is an all-around shitty situation for us. When we left yesterday, the park across the street from us had already begun to flood from the higher tides. They are predicting 17-22 feet tidal surge, and that will put our house in shambles. Add to that 100 mph winds and who knows what else, we're not expecting good things when we return. I know that's not a very good attitude to have, but you know what they say... prepare for the worst, and hope for the best.

I shed a few tears when we left and last night, and I didn't sleep much last night. We're definitely prepared for the worst, so anything other than the worst will be welcome.

Thank you all for your help and your prayers. Jay and I are very fortunate to have such great friends all around this great country. Those of you that are hundreds and thousands of miles away... thank you for your texts, phone calls and prayers. Those of you in the Houston area that have offered your help and a place to stay, that means the world to us. We appreciate that so much. And for those who came over to help us load the trucks and who took some stuffr of ours to their house, you have no idea what that means to us. Thank you all. We are so blessed to have such amazing friends. We love you!

Good news and bad news

I'll start with the bad. We just got our mandatory evacuation orders, so we have to be out of here by noon today. What way to wake up this morning.

Now, the good. Our flood, wind and hail coverage is all in effect (we thought we'd have to wait the typical 30 days after closing), so we're taking valuables and leaving the rest. I didn't pay thousands of dollars for nothing!

Looks like we'll be heading to The Woodlands to mom and dad's. Not quite sure what to do with vehicles, as we have three and only two of us. But again, I guess that's what we have insurance for. We contemplated putting two of them at mom and dad's townhouse, but they are saying we're going to now get 15 to 22 feet tidal surge, which would put their lower level under water (they're at 16 feet).

So, that's the update for now. I'll try to keep you updated as much as I can. Please keep saying a little prayer. I am now officially scared!

Graduation

So, this past weekend, Jay's best friend's oldest son, Kenton, graduated from high school, as did many others across the country. Congrats to all the grads!!! I remember those days...

Anyway, here are a few pictures from the weekend of me and my "boys" (I call them that because they're really not boys anymore... not like when I met them six years ago!). I can only hope that my son will grow up to be like these three outstanding young men.

Life

Life is a funny thing. It's fun, and at the same time so incredibly frustrating. I often find myself reflecting on how things have evolved and where I am now compared to where I was five, even eight, years ago (I can't say 10 because I was still in college 10 years ago); and where I thought I'd be now in some aspects of my life compared to where I actually am. Those of you who know me know exactly what I'm talking about in light of some recent events that have happened in my personal and professional life. Don't get me wrong. I'm thankful for so many things, but I can't help but feel a little bit of pain every now and then. Thank you to those of you who have listened to me try to reason with myself this week. Nobody likes to listen to someone bitch and complain, but I appreciate you (you know who you are).