"On the Road Again"...

The kitchen in our room

Living Room
Getting closer and closer to Dallas

Yep, that's right. We are on yet another trip. Just time it's just Kev and me though. Kevin had a business trip to go to in Dallas for a week, and I decided to go with him. We are staying in sorta like an executive extended stay hotel. It's like a little apartment. We have a kitchen, living room, bedroom, and bathroom. It's about 500 sq ft. It's pretty nice. Kevin is in class from 8am-5pm Monday-Thursday. So I get to spend all day by myself. After I dropped Kev off at the office I drove back and went to the fitness center here at the hotel. I worked out for about an hour. I came back to the hotel and have been playing Guitar Hero 3. It's pretty fun.

The drive here was soooo long!! I can't believe that there is NOTHING between Houston and Dallas. It makes for a very boring drive. So far so good though. Claire is staying with my family. I've never been away from her this long. When we dropped her off Saturday I cried like a little baby. I miss her like crazy! She's my little buddy. I know she is being taken care of though.

FEMA

Claire in Kenna's bicycle gear

some of the master bedroom damage

Night before last FEMA called us to schedule a time when they could come look at our house since we had registered online with them. He came yesterday at about 2pm. He was here 15 minutes tops. He asked the questions he needed to know, looked out the house, and left! Short, sweet, and to the point! Before he left he told me to keep all of our receipts for the hurricanes just in case. Maybe we will get reimbursed for the hotel stays. That would be really nice! We should hear from them in the next week. We'll see what happens... We still haven't heard from our insurance company though.

The weight has been put back on...

1 of the 3 water spots in Claire's room

The missing siding

The skirting damage

Let me explain the title of this blog. In my last post I put that we were worried about our house, and that when we found out everything was okay it felt like a weight had been lifted. Well, the day we got home the weight was put back on. We found other damage that people who had checked on our house didn't notice. We were missing quite a few shingles, almost all the skirting was messed up and off our house, a piece of siding was ripped off our house, and a tree limb that we were worried about broke off and landed on the office's sewer pipe, that runs through our yard, busting it open. (The water and sewage had been turned off a few days before the storm so no yucky mess! Thank goodness!) That's the outside damage...

We also found water spots throughout the house. Our bathroom has a few, as does the master bedroom and one in the kitchen. As I was going through the house opening windows I got to Claire's room and noticed a smell. I looked around the room and didn't think anything of it. Then Kev came in her room barefoot, and he said the floor was soaked! I then looked up and noticed 3 huge water spots on her roof! The water leaked from her light fixture, which was still filled with water.

We have insurance though. We were told that rain/wind damage was a reasonable deductible amount. Then when we went to call in the damage were told that there was a Hurricane deductible and that that amount was double what the rain/wind is. Isn't a hurricane rain and wind??? Retarded!

Which brings me to today. We have a contractor coming today to check out the damage and to give us an estimate to turn into insurance. I hope we get this all squared away soon! Having all of Claire's stuff in the nursery and disorganized is killing my OCD!

Evacuated...AGAIN!!

The weather in Temple

Chillin in the bed

Finally at the hotel!

It was a long drive!

We are back in Temple. I'm really starting to like it. I know where everything is. We were even going to go to a football game last night, but Claire has a runny nose so we figured the night air wouldn't be good for her. Good thing we didn't go because I woke up with a wicked sore throat and a runny nose myself. I've been slinging back Advil Cold & Sinus every 4 hours! We took a nap this afternoon so I feel a little better.

We got word from Grammer (Kev's grandma) that our house is fine. About 2/3 of our skirting is off, and we have some siding missing. Other than that we are good. Andy (Kev's uncle) went into the house and said he didn't find any water in the house. It's SUCH a relief! We were worried like crazy. Down Grammer's road there are trailers that lost their roofs, Kev's cousin's water pump was destroyed when a tree fell on it, and Grammer's window in her living room blew out so water got into the house. Hearing all this put us more on edge! I want to get back and get us back into our schedules and routines. Claire doesn't do well when she's out of her routine. This time has been better though. With Gustav Claire didn't take a nap the entire time, went to bed late, and woke up early. This time she has taken a nap, and I have stuck to her bedtime.

The only thing that happened here in Temple was some wind gusts and little bit of rain. Nothing bad. It was cool to stand in the wind though. I've talked to my family who stayed in Odomville. Everyone's house is okay. It could have been a lot worse. I am definately counting my blessings!!

On a lighter note...

My birthday was yesterday. I'm 22 years old now. (Just in case you wanted to know.) A few weeks ago a lady in our ward called and asked if we would feed the missionaries. I told her to sign us up for the second Wednesday in September. Unknown to me, that was my birthday. It was good though. We had spaghetti, veggies, and cheese garlic bread. Yummy... I also made my birthday cake earlier in the day. It was Angel Food Cake. (very hard to make!) It turned out really good though. Here's some pictures of the cake

Yet ANOTHER Hurricane...

I asked Kev the other day if he was ready to move away from the gulf. His response was "Yep!"

I really don't wait to spend all the money to evacuate again. However, if it comes near us we are going. Our family's safety is not worth the gamble. We live in our trailer, and even if Ike doesn't hit here there will be tornadoes. We have hotel reservations in Temple again. We have until Friday night at 6pm to cancel and still get our money back. So the plan is to check out the National Hurricane Center site tomorrow at 7am. If it still looks bad we are loading up the car and heading out. I already did laundry and packed us all up.

BEFORE

AFTER

Claire's/Guest Bathroom

BEFORE

AFTER

Guest Room/Nursery

BEFORE

AFTER

Master Bedroom

BEFORE

AFTER

Master Bathroom

BEFORE

AFTER

Evacuated

Claire watching "Enchanted" in the bed

Even Daddy went swimming!

After swimming

We ended up going to Temple, Texas. It's about 35 minutes South of Waco and an hour or so North of Austin. After being here for only a few days I already know my way around this city. It's about the size of Beaumont. We've kinda made it into a mini vacation. We've been swimming and going to the mall. I actually don't want it to end. I've just started to enjoy myself now that I know my house should be okay. We are leaving at about 9am of 10am tomorrow to make the 5 1/2 hours drive back. It would be a little shorted, but we took all the back roads up so that we didn't hit any traffic, which we didn't. No traffic at all! I hope everyone and their things are okay.