Some Post-Ike pictures

I'm slowly starting to return to "normal" after all of the Post-Ike chaos. Although things are starting to look up around here, we still have the constant reminder of the storm when we look at the piles of "large debris" that still clutter our streets and the pockets of neighborhoods that are STILL without power. Football games have started again (both Caleb's and high school). I actually drove down to Texas City at Hwy. 146 the other day and really wish I would have taken the camera with me. Boats, jet-skis, furniture and large trash are just pushed aside on the interstate. STILL. It's really a sad sight...to know that homes were utterly destroyed and lives were changed forever. School starts back on Monday, so that will help things a lot. I was uploading pictures earlier, so I thought I would share what we saw on our return home after the storm. Obviously, these don't even touch on the devastation south of us. For those of you local, Chris started taking pictures (I was driving at this point) at Hwy. 90 and Beltway 8 - as that was where we started to see the most damage.



At FM 2351 - coming in to Friendswood from I-45:

Waiting in line for gas in our neighborhood:




Our neighbor's tree - it damaged their patio cover, but spared the home:

Our back fence laying on the ground (day care fence still standing some 3 feet away)- thank GOD that was the worst of our damage:


And here are the boys enjoying some fine hurricane cuisine - barbequed spaghettios by flashlight. Sorry for the "redneck-ness" of this picture, but remember we had no electricity and that cool front hadn't quite hit us yet...

Yes! We are alive!!!

We got back home late last Sunday to very little damage. We have been without electricity until last night. Thankfully, Chris' mom found a generator for us and we met her half-way to pick it up along with about 125 gallons of gas and 200 pounds of ice. If you know me, I'm not the camping type, so I think I've fulfilled my camping requirements for at least several years. We are still in the process of cleaning up - we lost our back fence and there is a little roof damage over our patio. Now that the lights are on, I can actually see what a mess my house has become in the past week! I thank God daily that we were spared in this storm. We feel totally blessed that our community suffered minimal damage and enjoyed a rare cool front during the time we didn't have electricity. We still won't return to school until the 29th, as several of our campuses within the district had major damage. Please pray for the communities only minutes away from us...Galveston has suffered a tremendous loss.

Leaving town

Just wanted to let everyone know that we will be gone for a few days. In anticipation of Hurricane Ike, we are under mandatory evacuation starting at noon today (Thursday). Chris is at the store presently finalizing some stuff and I'm here bathing the dog and packing up our important stuff.

Playing Catch-up

You guys. I'm still trying to find a balance in my life these days. This week was definitely the most trying that I've had since returning to work. If I had had the time earlier this week, there would most certainly have been a different tone to my writing. However, I'm writing to you post-trauma. (I like to play it up some, you know.)

This work-week was a short one - four days instead of five - but it felt just as long, if not more. It's weird, but short weeks always seem longer to me. Why is that? I guess it's just mental...building up the anticipation of an "easier" week just because we go to school one less day. Not so. Chris' birthday went well last weekend - minus the air-headed waitress we had. I picked up the boys on Monday. We came home and then went over to Stefan and Nancy's for a impromptu barbeque. We left early enough for the boys to get in bed in plenty of time for school the next day and they actually ended up falling asleep in the car on the way home. As I carried Cole into the house, Chris stopped me and informed me that I couldn't lay him down in his room. This is why:



Evidently, while we were gone, a water pipe burst in our attic causing a huge chunk of his ceiling to come crashing down. I finally got the boys in bed, made a few frantic phone calls to Mom and Ben, took a shower, turned off the water and then shut the door and went to bed. Chris was off the next day so I left it up to him to deal with the mess in the morning. To summarize the rest of the story, our neighbor happens to work in water damage restoration, the insurance adjuster was nice and the damage appears to be mostly "do-it-yourselfable". And we have water again. And I just thought my house was a mess last week.

Of course, life still went on, but it sure did throw a wrench in the middle of it all. Caleb still had two practices this week. His first game was yesterday and it was a hoot. Nana, Pop and Aunt Sarah came to be the official fan club. Caleb did a great job. He mostly plays the line. On one particular play, we noticed that he did a great job of blocking. He wasn't letting that kid go anywhere. However, "that kid" quickly proceeded to walk off the field...throwing up the entire way.

Enjoy the picture - that's Caleb, #20.

Utterly exhausted

I know there hasn't been much blogging action as of late. Sorry 'bout that. This going back to work thing is really kicking my hiney. Caleb also started flag football practice the same week I went back. They practice three nights a week for an hour and a half at a time. Needless to say, I often have a pile of laundry and a stack of dirty dishes laying around. And I don't care because I'm too tired to worry about it. On a positive note, Friday night is Chris' last night on the overnight management rotation. Hallelujah.

And speaking of Chris...his big 3-0 is Sunday. He can stop pointing out that *I* am 30 and he's *only* 29 now...

Okay, I'm packing a lunch, putting some clothes in the dryer and going to bed now.

Pictures from the first day of school

First Day of Pre-School and Thoughts on Returning to Work

After a week of hanging out with Daddy, the boys started pre-school today. I was worried about Cole, since this is a totally new experience for him, but he actually did really well. Considering I jerked my sweet boys out of bed at 6:30 this morning, we all deserve some sort of medal. Caleb had a brief moment of "don't leave, Mom" followed by a short burst of tears, but I quickly reminded him he needed to be a good example for Cole and to show him that it would be really fun. It worked. I'm proud to report that both boys found toys to occupy themselves and I made an easy exit before my own tears started to fall. This afternoon, I was greeted with a smiling 5-year-old waving "art" at me and a shrieking 2-year-old that didn't want to go home. I also found out that Cole used the "big boy potty" today. Yay! Pre-school virtually potty trained Caleb for me, so I'm crossing my fingers for similar success with Cole. Sometimes peer pressure can be a good thing, I guess. Caleb is bursting with excitement, as he gets to go on a field trip to the movie theater tomorrow to see "Wall-E".

Last week, I had a full week of "New Teacher Orientation" (although I'm neither "new" nor new to the district, just sat on the sidelines for a while) and today began the district-wide Orientation for all teachers. Personally, I think both need to be renamed "Death by PowerPoint". I don't want to ever see another PowerPoint presentation in my life. Alas, tomorrow is another day on the campus, so I'm sure I'll see at least seven more. After six days, I'm ready to share some of my observations with you...

1. Real shoes are cute, but not fun. I'm currently nursing three different sets of blisters and am out of the more adult-like cloth band-aids. I'm trying to decide between sporting Clifford or Spiderman band-aids tomorrow. Decisions.

2. Wearing a bra for longer than a standard grocery store excursion also sucks. Sure, it creates a better silhouette, but you better believe that baby is coming off in mere seconds after I walk through the door.

3. A shiny, new campus is pretty. I have new appliances and don't have to worry if anything is broken or that I'll have the "eclectic" look of hand-me-down chairs and furniture.

4. A shiny, new campus is also a challenge. There isn't a vast supply of excess materials for incoming teachers to use. My walls are pretty and clean, but completely bare. Until I got my "new teacher supply box", my desk didn't even house the smallest paper clip. Sadly, my nutrition classroom (which consists of four kitchen labs) will have to survive on one small 13-gallon trash can until after September 1st. Honestly, that will be okay since labs won't start until after then anyway.

5. There are a lot of rust on these wheels. I walked away from teaching just over two years ago, boxed up my "teacher life" and didn't truly think of it again until the reality of last Monday arrived. I am completely and utterly overwhelmed...even though this is my SEVENTH year teaching.

6. You may now refer to me as KRG or KG. Everything else has an acronym, so why not?

7. I honestly do not know where five days of my life went. Between going back to work and Caleb's flag-football practice starting last week, I'm pretty much a zombie.

8. I am completely boring. After about the third round of "Hi, I'm so-and-so from Whatchamadoodle ISD and here's an amazing fact about me", I have decided that I am definitely the LEAST exciting new teacher on my campus. I don't have a PhD in Aeronautical Engineering. I've never taught starving children in a third-world country. I don't speak any other languages. I didn't swim with sharks, para sail, or jump from any cliffs this summer. I've never had a movie, book or short-story released...or even almost. I've never run a race with an Olympic athlete. I'm not a vegan, Buddhist or past performer at Carnegie Hall. I've never even worked for Borden scooping Elsie the cow's poop. Hi, I'm Kristi and I'm intensely dull.