Take a hike, Ike!

Well, here we are in Dallas. What a couple of days it has been. We both worked Wednesday night, and planned to evacuate as soon as I got home to load up the car yesterday morning. Well, work tried desperately to get me to either a) switch teams so that I would stay there to ride out the storm, or b) work some or all of the next night so that the people who would be staying to ride out the storm could go home and get some rest. I felt (slightly) guilty for saying no repeatedly, but I was too concerned about my own home and family, and the fact that we would be separated if I worked. Another nurse I was working with also lives close to the coast, and all night long we were so stressed over this storm, and kept checking the internet to see if it was going change tracks. I got all excited in the middle of the week when it appeared that it was going to go way to the south of us, and then the computer models swung it back our way again. Anyway, I hightailed it out of work as fast as I possibly could, made it home by 7:30 - a record. We had packed bags and Stephen had boarded up the house the night before, so we really just had to grab our stuff, grab Wesley, and unplug everything. We took our back way to Luling, and actually didn't hit too much traffic on the way. It took about 3 1/2 hours to get there instead of the usual 3, and I think that was just because the tolls on BW8 were free - so we all had to squeeze through the ez tag lanes.

Well, we made it to Luling, and then as we got there, found out that Stephen was going to have to go to Dallas to work. I pretty much lost it at that point. I don't know if it was being so tired, or the situation, or a combination of everything (most likely), but I couldn't take it anymore and just burst into tears...right there in my mother-in-law's shop. I had started crying when we actually left the house, but it was just a few tears rolling down my cheeks. This was more like sobbing. I try to tell myself that my family is safe, and yes, I am glad that we got out okay (Mom, Dad, and Lisa are on their way out as I type this, but had made it to Hempstead 2 hours ago and were sleeping in a parking lot. They should be in Austin soon), but I keep thinking about my house, my stuff, my life. We have (most of) the stuff we can't replace - jewelry, photographs. But, I don't know what we will go home to find. We will not have power for probably 2-3 weeks when we get back. That's about the only certainty. Will we even be able to get anywhere near our house? How much flooding will there be around the house? Will the house be flooded? Those and so many more questions are what's been clogging my brain...

Well, time to take a shower and check out what there is around the hotel!