Ike Aftermath

We left Dallas at 4am to go back home this morning. Traffic was heavier than you would expect at that time of morning, but we didn't encounter and big delays and made it home in about 5 hours. Gas was the bigger issue. We stopped in Fairfield, about 2 hours out of Dallas. There was a line, but nothing too big. Only one car in front of us. Stephen filled the tank fuller than it has probably ever been before. We made it 100 miles before it even came off of full. Anyway, as we got closer to Houston, we started seeing lots of fallen trees, signs down, some power lines down. I didn't actually see any floodwaters, which was relieving. We exited the freeway and along the main road through our town saw a lot of debris, fences down, roofs with tarps. I had felt reassured the last few days, hearing from other people who live near us that they had no major damage, and seeing minor stuff like this helped. Of course, I was still anxious to finally see my house. Well, our house is completely intact. We have shingles in the back yard, but as far as I can tell, they are from the neighbors behind us and next to us who had holes in their roofs. Our fence in the backyard is leaning, as are the trees. Our bushes lost a lot of leaves, but that's it! We even had power and water when we got in, which I was absolutely ecstatic about. Our biggest problem is the food we had to throw out. But, if we came out of the storm and that's the biggest problem, we are so incredibly blessed! Unfortunately, we did have several pounds of ground beed, chicken, ground lamb, and several other meats in the freezer that I had to throw out, since they had all thawed and then refrozen over the 2 days we didn't have power. We decided to leave the wedding cake in the freezer. When the ice from the icemaker melted, it dripped into the bottom drawer where the cake was and surrounded it, then refroze. So, to get the cake out, I would have to completely thaw and melt that water, and probably thaw the cake in the process. Hopefully the cake will be okay for our anniversary in 2 months! Even though we have power and water, the internet, tv, and cable are all through the cable, which is out. Right now I only have access at work. Hopefully it won't be long before those things are restored, although they are far from the most important things.

On the TTC front - I was unable to chart my temps for 5 days...I think I may have O'd during that time, but unfortunately I do not have temperatures to confirm it. So, I may be in the 2ww, I may not. I am going to try to resume with temps tomorrow, just to get back in the habit of it, but it's going to be hard to make out a true thermal shift with those missing days. Also, Stephen is working 12 hour days this week, and I am working 12 hour nights...both of us 7-7. Hopefully he can change to nights, both to conserve gas (I can drop him off on my way to work and pick him up on my way home) and to actually see each other.

I finally heard something about the citizenship interview this morning. I kept calling the 1-800 number all weekend and checked the website frequently. Finally, when I got up at 3am they had posted that the office will be closed today and tomorrow. I assumed it would, but you never know. My interview was supposed to be today. It didn't say when it will be rescheduled for, so we will have to see how that goes. Hopefully the mail starts up soon so that I can get any letter they send rescheduling the date!

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!

Stay away, Ike!

Ugh. Stephen just called to tell me about evacuating earlier in the week than we had previously thought. I had thought we would just got out of town on Friday like we were already planning to do. Now, since he's on the ride-out team for work, he's talking about leaving on Wednesday night. He'll probably have to go on Wednesday with Wesley, and I'll leave Thursday morning from work. I sure hope traffic won't be horrible then, but I don't think I can call in because I called in 2 weeks ago...

I bought a BBT yesterday. It had my temp this am at 97.7, and the regular one was 98. I'm going to keep using the regular one this cycle, because it will throw off my chart if I don't. But I didn't think there would be that much of a difference. I was playing around last night and they were almost identical, but the bbt one reads to the hundredths and the regular one only reads to the tenths. I'll use the bbt next cycle - but I hope I don't have to!

And seriously, is everyone pg? I can't escape it. Working with babies, seeing new babies in stores, seeing some seriously pg women in stores. Geez. When something is on my mind, there's no escaping it.