Mom's 50th Bday

Hooray for Mom! We were all able to get together on Sunday and celebrate Mom's 50th birthday. We met mom and dad in Gruene and had dinner at the Gristmill. It definitely was a nice relaxing moment in a time of many stressors. Happy Birthday mom, you are the best! I love you so much and am so blessed to have you as my mother!

A few pics of mom/dad's house

The front of their house- doesn't look too bad. Mom lost her car because the water was up to the console on the inside.



This boat is not supposed to be there.



These boats were thrown/floated onto the highway on the way onto the island



One of the spare bedrooms, you can see the water line on the bedspread



This is my old room. The chest was turned over, and you can see the water line again. The floors are covered with mud and dad said they are buckled in many areas as well.


This is a blurry pic of the kitchen, I included it so you could see the amount of mud on the floor


This is a peek of our street.

Dad and grandpa went back down to Galveston today to clean up. They took some of the fallen trees out of the yard and sprayed all of the walls with bleach to help prevent the mold from spreading even further. The insurance adjuster is supposed to come take a look at the house tomorrow morning. Mom and dad will be living in jennifer's apartment until their house is liveable. That's pretty much all the updates for now. We are all taking it one day at a time and putting everything in God's hands.

I can do all things through Christ....even rebuild!

Hurricane Ike has come and gone, but the devastation in Galveston is long-lasting. The pictures that I have seen are engraved in my mind. Every picture and story I hear touches my heart in a different way. To see buildings and houses that have been a part of my life for so long, that are now nothing but a pile of rubble, is hard to comprehend. We have hard several reports on that status of my parents house, but don't know which one is true. According to some, we had at least 1-1/2 feet of water in the house (and maybe my mom's car-which is in the driveway). The mayor suggests that power won't be restored for another month and that the island won't be 'liveable' until Christmastime. The city officials allowed a 'look and leave' today for residents to go to their houses and assess the damage-but they had to leave the island by 6pm. Well, too many residents came to the island and the plan did not go as anticipated. So, now we are back to no one being allowed on the island until further notice. Mom and dad are currently in San Antonio and Jennifer, Abby, and Alley-cat are with Chris and I. I am without words. Jesus, please be with all those who have lost everything-including houses, loved ones, and personal belongings. Please give us all the strength to rebuild and renew. We can do all things only through you, Lord.

Smurfs and Refugees

The weekend is here, and so are the refugees. The family showed up late wednesday night (early thursday morning) to avoid the traffic from the impending hurricane. Hurricane Ike is starting to hit galveston as I am typing. We are all watching the news reports of the water crashing over the seawall. We are constantly praying that everyone will be safe and houses will still be intact come Sunday morning. I have posted some pictures of the aftermath at my house as well as a long awaited picture of my mom with her blue 'smurf' casts. I failed to mention in my blog that my mom fell in the kitchen several weeks ago and broke both of her arms....she has been in double casts ever since. My wonderful aunt sam has been begging me to post a picture of her pretty arms...so without further ado...

Labor Day Weekend in Pictures

The weekend was most definitely full of fun events....but not relaxing. Chris and I started the weekend by tailgating before the UT vs Florida Atlantic game. Then we went to the game...the seats this year should have come with kleenex to wipe our nose bleeds. Mom and Sam would definitely not have been able to sit in our seats...we were about 4 or 5 rows from the top in the highest section. The air was thinner, but the view of the field was actually pretty good! The stadium is even bigger this year because they added another tier in one of the endzones...the total head count was 98,000 people.

Then on Sunday Chris and I along with many old college friends went to an all day outdoor concert. Very fun, but way too hot to be outdoors for 8 hours. Now its back to the grind....working is for the birds!

Happy Birthday Chris

We went out last night to celebrate Chris' 25th birthday a few days early. His actual birthday is this Wednesday, Aug 20th. We had a fun time hanging out with friends! In other news, I start back to work tomorrow....and needless to say I am very anxious. Having the summer off was great, but this last week of anticipation was not so much fun! I know it will be fine....but would I be myself if I didn't worry about things to come?

Fences and Phones

This past Saturday Chris, my father-in-law, and my brother-in-law undertook the big task of putting in a fence in our backyard. When we moved into our house, the backyard was open to the park behind our house. It was nice to have a nice, open yard (pretty unusual in Texas), but Chris and I quickly became irritated with the amount of foot (and bicycle) traffic through our yard. So, we called a fence company who quickly told us that it would cost $1500 dollars to put a fence along the back and one side of our yard. Yeah right! You don't know the Locketts! So, Chris and his family decided to complete the task themselves. I had full confidence, they really are a jack of all trades family. All of the poles were successfully put in place, and so far the back of the yard is complete!! yay! All that is left is to put up the chain link on the right side of the house....but here is where the complications arose (at no fault to Chris !!)

I was sitting at home yesterday afternoon and saw a couple of guys snooping around the poles on the right side of the house. I went to the front of the house and looked out the kitchen window to see several ATT trucks parked in front of our house. Then....doorbell! The man at the door informs us that when digging one of the posts on the side of the yard, the auger (digging tool) hit the phone line. Whoops! Apparently, the whole neighborhood had been without phone (and cable and internet....for those who have ATT services- we are not one of those families) since Saturday. Now, like I said earlier...this was of no fault to chris. Last Monday before any of the undertakings took place, I called the Dial Before you Dig company to come out to our house and mark all of the buried cable lines. Well, the ATT man 'forgot' to mark the side of the house. So, we had no idea that there was buried cable running along the side of our house. Chris is actually lucky that he was not shocked by any other unmarked cables! How did they remedy the situation, you might ask? well, about an hour after the knock on the door a contractor came out and dig a 3 feet deep by 3 feet wide hole in the side of our yard. Then the ATT man spent the next five hours replacing the wires. Ugh! As I am typing right now, the contractors have returned to our house to fill in the hole, replace the fence post, and place some new sod on top. Luckily, since the event was not our fault, we don't have to pay for the digging and fixing costs. The ATT rep estimated that is would cost about 1000 dollars to complete...ugh! What a monday! I have posted a couple of pics of the hole as well as a pic of the completed back fence....the end!!

The infamous Hole!

The damage

The Fence in the back....sorry for the darkness!