Let's Chalk This Up As A Learning Experience

Wednesday night I decided I would evacuate. At that point the forecasters were not exactly sure where Ike would hit. Corpus was still listed as a likely hit.

Have I mentioned I've never been through a hurricane before?
Have I also mentioned my husband is not able to evacuate with us due to his job?
Have I talked about my need to feel safe and secure?

Basically, I have no desire to be a hero and tough it out on my own at home.

All of those reasons combined with the fact that I didn't want to be stuck in thirteen hours of traffic headed to San Antonio, caused me to stay up late packing on Wednesday night and get up very early on Thursday morning and head out to San Antonio.

I'm glad I did.

I would do it all over again and not change anything.

By the time Thursday rolled on it was pretty clear that Ike was not going to hit us directly. We still didn't know what kind of conditions might affect our city so the kids and I stayed in San Antonio until Saturday.

Those pictures above were taken on Saturday afternoon and Sunday morning. I'm amazed at the damage done to our area from the storm surge considering we were on the good side of the storm.

My thoughts and prayers are with those whose lives and homes were completely devastated from Ike. I can't imagine what they are experiencing right now. Or those who are without power. Let me just say, it is hot here in Texas. I'm sure they're feeling it. I know I feel like I've been on an emotional roller coaster just going through this week and we ended up being spared in Corpus. Those affected have got to be not only physically exhausted, but emotionally exhausted as well.

I have learned a few things, though, from this experience.
1. Apparently I am skilled at removing the plastic covers off the outside parts where the hurricane shutters will go.
2. Next time I will enforce the "one stuffed animal per child" rule considering my oldest child packed 15 stuffed animals for the trip.
3. We may have to leave the hurricane shutters up since it allows me to convince my kids it's really time for bed, even if it's only 7pm because it is so dark with them on.
4. We have enough bottled water to probably last the month and enough canned goods for just as long.

On a positive note, on Monday I am subbing in my daughters kindergarten class for the day. She is so excited! I am as excited and a bit nervous since I haven't been in a classroom to teach since I taught 4th grade in the Bronx back in 2000. I have a feeling though, that these 5 year olds might not be so rough!

Take care,
Julie

Hurricane Ike, go take a hike!

Pretty creative title, huh?

Right now I am in high gear getting ready to possibly evacuate due to hurricane Ike.

Thinking there's a possibility your house could be completely leveled is scarey. Going through your possessions and deciding what is most important to bring with you should you not be able to return to your home is overwhelming. The fact that my husband has to stay behind doesn't help either.

I will probably spend the better part of the evening trying to get organized. If you think about it could you please say a prayer for our family as well as all the families who could potentially be affected by Ike.

Right now the plan is to head to San Antonio and then possibly on to Waco or Dallas, depending on where Ike decides to go.

This is a whole new world for us.

Take care,
Julie

Her bite really is worse than her bark

I want to introduce you to our dog, Rosebud.

She is a real killer.

Literally.

On Friday my oldest son ran in from the backyard yelling, "Mom! I think Rosebud KILLED something!"

I said, "What do you mean she killed something?"

He replied, "There's BLOOD mom, BLOOD!" (This got the attention of his sister and younger brother as well as myself)

We all went outside and sure enough, there it was...a small pocket gopher, covered in blood and still alive (barely). My first thought was, "Oh, how gross! I think I'm going to get sick!" followed by empathy for the poor thing struggling to breathe. I looked over at my almost 6 year old daughter to see how she was doing. She is THE official animal lover in the family along with my husband, who unfortunately was at work. I said to my daughter, "How you doing sweetie?" She said she was sad and felt bad for the pocket gopher.

Poor, innocent, pocket gopher holding on to his life by a thin thread.

This is where I have to interject that my husband disagrees with me completely on this point. He argues that the pocket gopher got what was coming to it and that Rosebud was only doing what she was designed to do, which is hunt and dig and chase down these creatures. My husband is quick to point out that the "poor, innocent pocket gopher" has torn up our yard on multiple occasions, done considerable damage to our grass and are generally a big nuisance. Let me also say that my husband has tried for the better part of TWO years to kill the pocket gopher problem in our yard with no luck.

He's tried: flushing them out with the hose (futile because they have miles of tunnels under the ground), smoking them out (did not phase them a bit) and poisoning them (nothing happened and it probably tasted like candy to them). My husband even threatened to borrow a gun and "blast them away!"

NOTHING WORKED.

Until our 4 pound miniature yorkie got a hold of one.

To say my husband was proud of her would be a huge understatement.

So, we let the pocket gopher die in peace. At least that is what I am telling myself. Truth be told I really was not up for putting the gopher out of its misery.

I must say I do feel a bit safer with a killer dog at our house. Plus, I have not seen a pocket gopher since.

The Eurovan Saga Continues

I feel so tired right now! I just watched Serena win the US Open . Great tennis. I'm hoping Federer wins tomorrow. I am disappointed Nadal lost. Once Andy Roddick lost I was hoping for a Nadal/ Federer match, however, now I'm hoping for Federer win over Murray.

Just a quick van update....it's not fixed.

After I got home Friday from picking up the kids, dropping off the rental car and getting a ride home, I get a call from the dealer telling me that although they had the van fixed (I believe he used the words, "It was purring like a kitten"), the fuel pipe broke. It's not their fault, he tells me, but since he feels bad it happened he is not going to charge us for the labor to have the pipe fixed.

Bottom line? More money and no van until Tuesday afternoon.

It's a volkswagen.

Take care,
Julie

PS Can I just say I don't care for the TV commercial (I just saw it) that uses the baby talking like an adult to promote its product. (I think it's selling stocks) The baby just spit up everywhere. I think it's a gross and an odd commercial. Am I just missing something? Do you all know what I'm talking about? Does anyone like it? Let me know.

Friday's Favorite #4

Welcome back to Friday's Favorite. If you are new here to this blog you can read about Friday's favorite here . Last week I took a break since I was in NYC doing lots of stuff, but mostly watching tennis.

This week I have picked a book for Friday's Favorite. It's one I started reading on the plane last week. It's called "The Shack" and it is written by William P. Young. I first heard about this book over at the Burnside Writers Blog. The review caught my attention, but I wasn't planning on reading it, for whatever reason I had at the time. Then, I read another story on The Big Mama Blog referencing to the book. Her story got my attention also, but I was holding strong in my conviction not to read the book. Then I left for NYC. I got to my hometown airport and it took all of ten minutes to get checked in and go through security. I had some (lots) of time to pass before my flight left and I thought I'd go buy a book. In my mind "The Shack" came up and I said something to God along the lines of "If this really is a book I'm supposed to read then I will buy it if I see it in the giftshop." Completely thinking there's no way our tiny airport giftshop is going to have it.

I don't have to tell you what the first book was that I laid eyes on.

That's right, "The Shack". Right there in plain sight.

Do not try to tell me God doesn't have a sense of humor or that He does not use different people or means to get His message across to us. For me, it was this book. I knew that the minute I started deciding how God does or does not get His message across to people that at some point I would read this book and that it had something important just for me.

"The Shack" is the story of a father, Mack, who has an unspeakable tragedy happen to one of his kids. He's angry, blames God and has what he calls "The Great Sadness" come over him. One day he receives a letter in the mail from God asking him to meet God at the shack. Mack goes and the rest of the book focuses on this encounter between Mack and God. (By the way the book is fiction)

What I walked away with after reading this book is that I don't really know the heart of God as much as I thought I did. There's a section in the book where Mack comes face to face with what is in his heart. God says to him, "The real underlying flaw in your life, Mackenzie, is that you don't think that I am good. If you knew I was good and that everything- the means, the ends, and all the processes of individual lives-is all covered by my goodness, then while you might not always understand what I am doing, you would trust me. But you don't." (pg. 126)

Pretty convicting.

This book covers a lot of questions I'm sure we've all asked at some time. Things like God's love and bad things in the world. Sin and pain and suffering. Basically this book caused me to re think my relationship with God in a very moving and powerful way.

If you get a chance, check it out and let me know what you think. Also, any favorite book you've read lately? Let me know.

How do you spell "frustration"?

We drive a volkswagen van. (pictured at top) It's a vehicle we love. It's where I got the name for this blog. When you have little kids in car seats, it's perfect. There's only one problem.

Volkswagens can have problems and when they do it is expensive to fix them.

Recently we noticed our van was beginning to leak oil. Then the air conditioner went out a day after that. Since we live in south Texas where the temperature has been an amazing 100 degrees lately, going without air conditioning is not an option. My husband took our van to our local mechanic which is very close to our house. They took one look and said NO WAY, leaving us with the only option of taking it to the dealer. I guess we could do nothing and drive it until it catches fire or we pass out while driving from the heat, neither of which is going to work.

Wednesday we dropped off the van at the dealer here in town. Waited all day to find out what was wrong only to have them say they got backed up and wouldn't be able to look at our car until Thursday. On Thursday my husband called me around lunchtime to say he had some news about our car.

Not the good news we were hoping to get.

Apparently both fans of the air conditioner are broken as well as some pipe which is causing the oil to leak. All to the tune of over $2,000. That's right two thousand dollars. Do you know what we could buy, where we could go, what we could do with two thousand dollars? Painful best describes it.

However, we are not naive. We knew Volkswagens have expensive parts. We knew it, but were hopeful we would not have to deal with problems.

We were wrong.

All this to say, it's going to take several days to get our van fixed which is the reason for the second picture, our rental car.

Have I mentioned I have three kids? One in a booster and one in a car seat? That's my eight year old son standing beside the car. Did you see how he's almost as tall as the car? Have I mentioned I drive the kids 25 minutes to school and then repeat coming home?

I think we are going to have some very close bonding moments in the next couple of days due to our close quarters.

Isn't life great?

What about you? How do you spell frustrating in your life?
I just have to say it feels good to be back home and get back to the blog!

Take care,
Julie

Thank you for the memories

Well, I made it home and survived the New York City Trip.

Exhausted? Yes.

Thrilled? Yes.

After I got on the last flight all I could think about was seeing those three sweet faces of my kids which make me do what I do and need a break from what I do.

Parenting sure is complicated.

Not a lot going on here right now. Watching some tennis (Go Andy!), tearing out Math pages for my daughters kindergarten teacher (Yeah, I'm a room mother!) and packing lunches for tomorrow.

Yes, it's back to reality.

I will post more tomorrow, I'm tired and needing some sleep.

Thanks for all your prayers while I was gone.
Take care,
Julie