A couple drops and they all start coming down Crazy, crazy weekend. Seriously.
Chad was called to KSC, so he left early early Friday morning (he's back now, yay!) - but we didn't know he was going until Thursday night, so it was cray and last minute and stuff. But I survived Friday, just a little lonely and tired from dealing with Brianna, who was a little fussier than normal.
Saturday, we drove all over the place, as Brianna was only happy when we were moving in the car or when she could see something new and different. So we went to Hobby Lobby, Michaels, the Pearland mall - and even drove down to the Baybrook mall, just in time for it to start raining there, and for the power to go out for a few minutes. But overall, the day wasn't too bad. After (Brianna's) dinner, I managed to give her a bath by myself, and took her to sit on the porch swing and go to sleep. It took her a while, and about hte time she started to doze off, a storm blew in. Once it started raining, I went to head inside... I had just gotten to the door when the hail started! I put the baby in her bed and checked the weather - no storm warnings. So I called Chad, to see what he was up to - by this time, I couldn't see the back fence or the end of the driveway through the wind and rain...
While I was on the phone, I realized that there was water pouring in the back door. *Pouring* in. The wind was pushing all the rain right into the back of the house... I went upstairs, and water was pouring in both the nursery window, and our bedroom windows. And the power went out! So I was trying to mop everything up in the dark. Thankfully - at least the baby slept.
Eventually, it stopped raining. Which was good, as I had run out of towels. I was so tired, I went to bed without dinner!
Brianna was up every hour overnight, and I was exhausted by Sunday morning... but i had to go to church, and there was a tea for the preacher's wife, and I had all this stuff to do... so I put the dog out in the yard, and got me and the baby both ready for church. I went to let her back in - and she wasn't in the back yard. She was in the front yard. I thought the yard guys had left the gate open... nope. The storm messed up the fence, so now the gate won't shut. Walking around the yard... I saw that the storm had also exploded our shed. The one we replaced after Ike. Note to future self: Rubbermaid sheds are not weather-proof.
I sent Chad a note, and then headed for church (forgot breakfast) - and then started helping set up the tea (whilst holding a fussy baby!). Luckily for me, there was a ton of food (not diet friendly food, but honestly, I didn't care). So the tea went well, and I managed (with help) to keep Brianna entertained. Once we went home, I worked on gettign her to sleep - which eventually worked, lol. I read part of the no-cry sleep solution book, and went to bed myself. Brianna was still up a lot, but not as much...
Monday morning, she was sooooo fussy. I took her to daycare, and they told me they thought she had thrush! I looked in her mouth, and sure enough, there it was. I felt dumb. So I took her to the doctor, and got medicine for both of us. And took her back to daycare. And come home, to work for a while.
When I picked her up from daycare, her teacher handed me a note saying the daycare was closing. On Friday. Well, shit. Friday?! Seriously?! I was on a waiting list for like, 8 weeks to get into this place! How am I going to find another in just a few days?!
So yeah. I'm working from home and looking at daycare places today. It's been so long since I first looked, it's like starting over - but Chad's supposed to come with me to a couple places today. I'm so frustrated, because Brianna just got settled at this place, and now we have to learn a new routine and a new set of people... Blah.
At least Chad's home to deal with the insurance people. I told him he's never ever ever allowed to travel for work again, unless I can go, too, lol.
We now have baby furniture, which is awesome. Chad's parents brought in his old stuff, and I'm very excited about it. Now there's just a few more pieces to buy.
The nursery is painted. Chad and his dad did it. And it looks really nice. And was a great thing for them to do on a rainy day. Except...
The all day rain + cold temps + wind brought out our Ike problems (that they swore were not problems). Now all our back windows leak (we have 11, seriously). Including the one in the nursery, which nicely streaked the brand new paint. So we're dealing with the insurance again, and hopefully they'll be as awesome this time around as they were last time.
I have a serious craving for Reddi-Whip and Kool-ade. Together. Which is disgusting, and I refuse to eat it. But having the two separately isn't fixing it. Maybe Jello and Reddi-Whip would be less disgusting and still satisfy me? Who knows.
There is a very very small possibility that I will see a couple of snowflakes t some point tonight. Chad is skeptical, but I'm a believer :-)
Everything (with the exception of the windows) is still going well. I'm good (except for some sinus trouble that's annoying), the baby's good, everything (besides the aforementioned windows) is good. Which is awesome.
He can settle any sea / But it doesn't mean He will It's amazing how life can be so crazy that you can barely stand it, and are stressing about every little thing... and one more thing happens (like, say, you have to evacuate the city because you're pregnant and they locked the freakin' hospital doors)... and suddenly, for some reason, everything is ok. I mean, everything is on its head, but suddenly I'm ok with it.
So here's what happened. My dad was in the hospital, I was stressing about going home, and then my Granny broke her hip and went into the hospital. I was pretty stressed about everything, and just barely managing to hold it together. About an hour after I heard about my Granny (this was Wednesday night)... They announced the evacuation orders for my county, excluding Pearland itself. After some looking, I found out that our "voluntary" evacuation for Ike meant (among other things) that the hospitals were locking their doors. So, Chad and I decided to leave, with no great idea where we were going to go. I slept that night, drove to my office to grab my computer, and spent the rest of the day trying to help Chad get the house ready to leave. We left about 5pm, after boarding most of the windows, and packing the animals, our photos, and enough clothes to last us through Sunday.
Monitoring the traffic leaving Houston, everything to the north and west was close to gridlocked. So... we headed east down I-10. Other than two pretty serious traffic jams due to accidents (slowing us an hour each time), the traffic wasn't that bad at all. Although it was extremely difficult to find a drive through place that wasn't closed and boarded up.
We started looking for a hotel room in Baton Rouge, which was a lost cause, really. We headed north up I-55, and when we got to Jackson without finding a hotel, we gave up. Chad and I took turns driving and sleeping, and we made it into Southaven about 6am on Friday morning. Crazy stuff.
Friday, we slept a little, ate Abner's, then went to the hospital so that some people Chad's mom works with could give me an ultrasound, which was awesome. They did both 2d and 3d ultrasounds, and got some great pictures of the little one moving about, sucking its thumb, and being difficult by covering its face. It was really cool, and made the trip pretty worthwhile.
Saturday, we got up early and drive to Huntsville, and visited both my Dad and my Granny. We had a good visit, and Daddy seem to be doing a little better. He's walking without a cane, and he was really glad to see us (and the baby). That night, we headed back to Southaven, intending to leave for home in the morning. But once we arrive in Southaven, we discovered that we could not go home. I-10 was blocked in places, and the authorities told us to stay where we were. We knew Pearland was hit kind of hard (friends lost a great deal of their roof), but that our house was at least intact, and not leaking through the roof.
So we sat back and tried to enjoy the "vacation". Each day, we made plans to come home the next day... but between the roads and the authorities, we didn't get to come home until Thursday. I ended up working remotely some, to keep from getting to far behind, but JSC was closed the entire week.
When we got home, we saw first hand how our house fared... we lost our fence (half the neighborhood did as well), and our shed (with the grill and everything in it), and (we discovered later) a little water got in around the windows on the back of the house. This may mean replacing all the windows and the back door, and replacing all or part of the drywall/insulation in the bedroom (and maybe part of the carpet). But overall, we didn't fare too bad. We have power, water, and gas, so we're all good. We even have groceries at the store, finally.
Traffic, however, sucks. My 45 minute commute has morphed into a 2 hour commute. But since that's my biggest complaint, besides finding contractors to fix the house, I can totally survive.
And I'm far less stressed about everything else, and more centered, which makes entirely no logical sense. But I'm enjoying it, while it lasts. :-)
Sometimes He calms the storm With a whispered peace be still He can settle any sea But it doesn't mean He will Sometimes He holds us close And lets the wind and waves go wild Sometimes He calms the storm And other times He calms His child ~Sometimes He Calms the Storm, Scott Krippayne
This is my brain..... in part, at least.
