Tightening Our Belts

Am I the only one watching our dollar becoming worth less and less? It's terrifying. I remember how much further our dollar used to stretch, but I never really impounded it in my head until gas prices started seriously going up and we had to search for a new car for TD. When I realized that switching out his truck would save us over $100 a month, I couldn't believe it. How ridiculous.
We have been with a major car insurance company since we got married. I have had it since I started driving. My dad works for it and TD started when he graduated from college. When we bought the Honda this spring, I just didn't want to call and add it to our policy. I figured if I had to go through all of that, I would do some shopping. We ended up with Geico. We added the Honda and still save $28 a month!! With adding a car. I didn't bother moving our homeowners because I have heard it's really hard to insure your house down here and TD's company doesn't even write new policies down here, but since we had them in Oregon, they let us continue to be insured by then.
I got our new home owner's policy today and there was a $523 rate increase!!! We have never made a claim, not even dealing with Ike and now this? How ridiculous is that? Then, I got looking at the policy and they said we didn't have a fire department within 10-15 miles of our house....it really pays to check those sort of things. They give you a surcharge for that. I told TD I wanted a refund. I called our agent and she said she was going to have to call corporate to figure it out. That doesn't bode well.
So, I went shopping again. I also went back to Geico to discuss our recent bill and found a way to save more money. Did you know you can take defensive driving courses online and it can reduce your premiums up to 10%? I did not and you can be sure that TD and Moe will follow in my footsteps here shortly, by taking the course. It's 6 hours and $20. Totally worth it.
It just seems like with the way things are going, it can really pay to shop around for various things. Next to go? Our Comcast bundle...I have a feeling, I will be shopping soon. Not to mention, our neighbors with satellite got their cable back when they got their power back.

I LOVE This Time of Year

School starting, sure, but no. Cooler temps...not really. Changing leaves, not here... New TV season!!!!! Yeah! We sat down and watched a new Office, which was hysterically funny. A new ER, which was totally sad. It even got TD sad. I love ER and I am sad that it's going off the air this year. At least I will have 15 years of re-runs to keep me company. TNT is kind enough to air two episodes every day.

I am excited that they brought back Life and Pushing Daisies. TD and I tried very hard not to collect new shows every year. There was one time, early in our marriage, I could tell you what we were watching the entire night, every night, based on the day. But last year, they had tons of new interesting shows and then we all got the shaft....stupid writers.

I am also delighted that we have a DVR. I taped Grey's Anatomy last night and I get to watch it today. TD is a bit more cynical. He says, sure we get a few episodes and then nothing for October. Then a few more episodes and then nothing for weeks. He has a point.

More Pics...

because who doesn't like to see mass destruction?

Or, scary things. If you click on this picture you can see the chainsaw dangling from the tree. We had quite the adventure. The neighbor next door had the pine tree taken out because he said he would've felt VERY guilty had his tree fallen over on our house and he was just sure it was going to. So, he had a crew come over and cut down the tree. It was quite the episode. Buttercup was able to get her Harriet The Spy on. At one point she came running out and said, in one breath, " They got their chainsaw stuck and they can't get it out because the guy is a wimp and now they have to go and get another so they can get the tree down." Plus, check out how high the chainsaw is, they had already cut the top off.

I have a new update on the street. More things are coming out of houses and more stumps are coming out of the ground. I guess people just don't want to take a risk. Fortunately, there should be less of a risk for the rest of the hurricane season. Since the 1850s, only 3 hurricanes have hit Houston after September 24. I like those odds!

Gratitude for No Damage

I have to say, we really lucked out with the Ike damage. Our cul de sac is pretty trashed. A few things that helped us out? Having a 1 story, being on the corner, the first owner taking out the pine trees in our yard....
When we were first telling people we were moving down here, we heard a lot of, oh it's so gross down there, it's always hot and muggy, it's always brown, there's nothing green, etc. I am not sure what part of Houston they were talking about, maybe Katy? But Tomball is pretty similar to the wooded areas in Portland. A lot of the people with severe tree damage would beg to differ on the lack of green and trees. That's what got us here. Several neighbors ended up with tree damage and a LOT of power lines were taken out by trees. One neighborhood, just to the north of us, really got it. It was gated and the entrance was blocked by a tree and the exit had the power line, the tree knocked down, right over it. I hope there was another way in and out for them.
Anyway, we lost power shortly after the storm really started. When everything was finally over, we had a muggy afternoon, so I heard, on Sunday. We missed that by heading out of town. That night there was a pretty serious cold front, for Houston in September. The nights were chilly and the days were amazing. I felt bad praying to have the power restored when it was so nice. We kept the windows open at night and it totally cooled down the house. I wore a sweatshirt (this is me though) when I stood in line at Walmart to get in, at 8am. The wonderful weather continued past Wednesday, when we got the power back on.
Then, I got greedy. It took Comcast (grr in general) another 5 days to get our phone, cable and internet going. Still, I think someone knew our family couldn't take another major trial.

We Interrupt This Ike Recap

So, the girls had school for the first time in forever...seriously. It's been about 11 days, including the weekend. They were making me crazy. Anyway, we were sitting at the dinner table today, discussing their day. I was struck by how cute my girls were, sitting at the table enjoying their pita sandwiches. Then Fiona totally cracked me up. I asked her if they talked about all of the things that had happened to the kids' houses. Fiona said (and I quote), " My friend Ashley's house was seriously damaged. She is living with her grandparents while it's being repaired." Who talks like that? It was really funny. Then she said that her teacher's house was fine, just part of the fence fell over. I said, " Really? Did you tell her that that happened at your house too?" She looks at me and says, " No, she says when her voice is on, ours is off." Totally deadpan. I couldn't help but laugh.

Later, Fiona was kind enough to record a self portrait. Check out the large amount of missing teeth. She also said there are more loose. I might have to start pureeing her food.

Ike's Fun Saturday Night

So, I had called all of my family and assured them we were still living and not having damage problems. That night I slept in the Wii room .... it was too hot and humid to sleep near TD. He's what we call a Hot Body. I put one of those twin mattresses on the floor and opened the window to let the air flow through. In the middle of the night, I was very rudely awakened by the loudest thunderstorm I have ever heard. I was so exhausted, but each crash woke me up and I kept thinking, I am going to have to turn onto my other side because when that window gets shattered, I don't want a face full of glass shards. It was that bad.

On Sunday morning we awoke to rain. Not Ike rain, apparently, but rain. Moe and I got dressed, including some ball caps, and walked through the neighborhood. I wanted to see what had happened around us. A fire engine came roaring down the street and we could smell smoke. Apparently someone was trying to burn their trash? and a neighbor smelled smoke and called 911. I am not sure why or how someone was trying to burn trash....Thank heavens nothing was actually on fire.

We were still without power and the rain wore off, leaving us to the Texas humidity and heat. Being a cold blooded person, the temperature wasn't bothering me, but TD was in despair. He talked me into the magic school bus and out of town. We headed to College Station, home of Texas A&M. The girls got to watch a show...amazing how needy people are of their visual media. Plus we did get to enjoy the a/c in the van. We drove to the George Bush Presidential Library. Being the big nerd I am, I have wanted to go there since we moved here. We tried in November, but got sidetracked by a Civil War reenactment we saw from the side of the road... See I told you I was a nerd.

It was pretty fun. The first President Bush has always been my favorite President. The museum was very informative and interactive. Plus, they asked if we had evacuated from Hurricane Ike and we said, Heck yah! and they paid for us to go in. The girls were pretty impressed with a lot of stuff. Apparently the girls weren't too in awe though. Buttercup tells me that Fiona tried to pick the statue's nose.... seriously? What a dork.
Then we went to Applebees. Unfortunately we didn't get a a table in front of a television. We really wanted to see the pictures of the destruction. One of the televisions was tuned to the news and we could see some of the pictures of Galveston. I would've enjoyed my salad there, had I but known that my ability to obtain vegetables was going to be seriously hampered. Some of the things you don't know you will miss. But this was our Sunday. It was a very unusual Sunday for us, but we managed to make it through Day 2 of the Hurricane Ike aftermath.

Ike Part 1

I am sure it's only part one....this was a long storm. What do I mean was? We are all still feeling the effects. The girls may go to school on Tuesday. We aren't sure if the school has power or not. It's right across from us, but it's entrance is on another street and possible another electric line.

So, Friday, TD and the girls had the day off and we spent it getting ready. We put everything away outside and put the two Hondas in the garage. We left the truck out. We want to sell it and if a large tree had dropped on it, it just would've made our lives easier. I froze our water gallon jugs one by one and then put them in the fridge to make room for another. That worked out really well. It kept the fridge colder than it would've been when the power went out.

I cleaned out the dressers in our closet and put 3 twin mattresses in there. Big closet, huh? TD ran the air conditioner lower than it normally is, to try and save some cold air in the house. I was afraid I wasn't going to be able to sleep all night because I knew it was going to be loud. However, our closet must be really well insulated because I managed to sleep from 10pm-4am and then fell back asleep before 5am. I got up around 7am and went to survey the damage. Of course our fence fell over. Just two sections, but we were pretty sure some of it was coming down. The neighbor's VERY tall pine tree right next to our garage stayed up, thank heavens. We were probably the luckiest in the cul de sac. There were so many downed trees. One guy had a massive crack in his roof, it looked like it was from a earthquake, not a hurricane.

Apparently the power went off just after 2am. We were lucky to have it for so long. I did have some batteries for the girls' radio and we turned it on to see what we could hear. It's amazing how much we rely on actually seeing things. I was so used to radar maps and satellite pictures that I felt very lost. I had to call my mom and ask her to look up where the hurricane actually was, so that I would know when it was gone. It rained for most of that day.

Oh, for part of my emergency preparedness, I went to the library and picked up the books that were waiting for me. In the last week or so, I have read about 12 books. I don't need TV that much, but I sure miss the internet.

Our block was great. Everyone was out barbecuing the meat from their freezers. I had picked up the stuff for s'mores and I was a big hit with the kids. Our impromptu block party was fun.
This was just Saturday. It was very helpful that the weather stayed relatively not humid and not hot.

Free Wifi

The girls and I are hanging outside of McDonalds because I can use the free wifi right about now. I tried to check my email at the library that was open, yesterday, but the amount of people there was ridiculous. We got power back night before last, but Comcast is still working on everything else. Here's a picture of the clean up efforts on our cul de sac. Click on it to check out some awesome fire wood supplies. Except, it doesn't get that cold here, and apparently if you do have a wood pile, it's just inviting termites....

Still Here

Hey, just a quick post from TD's work computer. We made it through relatively unscathed through the hurricane. A small part of the fence fell down and that was it. Our neighborhood was not so lucky. Several people around us had 100ft tall pine trees come crashing down on their houses. One house in our neighborhood caught fire and someone died in it. We are without power, however, the weather, past Sunday, has been amazing. I don't mind being without power, but I think I am the only one in the house who does. TD has been chomping at the bit for his TV and the girls are home with me, ugh! But we are safe and sound and I will post pictures once I get my power on. Hopefully that will be soon.

Still Waiting

Pippin: It's so quiet.
Gandalf: It's the deep breath before the plunge.
Pippin: I don't want to be in a battle. But waiting on the edge of one I can't escape is even worse.

Okay, so I don't feel so doom and gloom, but this quote keeps coming to mind.
The girls didn't have school today. They were shocked and horrified and I told them to just think of it as a snow day. That made more sense to them.
Moe was supposed to work tonight, but she went in this afternoon until 5pm, when they had to push everyone out and close the store. Apparently Target was the only one still open. You have to know it's bad when Walmart closes on a non holiday at noon.
TD had the day off. He went around nailing down boards on the fence. He's pretty sure we are going to lose the fence. He is also eyeing the neighbor's very tall pine tree. He's convinced it's coming down on our garage or dining room. What a difference between our perspectives. It's all fine and good if he can say, I told you so. I just don't worry about it until it happens, you know? Sufficient unto the day and everything.
I spent the morning cleaning anything that had to be cleaned using electricity. There won't be any foul dishes rotting in the dishwasher. From here on out we are using plastic. Yeah! No dishes for me to do.
So, that's what we are doing. Waiting for the power to go out, basically. The nice thing is that the forecast says Monday night the low will be in the 60's...basically for the first time this summer. We have the pool out back. If the power stays off too long, we will probably drop in on my great aunt in Austin, while TD stays here for work. No rest for people in the insurance business during these times.
I will post when it's over and when I have a chance to get to electricity.

The Soap Opera Continues

And now, we have the new villain, being played by Hurricane Ike. Where will he go, what will he do? Will he bring his gang, including Tommy Tornado, Electric (less) Earl, Walt, the water stealer? Oh, just chills....
Anyway, seriously, the weather doesn't really bother me but the newscasters were freaking the crap out of me last night. They are always so doom and gloom, basically the entire area of Houston will soon resemble the Superdome from New Orleans. It's also scheduled to hit Friday night or Saturday morning. I told the girls, who have been practicing evacuation to Fiona's closet, that they can evacuate to my large walk in closet that evening. Both of their twin mattresses will fit and there aren't any windows there. Since the girls sleep on the opposite side of the house, I didn't want to have to worry about them freaking out. My main concern is losing power because I don't want Fiona to deal without air conditioning and real food for a few weeks.
Stay tuned! Who knows what will happen. I will be spending my day making sure we have everything we need and everything else tied down.

As Our World Turns

I have to laugh when more than one person tells me that my life is so interesting, meaning, so many weird and wild things happen to us all at once, it seems made up. Seriously, I can't make this stuff up. I can present it in soap opera format!
This week TD was tried, convicted and sentenced. He was tried in the ENT's office of snoring too much. I can't say I helped, in fact, my testimony helped convict him. The doc kept nodding empathetically at me, as I relayed fact after fact. No, he doesn't take the medicine he's supposed to regularly, yes he does snore loud enough to be heard through closed doors. He was sentenced to a night or two in a sleep clinic and on the way out, he was already arguing with me for a commutation of sentence. He said he would take his medicine, like he's supposed to, for 10 days and then we would make an appointment for the clinic if he hasn't improved. Well, the sleep clinic has called twice already to schedule an appointment and I have a sneaking suspicion that he left this morning without taking his medicine.
Buttercup was worried that she had strep throat, and then she was worried what it actually was. There was a little kid in her class that came to school with it because his parents won't let him stay home. She said another little kid told her that it felt like blood was in your throat. I worry about the birds and the bees if she buys into these weird ideas so readily.
Fiona was telling her dad that she didn't have any friends and so he worried about it and then asked me. I told him that was ridiculous. I talked to Buttercup about it this morning and she dismissed it too. I told her the idea of Fiona not having friend would be like the sky being...and Buttercup said black instead of blue. That's definitely true. If you don't know Fiona personally, you should know that she makes friends in no time flat with just about anyone, old, young, boy, girl, etc. I gave her a pep talk this morning. I think she just feels left out because she sometimes has to stay in during recess. The heat isn't good for her and she often gets so over hot that she has to go to the nurse's office to cool off.
We named the little boy kitty. I took someone's advice and named him something similarly pretentious to his sister's. He's Duke, but only because we can call him Dukie, as in sample, like that Scrubs episode I told you about earlier. When you pick him up, he often smells....what can I say, it fits.

Highways and Hospitals

Fiona and I had our first non chemo doctor's appointment today. I picked her up from school and started our usual trip and I almost forgot to put Sasha up. Sasha is the name for our Garmin GPS device. Buttercup named it after listening to her for about 2800 miles. Anyway, I realized that I was finally pretty comfortable driving down the interconnecting highways to Texas Children's Hospital. I thought it was quite the trip to drive from our house to Doernbecher's. It was really just hopping onto I-5 for about 5 miles and then driving up Pill Hill. Now, I start going south on HWY 249 and ignore Sasha's advice to stay on it, even when it turns into a regular road with a ton of stoplights. Instead I turn to go east on Sam Houston Tollway. I love toll roads! Pay a buck and speed past the people on what they call the feeder road, that runs parallel to the freeway and has tons of lights on it. Once again, I scoff at the suggestion to go south on I-45 because that is just a parking lot waiting to happen. I do get irritated that Sasha tacks more time on my trip meter because I ignore her suggestion. She doesn't take real time traffic into account. Instead, I turn onto another lovely toll road, Hardy Toll Road, which most of the time is almost entirely deserted. I have no idea why people don't take advantage of this road. I keep left to get onto I-610 west and head over to HWY 59 south. There is a bit of slow down in traffic, always, near the Minute Maid park. I know you have heard of this place, it used to be called Enron.... Then I get onto TX-288 south and wait to get off the freeways. At this point, I could just follow the signs to Texas Medical Center. The trip, on a good day, takes about 45 minutes. One time it took over 90 minutes, that was when I took Sasha's advice and tried to come home on I-45.

Texas Medical Center is truly amazing. According to it's website, there are over 40 institutions in this area. I tried to write a few down while I was going past. MD Anderson takes up several different areas, there are several medical schools, as well as nursing schools. There is Texas Children's, Shriner for kids, Children's Memorial Hermanns, etc. It's really impossible to describe accurately. Suffice it to say, this place could be it's own city.

Fiona had a hard time realizing how much quicker this trip would be. It only took us 3 and a half hours. She did a great time getting poked in the arm. We discussed her new roadmap, how often she would have certain tests. Apparently things like scans and x-rays are up to the provider. She will be having an Echo for her heart every year. That's become one of the main long term side effects. I talked to the doctor quite a bit about that, seeing that I took one of those drugs, quite a bit, for my chemo. Apparently there is nothing you can do to be proactive, not even some good cardio on a regular basis. Of course, that doesn't hurt to keep your heart more healthy. Thank heavens for my Zumba morning.

Rest in Peace Mr. T

At least, I think he's dead. Our poor kitty....he has a regular habit of running off for about 3 days, just enough to scare all of the girls in the family, and then showing back up. He left over 4 weeks ago and about the time he was due to come back, we had a week of pretty good thunderstorms and he just never came back. He was having a drooling problem right before he left, I think he might have wandered off somewhere to die. TD thinks that he just lost his scent back home after the thunderstorms.

I feel so bad either way, if he wandered off to die somewhere alone or if he just lost his way home. The girls are very sad about it too. TD thinks he's a cat and he can survive wherever he finds himself. He's such a scaredy cat, it's hard for me to think of him taking care of himself somewhere.

The problem, now, is that we have already replaced him....I know you are thinking, well you must not have trusted him to come back, huh? Well, I felt sorry for the girls, especially Fiona. We had T for almost the exact time she was taking chemo and then for him to disappear right when she was done. Plus, there are only so many tearful moments I can take from her, she gets pretty pathetic.

TD was cool with us replacing him, he had wanted to do it himself, he just wanted a cat that liked him. So, Moe and I went to an animal shelter and started looking for the most lovey cat we could find.

Meet... well I can't tell you. We haven't quite figured out his name yet. His cage said Spike, but his adoption papers said Tiger, TD said, how about Texas Ranger, which makes Moe want to call him Chuck, as in Norris....but he doesn't really remind me of any of them. He's little, skinny and kind of whiny and needy, but he LOVES TD and he loves being packed around and petted and generally loved. Any suggestions? Then we decided that we didn't want him to be lonesome, so we adopted a little girl, we call her his sister because they were adopted together, plus it's funny when you can say, " stop trying to kill your sister."

This little girl started out being Coal, at the shelter, but Moe named her Monkey because she has a long tail that curves at the end when she walks. TD didn't like that, so I got on a website that listed pet names and we made it through the Cs, and we named her Contessa. She's kind of snotty that way, but we mostly call her Tess. She is SO soft. It's hard to see her coloring through the picture because she's so dark, but she's tortoise shell. black with brown and red highlights. She's less needy, which is good.

Any thoughts on the little boy's name? I like names that have s in them.

Oh and I don't know what we will do if T. comes back home. It's been about 4 weeks, so I don't think that's very likely. I hope he's okay somewhere.