Cheese and Pickles: It's What's INSIDE That Counts

Ike's strike at our house was hardly noticeable. We evacuated for a night, to the Nacogdoches Ward building, or as Olivia calls it, "The Beautiful Church.". We got there late Friday night, September 12. We stayed in 1/3 of the cultural hall- we had LOTS of room and it stayed nice and cold. We woke up around 8 am and lost electricity around 8:30 am. So we lounged around the church, listened to the radio and played UNO.

Bryn was able to nap in our room since it stayed cool all day. Olivia and Katherine made friends with an adorable evacuee, named Kayla. She was so sweet to share her new toys. Olivia had brought her Dora doll and that was the ice breaker because Kayla loves Dora too! Kayla was there with her grandparents. I found out that my dad baptized her grandfather in Vidor! (Back in '75 I think.) Cool, huh? Really neat family! We were sad to leave them, but we decided to come home around 4 pm. When we were saying goodbye, Kayla hugged Olivia and gave her some of her one of her brand new Peekaboo Petite dolls and asked her if that would help Olivia remember her. ! So sweet!!! Then she held up her matching Peekaboo Petite doll and said, "Best Friends Forever, right?" as Olivia did the same thing. I love how easy it is for Olivia to make good friends. It certainly made evacuating so much nicer!

I took these pictures with my camera phone. The camera really isn't so bad, it's just that there wasn't very good lighting without electricity.

The sisters from the Nacogdoches Spanish Branch that were there were so prepared! AND they REALLY know how to COOK! They made evacuation food unbelievable!!

We got home around 5 pm or so and guess what! We had power!!!:):):) We were ecstatic- actually, that was an understatement. We expected to have power in a few days, as opposed to the rest of the area, which was expected to take weeks, since we live in the city limits. I found out that we were only without power for a few hours in the city limits. So I quickly called my parents and invited them, and Marianne and Jonathan and Ethan and whoever else wanted to come evacuate to my house! They were so excited and glad to come, which made me feel really good! I had everything unpacked and put away before they came. AND, actually, I prepared for them to come the week before- knowing the hurricane was on it's way and that they would possibly need to evacuate. So I had clean beds for them to come to and my laundry was done, so they had access to the washer/dryer. It worked out great! The Jarrells decided to go to Disney World and took Rachel and Khalil with them. So my parents, Kelly (my lil' sis), Aaliyah and Little Jerry Seinfeld (their dog), along with Jonathan, Marianne and Ethan all came and stayed :) My parents got our bedroom, along with Aaliyah. Jonathan, Marianne and Ethan took the dungeon upstairs (there aren't any windows so it's pitch black all the time, but very secluded, which is nice), Kelly got the couch and Johnny and I camped on an air mattress in the dining room. We were actually quite comfortable and the weather was nice the whole time.

This was Kelly's first visit and first time to see our house. We were so glad that everybody came and we can't wait for the next hurricane-j/k! Thanks for the fun everybody!