Brad Ausmus has left the building

Okay, so those of you who really know me, you know that baseball is my thing. I am trying to get into football because Kyle loves it, but give me a baseball game any day. To go even further, my favorite baseball team is The Astros and favorite player is Brad Ausmus. Well, yesterday was a sad day for me--Brad Ausmus played his last game as an Astro yesterday. I was there, 6 rows back - behind first base. I thought when he gets on base, this will be the closest I have ever come to him and I can see him close up. The man has hit 2 home runs in his career I think, so what does he do yesterday when I have the chance to be so close--he hits a home run. What a way to go out Brad. You will truly be missed and I have really enjoyed watching you play baseball. For those of you who have not had the opportunity to admire this wonderful catcher, below is a picture (but ladies if there is ever a chance--he is mine).

Best looking catcher I know!!!!

Shelter Woods is closed

Okay, I know the storm was 2 weeks ago, but it is still very fresh around here. Here is the latest update. Mom got power Monday and once she verified her water was back up too, she went home that night, one less at the shelter. However, we gained an overnight visitor on Tuesday. Even though my dad had no power, he would still sleep at home. He would come over during the day and in the evening, but it has actually been cool enough he was able to sleep at home. Monday night he said it was getting a bit humid, and Tuesday was going to be worse--so he slept on our couch. His power finally came back on last night. Once we found out Angela was already in bed, so Tricia and Angela went home tonight--the have no cable but they have power. Kamryn does not realize yet that they went home, so the next couple of days should be interesting. Every day this week when I picked her up she would say baby on our way home. So good news--most of us have power. My uncle in Kingwood was still out as of Monday, but I don't know if they have gotten it since. Unfortunately Uncle John and Aunt Kathy (Shelter Hoose) are still out of power. They got a generator over the weekend, but Houston Humidity is no fun without an AC--so hopefully the man upstairs will find a way to get them their power on soon!!!!!

Kamryn & Angela

Kamryn and Angela have really started to get attached to each other. Kamryn will walk around saying baby, then when she sees her, her face just lights up. It is real funny when Angela is asleep then wakes up--Kamryn will jump up, say baby, and then run to the room. Kamryn really likes to help with baby, she sees up rub and pat the baby's back, so she will start to rub her leg if she gets upset. Angela is so funny too, she will start to cry and I am not kidding, all Kamryn has to do is stand in front of her and she will stop. I think once Tricia and Angela go back home, Kamryn and Angela are going to really have a hard time adjusting to being apart. I am attaching some pictures--sorry if there is a lot, but I really couldn't decide.

Kamryn gets a little territorial, no one can sit on dad's lap unless she does too.

Bath time

Just hanging out on Nana's make shift bed.

Kamryn trying to pose with baby.

Kisses!!!!

Don't we look cute in our matching PJ's. Kamryn was also trying to help.

Normal - what is normal

Well, things are getting closer to normal. I am back at work and Kyle will go back to school on Wednesday - he is actually looking forward to going back. I have still been the only one with power; HOWEVER, I believe mom has power now. I called her house and the answering machine picked up, we just don't have verification on water yet. It has been a little cramped at our house lately, but I really hate to complain--we are all alright. It is just you have your space and your way of doing things, and it is hard to adjust sometimes-but I have. Zayne sent me to get a massage yesterday-much needed and was nice. It really has not been that bad. I actually really feel bad for the rest of my family and my friend from work here--we all just want to get back to normalcy. When the storm hit and they said it could be 2-3 weeks before power got back--we all thought "yeah, right". Well, they were right. But again, I will have to say that I can't complain, we may all be a little inconvenienced, but we are alive and with little damage to any of our houses. I already know a few people who have extensive damage to the house, not livable damage. My family is very lucky and blessed, and I am thankful for that--and some day this will be one of those stories we talk about at Thanksgiving and Christmas. Hope everyone out there is well and doing alright!!! I have a lot of cute stories about Kamyrn and Angela and a few picutres--I will post later.

We made it

Well, we are almost completely back to normal. We finally got power last night and then the phone back tonight so finally able to let everyone know we are alright. Here is the "lowdown".

Shelter Hoose: They still have no power, but damage was minimal. We stopped by there and the pool was a little dirty and their fence got knocked down. Haven't inspected roof, but they seem to make it out alright.

Mom's: Still no power or water. She may have gotten some water in roof, not able to investigate too much yet and part of her fence was knocked down.

Shelter Hake: They still have no power and really no damage. A bunch of his neighbors had trees uprooted, but thankfully none hit houses.

GGPa & GG: They are still in Austin, not sure when they are going to get home. They are not real sure about the condition of their house in Clear Lake either. GG"s dad heard from a neighbor and it sounds like his house and probably GG's sister's house is okay--they live in Texas City.

Shelter Woods: Well, let me tell you sitting here with my mom and two kids listening to what sounded like the world coming down around me was not what I want to do again. The terror I had, I texted Zayne and all it said was scared. I really didn't want to worry him too much, but just really needed him. After I got to talk to him the next day, found out that in almost the heart of the storm (about 3 am up) he was out fighting a fire. When they got back the city decided it was too dangerous and they shut down service until it was safer. When it was said and done, the only thing was part of our fence was knocked down and then we found a huge branch on our roof tonight. We were very thankful and lucky, my heart and prayers really go out to everyone else out there. Kyle will go back to school on Thursday, which means so will Kamryn. As for my work, we are out for the rest of the week--maybe longer. Our building has no power and don't know when they will get it back.

Sorry this blog is so long--just seems like so much has happened. I have pictures to post. There are some of our house and then some of what we saw when we drove around. When looking at these pictures, keep in mind we are about 80 miles north of the coast, I can't imagine what some of it looks like down there.

Here are pictures of our backyard.

Here are some pictures of my dad's street:

One of his neighbors' taunting Ike.

Here are some of when we were driving around:

We saw this one on the news, luckily the people weren't home, so no one got hurt.

Last Update for now

Well, it is starting to look like rain here and it is looking really bad down at the shore already, so this will be my last update for awhile. Not that I am "signing off" for good; however, I am shutting down my computer and unplugging it--can't afford to lose it right now. Heard from Shelter Hake and sounds like they are doing fine. Shelter Hoose called a little while ago and they good to go. Shelter Woods has their all the beds set up in the living room and we are ready to ride out the storm together. We will watch it as long as we can. As I am wrapping this up I can hear the winds picking up. Good thing these days, with cell phones if we do lose electricity and land lines, we can still keep in touch with each other.

Cool Picture

Okay, no update; but I saw this picture and i thought it was pretty cool. This is the seawall down at Galveston. Except for the terror this brings, I think the crashing waves are pretty cool. I think that person needs to be heading home though--or he will be on the news soon.

Okay, not a big update, but look at the pretty picture, I wasn't really a big color red fan. So, mom has decided that being alone may not be the best, so she is coming to Shelter Woods; however, she did bring her cat to Shelter Hoose. Yes, there is another shelter I didn't mention, my uncle will be hunkering down at his house. Things are well at Shelter Hake I believe too, but my "very intelligent" father is at work. I am going to call that Lake Hobby. Yes, he works about 40 miles south--closer to Ike. He has assured me that he will be leaving and heading back to Shelter Hake about 11 or 12. Spoke to GG last night, they made it safely to Austin.

Our good ole Anthony Yanez

Ike Update

Okay, well Kyle has no school so neither does Kamryn. My office closed Friday, they actually shut us down at 3 today so our IT department could shut down the servers and do their computer thing to secure our stuff. So, Zayne and I are cleaning up the "torpedoes" tonight and then he will be off to work in the morning. I need to move the computer, I am going to try to move it so it is still accessible, but we will see. If you are in the Gulf Coast Region--stay dry and safe!!!!

Hurricane Ike

Well fellow friends and family-here comes another storm. Not much to update at this point, we are just waiting to see if Kyle's school will be closed. If Kyle's school is closed, then Kamryn's will be and we will all be home!!! This time it will not be as bad as missing work with the last one, the real busy time is over and we are trying to get ahead with the anticipation of not being here. Where will we all be. Right now here is the plan: GG and GGPa are headed to Austin, much to my grandfather's dismay. He was already to stick it out; however, Mayor White had other plans for his zip code. Dad's trip to Dallas has been canceled--I know it would be safer there, but can we remember parking lot Rita a few years ago. So him, Tricia and Angela are going to be at Shelter Hake. Right now mom is going to stay at her house, unless it gets bad, then she will be coming to Shelter Woods. Zayne has to work on Friday, so it will just be me and the kids--but we are troopers and will be fine (working on the "strong for the kids" attitude). I am really not overly freaked, yet, just going to secure what I can tonight and make sure we have the essentials and see what happens. As long as I have electricity and Internet access I will try to keep all you non Gulf Coast family and friends updated. Hey, maybe this storm will bring some weather pictures, we had none last time.

Corn on the Cob

I am a little late with this post, but the pictures are too cute to not post. Labor Day weekend we spent at my grandparents house in Clear Lake. Well actually Kamryn and--Zayne had a cook off in Pasadena (which wasn't far so we spent the day there) and Kyle got to take a trip to St. Louis. Corn on the cob is a good summer veggie and what a way to end the summer with some last corn on the cob. I didn't think Kamryn could eat the corn off the cob, so I scraped some off onto her plate. She looked at everyone else eating the corn off the cob, looked at hers on the plate and then looked at me like I was crazy. So, needless to say Kamryn is able to eat corn on the cob--with a little help.

The Lake

A friend of mine at work has a couple of Jet Ski's, so every summer a group of us from work get together at the lake. We really don't have company picnics, so Ulysses has sort of taken it upon himself to have "company" picnics. We all bring food and spend the day out there - it really is a lot of fun. Below are some pictures of Picnic 2008! Thank you Ulysses!!!!

Kamryn on her first Jet Ski ride

Kamryn actually had more fund hanging out in her own pool.

And lounging in the sun!!

Zayne and Kyle taking the Jet Ski's for a ride.

Kamryn being her adorable self.

Ulysses taking one of the newcomers to the picnic, Beckey for a spin!! Go Beckey!!!