Before and After Ike

Our power is back!!! Yeah!!! After nine days of darkness, humidity, weird-smelling fridge and silence, except for a crackly radio, we're back in the modern world again. It came on today, which was a surprise, as we had been told it might be another week. Jason and I danced and said woo-hoo! in the driveway. Luckily, half of our neighbors have wimped out and left so I don't think anyone noticed. All in all, it really wasn't that bad for us since we were pretty prepared (we try to be good little Mormons), but it was definitely getting old. Well, here are all of the pictures from the last two weeks before and after Ike.

Mallory and Maya on their way to dance class.


This is so cute, I could pinch myself.

We live 80 miles away from the coast, but Ike was a very wide and powerful guy. Here is some tree damage and flooding in our neighborhood. Luckily, we were spared both as we have well planned water-retention routes and no big trees on our street. Although, we did lose a lot of fence slats.






Above: I was trying to capture the new brick wall in the distance that was smashed by a falling tree.

Here is Max on our crappy trip to Dallas in the middle of all of this. Jason is the IS Director, and somehow that translated into carrying the company's entire server room to their Dallas office so they could continue to operate. I guess Jason didn't want an angry mob storming the building if payroll didn't go through. I should have stayed home, but I thought it would be a nice trip to get away for a couple of days. I'll spare everyone the tedious frustrating details, and leave these two pictures. I drove the two kids home by myself, (a 3+ hr trip) and we needed a mid-way snack. One sucker just wasn't enough. I would have bought him a pony if it could have helped.


See the tounge? His trademark.

First Kill

This is Max's first spike. Besides the net violation, I think he's got it down.

Hmmm. I must have been pretty lousy at taking pictures this week. Yesterday we even went to the Science museum for the first time and I've got nothing! In short, you could have seen Max running up and down the long marble corridor, with his legs pumping at "Dash" speed, and me trying to subtly chase after him. I love the looks that I get from people. One is a pitiful smile that says, "I'm so glad he's not mine." Another is a double feature, starting with wide eyed "There's a minor on the loose in my establishment," followed by bored relief when they see me close at his heels. My personal favorite is from dogs. They seem to be the closest in spirit to Max. When they see him whiz by they'll just about strangle themselves on their leashes trying to follow him and see what's so riveting up ahead. You know, I kept telling Jason that I knew three weiner dogs named Max, but he was very persuasive. I think it was fate. Have you ever seen one of them run? My neighbors, the Blanchards had a weiner dog, Max, and he ran as fast as any greyhound that I've seen.

We had the first cool morning in 4 months. Jason and I stood outside and almost cried in amazement. I've been steeling myself for a summer that lasts until October, but this week has been a blessed 89 degree average. Oh, I can't wait to spend all day at the park where Max can be free to wander within a full perimeter fence. Squirrels and frogs, beware.

Oh, and one more thing. Just in case my blogs become a little sparse, it may because I have an onslaught of piano students this Fall (and one harp student--whoopee!) The last time I counted, I was at 17 total. I meant to have a cap at 15, but I had a hard time saying no to little brothers and sisters of current students that wanted to take from me as well. They're so cute!

Thanks, mom, for committing yourself to 20 lessons a week so that we could all have our own private lessons as kids. Teaching is even better than playing.