Thursday, September 25, 2008

We Survived Hurricane Ike (and a brief update of our life)

Life has definantly been crazy the last couple of months. For those of you who don't know we have recently moved. Dan has been working in Houston, TX since the end of June for Hydril (a GE oil and gas company). It wasn't a move I was really enthusiastic about making since I loved my house in Tyler and the people there too! I had lived in that house for less than 9 months and it was the house of my dreams for this stage in my life (granite countertops, custom kitchen, all brick fireplace, crown molding - it wasn't very large but it was beautiful). I also wasn't very excited about selling another house and moving again in less than one years time. But alas life sometimes presents (or thrusts upon us) interesting opportunities that must be made the most of. So, in short, Dan moved to Houston, I stayed behind for a month to sell a house, when that became unbearable I moved to Houston too, and the house sold three weeks later. The house closed on Aug. 25th and since that time we are officially homeless (we are living at my parent's in Houston while we determine where and what we want to buy - thank goodness we have family here to help us out). I never want to move again - only problem is that I am not sure I want to live in Houston for the rest of my life. I guess I might have one or two more moves in me, but they will have to be years apart from eachother! On August 30th we flew out to Utah with our whole family to attend Ben's (Dan's brother) wedding and to let Dan's family meet Weston for the first time. I will post pictures and write more about this in another post. Upon coming home I was to begin househunting only to be sidetracked by mother nature. Those of you who have never lived through a Hurricane I do not recommend the experience. We were not in a mandatory evacuation zone so we were told to shelter in place. My dad boarded up their closet window and that is where we slept the night the storm hit. Really the only way to discribe our experience is that it was loud and very windy. Luckily my parent's house came through the storm relatively unscathed but many others were not so lucky. Trees are down everywhere (on houses, fences, power lines and across roadways), lots of flooding occurred, and power was out for a long time (and still is for many people even two weeks later). Really the worst part was living without power for four days after the storm. Luckily the Lord blessed this area with unseasonably cool weather during that time period or it would have been utterly miserable. Dan and my dad braved the aftermath of the storm and immediately started helping ward members get trees of of their houses, tarps over holes in roofs, and unblocking driveways. Dan was having the time of his life. He even got two days off of work because of Ike. Now that things are sort of returning to normal I have begun looking at houses again. Only problem is I am discovering a lack of homes that meet my criteria. All the ones I thought would be cute and in my price range got damaged in the hurricane and have been taken off the market. I can probably get a much bigger house here than my last one but without all the upgrades : ( There just isn't a four bedroom, one story, approximately 2200 square foot home here with all the features my last house had. I wish I could just sit and wait for the perfect house to come on the market but I think my parent's would like their house back to themselves sometime soon. Wish me luck as I search these next couple of weeks!

3 comments:

Leesee Girlyfield said...

Oh, I'm so glad you guys are okay. When I heard about Hurricane Ike, you were the first to come to my mind. I wondered where in Texas you were at every time they talked about it on the news. Good luck on finding a new house. That totally sucks you had to leave your cute new home so soon. It will probably be really nice to be so close to your parents. I'm excited to see what you guys find!

Clark Family said...

Thanks, for sure let us know if you ever come here. I'm so glad everything and everyone is okay. That sounds soo scary to me. I can't imagine going through that with those three little ones. And I can't believe you are moving once again. It is so much work... physically, mentally, and emotionally. You are very brave and strong. Best of luck to you guys. I hope you find an amazing home. Keep us posted!!

Holly Marie said...

that was a cute story about Will. Carson told my mother-in-law the other day that will had passed away. At first I was really worried about what his little mind was thinking, but after talking to him I realized he just had the phrase pass away and moved away mixed up. He asks me about once a week about when Will comes and spends the night this summer. He wants to go to the children's museum and IKEA.

How is the house hunting?