Stupid Hurricane

Well I've been away from my blog because I've been away from home...what a mess after this stupid hurricane!!

Early last week it looked like Ike was going to head further south, straight for my parents. So we made jokes all week about how grandma and grandpa were coming back to visit. Then the damn thing turned and kept inching closer and closer to Houston. By Wednesday, the panic was starting...In the time it took me to go to the bathroom, Patrick had consulted with my mom and had decided that she would be picking up me and Larkin the next day. The whole thing was just a mess....

So Mom got to Houston about mid-day on Thursday, we packed up, and off Larkin and I went south. Patrick had school all day and then had to work on boarding up the house, getting everything out of the backyard, etc, so he finally made it down there about midnight. We didn't even get a sprinkle or a breeze where we were, but luckily DirectTV had decided to carry a local Houston channel so we could watch everything that was happening.

Patrick headed back on Saturday afternoon once the storm had passed. Starting Thursday, you couldn't get through to any Houston-based cell phones, but thankfully text messaging worked most of the time. The last we heard from any neighbors was at 3am, and that was to say our house was fine, but a tree had gone through one of the other houses. Patrick got back to see that besides some windblown plants in the backyard, we were fine (our neighbors with the tree will be gutting the house and rebuilding, it was pretty bad). Needless to say there was no power, so Larkin and I stayed with my parents.

We continued to live with my parents for an entire week! School was cancelled, so Patrick had no reason to sit there in the dark so he returned to my parents on Monday afternoon. Yesterday morning (Thursday) we came back to Houston because I needed to go back to work. Because we STILL had no power, I had to leave my sweet baby girl behind...and spend my first night (except for those two nights in the NICU) without her. Luckily, "grandma's house" is her "normal" right now, so I wasn't too worried...but I definitely felt like a part of me was missing. Patrick picked me up from work last night and we went to the movies (what else is there to do!), we also went to Target and then headed home to the dark. The cats were happy to see me as I'm sure they were convinced that Patrick had buried me in the backyard. Woke up this morning and I'm back at work. Patrick is picking me up at 3 so that we can make it back to my parents before Larkin has to go to bed. : ) I can't wait to squeeze my little munchkin!!!!

I am now the last person in my lab WITHOUT power (4 more people got power last night), and we didn't even see the utility trucks anywhere near our neighborhood. We'll spend the weekend with my parents, and then figure out what to do on Sunday. We're in the "power restored by Monday" zone, but I'm not very optimistic at this point. I don't want to spend more time away from Larkin, so maybe on Sunday I'll start to think of creative ways around the power issue for her...taking it one day at a time at this point.

Oh, and Lathonya has a new name.... Ka-a...pronounced Kadasha...let's just say we did not make that name up!!! LOL! We'll just call her K for now...LOL! She's doing great, and the flutters have begun...which is really helping me bond with her...plus, the pooch is getting bigger. More pictures on Monday, so if we have power, I'll post the 8w.12w.16w comparison. Can you believe I'm almost 16 weeks!!!

Cross your fingers that we get power this weekend!!!!