The Loftis Family

Amelia is at the age where she’s started getting into everything.

This afternoon I left the room for a second to strip the bed in the guest room. I told her to be a good girl…yea right, what was I thinking? I was in the other room for maybe 2 seconds and heard a loud noise and Amelia started shrieking. I came back to find her soaking wet and sitting in a puddle on the kitchen floor…by the water bowl. She’s been told “no, no, that’s Lila’s” so many times, but had to learn the hard way why she shouldn’t play with it. I’m hoping one nose dive into the bowl is all she’ll need.

We do our best to keep power cords far, far away from Amelia as they’re bound for her mouth every time. So, in our endeavor to keep them from her we tuck them under the sofa when she’s out and about crawling. Well, apparently she’s too darn smart for us. She made a bee-line right for them this afternoon.  On to plan B…whatever that is.

She’s keeping us on our toes these days!

A few weeks ago we were visiting our friend Chris at one of his bike shops (Bicycle World & Fitness).  Amelia was playing around and found a bike horn, a Honka Hoota.  It’s a bulb type horn and Chris was kind enough to send it home with us.  It’s her new favorite thing that has to go with us wherever we go.  She chews on it and we hear little squeaks as we travel down the road.

We have discovered that Lila *loves* it too…she sings along with it (make sure your speakers are on).

When preparing for a hurricane you’re supposed to fill your bath tubs and buckets with water in case the water lines are damaged and you need to bathe, flush a toilet, etc.  So, just before Ike hit we filled up a bin or two with water.  Amelia and Lila *helped*…Lila licked the water and Amelia shrieked at it as it touched her hands.

Here are a few pictures.

Here’s a video too…please pardon the dorky mommy talking.

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After the storm hit we went to Home Depot for repair supplies (and thankfully a generator).  You had to wait in line outside of the store and be escorted by an employee to get whatever you needed (no power=no security cameras). Here’s Amelia waiting in line in her snazzy car seat that matches the shopping cart.

Well, we finally got power back on Thursday night, after almost 6 days without street power.

I’ve edited some photos and video from the storm and the days after it… I’ve posted them here as it’s a fairly lengthy set of images and videos.

For those that haven’t heard from us directly…

Ike passed last night. It was windy, it was rainy.

Power went out for good around midnight. Internet went down around 2 AM, and T-Mobile went down at 3-3:30 AM.

As of now… we still have no power or internet. T-Mobile coverage (how I’m posting) is improving, but still fragile.

We’re told that power could be 2-4 weeks… but Centerpoint has had trucks in the neighborhood, and one of their guys very optimistically predicted “1 hour”. (That was 3-4 hours ago.)

We sustained very minor damage. For those watching the webcam, none of the trees fell… but one large branch did break and fall. It missed all houses, but broke a fence board or two.

The only damage to our house was that our DirecTV dish decided it wanted a new view… it’s still up there, hanging by it’s wires. When it pulled out, it left 5 small holes in the roof from the bolts, which allowed some water in. Fortunately, we caught it before substantial amounts of water came in. Life goes on.

As for family… I’ve heard briefly from Tom & Linda, both have reported being fine. Lindsey and Scott are doing fine, lots of damage to their roof, drywall, etc…eek!  Lindsey was in Minnesota and desperately wanted to get home (she got back on Tuesday).  No word on Tom’s boat. Keith & Lindsay are fine and report no damage. Kevin, Melanie, Keira, Ken, Kathy, and the dogs are also fine, but have apparently sustained some roof and interior water damage. I don’t know exactly how bad, but I got the impression it wasn’t too bad. None of us have power, and phone service is extremely un-reliable. We’ve really only been communicating via text messages.

We understand that the national media is going a bit overboard, and have focused on the negatives. While I understand that the coastal communities are devastated, and there’s some nightmarish damage to downtown Houston – the majority of the inland Houston area seems to have fared pretty well. All of our neighbors have been out all day helping each other clean up, having block parties / BBQs, etc. It’s worth noting that a power outage is far more effective than the “national night out.”

That’s all for now. We have some interesting photos and video to share when bandwidth and power permits. Until then, BBQ in Missouri City!

Ok, Ike has officially woken me up.  I am hot.  I can’t sleep when I’m hot.  He’s noisy and I can’t sleep when it’s noisy.  Boo.

This wind is like nothing I’ve ever seen or heard before.  Tonight has most definitely given new meaning to to wind whistling through the trees…or what’s left of them.

We’re doing ok, but the news is saying that we’ll be without power for a minimum of 3-4 days…fun.   We’re praying that one of our parents will still have power and that they’re open to house guests.   If not…Aaron and Colleen…you still up for guests?

We’ll see how things go and we’ll update as we can.  We’re doing just fine and hoping that things don’t get any crazier.

We lost power finally… so the webcam is done, and we may or may not be able to update here anymore.

We’ll keep everyone up to date as soon as we can.

Hello everyone… just wanted to give an update on our status.

As of 9:30 PM, we’re seeing wind gusts of about 40-50 mph, sustained winds of 15-20 mph. Hardly any rain yet, just lots of wind.

As you can see below, the latest projections from the NWS show Ike passing just to our East. We’re expecting peak winds in the Category 1 range, hopefully on the low end of that.

For those that haven’t already been told, while our power and internet hold out, you can watch our backyard – live streaming video. It’s pretty boring, but here you go: Ike Cam

Here’s the latest projection, with our location pointed out by the red marker.

Amelia can

crawl faster than we ever expected

disappear in a moment

find you wherever you are in the house

climb stairs

shriek loudly

rip her bib off…even the ones that pull over her head

chase the kitties

manipulate her parents to get whatever she wants

make a kissing sound

crack herself up for no reason at all

undo her pajamas during the middle of the night (I think we’ve got a little streaker on our hands)

say ba-ba, wa-wa, ma-ma and da-da (she’s been doing those for a while, but she is recently more impressed with her skills and changes her inflection and volume to make sure we’re just as impressed)

say mum-mum and smack her lips when she wants to eat

eat just about anything you put in front of her (if it’s not green) – waffles, chicken nuggets, fruit, etc.

make a bad day a good day or a good day a bad one

make me laugh and make me cry in the same minute

say I love you without saying a word.

We’re staying put while Ike makes an appearance this weekend.  We have plenty of supplies (water, batteries, food, etc.).  We’ll update the blog when we’re able to.

We’re just hoping we don’t go completely crazy being without the wondrous internet when (not really considering it an ‘if’ situation) the power goes out.   We’ll bust out some books (what are those?), board games and I might subject myself to my new found interest in knitting.

We’ll be creative and stay busy.  No you dirty minded people, we won’t be naming any little ones Ike in 9 months!