Change of Plans

Hurricane IKE

We now have yet another hurricane on it's way through the Gulf. This one is Hurricane Ike and is expected to make landfall late Friday/Early Saturday morning as a Category 3 (the worst is a Cat 5) with sustained winds of about 125 mph. As of now it's supposed to be just slightly south of the Houston area, which would then put us on the "dirty" side of the storm. So naturally, this will change a few things for us here:I plan on going into work today as this was supposed to be my last week of work. I've rescheduled some Sat clients as I won't be going into work on Saturday given the circumstances and it's not like they will really be able to reschedule with me as I will be on maternity leave as of Friday night (if I go to work on Friday that is Ü )
Kenzi's school will be closed for tomorrow so I guess her official last day of school was yesterday as she'll be home with me while I'm on maternity leave. She has really enjoyed going to her school the 2 days a week while I go to work. She enjoys seeing and playing with all of her friends and has really enjoyed her teachers.

Also, mom was supposed to fly in on Saturday (the day of the storm) to stay for some time to help out with the baby, however Saturday is looking like a HORRIBLE day to fly here so we have since rescheduled her to come a little later.
Speaking of baby, I'm very much hoping that we can hold out and NOT have a baby this weekend! This would be kind of bad timing to go into labor don't you think??


So I guess the next thing is deciding on whether to evacuate or not. As of now this is where we stand: we plan on "hunkering down" here at the house for the storm. We evacuated a few years back for Hurricane Rita and that was because it was supposed to hit as a Cat 5 and no one was really sticking around to witness that action. There has been no mandatory or voluntary evacuations declared for our specific area at this time. We feel pretty prepared with our emergency supplies on hand: water, food, batteries, lights, radio, etc. I am glad that it will hit in the middle of the night in that Jed will be home and we will all be together. We are hoping for the best but expecting the worst. We almost plan on the being without power, we're just hoping not for a very long time. I was given information that if the cell phones are not dialing out or receiving calls you can still use text messaging. Anyone confirm or deny this? I'm hoping that is true.

As of the weather right now it's absolutely beautiful! It's not too hot (but will get hotter as the day progresses) and it's dry...ya know, the perfect weather for the perfect storm! The skies are blue and it seems so peaceful (the calm before the storm at it's finest). It's hard to believe that it's all going to drastically change within 24 hours. They say that we will start to feel the effects of the bands of the storm starting early evening tomorrow with winds at 35 mph. and then for it to progressively get worse from there. So we will see how everything goes. We will know more as the day goes on and as the storm gets closer. We'll try to keep everyone posted on the latest. Until then, say a little prayer :)