This is for Katrina :)

Believe it or not, I'm here - barely!!! It's been a rough few days, but since Katrina is demanding another chaotic adventure, I thought I'd take a break from cleaning & laundry to share with you all the goings on around here...

My family can be counted as 5 of the 2 million estimated evacuees of Greater Houston, thanks in whole to Hurricane Rita. We left, not out of fear for our lives & well-being, but because of the knowledge that we would most certainly lose power. The thought of being at home, in whatever weather might be upon us, with no power was one that I shuttered to think about. So, that being said, we decided to pack up everything we could stuff into our Caravan and were off. Well, sort of! Me & all 3 kids were off on Wednesday night, while hubby stayed behind to tie up a few loose ends before joining us in Austin on Thursday. Little did we know what havoc that decision would bring us!!!

All was well, for the most part, during my drive West toward the capital of our state, Austin. The usually smooth drive was a bit rougher than it normally would have been since the typically 2 1/2 hour drive stretched to a whopping 5 1/2 hours! Of course, I knew full-well that there would be more cars on the road than usual because the highway I had to travel was one of several evacuation routes, but it never crossed my mind that the backed-up traffic would begin only 5 short miles from my house! It took more than 2 hours for me to get out of Houston. And, bear in mind, that I was traveling with all 3 kiddos - by myself! No one but me to listen to their fussing, to answer the 'are we there yets?' that were asked at every 10 minute interval, and to eventually pull-over on the shoulder of the now packed freeway to feed and cuddle the baby. (Earlier that day, his 1st birthday, we had to make a trip to the doctor because he had a fever and croup (a common ailment amongst my kiddos); by the time we were seen, the croup had subsided, but I was then informed that my precious little man had a flaming ear infection!). After spending about 15 minutes dosing him with Motrin to help with the burning fever and probable pain he was in, and then attempting to give him a bottle which he refused to drink, I buckled him back into his seat and endured 45 minutes of screaming & crying. My heart ached to hold him; my head ached too, not to mention that, at this point, my nerves were shot! After 2 1/2 hours, I was ready to scream, but it was at that very moment that the traffic suddenly disappeared (only temporarily) and for the first time all night, my speedometer hit 55 MPH. Yea!!! I was finally moving, even if only temporarily. To cut through all of the stop & go that I went through, I'll just tell you that I finally made it to my dad's front door step, ready to collapse.

Thursday rolled around and excitement was in the air. Daddy (hubby) was going to be making his trip to Austin so that we could all be together. I called the house around 9AM to tell him that I'd forgotten something, but he didn't answer, so I decided to call his cell phone, knowing that he'd probably be enroute to one of his customer's offices for some last minute work. When he answered, he immediately informed me that he was sitting in traffic, and had been for an hour - only 10 minutes from home, normally! Since his usual drive is about 30 minutes, I knew that his day was not going to be a good one! Because the traffic was already a mess, the thought of his sitting in more of it to get to us was not a pleasant one, specifically because he only had 1/2 a tank of gas and all of the gas stations he was driving past were either closed because they too had run out of gas, or there were 50+ cars waiting in lines that wrapped around the parking lots like a snake. Hmmm...do I beg him to make the drive so that I know he'll be safe with us, or do I tell him not to worry about it, hunker down, and pray? Think...think...think... Well, I did what any other wife & mommy would do, I told him that he absolutely had to make the drive to Austin, no matter what. After all, Alex kept asking where daddy was and his fear of what the hurricane might bring to our house was almost too much for him to bear. So after a bit of an argument with hubby, he agreed that he'd get on the road as soon as he could, but he first had to deal with this customer.

Skipping ahead again...

He finally called me to say that he was leaving around 3:30 or so, but that he didn't anticipate getting to Austin anytime soon because of all of the last-minute evacuees. The roads only seemed to be getting worse, so with every passing minute, his time on the road would grow. We quickly said our good-byes and I love you's then hung up. His last words to me were "I hope I don't run out of gas!". Yes, that was the last thing I heard from his mouth for about 3 hours. We instant messaged back & forth a few times to each other's cell phones - me checking on his progress, him stating the obvious, that he was still stuck and hadn't gone but a few miles (literrally) since our last message - but each time I asked about gas, his message back was the same - no gas stations open, tank getting lower. Well, you can imagine my fear at this point! I could only picture him puttering to the shoulder of the freeway, in the middle of no-where, as his gas tank gave it's last drop of fuel to the engine. My prayer life grew that night!!! Back & forth we messaged for another 9 hours, until I got another message that I really didn't want...'still no gas, battery on phone getting low". Now that's exactly what I wanted to hear at 12 midnight! Now he was going to putter to the shoulder, in the middle of no-where, with no gas and no phone! Now I was really praying, as well as checking with my dad to see if he had any gas cans we could fill up and use in the event this became a search & rescue mission. Thankfully he did and was sitting (or laying, rather) on go! It was, after all, midnight. Oh yes! Forgot to mention that Michael also said he didn't know where he was, and also had nothing to drink since he never imagined being in the car for 9 hours and counting... So, at this point, trying to get any sleep at all on my dad's love-seat sofa in his living room was totally pointless. I was a nervous wreck! All I could do was to pray, so I did that as best as I could, for as long as I had to!

Then, 2 hours later, I got the phone call I'd been waiting for all night - he'd finally found a gas station and was the 4th car in line for the pump. Hallelujah! Now all he had to do was to putter up to the pump, filler up, and hit the road again :) Wahoo!!! Let me just cut to the chase to tell you that according to him, once he left the gas station and got through Giddings, the road opened up and he drove like he was on the autobon! He said that other than the few slow cars that he flew passed on the right lane, left lane, or, yes, shoulder, it took him about an hour to finally reach me...I mean us! Let me just say that 11 hours & 20 minutes after he left our house in Houston, I met him at the curb with a big hug and kiss. I'd never been so happy to see him!!! And, I had never been so relieved to see him!

After spending a few wonderful days with my dad & his wife, going to the lake with them & the kids, and taking the kiddos to the Austin Children's Museum, we decided on Sunday night that it was time to head home. We were all a bit sleep deprived and anxious to see our home & beds. We had no idea what the roads would be like heading home, but figured we'd have to tackle them eventually! My biggest concern was whether or not the power had been turned back on, but we decided that we'd deal with that if needed. When we arrived home exactly 2 hours 45 minutes after leaving my dad's house, we were very happy to see that power was indeed turned back on, and that the only damage we had was too many pine needles & leaves. Yea!!! We were finally home again :)

It's still taking us some time to recuperate from our trip, but we're slowly getting back on schedule. Alex will be starting back to school tomorrow, so we'll definitely be back to 'normal' around here - or whatever 'normal' is for us!