The Best Thing Since Sliced Bread......

Unpacking our Generator

Well, today is Day Number 3 without power. Life here in Houston is still not back to "normal" but we are getting use to the new "normal".... flash light trips to the restroom, cold showers, eating dinner on the "fine" china (paper plates and plastic silverware) and hanging out in the garage where it's cooler.

But Good news, we got our own generator this afternoon, and only had to wait in line for just over an hour for gas. Not to bad for a days work !!!!

Greg and our neighbor Mark started working on the fence in the back yard today, as well as cleaning up the mess that Ike left behind. We're still having to walk the dogs on their leases (which they are not liking very much)

I spent most of the day at Panera - cleaning up the mess there. Going in this morning we found our carpets to be completly covered in mold. So on top of everything else, we had to pull up the carpet. We inventoried the coolers and freezer, and then threw everything out. What a project that was. We're going to open in the morning w/ a limited menu until our delivery truck arrives sometime mid morning. Below are just a few pictures of life as we know it now here in Texas.


The "new" stove

The "Remodeled" Dining Room
Our flowers out front survived the storm

Okay- it's 11:25pm- We've had our generator for about 5 1/2 hours, and guess what.... we just got power back on at the house.... crazy how that works. Hopefully the power will remain on from this point. We've got friends who had power the other day and then lost it again several hours later. Needless to say it's a great feeling to have power back.

Sunday's Update

Just a quick update regarding our progress in recovering from the storm. We still do not have power. Tonight 2 streets up from us got power back on, so we're hopeing tomorrow will be our luckily day.

We adventured out this afternoon to check out the condition of my Cafe. I have 3 cracked windows and one shattered. Water damage to the carpet and several other pools of water through out the rest of the cafe. We're going in tomorrow morning to clean out the freezer and coolers. We did have power there, so we're hoping to receive our deliveries on Tuesday and open back up on Wednesday.

Our neighbor shared with us, that the city of Friendswood was going to be shutting off water tonight in order to rebuild the pressure. If that's the case, we're hoping it's only for a few hours, although we still have all the water we gathered on Friday.

Greg has several guys from work who lost their homes completly, one said there are 2 houses on his street missing altogether. A friend from church, apparently lost her roof totally and her house in water damaged beyond repair. It's crazy what mother nature can do.

The battery on the computer is about to go out. We'll post some pictures tomorrow.
Hope everyone is doing well, especially those of you who are in the Houston area.

Love,
T and G

It's 9:45pm the night after Hurricane Ike riped through the Galveston / Houston area. We spent most of the day cleaning up our front yard of all the tree limbs that broke off. We were exteremly lucky compared to most people on our street. Several houses have trees through their roofs, shattered windows, and flooding.

Our neighbor came home this afternoon and was nice enough to share his generator with us. So tonight we have a fan and refrigerator as well as the TV. Amazing to look at the damage all over for the first time. We knew it was bad, but had no idea just had bad it really got last night.

News casts are predicting 1-2 weeks to regain power to most of the Houston area. One thing that we didn't mention yesterday was about Greg's employment opportuntity he is about to embark on. Starting this next week, he will report to the Kansas City, KS Hobart Branch, where he will begin to take charge and get things heading in the right direction. His assignment will take him there every week until the first of the year, where his performace will be evaluated and hopefully the branch will be granted to him and we'll be able to move up there. Right now he is scheduled to fly out Tuesday morning, if we have power by then. I have a conference call at 10:00 am tomorrow morning regarding the condition of all the Panera Bread's here in Houston and what is expected on reopening.

We have alot of cleaning up and repair work to tackle over the next few days, but we'll keep you all informed of our progress.

The Morning After..... Ike

I'm happy to say we survived the long night with very little drama. But was quit a shock this morning once daylight broke. Here a few pictures of our yard. We just took down one board off the patio and put the screen back in, so at least we have some air movement and little light. We just heard that the power companies wouldn't be making any attempts until at least Monday. So we're in for a few long days.

Hurrican Ike - Update #5

It is now 6 am and the eye of Hurrican Ike has passed over us. As you can see in the picture above, we are dealing with the remaining bands of rain and wind. Since the last update a lot of things have happened here at the Garvey house. Tina and I have been very vigilant in what has been going on around us and also maintaining our sanity. The fences that line the back of the yard and the one to the right have both falling down completely. Both the front and back yard are littered with larger than normal size tree limbs. We have checked outside several times for possible flooding and the only thing that we are able to see is the roadway is filled, but that happens with normal ran so we aren't worried about that. The back yard is swamp and that is also normal as well. Draining is a big problem in Texas as you will see evidence of in the coming news cast regarding Hurricane Ike. The furbabies are doing amazingly well and have been resting peacefully most of the night. We will get some pictures posted later on this morning, once we have day light.

G & T

Ike-#4

It's 1:40am the eye has just hit Galveston. Not sure of the damage, or really what's going on outside our yard. We are still fine, we managed to get a few hours of sleep alittle while ago. The dogs are being so good tonight, probably scared to death. Greg, just stuck his head out the front door. The neighbors front yard tree just went down in the street. Luckily ours are still standing. Just a couple more hours of this hopefully.

Lots of rain, but nothing is building up in the streets or our yard.

Keep praying,
T and G

Ike-Update #3

It's now 8:05pm on Friday night. We lost power about 20 minutes ago. ( thank goodness for wireless cards and internet- probably won't have access to much longer)

The wind is really whipping. Last report it was about 30 miles an hour here in Friendswood. Still no rain though. Which is really good. When we went out for our walk about 5:00pm the Bayou across the street still had no water in it as well. Another good sign.

This will be the last update for the evening, we'll touch base with everyone first thing in the morning if possible.

T and G

Ike- Update #2

It's 5:00pm now. The weather here in Friendswood is pretty windy with just a few sprinkles here and there.

Galveston on the other hand is already having trouble with the storm surge going over the seawall and causing flooding along the main streets. They have shut off water supplies to the island until the storm clears at some point tomorrow.

We took the dogs for an afternoon stroll in the park just a few minutes ago, to let them run off some built up energy. We were surprised that we weren't the only ones at the park doing the same thing.

So far so good here at the Garvey House. I'll try to post again around 8:00 pm unless things worsen before then. Love T and G

Hurricane Ike- Update #1

The "Garvey Cave" is ready !!!!!

Well we've boarded up the house and prepared for this monster storm that is upon us. We have decided to ride the storm out at the house. There are several families on our street also doing the same, so we feel pretty safe at this point. It's strange to be inside, with no means of seeing anything outside. We ran to the store this morning and it felt like Christmas Day with Plywood everywhere. Not to much traffic in the neighborhood, just a very peaceful calm before the storm. After 5 1/2 years, this is our "first" and hopefully last official hurricane.

I took some pictures this morning as we were preparing. My plan is to take more pictures and make several updates as the afternoon and evening roll in.

Before the boarding process

The final remodel

The back yard- is ready for Ike !!!

Sierra loving the cooler weather and clueless to what's to come

It's now 1:45pm and the wind is starting to blow a little stronger, and we have just felt the first sprinkles of the storm. Much of Galveston is already flooding due to the storm surge. I think we're in for a long night and morning. Keep us in your prayers !!! love Greg and Tina

Greg's Birthday Weekend !!!!

Friday was Greg's 35th Birthday !!! Above is a picture taken at dinner. We went to IchiBons Japanese Steak House with some friends. Thanks to Tom, Martha, Jenny, Mike,Tiffany and Jared for joining us. Then we invited everyone over to the house for Cake and Ice Cream. And of course gifts. We had a great time, and we hope you all did to.

Saturday was just as busy for us. The "girls" Shelby and Sierra had appointments at the beauty salon in the morning. And we were blessed with an afternoon of no dogs..... Below is a picture of Sierra showing off her latest fashion accessory ( ready for the move North) and Shelby all tuckered out from the salon.

Then on Sunday- We went Deep Sea Fishing. The adventure began very early on Sunday morning. We had to be in Galveston at 6:15am to check in and board the boat. It was rather chilly, but it felt really good. The boat left the harbor at 7:00am on a trek out into the Gulf somewhere between 40-60 miles. Our first stop was right beside a huge oil rig, where we saw a little activity from the fish, but not much. Then we headed out another hour or so, to another location where the fish were much more willing to take the bait. ( in my case, they just took the bait and left me with an empty hook) I only caught one "little" fish, which we threw back. Greg had a little better luck, with several angel fish, a few red snapper( which we had to throw back, because they were out of season) and then assisted in a hammer head shark catch. The lady next to him, hooked it, but his line was wrapped around it's head several times. At the end of the fishing time, Greg was given the shark. Yummy !!!! Below are a few pictures from the trip.

Sunrise on the Gulf

Leaving the Harbor in Galveston

An Oil Rig, that we fished next too

My one and only "little" catch of the day
Greg and his first Angel Fish

This week, Greg is back in Kansas City helping out the branch up there. Still no word on our possible move, hopefully we'll hear something this week. I'm on vacation this week, and get to spend the entire week home with the "furbabies" and preparing for a possible hurricane this weekend. As of this evening- they have Ike, heading right for Houston at a possible Cat 3 or 4. If that's the case we will pack up on Friday afternoon and head to Dallas to stay with a friend. If it's just a Cat 1 or 2 we'll board up and hunker down. We'll keep you all posted with our plans for the storm. It's still pretty early in the week, and anything is possible at this point.

HAPPY 35TH BIRTHDAY GREG !!!!

This is Greg when he was 2 days old.

Well, today Greg turns the big 35. I thought it would be fun to take you all back a few years to the year of 1973. I did some internet surfing this week, and found some fun little facts dating all the way back 35 years.....

The average new house cost $32.500, and the average aparment rental was going for $175.00. Gas was $.40 a gallon ( those were the "Good ol' days) and you could buy a brand new AMC Javelin for $2,900.

The Sears Tower opened it's doors in 1973. ( A little Chicago trivia) And the big screen was graced with American Graffiit and Live and Let Die, Stevie Wonder and ABBA were topping the charts as well. That must be why we were singing to the Sound Track of Mama Mia a couple of weeks ago. And families spent their evenings watching The Waltons and MASH.

This was Greg's first train set, and his favorite picture

Greg's Football picture from High School

I believe this was the first "real"picture taken of us when we first starting dating-2001

We've got a busy weekend ahead of us. (thankful I start vacation at 2:00pm today) We are going out to dinner to celebrate the big day with some friends, and then back to our house for "cake and ice cream" and then on Sunday we're going Deepsea Fishing. So keep checking back this weekend for more fun birthday pictures. I hope this finds you all well, and you enjoyed the trip down memory lane. Happy Birthday Greg- I LOVE YOU-

Love, Tina and the Furbabies

Survived Gustav

Greetings Everyone:

Hurricane Gustav, has come and gone. And he didn't even hit Houston with one little Rain drop. Which is a good thing. We got lucky yet again. Let's just hope the next 6 storms that are brewing out in the ocean will stay clear of us as well.

We still have no news on Kansas, we thought for sure, Greg would've heard something last week while he was in Dallas. Greg's next trip will be on September 15, to Troy, Ohio for the week.

Other than that nothing really new and exciting here in the South. I will be on vacation this next week, and we will be celebrating Greg's 35th Birthday on Friday !!!! So I will have pictures to post this weekend. ( I promise)

Happy Birthday MOM- I hope you had a great day !!!!