It's funny how quickly we forget our suffering.

Yesterday at 3:35 pm our power was restored after 13 days of being in the dark. Earlier that day I ran up to the grocery store to get our dinner for the evening, cake mix for our dutch oven and ice for the cooler when I noticed that FEMA was handing out ice and it was melting fast. I had the firemen load my car up with about 50 bags of ice to deliver to our neighborhood. We were so appreciative for all the ice. Well, wouldn't our luck be that right after we finish delivering the ice the power comes back on. We didn't know what to think. We were just getting use to living without it. The kids ran around the neighborhood yelling, "we've got power!"



We had already planned to have a hot dog roast party and to make a cake in the dutch oven that night so we decided to go ahead with our plan.

Madelyn with her "boyfriends"

Christopher blowing out his birthday candle on the dutch oven chocolate cake. Singing "Happy Birthday". We don't need power to have a good time.
Christopher with his golf clubs that he got for his birthday. Like father like son...
Christopher at Texas Road House for his birthday dinner.
Yummy!! The big 9!
We brought donuts to school to share with his class at lunch time.

See, even as I am typing I am forgetting that the last few weeks were really difficult at times.

I will NOT miss

the sound of our neighborhood with 85 plus generators running at night but will be grateful for a friend that let us borrow a generator to plug our fan in to cool us down (it's still 95 degrees here..)

the sight of extension cords running throughout my house but will be grateful for the sight of cords running across the road to neighbors to share some power

hanging all clothes out to dry but will be grateful that we could hook up the generator to the washer after an unnamed child decided to poop in his/her pants.

buying ice/food everyday to keep food cold but will be grateful we could buy food

taking a shower in the dark but will be grateful that we had hot water (many do not have water)

But most of all I am grateful that my family and home were unharmed and that we endured this time together but we will still have fun memories of it too.

** This picture is to show the 4 inches we cut off Madelyn's hair a few days before the Hurricane. ***