Hurrican Ike and Teenagers

Well my friends, life has gotten a bit busier in the past couple of days. I got a call from my stepmom late Wednesday afternoon saying that they thought that the hurricane would be headed that way. My parents live in a little suburb of Houston called, Seabrook and their house is less than a mile from Galveston Bay. I offered to come and get my siblings (ages 11 - 19) and have them come and stay at my house until the storm passes.

My stepmom thought that would be a great idea and I planned to drive down there Thursday morning to get them. By Thursday morning they were under a mandatory evacuation and my little brother decided that he wanted to make the drive here with my other siblings. Both of my parents work at a hospital and their hospital was being evacuated and they weren't allowed to leave the hospital until the last patient had been evacuated.

My siblings got here Thursday afternoon and I'm glad they came. My parents evacuated early Friday morning to my Uncle's house in north Houston and saw the water coming before they left the house.

I talked to my stepmom this morning and she was, understandably, completely overwhelmed. They don't have power and the roads are blocked off by down power lines. They have a generator that gave them power for a little while, but that was dying when I talked to her last. They heard on the news that all of the roads leading to their house were submerged under water, which left her feeling hopeless about the state of their house.

So, I am now caring for 8 kids, ages 1-19. Other than the fact that the teenagers are eating us out of house and I may have to take a second mortgage to afford groceries, we are having fun! My kids are getting lots of attention and I am getting some help around here. Here are a few observations I have about teenagers:

• They eat A LOT!!
• They are on the computer A LOT!!
• They must have really good muscles in their fingers because they use them to text , A LOT!!

While our house isn't big enough for 8 kids we are all making it work and enjoying the time together. Please send some prayers down to Houston and all those that are affected by Hurricane Ike.

I'll try to blog an update when I get one, but remember my computer time is being taken over by teenagers, so I may not be blogging as frequently as usual.