Houston's Crazy Weather

Well, last night's storm was not so enjoyable...a little scary! Tornado warnings (which mean circulating areas that will probably make a tornado) from about 4 to 6 pm. Every time the wind picked up we wre searching the skies for funnel clouds! Around that time, the back yard was mostly flooded, but not totally. We had a huge storm a week ago over 2 days. We got as much rain in the afternoon as we did in the last storm. Our little creek that runs through the neighborhood was flooded into the retention ponds. The fountains were barely visible, which means the water level was up at least 5 feet.
At about midnight the lightening started, about one strike per 2 seconds. Then, by 1 am, it was like a strobe light. Every 1/2 to 1 second there was a flash! I've seen those storms off in the distance over the past 2 years, but never had it right over head. It was amazing! Then the rain got harder - it sounded like a huge waterfall outside our house for about 2 and 1/2 hours. We got more rain in the last 24 hours than we did with Hurricane Ike last year. About 12 inches in 24 hours!

Our whole back yard flooded, which is about 1/2 acre. I was worried that our house would get flooded! But, we are ok. Not so for the rest of Houston. Katie didn't have school today due to the flooding. Many parts of town have cops and national guardsmen keeping people from traveling through town. One of Katie's classmates lost her house yesterday because it got struck by lightening! Lost everything! Devastating and sad. Luckily everyone got out ok. The nanny couldn't make it today because the cops and national guard were not letting people out of her neighborhood.

One a brighter note, we rescued a baby bunny Sunday and wow, I can't imagine it would have survived out in the storm if we hadn't found it. I need to get it to the rescue place or release it. It seems to be ok now...had a hurt foot, but it seems to be better now. It's more active than it was Sunday. I can't get it to the rescue place now due to the flooding. Couldn't get it there yesterday due to the tornado warnings. Some how I need to get rid of it!

Beginning the New Year

Well, looking back, it's hard to remember the whole year, which brings me to the point of this post...to make note of the great things that happen to our family in 2009.

As we closed 2008, with lots of sniffles and sneezes, and 80 degrees one day then 50 degrees the next, 2009 has us mostly recovered and ready to finish the "winter" and move into spring as soon as possible.

These past 2 weeks Doug and I took off most of the time to spend with the kids, with a little work here and there. It was probably the most relaxing holiday season we've had since the kids were born, well, maybe ever. With no family around and a virus passing amongst us, we had little time with family or friends. We were fortunate enough to be well on Christmas and had a nice Christmas dinner with our neighbors and the kids had lots of fun playing all evening, almost til midnight.

The kids were thrilled to go see Desperaux and visit the zoo. Doug also took them to the Natural Science museum where the infamous "Lion eating the Zebra leg" display was entertainingly viewed again. The big dinosaur skeletons are impressive, but nothing beats a lion eating a zebra!