Timidity.org

I hope all of my family, friends, and readers enjoy a wonderful Christmas full of love and fun!

IT’S SNOWING!!!!!!!!!

Ah…yes…maybe that’s not such a big deal to some people but keep in mind I live in the Houston, Texas area.  Snow here is like hell freezing over or something along those lines, it’s shocking.  But yes, I kid you not, snow is falling.  Haven’t seen that here ever in the past five and a half years I’ve lived here.  I saw it all the time in Colorado (where we moved here from).

You should have seen the kids at school when I went to pick up my daughter:  They were dancing, screaming, laughing, and everyone was smiling.  It was fantastic, I’ll bet some of them have never seen snow in their lives.

Yep, life is good.

Lookie what I picked up at the store yesterday:

I’m so out of the Harry Potter craze (you know, since the series is over) that I didn’t even know this came out yesterday.  I knew Rowling was writing it, but that’s all.  Anyway, it’s very cute, Rowling illustrated it herself, and all the proceeds from the sale of the book go to charity.

I took some photos last week I wanted to share really quick (I’m trying to blog more so this seemed like a fun way to do it).  Notice how it looks like spring/summer here.  But, trust me, it’s not as warm as it looks…

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I need to blog more…I know.  I just rarely feel like I have anything interesting to say, but I’ll try.  Here’s a quip for today:

I was out driving near my neighborhood today and saw a bunch of Obama/Biden ‘08 signs up.  Note, none of these signs had been at this particular location until today.  Why they are there, I don’t know…unless you have been living under a rock then you know the election is over and signs don’t make any difference anymore.  So I amused myself with thinking that perhaps the person/people who put up the signs thought that maybe today is election day as opposed to last Tuesday.

Speaking of the election and Obama, doesn’t he have a darling family?  His daughters are so cute.  I think pretty much anyone could agree on this point regardless of how you feel about him politically.  Anyway, it’s silly but I’m actually looking forward to seeing young children living in the White House again.

My Birthday was on Thursday and the best thing was my mom was visiting!  That was a great gift…but she wanted to spoil me more so she took me shopping and bought me a new handbag as a Birthday gift.  I really love it so I wanted to share a few photos of it…mostly these are for my sister, I know how much she loves handbags, so I thought she especially might like to see my new one:

This is it!  We found it at Brighton, which is a very fun store.  They gave us bottled water and warm cookies while we browsed, heh.  I was being very picky, I know it, but this bag is just about exactly what I was looking for…not too big, but big enough for my needs.  The front pocket there is for my glasses, I like having a separate pocket for them so they don’t get banged up in the main pocket like before.

I like the little heart details on the outside, this dangling heart is my favorite!

Here’s the main pocket, the inside in lined with this really cute fabric and there are pockets just right for my cell phone and ipod.

One more, the back pocket with organization for my checkbook, credit card (the one, heh), cash, and other misc small stuff.

So that’s my new bag…the nicest, fanciest one I’ve ever owned.  Hope you liked the photos…and thanks again, mom, you’re the best!

Best not to take life too seriously, that’s what I think.  So, a hurricane came.  Well, we’ll get over it soon enough.  In fact, I went to the grocery store today and I saw all the utility trucks out working so hard to get the power back and it made me so thankful for everyone who has come here from all over the country to help.  At the store everyone was so friendly and patient and that made me glad to not be around people who are freaking out over this.  We have been boiling our water for safe drinking and then today they announced the water is safe (on a sign with a smiley face…that made me smile).  Finally, the humor page in today’s Houston Chronicle had some really funny hurricane related humor that I wanted to share…

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When I posted last time we did have power back on…only for it to go out again.  What a let down!  But yesterday, the electricity was back and so far it seems more permanent so I’m hopeful.  On Tuesday we also lost our phone line (which is now also back) so that was when things were starting to get to me.  I didn’t cry once until then and I’m proud to say that even when I did cry it was very brief.  Then I pulled myself together and dealt with it…what else can you do?

There are still lots of problems around here:  long lines for gas (if you can even find it) and low food supplies in the stores are the biggest issues effecting me personally now that the power is back on.  It really is a bad situation, but that said people that I know here are very positive and upbeat.  I know it will get better, it’s just going to take time and patience.

Here’s something that ticked me off though:  Our neighborhood’s water supply comes from a private well and the pump runs off electricity.  For a while we had no water because the power was out, but someone hooked up a generator and the water started working again.  Yay, that was good!  But, I suppose they aren’t totally sure if the water is fit for drinking so they posted a sign at the front of the neighborhood that says “Boil Water”.  Okay…but what if you are being a good Houstonian and staying home like they are asking us to and you didn’t see the sign?  I only just noticed yesterday and I have no idea how long it’s been there.  And yes, we had been drinking the water up to that point!  *shudder*  I suspect the water is fine because none of us are ill or anything but it still kind of churns my stomach.  Personally, for something important like that, I think they should have gone door-to-door to warn everyone in the neighborhood about the water instead of only relying on their lame sign.  I would have been perfectly willing to help spread the word if they had asked.  *is irritated*

Anyway, I took some photos for anyone who might be interested.  I know you probably see more “exciting” stuff on the TV about Hurrican Ike, but these are my personal observations in my one small corner of Texas (ie. my neighborhood). Read the rest of this entry »

Hurricane Ike has come and gone.  It was wild last night, I really have no other way of describing it.  However, we have very little damage, just a huge mess to clean up outside (photos of what I mean later).  None of our trees fell, which is what I was most worried about.  We have a lot of limbs down though and we think a large one must have fallen and busted the windshield on my 4-Runner.  Other than that, we are perfectly fine.  Power went out at 3:30am this morning and after listening to news reports during the day today on our battery-powered radio we assumed it would be several days at least until it came back on…but…power was just restored about half and hour ago so we feel extremely fortunate.  I just wanted to let anyone who reads my blog and might be concerned that everything is fine!  My family and I are safe and well.  Thanks for your love and support, more on this later…

Just an FYI:  I live in an area of Texas that is currently under threat by hurricane Ike.  I don’t live near the coast, I’m not under an evacuation or anything like that, but the storm is still coming straight at/very close to my location and could possibly cause problems this weekend (it depends on where it actually decides to go, that could change but who knows).  School was canceled tomorrow and also my husband’s work so we are just going hang out and stay out of everyone’s way until it’s over.  I’m expecting loss of power, rain, and probably a lot of wind.  Please hope for us that none of our very large trees get blown down.  It’s a little scary but I’m also optimistic.  Anyway, that’s just a little update on my situation.