Recovery Post Ike

Life post IKE has taken some getting used to. We lose phone and internet at least once a week, we still have just two parks that are safe to play at, but you begin to flow with it and don't even realize your life is odd until you tell the story to an outsider. A few examples...
Playing FEMA: Caroline's class was out on the playground a few weeks ago and I walked past. One little boy was trying to get the others together to play a pretend game. It was not Planet Heroes or even fireman, it was FEMA. " Lets pretend to be FEMA people and we will come rescue Galveston." The other kids thought that was a great idea and pretty soon Galveston was safe from the flood.
Repairs at the eye Dr: I went to my eye doctor last week. Her office was in an area that had several feet of water so I was surprised to hear that she was open in her own office space. When I walked in, the tile guy was placing the tiles in the entryway and my Dr. was painting the hall. I walked around to the back of the building, came in the back door and my Dr met me with paint brush in hand. Her equipment had arrived and was installed in a room without floors and with only half walls, but she was open for business and I got new glasses.
Chapel is cancelled: Caroline's classroom is in the preschool building that had complete restoration after the storm. She has reliable heat and air conditioning. The main school building has heat in some hallways and electricity in all the classrooms we are currently using. The kids over the there just tough it out and wear jackets on cold days. The week before Christmas we had a string of days that were in the 30's. Since the church does not have heat at all, the school cancelled chapel for those days. Many of the kids in Caroline's class did not have warm jackets so they played lots of hallway tag instead of going out to play.

Halloween fun

I have always been a "home made birthday cake, homemade Halloween costume" mom. This year I just couldn't think about costumes during the hurrication. Instead, Caroline and Mimi started looking online and found an adorable Madeline costume (In an old house in Paris covered with vines lived 12 little girls in two straight lines, the littlest one was Madeline). So, I granted a waiver for this year and Mimi ordered it. As Halloween drew closer, we realized that it would not be much fun at home since it was not safe to walk the streets (nails and broken glass everywhere) and there weren't many kids in town to have a party with. So, we went to Port Aransas for the weekend.

Caroline was in a parade at school (this is her teacher) and then we hopped in the car and drove south. We made an appearance at the elementary school carnival where Caroline's PA friends were excited to see her (I called ahead and her teacher spread the word that she would be in town). Then we went to the Smith's neighborhood to trick or treat. Caroline and Tres were very brave as they walked up and down streets filled with scary teenagers ("Miss Amy, is that a real knife sticking out of his head?") and spooky decorations ("We will be safe if we hold hands and go together Tres."). All in all it was a great night and great family fun.

Lime Bowling

Caroline and Tres (Hunter's friend Randy's son) were playing in Port Aransas this past weekend. They helped me pick Key limes from Duncan's "orchard" then noticed some limes on the ground under the tree. They were kicking them around and one rolled down the driveway. They looked at each other and then threw a couple more. Pretty soon they were bowling with their limes and measuring who could roll one the furthest. Who knew limes could be such fun without a crust or tequila?

Bee Suits

We were driving home from dinner on the sea wall when Caroline went into this long story about "Bee suits" and what they are used for and why they have hoods. We let her talk and occasionally answered her questions, all the while wondering where this topic of conversation came from. The next day driving to school we saw some people in full haz-mat gear walking out of a building. Caroline pointed to them and asked where they were finding honey. Perhaps they will find something sweet while helping to restore the island.

Back to Trinity

Caroline started back at Trinity on October 20. Seven of the original 19 kids came back. Their classroom was destroyed in the storm so they moved into the preschool building across the street while repairs continue in the main building. This building also had damage, but they were able to gut it and start over. Her classroom has very few "schooly" things like manipulatives, puzzles and centers, but it has 7 kids and 2 teachers (both Kindergarten teachers are in the room with them) who are excited to be together. They spent the first week back just getting to know one another again and discussing the storm. The topic at lunch usually turns to "Where do you live now?" and "How broken is your house?" It will be a long road back, but we have started the journey.

Thank You Port Aransas

The week we came home from Port Aransas we placed an ad in the local paper thanking all those that had helped us during our "Hurrication." After some deliberation and lots of retakes, we took this picture next to the 1900 Great Storm memorial for the ad. It was comforting during the storm to see this statue behind the reporters.

Life in Port A

Caroline and I settled in to our routine in Port A fairly quickly. Mimi found Caroline a dance class and a Girl Scout troop. After school we would ride bikes in the horseshoe road inside Mimi's neighborhood or play with Chase and Trace- the neighborhood kids.

The Golf Cart

Port Aransas is a tiny town with just a few main streets (and only a couple of stoplights). Georgia and Duncan have a golf cart that they use to drive around town, especially when the grandkids are around. To add more fun to Caroline's days I started driving the golf cart for drop off and pick up at school. When your top speed is 15 miles per hour, it forces you to slow the rest of your life down. There was lots of "rose smelling" when we were in the golf cart. The highlight of the week was going to the Dairy Queen drive through and letting Caroline and a friend order from the back seat and then accept their frozen treat from the window. Of course this was usually followed by golf cart washing.

Tourist Pictures

Caroline is a sucker for wooden cutouts that you can stick your head through. She almost has radar for them. Every shell shop and restaurant in Port A has these and Caroline would almost jump out of her seat telling you to stop so she could stick her head through (you don't even have to take a picture). So, one afternoon we drove around town (in the golf cart of course) and took lots of silly cut out pictures. She even got to "hang ten" with some concrete dolphins.