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I’ve been staying mainly in my own neighborhood post-Ike, just working away on different projects I’m in the middle of. On Saturday, I went to Discovery Green for a bridal portrait session. Driving towards downtown Houston, I passed the McDonald’s at I-45 and N. Main with the ratty, wind-ravaged sign. Seeing the Chase building downtown was just weird. Matter of fact, we had to plan our shoot around places that I knew would be all cleaned up after the storm, since there are still piles of debris everywhere around the city.

Strange to think it has only been a few weeks, and most of the nation has moved on to bigger and more pressing issues (how is your 401k doing?), and Ike is a distant memory for almost everyone. But not here. Although we’ve only had power back on for 10 days now, and already I’m taking it for granted again.

Photo credit: Thanks, Ike Originally uploaded by cortneymartin82.

We got our power back last Friday after 14 days of it being off post-Ike. Fourteen freakin’ days! Thank goodness my parents had power (and internet! Bonus!) and were wonderful and let us come and stay there. We had plans for Friday night for my birthday, which was on Saturday. I had a wedding on Saturday with the birthday bride, Erika – it was her birthday too! So we waited until Sunday to pack up and come home.

Only to discover that my blog was broken. I couldn’t log in to post.

Fortunately, my fabulous hosts figured out that it was a Plugin gone crazy, so Mike fixed it for me last night by removing the plugins so we could figure out which one was causing the hangup. It is working again now! YEAH!

So I’m home, catching up on work and email, and doing well. How are you?

Uhm, oops.

We drove back from New Orleans and thanks to no internet at my parent’s house, I didn’t come and update the blog. Sorry about that!

– Our house is fine. Some tree limbs down in the yard – not on the house – and lots of debris around. Otherwise, all is ok.
– However, our house is still without power, and we’re not expecting to get power back until this weekend. Today is day 12 with no power at our house.
– That means we’ve been staying at my parent’s house. Because I sort of like having power. And air conditioning. And the internet.
– My parents didn’t have internet for the first half of a day that we were here – but it is back now.
– Speaking of my parents, their house is also fine. They had a tree that hit their house (damaging shingles, but nothing more major), so it was removed the other day so that it didn’t actually fall on their house. A big oak tree — anyone need some wood?

We’re all doing well. It all could have been so much worse — and I have friends who do have it worse than we do. I’m thankful for how lucky we were. Sure, no power is inconvenient, and I miss sleeping in my own bed, but in the grand scheme of things it is not a big deal. Plus my mom is the hostess with the mostest – we are overwhelmed with my parents’ awesomeness!

Just a quick note from New Orleans — I haven’t been in Houston since the Thursday before Ike hit. My family & home are fine. Mike was in the Netherlands (aka The Holland) for work, and was due to return on Sunday to Houston – the day after Hurricane Ike hit. His flight was cancelled, and since I was already in New Iberia, Louisiana for a wedding, I suggested that he fly to New Orleans instead and I would meet up with him here. Jason was in Houston with my parents throughout the storm, but they had power back by Sunday night, and phone service back by Tuesday. I picked Mike up at the airport on Sunday night, and we stayed in New Orleans through today (Wednesday), and are leaving for Houston as soon as I hit publish on this post.

I’ll update more after I get back to Houston and actually see what it looks like. Meanwhile, we’ve been watching the news with what can best be summed up as stunned disbelief. We’ve always loved Galveston, and I know this has forever changed it from what it once was.