Our last couple of weeks and such

Hello all. I know it has been quite some time since we actually updated you all so we will now take the opportunity to do so. If you are really out of the loop (and apparently have no access to TV or internet), you might have missed that Galveston and Houston got hit by Hurricane Ike nearly 2 weeks ago. Tyler watched this storm diligently from the time it was clear out in the Atlantic (especially since we recently evacuated for Gustav) so we were pretty on top of things. So after Tyler and I heard that Ike could bring with him a 15 to 20-foot storm surge to our area, we packed up our most prized possessions and got out of Dodge. We left two nights before Ike actually hit (and at 11:00 pm) so we missed all of the bad traffic on our trip to the Johnson's. For the next week and a half, we enjoyed much time with family and friends as we watched the storm and the aftermath and waited for the power to be restored to our apartment (luckily there was no major damage to our apartment). Here are some pictures we took of Addilyn (because we all know that's really why you're reading) during the trip.

Here Addilyn is enjoying a speech by Barack Obama in a chair that she latched on to (and drug all over the house).

Addilyn has finally gotten over her inability to sleep in our van. Hooray!!
She spent a lot of time hanging out with Daddy. Here Tyler and Addilyn were cuddling on the couch and "napping."
Addilyn looks super cute playing with the toys at Grandma & Grandpa's house (also if you look closely you'll notice that her stitches/scar are healing quite nicely).
This is actually a picture from after we got back to Seabrook. We finally received a package of books Grandma B sent that included this lovely polar bear (which Addilyn hugged like crazy then promptly fell asleep on).
We got back to the Seabrook area on Sunday afternoon and endured 2 sticky, miserable days before our power was turned back on. We had been told it might not be turned on until Thursday or later so we were very pleased to receive early relief from the heat and humidity. Other than getting the stink out of our refrigerator (we've tried/are trying just about everything), our lives have pretty much returned to normal. It will take quite a bit longer for others in our area.

Here is a couple of satellite images of the area we live in. The orange circle indicates our apartment. The red line shows where we were driving in the first video. The blue line is the second video. The green box shows a marina near us, which is where a bunch of our pictures are taken.

New church promotion

As you may or may not know the church we have been frequenting was starting by a core group of people out of southern California. The pastor and most of the worship team as well as a couple of other core people all grew up in So-Cal. The church is nearing its 1/2 year anniversary and is planning a big shindig for the day. They've been promoting it in various ways and their latest is this music video. This is a pretty good representation of the praise and worship time at our church. Tell us what you think about it and if there are things about it you would change to make it a more effective outreach. We gladly accept any "constructive" criticism.

Thanks,

Tyler

Ah politics