Harvey in Review: The Actual Hurricane

#1 - PRAISE GOD, WE ARE 100% FINE! Our home completely survived Hurricane Harvey & esp. the aftermath flooding, as the two reservoirs by our house had (& are still having) controlled releases, flooding even more neighborhoods, so the dams don't break. Those releases are causing the most lasting damage - the water will not recede for weeks.

I've sat down to starting writing at least once or twice a day for the last week, but every time I start, there's a new update, a new request for help needed, and after those are addressed, I just need to disconnect instead of spending an extra second online. It's overwhelming to explain what we've been through, as a community... so I'm going to go back & share my FB status updates:

We *did* get through the first 7 days of school. First day of 8th & 6th grades:

I don't think I've EVER felt more *peace* on the first day of school in their lives. I love that they're together in junior high. It feels sooooo easy for us, since this is Will's 3rd year there - we know the ropes b/c of him. Annelise's favorite, so far, is choir. Will...well, let's just say that he finds Harvey's silver lining in our extended days off. *eye roll*

•Thursday, August 24th: My feed is full of friends freaking out over the empty shelves where bread and cases of bottled water used to be at Kroger. I *told* y'all Kroger was the worst grocery on earth!!! :-D ALWAYS out of what you really want!!! :-P I just bought four cases of water & tons of lovely groceries at Aldi = stress-free, cheaper, in & out fast, no problem! Bring it on, Harvey! :-P #aldirocks #krogersucks #wontsetfootinkroger #hurricaneharvey

•Friday, August 25th: school was canceled. No school + no bad weather, yet = hurricane party!!! The kids tumbled on our friend's AMAZING indoor inflatable tumble track, and the moms baked heavenly bread, juiced, & braided my hair - all incredible creations! :-)

Houston looked for humor: from the local news - "As people prepare for Hurricane Harvey...they're making sure they buy what's important. Not even during emergencies do people want Cowboys coolers. LOL (pic via @AmjadIsmail90 on Twitter)"

(All the Houston Texans coolers were long gone! #jjwattforever )

My major post: THANKS to all our out-of-state friends & fam for worrying about & praying for us!!! Yes, #hurricaneharvey is a Cat 4. No, I'm not the least bit freaked. This won't be a quick, dramatic impact for us like most hurricanes that sweep through - this will be lots of rain, compounding over days & days.

We really shouldn't have wind damage here, and we're very lucky, b/c our neighborhood drains so well! The 3 times that Houston has flooded severely since we've lived here, we haven't had an ounce of trouble at our house. (Those times were "only" 15"-20" of rain, though!) We're prepared with both vehicles gassed, 4 cases of water, tons of food (although I *know* we'll still go out to eat wherever we can, as long as we can, over the next few days!), and I even got extra bubble teas with only agar instead of tapioca, so they last in the fridge, in case they ever have to close. #priorities

•Saturday, August 26th: Last night got intense, but we're in a big break now:

We haven't had much of anything since we got 10" overnight. All daylight today has been barely drizzling, but literally NONSTOP tornado warnings!!! Annelise & I actually went out to lunch and worked out, though. I just kept a close eye on the radar. Who knows when we'll really be homebound, so we wanted out as much as possible!

•Sunday, August 27th: Sunday morning #Harvey update: we're all good!!! We have power, and our yard & our street are totally clear. I was supposed to sing in church this morning, but they *did* cancel at 5:30 AM; so when my alarm went off & I saw those texts, I rolled over and went back to sleep. :-) Catching up on TV & FB to see what's going on. Our bayous in our neighborhood are reaching flood stage now, so things in Katy can totally get worse, but we're so lucky: our section of our neighborhood drains extremely well. We're seriously totally fine!!! Pray for the worse-hit areas that ARE flooded (it's bad in Houston - we live in a western suburb) and those that will be as the rains continue & the river levels rise over the next few days. Yes, we've got several more days of this to go. No, I'm literally not concerned for our house at all. Yes, it's super bad just a short distance away.

Sunday night update: we've been totally fine (just wet :-P) this whole time!!! Unfortunately our streets are starting to no longer drain, as of this evening, and our cul-de-sac is filling up. This has not happened in either one of our other two 20" rain event floods. We're over that, now. We are also stuck in a massive rain band right now, (we got over 6" more in the last few hours,) so there's no chance for anything to drain, but hoping to get a break to let the waters go down a little bit tonight. We still have power, and we are sooooooo much better off than anything on the national news. Still not freaking out!!! (But also not venturing out, again. Went to H-E-B & a short, impromptu bday party right down the road earlier today.)

•Monday, August 28th: Monday midday #Harvey update: still have power, still raining, but our neighborhood section streets are STILL 100% clear!!! I have no idea where all our water is immediately draining, but - PRAISE GOD - it's not staying around our house. We can't get out to go anywhere, though, with how bad the surrounding neighborhood sections seem to be, according to FB. I got nervous for a bit last evening - we went out to a friend's house just a couple miles down the road for a few hours, and by the time we left, we could barely get out of there! Yay, truck:

Even our streets were beginning to pond, too, (from 6-7 PM, we got almost another 6"!) but as soon as it died down, our streets drained completely, again, no problem. Our friends down the road, though, (where we took that video the night before) are now totally flooded in. Katy is huge, but we have friends flooded in all around us - just not *us*. We're sooooo beyond blessed, but it's heartbreaking not to be able to do anything. We remain occupied inside today: JB's working from home (obviously from home, but work doesn't stop), I'm practicing my new PiYo Round 53 to teach, the kids are gaming, Annelise is baking (Lord help - there's not enough PiYo possible to combat this deliciousness!!!), and Annelise & I shopped our beloved annual Lilly Pulitzer After Party Sale online this morning, b/c...what else were we going to do stuck in here? #prayfortexas

Monday afternoon: We're literally stuck on a virtual island, with our high & draining neighborhood section surrounded by flooding less than 2 miles away in every direction around us. We can't get out to volunteer, so my PiYo BFF & I helped how we could: bringing PiYo peace & stress relief to sweet neighbor friends!!! We give you our time lapse hurricane & flood relief flow:

(That's almost *15 MINUTES* of slow flow sped up into 29 seconds!)

•Tuesday, August 29th: My brother posted this on FB...and it was the *PERFECT* levity that morning: "Everyone, please STOP praying for my sister. She's fine but your prayers have made her too strong. The police say their tasers no longer work on her, and without being able to make it to the gym, she's forcing the entire neighborhood to Zumba. Relief efforts have been in vain as she keeps getting stronger. #PrayForKatyNOTSusie" :-P :-D ❤️

My post: Still fine! Still raining, but we still have power, working sewage, & clear neighborhood streets, which is way more than so many around us!!! Praying that the big bayou by our house goes down enough for us to drive over to the biggest local shelter, so we can volunteer some today.

(Spoiler alert: it did! ❤️ This is where the tide turned for me & everything changed... Stay tuned for how!!!)

#katystrong #hoUSton #godblesstexas