I briefly thought about lea ving and heading to Dallas or even flying to Delaware, but, we'd had so many previous hurricane warnings that were not major, that I honestly didn't believe that this one would be any different.  Also, I have a hard time leaving my three babies (4 legged20friends) at home by themselves!  When Katrina hit New Orleans they were not rescuing pets, so, I figured I'd just stay and ride it out.  Luckily, Naima came over to the house to hang out with me and I don't know what I would have done if she had not been there. 

 

The storm didn't hit my part of town until around 2:30/3:00am and that is when the electricty went out.  I didn't go in the closet, bathroom or anywhere I should have been!  I was to busy trying to look out the windows and see what was going on.  I even went outside briefly just to observe and feel it in person!(clearly not a smart move!)  It was like NOTHING I have ever seen or heard before in my life.  It literally sounded like a freight train was going through the neighborhood and you could barely see anything because it was all a complete blurr! The trees were swaying in constant erratic motion while the rain and wind pummeled the area.  After getting over the excitement of it all,  I eventually went back to bed and tried to get some sleep. 

 

Well, that lasted about 30 minutes before I started h earing very strange sounds coming from the top of my house.  I immediately ran into the room and woke up Naima!  I couldn't figure out what the noise was initially but I knew either something was hitting my house or coming off of my house!!!  We ev entually determined that there were shingles flying off my roof after we saw one land on my neighbor's roof.  Now, its about  4:30am and I've kinda gotten used to the noise.  Shingles are still popping off of the roof and I still haven't gotten any sleep.  I figured, I might as well try this sleep thing again.

 

I got back in bed for about 10 minutes before I begin to hear water drip . . . drip . . .  drip . . . dripping from the ceiling into my dining/living room area.  I jump up and run downstairs to grab a bucket and then discover there is actually 3 leaks coming down from the ceiling.  I finally got all the leaks covered and still wanted to try to get some sleep. I was soooo close . . . . . .. drifting off . . . . . .  and SLAM!!!!!  A HUGE section of the ceiling in the living/dining room area comes crashing down.  It was raining smelly and wet yellow insulation EVERYWHERE!!  Needless to say, words cannot explain how I was feeling at that moment!  I did not know whether to scream, cry, or laugh!  All I could do is run downstairs and start moving all my furniture and belongings to another part of the house!!  Interesting thing is the most important items in that room consisted of my barbie doll collection!!! Yes, I am a 34 year old kid that collects barbie dolls and I safely moved all of them to a dry area of my home (no damage was incurred). 

 

To make a long story short!  I made it through the storm unscathed. . .  my home is a work in progress . . and after seeing the devastation that occurred in Galveston, Orange, Bridge City, and all over Houston, I'm truly blessed to be here and have a place to lay my head at night!!!  In some way, it has made my really look at the most important things in life which for me are God, Family, and Friends!!!   Thank you to Naima and all of you who checked on me and prayed for me over the past month!  I love you and have faith that all will be taken care of in time.