Part 1 of the Saga of the Canfields

This was our bedroom...lots of privacy...haha

This was after a MAJOR 3 year old, long day, no nap MELTDOWN!


Dinner cafeteria style

Tate thought this was a slide

FLC the boys enjoying a PSP we borrowed....video games are VERY limited at our house so this was a treat!

This was Casey's bed, which he fell out of once in the middle of the night....he just got back up though as if it never happened
For the soda alone they thought it was worth a hurricane...we do not buy soda
After a very long day!

I finally sat down for the 2 hours that my children have rest time, and blogged the entire time, yesterday. I filled in all the details about the hurricane and life after Ike.....it took the entire time and then.......dun dun dun......I lost the connection as well as my hard work! So I have deceided to change my approach to the blog....to fill you in I will start our mini series...

So here we begin......

Life was going along quite normally, as normal as can be with 4 VERY active boys in a house 1664 sq ft, homeschooling, husband is a basketball coach and me trying to run a photography business out of my home on the side. Anyway, we had our schedule planned as usual, school during the days, working out afternoons, family time in the evenings, 2 photography sessions on Saturday October 13th. But as Saturday moved closer the realization that a hurricane was on its way became a fact, a FACT that it would hit US!

So...what to do........do we stay or do we leave.....? We went back and forth all of Thursday whether we should drive to SA or Austin to stay with family. David and I both wanted to ride out the storm at home. But we had more than ourselves to think about, we have 4 children and their lives as well the lives of their parents to think about. It was decided we would leave the next morning....then we found out Second Baptist, our Church was opening its doors, as it does with any major hurricane, to employees for refuge. That immediately became our best option. We wouldn't have to sit in traffic with 4 boys, did I mention they are active? We wouldn't waste gas in travel, we would be here directly after the storm to check on our house...we would have food provided all while enjoying electricity!!!

So friday evening we packed for the weekend, enough clothes for a few days, just in case, as well as our bedding. We arrrived at the church and it was very organized. They had wristbands for every person, they kept track of all the people staying and even assigned places to sleep. We were sent to the 3rd floor near our sanctuary, it is like a giant hallway. About 75 other people on the same level, but it is so huge it didn't feel like that many people. About 350 people altogether took shelter at Second. Again the Church's size you would not have know there were that many people.

After assigments we had dinner and David had a meeting for several men that were given nightly walk through duty. They were to go in pairs of 3 and check on people as well as potential damage to the church. Then we watched Fox news in our FLC, the church's work out gym, until almost 11:00 when we lost power. But we had a generator so no sweat. LITERALLY....it was still houston after all, we are known for our humidity.....The boys had a great time playing in the gym with some other children, oh I forgot to mention my husband led the playtime...you would have guessed that though I am sure! I was able to work out for a little while during that time as well.

Everyone went to bed about 11:00 knowing it would be a LONG night. But I actually slept....about 2 hours anyway! Whether it was the roaring of the storm outside, David getting up for 2-4 am duty, or OH YEAH the ladies who decided 2-6 am in the morning is a great time to have a conversation at a normal voice level on the floor where others are trying to sleep ...FYI just because the storm is keeping you awake do you need to ruin everyone else's sleep????? AGGHHHHHH Okay now I feel better!

Anyway...during the walk throughs it was discovered the Church received significant damage. The side of town we were in received tough winds. Just about some of the worst for the city. It was later discovered it will be about 9 months before services will be held in the sanctuary.

After a grueling nights sleep, we had our breakfast and were prepared to stay another night since we knew electricity was out in the entire city for who knows how long. We went to see our house about 1:00 in the afternoon and all looked well, at first. Then David opened Tate's room where upon entering the room the door frame dropped water on his head and the floor was soaking wet. The wall had a huge bubble and the ceiling covered in water spots.

Checking the roof we discovered a limb had fallen, from one of our 20 pine trees, and landed on our roof making a huge hole over Tate's room and allowing all the water from the rain to come in.

End of part 1..........TO BE CONTINUED!