Bracing....

(image from google, modified by me)

I have friends, family, and friends with family all along the northern half of the Texas Gulf Coast. Ike is gaining intensity and headed right for them. It will probably strike in the dead of night Friday. We have some air mattresses and an extra queen bed if anyone needs a place to crash. The hotels are all booked.

We'll be getting rain for the weekend and early next week. I'm going grocery shopping today for bread and non-perishables.

In other news...

We had a freaking BOMB SCARE yesterday!

Some maroon(aka James Earl Faye, I mean if you're gonna be making deadly weapons you need a good strong Texas name don't you?) in our neighborhood apparently had a PIPE BOMB in his apartment! The kids and I were on the driveway waiting for Mark to pick us up to go out for some dinner. Our neighbor across from our driveway came out and was yelling something. There were too many cars passing between us so finally I had to run across to see what she was saying. It had sounded like "bob cat" or something. She told me there was a bomb somewhere at the end of our street and the ATF was on their way to detonate it and we might not want to be standing on our driveway. Soooo, we went back inside and got Mark to pull up to the front of the house. The story was not on the news we watched last night but we did find it in the paper today.

I seriously doubt I'll get any crafting done before the hurricane. Too much to see to, but didn't we just do this? We have park day tomorrow for our homeschool group, that will be a nice distraction.

Oh, remember when I had my little heart attack scare that turned out to be Costochondritis? Well, I had it again last night and have figured out the trigger! My first episode happened while I was cleaning off the entertainment center and watching a show about a very sick baby in a NICU. After reading that Costochondritis can be triggered by emotional events as well as physical, I kinda had a hunch that was part of it. So last night, after the bomb scare, we were watching a show about a lesbian couple who had fertilized eggs implanted and both were pregnant with twins. One of the baby boys was having breathing problems and had to be intubated and ended up with a brain bleed, etc, etc. Anyway, about 10 minutes before the end of the show, I got shortness of breath, flush feeling, heart palpitations and weak feeling. I had to lay down and just could not get it to go away. It was a panic attack!!! Now I truly believe that these attacks are the direct result of me subconciously reliving the time when Ryan was born with lung issues and had to be flown on a helicopter to the NICU at Willis-Knighton in Shreveport. He was there for 5 days and has suffered no lasting effects from his difficulties but apparently I have. Definitely no more NICU shows for me, thanks! Maybe I should swing by the healthfood store for some Rescue Remedy too. hmmm.

Oh yeah, one more thing. We rescued a baby mouse from the pool yesterday. No pictures as it is TINY. This baby could sit on a nickel and wouldn't cover it. We have it in the snake habitat(no snake) and plan to release it after all the rains are gone. It is getting bird seed for meals and a wash cloth to hide under. The kitties are completely enchanted.