yIKEs!

we are back!!
FINALLY, after 2 whole weeks we have power back. and it is lovely, let me tell you!

we weren't back in the stone ages though, my in-laws got power back pretty quickly, so they let us borrow their generator. although constantly getting gas for it gets old, so we didn't run it much. i did at night for a light and a fan, but mr. tough guy refused and slept in the heat. i did it too a few nights, but its not my preference. and of course everything in the fridge went bad, thankfully we got it cleaned out before anything started to smell!

so here's a run down of the past 2 weeks. on thurs (sept 11, i feel bad b/c we forgot about it! we even commented on the flags being at half mast. shame on you ike for overshadowing it!) work closed at noon and we went ahead and started getting the house ready.
brandt got a call saying he would have to report to work at noon on friday, so we went ahead and boarded up.

my sad boarded up house :(

so the next morning we loaded up animals, me, and stuff, and headed to brandt's parents house. from there he went to work, where his shift lasted 23 hours!

so the storm... ugh friday was the longest day ever! we just sat and waited. everything was closed it seemed like. they made it to sonic before it closed, waited over half an hour for our food, and they ran out of buns! so we got our burgers on texas toast (which was delish!) and then we waited and waited!

no better place for patio furniture... it wont blow away!

waiting...

me in a hurricane!!

we went outside during the eye, which lasted about an hour. it was still raining, but not hard. and then the eye passed and it all picked up again! that was crazy, this wind and howling just came out of nowhere and we all ran for the house!

once it all ended we ventured over to my parents. i talked to her about 3am and found out that they had a tree in the house :( so i was in a hurry to get over there!

trying to get down the road

tree on my parent's house!

then we went by our house, our only damage was that we lost our patio roof. but thats easy to deal with!

road to my house, you can't really see thanks to the car 
backing out, but there are trees blocking the street!

sky light!

more pics tomorrow so this doesnt get too long!

the jaws theme in my head keeps getting louder...

so ike is coming! on monday they said that if freeport got a direct hit, that would be the worst senerio for houston... putting us in the full brunt of the 'dirty side.' on my way to work monday i passed this guy on the road and it made me laugh... now, not so much!

his plates are from louisianna, so chances are he's just headed from after running from gustav

well, forward to 3 days later, and he all of the sudden looks like a smart guy! landfall is predicted between freeport and galveston. last night we found several gas stations out of gas, and today the lines at the ones that still have it are crazy long!

when i got to work this morning they were already boarding up. here's the view from my office. it looks like night time! its depressing in here :(

and here's the view from the outside of the shop. pretty ominous!

we still aren't sure if we are boarding up or not. we have wood, since we are going to finish off the attic for storage. 

we did get some screws and hurricane clips though. 

brandt is emergency personel, so he is not allowed to leave. not that we would, we aren't in a flood/surge area. but he will prob be stuck at the station, leaving me home alone. so under well, everyone's orders, i am packing up me and our zoo and heading to the in-laws. so there will be 5 people, 2 kitties, and 7 dogs. ranging from great dane to chihuahua. i'm sure we will be safe, just worried about my hub, hopefully he won't be out in the streets when we get the worst of it!

ill keep everyone posted! stay dry!

our island paradise

well, paradise isn't the right word, but having a kitchen island is nice! we've been thinking about getting one since we moved in. the previous owner had one, and it seemed really handy. 

i was out shopping with my mom and sis at homegood (love that store!!) and just walked up on it! it was perfect!! so we brought it back to my house and set it in there. it took a day or so to get used to having something in the middle of the room, but we like it alot now!

and the best part is, it matches EVERYTHING perfectly!the top and our cherry cabinets are a perfect match:

and the cream/white color of the rest of it matches the doors and trim! (and the current fridge & countertops, although those aren't permanent, we are patiently waiting till we can replace them!!)

so the lesson for me here is, be patient! i tried several times to talk brandt into getting an island that i know wouldn't have matched well just b/c i wanted one. and then i stumbled upon this one, and it looks like it was made for our house!

oooh and a hurricane is coming! exciting? scary? both? i'll let you know in a few days, but honestly, i'm leaning more towards exciting :) of course, this would happen the summer we buy a house!!

oops

grrrr i thought i was going to be better at this!

i'll update soon i promise. i've really gotten into reading other people's blogs and completely forgot about mine!

you waited almost 2 months for this??

well thanks to the demands of someone, i am finally updating!
(thanks for the push!)

i haven't updated in forever, b/c, well, nothing exciting has happened. at least not house related. we kind of came to a standstill with the unpacking/setting things up. as in, the 2 extra bedrooms are still piles of boxes. thats not to say i am doing nothing, i have put up curtains, hated them, taken them down, change them up, take them down again, and finally decided that blinds are the way to go (curtains are just too foofy apparently)

and then theres the constant weeding/yard work.

we don't even have flower beds anymore, they are more like weed-beds, with the occasional flower. speaking of, we got our first HOA threat letter saying that we needed to weed our front flower beds. i promise it was on my to do list anyway, that just made me bump it a little higher.

it wasnt till i looked through my camera though that i realized that we have done alot in the past month and a half! here it is in pictures,
since they speak a thousand words:

i removed 15 feet of mint plants from the side of the house. thats a lot of mint. like a big garbage bag worth. i read online that they are worse than weeds to get rid of. in my quest to make our yard less minty fresh though, i made 2 giant friends. like 3 inches tall, each!

brandt finished probation (yay!) and we went out
(he wasn't allowed to drink in public during the academy and probation)

brandt with his first drink ~ kyle with his girly beer

jen with her beer samplers

(why none of me? i was the dd, and the camera person)

brandt was on tv!


several astros games:

and we got a sunburn to go with the win

brandt learned he loved crab legs,
and also learned how to make them himself!


LUKE & KATY GOT MARRIED!!

bachelorette party:

wedding:



the best man speech,
i married quite the public speaker!

luke's awesome groom's cake

and my amazing in-laws!


the other mr & mrs owens!


ohh, and just this week, my amazing hubby sent me flowers
at work just to say thank you for being a good wife :)




i guess that's it for now... i promise to be better with updating!

my cabinet!

of course i can't find the "before" picture, but here are 2 "during" pics and a finished one


so now it is sitting in our dining room hiding all our extra kitchen stuff!

reason #256 why i love my concrete floors...

you know how on tv when bad things happen, it all goes in slow motion? definatly how this happened:
last night i was finishing up the hutch that i have been redoing. (it looks awesome, but worthy of its own post) brandt walked into the dining room to talk to me, and as i turned to face him the can of varnish slipped from my hands and fell to the floor. in landed upright, but as it hit, the contents flew upwards and outwards all over the floors/walls/table/hutch/me. long story short, it cleaned up easily, and i finished my project! and i love my floors!

we bought a rug

the animals approve...

need anything assembled? i'm getting good at it!

check out our grown-up desk!



bye bye to our cheapy college dorm-ish furniture!

we're a little bit fruity...

when we moved in, the house came complete with a mandarin orange and a lemon tree! we added to them this weekend with a strawberry plant!
and then i was feeling a little crafty/needed a break from unpacking. this guy was left by the previous owner (thank you!) but was a little rusty since we was just metal. here he is with several coats of paint:
and then here's my giant door mat! its a combo of
two that i tweaked in order to look like one