Heartburn?

[dad2bike]

Great news! edit: (On getting out)
Good luck to you and your family. Get everything nailled down good.

[Rhalvahn]

Well - I'm a bit behind on my drugs...unfortunately they won't be ready for another 1/2 an hour - which puts me behind on them...but nothing to be done - this place is crazy. We hit the store tonight and picked up food for the next 2 or 3 days. If it gets REALLY nuts - we'll head to my parents house in Louisiana. And bring friends with us! My parents are fairly independently set up - water, generators and such. And lots of cows (in case we have to kill what we are going to eat!).

Hopefuly it won't be that bad and we'll coast through it.

I feel fairly well - wore out of course - but the longer I'm here, the more likely the culprit becomes the Protonix!

I'll keep you posted!

Laundry is being washed and dried, foods stocked up, all the outside stuff is battened down, and we are watching out for Rita! ;-)

[Maxibee]

Wow! We are feeling the effects way up here in North Texas! The gas line at Kroger was 6-8 people deep. Everyone had to pre-pay at the window because the card-readers at the pumps are down. I ain't sitting in line....I'll stop by in the morning or go to another station. Saving 10 cents per gallon is nice, but not worth the wait.

I think we are going to have some "severe weather" from Rita even here (suburb of Dallas/Ft.Worth). We may have some street flooding and lost shingles, downed trees and power lines, but that should be it. I'm headed to the store after work. DH is going to the bank, and whoever's closest first will get DD from Daycare.

Dee, your husband must be a rock! To get you sprung from the hospital, collect DD, board up the house.....WOW! He's taking good care of you girls.

Where in La. do your parents live? My Mom's family is primarily from Grand Isle and Golden Meadow. Way South. They've been through a few storms themselves.

BTW-if you can tune into NASA channel wherever you're staying, there is a great pic of Rita from the space station. Amazing. (Just wish she's go back out into the ocean to play!) Hang in there.....we'll be checking on you!

[Rhalvahn]

Okay - I'm so in the wrong industry! $106 for drugs...$69 for Rita hurricane food stuff...drugs and food! Wrong industry! Very wrong industry! But everything is ready - more or less. ;-) It's almost midnight, and my drugs will kick in a few minutes..so I'm going to preemptively go to bed! My OWN bed! My nice warm OWN bed! Yippee!

Would you believe they put me on an anti-depressant? Just for night time though...she snuck it in there AFTER she asked me about it... might have to talk to her about that.

You guys stay safe...and well.

Dee

[dad2bike]

Good morning! Batten down the hatches and be well!

[Rhalvahn]

Tom - you would NOT believe what's going on here. Gas stations with HOURS waits, no water, no bread and all the fast food places are closed. David sat in line for an hour and a half to fill up our gas tank while Tori and I got a last few items for groceries. We are baking a couple of pizza's and will nuke the leftovers for dinner probably.

I've got about 15 books, and a ton of movies, and the usual games (Settlers of Catan, Upwords, etc) and scrap booking, and a bunch of OTHER stuff that we can do. I picked up a couple of bags of tea lights (50 each x 4 hours) to set up so that we've got decent amounts of light if neccesary. Biggest problem is going to be the heat when the air goes down. We've got screens on all our windows - so we'll be able to open the windows - but it's going to get miserable - QUICK!

I'll keep you guys up to date. Hopefully we won't end up out of power and will coast through this.

God willing!

Dee

[dad2bike]

I bet one of the hardest things to deal with is the waiting and the uncertainty. Rita isn't going to be near you till Saturday. That has to be nerve racking. Sounds like you've got it under control (at least what you can)
My best wishes to all.

[Rhalvahn]

Definitely! I hate to say this, but we are all praying it hits Louisiana! (And I'm FROM Louisiana). The traffic is at a stand still on several roads, and I'm SO thankful we decided to stay home.

Tomorrow we'll start getting the wind and the rain bands. We've got a puppy who is NOT housetrained that will be coming in. She's a beagle yard dog, and the way our house is set up, it's going to be near to impossible to keep her in one area without complete cruelty. If the weather permits we'll be able to let her run out, go potty and come back in. So, I guess she's 'sort' of housetrained. But we might be letting her go in the garage if we have NO choice. Should be interesting.

Watch for smoke signals from Houston - we might be sending out S.O.S's.. ;-)

Dee

[dad2bike]

Good morning Dee. I see things are getting crazy there. The news ticker here was saying something about a bus that burned up and injured some people.
Godspeed!

[Rhalvahn]

Yeah Tom, the bus situation is just horrific. It was from the Bellaire area. They opted to transform private buses into nursing ambulances so they could get all the elderly/infirm out of harms way. Something happened, horribly obviously, and 24 people died. It's so terribly sad. The news says they tried to get as many off as they could...just makes you want to cry though when you think about it.

David ran out to the ATM's this morning, and there was no cash available what so ever. He went in a 5 mile area, stopped at every bank...and nothing. So hopefully we won't NEED gas, or money for anything.

On a personal note, I'm feeling wonderful! I reduced my steroids from 4 pills x 3 times a day to 3 pills x 3 times a day. Technically I'm not supposed to do that for another 5 days, but I just feel so much better, and no hives at all. I'm really thinking it was the Protonix because I'm feeling SO much better!]

[Maxibee]

Hey, I'm here! I haven't forgotten about you! I'm glad you're feeling better and that Katy, Texas has been spared! We got about 3 small drops of rain so far....and alot of clouds and wind. That's all. My best friend lives in Lufkin and they are getting hammered.

About half of the gas stations here are out of gas. The other half are not lined up anymore. I refused to sit in line to save 10 cents per gallon at Kroger....I've just topped off every day on my way to work just in case.

I went to the grocery store Thursday and beat the crowd for the most part. I bought what I usually buy so I wouldn't have to get out over the weekend if it got bad here.

That bus accident wasn't very far from us....how tragic. I turned on the news just as the news helicopter was arriving on scene...yikes! I've never seen anything burn like that. Even before I found out it was the oxygen onboard that caused the burning to be so huge, I KNEW there had to be some sort of "accelerant". Something HAD to have fueled that fire....it was unreal.

I saw the grid showing what days people would be allowed to return to their homes and it showed Katy in the Monday grid, I think. So, that's good.

That Protonix really did a number on you....how about "Protonix" and a red line through it tattooed on you somewhere! Just kidding. I bet you'll make sure it's a well-known fact to any future doctors you see. The fact that it's time-released made it worse, but I'm sure if one is not allergic, it's probably good stuff. Just like penicillin. Very good drug....just not for me!

Check ya later.

[dad2bike]

Looks like you guys squeeked out on this one. Whew! At least you had a great excuse for some quality family time together.

I'm glad your hives issues seems to be under control as well.

Have a great weekend!

[Rhalvahn]

Hiya guys! Would you believe I'm back at my signature weight finally? Stepped on the scale and 212 today...and I've been eating TOTAL crap the last few days. Won't get back on plan until Monday probably. The Predinsone they have me on (90 mg/day in 3 doses) has given me a bit of a 'puffy' face...and increased my appetite beyond annoying. None of the stores are open around here, probably until tomorrow at least, and so we are low on the Atkins friendly stuff, and high on the 'junk' food stuff. I'm also addicted to milk...I constantly want a glass of milk. I HATE being out of control with food...and hate knowing that it's the drugs my 'doctor' has prescribed for me.

Other than that...I feel great...lingering side effects of the drug effects after I take them...but that's it. No hives, nothing in the last 48 hours. :great:

My parents are in DeRidder, Louisiana (North of Lake Charles) and got slammed. No power, tin off the barn, and no expected power for a while. 100% of Beauregard Electric customers are out of power. Talk about a number to think about! ;-)

Everyone else has checked in, and is okay. My husband's parents (Gene & Pat) are staying with us as their house is in a 'no' power zone North of Houston. They are great though, and came with their own food. We are all going to head to church tomorrow around 11 for the one and only service our church is having...I think thankful prayer will be at the front of everyone's mind.

Glad to hear you guys made it through..sorry you didn't get much rain either. We only got an inch or so. Pathetic little hurricane! (Just joking!).

Talk to you later,
Dee

[dad2bike]

Glad to hear your world is going well. On the food, yeah survival is far more important than staying on plan
I see you've mastered putting up emoticons I would agree there is a lot to be thankful for. From the news reports people in Texas learned lessons from Katrina and How NOT to do things from the Lousianna gov't.
Well, you guys have a nice safe day.
(just had to give you something new to lok at)

[Felonee]

It's good to know that you're safe I hope they get your parents power restored soon. Yesterday was our hurricane day. Only one really long day instead of the 3 days that were predicted, and I don't even know how much rain we got, but it was a LOT. It rained (along with high winds) from about 10am until sometime after 10pm (when I went to bed). It's beautiful and sunny here this morning though, so we came through it well. Have to go check on our animals and check the chicken coop and the garage still, but it looks like we survived well.

I bet you don't miss the hospital! I've been on prednisone before for something or other, and the face bloat is not a happy thing. Being hive free and pain free has got to be great though. Congratulations on being back to your signature weight! I'm so glad that this hasn't messed that up for you!