Ike.

As all of you probably know, this past week has been rather eventful for me...

A couple weeks ago my mom, siblings and I evacuated for Hurricane Gustav...it was my first 'hurricane' since we moved to Texas, and my first evacuation. I actually had a pretty good time that weekend. As it turns out, that evacuation was nothing more than a practice run for the real thing. My dad (who stayed to 'ride it out') told us that the storm consisted of rain and a little more wind than what he would have considered normal.

So for the next two weeks or so, we went back to our regular lives. Going to see friends in Beaumont, hanging out at home, going on walks...just chilling out. We didn't think anything else was coming.

When we first heard that Hurricane Ike was on its way, as worried as everyone seemed, I brushed it off. I know I shouldn't have, but I just thought that it would be another false alarm and didn't worry about it.

About five days ago now, my mom woke me up saying that Hurricane Ike was on its way, and we were going to North Carolina. That afternoon, our car was packed and we were on the road. We drove straight through the night stopping only a few times to sleep, and once to see my friend Devan who happened to be in Mississippi looking at a college at the same time that we happened to be coming through. We hung out with him at IHOP at about midnight...he brought some friends with him who were very nice, and we just hung out for about an hour and a half laughing, reminiscing, and having a great time hanging out together for the first time in a year and a half!

Life is weird. I love it though! I just get a thrill thinking about how unpredictable it is, and how wonderful it is to wake up in the morning and never know exactly what situation you'll be in at the end of the day...Even better than that is thinking about how you can watch someone walking into a room and never know what they'll be to you...They could be your future best friend, future significant other...even your future enemy!!! It's just so unpredictable, the things that happen...I love it!

Sorry, I guess I got off on a tangent right there, hehe...

But anyway...Yeah, we drove straight through the night and arrived here at my grandad's house at about 5 o'clock in the evening the next day.

So far the visit has been great...We have had a fantastic time hanging out with my family. I met my little cousin Maverick for the first time, and he is the cutest thing ever...He is WHITE with blond hair and blue eyes...He's two years old but looks younger. He makes the cutest faces, and if you put on 'Burnin' Up' by the Jonas Brothers, he will dance and sing for you! It's adorable...

My other cousins are dolls as well. Bryan is getting so big...He's 8 years old or so now, and he plays football. He is a ball of energy, and has the most prominent dimples...dark skin, and lighter eyes...what a killer combination! In a few years he's going to be a real heartbreaker...

Jenna is six years old with the same same dark skin, light eyes combo as her brother, except she also has beautiful dirty blond hair! I must say, she reminds me of myself when I was little in a lot of ways, except probably even more spunky! The first night we got here Jenna declared that Kaitlyn was 'the little goodest sister' and I was the 'goodest sister'...and made a rule that Kaitlyn was NOT allowed to say bad words in her room, but that I could say whatever I wanted, hahaha...It was hilarious! Then yesterday, we sat down to play a card game with her, and halfway through the game we realized that we didn't know the rules. Well, neither did Jenna, hehe...Here's how she explained the rules to us, "If you get a zero, you win...but if you get a two, we all win right here!" Hehe. She's a cutie;-)

My aunt (Bryan and Jenna's mother) is insane! We walk around talking trash to each other all day, it's hilarious! Yesterday she was on the phone and she said, "Yeah, my teenage nieces...they're so stupid." I looked up to find her looking at me, smirking, and said, "You know what? Shut up. You just get stupider as you get older..." Hahaha! I have so much fun here...My family is nuts...

So yeah. I've been having a good time up here. During the day when everyone is at work and school my sister and I will go chill in the camper by ourselves and talk about astrology and write things down and play cards and talk endlessly about what amounts to nothing...I love it. We like to go in there alone because it feels like it's our own little apartment=D

I have talked to a few of my friends and they said that it will take awhile for our area to go completely back to normal, but that it looks a lot better than it did when the last big hurricane came through and that my favorite coffee place survived (HALLELUJAH! hehe). Our house is fine as well, and power is being restored in a lot of places already. So I'm happy=) I think normality will be restored before I know it.

I hope if any of you had to evacuate you're having as much of an enjoyable time as I am, and if you're working on cleaning up and stuff, I wish you lots of energy...and I hope you're enjoying yourselves as well=) Thank you for making an effort...I feel bad that I can't be helping too.

Dylan, I love you and miss you a ton!<3