Hurrican Ike

Aaron, Ella, and I just survived hurricane Ike. I think that it was the scariest thing that I have ever been through. We decided to stay because we thought that by the time the storm reached us it would be a tropical storm which I have witnessed on more that one occasion growing up in Houston. But little did we know that the storm was still a category 2 hurricane as it approached and passed directly over our house.
Our electricity went out around 2 in the morning and the wind was howling like crazy. I tried to get into bed and sleep but at about 4 am I heard a load groaning sound near our house. I literally jumped out of bed and grabbed Aaron and the baby and we headed to our only room in the house without any windows. We had put our candles in there with some other provisions like food so that we could survive that night. At about 7 ish the storm had calmed down enough that we could check the damage from our windows. In our back yard, our one lone tree had been completely up rooted and toppled over. Thankfully the bulk of the tree missed the house and just some side branches scraped the roof. But that was the load noise I had heard early in the morning. Some reports say that winds at that time had reach 112 mph.
We decided to head out to San Antonio to stay with Aaron's uncle Sheldon, since we did not want Ella to stay in an un-air conditioned house. Just getting there was an adventure. The roads were flooding and we didn't know if, at some points in the road, our car would float away with the rest of the debris. But we made it safe and sound. Now we are comfortably staying with Aaron's parents in Salt Lake City while we await our electricity being turned on. The reports say it could take up to 4 weeks to get it all up and running. Hopefully it does not take that long. But either way we will try to enjoy our spontaneous vacation.

Ella Crawling some more

It has only been a week since I last videoed Ella crawling. This is her now! It's crazy how fast they catch on to things!!

Video of Ella

Here is a new video of Ella. I hope you all enjoy.

Hot and Humid

We have been with out air conditioning for almost two weeks now. This is why... Our A/C stopped working on Saturday so we called an a/c repair man to come look at it. He informed us that our compressor had been blown. So we called our home warranty insurance company to come and fix it since that is what we paid them to do. Since it went on a weekend, and a holiday weekend at that, the home warranty people had to decide whether or not this was deemed as an emergency. The lady on the phone then proceeded to inform me that our a/c not working was NOT an emergency because and I quote, " It's only 90 degrees outside". I then informed her that it was ONLY 95 degrees in my house with a 5 month old baby. She would not budge.

Now with our home warranty people, we have to use their specified vendors to come out and take a look at our a/c unit. The soonest these people could come out was Wednesday. We now have been without a/c for five days. Nuair comes out to inspect and diagnosis the problem. They tell us that is is because the wiring from the house to the a/c was not done properly and that is was caused the compressor to blow out. We already knew that there was problem with the way it was wired from our home inspection, but was told that it should work just fine.

We were denied our claim. Now, we already had some one come out on Sunday from a different company not affiliated with our home warranty insurance and they told us it was just a faulty compressor. That is had nothing to do with the way the unit was installed. So we tried to find out when and by whom the unit was installed by so we could see if it was still under warranty. Our real estate agent tried to get a hold of the previous owners to no avail. And I told her about the care we were given by the insurance company and she got right on top of it. In the meantime, we had a family friend come out and inspect the a/c as well. He is the business. He also told me that it was just a faulty compressor. The insurance agency re-opened our claim and sent out a new guy to come at look at the compressor. We are now 7 days with out a/c. He told us that there are many things that could have contributed to the compressor blowing out and that yes, the wiring could have had an affect on it. He told the insurance company this .... and I am sure you guessed it.. we were denied again.

You would think that unless they absolutely new for sure the cause of the damage, they would cover the cost. For $395 you can have peace of mind. Well what you really pay for is two weeks with our air conditions and incompetent insurance people. We are still hoping to resolve this issue. And hopefully it will all have a happy ending, at least for us. So as you sit in cool houses and read this blog, I hope you don't forget about us in Hot and Humid Texas.