3 Roosters and a Chick

So the saga continues.  I bet you guys thought I forgot I have a blog, no we have just been a little crazy.  If we were not fighting with insurance, bank, or mortgage company, we were just trying to get on the list to get started.  So five days after the hurricane the people that were going to dry out the house and fix things was able to show up to dry out the house.  They setup several humidifiers and blowers to dry stuff out.  They also took more of Michael’s room ceiling out to help with the drying process.  The process took 3 days to dry out and then they would access the damage to see what all needed to be done.  We found out that we had more damage than what we thought.  The winds were so strong it caused several stress cracks in the walls and ceiling.  So they are going to have to do repairs in almost every room.  The only rooms that did not have damage is the boy’s bathroom, kitchen, and utility room.  Once we finally got power we found out that our breaker box got hit by lightning.  So this caused damage to our air conditioners as well so we got to replace both units.  After about 8 days the insurance adjuster finally showed up.  They stated that it would only take three days to get someone to our house but I kind of figured that it was going to take longer.  The insurance adjuster said that would take about a day for her to get the report in and then would take a week to get our check.  As has been the case on everything it took a week for her to get the report in and another week just to get our check.  We then decided to open another checking account at our bank so we could keep the money separate from our personal account.  So I go to put one of the checks in and they stated was going to have an 11 day hold on the check.  So not to have to type this again here is the letter that I ended up sending to my bank because it was like everything else messed up:

I would like to file a complaint on the bank. We recently have gone through hurricane Ike and have sustained damage to our home. I went into the branch with a check from our insurance. I was told that there would be an 11 day hold on the check. We are trying to put our lives back together and need to pay contractors to rebuild our house. The person at the branch stated that she would call and verify funds and remove the hold after 2 days. She asked for the best number to get a hold of me and I gave her my cell. She stated that she would call me in 2 days at noon at the number I provided. I did not receive a call so I called the branch at 12:30, giving her the benefit of the doubt she was busy. I was told she had gone to lunch. I then called back at 2:30 and she stated that she would talk to her branch managersince she was not able to verify funds. I waited until 4:30 and did not recieve a call back and headed to the branch. When I arrived at 5:00 she had not talked to the branch manager and also the number she stated she called was our main number in the account. The main number in the account is our home phone and I did not show on caller ID or a voice mail had been left. She then stated that the branch manager would remove the hold on Fridayafter they verify funds. I stated I needed to remove it today due to I have contractors I need to pay. I talked with the branch manager and he states that he would take care of the issue and would call me on Thursdayat noon. He did release 6000 so I could pay the contractors something. I called branch manager at 12:30 on Thursday and was told he had left the office as well. So this would be the 2nd time I have not received a call from the bank when promised. The branch manager stated that he was waiting on a contact to be able to verify funds. He stated he would call me back. He called me and stated that he was unable to get a hold of anyone and would check on this for Friday. He stated that would call our insurance company. I stated that I checked with our insurance company and they show that the check has cleared their account. The branch manager stated that he did not know what cleared meant on our insurance account. I have been working in the backing industry for over 10 years and cleared has always meant the item has been paid. I tried to go to the bank where the insurance check was drawn from but the bank was already closed. I then went to my bank at 5:10 and was told the branch manager has already left for the day, so yet again my issue has not been resolved. I plan to call our local news station if I am not able to get this issue resolved tomorrow. I am not trying to make threats I am just not getting things done.
So as you can tell this was not fun, but at least my email did not fall on deaf ears.  My issue was resolved the next morning.  This ordeal caused a lot of frustration so I decided to move to another bank, which has been ver helpful.  So due to the amount of damage we had another check that had to be sent to our mortgage company to setup a draw schedule.  So on the 14th of October I overnight the check to the mortgage company so we can get thing rolling.  I call them on the 15th and they stated that they had received the check and the documents.  I asked if there was anything else and she stated that she needed completion affidavit and copy of insurance summary of damage.  I stated that the completion affidavit is not sent until is done and the insurance summary was not needed per the letter we got.  She reviewed and confirmed that I was correct and that all document were received. She said would take about 7 days and we would get our first draw.  Well as you can guess this did not happen.  So I called them on the 24th of October and they stated that they are waiting on documents.  They stated the same thing as before and then she said “Oh wait we do have all the documents.  I will send an email to your file manager to get a check to you within 2 to 4 days”.  I also needed to order an inspection so we can get our 2nd draw check and this will take 2 to 4 days to order inspection.  So one brite spot is they have gotten started on our rebuild and have now finished the roof.  So instead of making them wait on the insurance we went ahead and paid them out of pocket.  They were willing to work with us but I did not want to make them suffer because people do not know how to do their job.  I normally do not get this upset but I am feeling like I am getting the run around.  So I call the mortgage company after 2 days just to check and what do you know nothing has been done.  So I call and the person that they gave the message to did not give it to the proper people.  So they stated that they would have my file claims person call me back by tomorrow.  So the next day comes and they do not call.  So I call and they say that the file claims person is going to send my check overnight on Monday, which is today.  So I am going to stop playing their game and call first thing this morning.  Maybe we can get this thing on track.  They are going to start on the inside this morning so again we are at least moving forward.  I really feel for the people who have more damage than us.  If I had to go through this much trouble I am scared to see what they had to go through.  So If you stayed with me this long thanks for listening.  Until Next Time!

Here are the pictures.

Our fence on the right side of the house

Roof

Michael’s room

Michael’s Ceiling

Michael’s floor

Well, the drama continues.  People are starting to clean up & really assess the damage.  We are fortunate. The weather has cleared & the temp. has dropped into the 80s with a breeze, so it is nice. 

Many people have lost everything & as of last night no one is being allowed into Galveston & other coastal areas.  We had 2 contractors out this morning…..Roof & Electrical.   The roof is pretty torn up & has been patched for the time being.  Apparently our roof line is higher than some others & we took a hit.  Our electrical grid has also been fried.  The electrician thinks we may even have been hit by lightening.  Our air & elec. panel have been fried.   M’s room is destroyed.  The ceiling has caved in where the water ran through & we are pretty sure that we have water damage in the entire west wall of our home. We are now having to wait for the insurance adjuster to assess the total damage.   

 I will post pictures tonight.  We are taking many for insurance.  

We continue to be thankful that everyone is safe…this could have been so much worse.  Thank you for all the thoughts & prayers!  We will post again tonight. 

As you can see we are ok.  Wow was this storm a rough one.  We are thinking next time we will probably leave even though we are on the north side.  We did not get much sleep at all Friday and Saturday.  The winds started picking up about mid-night and the hurricane landed in Galveston at 2:15am Saturday morning.  Around 4:00am was the worst for us.  We lost the right side of our fence, and had roof damage over Michael’s room.  The water leaked into his room and this morning his ceiling caved in so he has a big mess in his room.  We also are still without power.  Diane’s mom does have power so we have moved into her house for a while.  We are not sure how long our power is going to be out.  The thing that really stinks is that our house is the only house in our neighborhood that does not have power.  Diane spent most of Saturday trying to explain this to the power company and then around 6 or 7pm someone finally listened instead of giving us the standard answer.  “We are sorry about any inconvenience but our trucks are out working on the issues.  We also see that your area has had its power restored.”  Well guess what we still do not have power people!  So with them moving on we may not have power for a while.  The person that is coming to patch the roof, so we do not take any more damage has been swamped so hopefully he will be here tomorrow.  The boys are both way off on sleep schedule, but they may be out of school for a while.  We have received phone calls from both their schools that they will not have school until Thursday.  Also my sister and her family are ok as well.  I am so thankful they came up.  My brother-in-law kept saying the storm was going to be a dud.  He started changing his mind around 4 when it felt the whole house shaking.  They have gone home and have sustained some damage, but like us just minimal. Thank you all for the prayers.  We will post some pictures when we get our computer back up.  Until next time.

I just wanted to let everyone know that we are ok.  The storm will roll in tonight.  The southern areas of Houston are under mandatory evacuations.  We are on the NW side and are being told to stay put & “shelter”.  Our family from Friendswood is with us & we will ride it out.  The eye of the storm will come inland tonight, so we will be up late!  I will post as soon as the storm passes.

Yes the birds are singing and the sky is blue.  The Cowboys won Sunday against Cleveland so that is exciting.  I had football overload this weekend.  I watched college football on Saturday.  I really only watched OU win against Cincinnati. On Sunday after church I watched the game mix channel which is part of the NFL Sunday ticket.  This channel has all the games on one channel and you can arrow over to the game to here the audio.  If you want to go to that game you can just select the game.  The NFL Sunday ticket rocks from DirectTV.  I love having the ability to watch any of the games.  The only bad thing is that my fantasy football team may be in trouble since Tom Brady appears to be out for the season.  I watched the hit on his knee and I could tell it was not going to be good for his season.  They are going to do an MRI to confirm the severity, bu all have said that he is done for the season.  D made a really good point that he is not that young, so hopefully this will not end his career.  He is a really outstanding football player.  This is just another reason they call it the NFL(Not for long) league.  You watch these guys hit each other and wonder how they can even get up after some of the hits they take.  I know they have pads but I am sure if a 300 plus pound person hits you it is not going to feel to good.  Well again I am glad football season is here.  Until Next Time!

OK I guess if Hollywood can come of their strike so can I.  I have several things to talk about just no pictures.  Sorry Lila, maybe my lovely wife can help in this department.

Hold on to your eye glasses because this is going to be a long post.

Brotherly Love

So Michael and Jacob were playing together, about 3 to 4 weeks ago, with light sabers.  Michael decided he was done playing and started heading down the stairs.  Well apparently Jacob was not done so he threw his light saber down the stairs at Michael and hit him in the back of the head with the handle part.  So Diane gives me the call she is taking Michael to the hospital to get it looked at.  He ended up getting a staple in the back of the head.  The nurse wanted to put 2 staples in but Michael was not going to let that happen.

So after a week goes by the head starts to heal and they remove the staple.  Diane had the day off, so I decided to surprise the kids and take the day off as well.  We decided that the zoo would be a good idea.  The visit to the zoo was good until the ride home.  We went to the zoo store and they both got a bag of animals.  Michael got the bag of water animals, and Jacob got the bag of land animals.  Jacob noticed that there was a shark in Michael’s bag and decided that he needed that shark.  So we got to listen to arguments for a while until Michael finally gave him the shark.  Then Michael started playing with Jacobs elephant and that did not go over well.  Jacob really wanted all the animals, but we made them share.  I know we are really mean parents to think we should make our kids share.

Happy Birthday!

Jacob has made it to 3. We really did not do much for his birthday so that is part of the reason we took the boys to the zoo.  I almost forgot we took them to Moody Gardens.  They have a huge aquarium  which Jacob loves!! We spent the day looking at fish and of course the sharks.  We also took the kids to the Rainforest Cafe, which had a build a bear in the back.  Michael got a snake and Jacob got an elephant.  Well as usual Jacob decided in the car he wanted the snake.  We shared for a bit and when Jacob went to sleep Michael got his snake back.

The following weekend was my nephew’s birthday party.  He had a swim party and the kids had a blast.  We ended up not leaving until about 8:30 because I was working on my sister’s computer.  So we did not make it home until 9:30.  Jacob had a great ride home since his cousin gave him a stuffed pet snake of his very own.  Jacob was very excited and hopefully this will end the arguments over the stuffed snake.

School is here!

Michael was way excited that school is finally here.  He came down the stairs on Monday all dressed and his back pack on.  Diane had to pry his back pack off so he could eat breakfast.  We are going to have to plan a little better next summer because the kids started getting restless towards the end of the summer.  The main issue is that all the different camps start to get expensive.  So hopefully we will be able to find some inexpensive things to do.  They spent a lot of time at the pool and both are really dark now.  Michael has finally had a break through with swimming.  He has finally decided it is ok to let go of the wall and actually swim.  I am no longer allowed to go swimming with them.  Michael claims that I was trying to drowned him, now mind you that he could have just put his feet down and stood in the water.  We are really proud that Michael is starting to swim.  Jacob really does not have that big of a fear of the water.  He jumps off the side of the pool into someones arms.  He is trying to learn to swim, but it will just take some time.

Mom’s in the Hospital!

Some of you probably already knew this but my mom had surgery about a month 1/2 ago.  She is doing better, but we he had a bit of a scare.  She got an infection where the wound was in her stomach and it caused the wound to come open.  I will not go into to much detail because it is not a pretty site.  She is still in the hospital and we are planning to go see her this weekend.  She said she is going to move to the rehab center, but I just do not see how that is going to happen.  We are hoping we will get some more answers from the doctor’s soon.

Well I think I have you all caught up.  I hope you all stuck around until the end.  Until next time.

So I will have proof that I did not forget our anniversary I thought I would write a post.  We have been married now for 9 years.  We have had some ruff times but God always helped us get through.  He sent us away for a while to a little town called Cameron which I would not trade for the world.  So this is also a thank you to God and Cameron for helping another marriage stay alive.  We watched Harry Potter and the Goblet of fire last night.  I did not make it through the whole movie.  I fell asleep about the last hour.  I guess that is a sign you are getting old when you can not even make it through a movie.  I am going to get back at it.  Until next time.

So what does being free mean to you?

Wow did we have a busy weekend! We started out on Friday with my parents coming into town and I took the day off.  We took the boys down to Galveston to the beach and to ride on the ferry.  They both had a blast on the boat.  They thought it was really cool that we drove onto a boat.  The beach was a fun event for Michael.  He and MawMaw were body wave surfing.  Michael thought it was pretty funny when MawMaw almost got taken out by a wave.  We tried to fly a kite, but were not successful because the kite was missing some of the parts.  The wind was also blowing pretty hard, so I think if we would have gotten it up in the air the string would have broke.  Jacob slept most of the time at the beach.  We opened up the car doors to let a breeze flow through the car.  When he finally woke up they had a picnic in the back of my car with the seats down.  This was a huge treat since I normally do not let them eat in my car.  I figured since it was already trashed with dirt and sand what is a few bread crumbs.  We fed the remaining sandwich to the sea gulls.  There were only 3 when I threw them bread and by the time i finished there were 30.  Michael almost caused a major issue when one of the Cheetos he tried to throw out the window did not make it out of the car, luckily MawMaw picked it up and threw it out quickly.  When the boys got home they crashed pretty hard.  We may have to go to the beach more often if we can get them to go to bed that easy.

On Saturday I went and played golf with some of my co-workers.  I had an ok golf day but definitely could have been a lot better.  We had several exciting events on the course.  The CFO of our company was standing to the right of me about 4 feet in front of me when I hit the ball and I nailed him in the back of the leg.  I was mortified, but he said he was ok.  So there goes my Christmas bonus! The other exciting event happened when one of the guys on my team hit a ball left that went in someones back yard.  We did not know that there were people in the back yard.  He apparently came close to hitting the owners wife.  He proceeded to take several golf balls and started hitting them at us telling us we need to learn and yell four.  There was really not a way we would have known there was any out.  We were actually hoping he would have hit one of us, because the group that was playing behind us had a lawyer on their team.  I had a great time but it was really, really HOT!!!!  I know, that is what I get for living in Texas.  I thought I was going to pass out around the 2 hole on the back 9.  I sat down for a bit and started chugging water and after a while I was ok.

We finished golf around 3:00 and this was enough time to go home and take a shower and rest for a bit before my next event.  One of the guys in my department had a “Rock Band” party at his house that I went to.  Let me just tell you we had a blast!  I pretty much sang the entire time.  We even started a world tour and were getting some serious cash and fans.  We finally decided to quite at 1:30 in the morning.  The drive was really long since it takes almost an hour to get from his house back to mine.

Sunday came way to early.  I was directing at the church so I had to be there by 7:00am.  We had a guest music guy.  We are searching for a music minister so they had him come down from Dallas.  He was pretty good.  He was a little flat in the first service, but I am sure this was just nerves.  He sounded just fine in the second service.  I was really surprised I made it through both services.  I was extremely tired.  The fun activities of the weekend started catching up with me.  After church I went home, ate, and then took a nap.  D woke me up about 4:30 so we could get ready for our bible study group.  I was refreshed and felt like I actually could go for a while.  I stayed up until 12:30 watching movies.  Both were horrible, so I should have gone to bed at my normal time.  I watched “Night at the Museum” and “Rush Hour 3″.  We did get to catch the end of Top Gun which was nice.  I really like that movie.  Well I hope everyone made it to the end.  Sorry there were no pictures, I forgot my camera for every event.  Until next time!