Halloween - Costume Suggestions?

I am writing this to obtain some suggestions for the Christie Chrew's Halloween Costumes.

So far I have thought of the following but nothing is set in stone....

• Leah - No brainer here. Sarah "Barracuda" Palin. She just needs to work on her Fargo accent 'eh.
• Myself - Wall Street Broker, complete with Hang Man's noose. The other thought of course would to be Todd Palin. She could keep me on a short leash.
  
• Dylan - Nothing. He is at that age, much too cool to wear a costume
• Derek - Undecided. I am sure his mom can come up with some suggestions to embarrass him though.
• Cade - Skateboarder, as this is his new passion
• Kevin - Spiderman. I can't remember him dressing up as anything else.

Cash considerations for your ideas. Considerations only no actual cash will be paid out.

Regards,
Management Team

Hurricanes at Night are not Fun

Well it's Saturday morning now...early...The rains have started and our boys are crashed in the Christie Chrew's Hurricane Headquarters....

Channel 11 KHOU-TV here in Houston just had a rep from Centerpoint Energy on and already there are 725K people without power and he estimates that the final number will be excess of 1000K and it will take 2 to 3 weeks to restore power to all customers.....Does anyone have room for 6 refugee's from Tomball?

For those of you who have not had the pleasure of riding out a storm it is not fun, especially at night. You really can't see much but you can certainly hear the wind. It's like the energizer bunny it just keeps going and going. I am just glad the boys crashed already. I am super stressed right now as we wait for this monster to pass. Dr. Neil Frank said earlier that the winds may be that of a CAT2 storm the size and wind field match the that of a CAT3 or CAT4.

They showed a news crew on Galveston Island about 30 min ago and the storm surge has crested over seawall blvd. The seawall is 17ft tall! Holy Crap! That is a lot of water. The water is just running down seawall blvd from east to west. Galveston is in real trouble the storm is still 40 miles offshore.

I'll try and post again tomorrow.....talk to you soon

Take a HIKE IKE

Well it is day 2 of prep for Ike. It is now 9:30pm on Friday night and so far so good. We have received some substantial gusts of wind by so far nothing big. Heck it hasn't even rained today. The photos I have attached are the before pictures of our house. I will update in a day or two with the post Ike photos.

Kevin is even in getting into the act. He got out of the bathtub today singing. Just watch the video.....

Ike - YIKES!

Our new motto - Run from the Water, Hide from the Wind.



Well the Christie Chrew is hunkering down in preparation of Hurricane Ike which is bearing down on the Texas Gulf Coast. We have discussed our plans all week and finally decided this morning that we would ride out the storm in Tomball.



According to the latest track, also known as the cone of confusion, the storm will make landfall between Freeport, TX and Galveston, TX. Once it comes ashore it appears to turn due North and take a path east of downtown Houston which puts us on the "good" side of the storm. There is a website published by the Houston Office of Emergency Management that depicts Max sustained winds. Looks like we will be just below Hurricane strength winds about daybreak on Saturday. Here is a line to that site http://www.houstonhidefromthewind.org

I came home from the office about noon today to start bring all loose items inside and getting everything ready. The lines at the gas stations were crazy! Thank goodness we are tought to stay prepared for these types of things. We will keep everyone posted on how things turn out here and will probably have some pictures and some video to document this for everyone. Talk to all of you soon........

Who is the Chrew?

Leah and I met some 18/19 years ago, started dating 17 years ago and have been "happily" married for 15 years now. We are the original Chrew members.

Shortly after being married we went out to eat at Rancho Grande (Tomball Tex-Mex) and Leah sweetly informed me that I was soon going to be a father. She had our waiter bring over a Baby Chair with balloons tied to it. I was sooo excited and scared at the same time. Me a Father!!

So our family grew and in Nov of '94 Dylan was born. I still remember the nurses handing him to me in the OR and asking me to carry him to the nursery and show him off to my family. I have never felt such pride, and enormous responsibility. Leah and I were in for the ride of our lives.....

In '98 we had our second son Derek. This time Leah was actually awake during the delivery (c-sections with both) and I still remember hearing her speak to Derek as only a mother can immediately after his birth. My Love for her grew that day. Interestingly though she was not real happy with me that day because she wanted to have him naturally, but her body would just not cooperate, and I was more focused on my golf swing.

In '99 came number three. Our sweet Cade. (Stole that name from Kevin and Michelle Maloney. That was going to be Megan's name if she were a boy.) We were living in Lewisville, TX outside of Dallas at the time. He was due in early October. On Sept 22 Leah had an appointment for her last ultrasound prior to her due date. I had obtained tickets for our whole family to go see the Texas Rangers play the Baltimore Orioles during Cal Ripken Jr. last season.

I go with Leah to the appointment. We get the ultrasound done and the specialist says to Leah and I that she will be right back. Well about ten minutes later she finally does come back and informs Leah and I that she has noticed something with the babies heart and they are going to take the baby early. Like right now. Scary moment for potential parents. We prayed regrouped, made longer term arrangements for Dylan and Derek and prepared for surgery. Cade was born at 7:05pm just as the first pitch was being thrown. He was perfectly healthy with no issues at all with his heart. Our prayers had been answered.

Well if you have three you may as well have four right!? So in 2003 we welcomed Kevin and the Christie Chrew was complete. As LeLe says "ignorance is bliss".

I must say that having four sons certainly presents its challenges but what great challenges they are. I love my family very much and am grateful for the lessons they continue to teach me.

There are many more stories regarding our Chrew but I will share them another day.......