More Photos from Cindy & CW Wedding

The wedding singer

Meredith walked down the aisle as the flower girl, this time she is carrying a bear rather than flower

Meredith's partner in the wedding ceremony, called ring bearer (not flower boy) is little Ian of Penang

Video Clip from Hurricane Ike

I took this video clip from the second floor of Ho's residence around 7am on Saturday. At this time, the wind and rain have diminished quite a bit but is still quite strong.

Two Hurricanes in Two Weeks Part II

We finally made it back to New Orleans today after Houston airport reopen on Monday. We evacuated to Memphis because of Hurricane Gustav two weeks ago but we never seen the full fury of Gustav as it was ripping through Louisiana. This time, we got to witness the full force of Hurricane Ike in the middle of the action. Although Ike weakened to a category 1-2 hurricane by the time it reached Houston, it was quite a hair raising experience to have 90mph wind howling outside and rainwater whipping the window until it rattled. We stayed on the second floor of Ho's residence as the peak of the hurricane wind passed through that area around 3 am. Everyone of us including Meredith, Boon Hong and Isaac are awaken around 2am as the wind noise started to become too loud. I tried to put ear plugs in Meredith ear so soften the noise. At one point, I tried to put Meredith in the closet because I thought the windows were shaking. Meredith was arguing with me that it is not a hurricane and it is only raining hard outside. She was wide awake from 2 am onwards. She was oblivious to the danger outside and was having fun walking around with torch light (we lost electricity around 2am) and also wearing ear plugs. I think she was so riled up by the windnoise and me pacing back and forth that she did not sleep the whole time. Well, thank God we made it through this without any harm. We based our decision to stay on the government issued order to take shelter in place and not have to evacuate and also all of our friends stayed behind in Houston. If we have to do it over again, I think we will evacuate for a category 2 storm.

Photo taken in New Orleans after Gustav- Car crushed by falling bricks from the apartment building.

Trampoline being blown onto a tree top right outside of our apartment in New Orleans.

For some reason, more Shell stations lost their signboards than other gas stations that I came across.

Garage doors being crushed by the high wind right outside Golden Food supermarket near Bellaire Chinatown in Houston

There are downed power line and cables everywhere, some dangling dangerously close to the street.

It was very hot and sticky after we lost power due the hurricane. On the second night, Issac slept without cloth on and he actually slept better that night than we have AC on.

We finally made it the wedding. It was worth the wait and going through a category 1-2 hurricane. It was a wonderful wedding, more to come on this.

The wedding was conducted with candlelight and illuminated with love since there is no power in church the day after hurricane.

Meredith (and mom) is very excited to be Cindy's flower girl after waiting many months, perhaps close to a year.

Meredith guest starring in Ian's blog

I just found out that Meredith photos have been used by some papparazi on their website. But credits to the papparazi, the photos are very well taken and the male character is very handsome. Click on link below.

http://madeinhouston.blogspot.com/2008/07/little-love-drama-part-i.html

Waiting on Ike's Arrival

It's about 9:30pm now. Hurricane Ike is supposed to make landfall at 1am tonight. We are sitting in elder Ho's house and reading story books to Meredith. Nothing much to do, just watching TV and waiting on Ike to arrive. The wind outside is about 40mph, not too strong yet.

Not Again! Running Away from Hurricane Ike, two hurricanes in two weeks!

Hurricane Ike approaching Houston. 8 hours to Land fall.
We are staying with elder Ho family and enjoying lunch (three cup chicken, a popular taiwanese dish) before the hurricane strike tonight.
This is the photo from last week in New Orleans. Hurricane Gustave blew away the chimney on top of our apartment block and maintenance crew are reerecting the chimney. The repair hasn't even been completed and we already stumbled upon another hurricane while visiting Houston.

It seems like we are running away from hurricane every week. A week or so ago, Hurricane Gustav struck New Orleans. We had to evacuate to Memphis and we spent five days on the road. We got back to New Orleans last Wednesday night and we barely got back to our normal routine before we flew to Houston this week. I had to attend some work related meetings during the week and then all four of us are going to Cindy & CW wedding here in Houston.

Then out of the blue, Hurricane Ike that was supposed to struck South Texas changed course and is about to strike Galveston/Houston area tonight. So here we are in Houston, two hurricanes in two consecutive weeks. It is a category two hurricane right now with windspeed of 110mph. Meredith is supposed to be the flower girl at this wedding. Our friend rescheduled their wedding to Sunday in order for the hurricane to pass through on Friday and Saturday. We debated and struggled quite a bit on Thursday afternoon whether we should stay to attend the wedding or flew out early on Thursday night. In the end, we decided to hunker down in Houston to ride out the storm. I think we felt that we are here for a purpose and if we go back early our trip will be a complete waste and our friend's wedding will be without a flower girl (they already have enough disruption to their wedding due to the hurricane so we don't want to add to their frustration). Anyway, we checked out of the hotel and now we are at elder Ho's house to stay for two days to ride out the hurricane. Tonight at about 1am the hurricane will make land fall, I hope we make the right decision and the storm will not be so bad that we endangered the safety of Meredith and Isaac by staying.