After being stuck in traffic for the better part of 12 hours to get less than 50 miles...I can say that I'm exhausted. I met up with my mother, aunt, and brother Thursday afternoon. Counting all of the kids and adults, there's 17 of us...and a cat. We packed into our vehicles with our important documents, plenty of water, food, pillows and blankets. (it's a tight fit) We had 3 cars and two trucks. On the way, one of the trucks broke down. My brother had to leave his truck at a gas station after towing it as far as we could go. This is only after my car started overheating and dieing in the middle of the road. This hasn't been a very good evac for us. We didn't get any real sleep and we were driving for 12 hours alone. We stopped for an hour and rested up. I myself got about 20 minutes of sleep due to a very unhappy 2 year old not wanting to let mommy go.

There's so many people on the side of the road. Running out of gas, fender benders, and just trying to get some sleep. If there's a way for you to evac without having to use major routes....I suggest you try the back roads. There's a lot less traffic and you'll move a lot faster.

Regardless, we're now in the south part of Dallas in a Holiday Inn and watching the meterologists from the weather channel show us what home looks like. This storm is hitting home almost head on. If anyone is watching the news, Beaumont and Port Arthur is where I'm from. I'm wondering what it's going to be like to go home after something like this. Is there going to be a home? I have a refinery less than a block from my house....I wonder if it'll protect my place from some of the wind.. Right now..there's an odd feeling of.....being lost. It's kinda hard to grab onto anything concrete as far as "normal" day-to-day life goes. Right now, the only thing concrete is that my kids and family is safe. What's really odd is that part of me wants to be at home. I guess that's the storm lover in me.

I guess we'll see what life looks like in the morning....I'm too tired to think anymore. Goodnight ya'll......I'm going to go hug my kids.

Wyntyr