Were gonna be grandparents!!!! WHOOHOO!!

Yes, Coli and Jenna notified us while we were in Harlingen, Texas with this ecard---you have to check it out!!


We are so EXCITED and ready to join the great club of being grandparents. She is due on May 2nd.

If you recognize this name, click the link to see your E-Card.http://www.hallmark.com/ECardWeb/ECV.jsp?a=EG2351492913450M270693830Y&product_id=

Padre Island

We finally took a day to tour a little bit, we decided to travel to Padre Island and enjoy the day. Padre Island is a very nice place and lots smaller than I remember as going as a little girl. All I could really remember about Padre Island was the long bridge across to it and my grandaddy walking and looking for sea shells. We really chose a great day to go because it was a very quiet, not to many people and slow rainy day. So as for the beach---we didn't get to experience it, but we did decide to take a Dolphin Watch tour, and it was much more enjoyable to me. When you sign up for things like this you always wonder if it will really be as good as they make it out to be. Well it WAS!! We watched dolphins for almost an hour, so peaceful seeing how they just enter in and out of the water. We took probably 30 or so pictures to try to get a glimpse of them on camera, Curtis had lots more patience than me so the pictures you see are the ones he was able to capture. It was a 2 hour tour and along with the dolphins the tour guide dropped a net to catch just anything out of the ocean--it was very intersting too. Thankfully he was very knowledgeabel of marine life and explained everything that was caught. The most exciting thing was seeing a "Butterfly Ray", family to the sting ray. It was huge to us---

Looks like we will be in Harlingen for another week. We really felt we would have been moving on by now, but it seems just as we get wrapped up, they drop another 10-20 claims for us. We are so thankful!! All of our friends that we have become acquainted with in Oklahoma left us this past Thursday morning, so we feel like company has left us and we are having to find new friends. We were so fortunate to have some of our friends from Oklahoma here with us.

We have met a great couple from Lafayette, Louisiana, they too have been doing this since Wilma and have been on the road for a year now. They have 3 grown children going to college and all still living at home. We have really enjoyed getting to know them and know that we will be in contact from now on. In this business you may see someone here and work together for 2-3 months and never see them again. .

Our claim load now has stretched form Mission, Tx to Brownsville, Tx. The whole valley area. When we arrived in McAllen a month ago(wow, that doesn't seem possible), it brought back so many memories of my grandparents living here many years ago. I can remember their orange grove, their lovely friends that came for winter visiting and the wonderful smell that was in the air.

After the hurricane, there was no "good smell", it actually smelled bad, dirty and yucky. We have thankfully been here long enough for the sweet aroma to return to the air. It is so amazing how fast God's creations can come back to life so fast. All flowers are blooming again, trees are blooming and if it wasn't for the blue tarps and tree debris stacked on the side of the road you would never know a hurricane was here one month ago.
Padre Island had more damage to structures, several motels and restaurants still closed, I am posting a picture of one of the motels with a big hole in the side. I cannot imagine staying and riding one of those storms out. Way to scary for me!

Our claims are getting smaller and smaller and lots less damages. Other than having a communication barrier at times, the work is getting faster and faster. So it is much less stressful now. The first two weeks of any storm is very hectic and takes time to get into the groove with all the new bosses and trying to get the most severe damages handled first.

I hope to post again soon with report as to where we will be next, that is the most exciting thing about this job, we never know when, where or for how long, but we just pack and go and take each day at a time.
Until then.............

Harlingen, Tx

Well, I really thought I would be able to blog a little more often, but no such luck!! Today I am able to blog because we got home before 8:30 or 9:00 and I don't have 3 claims to finish, or laundry to do. The last 2 nights have been very stressful and lots and lots of mental thinking, but thankfully we are getting to move closer to our claims tomorrow. We have been driving back and forth from McAllen to Harlingen everyday, to work, having NO motel rooms in a 50 mile radius, we are thankful we found a room closer to work. Our office for State Farm was set up in a old Michaels building right in the center of town so we too will have a office close to work out of. We go by the office at least once a day to retrieve messages and touch base with our many bosses their. This place is HUGE!! They set up a complete satelite office in 24 hours, it just seems so increcible to me to set back and watch how fast things can be done and still have everything available to 65 plus adjusters.
We scoped our first home on Monday morning and arrived to find incredible damages. The home had 1/2 of the roof totally gone and all the belongings wet, soggy, insulation, and all the personal property ruined. No electricity, water standing in all the light fixtures, water standing in the kitchen cabinets, mattresses soaked and mosquitos everywhere. It was so sad and the home owner still had a great big smile on his face and gave GOD the glory for saving his and his families lifes. Luckily everyone safe--.
We have experienced lots of "NEW" with this storm. Until now, we had never worked anything but regular home policies--we have had our first Farm Policy (2) homes, (2) barns--(1) home non liveable after the storm and (1) barn totally gone, which was a airplane hangar-made us think of Cory as we drove up!! These people did not use it as a hangar, didn't matter, it is gone. It was our first Policy Limit claim--meaning write the check for what they have it insured for---very interesting, you just never think it can really happen. The other first is Commercial work. We drove up to a 48 room medical building that (1) doctor was building to have his own business in. (2) story, 4000 SF on each floor and is to be used for a complete psychiatric clinic. (3) spas and physical therapy unit on the top floor. I had to sketch complete blueprints of building before accesssing any damages. I got it done after some lengthy mind checking, but thankfully the boss approved. Never thought I would be doing work that an architech does. As Curtis was taking photos that we needed I had the oppurtunity to visit with DR. Nanjappa himself, I ask him if he could tell how my mind was just visiting with him. He laughed and commented that he hoped my mind was sound--I would be the one determining his check amount!! lol. I have never, thankfully, had the chance to speak with a doctor of his mentality, but was very impressed and could have listened to his objectives thoughts on how our brains and our bodies do work.
I will post again this week with more updates and adventures--with some photos, I hope. We work with a State Farm computer and camera, so its hard to remember to get photos with our personal camera.
Unitl then........