Hurrican Harvey

 I was finishing up my second week of work when all of a sudden (well maybe not suddenly) school was cancelled and grocery stores were packed full of people preparing for a hurricane.  Hurricane Harvey was expected to hit sometime Friday night, August 25th and the city of Houston (and out skirts) were in a panic.  B and I made the necessary preparations and stood in a 2 hour line at HEB for some water, milk, bread, and eggs along with hundreds of other people.  We hadn't experienced a major store before so we maybe were a little naive about the damage a category 3 hurricane could do.  It wasn't the biggest storm, but it hit land and then stalled dropping trillions of gallons of water on the state. 

Friday, August 25th all schools and most businesses were closed.  Logos closed and the kids hadn't even started school yet but they had meet the teacher from 11:00 am - 1:00 pm.  I worked the PTO table and B brought the kids to the school so we could meet their teachers and bring their school supplies.  Little did we know, that school wouldn't start on Monday like regularly scheduled. 
Friday evening we could hear the wind pick up and it started raining.

The kids brought us breakfast in bed

 Pretty much all night long, the tornado warnings went off on our phones every hour or so.  A few tornadoes touched down in Missouri City, but not near us in Richmond.  Saturday morning we woke up to our power still on, but more rain.  It rained all day Saturday and Sunday.  Church was cancelled and many places were still closed.  HEB and Kroger opened up for just a few hours each day.  Over the weekend is when the evacuations started happening.  Online postings and over the news, different areas and neighborhoods were under mandatory and voluntary evacuation.  Greatwood, the neighborhood next to us, had sections under both types of evacuations and even the front part of Canyon Gate was under voluntary evacuation.

 Marcus called us and told us we could come to College Station for the weekend.  Their kids' were out of school Monday due to the storm.  We thought about it and prayed about it and felt a peace about staying put.  Our home wasn't in the evacuation zone and we don't live in a flooding zone.  We live near the Brazos River, but no close enough to evacuate.  Saturday came and went and Sunday came and went.  More rain and the flooding started in Houston.  School was cancelled all week!  All Week!  The first day of school was cancelled and moved to September.  It was crazy.  The rain finally stopped on Tuesday and that's when people started getting out and trying to see the damage.  During the days on Sunday and Monday, there were a lot of rescues and people being brought to shelters.  One of my friends, Ally, from CG, her home started to flood so she left the house with her two kids on a dump truck that was driving through rescuing people.  Our friends from our Bible Study, TGIW, were rescued on a boat since their apartment building flooded and they couldn't get out by car.  The flooding was terrible and all over in parts of Katy and Houston and Richmond. 

Bayou in our neighborhood

Dinner and a movie

How we passed the time

I definitely felt guilty at times because we were very comfortable in our home and it was like an extended vacation with B home with us.  We walked Cooper every day to check on the bayou in our neighborhood.  So since we were okay and our house was fine, we decided to volunteer at a shelter.  We went to Terry High school and volunteered a couple hours there helping serve food and our kids played with other kids.  Then we went to Kroger and bought groceries to make food for the shelters.  We brought breakfast casserole and lots of spaghetti to the 2 shelters for the people.  We wanted to do more, but not exactly sure what we could do.  Our kids went through their toys and picked some out to bring to the shelter for the kids there.  It was heartbreaking to see families and couples with only the clothes on their back and not knowing what their house looked like.  We wanted to do more.  I wanted to bring all those people home with us, but we couldn't.  Our friends JuJo had to evacuate so they did come over and stay with us.  Since we are good friends, and they've lived with us before, it was easy to have them come back.  They have a dog, Jasper, that gets along well with Cooper and all our kids have a great time playing.

Juliette with us

kids in the culdesac

Birthday girl turning 2

  They stayed with us through the weekend and that brings me to September 1.  September 1 was Jenneive's birthday.  I baked her a cake and we all sang HBTY.  Moana is her favorite so our two families popped popcorn and watched Moana together for her party.  It was a lot of fun and sweet memories were made. 

Eventually I went back to work and had to hire a babysitter for the kids.  They returned (or should I say started) to school on September 11th.  What a crazy 2 weeks from Hurricane Harvey, but the damage done was just unbelievable.   Houston Strong is the new motto around here and everyone is willing to lend a helping hand.  The Astros won the super bowl and of course everyone jumped on the Astros bandwagon (we did at least).  The Houston Dynamo even made it to the playoffs.  It's weird how a tragedy can bring about community.  God is good!

NY Yankees T-Ball

W said he wanted to play baseball this season instead of soccer.  We felt like it was a great thing he was showing some independence from A so we signed him up for T-Ball at the YMCA.  His team didn't have a coach so B volunteered to be the coach but had great support from the other dads (and moms).  The team consisted of nine 4-5 year old boys and one 4 year old girl.  We had 2 sets of siblings on the team which made for 8 different families.  Our practices were Monday nights at 6:30 and games were either on Friday nights at 6 or Saturday mornings at 9, or sometimes both.  We ended up having a great season, even though it started off rocky.  The boys didn't know how to hit or which way to run and so after a lot of practice, by the end of the season, they could all hit pretty well and knew how to run the bases.  There was so much improvement throughout the 8 week season, all parents were very satisfied.

April 2, first tball game

playing catcher

10 little stud players

May 20th, Wes's last game

During the inning, every player got to bat, and outs were never kept.  The last batter just hit and ran all the way around the bases home and hitting was EVERYBODY'S favorite part of the game.  W really enjoyed it and I think it's fair to say he was one of the best on the team.  I know I'm his mommy and I'm biased, but even the other parents from other teams noticed that he was enthusiastic and had a good focus on the game.  His favorite position was pitcher because basically every ball was fielded by the pitcher.  He also played first base well and catcher.  It didn't really matter where B put him on the field, he paid attention and ran after the ball.  I look forward to more baseball in our future!

Skeeters Fun!

We've been blessed with tickets to see the Sugar Land Skeeters play a couple of times.  Our first game was in August with the Bentley Family from Awana.  They were able to get enough tickets for both our families for a Saturday afternoon game.  We were excited because we really like live sporting events.

free Fanta samples outside the stadium

I got the brunettes

He got the blones

Our next opportunity to attend was a few Friday's later and we brought the Marsh family with us.  Mr. Mark from Awana works for ESPN at the Skeeter's stadium and he was able to get us tickets for a Friday home game.  We were really excited because on the Friday home games there are fireworks after the game. 

Skeeters Tattoos!

yummy ice cream on a hot night!

Father's Day 2013

Father's Day is a wonderful day and gives me a reason to make a big deal about Bryce.  I told him just the other day how wonderful he is and he's got to be one of the best dads in our area.  We don't live close to either of our fathers and it sounds bad, but I like it that way right now.  I love it being all about Bryce.  Sure, if our dad's lived close, I'm sure we'd get together with them and share a meal and good times.  But for right now, from sun up to sun down, we get to spoil B and that makes me so happy.  He's so giving of his time for our family and extremely supportive and involved that spoiling him for one day doesn't even seem like enough.  Here's how our Father's Day of 2013 went.

We woke up and the kids gave B the cards they picked out for him.  Each of the kids (the older 3) picked out cards for B.  R's was a cookie monster card with a sticker inside that he got to wear.  A chose a dinosaur card and W picked no other than Spongebob.  W's card included a SpongeBob pin that B wore along with his sticker.  We rushed out the door to make it to the 8:00 service at our church.  Worship at 8:00 and Sunday School at 9:15.  I had to nurse E for most of the service but I got to hear the last 10 minutes.  We had a wonderful Sunday School hour and met a new couple too.  We like there being an 8:00 service but I don't think it's going to last.  After church we met J/K/L/B at Champs for Father's Day lunch.  It was K's choice but we like Champs so we were happy.  Lunch was fun and yummy as usual.  B and K had been out late the night before on their movie date to see Star Trek.  B didn't get home until after midnight, but they had been planning it for a while.  After lunch we headed home for naps and rest before our evening activity.  B even took a nap which he usually doesn't do, so that's who I knew he was REALLY tired.

AJE was taking families to the Durham Bulls baseball game at 5 pm.  We loaded up our van and headed to Durham around 4:30.  We got to the stadium a little after 5, and I just fed E in the van while the older kids watched Lady & the Tramp.  We don't hang out with B's company much so we are trying to get more involved with them.  The previous weekend we had our baby shower for E so I remembered some of the people from the shower. The game was fun, but hot.  I had E in the sling and B took care of W.  R & A were really fine on their own for the most part.  We ate pizza and cotton candy :)  The Bulls won and after the game, the kids go to run the bases.  It was very cute.  We didn't get home until very late so there was no bath & no brushing teeth at the end of this night.  Just big kisses for daddy! 

Root Root Root for the Home Team!

Our busy weekend last weekend concluded with a Durham Bull's Baseball Game.  AJE set up a social outing for B's team and they picked a baseball game.  B & I have been to a couple, but not very many.  We enjoy outings like this, but don't go out of our way to plan them.  After a church picnic, we let the kids sleep in cherry and we made our way to Durham.  Even I took a short nap on the way out there.  The seats were great and the weather was awesome.  We couldn't have asked for a better atmosphere for the game.  The Bulls played Charlotte's team and won 6-0.  For baseball, it was very exciting.  Our family had 4 seats so W sat in my lap most of the time.  R & A sat with B most of the time as well, so we ended up only taking up 2 seats. 

Several HR were hit so we saw the bull's eyes get red and his tail move

player that played for the Yankees at one time

I'm not sure where R is when this picture was taken.  I promise we had a great time!

There were 5 couples total.  Our Hantla Clan, plus the woman who organized it and her hubby and 2 kids, another couple with 1 girl named Annabel, a married couple expecting their first child, and an engaged couple expecting their first child.  I don't remember everyone's name and B is asleep still so I can't ask him.  B returns to 75% at AJE this coming week.  This past semester he was only 25% due to teaching classes and taking classes.  Over the summer at least, he'll be 75% at AJE until we find out if he'll teach any classes at SEBTS.  Right now he's scheduled to teach one.  I'm sure he will receive a call over the summer with more opportunities for him to teach.