Rachel Swings!

Last year I had to hold Rachel on the swing and just barely move her because she was so wobbly on it.  We put it away when the hurricane was here, but Jeff got it back out and Zane has been swinging on it with Rachel watching.  The other day, she decided she was going to swing.  Didn't need any help.  And she did!  She has fallen over backwards a couple times, but hasn't gotten hurt and didn't cry and all she talks about is how she is a big girl and is proud of herself for swinging.  And, "Are you so proud of me?"  :)  She is such a wonderful girl!!!

Here are some videos. They are in backward order-she first gets to swinging at the last ones.

Hurricane Cleanup

Branches everywhere!  So we got busy stacking.  The city hired a company to start carrying all the brush away.  It has taken many weeks, but the city is looking like it's back to normal.

I didn't care-I needed caffeine!!!  Warm coke.  Blah and so good at the same time.  hahaha

My helpers!

The yard was full of these little beautiful flowers.

Watching cleanup

Pudding snack!

Very happy to be outside.

They were giving away roses at HEB.  Probably because nobody was buying them, but it sure made me feel good.  HEB did alot for our community.

Brush piles by the side of our road.

It's bigger than it looks!

Rachel Turned Three!

Rachel's birthday was memorable this year!  Hurricane Harvey came through on her birthday!  She took everyone not being able to come in stride and was happy with her cake that I frosted in the dark.  And she had presents to open, so who wouldn't be happy with that?!  :)  She is so sweet and so happy that she is three!

Yes, that's her birthday cake!  haha!

Hurricane Harvey

Waaaaay back in August, we had a huge weather event.  I thought we were inland enough that we would not get a hurricane, but nope, it was coming at us as a category 4.  Uff da.  We had made the decision to stay and ride it out.  All our neighbors but one stayed.  Jeff was so wonderful and boarded up the windows-all but one window on the back door, also on the back side of the house.  I was so scared.  Had we made the right decision to stay?  We didn't have any turning back once we made it because the traffic leaving town would have been bad and we didn't want to get stuck on the road in a hurricane.

Jeff came out of the room one morning-I think it was a Thursday morning and said, we need to prepare for a hurricane.  Fill up the water bottles, get food ready, etc.   So, I went to HEB.  They had water ready outside-it wasn't all that busy and I wasn't sure what to get.  I saw another man inside and looked in his cart and immedicately knew he was preparing.  Canned food, waters, etc.  I asked him what I needed and ended up getting more bottled water and more canned food.  But he said, it's better to have plenty than to be in need.  By the time I left, traffic was picking up as other people had heard the weather news.

Of course, we always have to do Buddy Bucks.

Storm clouds going to pick up Zane from school Thursday.  No school on Friday.

Canned food was disappearing quickly at Walmart.

I cleared an area in our closet-an inner room-for the kids to sleep.

 They thought it was great.  And they slept all through the night, but I sure didn't.  I thought the roof was going to come off.  I could hear branches hitting the boarded up windows and I was about to crawl on the floor curled up, but Jeff woke up and traded sides with me so I wouldn't have be closest to the outside wall.  It was so intense.  And the thing is, it didn't last an hour.  Or two hours.  Or three hours.  It lasted DAYS?  I think so anyway, it felt like it.  That Friday night, the power was going on and off, on and off, on and off, and I finally was able to breathe when it went off for good in the middle of the night.  We woke up and let me tell you-a house that is boarded up is dark.  And then, our water went off.  We used 5 gallon buckets to catch rain water to flush the toilets with.  The kids learned to take their toy lantern to the bathroom.  And we used hand santizer after we washed our hands.  We took spit bathes.  And thankfully, had more than enough water to drink.  We did not have to boil rain water or boil water when it came back on.  I'm glad to because when the water came on a couple days later and I filled the bathtub, it was yellow.  We were under a boil order for maybe a week after that?  I'm not sure.  We were really fortunate.  All we had was tree damage.  

We were supposed to have a big party for my baby girl on Saturday.  It was her third birthday.  But, nobody could come.  I made a heart cake on Friday night before we lost power, and ended up frosting in on Saturday morning when we had no power.  We sang to her and she opened her presents in the light from the window on the back door.  Every meal we moved our table so we could have light.  I found out the kids hate spaghettios.  And frankly, I tried them and they are "yuck" as the kids say.  More pictures on a whole blog post about Rachel's birthday...

Prettiest girl in the entire world.

I'm three!

The chickens rode out the storm in their coop.  Jeff had tied it to a tree.  They were so glad to see me when we finally went out there a couple days later.

He's the best.  Finishing up the windows while it was literally a tropical storm outside.  He was soaked to the skin several times.  I love you so much, Jeffy. 

School was canceled for maybe a week?  I think so.  The school had some damage, but it could have been worse.  I have a friend who is still waiting to get her house/roof repaired.  All around town there are still blue tarps on roofs.  I think we were fortunate because we had to replace ours when we bought our house a few years ago.

If we were to get another hurricane, would I stay?  Yes.  We've made an assessment of how we did and the only thing we would get more of is gas and more water bottles.  Plus, lots of people had trouble getting back to their homes because of blocked roads and flooded roads.  It was nice to start cleanup right away.  
Some of these videos may be repeats.  Enjoy the hurricane!