Aaron's Birthday

Aaron's birthday this year was once again eventful!

Jace picked out Aaron's cake design. Of course, he chose Texas.

Aaron blew out all the candles which was easy because we didn't have exactly 41 candles. We just put in as many candles as we could find.

Jace (with help from Melanie) made a sign for Aaron to run through. Jace believes that every birthday should included the birthday person running through a sign while everybody yells surprise! You may have already guessed what we did on his birthday that ended up setting precedence.

Michael and Melanie made it home that afternoon just in time for the storm to hit. It really hit hard!! 

 Before long we were in a major hailstorm. These pictures don't do it justice. It was eery hearing the hail hit the roof and windows.

Este braved the storm to grab a piece of hail to show how big they were. Keep in mind he has gigantic hands.

In the neighboring town the hail was softball size. There was extensive damage to cars and buildings. The hail broke through skylights at Walmart resulting in hail falling inside the store. Once the storm passed customers went outside only to find their back windows broken out of their cars.

Here, the damage was not quite on that level. We will need a new roof (along with all the other houses in the area) and the Suburban is covered in pock marks.

We are very grateful that it wasn't worse. This is a photo taken from a baseball game in town that night.

And all our phones kept going off with these alerts.

It is times like this that we look at our emergency preparedness and plan what to do in case of "what if..." actually happened. We are reminded of the power of Mother Nature. Maybe it was just her way of telling Aaron, "Happy Birthday!"

It's Still HOT!!

I remember walking out of Walmart one day when my parents were visiting us in South Texas, feeling that gush of hot humid air, my Dad said, "Yep, it's still hot." I think of that often. When we lived in Utah I would walk out of the store feeling that frigid, dry, freeze-your-nose-hairs cold air and say to myself, "Yep, it's still freezing." Fast forward a few years and a few degrees.....we're back in Texas and it's still hot!

The local newspaper lied to me a few weeks ago when they reported the end of triple digit temperatures. We had a few weeks of cooler weather as reprive but the temps are back up. We have all found ways to beat the heat.

Vanessa chose to ward off the heat with a slice of watermelon out on the back porch.

 Complete with the juice dribble down her chin. I LOVE it!

Savanah preferred her watermelon sliced indoors at the table.

AJ usually comes home red faced and sweaty. I snapped a photo as soon as he came in the door before he could protest only to notice that we wasn't red faced and sweaty. Turns out the neighbor saw him walking home and gave him a ride. I kept the photo just because photos of AJ are so hard to come by these days.

Ethan spent his afternoon playing football.

100+ degree heat, humidity, pads, helmets, and a turf field.....sounds fun, right? He comes home from practice and games drenched in sweat. I could literally wring the sweat out of his shirt if I dared touch it. The heat won't stop him though. I'm telling you that high school football here in Texas needs its own seperate post. Stay tuned.

Este came home sweaty and red faced.

He even had back pack sweat marks. Nice.

I used the heat to my advantage by hanginng the rug out to dry on the balcony. It didn't take long to dry.

Aaron spends his days in his air conditioned office in the hot seat keeping the company going.

Here they say that Texas is hotter than a stolen tamale. With that, I would have to agree.

Amazing!

Hurricane Dolly recently swept over South Texas. We watched the news and weather reports closely. We worried and prayed. When all was said and done, we heard some pretty amazing stories.

South Padre Island was probably the hardest hit. It was just a few months ago that we were playing on the beach there. This is what it was like for us.

This is what it looks like as the storm approached. The beach where we played was completely under water. Only the dunes were left to be seen.


Power was not restored for over a week. Many hotels and businesses had major damage. For an area dependent on tourism, the effects of rebuilding may take longer and the economic repercussions may be felt for some time.

The eye of the storm took a slight turn northward as it made landfall. It went directly over the homes of some of our friends. They said the rain was coming in at a horizontal angle. After a brief period of calm, as the eye passed over, the rain came in again horizontally only this time from the other direction.

My close friend and mentor, Elena, lived right where the south eyewall went over. This means they had some of the worst winds without any of the calm. Elena was reading the Book of Mormon Stories with her kids that night. Ernest was sick in bed with an extremely high fever. When she realized part of the roof had blown off their house, she told the kids, "Get your shoes on. We have to leave." The girls grabbed a couple of pictures, and at the time, Elena wasn't sure what the others grabbed. Since they couldn't walk across the street due to high winds with metal flying through the air, she pulled their Suburban to the front door, loaded the kids with her sick husband, and drove across the street to Ernest's sister's house. There, they spent the rest of the night with a total of 12 kids, 2 mothers, and Ernest who was still sick in bed. It is a small house with all the windows boarded up to keep the glass from shattering inside. There was no electricity. The heat was stifling. They sat, listening to the winds howl and the rains pour, not knowing what would be left of their house.
The morning after the hurricane passed, Elena went to their home only to find the ceiling laying on the sofa, broken wood from the roof on the fridge, and the ceiling of the bathroom ready to collapse. As she put it, "I have natural skylights in my house." The wall holding her cupboards became so saturated with water, the cupboard fell breaking half of her dishes. As she started the clean up process, she pulled the garbage can to the back door and just started throwing things out. Their furniture was mostly ruined. Luckily the bedrooms and most of their clothes were spared although she had to wash all the the clothes to prevent them from getting moldy. (Laundry for 8 people is a never ending experience.) Further assessment has determined they will need to replace the floor, walls, ceiling and roof. Other than that...........

Ernest was admitted to the hospital shortly after the hurricane. His white blood cell count was high and his potassium levels were low. He was placed on IV antibiotics and given fluids for dehydration. They never determined where the infection was coming from. After a few days in the hospital, he was released. On the way home, Elena noticed he looked sad. She teased him, "Do you want to stay in the hospital?" He replied, "No, I just realized there is no home to go to. We are homeless." He was right.

As I have talked with Elena these past few weeks I have learned the true meaning of amazing. She is not bitter, in fact, we still joke around making each other laugh out loud. She told me people can either choose to be bitter or they can decide things are going to get better. She holds her head high and does what needs to be done. She told her kids, all the things in the house are just stuff. They are replaceable. They have their family and that is really what matters.

They are staying with her aunt while they work to make their house habitable. They are hoping FEMA may help them rebuild. The family of eight is sharing two rooms. They continue to read the Book of Mormon as a family and pray together daily. In fact, as they left their home in the midst of the storm, the kids grabbed their scriptures. I have often wondered, if I had time to grab only one thing from my home leaving the rest behind, what would it be? For them, it was memories and scriptures. Everything else was just "stuff".

Aaron pointed out a scripture to me one night after I spoke with Elena.

"...remember, remember that it is on the rock of our Redeemer, who is Christ, the Son of God, that ye must build your foundation; that when the devil shall send forth his mighty winds, yea, his shafts in the whirlwind, yea, when all his hail and his mighty storm shall beat upon you, it shall have no power over you to drag you down to the gulf of misery and endless wo, because of the rock upon which ye are built, which is a sure foundation, a foundation whereon if men build they cannot fall." Helaman 5:12

Like Aaron said, this scripture has new meaning. They are examples of this

They are amazing!

Happy People

The boys were out of school for spring break this last week, well, actually they were only out Thursday, Friday, and Monday. We'll take what we get.

We spent some time working out in the yard especially since the weather was great for most of the time. We met up with John & Suzie and the park one day. The boys enjoyed playing Frisbee. Vanessa and Madi tried to play with the Frisbee but, their version was more like bowling.
Yesterday, since Aaron took the day off, we took the kids miniature golfing. They had a special club for Vanessa. She didn't fare to well. Note to self: next time don't go during nap time. She's not even on a regular nap schedule but yesterday, she needed one. Savanah had a lot of fun. It was her first time mini-golfing. The fact that my score was closer to her's than Ethan's (who won) tells you what kind of golf day I had. Only Savanah would go golfing in Capri's and heels.We all got a little sunburned. After 10 years of "perma-tan" in Texas it is nice to have some color back in our skin, well it will be nice when that color in tan instead of pink.

We had so much fun! I'm grateful for the few days that we had to be together as a family. We needed a break from our normal routine and the warm weather made it even better. By the way, it's snowing again today.

Soak up the Sun

It snowed here yesterday, again. I'm ready for spring to finally get here. There is hope however. My crocuses are sprouting, which means warmer days are coming. I wanted to share them with you but, I don't kow if they bring as much happiness and hope to you as they do for me. I hope so at least in some small way.
This weekend is supposed to be warm and I can't wait to soak up the sun.

Warm Weather and Inspirations

When we lived in Texas, we lived in the area where older citizens would spends their winters enjoying the nice warm weather and mild temperatures.

Now, we live in the area where they spend their summers enjoying cooler weather and various outdoor activities. I guess we went from one extreme to the other.

On another note, there is popular Mexican restaurant in this area that boasts it's food is inspired from the Rio Grande Valley. I say, the next time the owners are being "inspired" they need to be eating a botana. "The Valley" does have some of the most amazing Mexican food along the border. It was called Tex-Mex and was a perfect blend of foods from Texas and Mexico. I could really be inspired sitting down to a huge beef botana and homemade tortillas. Ah, a las, there is no such thing here in the north.

Frosting?

When Savanah woke up this morning, she announced there was "frosting on the barn". At first, I was confused, but looked outside and realized what she meant.Yes, that is snow falling. I hope my spring flowers survive.

Springtime in Utah

Here is the problem with springtime in Utah. Last week it was in the 70's and we enjoyed being outside. I would walk around the yard searching for new plants and flowers. I'm not sure what is a plant and what is a weed growing. I guess I will just wait to see for sure. I'll leave anything that has a flower on it.

This week it snowed again. Most of the snow was gone by the next day, but so are those nice sunny, warm days. I know the sun will be returning, but I have the feeling the snow will also at least one more time. I hope my little crocus' can deal with the weird weather of spring.

Heat Wave

We are experiencing unusually warm temperatures for this time of year. Yeah!! The highs have been in the high 40's. I am able to walk out to my mailbox without a coat. Amazing! The kids have been playing outside more. The problem is that all the snow is melting so it's muddy and yucky, but who cares I'm just happy that it is warm.
I don't think winter is over yet. I think we are just being blessed with a little break and we are really going to enjoy it while it lasts.