Hurricane Harvey! August 27- Sept 1

Sunday: more rain and Spring Creek's levels kept rising.  At first the ward was just going to have sacrament meeting but then the stake president said to just cancel church to be safe.  Some of the roads were getting covered and he didn't want people driving through water.  We discovered a couple of leaks in our roof and Doug and I spent most of the day working on taking care of those.  Doug shimmied back in the corner of the attic to hang a bucket to catch one leak and the other one we wrapped a towel around the 2 x 4 to absorb the water as it seeped down.  It worked well and we didn't have any damage inside.  There was a tornado warning at one point during the day so we all played a game in our bedroom closet.  We lost power for a couple hours but it wasn't too bad since it came back on in time for dinner.

Rainfall count: 8.75 during the day  (total of 24.5 inches in 2 days)

Monday: we prepared more and put all of our furniture upstairs or on cans.  We emptied all the bottom shelves and cupboards.  It made me realize again how much stuff we have.  Then we just waited for the water to rise.  Doug rode his bike to help neighbors put their furniture upstairs.   We visited friends down the street and in just the hour that I was there the water rose considerably.  We were all getting stir crazy at this point and I was glad to get out of the house for a minute.  The kids had been fighting a lot and we were all feeling stressed. The power went out at 5:00 pm right as I was making dinner.  We had potatoes and pork on the stove since we still could use our gas.  I wondered if this would be our last real meal for awhile.  Doug hooked up the generator around 6:00 and we turned on the fridge, freezer, and some floor lamps.  The kids had fun with their lanterns and thought it was cool to brush their teeth in the dark.  Once the kids were in bed Doug and I worked on the house more.  We also went out to the garage to put the bikes up and the others things that were on the ground.  Doug and I stayed up until 3:00 watching the water.  Doug was prepared to dig a trench in the backyard - but we didn't since we realized that it wouldn't really help.  The water was in the corner of our backyard and above the curb on our driveway when we went to bed.  My anxiety kicked in and I couldn't really go to bed.  I think I slept for about 2 hours.  I would peek out the window and see if the water in the back had gotten any closer.  (we had marked the water level with sprinklers) The water in the front was just a river.  I was glad that it was moving, to me that meant that it was draining somewhere.  If it got backed up and started pooling then I knew we would be in trouble.  Our neighbors were awake too.  We would go talk with them in their garage.  They were drinking and getting a bit drunk. They talked about tubing down the river in the street. :)  The power came around midnight and that helped a lot.  I was so grateful to have air conditioning and be able to see better. This is a map of one of the flood plains.  We are barely blue in the bottom of that dip of dry ground- so I was getting nervous that we would flood.  I think this is the 1000 year flood plain.

Rain count: about 5 more inches, total now around 30 inches

 This is the retention pond by our house, it got even higher than this during Monday night.

 Good use of our food storage!

 This is our street that turned into a river, you can see our truck in the distance.

Tuesday: I was so grateful to see that the water had gone down.  Spring Creek had crested during the night at 111.43 inches above sea level (it had gotten to 108 last year when it flooded).   Doug and I went out in the morning and took some pictures.

Standing at the bottom of our driveway:

Looking down our street to the little circle at the end. 

Looking down the next street at our mailbox. The water flowed through the greenspace that was behind our house from here. 

The little ditch that leads to the next street - this is where all of the water in front of our house was flowing out.  It was well-designed and made to flow to the creeks. 

The storm drains were full and bubbling out of the holes. 

I didn't get a picture in the dark, but the water in our back yard was a lot higher than this.  You can see the one sprinkler marking the high point on the right.  There was another sprinkler marking the left side that was closer to the house.  We just found that we have a low spot in the yard, but it never got super close.  

A tree fell down by the mailbox. 

 We went out with the kids later and the water had gone down even further. And this ditch was dry by the next day, Wednesday.

It looks like a road, but it's water. 

This area by our friends really pooled up.  Cars couldn't get through. 

Damon and Doug walked on to a house in the ward that flooded.  They had to walk over a mile in high water.  They helped fix their A/C unit.

We did a lot of communicating on Facebook and email to check on neighbors and ward members.  6 families in our ward had water in their homes.  Some were worse than others.  One home was a single story so they didn't have anywhere to put their stuff - it was all ruined.  So sad.

We found out that the temple flooded as well.  I liked how one sister put it.  It was Heavenly Father's way of saying: "Look my house flooded too, we will all get through this together."

My other project for the day was cleaning out my wheat mill.  I had pulled it out before the storm to grind some wheat to be ready and discovered lots of little bugs.  We put the whole thing in the freezer to kill them.  I brushed it out and cleaned it the best I could.   If we eat a few ground up dead bugs in our bread I guess we will live.

The relief we felt this day was so good.  I knew that we were going to be ok.  We all wished that it would stop raining but the creek was going down and we had stayed dry.  Damon went to our neighbors to play and we had their girls over to play.  Tyler and Chris went to a different friends' house to play.  I think we all needed some social time.  The girls had fun playing Just Dance with their friends.

We tried to stay busy at home after playing with friends-  The boys made more Minecraft swords and Chris made a spear.

These are some other pictures I got from FB.  This is Spring Creek that went over it's banks.  This is an intersection that I drive on almost daily.  

 I think this is the Grand Parkway with the feeder road next to it flooded.

 Another look at the creek.

Rain count: we only got 3 more inches on Tuesday, bringing our grand total to 33 inches in 5 days. 

At first school was canceled through Tuesday, but then they extended it through to Sept 4, starting the Tuesday after Labor Day.  6 days of school missed.  I think they don't have to make them up because it was due to a natural disaster.  

Wednesday: Doug and Damon went to go help with houses again.  Damon came home at lunch.  I made bread and cookies and we delivered them to the helpers and some of the families in the ward who were flooded.  I stopped by one mom and took her baby for awhile so she could get her floors and studs bleached.  We went to the park, the one nice thing about the storm was the cooler temperature.  It was so nice to be outside and not be sweating to death. 

Thursday I watched the 3 boys of this same mom so she could keep cleaning.  I was very grateful to have a quiet house when bedtime came.  8 crazy kids in a house all day long was pretty loud.  We tried to get out some fun toys to keep everyone happy.  We got out the Marble Works to help entertain the younger kids, but it was the older ones who got competitive with it.  Doug was mucking out houses again.

Before the boys came over I ran to the store real quick, it was my first time back after the storm.  I was curious what it was going to be like.  It wasn't as bad as I thought.  No produce, meat, or eggs. But they had bread and some milk.  Other areas in the store were hit or miss.  Pasta, green beans, and chips were sparse.  The store said they would be receiving trucks that day so I think they got stocked again pretty quickly.  

Friday the stake asked for the men to take a break so they wouldn't hurt themselves.  They were all working so hard.  So the women had a chance to take a turn.  I went and helped bleach floors and studs in  two homes.  Doug actually was supervising the YM/YW so he worked again, the stinker. Then he went out again in the afternoon - he's such a good worker.  Damon watched the rest of the crew at home in the morning.  I had set up a playdate for the girls so he wouldn't have to watch everyone - but I had miscommunicated via text so they didn't have their playdate until later.  Oh well. I was pretty tired and stressed out this day and probably took it out on the family.  This hurricane business is pretty crazy.  

By Saturday the homes in our ward were basically done - waiting for contractors and stuff.  So now the ward made up crews to go help other areas in the stake and nearby neighborhoods.  Doug really took the day off and stayed home doing projects around the house.  He mowed our yard and the yard of a newly widowed mother in the ward.  He still worked hard, just not by mucking houses.

I took the kids to the library in the afternoon and we even took a ride on the trolley.  It was good to get out and do something normal.  It seemed weird though and I felt a bit guilty doing something fun when I knew so many other people were in such need.  We have donated clothing, money and supported the local school with their charity drives.  Doug is mucking out homes and I am helping with kids or cleaning.  We are trying to help as much as we can.  I am so grateful though that as the end of the day, our house is fine and our lives are basically normal.  So so grateful that we didn't flood.  It was a very very very long week! And the the FB posts about nobody in Texas knowing what day it is, was so true.

Eclipse and the beginning of Hurricane Harvey Aug 20-26

Sunday was my mom's birthday.  We had recorded the kids singing some songs (at her request) and sent those to her. She of course loved them.  I talked to her in the afternoon and wished her a happy birthday.  I'm grateful to my mom - she has done so much for me.

Monday we got to see the eclipse.  Doug made a pinhole viewing box and we also borrowed some glasses so we could see it.  Tyler and Chris got to see it at school.  We took Damon out of school for just a few minutes so he could see it. He was mad at me for missing part of his class.  We got to see about 66% of the sun covered.  I thought it was pretty amazing. It also left cool eclipse shadows.  It was neat to see the total eclipse on TV.  We heard that another total eclipse will be seen closer to us in about 7 years, so maybe we will get to see that one.

You can't see this picture well, but the light blue oval below the sun is the reflection of my eye with the eclipse showing in my eye.

These are the cool moon-shaped shadows that the eclipse made through the trees. 

Tuesday I got some blogging done.  Doug had another interview with Unimin, they keep wanting to talk to Doug some more.  We think this is the last one.  It was pack meeting for Cub Scouts.  They did some fun minute-to-win-it games. Tyler got a bunch of awards because of Day Camp.

Wednesday: Doug and I went shopping, went to the library, and found some shirts for Doug at the mall.  I had a RS activity in the evening, we talked about the hurricane and how to prepare.  I tried to fill up with gas on the way home but the station was out of gas!

Thursday: Doug and I went to Splashtown - it was pretty empty.  Doug and I went to Walmart in the afternoon to get a few last minute things: cheese, more milk and water.  It was pretty crazy in the store - they had just put out a new pallet of water and everyone was chasing it.  I also had a library orientation meeting in the morning and a parent info night for Chris' class in the evening.

Friday: I went to Walmart one more time for something else and all the bread, ramen noodles, water, Gatorade, milk, spaghettios, etc. were all gone!  Pretty amazing sight. Damon made a cool Minecraft sword as well that day.

Hurricane Harvey made landfall Friday evening. 

Saturday: Hurricane Harvey made land fall near Corpus Christi - it didn't rain much where we were from Friday through Saturday afternoon. It was windy and stormy but not too bad. Our ward back to school BBQ was canceled just in case.  We played games with some neighbors last minute and Doug went over to a friends to watch a big boxing fight.  The rain really started to come down Saturday evening.

Rainfall count: 5.5 inches during the day and 10.25 during the night, measured Sunday morning

First Week of School Aug. 13-19

We have FHE evening on Sundays usually.  Damon and Tyler are doing better at preparing their own lessons.  It was Damon's turn this week.  He did a nice lesson on Scripture study and prayer.

 School started on Wednesday so we tried to pack in our last fun activities on Monday and Tuesday.  Monday we went to Splashtown and we picked up our free souvenir cups.  The kids were pretty excited about this.  We don't drink pop a lot and getting their own big cup was pretty cool.   It has been a fun summer to go swimmin. The kids said they wanted season passes again, so we'll have to see if we can do it again.

The other fun summer activity that we like to do is get a group of kids together to play Poison Ball.  Sometime we get too many kids, too loud and crazy.  This time it was more manageable and the kids had a fun time playing that in the afternoon.

Monday evening we went to meet Chris and Tyler's teachers.  Chris has Mrs. Smith and Mrs. Pastor.  They seemed nice and Chris was excited to meet them.  

I ran home and picked up Tyler to go to his school.  He is now in the intermediate school.  They didn't have things very organized there.  We got there too early, but it ended up being a good thing so we could get in line early and got to his teachers quickly.  They put the students in a group of 4 teachers and they rotate through their classes in their hallway.  They also have a fine arts class and PE.  Tyler chose to be in choir.  Tyler happened to be put in the same group as Damon was - so it was good that I knew the teachers already and I think they were good teachers.  They all remembered Damon and could see how Tyler was his brother.  Tyler was excited to be at the new school and to be growing up a bit. 

Tuesday I hosted a last day of summer swim party at our pool.  I didn't start in the greatest moods because the kids had been whining and complaining in the morning.  But by the end everyone was having and fun time.  We had a couple of families join us.  We ordered pizza and I brought some watermelon and carrots.  It was nice to swim and then come out during the breaks to eat some more food.  

We got our backpacks ready and had baths in the evening.  The girls were especially excited Tuesday evening in anticipation of the first day of school.  

Wednesday: First day of School!  We got up at 6:20 to get everyone ready.  I was grateful that Doug was around to help.  I have to be more ready now that I have to do hair in the morning.  The morning went smoothly and we even had time for some pictures.  

We drove and parked at the school so we could walk the kids to their classes.  Jenna and Kaylee went right in.  They sat right down and started playing with their play-doh.  It was so busy that I didn't even have time to get emotional.  My baby girls are in school - crazy!  Chris went to class just fine too.  I hope that this year is better for him.  He does fine at school, but getting him off in the morning was pretty rough last year.  

 

We started the older boys right off on their bikes.  Doug and I rode with them the first day, mostly so we could take a picture.  Tyler with the Chandler brothers, off to 5th grade at Tom Cox. 

Drew and Damon nervous and excited for 7th grade at York Jr. High!  

 

Well, the kids did great the first day.  The girls were excited to tell me all the things they did.  Kaylee was a bit sad when I meet her at the sidewalk at dismissal.  She was nervous that Jenna or Chris wasn't there to walk with her, but we got that all sorted out now.  It is so hot after school, and they haven't been letting them have recess because I guess they have a rule when it is over 95 degrees.  I hope it starts to cool down soon so they can go outside.

Thursday and Friday went ok with school.  Chris had a hard morning on Thursday.  We bought him lace up shoes and he needs a bit more time to get those on in the morning.  And no one can help him or touch his shoes or he blows up.  He had one shoe on already then got upset and threw that one off too, sigh.  I hope he grows out of this stage soon.

I was busy during school, Wednesday a friend held a back to school brunch for the moms.  It was fun to socialize and enjoy being kidless!  Friday Doug and I went to Splashtown together.  It was great to be there early - it wasn't too crowded.  Again there are benefits to being unemployed, however we are starting to be ready for Doug to move on.  He has some final interviews next week, so hopefully we will have some more information/answers soon.

To celebrate the first days of school we took the kids to Wendy's to get some frostys.  Then we watched part of a movie.  Jenna however was not following directions and missed the movie and all of her screen time on Saturday.  I hope she realizes that good things happen when we make good choices.  I love being a parent, sigh.

So, instead of screen time Jenna helped me make pies on Saturday.  We invited a family over for dinner and we made banana cream and key lime pie.  They were yummy and gone too quickly.  

More Summer Aug 6-12

For FHE activity today we got out the expansion for Settler's of Catan so that everyone could play.  Well, it only brings it up to 6 players and the girls just helped Doug and I, but it was fun to have us all there playing.  Jenna brought down Master Mind, so we were playing some side games with her too.  Chris does pretty well on his own so it's nice when they get older and can start playing some more complex games.

Monday morning I went with Damon to pick up his class schedule.  He got College and Career Readiness and Technology I for his 2 electives.  He has the normal L.A,. math (Algebra), science, Texas History, and PE for his other 5 classes.  We found his locker, purchased PE clothes, and walked the path of all of classes so he wouldn't be lost the first day.  He is pretty nervous about the classes being harder and getting to class on time.  

It was a rainy day - we were going to go to Splashtown, but instead we went to the church to play poison ball.  The boys love it.  They play it after scouts every week too.  You can play with one or two balls.  You try to get people out by hitting them with a ball (think dodge ball), but if they catch it - then you are out, and you sit down.   The thing that is different is that when the person who got you out gets out (sits down), then you get to stand up and play again.  You can have a winner - meaning that that person had to get everyone out by themselves.  But it is hard to do in a big group.  Chris stayed home with Doug, but the girls came to play on the stage with friends.  They usually color and play with balls with the other younger kids. 

We had dropped off our van in the morning to getting a recall on our sliding door fixed.  So in the evening we went to pick it up.  On the way home we stopped by Payless to get some shoes.  I hadn't thought about shoe shopping earlier since I thought everyone still fit their shoes.  Well last week the kids let me know that their shoes were feeling tight so off we went.  I wasn't going to go this day, but while at the church a friend told me that it was the last day for their clearance sale.  So we found a pair for Chris there.  We went to Ross to find a pair for Kaylee and to Famous Footwear for Damon.  Tyler was at home with Doug - we bought some for Tyler earlier in the summer.  We couldn't find any for Jenna so I told her we would look at some other stores on Tuesday.  Can I just say that shoe shopping is my least favorite with kids - unless you just have one.  The others are just running around crazy.  Chris especially since he was done first he was just a menace in the other stores, sigh.  I need to make an effort next year to take them individually or have Doug help me.  Something!  

Tuesday was another fun filled day.  We stopped at the library quick to drop off books and picked up a few new ones.  Then we headed over to the movie theater to see the last summer movie: Sing.  We don't have that one and the kids have only seen it a couple of times, so it was fun to watch it again.  It was pretty crowded, but we were able to find 6 seats on the front row of the balcony part.  It was great.  I had packed us a lunch so we ate back in the van when the movie was over.  Then we headed over to the mall.  We found Jenna a pair of shoes at that Payless.  They weren't on sale as much as they would have been if we had bought them on Monday, but I had a coupon so it wasn't too bad.  We of course had to stop by the pet store and the Lego store - our two regular stops at the mall.  I was getting tired and we needed to get back.  Damon and Tyler had been invited to play games at a friends house.  I'm glad we found Jenna some shoes and it was a fun outing.  

After dinner we had even more fun by going to Sk8 Town (Damon and Doug stayed home).  I had promised the girls that we would go and we finally found a day to go.  We even had some passes so we only had to pay for two of us.  When we went to Utah I brought back my mom's old roller-blades so that was fun for me.  We had a great time.  The kids were in good spirits and they loved trying to get better.  They stayed on the carpeted area at the beginning but by the end they were all making laps around the rink and even letting go of the wall for moments at a time.  Chris took one hard fall and got a carpet burn on his chin (his face slid into the wall), after that he was a bit more cautious - so maybe it was a good thing.  Of course now the girls ask all the time to go back.  I guess they like to roller skate. :)

During the summer I have tried to keep us busy and also tried to keep the kids learning or doing some engaging activities.  We would do 'centers' when we had time.  Our stations included: reading, math, iPad (learning games), typing, and piano.  At the beginning of summer they had to earn screen time by getting points by doing various daily chores etc.  I got tired of keeping track of their points so by the end of summer they just had to read, do an act of service and one of the following: type, write in their journal, practice handwriting, exercise, or sort legos.  They still had to do their daily chore things, they just didn't get points for them anymore.  It worked fairly well.  My biggest problem with screen time is the fighting about who gets to play what, and the whining when it's time to be done.  We starting having a pow-wow in the morning to decide who got to play what and that helped.  They still need to work on quitting nicely. 

We also swam a lot this year.  Between Splashtown and our pool we probably went 3-4 times a week.  Sometimes the kids would whine about going, but always had fun when we got there.  You definitely need to be in water if you are going to be outside in Houston during the summer.  I did get tired of braiding the girls' hair and putting sunscreen on everyone, but that's just how it goes. 

 The girls reading.  (Can I just say how proud I am of them.  They are my most advanced readers going into Kindergarten.  They just learned their sight words so young and then just picked it up themselves.  It is so fun to watch them read, bigger books and the scriptures too.)

One of Damon's act of service:  

Thursday night we got two phone calls from the girls' kindergarten teachers.  Jenna got Mrs. Bonner and Kaylee got Mrs. Grabowski.  When I asked the second teacher if they were in the same hall she said no.  When I registered the girls I had asked if they could be in different classes but in the same hallway so that they would have lunch, recess, PE, and Music together.  So the teacher told me to call the school in the morning.  In the meantime all of the kindergarten moms are posting on Facebook who their teachers are and seeing if anyone is in the same class.  The girls didn't have anyone in their classes but multiple friends told me how great a teacher Mrs. Grabowski is and that if I was going to try and switch the girls to get them in the same hallway to keep her and try and switch Jenna to another class.  Other friends had said that they hadn't liked Mrs. Bonner as much,- taught to a classroom level and didn't push the more advanced readers.  So I knew that I when I called I wanted to try and switch Jenna if I could.  Also we found out that 5 of our church friends got in the same class (it will be like Primary in there).  FYI there are 9 kindergarten classes this year, much better than the 13 last year - so grateful for the new school being built and lowering our numbers.  No portables this year!  

So Friday morning I got a phone call from the counselor (Mrs. Grabowski must have told her of the situation) and told me that Kaylee was now in Mrs. Lemon's class.  She had beat me to the my phone call and I didn't have a chance to ask to switch the girls the other way.  I briefly tried to ask if I could switch Jenna instead.  She said that the classes were already full and that teachers had already made their phone calls.  It ended a bit abruptly and I just didn't feel good about it.  I called some more friends to learn more about Mrs. Bonner.  I send an email to the counselor and told her how I was going to call that morning and make my request.  I told her my concerns about Jenna needing a more loving and helpful teacher.  I got a phone call later in the day giving me the choice that Kaylee could stay in Grabowski and that Jenna could go into Mrs. Smith's class or leave it the same: Bonner/Lemon.  I was told Mrs. Smith was a new teacher, just finished her student teaching at Broadway last year.  So I was a little bit nervous about that too.  Some new teachers are great, and some aren't.  I talked to Doug about it and called the counselor back saying we would take Grabowski and Smith.  I felt good about that, but then she called back again later that afternoon saying that the teachers had moved rooms and that Mrs. Smith was not in that hallway anymore- AHHH.  I was getting tired of the changes and I had to keep telling Jenna who her new teacher was.  Anyway, my new choices were: Kaylee in Grabowski and Jenna in Bruner or both girls in Grabowski.  That me me stop for a moment.  I had already decided that I wanted them in different classes, but it would be so much easier for me to have them together and to know that they both would get a great teacher was so tempting.  I asked the counselor what experience she had with twins being together versus apart.  She said that those who were separated usually grew more individually and educationally.  She told me that Bruner was a veteran teacher who had taught there a long time and was a great teacher, and that the classroom was right across the hall from Grabowski.  So I decided to go with that.  Then she even asked which girl I wanted where.  I never realized the stress/pressure that would bring: how do you chose which one gets a known great teacher and which one gets a more unknown.  That was hard.  Anyway we kept Kaylee in Grabowski and Jenna is now in Bruner.  Crazy!! But I think it all ended up for the best.  

That evening I took the girls in to meet their teachers.  They had us all meet in the cafeteria to learn about general stuff, then we went back to the classrooms.  The girls were so excited.  It took me awhile to fill out all the paperwork twice and it was so hot in the building.  I don't think the A/C was working very well.  But we got it all done and the girls are ready for kindergarten!

Doug and Damon left Friday afternoon to go camping with the scouts.  It really is hard to go camping in this area.  You can't go in the summer at all- way too hot.  They try to fit them all in during the fall and spring.  It was a really warm weekend, poor Doug had a long night.  He had a battery operated fan, but he still didn't sleep well.  They went to Ink's Lake that is a little west of Austin 3 1/2 hours away.  They played in the water and some did some cliff jumping.  I think they had a pretty good time.  

 We did our own thing Saturday, chores, screen time and lots of Lego hunting.  The boys are trying to sell some of their sets so we have been looking for pieces.  We also played poison ball at the church again.

I cooked some hamburgers for dinner and went swimming afterwards.  We went to the Spring Trails pool with some friends for about 30 minutes, but then they left so we went to our pool where our friends were having a birthday party for one of the their girls.  So we just joined their swim party.  It was fun.  Doug and Damon had just gotten home when we got back.

Lots of cooking this week! July 30 - Aug 5

Another busy week.  I've been teaching my Sunday school class almost every week because my partner has been out of town.  But she will be getting back soon and will teach on the 6th and 13th so that will be a nice break.  I like the material for my lessons, but I haven't figured out how to engage this age group.  They just play on the phones and talk the whole time and show no respect to me or their peers.  

Monday we had my friends kids over all day.  She is in Hawaii so she needed some friends to help her out.  She just has two right now (expecting their third) so it wasn't a big deal.  They kids played well all day.  Doug helped by taking the boys to their swim lessons so that I could stay home with the others.  Their little boy is quite a picky eater, but we finally got him to eat some mac and cheese - he didn't have much breakfast.  I ended up watching another little boy for a couple of hours too in the afternoon.  Their family is moving and the mom was trying to pack without help from her 2 year old.  The dad of the other two got off of work a bit early so he came and got them around 3:30, I had invited them over for dinner - thinking that he could just stay and eat when he picked them up.  But it still worked out, they just came back over for dinner later.  I made Parmesan chicken with bow-tie noodles, fruit, broccoli, salad, and bread sticks.  Chris had asked for chocolate cake yesterday for FHE treat so we had some of that with ice cream for dessert.  

I also made this cheesecake on Monday because it said that it needed to chill overnight - and I was serving it for Book Group on Tuesday.  It was super yummy- coconut lime cheesecake.  And book group when well.  We discussed The Gravity of Birds.  I think most people liked it and we discussed the relationships in the book.  It was a fun night. 

Tuesday - Thursday we had swim lessons of course.  The boys have done so well.  It has been fun to watch them improve and learn new things.  Chris is a natural in the water.  I am thinking of putting him in a swim team next summer.  On the last day Damon passed off his BSA swim test that he needed to pass for his 1st class rank, so that was great!

We did hair cuts this week.  The boys of course and I tried to trim the girls a bit.  I cut more on Jenna's than Kaylee's.  Jenna would like her hair short I think, but I told her not yet.  I don't think I'm ready for their hair to be gone yet.  

Jenna

 Kaylee

Wednesday we went to a funeral for a father in the ward.  It was a sudden thins and quite a shock to everyone of course.  We think it was due to complications from a surgery that had taken place a week prior.  He left behind his wife with a 10 year old son and a 5 year old daughter.

Thursday I made dinner for this family going through this hard time.  They had a lot of family in town so we were asked to prepare dinner for 14 people, mostly adults.  That's quite a bit of food - especially when you add in my family.  So I made a double batch of chicken rice casserole, a double batch of bread-sticks, and a quick batch of peanut butter balls.  I also brought some watermelon and a bag of salad.  The bummer was that the family actually ended up eating out that night to celebrate a birthday, but they had it for lunch the next day.  Oh well, at least it got eaten.  The mom was still appreciative.  She gave me a HUGE basket of flowers from the funeral to take home.  I divided it into 3 vases to make it more manageable.  It was nice to have fresh flowers throughout the house.

Friday I watched three girls for another mom who is having a hard pregnancy and we went swimming with them and then had lunch.  It's interesting to watch other kids eat.  You just get used to your own and their quirks.  It reminds me that I do have really good kids and I need to appreciate them more.

I think we went swimming to splashtown sometime during the week - I can't remember.  We have been just enjoying summer and trying to be nice to each other at home.  We are getting on each others' nerves and no one has much patience.  But we are hanging in there.  The girls are counting the days until school starts.  They are so excited.