still waiting . . .

I checked with my parents, the sister they are staying with, and another sister, all evacuated a little further north towards Houston. All are in good spirits so far. It is a beautiful day where they are, only 1 hour's drive from Galveston. We will be praying hard for them and all those who WILL be greatly affected. As the storm heads towards us, we hope to keep our electricity. We are also hunkered down and ready....back when we can.

These two photos are taken at the same spot, one in July while we were visiting, one this morning. By the way, these women are on top of the sea wall--17 feet up and normally 40 feet away from the ocean!

RUNNING FROM IKE

Here we go again. This time it is IKE. Most of my family have received mandatory evacuation, though I am not sure if my parents will go. Everyone got such a bad memory of last year when they sat on the Hwy for over 24 hours to go a short distance. The gov't is promising a better evacuation, but who knows. I am trying to keep in touch with my family before we lose communication so I can make sure where they are. I hope my parents leave, taking their car full of so many family heirlooms.

ANOTHER problem, this IKE is expected to hit at high tide, causing even a larger tidal surge, now they are saying 14-22 feet. My parents live at an elevation of 5 feet and the bay is only 4 miles from their home :( They are also on the "dirty" side, the east side, where the winds are the strongest and the tornadoes happen. Time for no sleep and lots of praying

AFTER IKE hist, it is making a bee line for us, so my family can not evacuate to us, and we will be making sure everything is tied down outside.

RUTH's back

Ruth has been sick with a cold. I took her to the Dr. not for the cold, but to follow up with the migraines that she has begin to get. While there, I asked the Dr. to check her back again because she had a slight curvature a few years ago, but a different Dr. said it was normal and most girls get it as they grow. We went for X-rays and she does have scoliosis, but not bad and we will follow up with yearly X-rays.

HURRICANE WATCH

Guess what we are watching for! Though we do not live right on the coast, the projected path will take sweet Gustav over us once he makes landfall. Luckily my family in the Houston area should be OK-except for a lot of rain, they will not need to evacuate. We will be bringing in things tonight and preparing for a lot of rain, but today, it is a beautiful day and warm. The kids do not have school tomorrow, so we will be doing a little shopping for new school desks for their bedrooms.

We did get the dog bathed so if he is stuck inside for a few days, he will not stink us out....this is Cooper

This is Galveston on a calm day, we will see what it is soon. This was taken this summer when we went to visit my family.

SCHOOL

Today is the first day of school. Ruth is now in Intermediate school with Sara-one 5th and one 6th. They were both nervous for different reasons. Ruth does not know the routine, and having a locker with a lock is a new and nervous event. Sara is concerned over new teachers, not sure if she will be able to read the cursive writing on the board, and them not having an ESL teacher yet. This year due to overcrowding (new school will open next year), the ESL in in a nasty portable across the parking lot and Sara is afraid a stranger will get her going to class. They both got on the bus fine this morning and I told Sara about 10 times to make sure her sister gets home and off the bus at the right stop.....always the nervous mom.



As for me, I am spending the day decluttering the summer clutter, catching up on laundry, and maybe a little reading.

Summer Fun

Today I took the girls and sister friends to a local water park for the day. We all had a great time. There was not much crowd, I think because it looked like rain all day and school is about to start. I got on a few slides with them, but when they went on other, I found some shade or hung out at the wave pool and watched them.

A new baby in town

We have a first addition to a new generation on my side of the family. My nephew and his wife had a beautiful baby boy on 8-8-08. We hope to visit and begin to spoil him. His name....Preston, after his dad and grandpa.

Finally home from vacation

We arrived home this afternoon from our 2 wks in Georgia, which included two reunions. The first one was the yearly Judd family reunion which went well. We had the first of the next generation, Kyle, with us. He is just barely one and tooooo cute. Yes, we did make a pilgrimage to the nearly local Krispy Kream for the royal treat(ssss)-YUM! We all played a lot of badminton and played a lot of card games. The biggest skills test was the capturing and removing of mice (some would call them rats) that we had in our cabin. We did remove two. There was a lot of screaming, mostly from the older girls, and excitement from the younger. Jeff was upset that they ate through the lid of his cashews and ate some :(

The next reunion was for Sara and her life long friend Ling from China. Sara arrived in the US about a month before Ling and this is the first time in 1 1/2 years that they have seen each other. After a bit of shyness on their parts, they were back together again, mostly playing chess and watching their Chinese soaps we brought back with us. Ling was staying with her Aunt Sue, who is a wonderful woman. The girls had one sleepover at out condo, then the next night with Sue. Of course parting is sweet sorrow and Sara had her meltdown within an hour of returning after the farewells, but we will spend a lot of time looking at photos and planning the next great time......photos to follow......it is midnight and I need sleep!!!!!

We did catch the opening of the Olympics this evening. I did have to wake Sara up to see China come in. What a fantastic program.

Summer...heat

The girls and I have taken a small vacation to visit my family and celebrate my father's birthday. While there we visited Galveston and a local wave pool. Those of you living north, please please send us cooler weather and RAIN!

Sara had a soccer tournament and their team came in last, but they had fun. My older sister and one of her daughters came for a weekend visit and another local sister came over and we did what we love to do...work puzzles.

Then my parents came into town for the July 3rd celebration to watch fireworks and see my little sister play in her community orchestra-she does flute and piccolo. We did not get to see the fireworks due to Sara's trip to the EMS trailer for heat exhaustion.

Now we are trying to hang out inside. The girls are doing great this summer with their reading or school work. They are also totally into Webkins.

I will add more photos when I get home. My dear husband fixed the computer so I can no download photos, so I have some catching up to do.....all for now. The girls are behind me trying to get their walkie talkies working and are making me totally insane!!!!!

summer fun

Just hangin out for the summer . . .

Ruth's school honors

Today was the official last day of school and also Ruth's graduation ceremony from 4th grade. Next year she will be at the same Intermediate school with Sara.

Ruth took honors also with her reading points-over 1 million words this year! She also got top citizenship award for the class, honors for the recorder, and again..ALL A GRADES ALL YEAR LONG! She also took honors for PE.

After the class gives out awards, we have a "clap out" in which all of the children in the school, parents and teachers included, line the halls of the school as they all clap as the 4th graders walk from their hall at the far end of the school to the auditorium for the slide show of them from K-4. They are the first class to go all 5 years at this new school and it was wonderful to watch them grow up all over again....YES, I WAS CRYING SO THERE!

Sara's 5th grade awards

Today we had Sara's 5-C awards for the end of the year. This girl really surprised me! She got 7 awards. Top grade in Math, top grade in Languare Arts, 6 Flags Awards for reading, top ESL girl student, 2nd place in the chess club, and one for outstanding citizenship-no behavioral problems all year. She also got honors for reading over 100 AR (book credits) during the year. WAY TO GO GIRL! I almost forgot--ALL A'S THE ENTIRE YEAR LONG!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY SON!

Yes, you heard me right. Today is my son's birthday. He would have been 24. He is the angel brother for the girls and they are comfortable with that. This morning we sang him happy birthday and then off to school.

Bryan was born one month premature, but that was not what he died of. He died from Group B Strep, that he got from me invitro. There were so many babies dying from this that a test for it is now a routine for expectant mothers, so in a way my dear Bryan is saving many other children...my angel.

Bryan dies when he was only one day old from this. He was the my only son, and the only birth I had. He will always be in my heart and the big brother to our girls.

4th grade recorder recital

Ruth had her 4th grade recorder recital and it was really cute. I am quite sure that many of these lovely children will not be professionals, but I am also 100% that they are all as cute as they can be!!! Ruth is the one with the white headband.

Still here

We got the breakdown and check from the insurance claim on the hail damage and I am ready for that fight. They depreciated parts of the house that were less than a year old, assuming that they were original to the 6 yr house...I will be changing that tomorrow. Of course the check will not nearly cover the damage, so we will adjust to what will get done and what will not or we will have to do ourselves, like the fence.

The girls are fine. They came in first in their age division and will get their trophy soon. We had our soccer party with this new team and instead of, like the old one when we went to someones house and swam in their pool and did pot luck, we went to a game hall and the kids both breezed through $40! Next year, we may bow out or let them know that there is a cheaper way to do things. The coach commented to me that my girls were hanging out too much together and not spending time with the other girls.....how much sharing can you do when you are trying to win games and collect the tickets for the cheap toys that you cash them in on.... I ask you! Only one other set of parents stayed, so even the parents could not "mingle", of course most of them drop the kids off at practice and run, returning the second it is over and scoop and run. Most parents I have no clue who goes with what kid! SORRY, DONE RANTING!

BIG HAIL STORM

We had a very bad storm last night about 9 pm and we spent part of the night hiding in our storm closet. The bad part also was that Jeff was still at work and did not get home until this morning. I am glad he was not driving home in this!

We had 3-6 inches of hail that ended up in our city. Luckily our car was in the garage, but it stripped the leaves off everything and the mulch from the flower beds is somewhere far away by now. It all looks like a science fiction scene. Since we live downhill from our back neighbors, we had a river running through the backyard. We were very lucky that all none of the windows broke, but some of the solar screens covering them will need repair .I could not open the front door when it was over because it was too deep. The city had to bring in bull dozers to clear the ice off the streets and it is piled up on the curbs.

There are leaves plastered all over the walls and overhangs of every house. The wooden fence looks like someone took a chain to it and had a great time. We will have to see if it will need to be replaced. Today it is nice and cool with a beautiful blue sky. The kids are off school and still downstairs sleeping....they get to sleep on the floor of our room during bad storms.

Thank God we and all of our neighbors are alright!!!!

This is now clean up time. The roofers are out all over the neighborhood but we feel that ours is OK for now...besides they predict another storm on Tuesday! Yes, we are ready for another round since we have had so much practice so far.

4th grade Austin trip

Upon making it to the 4th grade, all of the schools send their 4th grade classes to the state capital. They study the government, having a study guide with them that they have to fill out for a grade. They also get to tour the capital and the government chambers and a museum. They get to ride a fancy charter bus with a bathroom and TV in them....of course they all had to try out the bathroom on wheels. They were the gold team which included 5 girls and two boys and two parents.

Ruth had a great time and was totally tired when she got home. . . just in time for the storm

Ruth's birthday party, etc

We had Ruth's 10th birthday party. Three of her friends came for the even, including time on the trampoline. Then they did karaoke singing upstairs. We had a yummy ice cream cake from Kroger's, and they all spent the night, getting quiet around 1 am....I was long asleep by then. Jeff said that he was almost into bed when her heard a crash! We had put a baby gate at the bottom of the stairs to keep the animals from waking the girls up, and the girls knocked it down for their second midnight food raid.

When I went upstairs in the morning to get them up, they were sleeping in the chair! NOT on the nice mats I made on the floor in the game room. There was also evidence that at some time, they moved their sleeping bags into Ruth's room, and left them there, trying so nicely not to wake Sara up. The next morning needless to say, they were quite tired and a little stiff.....good thing they are young because if I had done this, I am sure I would need to have my whole body professionally straightened out. LOL! We finished the party off with the usual donuts.

Ruth now has a respiratory infection and has begun antibiotics...the only problem is that since she began the meds, she has a daily nose bleed and her gums have turned purple. She has one more day and I will need to tell the Dr. that next time, she will need something else.

In the mean time, Sara played their game on Sat and they won 5-0. Sara was playing forward for the first time and almost made a goal. I stayed home with Ruth.

just having fun

We brought home some masks from Disney World and today we decided to paint them. We had a great time and it was not too messy.

I even had fun. The girls also painted some other wooden figures we had picked up, each had a turtle, and Sara had a star fish and Ruth a dolphin-her favorite. I guess we are getting away from horses.

13th Anniversary!

Today Jeff and I have been married for 13 years. That time really flied too. Jeff and I met on a blind date-set up by a family that both of us had known for over 25 years, but did not run into each other. . . I guess it was all in the timing. Jeff proposed to me 5 months after we met and we were married 5 months later. It was a long distance romance since we lived 200 miles apart. We did honeymoon at Disney World and that was so much fun!