We had a very exciting and busy weekend. Stephen, Dave's brother, came into town from Virginia to spend a couple of days with us. We had a lot of fun hanging out with him and I know he enjoyed getting to spend time with Emily and Ally. Saturday we went to College Station for the day so Dave and Stephen could go to the A&M game. They got great tickets and enjoyed watching the Aggies win. The girls and I spent the day with Hannah and her two sons. After the game and after the guys got to spend some time with their college friends, we headed back to Houston to eat some Freebirds. One of the best things about living in Houston is that College Station is only about an hour away. Dave and I always enjoy getting to go back and visit and share it with Emily and Ally. The rest of the weekend was spent relaxing around the house and playing with the girls. Stephen cooked a couple of meals for us, so it was nice to get a break from that. We were sad to take him back to the airport this morning, but we are looking forward to seeing him again at Christmas. Thanks for making the trip Stephen!
Here are a few pictures of the girls in boots over the weekend.




And of course when I put on boots, I feel like kicking the wall:

Emily's 1st haircut

These pictures are from back in March or April when Emily got her hair cut for the first time. My sister Christy is a hair stylist and she cut it for her. She finally sent me the pictures so that is why they are so late.

City happenings

Life is returning back to normal since the hurricane hit a week and a half ago. We can get gas without waiting in long lines and the grocery store has ice cream in stock again! A lot of the city is still without power, which blows my mind, but everyone is trying to work though it. All along the highway near our house, there are restaurants without power, but most of them are using generators. We tried out Taco Cabana and it was actually the worst experience we had ever had there, but we tried to keep in mind it is probably not easy to work with a generator. The last weekend was spent cleaning up trees and brush. Fortunately we did not have too much work to do. The girls and I have not had school in 2 weeks. The power was finally turned on at the church/school, but I got a text saying school would start on Thursday, not Tuesday. It is weird to think I have only actually worked 3 days since the school year started. Galveston residents are being allowed back on the island starting tomorrow. I think traffic is going to be messy for a while. Our cool weather from the hurricane has left. It is back in the high 80s this week. That is about all of the updates I can think of.

Sisterly love

How Dave set them up:

How they ended up:

I think they like each other a little.

Surviving Ike

While we were in San Antonio watching the hurricane hit Galveston and Houston, our neighborhood was being abused by the storm. Dave and I decided Monday that we need to get back home and we made the long journey. It seems we were not the only people from Houston trying to make it home. Around Hempstead, about 45 minutes away from our house, we started noticing incredibly long lines outside of gas stations. We realized that people were coming out of Houston trying to find gas. This sent a bit of terror through our minds as we realized just what we were going back to. About 20 minutes away from our house, we started noticing the damage from the storm. Roofs blown off, trees knocked down, stop lights out, gas station lines even longer. We made it safely home in a little over 4 hours (regularly a 3 hour trip). Dave went in first to survey the damage and came out with the good news of our power being on! That was one of my biggest fears is having to live without power for a while. Other than some shingles on the roof being blown off and some of our landscaping messed up, our house was fine. Our neighborhood looks a little ragid with tree parts everywhere and fences knocked over, but that is about the worst of it. We are still under a boil water notice but we bought a bunch of water before leaving San Antonio. Last night I made a trip to Walmart to descover bare shelves. A grabbed a few things including one of the last things of milk. There was a Walmart employee gaurding the last shelf of milk making sure each family only took one. I saw a sign that said the store would be closing to restock in an hour, so I didn't worry too much about not getting everything I needed. I made another trip today to get some more food and they still didn't have much but we have all we need for at least a week. Our main concern right now is getting gas. There are 3 hour waits at gas stations and Dave is running on empty. I have half a tank and I am trying to make it last as long as I can. Dave is going to have to try and get some gas tonight, so hopefully he can find a station that doesn't have a bad wait.
Our phones are now getting service in our neighborhood and we have the internet as of 5 pm, so that is a good sign that things are returning back to normal. We are so blessed to not be in the same condition as some of the people a little bit south of us. 66 % of Houston still does not have power and most of the people who lived in Galveston do not have homes to go back to. We are thankful to have a way to cook food and and light to see the food.
Hurricane Ike brought one good thing to Texas. A cool front! It has gotten down into the 50's at night and upper 70's during the day. This is what fall should be like. I am trying not to think about next week and the return of 90 degree weather. I guess if I had a choice though, I would rather not have had Ike and the cool weather.

For our family

We just wanted to let everyone know that we are safe and sound in San Antonio. We chose to drive down this morning to spend the weekend with my family. We had actually planned to be in Galveston this weekend with my family but Ike changed those plans. We all decided San Antonio would be a better place to meet. We didn't try and make the trip yesterday during the manditory evacuation of Galveston and parts of Houston to allow time for them to get out. We got up early this morning and the drive went smoothly. We didn't hit any major traffic which we were nervous about. We have been safely watching Ike come to shore from San Antonio and we are blown away by the changes already. We did have a few problems before we left Houston. First we noticed huge price gouging at gas stations. We saw one that was charging $3.79 and then less than a mile down the street it was $3.38. I couldn't believe they would try and charge that much for gas. Unfortunately the station with the cheaper gas was out of gas and we had to drive around to find a place to get gas without getting totally ripped off. Our second problem was finding a place to grab breakfast and coffee. We decided it would be faster to eat in the car but everywhere we went along the highway was closed. We had to wait about an hour outside of Houston until we got breakfast.
We just wanted to let our family and friends know we are safe!

At the park

I figured out why Ally had a temperature the other night and then the following two days. She is getting her top two teeth! She has been super cranky and we are worn out from it! The only time she is happy is being outside, so this afternoon we headed to the park! It was a beautiful day and it felt good to be outside. Ally had a bast crawling and walking around the park. She burned off a ton of energy. Emily enjoyed the swings and exploring the different things throughout the park. Here are a few highlights.













By the way, Dave dressed Emily ;)

For Dorcas

Dorcas, here are the pictures you wanted. Sorry your camera died. We loved having you guys here yesterday and wish you could have stayed longer. Can't wait to see you in a couple of weeks! Love you.

Sick Day #1

I am supposed to be at school right now, but unfortunately I have already had to take my first sick day. Last night Ally was burning up and I took her temperature. It was over 103. I called my director and the other teacher in my room and told them I was most likely not going to be at school today. I am supper bummed that I have to miss the second day of school but I know that this is just part of life with kids. I am praying that Emily, Dave and I don't get sick and that Ally will get better soon.
My first day at school went well. The first part of the day was spent trying to get the kids adjusted to being away from their parents. I think that might be a struggle for the next week or so. Most of the kids adjusted quickly but at nap time, when we pulled out their blankets and stuffed animals from home, some of them started crying again. I was exhausted at the end of the day and Emily and Ally seemed tired as well. Ally went down for a long nap when we got home and Emily went to hide from Dave about half an hour before he came home and fell asleep on our bed. I was looking forward to going back today but I guess I will have to wait until next Tuesday. Hopefully Emily and Ally will build up some immunities and not get sick so often.
Dave and I finally broke down and bought a subscription to Netflix. At least we didn't get cable! I have been wanting to watch Alias for a while now and so that was my first choice to have sent. I was watching the first episode and Dave was on the computer and I noticed he was watching Alias and not the computer. He finally gave in a came and watched the first video with me and now we are hooked. We couldn't wait for the second video (because it was Saturday night and Monday was a holiday so no mail) so we went and rented the next one. The bad part is that there are only 4 episodes per video, and the end of each episode is a cliff hanger, so we are always left in suspense. We have been waiting for the third video to come in the mail and it should come today. It is fun to look forward to the mail coming and hopefully we don't have to go rent the fourth video this weekend.
Here are a couple of pictures of my class at lunch. A couple of the kids kept dissapearing out of the pictures so these are the best ones. We are supposed to have 16 kids in our class but only 13 showed up. I am thinking that is how it is going to be throughout the year.

The 3 kids on the right are triplets. They are super cute!

Some of the kids bring yummy looking food and it takes alot not to try and steel a bite from them! ;)