Week three away from home

For the third week in a row I haven't been around on Saturday. This week was a clean-up effort in Galveston, Texas. We met here at 2:45 am for the drive up. This time I was blessed with being a passenger. That was a relief because I was pretty tired.

















We were greeted by wild views on our way onto the island. However, the pictures are from on our way out, not in.





We met up at the church at 8:00 for our work assignments. Our first job involved removing downed trees from the back yard and flooded appliances from inside the house. The house had water rise to about 4 feet in it. Everything in the house is ruined and molding. The neighborhood looked like a landfill. Across the street we helped empty a garage and clean a back yard. These pictures show some of the debris littering the curb.


At our second area we moved flooded appliances again, removed wall paneling and moldy sheet rock. This house had water inside to about 5 1/2 feet. The house is built about four feet off the ground! The neighboring house was build ground level and the entire first floor was flooded, clear to the ceiling. The wallboard is all molding and the entire neighbor hoods wreak. We wore masks to help protect us from the mold. We also had rubber gloves to keep our hands clean.



Here the trucks are removing the building debris from the curbs. We were told a separate truck comes by to get the appliances. It was sad to see such conditions, yet amazing to see the resolve of the residence. They rolled up their sleeves and went to work. At this particular place a Lutheran group was busy helping gut another house just down the street.

We had an insurance adjuster stop his car, get out, and come up to thank us for the volunteer work we do. He commented on seeing our yellow shirts all over the town helping clean up the community and just wanted to show appreciation. That was pretty cool!

Here is a story for you. The church building we met at is just a few blocks from the Gulf of Mexico. The church ground is fairly flat, but the church is on a slight mound. That mound was just enough because the surrounding houses flooded, but the church had no water come in! How cool is that.

Mia, Mia, Mia

So last week I went through all of the kids clothes and got rid of the ones that didn't fit anymore. Well that night when Mia went to get her pajamas on she freaked out because her drawer was almost empty compared to how it was that morning. I tried telling her that all the clothes that I had taken out were to small and that I would get her some that fit later. Well, she wasn't very happy with me for a few days and I was telling my friend about what happened, and that I needed to go shopping to get her some new clothes. My friend has a daughter that is 5 and desperately needed to go through her clothes. She told me not to go shopping yet and we went and cleaned out her daughter dresser. Oh my goodness, after we were done Mia had more clothes than she has ever had her entire life! ( I love my friend, she saved me so much money!!) When Mia got home from preschool I told her I had a surprise for her, she could have cared less, but then I pulled out 3 garbage bags full of clothes. She has been in Heaven ever since, 3-4 outfits a day! She also had a bag of shoes and boots. Mia loves boots, and now she has 5 pairs! Let me tell you, the next morning Mia came out in her pajamas and boots, it was the funniest thing. I asked her if she had slept in them, but she said no, that she just put them on before she came out. I wished I had gotten a picture of it. I did get this picture of her though. She is definitely a girl!

Storming mess!

Saturday some members of the church decided we wanted a cool new yellow shirt, so we loaded up at oh-dark thirty and headed up to Houston. My chainsaw needs an award for all the trees it chewed through. Sorry I don't have pictures, but here are some details.

We showed up at the stake center where the hundred or so volunteers received assignments and supplies. The assignments ranged from moving people out of their homes to tarping roofs and removing trees. The missionaries had scoured the local areas asking people if they needed help, and those people along with local first responders were the houses we tackled. Our crew went to four different houses removing downed trees. Two sites had trees strike houses. One resident decided to keep their trampoline from blowing away by letting the wind drop a tree across it. That wouldn't have been my method but it worked! It was hot, a lot of work, a VERY long day, and a lot of fun. I wouldn't be surprised if we are asked to come back in a week or two when Galveston is opened up. We might need more shovels than chain saws there.

The area we provided our service in, through the home-teaching network, had accounted for the members and their needs within a day of the hurricane hitting. Talk about a good system!

Weather Threats

First we faced Gustav, then Ike. Neither one gave us anything, unlike Hurricane Dolly which dumped more rain in two days on us than Idaho gets in six months! On Wednesday we were expecting a direct hit from Ike, so we boarded up our house and prepared for an evacuation notice from the military Thursday morning. However, through the night the predictions had shifted far enough north it appeared we were out of harms way and the evacuation order was never issued. We did have the house boarded up already and figured it was better safe than sorry, so we left the boards up until Saturday morning. (Ike made landfall Saturday around 2:00 AM) Here I am taking down the last of the boards from the windows, these west side of the house. Jennifer decided she doesn't like living in a cave. The lack of sunshine makes her somewhat lethargic and depressed. Talk about a different mood once the boards were removed.





We didn't even see a rain drop from Ike. However, we did get some hot weather! Jennifer took this picture on our back patio in the late afternoon; 107 DEGREES! The kids all played in the hot-tub (we keep it around 90 degrees in the summer) for a few hours. Then, soaking wet they wanted to come inside. Jennifer told them they needed to stay outside and dry off a little before coming into the air conditioned house. Five minutes later Brody was sound asleep in the driveway!

Turkey Butt

Yesterday Mia was in the boys room building with their blocks. Jennifer and I sat on the floor talking with her. The other kids were in school. Out of the blue Mia said, "I'm a Turkey Butt!"

When we asked her what that was she just got a devilish grin and shrugged her shoulders. How bizarre.

Today Mia again was playing in the boys room, and Jennifer was laying on the floor watching her build a block house where again out of the blue she says, "Get out Mom." Where does she come up with these things?? Crazy Girl

They're back in school!!!

Well, three down, one to go. Monday Brody had his first day at school. Kindergarten is all day here and he has been a little grouchy at home. However, he says he loves it! He made some friends, but he says his best friend is his teacher.

Emmi is now in 5th grade, which is ran like middle school here. She has five teachers and six classes. Her first and last class are in her home room.

Kaleb is in 3rd grade. Both Emmi and Brody go to school in a different town, only Kaleb is still in Kingsville. We tried to transfer all three to the neighboring town due to the better school and smaller classes but they couldn't fit Kaleb in. We are all a little bummed, but at least he has some of the same friends as he did last year.

We were looking at having three kids in three schools, scattered clear across town. Instead we decided to transfer them. Because Kaleb didn't make it we now have three kids in two schools; not ideal but better.

Home again, home again

Well, due to the changes in my training we decided to take some vacation. Three weeks and 5,656 miles later we are back home. We left Thursday, July 31st and made it back yesterday afternoon. It was good to see so many family and friends, but it sure feels good to get back to our own home.

We didn't want to drive this many miles without a little something for the kids, so before we left I installed a 17 inch video system for them.




It turned out to be a little more trouble than I anticipated; I had to add support brackets to the roof beams. I ended up removing the entire roof and side paneling inside to properly install the equipment. Luckily, a friend came over and we spent all night on Wednesday installing everything (I figured I could sleep during the drive anyways). The best part is we were able to connect the Wii to the system and play it while driving. Jennifer liked it once we bought Aerosmith Guitar Hero.


Approximately 41 hours into the drive we were leaving Missoula, Montana heading west on I-90 towards Coeur d’Alene, Idaho. It felt like home seeing the pine forested mountains and the clear blue water. The cold, dry air definately felt like home too! I woke up during part of the drive and felt like I was in the desert, my mouth was so dry I could barely speak!



Our first planned stop was Moscow, Idaho to visit some family and friends. We stayed with the Weaver family (seemed like de ja vu) and was able to visit Jennifer's sister and our nephew. Jennifer's sister made an awesome cake to celebrate her son's and Emmi's birthday, which are two days apart.





After a few days of hanging out there, we decided to move are adventures along and headed south down highway 95, then 55 (I'll always enjoy the scenery, especially around new meadows and the Payette Lake area). We spent the night in Boise with my sister. The next day we continued south to Twin Falls, were we went through the open house of the temple there. I was suprised at how simple yet beautiful the temple was.



After the open house we finished the day when we arrived in Pocatello. There we had a little birthday party for Emmi (it was her birthday after all).



The next evening we had another party of sorts. We went to the park to let the kids play for a while. After that we went to eat at "The Bus" (don't ask). Then we headed over to Liz's house and made smores in her fire pit. It was messy and a blast. The kids ended up soaked becasue they ran through the sprinkler to get wet, then would ring their shirts out and drip over the fire to put it out! What a sight. As the sun fell in the sky we moved the party over to Ralph's house and brought in the Wii. It was quite a sight seeing all these adults with controllers in their hands and smiles on their faces, looking like little kids in the candy store! Mario Kart was definatly a hit.

From there we drove south to my parents house. They live near Logan. That was then our base of operations for a while. We did short overnight trips to the Salt Lake, but would return back there. My parents house is always a nice treat. The weather was perfect (50's or 60's at night, 90's in the day), the kids did a variety of crafts (a sock horse, dream catchers, bubbles, etc), there was a new sandbox, the zipline, the stream and pond, the trampoline, and there was an abundance of cousins for the kids to play with.



I kept busy for a little while. Sorry I don't have any pictures of it, but my little brothers motorcycle has an electrical problem that caused a wire to melt, which took a few more wires in the wiring harness out with it. The problem was that the wiring harness got torn apart all at once and it didn't get put back together the same. I spent a while trying to sort out were the wires were supposed to be connected and spliced, but I must admit I failed. However, I believe the problem was fixed (at least hope). Besides that, we determined a way to protect the new harness from the same problem, so even if the problem was not fixed he will only blow a fuse, not a wiring harness.

One afternoon we did find a little snake around the pond. Mark caught it and all the kids had a chance to hold it. They were so excited.


Mark, I hope you don't mind, but I'm posting this video clip of your daughter singing "Do as I'm Doing." It is too funny not to share. Don't worry, I can sent it to you if you want it.

We were able to go spend an evening with Jennifer's brother and his family. It was really good for the kids, they were able to see cousins on both sides of the family this trip! They had a really good time chasing the dogs around the house and playing with the cousins. We were going to head out on his 4-wheelers but unfortunately he blew a tire on the trailer and our plans were canned. Michelle got up and made us some amazing blueberry pancakes for breakfast. The kids wanted some the next morning, but too bad for them, I don't measure up to their Aunt.

Oh, here's a funny story. We went down and saw Jennifer's Aunt Dani and her family. We went to the park that evening. At the park was a see-saw that you stand on instead of sit on (it is the reddlish domed toy immediately behind Jennifer in the picture). We decided it would be fun to try it together. Of course I (being the competitive type I am) tried to make Jennifer bounce higher in the air each time we went. One time she flew up and thought she would fall forward, so she wanted to pay me back by jumping off when I was in the air, then causing me to crash down with no counterbalance. She jumped off and I did come crashing down, but unfortunately for her she didn't get completely clear of the toy and it came up and smacked into her knee, HARD! That thing swelled up the size of a golf ball almost immediately. Of course, being the nice, kind, loving husband I am, ran to get the camera and save this priceless photo before I helped her hobble to sit down. She was trying so hard not to cry.

Luckily my brother-in-law is an RN and we spent the night with them. He looked it over and wrapped it. The next morning it was barely giving her any trouble at all.




Oh, we went down to Provo to visit a return missionary who served in our ward in Texas. He is really awesome and Jennifer would love to see him as part of our family (hint-hint Emily). Anyways, we had dinner and dessert with him and Michae, a daughter of our Bishop. The kids had fun at the park because there was a duck pond. Some ladies gave them bread to feed the ducks, they couldn't have been happier.




We finished the trip by heading down to Mesa to visit Jennifer's grandmother. This was the first opportunity I had to meet her. We spent a few days there, even went to her ward. Mia is such a social being it doesn't matter were we are, she want to go to nursery on Sunday. If she even thinks she won't get to go she throws the biggest fit. When we pick her up afterward and ask her how it was, she says it was great and she got to play with all her new friends! What is amazing is that she can rattle off a handful of names of the kids. We had a great time there but were anxious to get home and be in our own beds. So one more all-night drive and around 1:00 yesterday we pulled into Kingsville. Although I didn't miss the humidity, I am glad to be home.