Christmas Tree Drama

So, I spent some time decorating our apartment for Christmas. I put up a tree and decorated it. I put several ornaments on it and I thought it looked beautiful!

It had been decorated for over a week. I was a little concerned when I first put it up because I wasn't sure what Snicker's would do to it. He left it alone for the most part. I would have to tell him no a few times. I only found 1 or two ornaments on the floor in the first week.

The second week, Heather and Joe were here and so we were gone a lot and I think Snickers must have been upset that he wasn't getting any attention. I came home from school, walked in the door to find the tree was on the floor! Ornaments were all over the floor. That little turd!!

I put it back together, and for 2 more days in a row I found it on the floor everytime I got home! On one of the last days, I found a few ornaments broken and the tree looked more like a charlie brown tree so I decided to take all of the ornaments off and just keep the lights on. So that's what our Christmas tree is like now, just bare with some lights. Snickers sure does keep things interesting around here.

SNOW!

It rained all day and kept getting colder and colder all day last Wednesday. On my way home from school, it went from rain to sleet! By dark, it had turned into flakes, and the flakes just got bigger and bigger! I couldn't believe that snow was falling here in Houston!

Heather and Joe were in town visiting and at first they seemed disappointed, and it's understandable considering they came down here to get away from the cold and the snow! While we were eating dinner at Don Pico's, we were looking out the window and watching the big, heavy flakes fall from the dark sky. Everyone else at dinner were excited and eager to get outside and play in it. It was fun to watch their faces filled with joy!

Grandma's 70th Surprise Birthday Party

Nick and I made it safely to Iowa Saturday. We got up at 4 am and left Houston by 4:45. We arrived at my parents house at 9:30 pm. We were so anxious to get out of the car and walk. It felt so good to be home again.

This is a picture of Nick and I before we left for the party.

My Grandma's surprise birthday party was Sunday. We had her brother call to ask her if she wanted to meet them at Pizza Ranch in Fairfield to eat lunch. She didn't think anything of it because they do that every now and then. The rest of us got there before her and hid in the party room.

Daley, me, and Bailey just waiting on Grandma to arrive at the party.

She came in and was surprised to see everyone and realized what was going on. Then someone (I can't remember who it was exactly) said "And here is the other surprise!" That's when I came out from behind everyone else and she got all teary eyed. :) It turned out to be a great surprise. She had no idea that Nick and I were going to be there and neither did my Great Grandma Dyson.

Grandma Betty on the left, and G. Grandma Dyson on the right when they first came in.

Grandma and I hugging

So the party turned out to be a great success! We had a great time eating some delicious food, and having great conversation. It felt so good to be with family again. I always miss the small things and even the big things, so I felt blessed to be a part of this get together. I'm looking forward to some Thanksgiving fun later this week! :)

Fried Chicken

Tonight for dinner, Nick and I cooked fried chicken. I made it a few weeks ago and I did not put enough seasonings in it so it was very blah tasting. Tonight, Nick added in a whole bunch of different types of seasoning. I fried it up in a pan with just a little bit of oil. Oh my goodness, it looked beautiful cooking in the pan! It turned a nice golden brown. The true test was in eating it. I took the first bite and it was so delicious!! I LOVED it! I think it tastes just about like KFC's chicken. So good....we didn't write any recipe down, just added some stuff in so hopefully the next time we make it, it'll be just as good. I wish I had taken a picture o put on here. I realized today that I haven't added pictures in a long time, but I haven't taken any photos since the hurricane. I guess I've just been so busy that I haven't thought about using the camera for anything. I'm sure I'll be taking lots of photos over Thanksgiving break! Only 4 more days!!

Brrrrrrrr

I was informed today that I was turning into a Texas weeny by none other than Nick. haha Today was one of the coolest days down here this fall. It was in the lower 60's with a very strong, chilly breeze! I enjoyed it because I hate the hot and humid weather we get down here all summer. However, as we were shopping from store to store today, I realized I was shivering! I guess I will need to pull out my sweatshirts because it's supposed to be like this tomorrow and most of the week. It makes me excited because I love wearing sweatshirts but I never get to wear them down here. So yeah, I guess my blood is finally thinning out!

I am also thrilled that in only 1 week, we will be in Iowa!!! Nick and I are over joyed at going on a week long vacation to see my family. The next two months are going to be wonderful because we will be seeing so much family! This fall I have started to realize just how much I miss being there for all of the little things. The other day, my niece called me when I was working after school late, and I had tears in my eyes because it was so good to hear her sweet, angelic voice. I also got to talk to Natalie and I heard Lindsey crying in the background. I hate missing them grow up! That is only three of some of the precious little ones I am missing. I have so many cousins and of course, I miss all of our families!! It wont be long until we see all of them again at Thanksgiving and Christmas.

Wow! What an exhausting week. I feel like I'm never going to catch up at school. There is so much to do, I will never be done! I hate that feeling, but it's a reality and I just have to let some of that stuff go. I stayed late everynight this past week. Thursday I hade open house at school and stayed there until 7:15. Nick has also been really busy. He took on an extra position at work. He works with students who are struggling or at risk of failing the TAKS test. He stays after school 3 days a week and tutors several 6th graders. It's a nice extra income.

We are looking forward to Thanksgiving break more and more everyday! It's only 2 weeks away and what a thrill it will be to see everyone! I'm not looking forward to the drive, but of course, it'll be well worth it.

We have a new pastor at church and last week was his first week there. It was a good service. We also found out last week that our church found a building to meet in. We've been meeting in an elementary school. Every Sunday we have to set everything up and then tear it down. It's a lot of work. We are all looking forward to having our own building to meet in. God has really blessed our church body!

Well, it's Saturday, and I'm ready to relax and get stuff done at the same time.

Busy Times

Well this past week was crazy for both Nick and I. We stayed at school late almost every night, plus we had events in the evening. Tuesday night we had a volleyball game at 9 pm. We played a great hard game and won!! That put us in fourth place out of 10 teams. Now we're headed into playoffs which start this Tuesday night. We play at 6:30 and we're hoping to play our hearts out and go all the way!

Thursday night I had band practice that went well. I am really enjoying playing the bass for Jesus! :) Today at church the leadership team announced that we have a pastor! He will begin next Sunday. We are looking forward to having him lead our church. Tomorrow night we are having a big get together to meet and greet them. It should be a fun time.

Friday night we had small group for church. I made dinner and I cooked maid-rites and down here no one has ever heard of such a thing. So then we started talking about Iowa and of course everyone had to give me a hard time about my Iowa roots. It was a roast on Cirsti the entire night. Everything I said was turned into a joke. Things were said about corn, potatoes (they thought it was Idaho) and hunting. I hadn't laughed so hard in a while. It was good to laugh with all of our friends.

We're still looking forward to Thanksgiving...only 4 more weeks! :) Can't wait to see everyone!

Good News!

I got a phone call last night from my sister-in-law, Heather. She told me some great news about their baby! She had a Dr.'s apointment on Thursday and they were not expecting to find out what the sex of the baby was, but the baby ended up being in the right position. The Dr. told them that it's a boy!! :) Nick and I are so excited for them and that we will have a 2nd nephew. Now Austin won't be the only boy!

Tuesday night we started our volleyball league again since the hurricane hit. We won 2 out of 3 of the games and we had so much fun. I felt like the entire team played really well together! If we win all of our games next Tuesday, there is a good chance that we will make it into the playoffs!

Nick and I went and played racquetball last night and I beat him twice. It was so worth it because I was injured! We had a volley going and the ball was against the left wall and I ran over to return it. Well, I swung and missed like a moron, and the ball smashed me right in the face. Luckily I was wearing my goggles because it hit me in the eye/cheek. The first 3 seconds I was laughing at myself for missing, and then the pain hit and I realized that my cheek felt like it was so swollen and bruised. The glasses had dug right into my cheek under my eye. I am a pretty tough person and I don't cry a lot, but I just couldn't help but cry. I felt like such an idiot. Nick was so sweet and took good care of me though. We took a break and thankfully there was no mark. I got back in and played so hard and beat him. :) It was great!

We also found out this week that we will be going to Iowa for Thanksgiving, Iowa & Indiana for Christmas, and Indiana for Spring break. :) That was such great news! I have so much to look forward to. Also, Heather and Joe will be coming down to visit us in the begginning of December. They were supposed to come 2 weeks after Hurricane Ike, but with so much damage and nothing to do down here, we decided it would be best for them to come in December. I love spending time with family and so it will be great to see everyone! Last year we only went back at Christmas, so I think it will be so nice to go back for Thanksgiving and Spring break. I'm not looking forward to the 17 1/2 hour drive, but it will be so worth it!

Back to Normal

Well, it's hard to believe it's October. I feel like we did not even have a September this year because life was so crazy and out of the ordinary. I'm just so glad things are back to normal for us. A lot of families are still struggling. Several students at my school are homeless now which makes for difficult times of living in campers/tents/hotels for the next several months until they can rebuild.

We had our first week back to school this past week and it was nice to be back. However, the week went by so slow! I didn't think Friday would ever come! It turned out to be a pretty ok week and not as stressful as I originally thought it might be. Nick had a good week too. His school sustained a lot of damage and had both of their gym floors ruined from losing the roof. Despite that, school went on and things are getting back to normal there as well.

Tonight we enjoyed a wonderful concert put on by Nick's school's orchestra program. They brought in Mark Wood who is in the Trans-Siberian Orchestra. He worked with the kids and they performed an amazing evening of rocking out like rock stars using their string instruments. He was amazed at the skills these intermediate school kids have. They sounded awesome! He rated Nick's school as being in his top 10 favorite schools and he usually only goes to high schools to work with orchestras.

Tomorrow, Nick and Matt are headed into the city to watch the Texans and Colts play. We're hoping the Colts can pull off a win! I am not able to go because Matt got the tickets through a friend and there were only 2. I will be watching at home though and looking for them on TV.

Hurricane Ike- Day 12- Sunday 9-21-08

Happy Birthday Nick!!

We woke up today around 8:45. I got in the shower and took a quick cold shower. As soon as I turned the water off, Nick shouted, “The power’s back on!” Oh what a wonderful feeling! I was thrilled!! We stood right by the vent just letting the cool air blow on us!

We went to church which was held outside at a park along with a BBQ. It was a nice time, but not very many people showed up. I was anxious to get home and clean the apartment up a little bit.

When we came home, I cleaned, did laundry, and enjoyed having a nice cool apartment!! It really made us appreciate how much we depend on electricity. We plugged in the Wii and played that a while over the afternoon and got the computer up and going. We were starting to feel a little more connected to the world finally!

The one thing I wanted for my birthday was to go out to dinner at Landry’s which is located on the Kemah boardwalk. I was really disappointed to learn that it had a lot of damage. Nick offered to take me out for my birthday on his birthday. I had to pick my next favorite place to eat which is Saltgrass. I had a delicious steak dinner! Thanks Nick!

Monday- 9-22-08

I made Nick’s birthday cake today. It was so nice to be able to cook again! We are so glad to have power!!

Hurricane Ike- Day 10 & 11 - Friday 9-19-08 & Saturday 9-20-08

We woke up this morning and our neighbors had brought home a generator and they said they wanted to share it with us. We were pretty excited because we thought we could at least hook up the internet or possibly the TV. Well, once we plugged into it, we discovered that the cable and internet was not working. What a big let down! Oh well, I had a book to enjoy reading.

In the afternoon, we talked to Brad and Linda and they invited us over to do laundry. Nick ended up helping Brad around the house to cut down some branches and clean up. Linda and I did laundry and entertained the kids by walking to the park. They invited us to stay for dinner and we had a wonderful warm meal. We also enjoyed the air conditioning since it warmed up today.

We came home around 9 that night and we noticed that there were lights in the front half of our apartment complex. It turned out that the front half had power, but the back half (where we live of course) did not have power! It was difficult to take that in because it felt like it was so close, yet so far away. The apartment was pretty stuffy as today got a little warmer, but we were still able to get some sleep.

Saturday
Today was even hotter! We felt so incredibly anxious all day to get power so we could cool off. We ended up going to the POD to get some ice and they gave us some MRE’s also. We decided to go somewhere cool for lunch and we were tired of feeling so gross that we went to Olive Garden. We had a very nice time there and it was so cold inside I got the goose bumps!

We went to Wal-Mart and bought brats and chicken breasts to eat at home as well. We kept them in our cooler filled with ice. We then went over to Matt and Amanda’s apartment because they were celebrating Matt’s birthday a week early. We had cake and ice cream and visited with some friends.

We came home to a hot and humid apartment. We did not get much sleep tonight at all!

Hurricane Ike- Day 9- Thursday 9-18-08

Well, Nick’s tub idea did not work and the water was still unbearable. Cold showers again and no power.

Today we went to two different Wal-Marts, Target, and Academy to look for lanterns to help us see better at night to read besides using candles. We never found any lanterns, but I did find a clip on light to clip onto my book.

Nick and I also have been looking into buying a Wii since this past Christmas. We have never been able to see one at all at any store. While we were in walmart, we were just enjoying time out of the apartment and in some air conditioning. We were walking around just looking at things and all of a sudden I had a thought come to my mine. Surely no one would be looking for a Wii right now since everyone is thinking about this hurricane and nobody has power. I wondered if they had any, so we went back to electronics and there were 5 boxes of Wii’s!! So, we got one for our birthday presents! YAY! The torture now is that we have no power so we can’t even play it!

This afternoon, Matt called and asked us if we would like to help clean up some houses and to carry tree branches away. We went down by Kemah to a couple’s home who had about 2 feet of water in it. Nick helped carry branches away and left to go help other homes as well with the guys. Amanda and I helped the lady on the inside by packing up all of her glass collectible items in their home. It was a lot of work, but I was so glad to help out in any way I could. They were staying with their son and his family, but they had to throw most of their things away. All of their furniture was ruined. It was pretty crazy, but they were very thankful for all the help.

For dinner, Nick and I decided to go to our favorite Mexican restaurant, Don Pico’s! It was so good! We enjoyed delicious chips and salsa, and chicken fajitas. We also found out that school does not start up until the 26th for teacher and the 29th for the students. We have a whole other week of no school! We thought about going up to Iowa to visit family, but we had so much to do here and with such short notice, we decided to not make the trip.

Hurricane Ike- Day 8- Wednesday 9-17-08

Today we woke up with no power again but with cool weather. We also had to take another cool shower. We went to go get some ice at a POD just down the road from us but there was a huge long wait so we decided not to wait. We then saw a sign that said “Free ice and water” at CVS with no wait at all. It was nice to get some more ice to put in the cooler to keep the drinks cold.

We played some games with our neighbor’s little girls to help the time pass by. I also did some more reading.

We found out today that one of our church’s pastor’s home burnt down. There was something wrong with the wires in the house and running the generator caused a fire. Because there was no water running where he lived, the house burnt from top to bottom because the fire fighters could not fight it. His family was not home at the time which was a blessing. He was also able to grab the family photos and got out in time. Unfortunately, the family dog did not make it out of the house. That was some very sad news.

Today was the day that our neighbors offered some MRE’s (Meal Reading to Eat from the army) for us to eat for dinner. I had beef pot roast with crackers and chocolate peanut butter. For dessert I had carrot pound cake. It was surprisingly really good. Nick had chicken fajitas, he wasn’t too thrilled about them but they were ok.

Nick could not stand the cold showers, so he was thinking that if he filled the tub with some water and let it set over night, it may heat up a little bit or at least come to room temperature. We’ll see how it turns out in the morning. Our Asian neighbor’s below were talking so loud that it made it difficult to fall asleep since all the windows were open.

Hurricane Ike- Day 7- Tuesday 9-16-08

We slept so well last night. It was so cool it got down in the 60’s and there was a nice breeze coming through the windows. I absolutely loved it! However, since it was so chilly, the cold shower I had to take was not any fun. I couldn’t bear to get into the stream of water, so I used a wash clothe to take a shower. So did Nick. The water was so cold, it took our breath away!

We decided to go check out the damage around our area. As we left our apartment complex, we could not believe the trees that were down and blocking the road to get out. We had to drive around them just to get out! We drove over to Seabrook to check out my school. On the way over though, I was getting really nervous because there was so much damage in between our apartment and the school which is about 4 -5 miles away. Clear Lake is right in between the apartment and my school. We drove by several marinas and boats were all over the place. Some of the boats were wedged into places on land that you just wondered how in the world did that every get there! We drove past the first marina and there was a boat pushed right up to the edge of the road and it said, “Keep out, we shoot!”

There were trees down everywhere. I also learned that behind my school, all of the houses had at least 2 feet of water in them and a lot of them had over 4 feet of water. I was worried about my students because I wasn’t sure if I had any that lived there. At my school, we were surprised to find that it looked really well. There was just some debris outside and pushed up against the school, but no damage on the outside. We couldn’t go inside to check things out in there though. We drove around Kemah as well. As we drove over the bridge to get to Kemah from Seabrook, we noticed there was debris all along the side of the road. I had heard that there were boats and couches and all kinds of junk all over the road and that you couldn’t get through. I was glad to find the road open, but all of that stuff was just pushed to the side for the time being. It was difficult to see the boardwalk and we couldn’t go down and get in there because it was closed off. I could see that the Ferris wheel was pretty banged up.

Leaving our apartment complex

This palm tree lost it's top

The light signals were all messed up

One of the marinas that had a LOT of water damage

Boats all over the place and not where they're supposed to be

Some boats and debris that were pushed up closer to the road
This bucket was wedged into the fence at Miramar Park in Seabrook (Right behind my school)

The disc golf course at the park in Seabrook

Disc golf course

Nick found this couch just back in the park not that close to any houses

Huge tree uprooted at the park

Highway 146 inbetween Seabrook and Kemah, all of this was under water

One part of Kemah that everyone lost everything

Gas station sign down

Downed billboard that took power lines with it

The McDonald's right by our apartment- was closed for over 1 week

The tree right in front of our front door had a small branch break off

After looking at all of this damage around us, and so close to us, we realized just how much God blessed us and our belongings. All we could do was give thanks to God because it truly was a miracle that our apartment had survived so wonderfully.

We were able to get some ice, drinks, and some snacks today at HEB. There was no cold food and the grocery store was running on a generator so it was pretty dark in there with only a few lights on inside. When we got home, we had leftover pizza from Papa Johns. We sat around and were bored, so we decided to do some cleaning and tackled the spare bedroom closet to clean out and sort through the stuff. We ended up throwing so much junk away! It felt so good to clear some space. While we were doing this, we found some water spots on the ceiling in the corner of the spare bedroom and in the closet.

I picked up my car after that and it was fine. Brad had put it in their garage and he said that if he hadn’t put it in there, it would never have survived. Again, I was so blessed!

For dinner, I cooked some red potatoes and green bean stew on the grill. It was alright, but I wouldn’t want to eat it again. Many of our neighbors came home today and so we sat outside in our lawn chairs, cooking, eating, talking, and having a good time. It was almost like camping. One of our neighbors was grilling a whole bunch of chicken and we were wondering where he found that at knowing that all of the grocery stores had to throw away all of their cold foods and no one around here had power yet to keep any chicken good. We never found out.
Today turned out to be a pretty good day, and we were so glad to be home again! It stayed cool all day and it was cool when we were going to bed as well! Another great night of sleep!!

Hurricane Ike- Day 6- Monday 9-15-08

Happy birthday to me! I got a couple of phone calls and texts through out today. I also found out that people keep getting a message about the fact that they could not reach me because of the hurricane in our area.

We got up and played some more cards because there was nothing else to do. I tried to call the apartment complex to find out if we had power to see about going home. I could never get through to them.

By the time lunch rolled around today, the fridge was very warm and the freezer was warm as well. I wasn’t sure if Ivy would try and cook anything today, but she did. She cooked some fried rice and an egg and sausage omelet. I made sure to say a special prayer for the food just because I wasn’t sure if it would be safe to eat. The food was definitely blessed because none of us ever got sick. :)

After lunch, Ivy decided to teach us how to play Mahjong. I think I failed to mention this in the previous posts, but Ivy is from Taiwan and so she shared a lot about her culture to us. That would also explain the food that we ate earlier when we were there. I love Mahjong and I would like to play again.

Matt and Amanda found out they had power at their apartment during Mahjong and so they both said they were leaving. We felt obligated to go home as well because we didn’t want to be left at her family’s house with out them there. Before we left, Ivy found 3 banana nut muffins and placed them on a plate and stuck a candle in the middle. They sang happy birthday to me. I wished for power to be on when we got home but I didn’t tell anyone of course! Ivy also gave me the Chinese fan that she let me use earlier to keep cool. She is so sweet! We packed all our stuff up and drove home. We surveyed a lot of damage on the hour long trip home.

We were fairly nervous to find out what our apartment would be like. We drove up and discovered that all was well and safe! What a relief! The only problem is that we had no power and no hot water. My wish didn’t come true. :( I was ok about it because the weather was still so wonderfully cool outside. We emptied out the fridge and freezer which was a stinky, disgusting mess! By that time, we figured we should find some food. We drove around for a while and found a Papa John’s that was open. We ran inside because it was busy and we ordered enough pizza to have some leftovers to eat the next day. Just after we got there they stopped taking orders.

We also stopped by Nick’s school to discover a lot of damage. We think the top layer of Nick’s roof, which is tin, flew off of Nick’s portable classroom. We don’t think there was damage done to the inside because the shingles still remained on the roof. We looked at the back yard of the school and found a huge black blanket like thing lying all over the grass. We started looking and realized that part of the roof from the main building of his school blew right off and took out a couple of light poles along the way. The field goal posts were also damaged.

Ike did not obey the speed limit!
We came home and ate our pizza by candle light, and made a few phone calls now that it was finally getting easier to make calls. We were in bed by 10 because it was so dark outside and there was nothing else to do. We are really starting to feel like pioneers or the Amish.