CC Starts & Harvey's Slog

The week started with the eclipse.  We safely witnessed it from the comfort of our couch and a live feed.  We were very far out of the 100% viewing area, coupled with the fact that I wasn't totally trusting the kids to keep their glasses on.  There's an eclipse that is supposed to reach the Houston area in another 6 years, so we'll aim for a total experience of watching that.

We had our first day of CC this week.  This year we have returned back to our original group.  We missed our friends too much, so it didn't matter that the drive was longer.  Josiah wanted everyone to wear their old CC shirts, because he is all about the uniform look.  I had already said they could wear whatever they wanted, so Caroline announced, "Yeah, you can wear whatever you want.  You don't have to match your shirt and pants."  Truer words have never been spoken when it comes to matching clothes and Caroline.  She either picks monochromatic outfits or completely mismatched (lots of pink and red around here).  The boys finished CC really happy with their classes.  Josiah knew his classmates already and liked his tutor.  Henry said he made a friend and liked his tutor as well.  I asked Henry's tutor how he did and her first words were, "He's chatty!"  Yeah.  Sorry about that.  But he did do well overall.  Caroline was excited to do CC, but when it came time to do her presentation she just froze and wouldn't do it.  It sort of surprised me because we had practiced it several times and she knew at least one kid in her class.  So, we'll try again next week.
We got a picture at the beginning of CC - exciting, happiness.

And we got a picture at the end of CC, after they had run around outside for a long while, spilled water from the water fountains down their fronts, and were not as keen to sit for a picture.

Caroline cut the top of her left thumb on Friday.  It happened in the morning and she really got upset about it - way more than was normal (or necessary).  She went up to get a bandaid with Todd and she was just crying and crying, saying, "No, I need it tonight. I need it."  It was her sucking thumb and she was really upset that it was currently "unsuckable."  Todd told her it would be better by night time, but when it wasn't better, Caroline accusingly said, "Daddy, you're wrong.  It isn't better."  She was quite upset to go to bed with a bandaid on her sucking thumb.  But the most amazing thing is that she has gone to bed three nights in a row without sucking her thumb.  We may have to just keep the bandaids going on the thumb and we may kick this habit.

We have spent the last three days hunkering down at home for Hurricane Harvey.  We have been incredibly blessed to have just rain hit us.  We didn't know it when we bought our house, but it was a good decision to not buy a house near a bayou (which are everywhere around here).  They are all expected to overflow their banks.  That's the problem with Harvey, the storm is moving at 1-2 m.p.h., which is just dumping rain down.  It's supposed to rain here for seven days total, so our goal for the week is to not have flooding inside and to not go crazy.  

ATVers in the neighborhood.  They were carrying gas containers, so I think they were being helpful.

We took all the kids outside (individually as it happened) to see the water in the roads.  The younger two simply looked and were amazed by the water.  The eldest did what he always does.  "I'm just going to dip my foot in the edge.  Oh, that's so neat."  And before we knew it, he was dancing in the streets.  Of course, this afternoon there was a reporter saying "Don't let your kids play in the water.  They can get sucked down the sewers."  This evening, there are two missing people that were last seen playing in the water.  So, that was Josiah's first and last dance in the street.


For the most part, Harvey hasn't been too bad to us.  Compared to what is shown on TV, our neighborhood had been doing fine.  That changed a bit this evening when the rain was just relentless and the water was moving up our front yard.  We were starting to move a few things up high, we gathered our important papers, and we stared at the news stations.  Finally, finally, the rain stopped around 10:30 tonight for an hour.  I've been using the fire hydrant as a guide.  At the worst tonight, the water was a few inches from the top.

11:30 a.m.

6:45 p.m.

7:30 p.m.

It is supposed to rain all week here.  The school systems have already cancelled for the whole week.  Todd is off Monday and Tuesday so far.  The big question will be how long it takes for the water to recede.  The news this evening said we've already had 23" of rain fall in our particular area.  But we are very blessed that we have not had flooding in our home, we haven't lost power, and we have plenty of food and water.  We are praying that this storm just moves out of the area quicker than anticipated.  But while we wait, we'll watch too much TV, eat too many baked goods, and watch a lot of Doppler Radar.

Pretty Pictures

We were so excited to get our family pictures this week.  Our friend, Ginny, takes them out of the goodness of her heart.  It's her way of blessing her friends and she does it all for free.  Who doesn't want a friend like Ginny?  We were originally scheduled to do it back in Virginia, but Caroline's surgery halted those plans.  It just so happened that Ginny made it out to Texas and did them here.  It was a crazy hot evening, but she got some great shots.  She, of course, did the quintessential family pictures that will make it in the Christmas cards.

We also wanted her to capture the kids personalities.  These are the poses we see on a daily basis, but they'll probably fade away as time goes on (or at least we hope they do).  The fun ones.

A friend of ours had a baby (her fifth!!) that we were able to meet this week.  Before we went over, our kids made her kids lots of drawings, origami creations, lightsabers, and Valentine's, each in their own "goody bag."

It was very sweet because they did it all on their own.  Then when we got there, the mom took a picture of us and when I saw it later, I was struck by Josiah's expression.  This is the same expression that he gave when Caroline was born and he got to meet her.  He loves little ones.  He is so good with babies and small children.

Baby O

Baby Caroline

I had to add this one.  He was so sweet with Caroline.

School went pretty well this week.  Josiah, not a lover of math, told me that he really enjoyed parsing sentences.  He said we were "grammar detectives."  Most of me is really happy that he enjoys it, but a small part of me is slightly scared.  I remember crying every time we had to diagram sentences in elementary school.  I just didn't get it.  We would go to my older brother for help, who did the homework for me, and I'd copy it over in my own handwriting.  Just the thought of diagramming sentences brings a bit of anxiety.  But we do it a lot as CC goes on, so he'll be learning a lot more of it in years to come.  And so will I...

We made it back to the pool this week.  Caroline and Josiah remembered their goggles which made the whole pool experience much nicer.  Caroline, who had never purposefully dipped her head under the water before, suddenly turned into a fish with goggles on.  She started out just dipping her face in the pool so she could see under water, but she immediately figured out how to hold her breath without plugging her nose.  She was under water just as much as she was above it.  There were only three coughing/hacking episodes due to swallowed water, but that was pretty good for the amount of time she went under.  Josiah and Caroline went down the slide a bunch, too.  I was at the bottom to catch them since it was the "deep end" (4'6"), but they were just machines going up and down it.  Henry's still working on desiring to get his face wet, so he had fun hanging on my back and keeping his hair dry.

Josiah had a belt test this weekend.  We were a little concerned on how he would do since he doesn't exactly take the classes seriously.  There are a lot of, "Focus, Josiah." and "Control yourself, Josiah." during the regular classes.  But he really exceeded our expectations during his test.  He did well on his forms, which gave him trouble last time.

He kicked, hit, sparred, did his self-defense moves, and even broke two boards.  Last time he was only able to break the smaller board, so after the second board broke he looked up at us with a big grin on his face.  That sort of broke his concentration, so he wasn't able to break the even fatter third board, but he was still happy with his accomplishment.

Both boys got ice cream that night.  Caroline is holding up her granola bar.  She's been eating a lot of wheat and dairy recently, but it just seems like ice cream may be a killer on her stomach, so we've refrained.

Today was Promotion Sunday at church, so all the kids moved up to their current grade level for their classes.  The church is big enough that they have about four classes for each grade, so I was hopeful that each child would have a friend in their respective classes.  It was an answer to prayer that they did.  And not only that, but their very favorite friends were in each of their classes.  So, it was a good morning.

This evening, the kids took a bath.  This is how it went.
Child A took a bath.
Child A got out of the bath.  (We leave the same bathwater in for all three kids.)
Child B goes to get in the bath.
Child B says, "The tub smells like pee.  [Child A] peed in the tub."
Child B does not want to take a bath in a pee-filled tub.
Todd asks Child A, "Did you pee in the tub?"
Child A, "No!"
Child B, "[Child A] pees in the cups."
Todd, "[Child A], did you pee in the cups?"
Child A, "Well, yeah."
So, we drained the bathwater, took out all the cups, and restarted bath time.
Todd, "[Child A], you know not to pee in the bath tub, right?"
Child A, "Well, yeah."

There is never a dull moment around here.  I'm glad Todd dealt with it because I started cracking up when he admitted to peeing in the cups.  Who does that?!!  And then keeps it saved on the side of the tub for the next bather?!!  And was it the first time?  Of course, not.

A Strong Foundation

We started school this week, or as I dubbed it, "school-lite" due to the fact that our Grammar, Spelling, and Caroline's workbooks hadn't yet arrived in the mail.  Everything is in at this point, so next week will no longer be the lighter version.  We started off the year with some Texas history.  We all enjoyed it - just your basics, drawing the state, labeling the capital, drawing the flag and seal, understanding what all the colors and stars and leaves mean, etc..  It was a good intro to the state in which we live, yet know little about.  Now we're reading about the Alamo thanks to a book sent by Grandma.  It has been a good way to begin the year.

After the second day of school, Henry and I were in the kitchen and he remarked that he didn't want any Lego kits for his birthday.  "I want science.  I just like science...and geography...and Latin.  I want to learn."  Oh, thank you child.  You just made my day.
On the third day of school we went to our friend's house after our lessons and played for a while.  The kids had a lot of fun.  And, while I didn't think it was possible, their son had even more Legos than our boys.  Henry was in Lego heaven.
So, on the fourth day of school, Henry amended his "I want to learn." statement to, "I want one of every Lego kit." Just one.  Just one of every Lego kit in existence.  

Our friends had a cool water slide in their backyard.

It's also been a crazy busy week.  The kids saw the dentist and fortunately there were no new cavities.  Josiah has a cavity in a somewhat loose baby tooth that he's had for a while now (6 months ago it had the cavity and was just a little loose).  They just told him to wiggle it a lot so it comes out quicker.  We'll take wiggling over a filling any day.  And Caroline was just the chattiest girl there.  She jumped up in the chair with a, "Me first!" and just chatted up the hygienist.  She cracks me up.  I'm so glad she's not timid to speak.  Henry was honest with the dentist.  When she asked him how many times a day he brushed his teeth, he replied, "Well, today I brushed them twice, but usually only once."  So, while we always supervise the evening brushing, it looks like we'll have to supervise the morning brushing as well....

The foundation repair men came towards the end of the week.  It was a crew of five.  These men dug with just a shovel, holes that were probably four feet deep.  It was such hard work but then it was like, wow, they did this type of work every day.  They must be exhausted when they get home.  For lunch, they all ate and then took a siesta.  It was funny to see five men just lying on the yard with their hats over their heads.  I'm sure it felt good.  The kids were always peeking out the blinds to see their progress.  One man would nod at Josiah and Josiah would give him a thumb's up.

unloading the truck

Side yard after Day 1.

They tore up our bricks in the front entrance to get pilings under the front door area.

That would be a man's head in our front entrance.  This is the man to whom Josiah always gave a thumb's up. 

It was a lot of destruction.  But on their second day here, they raised the house.  They had a supervisor come to do the measurements while it was being raised.  His name was Jesus, so I texted Todd that we were in good hands with Jesus at the helm.  There was a lot of creaking of the walls and floors, but I could visibly see the floor boards coming back together.  That was one of the main things that we were hoping would fix itself.  There was never a promise that they would go back together.  There was always the chance that they could bow up, but we were very thankful that they almost look like they used to.  Just a few gaps are left (and will always remain), but we can live with that.  Now we have lots of cracks in the walls and ceilings to spackle.  We'll have to have a spackle party soon.

The crew also put in a root barrier.  A three foot deep thick material that prevents the tree roots from encroaching upon our foundation.

My grandpa always said to treat the worker's well so they'll do good work on your property.  So, the kids had fun putting out snacks and Gatorade every day.  What we discovered was the worker's had a specific penchant for: red Gatorade, chocolate-chip granola bars, Doritos, and Lay's chips.  It took three days and five cases of Gatorade for the work to be completed.  We are happy for the improvements, sad for the cost, but hopeful that it lasts for the existence of the house!

The boys finished their weeks on a good note.  Josiah had a magazine come with his first published poem.  He won one of the magazine's contests several weeks ago (about the same time our magazine subscription was up, and we had to renew it just to see his poem published).  They had sent him his prize back in July.  It was a bird origami type book, since the contest was about birds.  It was exciting to see his poem especially since they only printed 6 out of the 10 that won.

Henry successfully completed his orange-black belt test.  Henry did quite well with the forms, sparring, and kicking.  The instructor is very tough during the belt tests.  He yells a lot more and is not nearly as friendly as he is during class.  He criticizes them more, too.  Henry sat down after sparring with the instructor and was starting to fall apart.  He desperately wants to do everything perfectly, and because of that he has a tough time taking criticism.  But he didn't fall apart.  There have been times that he's just fallen on the mat at karate and cried and given up because he didn't do some particular move correctly.  But during the test, he didn't cry, he pulled himself together and he finished it well.



At the end when the instructor was putting his new belt around his waist, he told Henry that he needed to work through his discouragement and not focus on the negative, but on the things he did right.  It was good advice for him.  Henry also was probably the strongest/biggest kid this particular night.  (There were younger kids working for lower belts at the same time.)  So, when it came time to break the boards with his foot, Henry kicked through the thin board and then the wide board on his first try.  He just boom kicked them, which came as no surprise to us, but the rest of the audience sort of gasped and then clapped for him.  Someone said, "Ooo, he has some power."  I think what trips up a lot of the little kids is fear.  If they don't kick hard enough the board won't break, but they let fear take over and they kick far softer than you know they're capable of.  Henry doesn't fear no stinkin' board.

new orange-black belt

On the drive home, Henry got a milkshake.  His brother, who had difficulty controlling his silliness in his karate class earlier in the day, did not get an ice cream.  I asked Josiah to take a picture of Henry with his shake since I was driving.  I found about thirty pictures of what you see below.  Sad face, no ice cream.  Happy face, ice cream.

Caroline brought home a picture of the fruits of the Spirit from church today.  She was proud that she had painted everything the correct color.  We could see the pear, apple, lemon, banana,strawberries, etc.  Todd asked her what the black fruit was.  She replied, "A taco."  The little known Texas taco fruit.  She told me they didn't have a taco paint color.

Caroline is excited to start her pre-K curriculum this week.  Her two workbooks finally came in, so we'll be starting it tomorrow.  This is the third time we've gone through it, so it'll be neat to see how she enjoys it compared to the boys.  Josiah loved everything about it, every story, every workbook page, everything.  Henry enjoyed most, but had two particular books that he just couldn't stand.  I have a feeling she'll like it all because she loves school.

Water, Water, Everywhere

Monday morning the plan was to mow the front yard.  For some reason this particular morning, the kids, who had shown no interest in lawn mowing, all of a sudden all wanted to help mow.  Henry had asked first so I had planned on him mowing, which  made the other two not too happy to have to wait.  I'm sure fighting over who gets to mow the lawn won't be an argument we'll be having in a few years.  So, Henry mowed the front lawn.  I had to help with turns and staying in the lines - he had a tendency to look down near his feet instead of forward.  I guess it's the same as teaching them to ride a bike - they always want to look at their feet.  As he neared the end of the front yard, he looked up and asked me, "How much do I get paid?"  Surprised, I replied, "I thought you were doing it for fun?!?"  And our easy-going Henry said, "Okay, I'll do it for fun."  Monetary negotiations need to take place before the job has started.


Henry and I played a game of Battleship this week.  As we were setting up our boards, Henry stacked his ships on top of each other and then asked, with all seriousness, if that was an acceptable way to set up his board.  Only if you're playing with Grandpa, Henry.  Only with Grandpa.

We finally made it to the pool this week, too.  They loved it, of course, and it was nice to be back in a pool again.  It's been a long time since I've been in a pool.  Josiah practiced some of his swimming skills that he learned last year.  Henry kept wanting to practice floating on his back, but he never was able to do it without my holding on.  They all need a lot of lessons.  Josiah was playing where he'd go under water and then kick off the bottom and shoot out of the water.  He was doing it just fine, but then got in too deep of water, wasn't able to reach the bottom, and literally was drowning.  I was watching him the whole time, so I pulled him up, but it was scary to see how quickly he had gotten himself in a bad situation.  He recovered well and I had him try it again a little later (in shallower water) just so he wouldn't be scared to try again.  Although, that's usually not a problem with him.  He was fine.

break time...strike a pose

And speaking of watering holes.  We have a big tub in our master bathroom.  It's the type of tub that has the jets in it, but minus the jets.  The kids love taking baths in it because of its size.  They can move all over the place.  It has been banned once or twice due to too much movement causing copious amounts of water to flow overboard.  Well, we had gotten lenient and they had been back to using our tub all the time again.  One evening this week, I went in to give the bather their towel and discovered large water puddles on the floor, water all over the front and side of my vanity, water splashes up my mirror, it was just everywhere.  Now, upon seeing this it would be an understatement to say I was not too happy about it.  So, I had the child clean up the mess, while later Todd sat the child down to ask what happened.  There was much, "I don't know, it just happened." or, "It was an accident." or, "I just happened to be there when all this water spontaneously shot out."  Todd talked to this child for quite a while to get the real story of what happened.  It was finally told that they laid on the ledge of the tub, next to the window, and then belly-flopped down into the tub like it was a water slide.  Todd calmly asked, "Was that a wise decision?"  "No." said the offender.  And Todd's next question was the best, "Could you have done it more than once?"  "Well, I may have."  Oh my goodness.  These children!

Caroline moved up in rank at karate again.  She is now a white-purple belt.  The instructor told her that she had been doing a good job in class and that she raises her hand to come to the front of the class to demonstrate the next move they'll learn.  She is so fun to watch.  There is a lot of enthusiasm in her class of 4- and 5-year olds.


Next week we are having our foundation fixed.  We had another company come this week to do an assessment.  The man they sent out was so personable.  He came in and shook all the kids hands and asked their names.  He let them help by reading the numbers off his measuring instrument.  He was super nice.  When he left, Josiah even said, "We need to go with him and not that other company."  But, as we already knew by this point, there were sinking issues in our dining room and that side of the house.  It felt like we were always noticing new cracks each day, so we have been quite anxious to get it fixed.  We would prefer as little interior damage as possible.

Tomorrow begins the new school year!  It'll be a short first day, because I made their dentist appointments mid-morning.  That's the trouble of making them six months in advance!  I'm sure there will be no complaints about a short school day.