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.