Beryl, Chicago, & Austin

Monday morning, I woke up at 4:00 a.m. because Josiah's LED lights had made a noise and were wildly flashing all the colors.  It was the oddest thing.  I turned them off and went back to bed.  This happened three more times in the span of 10 minutes.  Every time I got up to fix them, I could hear the wind and rain from Hurricane Beryl.  It was intense to say the least.  I went downstairs to watch the news to see where it was headed.  It had just touched down on land as a Category 1 storm.  The projected path went directly over where we live.  The lights, wind, and rain had woken up Caroline, too, and together we watched the news until 5:30 a.m. when the power went out for good.  We laid on the couch listening to the wind.  It was so strong.  The news said 75 mph winds with 80 mph gusts.  It had not diminished in strength even after being on land for over an hour.  I heard a big snap, looked outside and saw a section of our fence fell over.  A little while later, another section fell.  The wind was traveling sideways right into the fence.  I was really worried it would all fall.  We had two big tree limbs fall and I never even heard them snap off.  In the end, three sections of fence were down, and quite a bit more was leaning.  It was a little overwhelming mostly because I didn't know what we were going to do with Benson.  

At some point in the morning, the eyewall was over us because we had a moment of calm.  That was a welcome reprieve and an opportunity to take Benson out.  He was so enthralled by the knocked down fence and by all the people walking that he would not take care of his business needs.  So, he let me take him out later when the rain had started up again, and we got soaked to the core.  Caroline and I did not have a ton of stuff to do because we have packed up our house and there was not much left.  We played with Playdoh and had to guess each other's creations.  She slapped tunes on her legs and I had to figure it out.  We played Pictionary and Hangman on her white board.  We played a TON of Hangman.  

Pictionary - that's me wishing I could watch Gilmore Girls

By Monday afternoon, the storm had stopped and Caroline helped me do a temporary fix on the fence so we could at least take Benson out safely.  We used big zip ties and connected the sections so they wouldn't fall.  For the sections bending into our yard, I broke down the fallen limbs and used them to leverage the fence upright.   We kept it classy around here.  Fortunately the temperature stayed in the 80s on Monday so we were not dying of heat.  Not yet.  

In the midst of all the hurricane fun on Monday, I got a call from Josiah's leader on the mission trip saying he was not feeling well.  His ears were so stuffy that he couldn't hear well, he said it was hard to swallow because his throat was so sore, and his eyes looked red and sickly, too.  The leader, JP, said Josiah wasn't complaining at all.  Quite the opposite, Josiah was constantly saying he felt fine and wanted to keep doing what they were doing.  I got off the phone and tried to figure out a plan.  And that's where Uncle Taylor came in and helped us in a huge way.  He drove 40 miles to get Josiah, took him to an Urgent Care, found out he had an ear infection, went to the pharmacy for medicines, dropped Josiah back off with his group, and then headed an hour plus back home.  He was our hero in a cape and it made all the difference that Josiah got the medicines he needed.  Josiah was incredibly happy he tested negative for covid and strep, so he could stay with his group.  When I picked Josiah up at the end of the week, he said he was so happy that he got to see Taylor again.  They had a good time together. 

Tuesday morning we were up at 6 a.m.  No power for 24 hours.  The cell phones and internet were not working either.  We decided to venture out looking for some breakfast (and coffee).  We found a donut shop near us that was open and, being one of the few places with power, they were packed.  We were so happy to find it and we enjoyed kolaches for breakfast.  We then drove the car to cool off and charge our phones.  We stayed on the highway because all the traffic lights seemed to be out.  We saw downed fences and tree limbs everywhere.  It appeared that no one had power - just a few grocery stores, gas stations, and a few businesses.  Any gas station that was open had huge lines.  

When we got back home, it wasn't long before we heard a trash truck coming.  We could see it a ways down the road and quickly kicked it into high gear.  We emptied out our fridge and freezers and got the well defrosted food to the curb.  Then, since the appliances had been defrosted, I gave them a good cleaning.  It was a million times easier to do without power.  

Tuesday was much hotter.  Caroline and I were not motivated to do much.  We played so many games of Hangman.  It was the one game that we both were up for at any point.  We made block creations, we played cards.  For dinner, we went to the Chick-fil-a near us.  We went at 3:30 p.m. thinking it would be a good 'off' time.  We were wrong.  We entered the drive-thru line at 3:30.  And made it to the window at 4:00p.m.  Being one of the few places open, everyone went there.  At 7 p.m. our power came on for 3 minutes.  We were so excited at the possibility of having a cool evening.  But then it went off again.  It did mean they were working in our area, so that was a positive.  Then at 7:30 p.m., our power came back on for good.  We sat under the living room fan for a while cooling off with smiles on our faces.  I waited to plug everything back in until we knew it was on for good.  

Josiah texted me on Tuesday to let me know he was improving, so that was a huge positive.  I did text the leader as well to make sure he really was improving.  

For Henry's mission trip, the leaders uploaded pictures throughout the week, but there were very few of Henry.  Very few.  I could not tell what he was doing each day because he was never in the photos of the work crew groups.  On Tuesday evening, they got a tour of the Capital building, and he made those photos.  He said they got to see the governor's office and the press room.  

When I picked up Henry on Friday, he told us that he had worked at the Food Bank all week.  He said he never wants to see another carrot for a long time.  He had to sort through them and throw out the mushy, moldy ones.  He also had to make 10 lb. bags of assorted produce (carrots, squash, cabbage, sweet potatoes, etc.).  He said by the third day he could get the scale to 10 lbs. really quickly.  In fact, his team broke the Food Bank record and bagged 2000 bags one of the days he was there.  Speed is Henry's thing.  He did like the work and he liked a number of the Food Bank employees a lot.  His church leader for that was someone he knew which made it better, too.  Photos got uploaded after Henry arrived home.  It was good to see where he served.  

They did get some free time during their days and Henry played 9-square.  

They also had a time of blessing and prayer on their final night.  

Josiah's team flew in on Friday as well.  His flight got delayed in Chicago, so it was a late night for us all.  He had a very good time.  His group put on a free soccer camp from 9a-12p every day.  Josiah and two friends, Paiton and Wesley, worked with kids ages 6-8.  Josiah said Wesley did a very good job teaching the kids.  When they had their water breaks, Josiah got chased around the field by the kids trying to squirt water on him. 

In fact tossing water on people became a theme with the whole soccer crew.  Each day it sounds like they were scheming to toss water on one friend or another.  During the camp, they had a break mid-morning and had snacks and a short lesson.  They did the fruits of the spirit (love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, gentleness, & self-control) and on one day, Josiah spoke about love.  He even refrained himself from bringing the Beatles into it...but he thought about it.  His friend, Wesley, gifted Josiah an Abbey Road Beatles t-shirt signed by all of his friends.  It was very thoughtful.  

The Soccer Crew

Before they left town, they got to enjoy Gino's deep dish pizza.  They had Portillo's one day and milkshakes at Scooby's.  He said it was a great time overall.  And the antibiotics made it even better.  

Before the boys came home, Caroline and I had a huge clean up day in the yard.  We waited for the POD to get picked up and then we headed outside to work.  There were tons of little branches to pick up from Beryl.  We filled 3 bags full of them.  She mowed, I edged, she blew, we both swept.  Later I mowed the backyard and bundled the branches from the big limbs.  We were out there for hours and it was exhausting.  We celebrated by using up our gift card at Gringo's and enjoying some nice Tex-Mex.  Caroline tried the fajitas for the first time because she's always seen Henry get them.  She is now a fajita fan.  

Benson met a friend one morning, too.  Because of the fence being shoddy right now, we don't let Benson go outside alone anymore.  He and I went to the backyard a little after 6 one morning.  Immediately Benson alerted, I look and there was a cat on the fence.  The cat hissed at us and then refused to move for what felt like forever.  I finally had to yell for Caroline to help me get Benson away from the standoff.  This cat had so many options to leave, but instead it just sat on the fence staring at us.  

This week we are finishing up the preparations for the movers who are due at the end of the week.