Other Weekend Activites

With all the excitement of homecoming I almost forgot the other kids. Makenzie had her first volleyball game last week and a soccer game witch they won. Jacob was cleared for sports again. He played in his first football game Saturday and they won. He also had a 50yd touchdown run. I missed it because I was coming from Makenzie's soccer game. They were all celebrating the touchdown just as I got there. I got behind somebody driving 30mph in a 45 and couldn't get around them so I was already mad then even more mad that it probably cost me seeing my son score a touchdown. Slow drivers annoy me!!! Here are a few pics and videos of the weeks sports. I've included some of Matthew's game also.

Good save Makenzie!

Punt that ball

Jacob as Safety

Jacob as Quarterback (#49)

Makenzie serving the ball. She was on a roll when I decided to tape it and sure enough, she hit it out of bounds. The girl does have arm strength!

This is right before the team takes the field. All the Varsity parents, who want to, meet outside the locker room and a Pastor, Preacher, etc.. offers a prayer with the parents. It's a neat thing. We then line up and cheer them as they take the field. Matthew is #18.

Here I am being a stalker mom. The cute blonde with the white jacket is Emily, Matthew's homecoming date. I wanted a picture of her with the mum so I taped her and then she came to talk to me. I should have just asked to take a picture.

Grumpy, Happy, Sleepy and Dopey.

Sorry no Dopey, Brittney isn't in the picture. (jk Britt)

Enough Ribbon, How About Some Homecoming Pictures

Matthew and Brittney: They almost look like they can stand each otherMatthew trying to figure out VelcroMatthew worried about that pin Matthew and Emily

Andrew, Blakley, Matthew and Emily
Emily and Matthew
My favorite picture

Boys will be boys

The guy in the pink pants is NOT with Brittney, they just happen to match.
Brittney, Crystal, Sara and Alisa
Brittney's group- just kids from church

Mum and Garter Exchange

This is the garter that Matthew got for homecoming. The guys wear these an their arm.

He will just wear it to school tomorrow since he is in the actual game. They are a little more toned down from the mums. Matthew and Emily exchanged them last night.

It was convenient (for Matthew) that it was before Mutual was over with and

I was at Makenzie's volleyball game so we didn't get any pictures of the exchange.

Hooray! The Mum is Done!

1 fake mum. 27 yards of ribbon. 10 yards of different gold beads. 6 yards of plastic pearl strands. 27 gold letters. 8 jingle bells. 4 plastic homecoming trinkets. 3 gold stars. 1 teddy bear. 1 whistle. 1 small bottle of bubbles. 1 cow bell. 1 set of lights w/ 2 batteries. 1 hot glue gun. Lots of staples. 4 trips to Hobby Lobby. 4 diet cokes. 4 Excedrin. And lots of patience.

Finishing the mum: PRICELESS

Believe it or not, this is small compared to a lot of mums. And I forgot to add in that I didn't even burn myself with the hot glue!

Today's Funny

This is an email Dale received today from the 1st Counselor in the YM Presidency. Dale is the YM President. Sorry, but I couldn't help not sharing this:

"Thank you very much Dale. We will be putting together an elongated opening exercise (20-25 min). We will focus on gratefulness with an emphasis on Hurricane Ike.
We will then retreat to the gym where we will play dodge ball (unless anyone opposes or has a more enlightening idea??).

Dale - Do you have any balls or know of anyone that may have some?

Teachers will also provide a treat."

Thanks,

Hurricane Night Sky

These photo's were on a kid in our ward's facebook. He lives just a few blocks away from us and really captured the sky the night when the hurricane was coming. I asked him if I could share them and he said of course. Thanks Javier Ascanio!!

Hallelujah! The Kids are Back in School

The kids are back in school today. Matthew and Brittney thought there would be no Seminary till Thursday, till we got the news at the beginning of Sacrament Meeting that our building now has power. You could almost hear all the moans from the youth. We only had an hour long Sacrament Meeting yesterday since there were 7 wards sharing a tiny building. I kind of liked that scheduling. It's not as good as "off campus Sunday School", but we don't have a Del Taco here(inside joke). Makenzie finally got to give her talk and she did a great job. Her talk was hand written and Brittney asked why she didn't do it on the computer. Well, the power was off when she wrote it and didn't have time to put it on the computer yet.
With school back in you'd think I could get something done, right? Wrong!! I have spent half the day buying stuff to make a homecoming mum for Matthew's date. I had never heard of these till we moved to Texas. It's a southern thing. You take a big fake mum flower and put it on a piece of board with lace around it. You hang ribbons, bells and beads and all kinds of crap off of it. You put things on it that have to do with what they are involved in. Matthew's date is a cross country runner and they don't have any thing for that this year. One Hobby Lobby called another store and that store said they had cross country ribbon, but they didn't when I got there. The bigger and gaudier, the better. The girls actually like big cow bells on them. I don't know about you, but when was a teenager, I don't think I would have liked to walk around the school with a cow bell ringing. They wear them the day of the football game. The girls usually decorate overall and attach this mum to it. Overalls are about the only thing to support it. I will have to take a picture of it when I am done. So much for getting anything done today and tomorrow I get to put this mum together. Wish me luck!

Getting Back to Normal

Things are trying to get back to normal here. The kids have been out of school all week long(feels longer). Our schools weren't hit so bad, but some of the others in our school district were. There is a lot of tree debris to clean up also. Matthew went back to football practice on Tuesday. We actually have a game tonight. This is not our scheduled game, but we are playing another school in our district just to try to get things back to normal. Even though we didn't have the massive damage as they did in other area's we have felt some of the impact. Lines at the gas pumps have been long since people from other area's that don't have it come here. We didn't have produce in the stores until yesterday. I was so excited to see a banana and a head of lettuce. It's amazing what we take for granted. As of yesterday, the church still didn't have power, but all the homes around it did. Makenzie's talk got moved to this Sunday so she is voting for no power. Makenzie will have her soccer game on Saturday and Jacob's team has a scrimmage(he still can't play till Wednesday). At least there are things for the kids to do now and I hope they will be back in school on Monday.

Tough Day at the Smith Home

Today we had to put our sweet dog, Bubbles, down. She was 13 years old. She had cancer all over her body. It was very hard letting go, in fact it was probably one of the hardest things we've had to do. We know she is at peace now and we will miss her terribly.

Being Prepared!!

Two days after Ike we are still getting continuing coverage of the devastation. People are without food and water and are getting angry that supplies are not getting to them fast enough. I really shouldn't be talking since I have power now and had plenty of food and water, but why is everyone waiting for someone else to take care of their needs. They always tell you to have 3 days worth of food, water and fuel because that's how long it takes to get stuff into people. Even for the people who evacuate they tell them to take these supplies with them. Where is the personal responsibility? And then there are those people (40%) who had a mandatory evacuation and they didn't. On the brighter side, I saw a piece on the news last night where neighbors were clearing out the limbs and trash out of the street so the water could drain. They were helping one another, instead of waiting for the city to clean their streets and getting results instead of being miserable doing nothing. Today, a bunch of youth from church went to the church to clean up the broken trees. They decided to do this and started texting each other and they had a big turn out. In all the complaining I see on the news, it's nice when they show people helping each other and kids finding something useful to do when there is no school. I'm grateful for the church that they push being prepared! I'm grateful to my parents and my husbands parents who have taught us to be self sufficient and to know if we can't help ourselves that they will be there for us.

Dale has a blog

Dale was bored enough to start a blog:
"Fit For Public Consumption" found on my bloggin' buddies list.

The Day After

What do you do after a hurricane when you get your power back and you have no church? Blog of course. We were really blessed to not have the damage that other's in Houston have. There are still 2 million people without power. There are people in our ward still without power and the church doesn't have any either. I thought I'd share a few pictures I took right before and after Ike. I didn't take any during the storm since it was dark and my lively hood doesn't depend on me standing outside in 80mph winds to get the story. We set up the security cameras to record on the DVR, but lack of power prevented that from happening.

Here Dale is helping the neighbor board up their windows

Dale and I standing in the wind after the power went out

Drying the towels that were in the washer when the power went out.

Matthew with his glow necklace so we could find him in the dark. I guess he forgot how white he is.

Pretending we are flying because it is so windy.

Here are a few pictures and videos from the day after the storm.

When we got up.

A subdivision we came across when Dale was out looking at some of his area's of operation. The pictures speak for themselves.

What kids do when they don't have power to play video games.

Jacob knocking down a pass.

Dale, it was a rough few days!

We have Power

We lost our power about 9:30 last night and we just got it back at 6 pm. We got away with little damage. We had two sections of fence that were blown down, some shingles came off the garage and a few broken tree limbs. There were a few hours last night that were very windy and scary, but it didn't even wake up Jacob or Makenzie. We are tired, sweaty and need showers, but extremely grateful that we are all well with little damage! Thanks for thinking about us and for all the prayers!

Ike Update

It's about 8 pm our time and the winds have really picked up and the lights are flickering. I know cities around us have lost power so we might also. Hopefully we will have power in the morning or at least a wifi connection so we can let you know what happened during the night(got to love the Itouch). Probably signing off until then.

Dale is Bored and Boarding

Dale helping neighbors board up
Neighbor Mary
Dale still boarding

My good husband helping the neighbors. We are kind of bored right now. Dale and I wandered around Target just to kill time. There were others there doing the same thing because they didn't have supplies in their carts and there was still plenty of water in the store. The wind is picking up and we get an occasional sprinkle.

Closer to meeting Ike

All is still relatively calm here. Just woke up to a breezy morning with lots of high clouds. This time tomorrow we will be in for a lot of wind and rain. Now if if it jumps to the east like Hurricane Rita did, we will just have wind. We didn't even get a drop of rain from that, at least the people who stayed said that. We have our 72 hour kits out, everything is picked up and we are just waiting for who knows what. For those of you who are watching the news, they like to scare people so take everything they say with a grain of salt. Every time I turn on the national news or the Internet you think we were all going to be washed away. The local news is a little more down to earth but you don't get that. If you don't here from us tomorrow don't be alarmed as there probably will be power outages.

Update

The outer bands of Ike are here and we are getting a little bit of rain and the wind is picking up.

Update

Matthew and Makenzie's games have been called off. School has been cancelled for tomorrow. I know the kids are heart broken :) I had video of the beautiful weather this morning, but it was too big to download. It was calm with a rich blue sky. It's hard to believe such a monstrous storm is coming. Dale is home now trying to clean the garage so we can get cars and patio furniture in it. I just cleaned underneath the stairs. I really didn't clean it, I just moved all the stuff we store under there into my closet. Now we just wait.

Yikes!! It's Ike!

For those of you who are wondering, we are not evacuating. I say that, but we said that during Rita and ended up evacuating. As of now, Matthew has a game tonight and Makenzie has a volleyball scrimmage so it would be hard to get out by then anyways. We have plenty of water, food and fuel to get by for awhile. We have no generator, so it might be really muggy if the electricity goes out. We still have to put up all the patio furniture, lawn chairs, pool stuff ect... I have to clean out underneath the stairs since that is the middle of our home and there are no windows. It is so calm outside right now you would never know a huge hurricane is coming. There's not even a cloud in the sky right now. They haven't called school off, yet. The kids are hoping for that, especially the ones with test on Friday. Makenzie is hoping for no church on Sunday since she has to give her first talk. They just asked her Tuesday night and I don't think she's had any time to prepare. I guess as a family we could help her write it when we are all huddled underneath the stairs. I'm sure everyone would have some interesting input(and Nathan, my nephew, she said she won't say meow).
If there is anything good about a hurricane, it is that you have warning and time to prepare. We are truly grateful for that. Dale is also grateful for the NFL Network as we will be getting round the clock coverage of the hurricane for the next 48 hours on the local stations. Matthew is grateful that he has a homecoming date, but that is another blog.

Only in Texas

As I was running this morning I came to an intersection that was backing up. As I looked a little closer, there was an armadillo crossing the street, in the crosswalk. Only in Suburban Texas! I might have to consider bringing my camera with me on my runs. If I don't see an armadillo again, I guess I can use it to take pictures of people who almost run over me.

The Thrill and Agony of Sports

It was a bitter-sweet sports weekend.

Friday night Matthew got to play in his first varsity game. His first snap was a hand-off and they got a first down. The next two snaps their running backs were thrown down for a loss. On 3rd and 15 Mathew throws a 35 yard pass that was picked off. It was kind of a wobbly throw and his receiver ran the wrong route. My heart was aching for him. He only got those 4 plays. We won, but driving home it sure didn't feel like it. Here are a few pictures of him.

Matthew warming up at half-time

Matthew(#18) looking to the sidelines for the play

Matthew handing the ball off

The sun came out again Saturday morning. It's a good thing because Makenzie had a 8 am soccer game. They won 7-1. She didn't allow any goals as goalie. She almost had a goal herself, but their goalie stopped it.

Next it was on to Jacob's game. He had to sit and watch with his collarbone injury. His back-up quarterback is out with a fractured ankle. He fractured it in the same scrimmage Jacob got hurt. Luckily, they were playing an expansion team and were able to pull out a win. Jacob was pretty depressed not being able to play. It's going to be a long few more weeks until he can play again.

FYI- We think Matthew's game will be televised on ESPN2 this Thursday night (11th). We are playing the team with the #2 quarterback in the nation. The game is 7pm central time. We will be the maroon team(Cinco Ranch). I don't know if Matthew will get to play, but he might get on the tv. Go Cougars!!

Good times in the boys locker room

This is what happens to a boys locker room when their mothers and some sisters get a hold of it. We sprayed it with Oust first. We are going to "Pink Out the Panthers"

Go Cougars!!

Matthew's Locker

Brittney helping with the decorations

On the Lighter Side

Wanted to share a few random thoughts, comments, and actions made by family.

Yesterday, an elderly neighbor lady fell, the grand kids came and got a neighbor and myself to help her up. Makenzie, Brittney and Jacob followed. While we are helping her up, Makenzie is reenacting a commercial of a fallen lady with her arm stretched up for help. Brittney and Jacob are trying to keep from laughing. OK, my children are insensitive.

The other night I was talking to a friend and Matthew was there. My friend said her mother stopped trying so hard to be perfect, after all there are 3 degrees in the Celestial Kingdom, and she was shooting for the middle. Matthew said, " As long if you are with Jesus, it will be tight." OK, now my family is going to get struck by lightening.

Yesterday I was complaining about all the new stupid rules at the Elementary School, mainly, the one that I can't take my Safety patrol child until all the buses have left. I guess they think the parent's are going to walk their children right in front of one. Dale said he would go tell them what he thinks about all their new stupid rules. Jacob immediately said don't tell them you are my dad, I still have to go to school there. Smart kid!

Brittney's Blonde Moment--there are many, but this is the most recent. She was texting a friend on the way home from San Antonio Saturday. Her friend wanted to know what school district a particular school was from. I wasn't sure so I said, "Bo-Diddlely ISD" (Independent School District). Brittney said, really, that is so tight. I'd love to have our school district named that and was ready to text that back to her friend, when Matthew erupted in laughter. I wanted her to get the text off to see if her friend believed it.

For Sunday humor you need to read my nieces blog, The Clark Park, which is on my bloggin' buddies list. The entry is "Here, Kitty, Kitty". It was her most current entry.

And Saturday at Matthew's game I was stuck with a container full of "Thunder Sticks", you know those things you blow up and bop together. I call them boppers. I was asking people if they wanted boppers and they weren't taking them. I heard someone else that was passing them out asking people if they wanted bangers and they were taking them. I guess people want bangers not boppers.

Have a great day!

Monday, The Huricane Day

Many people asked us if we were getting anything from the hurricane that came onshore on Monday, the answer would be no. We had a lot of high clouds and it was breezy. I attached a video of our nice breezy day that I shot while I was laying by the pool. Don't be alarmed by the sirens in the background as someone blew up a slide at the playground in our subdivision.

Jacob Update

Just got back from the Dr. with Jacob. He dislocated his clavicle from his sternum. It should heal in another 3 weeks and be ready to play football again. They got this from the x-ray that they took at the ER but missed it. I'm really glad it's not broken!!