Busy Times II

The last couple of weeks have been quite busy for us, and thus I haven't been posting. Let me catch you up on a few things that have happened. I will try to keep them in order as much as possible.

May 19th was Gene's 45th birthday, and the girls and I decided to surprise him by showing up at his office to decorate his car. It wasn't easy keeping Sarah quiet, but we were able to paint all the windows for him. For those of you who don't know Gene, he hates to have attention drawn to himself in this way. So you may ask yourself, "Why would you do such a thing then?" The answer is... Gene loves to play jokes on all of us, so we figured this time the joke would be on him. Besides, he doesn't drive that far to work. He even got a car wash out of it. Lindsay washed his car when he came home so he didn't have to drive it into downtown Houston that way.(Do you think part of it could have been she didn't want to ride into Houston in a car that was all painted?) Here are some of the pictures we took.












For dinner we had one of his favorite meals, oven fried pork chops with yam patties, cabbage and butter beans having coconut cake for dessert. Later that evening he went and did his favorite activity... witnessing to the lost.

On Sunday night, the 21st, I took Lindsay to see United 93. It was a well made movie, in my opinion. It's hard to call it a "good movie" because of the subject matter. I do feel that it was handled well and that it showed an acurate portrayal of how people would have responded. There were no "super-heroes", only men and women doing their best in a no-win situation. I also thought the way they filmed it added a lot to the movie. It was filmed as if it were a documentary, which made you feel you were a part of it, not just a spectator on the sidelines. It's a hard movie to watch emotionally, but I think it's good to remember what happened that day.

Here are the pictures from the utility room when the laundry detergent oozed all over the floor.

This is a picture of the floor with cat litter all over it-- boy was that a mess!!!!


Here is Lindsay in her goo cleaning attire...isn't she lovely? Look at her stylish shoes. ;-)


Here is a close-up of the stylish shoes. Do you think she should go into fashion design??



I have been working in my garden a good deal also. I have everything in now, though some of it was planted much later than I intended. That won't cause a problem down here in South East Texas, as we have a very long growing season.

In the last couple of weeks, I have been visiting Mrs. Wilt's blog, which I enjoy immensely. Her blog is titled The Sparrow's Nest . Mrs. Wilt has begun a book society, which she has named The Antiqui-tea Book Society . We are going to be reading Edith Schaeffer's Hidden Art of Homemaking. I encourage you to check into it, as I personally can't wait to begin.

I have also been visiting Tammy's blog, and have enjoyed what she has shared about her home. This weekend she has made two adorable purses that I just love. I've been talking about making my own purses for quite some time, and she has truly inspired me to try. Click over to her site and see how cute they are.

Saturday we were thrilled to have our neice Christa and her fiance, Matt, come for a visit. We had never met Matt, but had heard tons about him. They were engaged Friday, March 17th. Matt surprised Christa in a great way. You can read about the story here. It's a really sweet story and we are excited as we watch what path God unfolds for them as a couple.

We took a picture of Christa and Matt together.



Then Matt took one of the rest of us and Christa--thanks Matt.



Saturday evening we had a bit of excitement around here. Caroline came and woke me from a cat nap to tell me she could see dark smoke from her window. We went outside to see what it was, and it was obvious it wasn't someone grilling hamburgers. When I came in to put some shoes on, Gene took Hannah, Rachel and Caroline down the street to see if they could see what it was. When Lindsay and I met back with them in the driveway, they told us they could see huge flames to the east of our subdivision. The girls and I took the camera and went for a walk:* a homeschooler never passes up and opportunity to teach something. When we got to the far edge of the subdivision we found an empty lot with a lot of people looking over the 6 foot privacy fence. The fire was in a pile of mulch at a Landscaping company that abuts our subdivision. This is what we saw:



We then decided to walk to the main road that leads into the subdivision on the south side of the fire. It was a very educational experience, as the girls had never had the opportunity to see how a fire was fought. We were about 400 yards from where they were fighting the fire, but were able to see a little of it. There were 10-12 fire trucks there, providing the hoses for those fighting the fire. The closest fire hydrant was nearly 1/4 of a mile away. This is what we could see from the road:



The firemen took several hours to extinguish the fire, and the next morning it was still smoldering as we saw smoke coming from it.

That catches you up to where we are. Drop me a note and let me hear how you're doing.