Severe Storm

On Saturday, March 23rd, Neal participated in a morning CERT drill and was put in charge of assigning manpower to the areas of need. It went well and that was good because...
the very next day, a severe storm hit Allen.

We thought it would go north but then a hook formed and the storm was bringing golf ball-size hail. Neal had us put on our shoes and get in the storm closet and called his dad to check on us in 10 minutes if we did not call back in that time. We were calm but the kids were crying because we did not put all the cats in the closet with us. We could hear the hail beating down and just kept waiting to hear if it would crash through the skylight.  After a few minutes, it was past us and we contacted Rudy. The kids went out on our covered porch to see the size of the hail while we called and texted friends to make sure they were okay. About 10 minutes after we left our closet Neal got the call from CERT and left.

He ended up working the evening in the same exact position.  We found out that less than a mile away many homes were damaged from heavier and larger hail, as the tornado never developed. There was hail that had gone through car windows, house and store windows, and roofs. There was flooding in some homes. Lots of debris from the trees too. Really sad for those families. I worked a sub job the next day in a neighborhood that was affected and the kids were talking about it. One said that nobody got much sleep because of having to deal with the damage and he had to walk to school because of the broken windows and glass in their car.

Grateful to be protected this time and to have a husband that is very educated on severe weather and is a blessing to our community along with all the other emergency personnel and trained citizens.

Happenings

Friday night hockey!

Neal working on his DIY light box for photography.

Neal loving of Wall-E.

Mom Comes to Visit

My mom flew in to visit for just over a week part way through the kids' spring break. So good to see her and tell her I love her in person! Mom's have a special place in our hearts.

We had a lot of down time which was great to just talk and be together. We did get out some, though. We went down to Waco just to get out of town and visited a Heritage Village where a Christian agrarian community performs trades like basket weaving, textile weaving, woodwork, pottery, etc and sale their products which in many cases are pieces of art. We had a delicious lunch at the cafe there and headed to the old suspension bridge over the Brazos River while enjoying cattle drive sculptures. Then we hit a street market and headed home. 

Checking out Lego together

Textile weaving

Shorn sheep

Down in the pungent smelling cheese "cave"

We walked the trails of Oak Point Nature Preserve, shopped for succulents for Neal, fabric for me, made sure Grandma got her trips into Taco Casa for her favorite tostadas, and had a great time.

Spring Into Action

We had a lot of success gathering blanket and medicine donations for our local homeless shelter back in November so we thought we'd try and address some of their other needs this spring. We asked those within our community via a Facebook event to "Spring into Action" and donate paper goods for shelter by our school's spring break.

Well, a week into it we had met those needs generously so we updated the urgent needs items and they continued to come it. All in all Samaritan Inn received paper plates, plastic cups, paper towels, napkins, paper bath cups, reusable plastic cereal bowls, children's electrolyte drink, Lysol cleaner, multipurpose cleaner, and cough drops, as needed.

We are always so excited to see the donations come in and always appreciative of those who participate in any way! We were happy to invite the Adams along to deliver the donations. Thanks for doing some good!

Trying to Raise Them Right

Earning money for girls camp coming up this summer.

Gorgeous Grin

Rhys got his phase 1 braces off today! Before and after...

New set of glasses too! Looking so much older these days!