10 Years Ago

Friday was the day I married by best friend 10 years ago. It is amazing to think of how far we've come since that day and even farther since we met & started dating in 1992. I had planned on writing a touching blog post about what the past 10 years have meant to us, but decided to post a slide show with pictures of our journey instead. We have had a great 10 years of marriage thus far and can't wait to see what the next 10, 20, and 30 years bring us.

Aftermath of Hurricane Ike

Wow, it has been a really long 5 days since the storm first threatened the Houston area. I'm not really sure what to say about it. You can read about the details of the storm on Shelly's blog. She was very good about posting every day and throughout the storm itself. It has been one wild ride.

For those of you who have asked, we have not sustained any significant damage - a leaning fence, dirty pool, couple of leaning small trees. Unfortunately, a good many of our neighbors were not so fortunate. There are many many houses out here with trees on them, some just "resting" and some through the roof, many trees on the roads and on the ground. We were the exception in our section of the neighborhood by not having damage. Our electricity was out until Monday night and the rest of the neighborhood (including David & Leah, Aunt Pam & Uncle Jack, and Aunt Kay) have all had power restored tonight. Fort Bend Co. is slowly returning to "normal". No long lines for gas and the grocery stores are pretty well stocked. School is scheduled to re-open on Monday provided the rest of the schools can regain power this weekend.

I have truly been amazed at Texans and Houstonians during this storm. We are proud, resiliant, and friendly people who never shy away from helping others. If you can remember how Houston rose to the occasion to help out Katrina sufferers, you can only imagine how we have responded to helping our own. Everywhere you turn, there is evidence and stories of neighbors helping neighbors, stangers bringing food, water and ice into neighborhoods and people without power going out of their way to bring refreshments to power workers. No one is fighting while waiting 2 hours for gas, or over the last bag of ice. If you drive through some of these neighborhoods without power, you would think you stumbled on a block party. Everyone sitting out with lawn chairs, grilling all their meat before it spoils, kids playing in the street and people really getting to know each other. This storm brought destruction to our city, but also a blessing in bringing our city closer together.

While Houston and our surrounding areas are on the road to recovery from Ike, the same cannot be said yet for Galveston and other coastal cities. Galveston received a direct hit from Hurricane Ike, which carried with it a much greater storm surge then was expected. I have no doubt they will rebuild - they've been through worse, after the 1900 storm - but they will need all our prayers and support as the cleanup and rebuilding effort begins.

Hurricane Ike

As you may know, we are in the path of Ike. Right now it is a Cat 2 and will hopefully stay that way as it comes on shore tonight & tomorrow. The eye will pass hopefully to the East of us as predicted, but it might be a little close (about 20 miles or so).

We brought in all of our stuff outside, packed the freezer with ice and hopefully are ready for the storm. My sister & family are in a mandatory evacuation zone in Clear Lake, so they left yesterday for Mom & Dad's. She will probably be blogging through the storm (or as long as there is power), check out her blog at All Things Kelly (link to the right).

We have decided to ride out the storm at my parents also, even though they are nearby, they don't have any big trees. There will be 17 of us here tonight (Mom, Dad, us, Shelly & family, David & family, and Tim & Linda (Leah's parents). We have lots of beer, wine and snacks to make it through the long night ahead.

We are just watching footage on tv of the water already cresting the seawall in Galveston and the bay side of the island already flooding. Funny how the reporters talk about "certain death" for the people who are still on the island, but umm, aren't they still on the island also?

For everyone in the path of Ike, stay safe!

Soccer Boy!

Daniel had his first EVER soccer game last Saturday. Boy was he excited! He's watched Ashley play for years and begged to play himself. He finally got his turn. Wow, what a player.

4 year old soccer is very cute!

Before he started, he told me I had to video tape him scoring 10 times! He actually scored 7 times (and once in the wrong goal)! I did take lots of video and will hopefully upload it sometime soon to post. My problem is, I've got so many videos and they are all adorable, I can't choose just one or two to post.

Daniel seem to get the hang of it really quickly, scoring repeatedly on the other team. And getting quite aggressive with the ball. Brian and I were so very proud of him. It's hard to describe what it was like watching him play. Pure happiness and excitement on his face - and then he would score. Daniel would turn and look at us, jump up and down and scream, then give us a thumbs up sign. We were just so proud and excited for him. What a kid.

There are 6 boys on his team. At this age, in this league, the teams are co-ed, so we're not sure why there are only boys on the "yellow" team. They've yet to pick a team name, so for now, we yell "Go Yellow!" Not very catchy. Any suggestions for a team name?

For his first game, he had quite the cheering section - Mom & Dad, Sisters - Ashley & Laurie, GrandMommy & GrandDaddy, Uncle Ron and Papa. A great turnout to support our new player.

I hate to admit I was a little hoarse on Saturday evening. Having two games back to back does that to me. (Ashley's game started immediately after Daniel's on a different field). And I am one of those parents who gets into it. Brian sometimes has to elbow me to remind me they are little kids and to tone it down. Don't worry, I'm not going to be one of those parents who attacks the ref or anything. Or at least I don't think so.

Our games this weekend have been canceled due to Hurricane Ike. Hopefully, we won't have much damage or lose electricty for too long so we can practice and play another game this week.

Crazy Emails

Why is it that I seem to be spending all my free time these days correcting people who feel the need to pass on these bad rumors and smear jobs against Sarah Palin? Enough all ready. No, she did not cut special needs funding for children (she tripled it), no she didn't attempt to ban books at the public library, no she did not advocate Alaska succeeding from the Union, and lastly, she does not advocate teaching creationism in schools over evolution (she believes in teaching both theories to give students more information and begin debate). A nd the preposterous question of whether or not Trig is her son? I'm not even going to dignify that one with a response.

Why do people feel they must pass these things on without looking to see if they are true or not? I'm assuming they either know they are untrue or suspect, but they don't really care because their goal is to sully Palin's image and record. Seriously? Is that necessary? Can't we have the free flow of ideas and debate the actual issues? Not debate whether a Mom can successfully take care of children and work at the same time. Hasn't that one already been settled?

I guess until then, I will stand up for reason and sanity and continue to respond to all these crazy emails politely.

A New Record!

As you may remember, Daniel and I have a thing on the way to school. We count school buses. And we hit a new all time record this morning. 42 different school buses between our house and preschool. It was so much fun. He would get so excited with every new bus & we would scream out the numbers. After I picked him up, we continued counting & hit another new record - 79 buses!!! I can't wait for tomorrow's trip to school.

Lightening Strikes!

Soccer Season has Started!

Ashley is back playing soccer with a new found passion. After 5 seasons, we had begun to wonder if she still had the motivation necessary to bring her all to each game. Last year specifically, was a struggle as she discovered the "social" aspects of playing soccer - classmates and friends on your team, and adjusted to playing on a co-ed team for the first time.

This Summer, when Ashley discovered that in this new age group, the team goes back to being all-girls, she really wanted to play again. We were reluctant after finding it difficult to motivate her to give it her all last year, but she has burst out of the gate with lots of fire.

The Lightening had a great showing at their first game this weekend, with Ashley showing us she remembers how to score those all important goals. (We believe her final count was 3). Her coach - which Ashley will be very quick to tell you is a GIRL! - is a former college player herself and has been doing a great job with the new team. They will be working on strategy, passing, and moving beyond basic "herd ball" (which we fondly remember from years past). At U7, they play 4x4 with no goalies on a slightly larger field than before.

Watching them play, I suddenly realized, these aren't little girls any more. Some exhibit real ball control skills and speed. And, they appeared to work more as a team, rather than one dominate player who consistently breaks out from the pack to repeatedly score.

**She is #3 again this year in the above pictures**

We are only one game in, but it looks to be an exciting year for Ashley & the Lightening.

Fighting through a Cold!

We here at The5Jones all seem to be fighting a headcold. Some of us are having better luck fighting it than others. Poor Laurie has succumbed to her cold - complete with runny nose and low-grade fever. She brought down her pillow, baby, paci and blanket to lay on the floor to watch Dora.

Brian and I both seem to have the sniffles and woozy head. (Can I go back to bed now?)

While Daniel has itchy nose and lots of sneezes, he hasn't been slowed down much yet.

Only Ashley seems to be holding her own in this fight.

Its a slow day here at our house. Lots of laundry, game playing and tv watching today. Maybe some chicken soup for lunch?

Mommy & Kids

It dawned on me this week as I prepared picture projects for each of the kids classes, that there aren't many pictures of me with the kids. And certainly no recent pictures of me with all three kids. I'm always the one taking the pictures. So tonight at Hacienda Friday, my mom took some pictures for me.

It's not Hacienda without a little ice cream to finish off the night. Can you tell Birdie is trying to lick it off her nose? It was funny.

Pre-K & CDO Starts

Daniel had his first 3 days of Preschool this week. He was so very excited and had a great time. There are several friends from last year in this new class and he got a great color class - The Green Friends. His only complaint is that he only gets to be dropped off and picked up one day in the drive thru now. Because I have to walk Birdie in T/TH, I pick him up in the building also. But he tells me he's seen Birdie on the playground (she is on the playground next to his at the same time), but he didn't think she saw him. He's such a protective big brother.

Birdie had her first two days of Children's Day Out this week also. I admit - I was more than a little nervous how she would react on Tuesday to being dropped off. This is a friendly child who cries if strangers at the grocery store get too close or even talk directly to her. We'd talked a lot about school, visited the classroom, met the teacher and she seemed fine. We got to the school Tuesday and she was fine. We stood at the door looking in at the kids and toys and then said goodbye. I lifted her up over the baby gate and put her down to go play. After saying goodbye again. I walked away. Needless to say, I was stunned and shocked. No tears! When I went to pick up up at the end, she was crying pretty hard. She saw me and got really upset. When I asked the teachers how her day was, they made a little face and said she had some trouble. The note on her backpack said she cried off and on the whole day (except while playing outside).

The funny part - One of the first things Laurie said to me was "Where's Brother?" I really think she thought they were going to school "together", as in the same class. When she was asked later in the day how was school?, she said "I no like school."

We went back on Thursday, there were no tears from her until I put her over the babygate and walked away. She just started crying. But, when I picked her up, she was much better. Not Happy, but not upset. They said she was happy most of the day, just a few tears. And they Painted! One of Birdie's favorite things.

She did great this week. I'm very proud of her. It might take a few more days or weeks for her to walk in without tears, but I know she will and she will love school!