misc from a busy week

Our lovely niece, Aubrey W, bought her own car and decided to come spend the night.  It was fun to see her. She helped at the football concession stand with Ada and then they came and talked til the fell asleep.  The next day, they went shopping and out for food together.  Such cuties.

Ada and Sarah both wore their camp hoodies to school on the same day.  They thought it was fun that they matched.

The power went out at church again.  It's been happening a lot more often as there are more strains on the electric companies with the new growth in the area.

Seth gave a cute talk in Primary.  I sure like being there to see him.

Ada's first carrot.

Ada... She fit just right once we got all the books out.  She and Alexx were amazing and pulled the bookshelves down to Jer's office so that we could dry out the carpet.

Tis peach season and Pyne orchard has done it again.  YUM!

Ada and Aubrey

I had the flu for the first time in ages.  I was sleeping and Vinn came to keep me company.

My Evelyn is catching on to the violin.  Not pro yet, but I love hearing her progress from last year.

Cute Dad and Seth

Sam gave a talk in sacrament meeting.  He did great.  He had our lawyer neighbor comment on the fact that he's not afraid when he speaks.  That's true!

We also got to go celebrate Aubrey, Devin, Michelle and Isaiah for their birthdays with a BBQ.  It was fun trying to find presents for these teens and their different talents and personalities. They're growing so beautifully.

 

Mary Ellis

My Great Aunt, Mary Ellis just passed away this last week.  I haven't seen her in years, but I do remember her and her husband being kind and happy. She was in her mid 90s.

 

One in a hundred

So the last month has been crazy after crazy.... We drove across country to get out of tropical storm weather... and we brought it home with us.  It was a completely normal day.  I went to Costco with Seth and everyone else was at home.  It started to hail and within 15 minutes our garage, library area, and laundry room were completely flooded.... along with about 50% of the houses in our ward. Ada was so amazing.  She stayed and cleaned up the garage which kept the water from going down the stairs and into our basement.  Jer, Sam and I went and helped bail out the basements of the single older ladies in our ward.  Then the Komens and Alexx came to help Ada... When I got home with Sam, we were able to get the laundry room and library emptied out and the carpet mostly dry.  We were up until 2 am. Seth helped move all the books and furniture and Evelyn kept all the cats out of the way.  While I was at Costco, Jer texted me and said, "It's flooding!" I asked where and he pretty much said that it was Everywhere!  We got away with about $350 in damage and lots of elbow grease.  Our neighbors were not so lucky.  They just built an indoor basketball court in their house. It took them almost two years and they finished it this summer.  Now they have to replace the court flooring because they had about 2 feet of water in it. None of it is covered by insurance because flooding damage is only covered if it's sewage water.

We have a wonderful neighborhood.  There were people out in hoards running buckets and pumps.  Moving furniture and carpeting. Even delivering pizza.  

This is the neighborhood skate park next to the fire department. Definitely more like a pool that day.

The hail took out about half of our apples and most of the leaves.

Ada's poor garden was smooshed.  The tomatoes still produce and most of the garden was carrots this year, so that was good at least.

We had to empty the entire garage and treat it for mold.

Ada's yummy home grown tomatoes

I thought that this was an appropriate lesson.  The entire plant got destroyed with the hail... and three days later, it bloomed.  We definitely are meant to live through hard things.

 

new soccer season

We started a new season!  We actually missed their first game because we were out of town, but we made it to their 2nd games.  They both got red jerseys this year even though they're different teams. It's really funny because we've had parents try to tell our kids that they needed to get over to the coach... I have to tell them that no... this kid is on the Under 12 team and the other is on the Under 17 Coed team.

 

Corbin and Aubrey engagement pictures

These marvelous people just got married.  Ada and I went up and took pictures of lovely Aubrey and Corbin.  It was fun to get to know our niece's man.