Mon. 1st--Ponderize--week 237
God said, "My wisdom is greater than the cunning of the devil." Satan is always working on us in the here and now. When we're weak, tired, and frustrated. The Lord's responses to our pleas for answers or help don't always come immediately, requiring us to practice great patience. God sees all. He knows everything. He can see the beginning from the end. It's really hard to wait and be patient, especially when things are piling up. But trust we must. Because he will provide a way. He always does.
*Jared and Cooper sitting down to look at the application for BYU. Cooper missed the deadline for the fall application. However, there's some stuff messed up with his account...his name comes up with my email and phone number. *sigh* They recommended that he fill out the application anyway and then when it's done, submit it and call them so they can make the necessary changes.
Tues. 2nd--IGN Road runs from just outside our neighborhood and takes you straight through to JJ's new school several miles away in about three minutes. Except that this road has been closed for 2 1/2 years as they worked to build a more secure drainage area and bridge. Furthermore, there wasn't any construction for well over a year and a half, which was very irritating, to say the least. The detour sends us south a bit through more of the country. It's not a bad drive but adds an extra eleven minutes or so to the commute. On this particular day, I didn't mind because the sunrise was breathtaking. We love our painted skies!
*Rolo had spent an exorbitant amount of time running around in the yard (we call these laps "zoomies") when he should have been going potty. This was his post "zoomie" pose.
*This was the 101st day of school so our first grade teachers dressed up as Cruella DeVils and the kids dressed up as Dalmatians. Super cute!
*Cooper getting some bonding time with Rolo. Rolo has been a little standoffish with Cooper lately. We think it's because Cooper sneezes SO loudly when his allergies are flaring that it has scared the poor pup. Cooper is a big boy so I could see where that might be alarming to Rolo. But Cooper just wants to be near Rolo without the dog cowering from him. So this was a win for Cooper when Rolo laid there for an extended period of time.
Wed. 3rd--Our Primary Activities children brought back their coasters and we packaged them up to give to our single senior sisters in the Branch. They were technically for Valentine's Day, but we don't always see these sisters each week, so I wanted us to be ready to pass them out on Sun. the 7th. The children did a great job. We also tossed in a gourmet bar of soap and a small candy treat.
Thurs. 4th--Rolo guarding his den of treasures.
A closer look and you can see a shoe, his leash, and one of Karcyn's face masks.
Under our bed (that we call Den 2.0) you can see a mess, but also three or four of my shoes and someone's sock. *sigh*
*The two Jareds just chillin'.
Fri. 5th--This sweet bus driver is Sonya. She drives bus 201 and was one of the people I gave a Christmas note to. When I took the kids to her earlier in the week, she handed me a bag. It had this blue shirt in it. It says, "TEACHER" and underneath it, "virtually unstoppable." She said she saw it the other day and had to get it for me. I was so touched. I love it and the color. I wore it on casual Friday and when I saw that she was still parked at the school when JJ and I arrived, I snapped a quick picture of us together. :)
*Our second set of suburban keys were lost right after we got home from our camping adventure in Arkansas back in July. Jared doesn't know what happened to his set. It took several months, but he finally got a new key and fob made. He was going to pick them up that morning, so he told me to take his car. And I did. In the process, I took the only set of suburban keys to work as well. Talk about ironic! Jared was trying to get much needed second set of car keys to avoid this very problem that we had managed to avoid for seven months until that very day!! We decided to meet at the church which was just up the road from me and on his way to drop Karcyn off at her school (because there's no seminary on Fridays). He was able to borrow Cooper's car because Coop was still asleep.
Sat. 6th--Another bonding win for Cooper.
Sun. 7th--Calvin helping out with baby William at church.
JJ and Rolo.
Cooper and Rolo.
*Karcyn ready to cheer on the Kansas City Chiefs in the Super Bowl. KC also happens to be Karcyn's initials. :)
Tues. 9th--JJ and I had the awesome, once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to meet Astronaut Clayton Anderson this morning at our school! It was such a blast! He prepared a wonderful presentation to share with the students and staff--we hung on every word. The best part, though, is that Clayton is also an author and we can read all about his experiences working for NASA and spending over 150 days on the International Space Station.
JJ is sitting up front, on the left, in the maroon shirt. Almost looks like Clay is talking directly at him.
Space underwear. :)
*Clay took that picture from space.
Clay showing us how you have to hold your feet when walking on the robotic arm--very carefully!
Or else!!!
One of the perks of working at the school...I can go get my son out of class and take him back down to the cafeteria to meet the astronaut and get our pictures taken.
*Karcyn had an FFA meeting that evening and they decorated cookies. Apparently, there was a cookie decorating contest, and Karcyn won! She got a gift card to Sonic.
Wed. 10th--It was WILD WEDNESDAY at school again for the staff. We traced and cut out paper hearts and sayings that pertain to Special Education and glued them on. I thought it was really creative and felt confident we'd probably win. And we did!! Free lunch for us on Friday!
Some of the sayings: "You SpEd away with my heart," "You had me at mastery criteria," "You are Sped-cial,"
Our room...but you can't read our sayings very well.
So we tried it again. "I love the way you collect data," "You ARD SpEd-cial to me," "I love the way you mastered that goal."
"IEPs before Zzzzs," "ARD you going to be mine?" "I love the way you accommodate."
*Facts about narcolepsy.
*Cooper getting more Rolo loves.
Thurs. 11th--Jared had just texted me recently that Rolo kept ringing the bells to go outside about 9 times and wouldn't do anything but play. I could only laugh! Then I saw this meme and sent it to Jared. Haha! (Jared didn't think it was very funny.)
*Ponderize--week 238
Psalm 117:2
"For his merciful kindness is great toward us, and the truth of the Lord endureth forever."
Fri. 12th--I took this picture while trying to get gas at Sams Club at 5:30pm. Some winter weather was going to be coming that weekend so there was a rush on gas. I was just trying to fill up on my normal day to do so. We sat there, not moving for more than 20 minutes. I tried to find out what was going on when the lady in the car in front of me came to my window and said that the car at the pump in our line had been there for over 25 minutes and had only pumped five gallons. Needless to say, the pumps were dreadfully slow. I didn't have time for that, so I pulled out and went into the store.
I decided to try and get gas at HEB on the way home This was the line to get into that store--waaaay back from the traffic light (you can barely make out the green lights up ahead).
I finally got in and made it to the pumps, but every.single.one.was out of gas. So I continued on my way back to the house and filled up at the very expensive station not far from home. Whatever it takes at this point.
*Exactly! We don't have Alexa, but the principle still applies.
Sat. 13th--Cooper slept downstairs with Rolo the night before and the puppy was pulling on the blanket to wake him up. It was funny to watch.
*Apparently, this is the weather that was coming. So they canceled bowling league for the morning because some people drive from outside of College Station.
*The boys jumping outside in some cold precipitation--sleet or freezing rain pellets were on the surface of the trampoline.
*Rolo curled up in my lap while I paid bills.
*Because Valentine's Day was on a Sunday, we did our Valentine's dinner a day early. "I LOVE YOU TO PIZZAS!" We ordered pizza, sent Jake some money to get a pizza for himself, and we watched a movie together.
Cooper took the selfie and then it went downhill from there...
*Afterschool car-rider duty was BRU-TAL on Thursday and Friday. SOOO COLD my thighs and fingers (even in gloves) were numb after 30 minutes in the wind. One sweet family brought each of us a hot chocolate bomb. I've never had one before and it was delicious!!!
Sun. 14th--The storm was coming! We were getting alerts on our phone left and right: Winter Storm Warning (strong system bringing freezing rain, sleet and snow with snowfall accumulations between 2-6 inches), a Hard Freeze Warning (sub-freezing temps as low as in the single digits to teens across the region), and a Wind Chill Warning (as low as 15 below would be dangerous, but also could result in blowing and drifting of snow yielding nearly white-out conditions). Oh yeah, and something else called: Thundersleet. What?! Dude. This is southern Texas!! Not Alaska!!
This picture is historic. The ABC Weather Desk has never seen this before...the ENTIRE state of Texas under either a Winter Storm Watch or Warning. All 254 counties.
But we were still a-go for church in Caldwell. So we all piled into the suburban. Jared was conducting Sacrament meeting and Cooper was giving a talk. About ten minutes down the road, the low oil pressure alarm started going off on the suburban. Oh noo! We weren't sure what to do. We had to get to Caldwell, but it was 70 miles round trip. We didn't want to make it to Caldwell only to not make it home. And then there was this storm that was building. So we turned around and literally jumped out of the burb and jumped into Jared's car (thankfully it seats seven!) so we could get to Caldwell. We were only two minutes past 10am and they hadn't started yet. Phew!
*Rolo being a puppy and playing with his squeaker toy.
*When I went to Sams Club on Friday--my normal time to do so--I needed to pick up another canister of hot chocolate. I was miffed when I saw that it was all cleaned out. Gone. There was no trace of it. Zilch. Unbelievable. So we had no hot chocolate and a massive storm was headed our way. But at the peak of my frustration, I was inspired to heat up the chocolate milk I bought from the grocery store. It's amazing cold. Well, guess what? Meet my hot chocolate hack. It'll knock your socks off!
*We get to talk to Jake occasionally on Sundays before he heads to work. He was telling us that it was going really well with a girl named Trina who he had been on a few dates with already.
*JJ got some super cool glasses in his Valentine's bag from school and I had to try them on.
*Calvin inhaling pure sugar from a Valentine's treat. It didn't go well.
*Ice was starting to form on the cars. Brrr.
A layer of ice Cooper got off of his door.
Snow starting to fall that afternoon.
*It was VERY cold outside. And as you can see with Cooper in his coat and Calvin in his jacket, it wasn't super warm inside either. Since we don't run our furnace thanks to the price gouging from our propane company, we resort to space heaters. They work and help to take the chill out of the air, but the rooms are definitely not toasty. On another note, Rolo loves licking people's ears.
Rolo kisses.
And then there's JJ in his short sleeves and shorts (eye-rolling here).
*Another picture of the ENTIRE state under a Winter Storm Warning. "A once in a generation event." We may never see this again in our lifetime.
*Haha!!
*At least he decided to put his coat on.
*JJ checked out this book before Christmas. It's been missing since January. I was literally hours away from paying for it when I was in the game room, cleaning out under the low couches to make sure there wasn't anything that Rolo would choke on because we were going up to watch a family movie. And I found this under the couch. I had forgotten our resident book thief had slept up in the game room for a few days before we moved him to his own room the middle of January.
Mon. 15th--Before going to bed the night before, Jared and I were hyper-aware that we needed to put all the faucets on a slow drip to keep them from freezing. The last time we had a deep freeze (our first in Texas) we didn't know to do that and the master bathroom sink pipes froze. We were so afraid for our southern pipes. Fortunately, we learned that they are made from material that is flexible and can expand in cold temperatures. When it warmed up later that day, above freezing, the pipes thawed out and began flowing freely again.
I woke up at 4:30am to take Rolo out to go potty. I went potty real fast myself and when I turned on the sink, and discovered that water did not flow from the faucet. And then my heart sank when I remembered that somehow we had totally forgotten to slow drip these faucets! Knowing what I learned from the first hard freeze back in January 2018, I wouldn't have worried as much. However, the temperatures were not expected to rise above freezing for days! Maybe the pipes wouldn't last that long. It was 7 degrees below zero when I went outside with Rolo. It was harsh and the wind was sharp on any exposed skin as it whipped around me. I was so upset that we forgot to slow drip the faucet, I started crying tears of deep regret. Even when Rolo was done (he was very focused), I cried softly in bed because I was so mad at myself for neglecting the very pipes that froze before. I felt like the first time this happened served as the learning experience and this time we should have known better and the outcome might not be as fortunate as it was three years ago.
This was the view at 7:30am.
*The boys exploring and Calvin documenting the event with his go-pro camera. Not surprisingly the school districts canceled school for Tuesday, too.
*Our Halloween pumpkins. They lasted a long time. Probably won't survive this freeze.
The view out our front door.
*Thought this was cute.
*Our house after winter storm Uri came through our area. Jared decided to be proactive about our frozen pipes. After chatting with a couple neighbors, we went up to our attic and located what we thought was the frozen pipe. We spent several minutes up there with a hairdryer. Then we wised up and thought...space heater! We plugged one in and let it sit up there for 20-30 minutes that afternoon. When we went to check on it, we heard ice sliding through the pipes. We went to check on our faucets and water was flowing again! We were sooo happy! And vowed to keep them all on a slow drip, both the cold and hot water.
*I thought it was cool how the snow showed "drifting" patterns from the wind.
*Haha! It wasn't Elsa, but there was truth to the second half of that meme. It's crazy the difference one week makes...even with sub-freezing temperatures.
*Majestic doggo.
*Snuggled up doggo.
Tues. 16th--Silly Rolo.
*Even though we didn't get above freezing and the overnight temperatures were sub-zero again, we put all our faucets on a slow drip and none of our pipes froze. Karcyn braved the temperatures and tried taking Rolo for a walk.
*And this is why we have a soft cover for our toilet seat! :)
*Saw this post that an acquaintance put on Facebook. I lived in the same ward as this couple from 1986 to 1992 in Marietta, Georgia before moving to Alaska. Kathy ran an organization called "Stars of Atlanta"--a children's singing group, complete with choreography and costumes that my sister, Michelle and I were a part of. We met in Kathy's garage and we really enjoyed it. So this was extra cool to see.
*We learned that our water supply had a main pipe break. So we'd be losing pressure and eventually water.
Wed. 17th--It was a white week on the board because it was a white week outside. The district cancelled school for Wed. on Tuesday evening. The snow hadn't melted and wouldn't til Sunday at this rate. I wished the district would just cancel school for the entire week. Not one day at a time. However, I am SO grateful that school was cancelled--in person AND virtual. We were afraid the kids would have to go online, but the rolling blackouts prevented that.
*Rolo keeping my feet warm.
*Rolo and part of his bone. The one NICE thing about SNOW-VID 2021 or the SNOWPACOLYPSE is that Jared got to be home with us. During the covid lockdown and even still, there were many husbands and dads who were able to be at home or work from home. It's kind of hard to diagnose people with coronavirus via Zoom, so Jared continued to work. I was grateful that he still had a job, but part of me wished we could have had that extra family time too. So Snow-vid was a treat for our family.
*Picture out our front door.
*Picture near Kemah Boardwalk in Houston.
*Things continued to get interesting when we found ourselves on a boil water notice. We were required to bring water to a vigorous boil and let it continue for two minutes, then cool to use prior to washing hands/face, brushing teeth, drinking, cooking, or making ice.
So I made these little reminders to post by each sink in our house.
And then we found ourselves surviving a bit like Little House on the Prairie because we lost our water. We were Little House on Carriker Court. I had the kids collect buckets of snow so we could melt it on the stove. We have followed our prophet's counsel for the past 23 years of marriage, we have always had some kind of water storage. When we have had to move, we gave it away and started again. I remember our neighbor in Oregon seeing our water storage and wigging out at how much we had. And then her asking us WHY? And we told her...you never know when your water supply will be cut off or compromised. We have bottled water that we've bought and bottled water we have stored in our garage. I was so grateful for it because we didn't have to panic and run out to the store in crazy weather conditions to try and find some. We had plenty to use for brushing our teeth and drinking. We melted snow and boiled it to wash dishes and we just melted snow to flush our toilets! I sent the boys out back to empty their bladders so we could save the toilet water for those certain solid wastes we needed to get rid of.
*In the meantime, Jake and Trina were snowboarding in Utah.
*A very comfortable puppy.
Thurs. 18th--No school today either. Still no water. Consequently, we continued to melt snow on our stove. Thank goodness we had water storage and propane. And electricity to keep our space heaters running. Neighborhoods all around us were succumbing to rolling blackouts for hours at a time in order to meet the energy demand. We kept waiting and preparing for ours to go out, but it never did.
*Haha!
*This is an actual picture of snow that melted in our house before we were able to put it on the stove. Crazy how the pristine, white snow crystals melted into this gray, murky water.
*Crazy! And kind of funny.
*Cooper's last day of work as a high school student. He has worked for over two years, balancing A LOT! But he was getting increasingly tired and it seemed like his classes always had project due dates or big exams scheduled the day following his weekly work night. He really enjoyed working at Whataburger, but he needed one less thing on his plate so he could just focus on school. There is a sleep study on the books scheduled for March 17th over spring break. Unfortunately, he had to spend two weeks tapering his depression meds and then be off of them for another two weeks before the sleep study. Poor, poor guy.
*The pupster all curled up again.
Fri. 19th--No school on Friday, either. Surprise, surprise. Water was restored later in the day, with a boil water order still in place.
*I usually go grocery shopping on Saturday mornings. I've been on Friday evenings occasionally. I figured it might be good to go out on Friday just to see what was really out there (or not) and to give myself and extra day, if needed to find supplies.
This was the egg aisle.
And the milk aisle.
The deli meat aisle.
It felt like right before the covid lock down the year before.
*Rolo is ALWAYS happy to see Jared. He paws Jared's face. Then he licks and then he buries his head into Jared's chest. Paw, lick, bury, repeat.
*Yes, I did!
Sat. 20th--Ponderize--week239
Psalm 27:14
"Wait on the Lord; be of good courage, and he shall strengthen thine heart; wait, I say, on the Lord."
I couldn't agree more with Hank Smith.
Faithfulness=Courage
*Wow. Rolo is already receiving his own mail. :) It was a magnet from my mom that says: I love my mutt.
*Finally! Guess I wouldn't make such a great pioneer. I was super grateful when the boil water notice was lifted. It was a pain washing dishes.
Sun. 21st--Enjoying a Sunday nap.
*I learned that the girl Jake was dating is now in a relationship. I wonder if Jake knows. Haha! :)
Mon. 22nd--Calvin wanted to play ping pong using his go Pro taped to his baseball cap. Gotta give him props for thinking outside the box a little.
Tues. 23rd--Oh boy, it was a doozy of a week at school as we worked to help train a kindergartner to behave appropriately. It's amazing the army of adults it takes to help one child.
Wed. 24th--What a difference a week makes. This is a picture of Houston. Before hit with a winter storm and during.
*My friend, Rebecca from school had texted to say her husband was on his way to the hospital and has to have emergency surgery. Whoa--he was fine just a few hours earlier when he talked to her at school on speaker. I had just gotten out of my dental appointment after school and asked what she was doing with her kids. We had briefly met back in January when we got Rolo and Apollo together for a play date. They know us as Rolo's new family. I had barely set foot inside the house when Rebecca called to say that she was getting ready to head to the hospital. She had a neighbor at the house for the moment with the kids, but didn't think she could stay. I said, "I'm on my way." I was home just long enough to change my clothes, pack a few things in a bag, kiss my kids goodbye and check in on Jared who had his first covid vaccine and was feeling a little puny. I felt bad abandoning him, but I knew the kids would be okay and could hold the fort down.
By the time I got to their house, Rebecca was on her way out. Her neighbor and I swapped phone numbers so we could keep each other posted. And then it was just me and the kids. We needed dinner, so I took them out to pick up Chick-Fil-A. They were so great, considering I was more-or-less a stranger to them, and we had a fun evening--all things considered. Rebecca's husband had a testicular torsion--very much an emergency surgical procedure. We're so grateful he got in when he did. And miraculously, he came home that night around 10pm. I stayed til 10:30 so that Rebecca could drive up to Bryan to get his meds from the 24 hour pharmacy and I was home by 11pm.
When she called to talk to me earlier in the evening Rebecca asked, "Isn't tonight the night you guys go to Caldwell for church?" I told her yes, but it was totally okay, because "serving your friend in need IS church. I'm teaching my kids to follow the Savior and what better way than to help someone in need. The Lord wouldn't care about attending pre-scheduled events. So I don't either." My kids missed a family history activity, which I was really looking forward to them participating in, but I know I chose the better part and brought great peace and comfort to a friend in need.
Fri. 26th--Jake and his girlfriend, Trina. They're cute together. And he seems very happy. He said it is very easy to be with her. Natural. She is a BYU-I student online, living in Provo. She only just moved out to Utah a month ago. Her parents live in Dallas, Texas!
Sat. 27th--We had a playdate already scheduled for Phin and Grace (Rebecca's two oldest kids) to come over to our house even before Matt's emergency surgery. We strategically planned for them to be at our house for the two hours while Cooper and Calvin were away at bowling league so they didn't have to worry about the interference of meddling siblings. Phin was teaching JJ the finer points of Yu-Gi-Oh cards.
Karcyn and Grace painted, wrote stories, played games, and played with Rolo.
It was a good day!
*A good reminder.
*Jake--super proud of elevating his bed to give himself more storage underneath.
*Time for bed!
Space underwear. :) 
*Clay took that picture from space. 
Or else!!!
One of the perks of working at the school...I can go get my son out of class and take him back down to the cafeteria to meet the astronaut and get our pictures taken. 
*Karcyn had an FFA meeting that evening and they decorated cookies. Apparently, there was a cookie decorating contest, and Karcyn won! She got a gift card to Sonic.
Wed. 10th--It was WILD WEDNESDAY at school again for the staff. We traced and cut out paper hearts and sayings that pertain to Special Education and glued them on. I thought it was really creative and felt confident we'd probably win. And we did!! Free lunch for us on Friday!
Fri. 12th--I took this picture while trying to get gas at Sams Club at 5:30pm. Some winter weather was going to be coming that weekend so there was a rush on gas. I was just trying to fill up on my normal day to do so. We sat there, not moving for more than 20 minutes. I tried to find out what was going on when the lady in the car in front of me came to my window and said that the car at the pump in our line had been there for over 25 minutes and had only pumped five gallons. Needless to say, the pumps were dreadfully slow. I didn't have time for that, so I pulled out and went into the store.
I decided to try and get gas at HEB on the way home This was the line to get into that store--waaaay back from the traffic light (you can barely make out the green lights up ahead). 
I finally got in and made it to the pumps, but every.single.one.was out of gas. So I continued on my way back to the house and filled up at the very expensive station not far from home. Whatever it takes at this point.
And the milk aisle.
The deli meat aisle. 
*Rolo is ALWAYS happy to see Jared. He paws Jared's face. Then he licks and then he buries his head into Jared's chest. Paw, lick, bury, repeat. 
