Christmas 2008

I have no clue what order all these pictures are in so I'm not going to bother putting captions between all of them. We celebrated Christmas Eve here in town since Mark obviously has to be at both services. The first service was a family service and it was really moving. Santa made a special appearance while the kids were at the chancel and he bowed in front of the manger, took his hat off and prayed silently. Then they sang "Away in a Manger" and I couldn't help but tear up. We came home to open our gifts since we were traveling early the next morning. Ben and Ella were the most dressed up for the service, warranting a photo with their handsome father. Ben was given a suit a few months ago and has begged to wear it so he put his ensemble together. The kid, that I can hardly get to brush his teeth, clip his nails or even take a shower, was dressed to the nines. Go figure.

We have over the past few years changed the way we celebrate with gift giving and it continues to be modified. I spoke to a dear friend of mine from college, the week before Christmas and she and her husband and 5 boys celebrate the holidays a little differently as well and I hope next year to incorporate some of their ideas too. The kids ask for one big item, and then we purchase two to three other small things for them. Unfortunately, the older the boys gets, that ONE item often costs way more than I'd like it to but we start to shop as early as we can. Max got the IPOD touch, Ben got a PSP, MT got a new bike, and Ella got Jungle in my Pocket. They also got a large gift that Mark has been working hard on all week, and finally finished assembling today, the basketball hoop. It's in ground with a 54" inch backboard. Thanks Beegee, the kids along with all the neighborhood kids, love it! Santa only brings what goes in their stockings in an attempt to not focus too much on him as much as we do the birth of our Saviour.

We traveled to Dallas Christmas morning and had a wonderful weekend with my family. Beegee was there along with my aunt, uncle, cousin and her new "friend" and we really enjoyed each other's company. The kids learned a new domino game and quickly caught on, called Chicken Foot. We shopped, ate, went to a movie, ate some more and sat around talking. It's always great to go home.

Hard to believe 2008 is almost over. We're staying home tonight, rented a few flicks, and will ring in the new year more than likely sound asleep. I can't stay up that late anymore. No more babies waking us up at all hours, so we sleep pretty soundly around here. The kids continue to grow faster than we'd like at times, but they're great and we're very proud of all of them. 2008 has brought a lot of joy to our family, new surroundings and new adventures. Some like the hurricane, we hope not to repeat next year, but we're prayerful that 2009 will be just as joyful. Happy New Year to all of you too!

Snow?!

Snow?! Yes, snow! Last night around 10:30 I heard sleet falling and went out back to pull in a large hibiscus we have in a pot and thought to myself, "this is very odd for southeast Texas." Then this morning at 5:30 a.m. the phone rang and it was the school district alerting us to a delay in school, the kids didn't have to be there until 10. So Mark got up out of bed and looked out our window and said, "your'e not going to believe this, but we have snow." So at 7 the kids got up and were just shocked to see snow. MT said, "it's not supposed to snow in Texas." They immediately wanted to get out snow bibs, hats, gloves and boots, all things that we've had packed up in a box in the attic since we moved from New York. So Mark obliged and they sorted through things they hadn't worn in two years, obviously things were a little snug. Ella put on a hat that she used to wear when she was a baby.

They went outside to throw snow balls and make a snowman and one of our neighbors rushed up to them and said, "I've never seen snow. Please don't mess up my yard, it's so pretty." It was so fun to see the excitement on people's faces. Oddly enough we heard today that the last time we had any snow was right after Rita. But not as much as we had today and people were talking all day at work about how they'd never in their entire lives seen this much snow in town.

The last picture I posted a picture was taken from our house in New York one day when we had snow. I miss it, but Mark said tonight that he absolutely does not. It might have been a tight vote this morning.

Future Eagle Scouts

Mark has been such a great Dad, not that he's not always great, but he's chosen to get really involved in scouting to motivate the boys to participate and they're all having a really great time. He camped with Ben about a month ago and MT two weeks ago and this weekend he took Max and Ben again. Max will return tomorrow with the rest of the campers so Mark won't have to miss another Sunday. Quite the group in their scouting gear, aren't they?

Serious Scouts


Silly Scouts

Half way to all Evens

For six months out of the year we're either all odds or evens and now we're halfway to all evens again. Mark Thomas turned 8 on December 1st and brought us to 6 and 8 so after Ben turns 10 in January and Max turns 12 in March we'll be a full house of evens again. So much easier on the mom and dad to be all of one or the other.

Mark Thomas is becoming quite the magician so several gifts pertained to a new field of exploration. What a trickster that boy is becoming. He also got cowboy boots from Grandma and Grandpa and wears them everywhere. Since December is such a crazy month he opted to combine parties with Ben in January and we're going to rent out the skating rink. A perk since I work for the company who owns the rink.

Mark Thomas also had his weekend of camping with Mark two weeks ago and they went to Sam Houston state park. He's the little fellow in orange! He's also petting a little gator, which I'm very sure he contemplated bringing home. MT keeps us constantly on the go but we love him so much! He may act tough but he's quite the cuddler and loves his Momma. He told me the other night when we were running errands, "I know why Daddy married you, Momma, because you're the prettiest." Such a charmer that boy.

Ella Clare

Ella and I took a little trip to Lowe's today and on the way she said, "Momma, do you know what a vegetarian is?" and I said, "what?" and she said very proudly from the back seat, "it means you can't eat candy." She's a genius, I know! But seriously, she is becoming a reading maniac. I intentionally did not work with her on reading too much last summer because she is so smart. I did not want her to be bored this year in kindergarten since she was already an older student, having missed the cut off last year by less than 20 days. So about two weeks ago I could see she was catching on very quickly and now she reads all the time. Everynight we read at least 10 books and she does all the reading with very little help. I cannot believe how fast she is growing up and she reminds me so much of Max when it comes to school. She got her hair cut this week just like she requested. She's been telling me for weeks, "I want it cut right below my ear, Momma" so I obliged and knew as soon as Jennifer was done that it was very short but it was adorable. Later that night she said to me as I was putting her to sleep, "Momma, I have a secret to tell you. I do not like my hair cut." So I explained every girl has to get used to a new hair cut when it's shorter and now after a few days and a few new hair bows she's really liking it. Hard to mess up perfection with my little Ella Clare! She also lost another tooth last night, bringing her grand total to 6.

7:30 in the morning on Saturday, really?

Have you ever been totally excited about something only to have the timing of it all shake those emotions up? We felt a little bit guilty about being told by the insurance adjuster that we needed a new roof after Hurricane Ike because we were not after all directly affected by the hurricane other than by inconvenience. We were able to come right back home after the power came back on and there was no permanent damage to our home, other than some minor shingle damage and our carport was torn up. So after going through the insurance hoops and learning those ropes it turned out that we were going to be getting a whopping check to get our roof replaced, and after getting three bids, we are getting the entire roof replaced and the carport repaired and it's not costing us one single penny. Praise the Lord, we would never have that kind of money sitting around to replace the roof. There's always a but though right, well they showed up at 7:30 this morning and it's the only day of the week that I get to sleep in. I heard Shiloh barking and thought, what is going on? Pulled myself out of the warm bed, with a beautiful little girl sleeping right next to me, Mark is gone, so Ella always feels the need to keep his spot warm for him and I went to the front window only to see about 6 trucks in the cul-de-sac with the roofing company logo.

Soooo, we're getting the new roof today! And now I'm totally awake!

Transformation Almost Complete

Mark has adjusted to Texas rather well and quickly I might add too. I asked him this morning while we were at the breakfast table, "Did you ever in your wildest dreams think when we met in Alabama that you'd be living in Texas, driving a truck and wearing boots?" and his immediate response was, "nope."

My grandmother, who is one of the most gracious people I have ever met decided that the boys in our family could use some new boots and those who did not have boots would get them for the first time. So when my parents were here a few weeks ago we all went to Cavender's and told the people at the front door that we needed to have Mark fitted for his "first" pair of boots and that he was from PA. I told them there was no need to announce those details over the loud speaker. So Mark picked out, very fitting to gator country where we now live, his first pair of boots made out of alligator. Pretty sure, they're real skin, so don't be offended. Gators are a plenty in Southeast Texas. Thank you Beegee, he loves them.

And since my husband has been so good to "unman" himself and drive a mini-van for the past two years, I decided it was time he should step up. I had met with someone at a local dealership that I had done some work for recently at Manning's and he gave me an excellent deal on the truck. I had totally wanted to surprise Mark with it but got nervous at the last minute so took him over last night to take a peak. the kids and us took it for a spin and it was an immediate hit. Hard to step back into the mini-van after that experience. So the truck was bought today and Mark is loving it!

He says the transformation is almost complete, he'd like a belt buckle and a hat too. Oh my goodness, this is getting scary. Baby you look good in boots and driving your new F-150.

A weekend with Ben

Ben and Mark spent last weekend camping at a Boy Scout camp about an hour from here. They had a great time! Ben loves anything to do with the outdoors and as you can see from the pictures below, spent an entire weekend immersed in "boy" activities. They even had a blacksmith there and they forged some iron and made some different pieces. Of course my sweet Ben, made me a beautiful heart, that I will try to post on here later. He was so proud handing it to me when he got home. He even burned his little finger while making it and had a pretty large blister, but he didn't mind he said.

The Indians at the top were from his project he turned in at school last week. He had to write a whole page on the Apaches and then make some kind of visual. He decided he wanted to sculpt his Indians out of clay and we were amazed at his creations. Today he only came home with one of them and when I asked Mark where the other one was he told me Ben had given the other one to a little boy in his class that is blind, named Tyler. Tyler was in Ben's class last year too and they have formed a special friendship. Ben will come home at least once a week with something that Tyler has typed on his braille typewriter for him to keep and take home.

TGIF

Usually this is a statement I look forward to saying each week. Thankful that another work week has been completed and I can head home to clean, referee, clean some more and try to catch up on all the projects I could not get done during the week. I have been very blessed to have found a job that usually gives me great fulfillment. Being at home with my four children while they were young was an amazing gift but I admit I often tired of not being able to use some of my other gifts. Since Ella is now in school all day I work at a locally owned school supply store but run my own department, invitation design. I get to use skills that I began acquiring back in high school with computer layout and design and I get to incorporate aspects of interior design with color combinations and layout. I really enjoy my job, on most days. I get to work with brides planning the perfect invitation for their special day and I also get to participate in plenty of other special events making custom invitations or printing on blank stock. Getting to work with people during those special times of their lives is a great pleasure.

Not today though. I'm a people pleaser, always have been and don't like to tell people no. I told a woman today that I would complete her job in a very small amount of time because we had done the bride's invitations and programs already and wanted to help out with the last minute details. The bride has been a pleasure to work with, her assistant today was anything but. The job was passed onto my partner who had designed her invitations and programs but the job today was not completed in the time frame I had specified. Differences in work styles between me and my partner. Things only went down hill from there. The assistant called my partner a _itch and my partner simply handed her the paper and said, "we cannot help you today." Well, I ended up completing the job, with a rather large woman staring me down telling me, "I'm going to stand right here and watch you until you finish every last one of those." OK...so job done. I then proceeded to tell her that I completed the job out of courtesy to the bride whom we have enjoyed working with but that I did not appreciate how she treated me or my partner today and that I felt confident had the bride known how we were being treated she would not appreciate it either. Proud of myself for remaining composed but steaming inside, wanting to scream at the top of my lungs.

All this ranting simply to state...being rude does not make me want to help you any faster. Do people really think that getting an attitude and being rude will want someone to work any harder for them? I work in an industry completely defined by relationships with my clients and I always work to the best of my ability and move mountains to get jobs done on time, creating exactly what my clients have seen in their minds for years and have many letters of praise in my employee folder to substantiate that but today was a day I could not wait to walk out that door.

TGIF!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The 44th President of the United States

I read this entry on a blog I follow. It's been published in Relevant Magazine. It expresses a lot of what's been on my mind for months. I have very definite opinions about this current election season, some don't always fall in line with where I would have put myself years ago. I don't mind answering questions about these thoughts but don't really feel like posting them on my blog. It's not an arena for debate.

America Chooses Obama
By Roxanne Wieman

Well, here we are on the other side. A watershed moment. An historic election. And we, the American people, have made our choice.

Barack Obama will be the 44th President of the United States, and the nation’s first black president. And in elections across the country, Democrats won their seats in the Senate. When Obama takes office in January, he will do so with a Democratic majority in both houses of Congress.

“The American people have spoken, and spoken clearly,” McCain told his supporters in Arizona after the results came in.

But what about you? Those of you who took our RELEVANT poll yesterday favored McCain: 47 percent of you voted for the Arizona Senator and 33 percent of you for Obama. So, are you disappointed? Will you hang your heads today? Do you fear for our nation’s future? I’m not so sure.

So many of us—members of the widely contested “young evangelical voters”—were divided about this election. Not just as a group, but even in our own hearts. I know which candidate I chose, but it wasn’t an easy decision. And, to be honest, I didn’t really care who won. I agreed with both. I disagreed with both.


What I’m wondering now is where do we go from here?

While the electoral vote and popular vote strongly favored Obama, our country is still largely divided. This was a hard-fought, personal and passionate race. There are wounds on both sides. Can Obama and the Democratic congress heal those wounds? Can we help?

Yes and yes.

Obama ran as a unifier. He condemned our party divisions and championed cooperation across party lines. Many of the Democrats who won seats in the Senate ran with similar platforms. If Obama and the Congress majority maintain that position and “reach across the aisle” in the years to come, that will certainly go a long way in healing our wounds and unifying our country. Karl Rove has already expressed his own wish that the Republicans would do the same, "I hope we will support [Obama] when we agree with him, persuade him when we think his mind is open, and oppose him when we think he is wrong."

Whether unity happens in Washington or not, the question still returns to us: what can we do to help? As Francis Schaeffer so famously put it, “How shall we then live?” Now that the election is over and Obama and the Democrats have so clearly won, how shall we then live? I believe that we, the young Christian voters, can uniquely answer this question. I believe, in fact, that this is the very question we are so primed to answer. Because this election and its profound life issues has galvanized us to true action.

Yes, we voted. But it’s more than that. Through this election, we’ve become aware of the major social issues of our day. And now we want to do something about them. We recognize an election will not change everything. We do not rest our hopes for change on a political party or candidate. We vote, we hope, but we don’t stop there. Tomorrow and the next day and the next and in January when Obama takes office, we get up and we continue our sojourn to follow Jesus. We live our votes for life, for justice, for peace, for equality.

We comfort our friend who tells us she’s considering abortion. Then we gently tell her why we believe life in the womb is precious. We help her find alternative options … and we stick by her side all through the pregnancy and birth and after. She is not a statistic or a faceless evil to us.

We love beyond racial, gender and sexual lines. We reject stereotypes. We embrace individuals. We work for reconciliation.

We do not talk about “that side of town,” we live there and work there and mentor there. We are a part of educational reform, and ESL, and rehabilitation.

We recycle. We reduce our imprint. We consciously make our purchases, recognizing the global implications. We strive to “live simply that others may simply live” (Ghandi).

We personally pray for our soldiers in Iraq, for the citizens of Iraq, for our leaders who are making tough decisions that affect millions of lives. We really do pray, and we believe our prayers matter.

We continue to work hard in the jobs God has given us, saving our money and stewarding our resources. We tithe. We donate. We volunteer.

We continually challenge each other to deepen our understanding of whole life ethics and Jesus’ call to follow Him.

I believe this is who we are. I believe this is who you are. I believe we can be the change we’ve voted for—no matter who we voted for.

Roll Tide Roll

Mark, Max and I will be attending the Alabama-LSU game in November! We are so excited. I had been praying that we'd find a way to get tickets somehow, but really just for Mark and Max. Mark and I graduated from Alabama and Max was born in Tuscaloosa. He attended several Tide games while in the womb and also attended a Bama bowl game several years ago but now he really follows the Tide and they're number 2 in the country!

We are so thankful to the Ables for their generosity. Season ticket holders for LSU they have graciously given us three tickets, knowing this is a super fun season for Bama. We promise not to yell too loud around the LSU fans, well we'll try at least. Roll Tide Roll!

A new home for Shiloh

We thought we might really have to find a new home for Shiloh but for now we're committed to keeping her and just dealing with our completely grumpy, mean, threatening neighbor. For the last two weeks we have come home to notes being tacked to our front door filled with threats to call animal control and file charges against us for our barking dog, but our ever mature neighbor has mistakenly forgotten to leave his name or the house number where we can reach him to try and be neighborly in a good way. We have always kept Shiloh in the laundry room at night so barking at night never happens and during the day I will admit she barks when people or cars go behind our fence on the street behind us, but last time I checked dogs were allowed to bark. So we continue to speak to her when she barks for just a minute longer than we think she should during the day, and we're hoping with some therapy she'll become reformed enough that our neighbors will cease from dropping off their lovely notes.

In the mean time, the kids and Mark have been working on a dog house for her and I must admit, I'm rather shocked at how well it's turned out! I'll post a few pics now and then try to get a few more when it's completely done. It's large enough that if the kids misbehave it could be a temporary home for them as well.

Our little Evangelist

Yesterday Mark was on top of the roof removing the ivy that had grown up the back of the chimney and had finally crept its way over the top and inside the chimney so that when we turned on our fireplace we wouldn't have any problems. Well, Ella was out back watching him and said, "Daddy, be careful and don't fall", "I don't want you to die." Then Mark said she looked at him real serious and said, "well you do have eternal life". Mark said, "yes, I do, but I'm not ready to go anywhere yet, so I'll be careful.

A Fish Tale

Mark went deep sea fishing with one of our neighbors several months ago and had a fabulous time. We saw his catch when he returned home and he told us all about how big the two fish were, only it was a little hard to believe because after they'd been cleaned their contents fit into two small zip lock baggies. Sure, we told him, the fish you caught were so big!

Well our neighbor's wife, also Max's teacher last year, brought the "proof" over last night. She was so kind, she had an 8x10 and a 5x7 made and put the picture on a disk for us. Of course I teased Mark that they looked photo shopped but eventually gave him the glory he felt he was due! A memory in print!

Spunk

Our family has sponsored three children in different countries for the last 3 years and every year at least once the organization sends us photo updates along with information on their communities and their school work. We try to send a few packages to the children every year and look forward to their notes. They are simply precious reminders of how much children are the same all over the world. This week we received a picture of Alettah and we were so tickled by her spunk.

Her little face and peace sign brought us all to laughter. Not to mention the hand on her hip. It's been a year since we hosted the Ugandan orphans in our home and that experience changed our lives. We still think of the boys often, especially Allan and are still coming to grips with how that situation unfolded. So the note this week from Alettah was just what we needed, to remind us that our work is still unfinished and even if we can only send a small amount to each of the three children every month, that small amount accounts for so much for them.

A Total Success

My two sisters and I have been planning a surprise 40th anniversary party for over a year now. We were not sure if we could pull off a total surprise especially without the 8 grandkids blowing it but we did! Last weekend, my crew drove up to Dallas and spent the night with my sister. The next day we arranged the tables, chairs and decorations under the tent that we had rented and had been installed in my sister's backyard. We had everything planned out and it went perfectly. My parents were scheduled to arrive around 6 and even when they saw me answer the door they thought I was just surprising them to celebrate my beautiful niece's 13th birthday. Once inside the house, everyone yelled Happy Anniversary and they knew what we'd been up to. We completely surprised them, everyone we invited came, the food was delicious, the weather was perfect and we all had the best time. It was a total success and we were so proud!

Who'd want that job?

Tonight as Mark and I were sitting in the living room watching the Vice Presidential debate, Ella came in to sit by me on the couch to color. She was not even facing the television and was asking me several questions about what I thought she should color but I could tell her ears were still tuned to what was being said on the tv. She said, "Did Obama win?" and I said, "We don't know who will win yet. This is a debate to help us decide who we should vote for." And she said, "I don't know why you'd want to be president. You'd just have a hard life, with all that paperwork and stuff." Mark and I just about fell on the floor. So wise, that new 6 year old child of ours is! Who'd want that job?

Birthday Girl

Hard to believe our little Ella Clare is 6! Several times this week I was talking about her and when someone would ask how old she was I was shocked to have to say 6! She is an absolute blessing to our family. When I found out I was pregnant for the fourth time many of our family and friends thought we were completely nuts and maybe deep down we did too, but we were so excited. The first reaction would always be, "So, you're hoping for a girl this time right?" Well, we weren't, we just had always wanted 4 children. When I was pregnant with Mark Thomas we were told he was a girl at first but an ultrasound later found out that was not to be, so the first time they told us Ella was to be a girl, we just weren't ready to go out and buy pink. Since I was a high risk pregnancy again, we had many ultrasounds and after about the 5th one when they again said she'd be a girl, we went nuts.

She's loved so much! She can be loud like her brothers, but she is so different in many, many ways. Her brothers are becoming more and more keen to their job as protector and I'm always telling her how lucky she is to have 3 BIG BROTHERS. She doesn't always get that, but every girl I ever knew wished she'd had a big brother and I was one of those girls too. After doing our part to carry on the Keffer name three times over, we were elated when she entered the world.

Happy Birthday Sweet Girl!

Crazy Moms and Routine

I have been a creature of routine for as long as I can remember. Diverging from that routine sends me into a rather quick tail spin and those that suffer most unfortunately are those around me the most, my hubby and kids. It's not like I don't know this is how I function but yet allowing some flexibility isn't a strong suit of mine. My kids have only been in school for 10 day, hear that 10 days this year so far; and it took almost everything I had to get through last summer. Don't get me wrong, I love my children, but they too like routine and when they don't have it they pick fights, lots of fights and they go from room to room in our home creating minor mess after minor mess that due to my compulsive cleaning only I can seem to clean properly enough.

I was beginning to feel really guilty until I went to church last Sunday and was able to commiserate with two other moms who had battled evacuation and hurrication as single parents like me. One asked me, did they fight along the way? Mine were fighting so much that at one point I heard skin to skin contact and several loud thuds, she said. Thank God, I thought to myself, I was not alone in that journey. She said, I had to pull the car over at one point and just scream. Again, thank God, I was not alone in that journey either. Except I pulled over twice, so rapidly and so quickly that everything that was piled in two seats, just slumped to the floor. I was thankful that my rather new tires held up well during the rapid halt of movement. As I was pulling over quickly and screaming at the top of my lungs, I caught a glimpse of myself in the rear mirror and just about died. Really, really is that an image I want ingrained in my children's minds? I think not, but I had to quickly ask, "Do you like seeing me like this?" No, was their immediate response but that begged the question, "then why do you keep acting like this, when I'm driving in this car alone for several hours on a busy two lane highway?" "We don't know", was said in unison.

It will never cease to amaze me how much 4 children can argue and pick at each other. Wouldn't life be so much simpler if EVERYONE JUST CHOSE TO BE NICE AND GET ALONG?! This is my daily prayer now, that my children will learn to extend grace and compassion towards each other. We're using those words a lot now. Please God let them sink in!

When I was in Rockwall, we went to a mega church up the road from my parents house. It's a fabulous church, love the music but I could not worship there regularly. It's just too large for me. But the service that day was so great! The pastor was teaching on prayer and how families today just don't pray together enough, so he challenged everyone in the congregation to be families that would commit to a 7-5-2 calendar. Praying for your family 7 days a week, praying with your family 5 days a week and praying with your spouse 2 days a week.

We took the challenge! Can't say that our calendar is a total 7-5-2 yet but we're attempting to get there and look forward to seeing what will happen when we do. I'm hoping that my title "Crazy Mom" will begin to dissipate a little bit and I will be able to see characteristic changes in my children that make our home more harmonious. Miracles do happen right? Absolutely!

Good to be Home

The kids and I got home last night around 5. Driving into town was surreal. Seeing is definitely believing. Spending many years in Kansas as a child, I don't think I totally understood how much damage a tornado could do until I saw a town after it'd been hit by one. Similarly, seeing our town after it had been hit by one of the largest hurricanes, although only a cat 2, and the destruction it left here just makes you sad. So many lives have been affected. We have several church members whose homes have been badly damaged and I know of two people, one I work closely with whose home was totally destroyed, including most things in it.

As Ella and I went to HEB this afternoon to pick up some groceries, we took a different route out of our neighborhood and saw that nearly every single fence had been blown down, just snapped at the posts. Ella said, "Momma, do you know why our house was not hurt?" I asked why, and she said, "Before we went to Mimi's I was praying in my room and God got my message, so our house wasn't hurt much at all."

We do have a lot to be thankful for; a home with very little damage, power that returned surprisingly pretty quickly, and loving families that helped us out in so many ways this past week. We are so thankful for all of those things and will continue to pray and do what we can to help others less fortunate. This morning we started the day at church with an informal praise and worship time. Then Mark Thomas, Ella and I helped to rake up all the debris from the day school playground along with several other church members. Max went with another church member to saw into chunks some larger trees that had fallen at a woman's house and help to carry them to the curb. Don't worry he wasn't the one using the chain saw. And Mark took Ben and helped clear debris from another man's home.

Tomorrow we're having our two services outside, mostly just to be a presence for the community as they drive past our corner and also to combat the fact that the church still does not have power. We'll be praising God for sure.

The kids will have next week off from school. That makes a total of two weeks for this hurrication. Would you believe that they've only been in school for 10 days so far this year? They're hardly complaining but I'm definitely ready for them and us to get back into our normal routine.

When being tall isn't a good thing

Mark went home today and arrived without any problem. We still do not have power and may not for several days. We've been told by several people that our area tends to be last for some reason.

I also heard today that only 4 schools in the city have power and 2 completely lost their roofs. So the board will meet next week to make decisions about when to restart.

Mark went up into the attic in the main house to relight the pilot and due to his lovely height he hit his head on a rafter, lost his balance and stuck his leg through the dining room ceiling. He called me to say that he had made a rather large boo-boo. Learning from lessons in the past, when he told me what he'd done, I knew to ask about him first and check to make sure he was ok before I asked too many questions about my dining room. I just said, "well, I've been wanting to redo that room anyway, so now I have to."

Positive Signs

We've heard today that two of our main roads that are very close to our house have power today. Our neighborhood still does not but we're hopeful that maybe within the next few days we'll be up and running. Mark is going home tomorrow. Always the minister, he can't stand to be sitting here doing nothing and wants to get back to help others out. So we've borrowed a generator, thanks Jacksons and he'll be back on the home front tomorrow. Still no school so our hurrication continues.

A Family Again

Mark is here! He arrived last night around 9:30. He hasn't made the trip to Rockwall as often as I have lately so he missed a few roads and had to wind around in the dark so he was very relieved to pull into the driveway. All the kids were so excited to see him and Shiloh went nuts when she saw the kids! I think she thought she'd died and gone to heaven in my parents back yard. This morning she was still acting crazy and Mark said, "you know what they say about people who drink salt water?" My parents have a salt water pool and Shiloh thinks it's just one big bowl of water for her. Hopefully she figures out real quickly that it's not really for her!

We're going up to the school in an hour or two just to check out the process of enrollment. The kids are now expressing some concern and I can't say that I blame them. It's hard to think about starting over in a place where you obviously know you won't be staying. But we got the phone call last night that our schools were "closed indefinitely" so until we know about our power it appears as if we'll be here awhile.

I found out yesterday that our power grid is supplied from a substation in Bridge City, which was flooded heavily by over 4 feet of salt water which does tremendous damage. So we've been told it could be 4-6 weeks before we get power back. I hope that's a very generous estimate so that we're all surprised when it comes back on much quicker than that.

Mark will be traveling back home later this week. He is supposed to preach on Sunday and he also feels very called to helping people in our area who received more damage to their homes than we did. I will be calling the insurance agency sometime today or tomorrow to file a claim on our car port. Mark said that he feels pretty confident the whole structure will have to come down in order to be repaired.

It was very strange for him last night watching the nightly news. He has not seen any coverage of the storm since it happened so he was just shocked by the damage in Galveston and parts of the coast that we have become so familiar with in the last year. He obviously knew our town looked rough but seeing the area where the eye went through just blows your mind.

Mark is on his way

Mark is on his way North as I type. In all his preparations to get the house and church ready, he forgot to fill the van up so he's hoping to encounter a station quickly. I've seen on the news that wait times are 2-3 hours for gas and they're only allowing you to get 10 gallons at a time. Hopefully once he gets North enough he'll be able to fill up. Living down in the land of refineries you quickly get a sense of how important those facilities and jobs are, not just to our community but to the entire United States. The refineries less than 30 minutes from us process several million gallons of crude oil daily.

I'm very thankful that he's on his way. It's been very stressful dealing with the kids and two evacuations in less than three weeks and now just knowing that you can't go back to your house. It's hard. We're hopeful that we'll know more as the days progress and that we can all be back in Beaumont soon, slipping back into our routines. The boys were just starting baseball season and Ella was looking forward to starting gymnastics.

Damage Assessment

Local officials continue to do damage assessment within our town and as of right now the info is not that promising. Entergy, our power supplier, says that 99% of Texans in southeast Texas are without power and 119 out of 187 transmission lines are out with two entire plants off line, so they do not estimate that we'll have power for weeks. The sewer lines have been comprised so you can guess what that means. And several of our local schools sustained a lot of damage too.

Mark still has cell service, our home line is out. He and I continue to be in contact and he more than likely will head our way today, if he can get out. He spent so much time preparing our house and helping some of our church members that he's concerned about how much gas he has in his tank now, and there are no gas stations open. Also the damage to some local highways is not totally known and as the storm progressed north, it did more damage through towns we usually travel through but are not shown on our local news, just national, so it's hard to know what the roads are like there.

I just tried to pull up our school board site and it's offline so I'm not sure what we'll do about school for the kids. They're obviously not begging me to find a solution but I'm nervous about the possibility of them being out school for weeks. I have all their records with me in the paperwork you should always have in place to gather if there's a storm, so I could register them here at my parents but that seems like such a headache.

Just wanted to give everyone a little update and I'll continue to do so when I have something a little more promising to post. Thank you so much for all the messages you've sent to our email and cell phones. We really appreciate the support.

Good News and Bad News

The good news is that our house was not damaged that much. We had some minor damage to our carport area with shingles and tar paper getting torn off. Thanks to my wonderful husband the rest of the house faired well. During Hurricane Dolly and a tropical storm we had about three weeks ago, the boys new room had taken on water twice. Mark surmised that it was the city water backing up under the toilet in their bathroom so he uncovered the manhole in our back yard and capped off that line, hoping to prevent another back up this time. Well, today when he went to check on the house, he spent last night at our church, he went out to pull off the cover of that manhole and the water was all the way up to the top, so had he not capped off our line the boys' room would most definitely have taken on a lot of water.

Beaumont did sustain a lot of damage. If you'd like to see some live footage and videos of our town you can go to www.kfdm.com and they have a lot of coverage. It's hard to imagine, knowing now exactly the streets they're traveling, many of them less than 2 minutes from our home. I'm very thankful that we heeded the evacuation orders and left town. Our energy provider has stated that the damage is catastrophic and worse than Rita, so we're not sure how long it will be before we get power again.

The kids and I are concerned obviously but could not be in a better place. Having my family so close is wonderful. My brother in law, that is a police officer, called me the day I got here and said, "you should go to a shelter, you'd get everything free," and I quickly said, "I'm pretty sure I'll get most things free exactly where I am." The comfort of a familiar home with cousins and sisters around is just fine by me.

Mark is determing if he'll try to head North tomorrow, since we'll be without power for a few days at least. We appreciate the prayers and will gladly take any more you'd offer up. I've missed a week of work as of right now and the kids are behind in school. Their teachers were so apologetic last week at Goal's Night, explaining that they have such rigid curriculum guidelines that they're so behind right now, and that was just with three days off for Gustav, so now with 2 more and likely this next week too, I'm sure we'll have a lot to catch up on.

But, God is good, our house is intact and my husband is safe. I'll keep this up date as much as possible during the next few days but again, if you'd like to see what's current in our town, check out www.kfdm.com.

Our Second Home

Just as expected Mark and I did make quick decisions this morning. I knew going to bed last night around midnight that the storm had again shifted North so at 6 a.m. I knew when the phone rang that it would be the school district notifying us of cancellation for today and tomorrow. So we quickly got up and started packing. The kids and I left around 8:30 a.m. and it took us 8 hours to make what is normally a 5 hour trip to Dallas. Mark has again stayed at home, making sure that all the elderly people in our church are taken care of, since the mandatory evacuation occurred so late. He said several of them were very stressed this morning as couples were separated so that the less mobile would be transported by emergency vehicles and their spouses were left to figure out how to follow or where to go for safety. He is going to finish preparing our house for the storm and will then decide if he stays and rides it out along with a few other families or heads to Dallas to join us. Although the kids are loving these "hurrications" the stress and fatigue it's taking on Mark and me both physically and financially is getting really old. Hurricane season does not officially end until November 30th but yesterday was officially the height of the season so none of this is a surprise just not enjoyable by anyone living near the shore. We'll keep you all posted. The Keffer family echos what was seen on several signs as we headed North, "Take a hike Ike!"

Here we go Again

We are well within this "cone" and yet no one is calling for evacuation. When we were clearly not going to get Gutav as a visitor we were all ordered to evacuate without question. So can someone please explain to me why this storm is barreling straight toward our coastline and we're all just sitting still? Mark and I are going to be making some quick decisions in the morning trying to figure out what we should do. School has been canceled for some of our surrounding areas but not our district yet; although the university has cancelled classes tomorrow and Friday. We ask you again to pray for our safety and those surrounding us. It's very hard to pray that the storm go somewhere else because you just don't want anyone else to be harmed or their homes to be damaged.

These are some pictures of what Mark saw when he went to Baton Rouge last week after Gustav went through. The news media continues to amaze us. All you hear about on the national news is New Orleans this and New Orleans that but there are so many other communities that have been devastated by recent hurricanes and yet you never even hear about them or their struggles.

Tattle Tale

School is always interesting with four children and to be quite honest, although I pray for our teachers every year and practically beg God to give us good ones, things don't always work out as I'd hoped.

I can pretty much count on the behaviour of all my children, both good and bad, so most things do not surprise me. Still nonetheless, I want people to see the good in my children even if on some days they have to look a little harder.

In Mark Thomas' class they come home with conduct folders each week and there are comments for each day along with a final grade for that week. Well, after the first week, I could tell this would not be a folder I looked forward to seeing each week. His teacher had written talking, talking, talking, talking for each day and yelling at recess on one specific day and given him a conduct grade of 70% for that week. Great, we're off to a good start! I signed the folder and then wrote my own comment that I would speak to him and it would be clear that there would be consequences if it didn't improve.

Now, I am not a mother that is above bribery and when I think it will work, I go full steam ahead. MT loves to go to the dollar store and knows the true value of a dollar even if he doesn't always save them up. So, my proposition, should he choose to accept it would be that temporarily until we got on track, if he were to come home with a conduct grade of 90% he'd get to buy something for $5 or less, and if he came home with a grade of 100% then we'd celebrate with something $10 or less. He very quickly jumped aboard!

So last week since we took what Max is now calling a "hurrication" we only had two days of school. Really, how much damage can be done in two days to not earn a good score. So on Friday, I was actually anxious to see what he was given for conduct. 90%was his score, but still we got "talking" on one day and then just to cap it off "sticking pretzels in his ears at lunch" was on Fridays box. I mean honestly, boys will be boys and both Mark and I had to chuckle while at the same time saying, "MT, it's not a good idea to stick pretzels in your ears" and at that very moment I thought to myself, no more buying pretzel sticks, I must buy the regular twist ones.

Who says evacuation can't be fun?

We spent 3 days up in Dallas and it turned into a mini vacation for the kids. There's never anything boring about going up to see your cousins. The kids got several more days of swimming in and some tubing on the boat too. The boys have been jumping off the waterfall for years but Ella has gotten so brave this summer and just swims around my parents pool like she's been doing it forever!