The Great Storms of 2015

Texas has been getting hit hard with crazy storms lately, and the Austin area has been no exception. There's been major flooding and several tornadoes in the last week or so. Fortunately we do not live in a flood zone.

Memorial Day weekend was pretty insane. Quite a few homes were flooded. Some even washed away. Sadly, several people were killed in the floods. After a pretty major storm on Memorial Day we decided to check out the creek at our neighborhood park. Man were we in for a surprise. The creek which really normally is a creek (sometimes barely a trickle of water) had flooded so badly that it had reached our neighborhood pool. The pool looked like a swamp, the creek looked like a river, and the park was completely flooded. There were also some neat but slightly creepy clouds. I've never seen clouds like them before. Apparently they are called Mammatus clouds and are quite rare.

Do you see the lady standing at the end of the trail? Well, that trail continues to where I'm taking the picture. There is hardly ever any water in that area (it's not even part of the creek) and when there is water it's usually a puddle. Crazy!

Last night we had another big storm blow through in the middle of the night. This time it directly affected us. Around one or two in the morning I heard a crack and then a loud bang. At first I thought someone was trying to break into our house. I was actually pretty mad that someone would try to break in during a huge storm. Don't ask me why that was my initial reaction. It was the middle of the night, and I probably wasn't thinking straight. Chris and I both got up to investigate, and when I looked out the window by our front door I saw a tree completely blocking our entryway. Our shade tree had toppled over! I prayed that it wouldn't break our kitchen window or cause our roof to leak and went back to bed because what can you really do about a tree falling on your house in the middle of the night? 

This morning we went out to assess the damage. Our neighbors who live a couple houses down also had their tree fall. It landed on their car instead of their house. We've been helping each other with clean up today. Fortunately, our neighbor has a chainsaw, so we've been sawing and clearing all day. We're exhausted! 

Our yard now looks like this. Not too bad but definitely not ideal.

Sadly, we won't have a shade tree this summer (we won't replant until the fall), so our electric bill is probably going to skyrocket. But, I'm super thankful no one was injured. Normally I'd be totally stressed out about something like this, but instead I'm completely filled with gratitude that we are all healthy and uninjured.

The Scorch Trials According to Landon

Landon hasn't read any of the Maze Runner books yet, and he didn't see the Maze Runner movie. The only thing he knows about the series is what he's heard from those of us who have read the books and seen the first movie. Ainsley recently found out that there's a trailer for The Scorch Trials and it will be coming to a theater near her this year. A few nights ago it was the topic of some of our dinner conversation. Landon, in all of his drawing majesty, decided to create a work of art loosely based on the things he heard. For your viewing pleasure, The Scorch Trials According to Landon:

P.S. Kaylee wants to make sure you know that the Whompie is her creation.

A Little of This and a Little of That

There has been a lot going on the last few months! Kaylee and Landon both participated in Math Pentathlon this year. I helped coach Kaylee's team and signed up to be a game monitor for Landon's team. Landon had tournament in April and Kaylee in May. They both had a great time and played well. Landon received Honorable Mention and Kaylee came home with a bronze medal. Because I was a coach for Kaylee's team, I wasn't on the floor monitoring. I had a bird's eye view of the last game she played. I'm pretty sure her game was the first one finished out of about 350 games that were being played. She'd created a good strategy for this game and won so quickly I almost couldn't believe it. I kind of felt bad for the girl who lost, but it was pretty cool to watch Kaylee's moves.

Meet Rolo! She's super cute and actually a pretty nice little gal. After she got over her initial distaste of being handled, she warmed up to us and doesn't mind us picking her up anymore.

Over Spring Break we went to Dallas for what was supposed to be the day but ended up only being the evening because it took so long to get there. About half way there one of the tires on our van popped. Fortunately we were very close to a Walmart. Unfortunately we spent three hours there. We did make it in time for the hockey game we were going to see but didn't get to go to the museum we'd planned to explore.

Ainsley was National Junior Honor Society president this year. Last week she was in charge of welcoming the new inductees into NJHS at their induction ceremony. She had to write a five minute speech and did a fantastic job giving it. She made a mistake during part of it but was able to make the audience laugh with her comeback. It was perfect. 

A couple of weeks after putting new tires on the Mazda it broke down for good. We'd hoped to get a couple more years out of it (hence the new tires), but it just wasn't in the cards. We now have a new to us Toyota Sienna and are hoping it will be our last mini van. Can you tell Ainsley is counting down the days to being behind the wheel?

The girls had their Pops choir concert on Monday. It was super fun to watch. Kaylee had a part in one of her songs where she got to rap and Ainsley had a part in one of her songs where she was Belle from Beauty and the Beast. And, that's it for now!

8th Grade Formal

Ainsley is at her 8th grade formal tonight. Four of her friends came over earlier so they could get ready together and have dinner. Kaylee loved watching it all and can't wait until she gets to start going to dances.