Good Things Come: Fun Times & Heavy Hearts

We had a full house on Friday night with Mimi, Aunt Meredith, Uncle Aaron, Jacob and Elizabeth visiting! Meredith and Aaron helped tremendously with our neighborhood garage sale! Brian brought my teaching stuff from storage and it was much more emotional than I anticipated going through boxes. So many wonderful memories were tied to those books and teaching materials; however, they were not doing anyone any good in storage. It was time to make sure other children could benefit from my educational supplies. I really couldn't watch everything be sold; therefore, I went back inside to help Mimi with Drake. A teacher from Van, the town near us suffering from extensive destruction following a recent tornado, came by looking for teaching items to replace some of her lost items. Brian came inside to get me and we decided to donated everything to her and other teachers from Van. Brian and Aaron helped load her suburban to capacity! As difficult as it was to part with my years and memories of teaching supplies, it felt good to give to the teachers and students who have already lost so much.

Brian worked the annual Palooza down at the lake which helps raise money for a local animal shelter. Aaron, Meredith, the kids and I made our way down to be a part of the festivities and Elizabeth was able to experience her 1st boat ride! All 3 kiddos crashed once we made it back to the house.

Despite the rain, we sure had fun celebrating Harper's 1st birthday! Mimi has been with us since Thursday and is staying with us to offer her help throughout this week (nurse Lisa is sailing the high seas on a well deserved vacation cruise). Mimi has come leaps and bounds with caring for Drake! Just becoming familiar with all of his equipment, care, routines and medications can be overwhelming. We have had nurses not even start because they are too scared of the trach/vent. Yet our Mimi, with no medical training, was willing to step up to the plate for our boy! Pretty impressive! Having Mimi here allowed Brian, Kennedy & me to all attend Harper's party. Harper's house is walking distance to ours; therefore, we were close by just in case Mimi needed us.

Monday evening, once again, severe thunderstorms moved into the area. We had a loud and big scare. We were all in the kitchen sitting at the dinner table while Drake was exploring in his gait trainer. We heard a loud BOOM and saw a fireball as lighting struck a tall pine tree in our yard. Drake and Kennedy both were understandably terrified and began crying. Our dog, Harlee, high tailed it to the bathroom for safety. We were not far behind him! Thankfully, the storm passed through and no other damage was detectable.

Many other parts of Texas and families have not been as fortunate as we have been during the torrential storms. Brian and I met while in college in San Marcos, and my parents stayed in Wimberley during most of their visits. Hays county will always hold a special place in our hearts. Right now my heart aches for all of the families affected by the flooding throughout the state.

Harper's jeep has been toddler approved!