What we've been doing...

Becca: Baking (from scratch!)


Jeff: Raking (from Ike)


Life is not quite back to "normal" for us, but we are much closer to it than most Houstonians and for that we are grateful! Other than long lines at gas stations and grocery stores and a down fence, life is pretty typical for us. Jeff started back to work on Tuesday, though most of his co-workers have not been at work this week. My office is still closed, but I am on call (24 hours a day), so I am still working. I have driven up to the office in the Galleria area yesterday, to pick up the on call phone and today, to pick up prescriptions for my kids. The office has some major damage and is still out of electricity. They have a generator, but it can only be used to supply a few lights, not a whole air conditioning system and computers. Our computer network is also down, so I can't access my email, even from home. The clients who live on site at the RTC (residentail treatment center) were moved to Richmond due to power outages, and were moved back to the central site late this week when some power was restored there. Most of the outlying office staff in Angleton and the Woodlands still don't have power, nor do any of their foster families. Thankfully, all of my caseload has power, though one of my families had a tree hit their house. They are currently staying with relatives. Everyone is in pretty good spirits otherwise.

My parents got electricity back on Wednesday and they called to tell us as we were pulling up to the Putt Putt place. Yes, Jeff and I went putt putting on Wednesday night. We both wanted to get out of the house and enjoy the beautiful weather so we played a round. It was so fun! It has been a while since I have experienced a "first" with Jeff and this was one. We had never played putt putt together. He won (even though he miscounted my strokes a couple of times ;)and actually is very good at it! I think it is because he is so precise and systematic.

That's all I've got for now, but I'll keep ya'll posted! Have a fantastic weekend!

Ike Menu

So, we have AC and we are SO grateful for that, but I selfishly am looking forward to getting some of the more unnecessary comforts of life back, like my Sonic drinks. For the last two days I beg Jeff to take me for a drive to see what is open, hoping my precious Diet Vanilla Cokes are available. So far, no such luck. On our quest yesterday we found an open Little Ceasers with a sign outside that said, "We're open but only DP and Cheese pizza." We found a few other places open yesterday, including a gas station at the Kroger that had fountain drinks, with I willingly accepted as a substitute for Sonic. The sign on the gas station said, "No bread, no milk, no ice, no lotto." I understand everything but the "no lotto." Weird.

In the evening we decided to try to have a "date night." This time we got smart and called places to see if they were open. After a couple tries, we found Hasta La Pasta. This restaurant is one we would actually choose and have in the past. It's yummy, has a nice atmosphere, and is right by the house. The location is nice due to curfew in Houston and a TON of cars on the roads. Well, Ike had also left his mark on Hasta La Pasta. It was VERY busy and everyone looked tired, unbathed, and hot. Parts of our area still don't have electricity and I'm sure most of these folks were taking a reprieve from a hot house. You could also hear some inpatient parents as I'm sure I would be in their situation. When we sat down at our table we were handed a one page paper menu instead of the several page regular menu. At the top it read, "Hasta La Past Ike Menu" and had very nice, but limited options. We were grateful that they had the ingredients to make two wonderful meals for us and we enjoyed each others company and even some dessert!

Hurricane Ike

Well, we made it through the storm unscathed. I wish I could say the same for our fence! We watched 24 hour hurricane coverage for a day and a half waiting for Ike to make landfall. We lost electricity at our house at 5 AM on Friday. There were loud bumps and Jeff said he heard sounds like our window was about to break on the left side of our house. This makes sense because that is the side were the fence was demolished. I slept on and off throughout the night, but Jeff was up most of the time. We left the house yesterday afternoon to drive around our neighborhood and see what was open and what damage was done. We saw that many people had fence damage and down tree limbs like us. Then we drove to my parents house to check on them. They also had a portion of their fence down and no electricity. There neighborhood has a lot of mature trees and many of the large branches were broken off and some were uprooted completely.

We returned back to our house, ate some cold left offers and hunkered down again for another night without electricity. At 8 PM we were surprised when the lights and air conditioner came on! We were SO excited, but very aware we were one of the only 115,000 people in the Houston area with power. We were even more aware when we called my parents and there's still was not restored. It still isn't and so it has been a day and a half since they have had air conditioning. My mom, as many of you know, is in a battery operated wheel chair and suffers from MS. MS patients can easily over heat and it can cause exasperations. We are waiting for them to come over here for some reprieve and to recharge my mom's chair, but are praying that their electricity is restored quickly. We simply don't have what she needs (ie: hospital bed and widened door ways) that she needs to stay here. Thanks for all of your continued prayers!

The Calm before the Storm

So, I admit, I was one of those sceptics that did not expect Ike to come here and/or be bad. Well, I was wrong. We are waiting for landfall now and about to turn off the computer due to possible electricity outages to come. I have had two baths today and plan to dry my hair before I go to bed (Liz, thanks for the idea!). I want to be as clean and beautified as possible in case it is my last chance for a while! Jeff has been home all day and I made a quick trip to Michaels this morning to pick up some last minute scrapbooking supplies in case I get bored and have electricity. They were closing at noon. There were tons of ambulances and charter buses on the road and business were boarded up. It was sort of suriel! Oh, and I went to the Sonic as well because I wanted one last Sonic before I was stuck inside for possibly days. Priorities, Sonic and scrapbooking I suppose. We are ready to wait out the storm at home with Harvey, Cookie, and Snowflake. Thanks for your prayers and we will keep you posted!

Faith and works

So, it's the life long question/debate that can be heard in Christian circles. The old faith in relation to works discussion is frequent, but I never have thought about it the way I heard it in the sermon at our church last Sunday.

Our church, HFBC, has been renovating the sanctuary and giving it a much needed update and improving the sound and lighting systems. Sunday was the first official Sunday in the "new" sanctuary. The seats were packed and there was a lot of excitement, but what was most exciting to me was the refreshing message with a new perspective on our role as Christians.

As anyone who frequents our blog can tell, I have been experience some major "burn out" at work for over 6 months now. This, I'm ashamed to admit has also deeply effected my attitude and therefore relationships outside of work as well. This sounds like a tangent, but it isn't. Pastor Greg's sermon spoke to me regarding this. He began a series on 1 Thessalonians in which we examine the church in Thessalonica in relationship to who we are as a church body. The first section is called "Gathering Our Hearts", to be followed by "Grow our Souls" and "Give our Lives." If you are still with me, I am going to list the points in the sermon.

1. Grace then peace - Ignoring His grace forfeits His peace
* Pastor Greg urged us to "humbly acknowledge our need for God's leadership"
2. Our faith produces (catapults) our work
3. Our love prompts our labor - this is my favorite point!
4. Our hope (expectation of God's work) inspires our endurance.

It has been some time since I experienced peace and this message got me thinking about why. I "know" that I need to trust God and depend on him for strength to live each day, but I truly don't do it. If I did, I would experience peace and I would be prompted by His love to labor with endurance.

So, this week I have been working on this. Though it is an ongoing issue, I do feel more cognoscente of my part in surrendering my work to God so that I may experience His Peace!

A finished book and a new chapter

So, I tried to tie what truly is a random mix of pictures and thoughts into a single theme with the title I created. In general I am not a fan of change, but God seems to be teaching me a lot through transitions the last couple of years. Getting married was of course the biggest change that brought a series of more change, which have been the best of my life! You'll see in the slide show that I posted some of the spreads I created for our Wedding scrapbook. It has taken me months and it is HUGE, but the scrapbook is complete and I am proud of all my hard work! I have had a lot of fun creating it and am looking forward to starting on a honeymoon scrapbook along with one for our first year of marriage. All this has gotten me thinking. I saw online the other day that some people have their own business for creating scrapbooks for others. I have often considered doing such a think, but wasn't sure how it worked. So, I am toying with the idea of trying it out. Of course, I would start with people I know and then try to branch out if it works out. What do ya'll think, would it work?

Jeff recently surprised me with flowers. I had forgotten that we were coming up on 2 1/2 years of being together, but my thoughtful husband didn't forget! He had to explain what the flowers were for, but once he did, I couldn't have appreciated him more! He is a wonderful provider and God has truly blessed me with my perfect match!

Also in the slide show I've posted pics of my goodbye lunch with some of the foster care staff at the main campus of DePelchin. I have been feeling God moving me towards making a change for at least 6 months, but I didn't want to leave DePelchin because it is such a wonderful organization to work for and I truly believe in the mission statement. I thought about staying at DePelchin and leaving the foster care department, but that wasn't God's plan. So, instead He has decided to bring me and my supervisor, Gabrielle to the Ft. Bend satellite location of DePelchin to join the foster care staff there. I began the new position on August 18th and spent the first week with two caseloads as I tried to transition my previous families to the new clinicians. It was crazy! Now, I am starting to settle in and am realizing I have my work cut out for me getting everything organized and meeting a whole new group of kids and foster parents. It is going to be a good change though and most of my families are closer to my home and the office is too. I will miss my sweet buddies/co-workers at the main campus, but I'll be back once a month for our all staff meeting.

A "Suite" deal!

This weekend was a great one with the perfect mix of time with friends, time together, and time alone.

Jeff filed at work on Thursday and was able to make it to our small group Bible study for the first time in about a month. The group was glad to have him back and so was I, even though everyone was very sweet to me while I was a "single woman"!

Jeff had the day off on Friday and I worked from home, so we were able to have lunch together, etc. Friday night we watched the opening ceremony of the Olympics. AMAZING! I multi-tasked by scrapbooking at the same time. When we were done with that we made a midnight trip to Wal-Mart. We rarely do this, but we walked on the wild side! After navigating the isles filled with boxes and workers re-stocking the shelves, we retrieved our items and headed home.

Saturday Jeff took care of some car errands while I cleaned and did laundry. Saturday afternoon Katie, Josh, and Caleb came to see us on their way back to Dallas. We had a nice visit and celebrated Caleb's half birthday with sweets that he was too young to eat. Sorry Caleb!
Here are some photos from their visit:


Saturday night we had the wonderful opportunity to get free tickets to the Texans game from Jeff's company and sit in their suite at the game.
Reliant stadium:

The players taking the field:

The sign outside the Live Nation suite:

The suite was decorated with Live Nation and concert/band signs:

We also got free parking, food (including ice cream sundaes in the little helmet), drinks, and a game day program. I also got to meet Jeff's co-workers, whom he has spent most of his time with lately. They were all very down to Earth and we had an amazing time! I told Jeff that I would like to be rich so that I could do things like this all the time! I joke with Jeff that he is a "rock star" because he works for the world's largest concert promoter, even though he is on the accounting staff. This time it really did feel like he was a rock star, at least for the day.

The game was close, but the Texans won by a field goal!