Sunday, September 28, 2008

Awesome Opossum

opossum–noun, plural -sums, (especially collectively-sum.
1.a prehensile-tailed marsupial, Didelphis virginiana, of the eastern U.S., the female having an abdominal pouch in which its young are carried: noted for the habit of feigning death when in danger.

We were at Shannon and Jared's after church today. They have been having an air conditioner problem lately and it had left their ceiling soft and moist. Today, out of nowhere, Aaron and Braelyn came screaming/crying down the stairs telling us something that was intangible. When we deciphered their language of 'fear & shock' we heard these phrases: animal upstairs and roof fell in! Check it out... this is what fell through the ceiling and into the bathtub. Aaron was just taking Braelyn into the bathroom to show her the crack in the ceiling from the leaky ac unit. Look at this nasty thing:

This is the noose that Jared made, just like the animal control device. He just went out and put this together out of pvc (pieces to a shelving unit from the garage) and rope.
This is the hole that it fell through/made. Notice that it isn't a crack anymore.
After pic in the bin and shut in with an old cutting board
Sorry about the amateur video. Their bathroom was so narrow and it happened so fast but if you are patient with my video you can see glimpses of what's going on. I love when everyone around us started screaming when Jared brought it out of the tub.

Saturday, September 27, 2008

Kandy!!!!!

Look out Brangelina! Here comes Kandy (Ku'ulei and Mandy). 


Friday, September 26, 2008

Pazookie Crazy

Last weekend  I went to dinner with Shannon, Jared, Lisa and Todd. We went to 
BJ's and I was introduced to the yummiest dessert ever ( I use this term loosely because Paula Sander's brownies still top it and so does the Double Chocolately Chip Frappaccino at Starbucks). Friends meet the Pazookie! One hot, made just for you, personal pan cookie topped with Vanilla Bean ice cream. Oh man... Ku'ulei and I took her kids back today and we had to have one. For BJ's restaurants near you click: www.bjsrestaurants.com.

Tuesday, September 23, 2008

Doggie Troubles


Yesterday evening the girls were riding their bikes in the front yard and I was working in the garage when Kensington found this little chihuahua down the street. I have learned my lesson from many times before that when you see a dog out, they are about two houses down from their home. I have stopped trying to "rescue" them. But rescue Kensington did and so we ended up with this dog last night. I was so stressed out that day with lots of little things that this new addition about pushed me over the edge! I didn't honestly know what to do with it. We don't have dog food anymore and it needed a bath but I didn't want to spend any money on it so we gave it some cat food and I reluctantly made signs. We went out to put the signs up but all I could mange to hang was one. I am telling you, pretty stressed out! So, I prayed about what I should do and slept on it. This morning I still didn't know what the best thing was so I prayed about it some more and the girls and I looked up the Harris County animal shelter info. We got the map to it and decided that we would take the dog on a walk to see if it knew it's way home and if  not then we would take it to the shelter. We all said a prayer before we went out that we would be able to do the right thing for the dog. We were outside for two minutes when a truck turned onto our street and passed us. I noticed it was a truck from the Harris Country animal shelter, the very place we were going to drive to. It's about a 35 minute drive there too. I flagged him down and we talked to him for awhile then we gave the dog to him to take back. They can scan for microchips there and hopefully the owners will find HER. It was very sad to have them take the dog but I was comforted by our prayers being answered. That is what this post is about. It was definitely not a coincidence that he drove by right at that moment and that we were guided as to how to best help the dog AND ME. Good grief!!! It was a good lesson learned about how prayers ARE answered. :)

Sunday, September 21, 2008

Update & Random Thoughts


This is an update of several things, a plethora of thoughts really There are a couple things I forgot to blog about from the days that followed the hurricane. Above are two pictures. One is of Famous Amos cookies and the other is of Shannon's derriere with a big fat bruise on it. We will leave the best, most interesting picture for last, haha. So, I think these cookies are the best. I remember buying them out of the vending machine in junior high and high school. Shannon says that you know they can't be the "best" when you buy them out of a vending machine. So, the day after the hurricane hit Jared pulled out a honkin bag of these Famous ANUS cookies. I always call him ANUL so he is what he eats. Anyway! These cookies were a real treat for many days. It really was the junk food that we hoarded and piled together that made us so happy during a time when power was out all around us, streets were empty, cell phone calls were next to impossible to receive or call out, text messages took nine tries before it would send, etc, etc. It is a message to stock up on chocolate because you never know when you will need it. So, the second picture is of Shannon's big owie. She had several things happen to her as she was preparing for the storm. On Thursday she was retrieving something from her attic and she was turning the light off to come down and a critter scurried and scared her and she fell down the stairs and bruised her bottom. Of course, we HAD to take a picture and blog about it. At first Jared disagreed but then he allowed us to post it. Thanks Jared. You may remember the notation on my previous post about Shannon slipping and spraining her wrist on Saturday morning. That was before the lamp fell and smashed her finger too. She has been an accident waiting to happen. To wrap this long post up... the gas lines have gone back to normal now. They were miles long last week with hour+ lines to wait. Ice is back. That and gas was the biggest commodity during the days that followed. I never would have thought that ice would be the thing people were hurting the most for. Our street lights are starting to work again. That is so stressful when there are two to three lanes each direction and there is a four way stop with all those lanes. Yikes! We almost died going out to dinner last night with our friend driving us with all those stops. hee hee. There are still things that are frustrating and hard here though. Shannon and Jared are still WITHOUT power. It has been nine days now since they lost it. They are not the only troopers making it work, there are still 13,500 people in our zip code still without power which is down from the 29,000 without a week ago. It is getting hot here again so we are all praying for our family, friends and neighbors to get their power restored like yesterday!!!! One last note... many of you can appreciate this: the McDonalds is still closed. I think all the other fast food chains have opened their doors, many opening only a couple days after the hurricane even without power. Now that is service and dedication to the customers! No, not Mickey D's. They closed down shop the Thursday before and haven't been heard of since. "Normal" life as we knew it will never return until the Golden Arches opens their doors once more. It's only American that they do. I guess you can tell who the billion dollar corporations are huh! 


Monday, September 15, 2008

Ike-A-Rumba

This video was taken at 5:45pm. The real hurricane strength winds hit us at 4:00am the next morning! The 4am winds put this wind to shame! :P
Hurricae Ike moved through here last Friday night and wreaked some havoc! The girls and I stayed at Shannon and Jared's house. I will first say how thankful I am to them, for their generosity and hospitality. I am humbled too for my lack of preparation. We had a fun time together. Friday night all the mattresses were brought downstairs to the living room, 8 total and me and 12 kids slept there for the past five nights. The storm was scary to say the least. It was throwing debris up against the windows and roof and at one point it knocked a large piece of a tree onto the roof that woke nearly everyone. We were amazed (and thankful) that Bella, Cali and Brenny slept through the entire night. Wow! The days that followed were crazy. There was a big mess everywhere and a lot of damage. Trees were down, completely uprooted and some were just snapped in half. Fences are down all over town and the wind tore things up. There was some flooded areas but overall the wind did the most damage. The days I was there were good times. It was a simpler life that I miss now a days. There was no pressure or stress of being somewhere or constantly going going going. I enjoyed the company and being together with family. We had GOOD Times. My power came back on today (Wednesday) and it is good to be home and get life back to 'normal'. Even though businesses are still black and none of the stores have ice and gas is still a half hour wait to fill up. It's getting there though. Be grateful every time you turn on your light switch and it does something, or every time you open your fridge and there's something in it to feed your family. You never know what might happen. 



Saturday, September 6, 2008

Weekend With My Dad

My dad flew in from Arizona and we had a blast together. He is known as Grandpa with the Quads. My kids have names for each grandparent and since he owns the fun atv's that's the name that has stuck. 
Chilling out watching tv 
 Fun With Photo Booth. We had tears rolling down our face and my abs hurt. So fun!
Nice ear. You like?
I love my expression. 
Dad and Mandy. We look so cute. 
We went to eat lunch with all four girls on Friday. Bella was Round One. 
Round Two and Three. We actually left after Bella's lunch and then we came back. It took a huge chunk of our time. A lot of lunches!!!
Round Four and Final Lunch. I love this picture of Brae and grandpa

This is the only picture I have of Saturday. We swam forever. I got a major sunburn and it was attack of the million lovebugs out there! No lie! I spent the time reading Eclipse...so good. 
Saturday night we went to Pizza Hut in Tomball. It was an experience for sure! The food tasted so good but it was hard to enjoy thoroughly when it was below 0 degrees! So cold!!!! We had a great time with my dad in town. It is sad to have him go. 

Video of my dad and the girls jumping on the trampoline.

Friday, September 5, 2008

Amanda & Tools don't really go together

My dad is here from Arizona and he has been a God send. I have been in need of help for a long time! Okay, so that's nothing that any of you did not already know. He helped me learn how to use a table saw (after he changed the blade for me) and then threatened me to never use it when I was home alone! :) He taught me how to use a router and also how to use the keyhole bit on the router. Below is the first attempts I had with the keyhole. It was so hard... at first. 
This picture is a perfect keyhole...made of course by my dad! 
Me using the table saw for the first time. Thanks to Angel and Mike for hooking me up. ;)
My dad
This was when I finally got the key holes down. Mine were the two on the right. I was so excited to "nail" it. haha

Amanda And Power Tools