The Tea Party

On Saturday Feb 14th my Daisy Girl Scout troop attended a Tea Party at the historic home of Nancy Peterson. She is a lifelong girl scout with an incredible collection of Girl Scout memorabilia. She opened up her home to my girls (yes if you had not heard, I am the troop leader post storm) to learn manners and tea party etiquette. They enjoyed making place mats (with the locations of all their silverware drawn in) and bonnets (from streamers and paper plates). Due to the Girl Scout cookie shortage on the island- only four troops have started back post storm- we had to make due with store bought cookies and cupcakes to go with the tea. The girls (and their mommies) had a great time earning their first fun patch.

Caroline is in the first row (white dress from Aunt Holly's wedding) next to her friend Ellie from preschool. Maddy- her new Tiki Island friend is in the purple dress in the middle row.

Top Ten reasons IKE was like Christmas

A friend sent this and I have been meaning to post it. Not quite David Letterman material, but funny nonetheless.
Number 10: Decorating the house (with plywood).
Number 9: Dragging out boxes that haven't been used since last season.
Number 8: Last minute shopping in crowded stores.
Number 7: Regular TV shows pre-empted for 'Specials'.
Number 6: Leaving town to visit with family.
Number 5: Family and friends from out of state calling you.
Number 4: Buying food you don't normally buy . . . and in large quantities.
Number 3: Days off from work.
Number 2: Candles.
And the Number 1 reason Hurricane Season is like Christmas: At some point you're probably going to have a tree in your house!

The new wiggle

Our friend Skippy has an interesting dance that all affectionately call "the Wiggle." While fishing on Galveston Bay today the song "Five Pound Bass" by Robert Earl Keene came on the radio. Caroline took a break from the action (she caught over 20 fish) to do a bit of boat dancing. Move over Skippy, there is a new dance in town. Since this is my first video post I want to remind some of you to turn on your volume and click on the arrow to make it play.

The Tiki Park

Tiki Island has a wonderful community park with equipment and a great view of the water. The storm did some damage, but with a little bit of community help we were able to get it back in working order. This was our project over the Christmas break.

On a Friday, a dump truck delivered the mulch we would need to fill the space back in. Caroline is in the jeans on the right side of that group hug.

On Saturday several families arrived to spread out the mulch. We were all enthusiastic and most of us had children so we were determined to get this done. Notice the mulch hill is shorter than the swing set, but not by much.

After several hours of spreading by hand with shovels, rakes and wheel barrows, someone called in reinforcements.

You can now find us at the park several days a week learning to "pump" and stomping around to spread the mulch a little bit more.

the Kinder Garden

Caroline's class adopted a bit of dirt outside their playground in November. The shrubs that had been there were all lost in the storm. So, the students went on a field trip to Tom Thumb Nursery and each got to pick out six plants (any six bedding plants) to bring back to the school.

Some picked flowers because of their color, some picked ones based on smell (there is lots of rosemary in the garden), one picked plants based on height, but they were all very proud of their choices.

They brought their plants back to the school and lovingly planted and watered their little section of garden.

They continue to take care of their Kinder Garden each week. Who knew such an eclectic collection of daisies, snapdragons, pansies, mums, herbs and a few vegetables thrown in for good measure could look so wonderful.

A happy IKE story

Yesterday at Caroline's school we were preparing to move the Kindergarten and first grade kids back into their classroom. I was helping to unpack boxes of things that had been rescued by the remediation company that cleaned the school and church. These boxes were packed by the workers and labeled with the classroom before being placed in storage. The teachers did not even know what was in them. In one box we found the blankies and loveys that the kids had brought for nap time. They are currently in my dryer and will be reunited with their owners this afternoon.

The overwhelming generosity of people is amazing. While unpacking donations we found entire boxes full of brand new markers, crayons, glue sticks even one whole box of pencil boxes. The kids and the teachers are excited to come back to their classroom and be real kindergartners again.

update: Caroline saw her nap mat in our laundry room and her jaw dropped. I asked her if she recognized the towel and told her what had happened. She threw her arms around me and cried "Oh, Mommy. I didn't think I would ever see any of my lost things again! We have to thank my teacher and the cleaner men!"

Recovery Post Ike

Life post IKE has taken some getting used to. We lose phone and internet at least once a week, we still have just two parks that are safe to play at, but you begin to flow with it and don't even realize your life is odd until you tell the story to an outsider. A few examples...
Playing FEMA: Caroline's class was out on the playground a few weeks ago and I walked past. One little boy was trying to get the others together to play a pretend game. It was not Planet Heroes or even fireman, it was FEMA. " Lets pretend to be FEMA people and we will come rescue Galveston." The other kids thought that was a great idea and pretty soon Galveston was safe from the flood.
Repairs at the eye Dr: I went to my eye doctor last week. Her office was in an area that had several feet of water so I was surprised to hear that she was open in her own office space. When I walked in, the tile guy was placing the tiles in the entryway and my Dr. was painting the hall. I walked around to the back of the building, came in the back door and my Dr met me with paint brush in hand. Her equipment had arrived and was installed in a room without floors and with only half walls, but she was open for business and I got new glasses.
Chapel is cancelled: Caroline's classroom is in the preschool building that had complete restoration after the storm. She has reliable heat and air conditioning. The main school building has heat in some hallways and electricity in all the classrooms we are currently using. The kids over the there just tough it out and wear jackets on cold days. The week before Christmas we had a string of days that were in the 30's. Since the church does not have heat at all, the school cancelled chapel for those days. Many of the kids in Caroline's class did not have warm jackets so they played lots of hallway tag instead of going out to play.