Lily gets to swim again

Sunday afternoon (while the football games were recording on the DVR) we took Lily to the lake to swim.

Visit with the new baby

Friday night we took dinner to our friends Ryan and Samantha who just had their 2nd child on Wednesday. Her name is Rowan Ainsleigh. She was 8 pounds 15 ounces and 20.5 inches long.

Correction...

Correction to previous post:

As I listen to talk radio this morning, people are talking about power out all over Little Rock. I woke up to a normal morning with power and Internet. But as I look at power outages online, it appears that much of the area is without power.



As I zoomed in to Maumelle, we are one of the few small areas in the city that currently has power.

Thankful for a fast-moving storm

Ike was much better to us than Gustav - he blew through Arkansas quickly and it is a cool breezy morning here. Lots of leaves are on the ground, but not too much rain or tree damage like Gustav brought.

Getting the effects of another hurricane...

Hurricane Ike devastated Texas today - it is now a tropical storm and is just really starting to hit the Little Rock area as I speak (or type). The winds are now down to around 40mph and it should be a stormy, windy night. Thankfully the storm will pass through overnight and the worst should be over by the morning.

Puppy Pool Day and a Baby Shower

Today at the community center was Puppy Pool Day. It was a fund raiser for the Humane Society and the dogs got to go in the pool and swim. Lily LOVES to swim and had a lot of fun. She was a little afraid when the big dogs came up and tried to play but she did really good.










Today was also our friends Ryan and Samantha's baby shower. Their little girl is due Sept 24th but Samantha said she is ready for her to come SOON.

Not again...

Last week was a long and wet one as Hurricane Gustav brought the entire state of Arkansas three-and-a-half days of wind and steady to torrential rain. Parts of the state suffered flooding. Many trees fell over - their roots are used to summer droughts and could not withstand over 7 inches of rain in such a short time. Last Thursday as I was driving home with the windshield wipers on high-speed, I noticed that the wiper on the passenger side was no longer moving. Thankfully it was the passenger side and the wiper in front of me was still working fine. It has been a great dry week and today the car is going in the shop to get that fixed.

So all week, all eyes have been on Hurricane Ike as it passed over Cuba on its way to Texas. The Holiday Inn (where I work) is filling up with smart evacuees who are taking no chances and fleeing now before it is too late. The biggest news in Arkansas today (besides remembering 9/11) is that the Razorbacks football game in Texas on Saturday has been postponed for 2 weeks (no big deal and I could really care less - of course, the only real football to me is the NFL). Now the latest track shows Ike hitting Galveston, Houston, and then heading right into Arkansas sometime Sunday. Reading stories of the great storm make me wonder why hurricanes have a place in the world God created. So just when I am forgetting about last week's rain, here it comes again...

I hate the fact that I am so moody when it comes to the weather. I hate when rain lasts more than a few hours. Summertime is great because of the longer, sunny days (best time of the year!). The days are becoming shorter and before long it will be back to driving to and from work in the dark :(

Regardless of what the weather may do, I realize that many things are more important than how I feel and what I think about the weather. As long it is just rain, a tree does not fall on the house, the roof isn't leaking (it was, but has been fixed), and family members (here and around the country) are safe, that's what really matters. We are so blessed and have it very easy - Baton Rouge has not been in the news, but they were devastated from Hurricane Gustav (worst in over 20 years). A sister-church of ours, http://www.healingplacechurch.org/, has been working around the clock to bring relief to victims of the hurricane. Their pastor, Dino Rizzo, was scheduled to speak on Sunday during our church's grand opening weekend, but instead will be staying in Louisiana to continue working with the relief efforts. Following their situation via websites, blogs and Twitter makes me so thankful and helps me realize that a little rain might not be so bad...

A few random pictures

Here are some pictures from my camera phone:

Across the street from us, a neighbor lost part of a tree during all the rain last week. Lucky for them, it fell towards the street.

Ross during our trip to Gulf Shores last month...

Pastor Rick wearing a do-rag

The week before the first service in our new church building was a very busy one. People were working day and night to get areas cleared, furniture moved, and things unpacked before everything could be set up, placed and cleaned before being used. One night Rachel came with me and as we entered the dimly-lit sanctuary, a guy wearing a do-rag said hi and thanks for coming to help. It took me a few seconds to realize who it was - our pastor, Rick Bezet.

Trimming the trees

Some of our tree branches were getting very close to our roof. Our tree in the front yard had branches coming almost to the ground. That's way too low when I'm cutting the grass and I have to dodge, duck and try to mow around them. Thanks to our Dad, we now have a limb trimmer and it turned out to be pretty fun to use. We did it just in time, since last week was a very wet and windy one. The remnants of Hurricane Gustav came up and covered Arkansas for over three days, bringing over 7 inches of rain and leaving many fallen trees around the state.