Storm Season Hits Hard This Year

Spring in Texas is always a roller coaster ride. We never know what the weather will do from one minute to the next!

On March 4, we had a huge snowstorm. Instead of the hard-packed ice we usually get because of freezing rain, the snow came down in giant flakes that we could actually pack into snowballs. It was unheard of for us down here! Here's a picture of Chris and Tristan preparing to build a snowman in our back yard.

After all the snow melted, we experienced giant temperature swings daily from balmy and 80 degrees to frigid and 30 degrees. It made for lots of frosty soccer practices and games while we huddled under blankets, scarves and hats and put 4 layers of sweaters and jackets on the boys under their jerseys!

Then, the biggest storm to ever hit Collin County happened in the wee hours of the morning on April 10, 2008. We always get major thunderstorms here during the spring and fall months, but most of the time the winds max out at around 35-40 miles an hour. There's sometimes hail, sometimes flooding, and sometimes lightning strikes that cause power outages. But not often do we have straight line winds, and it's even rare for us to have actual tornados.

All of the above and more happened that dark and tumultuous Thursday morning. We had experienced an intense set of storms just before midnight, and we went to bed pretty sure there would be a second round. Sure enough, the emergency sirens went off about 4 AM, and in the course of about 20 minutes we were hit by 80 mile an hour straight line winds, hail, horizontal rain, thunder, lightning, green skies, and buckets and buckets of water. The high pitched shrieking sound of the storm literally sounded like a train was hitting our house. Bone-chilling!

We lost power, and it wasn't restored until about 5 hours later. Some areas of the Dallas -Fort Worth Metroplex didn't regain power for 3 days. All over Plano, Allen and McKinney, it looked like a war zone. Trees, fences, shingles, gutters, window screens, power lines and even roofs were strewn in the streets. Our house was not terribly affected by the storm. Our roof remained stable, missing just a few shingles. We lost a few gutters that we'll need to replace. But our trees and bushes remained standing, and so did our fence. When I drove Ethan to school that morning after power was restored, I realized just how blessed we were. At least half of the fences in our neighborhood had been blown over. A third of the trees had been torn apart from the top. It was really sobering to think that while we all slumbered, we were touched by such a storm. It was truly humbling to realize how much worse it could have been! I drove through the neighborhood and took some pictures of the damage. These are all from our neighborhood.

Tonight, we watched another terrible storm sweep the area. This time, footage of grapefruit sized hail was shown on the news. It came down so hard and fast it broke through car windows and built up on the sides of the freeways making for slippery, snow-like conditions. We're still safe here, but it definitely makes me double check our supplies of flashlights, batteries, food storage, propane, and drinking water. It never hurts to be prepared!

Ethan at the Police Station

Hi! I'm Ethan, just so you know. Today I visited the Police Station with my Bear Den. First, I met the Police officer that showed me around. I can't remember his name. Then, he showed me around. In this order, I went to the C.I.A. offices, (NOT inside) the officers' work station, the juvenile "waiting room", then he showed us his weapons and protective gear, and finally the outside of the prison "containment cells" and the inside of his car. For the rest of the time we played tag. That was the best trip to the police station I've ever had!

PLEASE post comments! :-)

How to feed boys

In the same vein as Chris' post, I thought I would chime in with my own earth-shaking discovery today.  

I've been feeding boys my entire married life, so I thought I knew how to do it and get them to munch happily on the grub.  After last night's dinner, I discovered that I had absolutely no idea what I was doing whatsoever, with all my fancy "recipes" and my "balanced meal plans".  Pssh.  I was a newbie.

I poured 2 cups of pancake batter into my Pampered Chef Large Bar Pan and put it in the oven for 15 minutes.  The pancakes came out in one big square of goodness, perfectly cooked.  I square cut them with a pizza cutter and served them up.  Then I warmed up frozen sausage patties in the microwave and made frozen grape juice.  Total prep time: 16 minutes.  Total eating time:  Chris: 2 minutes, Ethan: 1.5 minutes, Tristan: 4.2 seconds, and then he wanted the last extra sausage, which I swear he ate all in one mouthful.

Gourmet, Schmourmet!  Breakfast for dinner is the one meal to rule them all!

How to entertain boys

If you ever wondered how to entertain a small boy, find a caterpillar. I was walking out to the parking garage when I noticed a small black line moving verrrry slowly. I hadn't seen a caterpillar myself in years, but kept walking. Then I thought, "Wait... the boys are going to LOVE this." I found a empty water bottle and walked back to where the caterpillar was slowly trudging along.

It certainly was ugly. Big black spikes poked out from it's nearly three inch long body. When I touched it with my security card to scoop it into the plastic bottle, it curled up into a ball. It now looked like a black marble with spikes. A black marble that wouldn't fit into the water bottle. No way was I touching it with my bare hands now. (The spikes can irritate the skin.) I managed to pry it open enough for it to fall down into the bottle.

I put in a leaf and put it on my desk until it was time to drive home. I would look over every few minutes to make sure it was fine. I don't think it liked the bottle too much. I would hear it scraping the sides with it's feet trying to figure out it's new invisible prison. As long as it was alive. I didn't want to surprise the kids with a dead caterpillar. They aren't as much fun.

It arrived home alive and still in one spikey piece. The family had dinner first before I announced I had a surprise for the kids. (I almost forgot about it.) Once the boys saw the hideous thing, it was like Paula Abdul and whatever substance she's on: they couldn't get enough and the boys became quickly incoherent.

"Dad!Lookitsmovinganditsreallyneat!Whatdoesiteatdoesiteatcandydoesiteatcookies?canitouchitcanicanicani?"

We spend the rest of the evening with the television turned off, the video games put away as we made a new home for our "pet". We took an old fishbowl, put some dirt in the bottom with a few rocks and twigs in various positions. Then we got a few leaves to put in the bowl for food. We took some time to look up what kind of caterpillar it was (Giant Leopard) and what it would look like after it "transformed". It seems to like the leaves we've given it and the kids are constantly staring at the bowl.

It doesn't have a name yet, but we'll work on that later. It doesn't like to move when people are staring at it for some reason. The kids figured out to tell if it's alive by blowing on it. If it curls up into a ball, then it's alive. Anytime it has moved, Tristan will go around making personal announcements to everyone. "Hey Dad! It mooooved! Ethan! Ethan! It.. it.. the caterpitter! It moooooved! Where's mom? I neeeeed to tell her. Mom! Mom! The caterpitter moved!" It's also fun to pull out the leaves after they have been munched on and show the boys.

I'll post the pictures of it when I get a chance. I highly recommend the caterpillar for a pet to entertain your children. It's quiet, has all the qualities a kid likes and they will stare at it for hours on end.

Edit by Erlynne: Here's Chris' picture of the icky spiky calerpitter!

Soup?

So many of our friends and family have entertained and educated us via their blogs, we decided (after a bit of peer pressure) to create our own blog to share with friends and family.

Since we share our family name with that of a very large food manufacturing facility, we felt it was only appropriate to name our blog the way we have.  Don't be surprised if, as we share our busy goings-on, we occasionally drop in a delicious soup recipe here or there!