Crazy Hair Day

The kids have Crazy Hair Day at their school each year. After shaving Clark's head a few weeks ago we were about to give him a high and tight to avoid the awkward half inch buzzcut look. I figured since I'd be shaving the sides soon, we might as well have some fun with his hair. He got announced over the school PA for being one of the winners for crazy hair! I cut it the night before and Yogurl colored it in with hair chalk the next day. That helped make it look less like alopecia areata.

 I tried using the school's pawprint as a guide for the back of his head. This was the hardest one, but I think it turned out all right.

LHE pride!

Not related to his school, but helps him run faster. 

The picture of Sabrina from the front came out blurry. Her hair had pipe cleaner in it so it was sticking out in long swirls. Maybe next year double helices?

I smooshed 3 wasps with a single blow. Not quite the Brave Little Tailor, but I felt pretty mighty. They kept building nests on our fence and I figured I had to actually kill them rather than knock down their next over and over and over. A couple were still in pretty good shape after the smooshing, so the kids spent some time looking at them up close. This one was still wiggling its mandibles. If anybody would like to render a more accurate classification of this bug (than just wasp, which might not even be accurate), I'd be happy to hear it. Clark loves bugs, but my knowledge of them is pretty elementary.

Port Arthur

I was able to go down to Port Arthur to help with the clean up after Hurricane Harvey. I am glad that my wife was willing to make the sacrifice of spending a weekend alone with the kids so that I could go do it. It was really an experience unlike anything else I have had.

I left at 4:45 Saturday morning. We met at the church and then headed down to Port Arthur, which took about 5 hours to get to. Not long before we got to Beaumont we began to see the heaps of trash and furniture piled up in front of houses. When we got to the neighborhood where we were working in Port Arthur, almost every house had huge heaps of furniture and building materials piled up in front. The first house was so hot and stagnant inside that I thought I was going to have to take a break every 15 minutes all day. Fortunately we weren't there long and then it started raining. That created some inconvenience, but it cooled everything down which was really a blessing. The last house we went to on Saturday was so disgusting. The carpet was still soaking wet and there was a thick band of fuzzy mold on nearly every wall of the house. Only the tile walls in the bathroom and the wood paneling weren't moldy on the outside. We had to rip them out too, though. After working there for a few hours I was feeling so discouraged and disgusted and humbled. I also was feeling angry about bad government policies that encourage excessive building in flood plains, but that only increased my feelings of sympathy for the poor people who had their lives turned upside down by the hurricane.

We slept that night in a sports arena complex, and while getting a warm shower in a shower truck was nice, I didn't sleep very well. We met the next morning for sacrament meeting in the arena, with probably 40 people passing the sacrament to however many hundreds of volunteers had showed up. It was one of the most beautiful sacrament meetings that I can remember. I left feeling so good about what we were doing and about life in general. The house we worked in on Sunday also was a house that the owner had worked very hard already to fix. He was so optimistic and grateful that it also lifted my spirits considerably.

My main takeaways from the experience are that no one should live in Houston, people are amazingly resilient, service is a truly beautiful thing where we can be the answer to others' prayers, and that God is watching over us even at the worst of times.

Just Random Stuff

 We all got sick last week, so I had to stay home from work for a few days. That's what sick leave is for, so no big deal. Eliza puked in her bed Sunday morning, then Yogurl got sick Monday morning, then Sabrina threw up in class Monday mid morning, then Clark threw up in bed Monday night. I managed to stay well until late Tuesday, by which time everybody else was on the mend. I was back at work Thursday, and back to normal by Friday. Not sure what happened, an early flu I guess. It was probably viral since Sabrina was in the middle of a run of antibiotics for pink eye and an ear infection. We are all doing fine now. And on to some random pictures!

I think they said they were going to work. 

I've done this with the older kids, but I think this was the first time Eliza got a straight comb "shave" with real shaving cream.

Clark said he wanted me to use a real razor, so I went ahead and gave him his first real shave. I used a gentle soothing after shave rather than giving him the "Home Alone" experience.

Clark started taking Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu lessons. He really, really likes them so far. They cost a little more than gymnastics lessons did, but it is closer to home and he is really into it. We still don't know how to tie his belt on.

We are famous!

We went on a date to the chocolate festival, which is always a lot of fun, and my wife was so beautiful that they had to put her on D Magazine's website!

Clark is way ahead of Sabrina on losing teeth. I'm pretty sure she had only lost one by time she turned six. Clark has lost 5 with another wiggler. Losing the top front teeth is the best. I still giggle every time I look at him.

I found some really good poutine in Dallas! It is at a restaurant called Moxie's. I heard about it and rode my bike over there to eat at lunch time one day. Turns out it is sort of like a high class Hooters, so I probably won't go there too often. The poutine is really good, though.

We found a live cicada on our tree. Normally we just find the shells and the kids stick them on our clothes when we aren't looking. This was a live one, though. We took turns holding him, and he held very still for some pictures.