Fires and Floods!

The beginning of April was extremely dry. On April 9th many parts of our state was hit by wild fires. On that day, we had wind out of the West gusting up to 40 mph. Many of the wild fires started from electric lines smashing together and sparks flying to the ground. The community of Velma, which we are about 2 miles from lost around 20 homes due to the fires. It was a very chaotic and stressful day. They evacuated the entire town of Velma. We were encouraged as well to evacuate from our home. The state trooper stopped by to inform us that there was a fire West of our house, which we could see the smoke and he said they were having trouble getting it under control. Thankfully, they did and it didn't get close to any of the homes on our road. The kids and I took off to my Aunt's house. Loco, where my parents live, had fires to the North and South of it. So we weren't able to go that direction and stay with my parents. Byron stayed behind with neighbors to keep watch on the situation. The firefighters and the oil trucking companies did a great job that day. My aunt Retha works at a local oil trucking company. She said they didn't perform a single oil field job that day. All of their trucks were used hauling water to all of the fires along with about 3 other trucking companies in the Velma area. The trucks were taking water from lakes and ponds. There was actually a guy that was filling his truck from his very own swimming pool. My dad even said that by the wee hours of the morning they were getting water from the sewer lagoons! Disgusting I know, but they were using everything possible to control these fires. April 10th, they were able to bring in helicopters to help put out the fires. The day before it was too windy and the helicopters couldn't get off the ground. For several days, it was quite scary. My grandma, my mom's mom, did loose her house though. Thankfully, she wasn't there at the time of the fire. The dogs were rescued, but all else was lost. I do have to say Nannie is doing quite well for loosing everything. I can't imagine being in your early 70s and loosing all of your possessions. She is currently living with my parents. As devastating as the fires were we are very thankful that no one was seriously injured or lost their lives. So thank you Lord for keeping everyone in our community and surrounding communities safe!

The end of April ended in flooding! We got 7 inches of rain on Wednesday! It was very much needed though. Now the ponds are full to the brim. The lawn mowing season will officially begin once the rain has totally soaked in. Its amazing how quickly things change. The grass and trees are such a vibrant green now. All those areas that were damaged by the fires now have signs of new life. What a month it has been!!!


East of Loco

East of Loco

Smoke from a fire still burning!

The remains of Nannie's house!

Digging for Nannie's jewelry! They were her prized possessions! We had little success unfortunately in retrieving the jewelry.

This is South of our house on the road that we take to my parents' house.

Same area as the above picture

This is South of my parents' house. As you can see the power line pole laying in the road! There were many many power lines that were down. So to add to all of the fires many were without electricity too!

This was our rent house the first time we lived in Oklahoma! It got ridiculously close to it. Actually the people we rented this from actually lost one of their horses to the fire! They couldn't get to him in time!! SO sad!!!

The Flood Pictures!


This is the road in front of our house!

This is the North side of the house! We have a river!!!

Front porch view of our road!

Our river! This is looking out of Jaycee's bedroom window to the North!

Our backyard!

Another view of the backyard!

And another!

River Rapids anyone?!

Josh Hamilton

I know several months ago I posted about this guy. He has a book out called Beyond Belief the Josh Hamilton Story. Its an incredible story. ESPN has a new show called Homecoming with Rick Reilly. Josh Hamilton is the first person he has on his show. It aired this past Wednesday. Its being aired again May 1st at 8 p.m. EST on ESPN Classic and on May 3rd at 7a.m. EST on ESPN Classic. I really recommend watching it or recording it. Its truly amazing to see the man he has become. Its incredible to see how God has restored His life and how God is being gloried. Its truly amazing to see how awesome God's unconditional love is. How God can take all the bad and all the mistakes we have done in this life and turn it for our good. Even more so that the only explanation that can be given is that it was a God thing!!! REMARKABLE!!!!

Easter 2009!

We had a great Easter this year despite all of the crazy wild fires that surrounded our area! Thankfully, we got rain Saturday night and Sunday so hopefully the wild fire scare is done for a while!

I am glad we celebrated Easter on Saturday at Ma & Pa's. The kids were able to Easter Egg hunt outside. It was wonderful to see the Sutton family. It was my cousin's little girl's first Easter. Mia Paige did so well! She is such a fabulous baby! Next Easter will be lots of fun watching her run around finding eggs.

Here are pictures from our day!!!


Mia Paige

Cousins!

Ma & Pa's great-grandbabies!

The Sutton grand kids & great-grand kids!








Jaycee & Jackson~ Easter 2009~

NASCAR!!!

NASCAR was amazing!!! One of the greatest events I have ever been to in my life! I was a little skeptical at first. I wasn't sure if I could really take watching cars drive on a track for 300+ laps and stay entertained. But you know what, I was entertained and loved every moment of it!!! I totally want to ride in one of those cars now! The start of the race is really candy for your senses and it totally gets the adrenaline pumping! I can't wait for the next race! I told Byron when we retire we are buying a motor home and making as many NASCAR races as we possibly can!


Byron and I with Rick from American Chopper

Byron and I

Andy and Marilee

Our first time at Texas Motor Speedway! ALL SMILES!!!

Andy getting ready for the race and the view from our seats!!!

Pre-race laps!

LET'S GO RACIN' BOYS!!!

Pit Stop!

This picture was actually taken before we left that morning! Love you, Mom and glad I got to experience NASCAR with you!!!

Oklahoma City Zoo!

Nana and Papa got to be apart of our first trip to the Oklahoma City Zoo. It was tons of fun! The kids absolutely loved it and really enjoyed seeing all of the animals. I am totally amazed by how much Jaycee remembered. She told my mom about every animal she saw that day. I had even forgotten some of them we saw, but not Jaycee! Jackson's favorite part was seeing the snakes and frogs! Yucky!!! I can guarantee we will never have either of those creatures as family pets! I would NEVER sleep again nor would Scooby! Enjoy the pictures!


The entry at the zoo!

Watching the seals and sea lions swim!

Jaycee watching! (Her hair is braided for the first time, too!)

Looking at the hippo!

The hippo!

Checking out the big tortoises!

The big tortoises!

Jackson & Jaycee

Family Shot!

Jaycee Ann

Jackson Alan





A few of the animals we saw!

Baking Cookies!

Jaycee made Easter sugar cookies with her Nana! Nana brought Aunt Amanda's sugar cookie recipe (thanks Amanda) along with some very cute Easter cookie cutters. Jaycee had a fabulous time helping make the cookies. She did very well. She helped with every single step of making them. Jackson wasn't too much into it, but he did enjoy being the official taste tester! When it came to the part of icing the cookies, Jaycee applied the icing with a paint brush. Nana had read it in an article so we gave it a try. Jaycee totally loved it! Here are pictures from our cookie baking day!!!

Lots of stories to come!

We just spent a fabulous week with Nana and Papa! I have lots of stories to tell and lots of pictures to share!!! We were very busy this time. It went by way too fast! We wished they could have stayed for at least another week! Thankfully, we know that we will be seeing each other at the end of June when we make our trip to Washington! Hopefully, that time will go by quickly! I have gotten all the pictures on to the computer and uploaded to my Wal-Mart account. Now, I just need to do the resizing of pictures to place on the blog and Facebook. I hope to have a couple of new posts by this evening!!! Hope you all are having a great week so far!!!