hurricane ike....

as the weekend neared and we were closely watching all of the hurricane coverage of ike (trying to map out our plan of games-to-be-played) we were much anticipating all of our kids games being cancelled due to rain from ike. we were delightfully surprised when the weather forcasters were wrong friday evening and we got to enjoy a beautiful night at ballwin ballpark watching bradley play baseball. we awoke on saturday morning early, yet again, surprised that lainie would be able to play in her 9 a.m. soccer game and as the day progressed we waited for the skies to open up...but they didn't and we had another beautiful evening at ballwin ballpark where the A's had a fantastic game and continued their winning streak beating the team they played 15-8...bradley played first base and had a great game! we layed our heads on our pillows and the last forcast of the evening said we would be getting some heavy rain in the morning and it would all move out by noon-with the heaviest to the north and west of st. louis. i was awakened this morning early b y chris letting me know we had water and mud trickling into our basement playroom and that he had to get out the door for praise team practice before church...as bradley and i picked everything up off of the floor i found myself complaining a bit about what a mess we would have to clean up later...bradley gently reminded me that we are blessed beyond belief compared to the people who have endured the hurricane full strength and have water completely filling their homes-our little trickle that was heading to the drain in the floor was nothing....bradley and i got ready for church and headed out the door only to be met by our neighbor who had already tried to get to church-no such luck-and told us that manchester rd was shut down in both directions by our house-our only chance out was the street behind ours and we could take that the back way by the kids school and out to brentwood blvd......bradley and i pulled out onto manchester and could not believe our eyes...a car was sitting completely covered in water. i immediately called chris as the water was creeping nearer to our street and told him he would have to leave church immediately or he would not be able to get home. i then drove to church and met chris (worried that his volvo could not get through the fast furious river forming on manchester). it took us 6 minutes to get from church to home and in that time manchester flooded at the street behind ours and we just got through and up went the barrackades. we went in, changed clothes and went to survey the flood..never since we have lived in brentwood have we ever seen anything like this...we have talked to neighbors who said it was not even this bad in the flood of 93. they had to bring in john boats and rescue families from apartments down manchester from us-1 man jumped out of a 2nd story apartment (he thought he smelled gas) and had to be rescued as he was being carried away in the current. an eighty year old man had to be rescued from this car 2 blocks from our house-right near the intersection of hanley rd and manchester.

so, as we walked around in disbelief, i couldn't help but pray for mot only these owners of cars and businesses around us that were totally destroyed by water, mud and foating debris (such as trash dumpsters and trees), but also couldn't imagine if this is what we endured as remnants of ike-what have the people on the coast endured...
notice the mums and plants floating down manchester away from the nursery by our house. the 24 hour access picture is a 24 hour fitness center-completely under water..


the rain finally ended around 11:00 this morning and the waters finally went down around 1:00 this afternoon...the streets are filled with mud and debris and to this very minute people are cleaning out their businesses down the street from us...it is going to take a very long time to clean all of this up. we took a few pictures around town when we got out to go and pick lainie and tristan up from my moms house. for all of you who are familiar with the area of manchester rd where the trainwreck is..there is a lumber business there and pallets of lumber floated down manchester and behind businesses and landed themselves in brentwood park...ALL OVER the place...on the railroad track that runs through there, on the bleachers where we have sat and watched bradley play ball for years-the field he played on last year is still completely a lake, the steps we walk up to the fields are completely washed out and i felt a little guilty for taking pictures as i turned and saw a guy taking trash cans full of water out of his car-it was completely filled with mud and water-totally destroyed....the clean up begins.....


the car that was totally submerged...when the waters went down...

the shower...

i think i am coming to understand why they call this past weekend "labor day"....everyone looks forward to having an extra day off and relaxing and eating bbq...we ran around crazy, busy all weekend-and when we had down-time i felt like i needed to catch up on everything i had let fall by the wayside last week.....friday night we shopped for lainie's friend logan's birthday gift-i did take the kids to dinner at nachomama's-yum (chris was at the cabin for andy's bachelor party). no sleeping in on saturday-up at 7 am-getting ready for bradley's baseball tournament that morning and dropping lainie off at the party. out to ballwin for the game-then back to brentwood to pick lainie up-then back to ballwin to spend some time with grandma and sally and sarah who were staying at chris payne's house. -back to brentwood by 6 to drop lainie and bradley off at friends houses to spend the night, then tristan and i went to imo's for dinner and baskin robbins for dessert. sunday up for church-left service early to run bradley back out to ballwin for his tournament and then on to greensfelder park for andy and megan's shower...(which was great)

tristan...up to no good...we walked around the corner and he, noah and jacob were making mud and painiting the wall of the shelter with it...lainie was the water-fetching girl

it was a nice day and it was a beautiful shelter in the woods...we had fried chicken, chris payne's famous potato salad, fruit salad and an amazing chocolate cake...and then there were mini cupcakes and mona made these incredible lime tartlets. bradley won his first game of the day,-in fact he hit in the winning run!- so he and chris drove out to the shower for about 20 minutes and went back for the second game-they lost.

under construction....

okay, at the beginning of the summer keaton(chris' dad) told the kids that this summer he wanted to work with and help them build a clubhouse in the backyard. i had no idea the magnitude of the project...so about 3 weeks back they started on the "clubhouse"

keaton, bradley and chris mixing the cement for the piers. okay-how many "clubhouses" have cement piers?...not that i'm complaining-i'm not-i think its incredible and exciting for our kiddos, but this is being built by my contractor father-in-law, so it is going to be more like a home....

next, the shell of the clubhouse went up, and keaton thought the kids would enjoy having their own front porch. the kids have been really great builders-helping keaton, they get more excited each day that they work and see it coming together. the day after these pictures were taken we dug a trench across the back yard to run electric lines from our house to the clubhouse...and then chris installed some great light fixtures that look like they belong in a cabin....let there be light!...

the construction sight!

chris and bradley climbed up and shingled the roof (after they put down felt paper so it is completely waterproof), chris stained the ceiling so it looks like exposed beams in a cabin, and we picked out some great panelling for the walls and they finished the front porch and chris installed lights on the front porch. the kids are so excited and it is really turning out to be an awesome clubhouse! keaton has placed an order for the windows and we're picking out stain and paint for the outside, chris has his eyes on air conditioning window units(just so the kids don't get to hot)hahahaha! more to come......

not much time to write......

well, everyone survived their first day of school! bradley loves middle school-he said the day went really well, and he has already learned so much in his first sign language class-the only downfall in the day occured when they all went into the auditorium for a welcoming assembly and the 8th graders stuck their feet in the chairs from behind, so the 6th graders couldn't sit down. bradley wasn't too bothered by it-he kind of expected something would happen....but all is well because, i babysit the principal's child and so bradley is well looked after and taken care of! lainie had a bit of a meltdown last night when we were picking out her first day of school outfit...in her exact words-she needed to wear something "gorgeous!" i told her it was not prom and she'd have to settle for something cute and casual as she may have p.e.....after about 20 minutes of closet searching and outfit coordination, she was happy with her decision. she loves her teacher and couldn't wait to go to school today! tristan was also excited to be back at school-his outfit was an easy choice and there was no drama involved-i wanted him to be a little dressier-but when he didn't want to wear the plaid shorts and polo i picked out, i decided it was more important for him to be comfortable and happy in his choice (i was just glad it matched!). well now it is on to soccer practice for lainie and guitar lessons for bradley! hope your week is going well!

untitled...too many things happening to pick one...

okay...first things first...i was tired of my hair so i decided to chop it all off! so here are before and after pics...i will say that my hair looked really terrible in the first pics...we had been at 6 flags all day and on every single water ride, so it didn't always look that bad...but i am so glad, it is so easy to fix now, and with the school year about to begin, i don't have as much time in the a.m. so this will be super easy....although tristan's words when he first saw me were, "mom, you look weird!"....nice!....so a couple of weeks ago we took the kids to 6 flags...lainie and bradley had already been, but this was tristan's first time and he loved it. i have quite a little daredevil on my hands...we started off small with the mine train and everyone enjoyed it, then we moved on to the screaming eagle (i do not like roller coasters!)..but chris made me ride it, so i rode with lainie-after the first hill she wanted off. the boys loved it though...next on the adjenda,the tidal wave-we needed to cool off (it was 95 degrees that day)the kids loved it and couldn't get wet enough...

one water ride was not enough, so we rode every other one in the park...tristan made up a word for the log flume...when we got off i asked him what he thought of it and he said it was "suckish"....lovely word!...he said it was so boring and so was thunder river...now i don't know about you guys but i used to wait an hour to ride those when i was younger and loved them!...when we were there we only had to wait about 5 minutes to get on the rides(i think everyone was at the water park), tristan thought that they were snoozers...so it was on to see the looney toons

after meeting the toons, it was on to the evil kneival-the new crazy-fast wooden roller coaster. guess who loved it...bradley, lainie and i went to ride the old fashion cars while tristan and chris rode evil knieval many times! i am terribly afraid of heights, but was talked into riding the collosus....

all in all we had a great day and tristan said he can't wait to go back and ride more roller coasters! we took advantage of the tax free holiday and did all of our back to school shopping...we headed out to chesterfield valley and hit target and office depot for all of our school supplies and then the mall for a little tax free clothes and shoe shopping...we really saved some money! chris thinks that as much as we saved we probably spent on gas getting out there, but we still had fun! that evening the boys went to see indiana jones (again) and lainie and i went to see mama mia!...lainie sang all the way through the movie...imagine that?..i kept reminding her that we weren't the only people in the theatre, she didn't care! so this week chris has been travelling and we have been running around crazy. the kids all had their check ups yesterday-lainie and tristan are the exact same height-48 inches, but tristan weighs 3 lbs more than lainie! tristan is in the 90th% for weight and 75th% for height, while lainie is in the 50th% for weight and 30th% for height-it is just so funny since lainie is a year older. bradley is a picture perfect health, but may need to start seeing a physical therapist for his elbow (hurts him when he pitches) she doesn't want him to do permanent damage to it while he's still so young. last night we had bradley's big middle school registration night...he got his official student i.d. made, recieved a pin number for his lunch account ( no more using money-they now have a debit sytem ), got his locker and combination, walked all of his class routes and recieved his pass key to get into school-remember the good old days when the doors were unlocked and your parents could go on field trips with you and we'd ride in their cars....not the case anymore. bradley's school is completely locked down while in session-you have to have a code or pass key to get in the door...also all of the classrooms are numbered/lettered from the outside windows in case of an emergency, and in our district, 2 years ago, we started finger printing and doing background checks for anyone and everyone who wants to be a room mother, help with class parties, go on field trips, or help at all in the classroom working with children....if you don't have it done and cleared you cannot help/participate...now i am not complaining-i am a huge proponent of safety for my children and am relieved to know that they are in as safe of an environment as possible at school, it is just so sad to see that our world is becoming so corrupt and crazy. back to middle school...i am feeling really old...i now have a middle schooler...that is only three years until high school...and even scarier...bradley will be driving in 4 1/2 years!
bradley could not believe that i brought my camera to middle school registration-so uncool-however i talked him in to letting me take a few pics when everyone had cleared out of the hallway. tonight we went to lainie and tristan's meet the teacher night and ice cream social....lainie is really excited,she has a great teacher, mrs. dull, and she has a new girl that sits right next to her and can't wait to meet her. tristan has the same teacher that lainie had last year-mrs. roock-who said she was looking forward to having another "jones". tristan was very excited to get her and found out a lot of his friends are in his class. another school year is about to begin!...we are all very excited for next thursday the 21st!