Crazy for Crayons

I have always really liked crayons. I suppose most kids like crayons, but I think a lot of them outgrow the fascination by the time they are adults. I never did. That's kind of odd because it's not like I'm really artistic or something...I'm not. I actually can't remember the last time I used a crayon, but I still love them. There's something so exciting about a brand new box of crayons! 

When I was a little girl, I got a new box of crayons at the start of every school year...they were always on the required school supplies list. Much to my disappointment, the required box was always kind of small...usually only 16 crayons, or maybe 24 if I was really lucky. What I really wanted was the 64 box! (That was the biggest box available then...I think there's a 96 box now, or maybe even a bigger one.) I remember my mom telling me that she would not get me a bigger box than the supply list requited, but if I wanted a bigger box I could pay the difference using my allowance. So one year I did that...I'm pretty sure it was when I was in 2nd grade. I couldn't afford the much yearned for 64 box, but I was able to get the 48 box, and that was pretty exciting too. I loved having all those extra colors!! Some of my favorites were sea green, sky blue, cornflower, periwinkle, lemon yellow, spring green, melon, thistle, and (of course) gold and silver. Apparently, I wasn't the only kid who was crazy about crayons because I remember a lot of kids in my class coming over to borrow crayons from me. I didn't mind sharing, but my teacher put a stop to that eventually. She didn't like the disruption it caused, to have kids standing around my desk choosing crayons. 

I don't think I ever did get a 64 box of crayons until I was an adult, and even then I didn't get the regular 64 box. In 2004, Crayola released a "State Crayon Collection"...a box of 64 crayons that included a crayon for each of the 50 states, plus 12 "All American" hues, one crayon for Washington DC, and a crayon for Puerto Rico. I've always been interested in the 50 states...I like learning about the uniqueness of each one and used to look up different states in the encyclopedia so I could learn about them and see photos taken in each state...so a crayon collection that focuses on the different states was right up my alley. I couldn't resist! This was the first 64 box of crayons I ever owned.

Pictures of the box:

Of course, the Crayola company did not create 64 new colors for this box. They used colors they already had, just gave them clever new names. Here's what's in this box of crayons (if the general color of the crayon isn't obvious from its name, I will include that in parentheses after its name) :

Alabama: Heart of Dixie (red) 
Alaska: Kodiak Bear Brown
Arizona: Grand Tanyan
Arkansas: Hog Wild Red
California: Sacra-mint-o
Colorado: Pikes Peak Purple
Connecticut: Nutmeg
Delaware: First State Fuchsia
Florida: Alligator Alley (green)
Georgia: Sweet Georgia Peach 
Hawaii: Aloha Aquamarine
Idaho: Tater Tan
Illinois: Abe Lincoln's Hat (black)
Indiana: Indianappleous Red
Iowa: A-maize-ing Iowa (gold / yellow)
Kansas: Yellow Brick Road
Kentucky: Fort Knox Gold
Louisiana: Cajun Crawfish Orange
Maine: Lobster Red
Maryland: Francis Scott Kiwi
Massachusetts: Boston Tea Party (brown)
Michigan: Motown Blues
Minnesota: 10,000 Lakes of Blue
Mississippi: Mississippi Mud Pie
Missouri: Archway Gray
Montana: Big Sky (blue)
Nebraska: Cornhusker Yellow
Nevada: Las Vegas Lights (neon green)
New Hampshire: Old Man Granite Gray
New Jersey: Boardwalk (brown)
New Mexico: Chile Pepper Red
New York: Lady Liberty (Green)
North Carolina: Grape Hatteras
North Dakota: Wild Prairie Rose
Ohio: Rock 'n Roll Raspberry
Oklahoma: Panhandle Paintbrush (red / orange)
Oregon: Oregon Trail (brown)
Pennsylvania: Independence Indigo
Rhode Island: Newport Jazzberry Festival (red)
South Carolina: Palmetto (green)
South Dakota: Remarkable Mount Rushmore (tan)
Tennessee: Tennesienna
Texas: Alamo a la mode (blue)
Utah: Bee-Utah-ful (orange)
Vermont: Maple Syrup
Virginia: Williamsburgundy
Washington: Space Needle (white)
West Virginia: Coal Miner (blue)
Wisconsin: Moovalous Cheese (orange)
Wyoming: Yellowstone
Washington, D.C.: Cherry Blossom
Puerto Rico: Coqui Green

All-American Hues:
America the Blue-tiful
Amber Waves of Grain
Purple Mountain's Majesty
Fruited Plains (purple)
Sea to Shining Sea (blue)
Dawn's Early Light (yellow / orange)
Rocket's Red Glare
Land of the Free (green)
Yankee Doodle Dandelion
Greenback
Mom's Apple Pie (bronze)
Orange You Glad You're in America?

I found this picture of a map with each state colored with its crayon:

And here's a photo of all the crayons in the box:

I've enjoyed having this unique set of crayons, but recently when I was at the store, I spied a box of 64 crayons and realized that I have never owned a regular 64 crayon box. And why not? The box cost $2.97 (plus tax). I decided to treat myself. Look at all those beautiful colors!:

As I read the names of the colors on each crayon, I recognized a lot of old favorites, but a few are new. I started wondering what colors were available back when I was a kid. So I did a little research. Yes, there are other people out there who love crayons as much as I do! I found whole websites dedicated to the history of crayons. In 1975 (the year I got my 48 box of crayons), the 64 box looked like this:

This box included these colors:

apricot, aquamarine, bittersweet, black, blue, blue-gray, blue-green, blue-violet, brick red, brown, burnt orange, burnt sienna, cadet blue, carnation pink, copper, cornflower, forest green, gold, goldenrod, gray, green, green-blue, green-yellow, indian red, lavender, lemon yellow, magenta, mahogany, maize, maroon, melon, midnight blue, mulberry, navy blue, olive green, orange, orange red, orange-yellow, orchid, peach, periwinkle, pine green, plum, raw sienna, raw umber, red, red-orange, red-violet, salmon, sea green, sepia, silver, sky blue, spring green, tan, thistle, turquoise blue, violet (purple), violet-blue, violet-red, white, yellow, yellow-green, yellow-orange

My new 2021 box has these colors:

apricot, asparagus, bittersweet, black, blue, bluetiful, blue green, blue violet, brick red, brown, burnt orange, burnt sienna, cadet blue, carnation pink, cerulean, chestnut, cornflower, forest green, gold, goldenrod, granny smith apple, gray, green, green yellow, indigo, lavender, macaroni and cheese, magenta, mahogany, mauvelous, melon, olive green, orange, orchid, pacific blue, peach, periwinkle, plum, purple mountains' majesty, raw sienna, red, red orange, red violet, robin's egg blue, salmon, scarlet, sea green, sepia, silver, sky blue, spring green, tan, tickle me pink, timberwolf, tumbleweed, turquoise blue, violet (purple), violet red, white, wild strawberry, wisteria, yellow, yellow green, yellow orange

Many of my old favorites are still there, but a few are gone. These are the colors that were in the 1975 box that are not in the 2021 box:

aquamarine, blue-gray, copper, green-blue, indian red, lemon yellow, maize, maroon, midnight blue, mulberry, navy blue, orange red, orange-yellow, pine green, raw umber, thistle, and violet-blue.

These are the new colors in the 2021 box that were not in the 1975 box:

asparagus, bluetiful, cerulean, chestnut, granny smith apple, indigo, macaroni and cheese, mauvelous, pacific blue, purple mountains' majesty, robin's egg blue, scarlet, tickle me pink, timberwolf, tumbleweed, wild strawberry, and wisteria. 

Some of the colors are probably the same--just renamed--but other colors seem to have disappeared. For example, "wisteria" looks a lot like "thistle" and "chestnut" looks a lot like "indian red" (no surprise that they changed that name!) There doesn't appear to be any replacements for some of the colors like lemon yellow, maize, and navy blue. 

There are a few other changes in the 2021 box too. All the hyphenated colors like violet-red and blue-green are now unhyphenated (violet red and blue green). The other change I noticed is that now the colors are all listed in English, Spanish, and French instead of just English. 

The world has changed a lot since I was a little girl, that's for sure, but overall crayons have remained much the same. When it comes to crayons, I guess I am never going to grow up!

Weekly Review September 17 '21

 I'm not sure I'm going to write a coherent post this week since I have had very little sleep, but I'm going to try. Why have I had very little sleep, you ask? Well, I don't know, exactly. I just haven't slept well the last two nights. I was awake for 3 hours in the night Wednesday night and last night I woke up at midnight (after going to bed around 9:30) and didn't go back to sleep until after Seth left for Seminary. Frank did the Seminary to school run this morning so I did get to sleep from about 6:30 to 8:30, but if you do the math that still isn't much sleep for one night. It's really frustrating to lie awake for hours for no apparent reason. I'm not even worrying about anything or thinking about anything in particular. Just wide awake for no reason. I'm not feeling particularly tired at the moment, but I'm sure I'll be ready for bed early tonight!

Last Saturday Frank had to work for several hours. I took Seth to a large local park to take some photos for his digital photography class...he had to take 3 different kinds of motion photos. He was able to get some shots of kids on the playground and people walking or biking. It got a bit stressful at one point, though, because I took the tripod back to the car and when I got back, I couldn't find Seth anywhere. I told him before I left where I was going and told him to take a few more photos and I'd be right back. I didn't expect him to leave that area of the park and to walk to the other end of the park in the few minutes that I was gone, but that's what he did! I searched for him for several minutes and then came across a policeman so I enlisted his help. I was 99.9% sure Seth was okay but since I saw a policeman, I thought it wouldn't hurt to ask for help. Thankfully, I found Seth shortly after that when he decided to return to the part of the park where I was searching. I guess I need to communicate more clearly next time: "Stay in this area; I will be right back!" 

On Sunday we decided to participate in church from home, since we had the option. That way we would avoid exposing anyone to Covid-19 on the slight chance any of us came down with it. I attended a class presidency meeting via Zoom right before church and then we tuned into our ward's Sacrament meeting broadcast and Frank and Seth did the sacrament for us (with permission). Our ward is not offering an online version of YW classes anymore, but the RS is still broadcasting their lessons, so I attended that meeting instead. Frank had to work again on Sunday; he left right after Sacrament meeting ended. 

Frank has continued to be really busy with work the rest of this week too. A new restaurant opened on Wednesday so he was really swamped with stuff for that. He has actually worked every day since we got back from NC. (That's 10 days in a row.) This week he was not able to be home for lunch on Monday, Tuesday, or Wednesday. He was able to work from home yesterday, though, and today he has mostly been working from home also. 

Seth and I have mostly had a normal schedule this week with the usual things except I got a haircut on Tuesday evening and yesterday Seth didn't have school (they have a day off for Yom Kippur). It was nice that I didn't have to get up so early after one of the nights that I didn't sleep. 

Yesterday Seth also had an appointment at the eye doctor. His prescription has changed slightly since his last check up 3 years ago. He likes his frames so he is only getting new lenses. He doesn't wear his glasses often and the eye doctor says he doesn't need them for a lot of things. He mostly needs them for seeing small things that are far away (like the clock on the wall on the other side of the chapel at church...he's always asking me what time it is when we're in Sacrament meeting! 😅) Of all my kids, his eyes are the best by far. One eye is still nearly 20/20 and the other eye is 20/30. He has a little bit of astigmatism too, though, which is mostly what is causing him trouble with small things that are far away. That explains why he thinks his glasses don't help at all...because they only help a little bit. The eye doctor told him to keep his glasses with him and if he is ever having trouble seeing something to put them on and see if it helps. If he does that he will soon see what he needs them for. 

While we were at the eye doctor, I also got a call from them telling me my contact lenses were in. So funny that I was already there! Since I was there, the eye doctor had me put in the trial pair and checked my eyes then so I wouldn't have to make an appointment for a contact lens fitting. The pair I have is a monthly pair, but if we decide this is the proper prescription, then I can order daily wear lenses. I have to try these for a week and see how I feel about them. They seem pretty good so far...I've been able to do some close up stuff while wearing them although it's even better if I wear reading glasses for the close up stuff. My new glasses have not come in yet, but hopefully they will get here before my follow up contact lens appointment next week, so I can pick them up then.

On Wednesday evening we had a combined YM / YW activity. I decided Seth and I could go since he really wanted to and neither of us have felt sick at all. We wore masks even for the part where we were outside, just to be extra safe. For the first part of the activity we were outside in the parking lot. Our bishop has a large wooden mallet painted silver with the words "Priesthood Power" on it. I don't remember why it was made originally (maybe for a skit?)...he inherited it from the couple of bishops before him. Anyway, the boys thought it would be fun to smash things with the mallet. Everyone brought something to smash...water bottles, pieces of fruit, old computer parts, etc. Seth brought a couple of old cell phones that Frank had. Everyone seemed to really enjoy that although I thought it was quite dangerous and kept my distance...when smashing electronic objects, pieces of plastic went flying everywhere! Thankfully, no one got "shrapnel" in their eye or anything like that. After everyone had a chance to smash something, it was starting to rain so we went inside to play a game that is sort of a cross between rock-paper-scissors and tag. There were two teams, and each team would decide which sign to make (except instead of rock-paper-scissors, it was gian-troll-wizard; same idea though). Then they would line up in two long rows, on the count of three make their sign, and whichever team "beat" the other team would start chasing the losing team members, trying to tag them before they got to the wall of the gym behind them. I ended up being the person in the middle who said "One, two, three...go!" which was fine with me since the last time I tried anything athletic at an activity I got a concussion! 😆 I also took a few photos, which were just for fun but ended up being really useful when there was a question about a mistake. I had photographic proof! 

Seth with the Priesthood Power mallet

Seth did really well at not getting caught...you can see he is one of only 3 people on his team at this point.

The disputed call...you can clearly see that 2 people on the larger team did a different sign than the rest of the team, which confused the opposing team. Most of the team did "troll" but two of them did "giant" and the opposing team did "wizard". Troll beats wizard but wizard beats giant. So they weren't sure whether to run away or try to tag people! Everyone was so glad I took this photo!

We have had a lot of rain this week. It was pouring rain when we left the church Wednesday night, and rained again later in the night. It also rained last night and when I sat down to write this post it suddenly started raining really hard, but it only rained for a few minutes. It looks like it might rain again, though. We're grateful to get rain when we know so many places are in drought conditions. 

In most of my spare time this week, I've been working on a new project. We have two small decorative throw pillows on our bed, but we've had them for many years and they are looking pretty worn out and grimy. I have not been able to find new ones that I like, in spite of quite a bit of searching, so I decided to make new ones myself. When we got married, someone gave us a throw pillow that was made of ribbons woven together. I thought that was such a cool idea although I didn't particularly love the color pallette of the pillow we were given (red, orange, brown, and maroon). Ever since then I have thought I would like to make a pillow like that, using colors that I like better. (We did keep the wedding gift throw pillow for many years, until it got worn out.) So anyway...I decided to give it a try. It turns out to be a pretty time consuming project, but I am mostly enjoying it. I am only partway through one of the pillows. First I cut out pieces for the fabric base for each pillow. Then I cut lengths of several ribbons. Then I pinned down all the ribbons going one direction, and basted the ends of the ribbons down on each edge:

After that, I pinned down all the ribbons going the other direction and sewed them down, but only on one edge. Then I started weaving those ribbons through the other ribbons that were sewn down on both ends:

I'm about halfway done with the weaving. After I finish weaving them, I will baste down the loose ends. 

I am actually making pillow covers...I may put these new covers over the pillows I have, or I may buy some pillow forms and put the covers over those. Once I'm done with the weaving part for both pillow covers, I will sew the raw edges to backs...using two pieces of fabric that split near the middle but overlap slightly, so that they can be put around a pillow or pillow form. (Sorry...hard to explain!) Anyway, I'm pleased with the results so far. I like the green / blue / purple/ cream color pallette a lot better!

The diet is still going well for both Frank and I and he is continuing to gradually lose weight. Most of the recipes are quite good, although a few we haven't liked much. Many of them turn out looking like something you'd get at a restaurant:

(This first one would have looked better on a plate that isn't green! A bit too much green!! 😀)

That is not ice cream with the strawberries! It's actually ricotta cheese. Kind of a weird combination, but not too bad, and the salad was delicious!!

Another yummy salad, with some quinoa which is my new favorite carb.

Meanwhile, Seth is mostly eating things like pizza, mac and cheese, and chicken patties but I am trying to make him a few other things each week. I made him a sausage rice casserole earlier this week (he loves it) and last night I showed him how to make sour cream enchiladas and he made most of them himself:

Now it is time for Seth to come home and I am taking him to a doctor appointment in a little while. (Just an ADHD medication checkup.) That's all I've got this week!

Weekly Review September 10 '21

Last Friday after I finished the weekly post, I had a lot to do because we were getting ready to leave for North Carolina. I went to the store to get some things we needed and finished packing and took out trash and got the dishwasher going. Frank slept for only about 3 hours, which I wasn't too happy about since we had a long drive ahead of us. We were aiming to leave as soon as Seth got home from school (around 2:30) and thankfully we got everything ready to go by then so we left shortly after he got home. Usually when we leave later in the day we stay at a hotel about halfway to Brevard but when we tried to book a hotel (a few months ago), there were not any vacancies so we had to drive all the way there even though that meant we wouldn't get to Brevard until around midnight. 

Frank usually does all the driving on long trips but since he hadn't had much sleep I did some of it. I only drove for about 2 1/2 hours...I would have done more but Frank really wasn't sleeping anyway and he prefers to drive so I let him. He did sleep for a short period of time while I was driving and he insisted that's all he needed. I made sure to stay awake too, though, in case he got tired. The traffic was not great... predictably, since it was a holiday weekend...and stopping to get dinner turned out to take forever. However, one good thing about driving late into the night is that the traffic thinned out later in the evening and then we made much better progress. We ended up arriving at our air B&B shortly after midnight, in spite of the earlier delays. It was great to fall into bed knowing that we could sleep as late as we wanted.

We stayed in the same house that we stayed in last November when we went to Brevard for Thanksgiving. On Saturday our only plan was to go to a family picnic. We went to the store to get a few items for that after we woke up. We had the picnic outside, at the church--there are several picnic benches behind the church. The weather was nice and we enjoyed seeing Frank's two sisters and his brother and most of their families.

Frank's brother James and his family were leaving after the picnic to go to a lake and they invited us to go with them--either that day or on Monday. At first, we planned to go on Saturday but then we realized that we were really tired so we decided to try for Monday instead. We went back to our little house and Frank and I both took naps--for about 2 hours! (Seth enjoyed watching shows on the Disney Channel.) Then we went downtown to get some dinner, bought some groceries so we'd have food for Sunday dinner, and spent the evening relaxing too.

On Sunday we went to church and Frank and Seth ended up passing the sacrament--that's what happens when you visit a branch where there are only about 40 people attending! At least it was fast Sunday, so we didn't get asked to give talks!! After church we went for a drive on the Blue Ridge Parkway, which is always beautiful. 

After we got back from our drive, we took naps again and ate dinner and then went to visit Frank's sister Dawn and her husband. They bought a house since we were in Brevard last, so they wanted us to see it. The new house is really nice and they have a large lot in a beautiful wooded setting. We enjoyed visiting with them.

On Monday we were planning to go to the lake but once again we decided that we were just too tired! Also, the weather was not very warm so it wasn't a great day to go to the lake. Instead, we took Frank's parents to lunch and then we rested more...Frank took another nap!! We visited his parents again that evening, and got ready to go in the morning. 

The drive home went really well. We had a goal to leave by 8:00 am, and we actually got on the road about 7:45, after another brief stop to say goodbye to Frank's parents. We picked up some breakfast and stopped for gas and then we were really on our way. The traffic was much better than it was on our trip down, so we made really good time (also, we didn't stop very many times) and we got home by 4:30. We had a busy evening unpacking, doing laundry, and I went to the store to get groceries also. We're glad we were able to get away for a few days to see family! It was a nice trip.

On Wednesday we were back to the regular schedule, which means up at 5:00 am to get Seth to Seminary and to school. I had an eye doctor appointment that morning. My prescription for my glasses hasn't changed very much but it has changed a little and my frames are really old (probably 5 or 6 years?) so I decided to get new frames too. I really like the frames I have now...they are the only glasses I have ever owned that I actually like...so I didn't really want to switch but they are getting pretty worn out. I did find some that I liked pretty well...hopefully I will decide I like them as much as the ones I have now! I am also going to get some contact lenses but the doctor didn't have the kind I need in stock so I have to go back to get a test pair when he gets the kind he thinks I need. I'm going to switch to the disposable kind because I don't wear them very often. 

After Seth got home from school and we were in the prepare dinner / get ready for church activities mode, Frank's sister Dawn called to tell us that his other sister, Becky, had just tested positive for Covid-19. Yikes! We just saw her on Saturday! We didn't have close contact with her though (we were outside and stayed more than 6 feet away from her except for one brief hug each when we were saying goodbye) so we're pretty sure we will be okay. I looked up the school district's policy and it is okay for Seth to go to school because he is vaccinated and he wasn't within 3 feet of her for 15 minutes or more. However, we decided we should avoid contact that can be avoided and since the YM were babysitting kids that night for the RS activity, we decided Seth better not go to that and I decided to stay home from the RS activity too. The YW were combined with the RS for their activity that evening and it's a good thing too since the YW president had sick family members, the other counselor in YW had just had surgery that day, and the YW secretary is out of town. So none of us were able to go to the activity that night! 

Hopefully Becky's family will be okay. Her husband and two of her kids tested positive too. (One of those kids was at the picnic too but we didn't get near him at all.) Her husband has very poor health and only has one lung and he has to be on oxygen in the best of circumstances, so it's pretty scarey that he has Covid. I'm pretty sure he's been vaccinated, so hopefully that means he will have a milder case. 

I spent yesterday and today getting caught up on all the regular chores, after being gone for the long weekend. I had a lot of financial stuff to get caught up, so that took most of the day today. Frank has been swamped with work, too. He put in a long day today and then an emergency came up this evening after dinner with a restaurant in Virginia (over an hour away) so he is gone again and probably won't be home until late. 

Seth is keeping busy with school. His photography class is taking a lot of time. We are almost to midterm already, though! 

I never thought I would say this, but I was really glad to get home so that I can cook my own food again! You all know how much I love to cook! 😉 (NOT!!) We tried to eat healthy on our trip, but it was really hard to find places to eat that would work. When we were on the road we didn't have a lot of time to stop so we had to go with fast food, which isn't even remotely healthy, of course. And even in Brevard it was challenging because it's a small town so there aren't a lot of choices. We did bring along some healthy snacks for the car, but we also got some for Seth (which weren't healthy, of course!) and it was hard not to snack on those too when we got hungry. So we pretty much crashed and burned with the diet on our trip and the evening we got back, Frank didn't feel very well. He checked his blood sugar and it was 178! It's been below 90 most of the time for the last few months so that is really high and it's no wonder he felt so rotten. We are back in the swing of things now, though, and he is feeling better. (Other than being exhausted from working too much; he hasn't been sleeping very well at night either.)

That's all our news. We hope all is well with all of you!

Weekly Review September 3 '21

 This week was mostly a normal week until Wednesday. For me, Friday and Saturday were mostly dominated by David Copperfield. I did finish reading it on Saturday night, finally! It has a good ending (thankfully, after 900 pages, the ending better be good!). 

Frank had to work all day on Sunday. It wasn't supposed to be all day, but there were lots of problems so he ended up working from 10:00 am to 10:00 pm. He's had a really busy week at work the rest of the week too, and worked overnight last night. He really needs a vacation! Thankfully, he will be off work this weekend as well as Monday and Tuesday next week. 

Seth has continued to do well with the new routine and so have I. He started carpooling with another family to Seminary so I just have to get him from Seminary to school each morning. I'm not really sure where the days are going, though...they seem to fly by. I feel like I should be getting more things done. I had book chat on Tuesday evening, which was fun as always. Maybe not quite as fun as usual because Jane's (one of the members of the group) father passed away earlier that day, so we felt bad about that. 

Wednesday we got the remnants of Hurricane Ida so it rained all day long. It wasn't super heavy rain in the morning but it got heavier in the early afternoon. By the time Seth's school dismissed at 2:15, it was absolutely pouring. I went to pick him up since he didn't even have an umbrella. There was so much traffic around the school that I had to park quite a ways away but I had two umbrellas so I walked over to the school with both of them and met Seth there and we each had our own umbrella to use walking back to the car. Even so, we both got quite wet! It was windy as well as raining so the rain was blowing onto us and the roads and sidewalks were already flooding so we were wading through puddles most of the way to the car. A cute girl popped under Seth's umbrella with him at the school and walked part way with us until she found out where her parent was to pick her up. After she left, I asked Seth who that was and he said "Oh, that's my friend Jensen." He told us the first week of school he had made friends with someone named Jensen in one of his classes, but I just assumed that "Jensen" was a boy! 😅 He's not really showing much interest in girls, though, except as friends. Which is fine with me!

Frank made it home not too long after we did. We kept getting flash flood warning alerts on our phones and some of the flooding was quite nearby. A lot of parents had all kinds of problems getting their kids home from school because the buses started encountering flooded roads and had to return to the schools with the kids still on the buses. (Middle schools and elementary schools dismiss later than the high schools so the roads were worse by the time those schools dismissed.) So the parents had to go pick up the kids instead! Apparently, the county sheriff's department asked the schools to pull all the buses off the roads because they were doing a lot of water rescues. There was even one school bus in the county that got stuck in flood waters and the bus driver and the 10 kids on board had to be rescued by boat. A mom in our ward left her house to pick up her kids from school--2 miles away--and while she was gone the roads flooded so much that she couldn't get back home for 5 hours! It was crazy. 

Meanwhile, Frank and I were making dinner and discovered that we didn't have meat out of the freezer. We thought we had taken it out the day before...both of us remember doing that...but it was not in the refrigerator! By then the rain had mostly stopped so we decided to venture out and see if we could find something to eat. We made it to Cracker Barrel without any problems and were even able to get food that fit into our diet pretty well. (That's why we chose Cracker Barrel in the first place.) 

That evening, we got a message from the school system that school would be delayed 2 hours this morning because of the flooded roads. That meant no Seminary either so we all got to sleep in a bit on Thursday. I still woke up right at 5:00, but I went back to sleep for about 45 minutes. We got another message from the school system saying that the 2 hour delay would be re-evaluated at 7:00 am. At that point, they decided to cancel school for the day. Later, we got an email explaining that the sheriff's department had asked the school district to keep all the buses off the roads so they would have time to assess damage to the roads and make sure all the roads are structurally safe. I actually wasn't that surprised that school was cancelled because we also had river flood warnings and one of the places that was expected to flood was a main road between Frederick and Walkersville. River flooding always concerns us a bit since the river is right behind our house, so I was keeping an eye on the river yesterday. It was definitely flooded at first light and continued to rise. By around 10:30, Seth and I went out to take some pictures. The river was quite flooded...probably as much as I've seen it besides after Hurricane Sandy. I'm not sure it got quite as high as it did then, but it was close. However, it didn't rise very much after we were out looking and by early eveing it was going back down so there was no danger of our house flooding, thankfully.

The row of trees on the right grows on the bank of the river...it's a pretty steep bank, several feet deep. So you can see that the water came up a long way!

Our house is in th row of townhouses that's on the far left of the photo. 

This duck apparently didn't like how fast the water was flowing in the river and took refuge on the hill behind our house.

Another flooded area in the common area near our house.

I took this last photo from th hill behind our house.

Not everyone in our ward was as lucky as we were, though. A few families got water in their basements and one of them was my friend Rebekah and her family. Their sump pump wasn't working properly, apparently, and by the time they noticed, they had about 4 inches of water in the storage area of their basement and it was flooding into the family room / office area which has carpet. Last night I went to their house, along with several other members of our ward, to help them move everything out of their basement up to their main floor or upper floor so they could start drying out the carpet. I was careful and didn't lift anything heavy...I mostly packed food storage items into boxes for other people to carry upstairs. I actually got there a bit late so a lot of the work was already done by the time I got there. We were able to finish up within an hour of my arrival. They have someone coming to look at it tomorrow and thankfully it sounds like their homeowner's insurance will cover the damage so hopefully they will end up with a nicer basement than they had before...new carpet. But right now it's really stressful, of course, and their house is in chaos with all the things they had to move. 

I had a YW presidency meeting yesterday afternoon and Frank and Seth both got haircuts too so it was a fairly busy day.

Frank had to work all night last night...he got home shortly before I got up at 5:00 am. Yes, we are back on a regular school schedule today. It is quite a bit cooler and dryer today...as a matter of fact, it was chilly enough this morning that I used the heater in the car when I went to pick Seth up from Seminary. On the way to the church, I saw about 10 deer grazing in a field right next to the main road (Schifferstadt Boulevard). As I drove past, one of them lifted up its head and looked around alertly...I wish I could have got a picture of that! It was pretty cool.

Now I need to run to the store to get a few items and I have a lot of other things to do, so that is it for this week.