Snow in Houston - 12.10.08

Most of you have probably already heard about the snow we got here in Houston a couple of weeks ago but I wanted to post some pictures. It was amazing to see how much it actually snowed! We probably had a little less than 1 inch that accumulated but for Houston, it was unbelievable. I think the coolest part of the whole thing was that it was on my birthday. Since I was very young, I have always wanted it to snow on my birthday and 26 years later, in Houston, TX, it finally happened. Here is the link to the photo album and there is a link to a video below.
Photo Album:

Snow in Houston_12.10.08

Video:

Before and After Pictures

As promised, here are the before and after pictures of our house. We renovated the living room and both bathrooms, as well as replacing all the carpet, the front door, and did some landscaping. It has been a lot of work over the last two-and-a-half years but it has been a lot of fun.

House before

 

House after

If you know of anyone looking to move to Houston, let us know :)

Catch Up...

I am really going to try to keep this as short as possible, but I have to talk about all the cool stuff from November that I never blogged about because we have been so busy.

On Nov. 14th we hosted our Sunday school's monthly game night. We had two couples bring their Wiis and one couple bring a TV so we had three TVs and three Wiis going. We had a bowling tournament and then just played a bunch of other games, Wii Tennis, Rockband, etc. We had about 18 people show up and it was A LOT of fun. Here are some pictures:

November Game Night_11.14.08

Even though we were up pretty late playing Wii, the next day we went to the Houston Zoo with Evan's cousins Matt and Susie. They live in Pearland so we get to see them every once in awhile but not as much as we'd like. After the zoo, we met up with their parents at their restaurant Jake's for lunch. The food there is GREAT and we love to eat there. If you are ever in Pearland, you should definitely check it out. Here are some pictures from the zoo. Apparently Evan is an aspiring wildlife photographer since he took most of the pictures and a lot of them came out great.

Houston Zoo with Bettencourts_11.15.08

Around this time we also finished all of the work we were doing to the house and got the house on the market. We had a very busy couple of weeks there trying to get it all done before we left to go to San Antonio for my brother's wedding and Thanksgiving. Most of the time was spent painting our front door, repainting interior doors, and putting the finishing touches on the bathroom (caulking). We got it all done and it all looks great! Later I will post a photo album with photos of the house before we did all the work and then after we did all the work. It is amazing how our house has been transformed. And yes, our house is officially up for sale!

One of the biggest things that happened last month was that my little brother, Eric, got married on Nov. 22nd! The wedding was beautiful! The days leading up to the wedding were busy but a lot of fun. The day before the wedding, there was a mass at my parent's church for Eric and Kim, then all the girls went to get out nails done (Thanks Kim!) and the boys went to play golf.

That night we had the rehearsal and rehearsal dinner. At the rehearsal, I was in charge of helping the flower girl and ring bearer practice. Eric and I's cousin, Kasia, was the flower girl and Evan and I's niece Elizabeth was the ring bearer. Kasia, who lives in Brooklyn, is not shy at all, but Elizabeth is pretty shy. Her mom, Page (Evan's sister), told Kim and Eric that there was a strong possibility that she may not walk down the aisle. Kim had the brilliant idea that they should walk down together and both sprinkle the flowers. It worked great! At the rehearsal, we practiced using the offering envelopes that were in the pews as flower petals. They both really got into it and had a great time. Another brilliant idea that Kim had was to give the girls their wedding party gifts at the beginning of the rehearsal dinner since it was late andthey were both pretty tired. In the photo album below you will see pictures of them playing with My Little Ponies, sticker books, and bunny ears, these were the gifts from Kim, Eric, and my mom thought to get them the bunny ears. Evan andI sat at the "kid" table at the rehearsal with Michael and Caitlin (my aunt and uncle, also Kasia's parents) and Page and Dave (Evan's sister andbrother-in-law, also Elizabeth and Jame's parents). It was a lot of fun :) Since Michael, Caitlin, and Kasia live in New York, we don't get to spendmuch time withthem so I had a great time catching up with them andplaying with Kasia. It was also fun to see Elizabeth really come out of her shell around Kasia. A year ago, Elizabeth would have been too shy to even talk to Kasia, let alone play with her. And we were all really proud of her and the courage she displayed walking down the aisle.

The next day, all the girls got to get their hair and make-up done andwe had a lot of fun doing that. I think my favorite part was seeing Elizabeth get her hair done. She was not sure about the whole thing because not only is she pretty tender headed, but by the time she went, all the rest of us were finished and so we just sat and watched her because she is so cute! She is not a fan of being at the center of everyone's attention. But when she was about five minutes into getting her hair done, I handed her a little mirror so she could see her hair, and she totally changed her facial expression. In an instant, she went from, "I am about to cry" to "Look at my beautiful hair!" Her and Kasia both did a great job getting their hair done and looked beautiful. It was so much fun to see all the bridesmaids and Kim before the wedding. Everyone was so beautiful and it was just so exciting. I also got to see my brother quite a bit that morning and each time it was really special for me.

The girls did a great job going down the aisle. The only problem is that because I told them to only take out one flower petal at a time (so that they would make it all the way down the aisle with flowers) they went really slow! It probably took them a whole 5 minutes to go down the aisle. When they got to the end, they didn't want to stop because they still had petals! It was totally cute :)

The wedding was great and I had the privilege of singing while Eric and Kim lit the unity candle. I wouldn't say that it was my best performance (because I was having to try really hard not to cry), but I hope that it was a special for them as it was for me.

The reception was a lot of fun andit was made perfect when I got to dance with Eric. We have been through a lot together andgetting to dance with him at his wedding was a memory that I will always cherish. It was also fun to see Evan dance with Kasia andElizabeth. Usually, at this type of stuff, Evan will not dance unless it is a slow dance but I cam back from talking to people and saw him breaking it down to the "Electric Slide". It was awesome, because he cannot say ANYMORE that he cannot dance because he clearly can and their were witnesses!

Here is the link to the photo album from the wedding. There are a lot of pictures but it is worth it Kim, I am so excited that you are now officially part of our family! A lot of the pictures from the wedding album were taken by a friend of Kim's family and are just as good as professional pictures. These aren't even all the pictures, because they have the ones their professional photographer took as well.

Eric and Kim's Rehearsal and Dinner

 

Kim and Eric Wedding

 

Kim and Eric's Reception

We stayed in San Antonio after the wedding to spend more time with our families and because we would just be turning around in a couple of days to come back for Thanksgiving. On Monday, Judy, Page, Elizabeth, James, Susie, Lisa, and myself all went out for breakfast. It was a real treat. On Thursday, we spent the day with my family. We had lunch and then went to the UT vs. A&M game in Austin. My parents have season tickets to the UT games and every other year, Evan and I get to go with my parents to the game in Austin. I was sick but the game was still a lot of fun. I hadn't been back to campus in over a year and it was cool to see all that has changed and all that is still the same. I hadn't seen the stadium since they finished the construction adding an upper deck to the North end-zone. It was crazy looking but really cool! UT won pretty handily but Evan was a great sport as usual. Here are some pictures:

Thanksgiving 2008

That wraps up our busy month of November! I am almost caught up!

We've been tagged...

It is really hard for me to start writing again after a few weeks of going without blogging, especially when I feel like I have a lot of catching up to do. We had a crazy and awesome second half of November that I will blog about in the coming days. First, we were tagged by our friends Dash and Shae earlier this week and I thought it would be a good opportunity to get me blogging again. They have a great blog and it is especially fun to read about all their preparations for the birth of their first child in February. Here are the rules for the "tag":

So here it goes:

1. Our favorite TV show is House even though Evan hates the sight of blood and guts on TV.

2. Our favorite type of food is Mexican and our favorite restaurants are Los Barrios (Amy) and El Mirasol (Evan) which are both in San Antonio. If you are ever in San Antonio, we highly recommend that you check both restaurants out.

3. We are both really into music and love playing the "who sings this one?" or the "what's the name of this one?" game. We like just about all genres of music, from country, to rap, to r&b, to folk, to rock. We are huge Dave Matthews Band fans and have been for over 10 years now.

4. Our favorite outdoor activities are snorkeling and skiing.

5. Evan drove school buses for College Station ISD while in college. Evan has had 10 jobs since he was 16.

6. We just ordered new cell phones and I'm REALLY excited about them!!!!!!!!! (Evan wanted me to add in a few more REALLYs to REALLY show you how excited I am, but I think that's enough...I mean there are 9 exclamation points).

7. My mother-in-law, Judy, taught me how to knit over Thanksgiving and I am in the process of making a sweater for Baxter.

8. (I know I am only supposed to put 7, but....) I just told Evan I should put that we are probably two of the biggest nerds you would ever meet, and he said "I prefer the term 'geek'."

Now for the fun part....we tag:

Keating and Kassi

The Moore's

Page and Dave

The Park's

Sally

Meredith

Greg Despres

Enjoy :)

A little boy named Baxter...

So we came home from Bible study last Thursday night to find that "someone" had torn through the flower bed. There were two or three flowers uprooted and three or four that looked like they had been stepped on. Based on the size of the paw prints, I concluded it was Baxter! I was furious. After I calmed down later, I admitted to Evan that it was kind of surprising to me how mad I actually was. I replanted the flowers and tended to the ones who were "hurt" the next day. It also gave me a chance to plant some of the extra plants out by the entrance to our gate. I had to remove (more like pry out) some rather large rocks from the dirt by the gate but I finally got the four remaining grass-like plants (I have already forgotten what they were called) planted. I still have a few pansies that I am trying my best to keep alive in their packages just in case I need a transplant for those who will end up not surviving Thursday night's ordeal.

I love our dogs and Evan and I often talk about them like they are our children. I told Evan that I think I was so angry about the flowerbed on Thursday night because I was really just frustrated that unlike a child, there was no real way of communicating to him that what he did was wrong and that he shouldn't do it again. While I know that this can sometimes be easier said that done with children, especially really young ones, I think would stand a better chance that with Baxter. Unless I stare out the window the entire time he is outside waiting for him to get in the flowerbed again so that at that very moment I can bang on the window or run outside and spank him, I may never be able to help him realize that he does not belong in the flowerbed. I did catch him the other day when I was outside sanding some of our interior doors stepping up to get a better sniff at the flowers and I yelled "NO" but who knows if he will put it all together.

So for now, we have chicken wire covering the flowerbed. We kind of quickly laid it over the planter in a effort to protect it when we went to dinner on Saturday. I can't blame the dogs that when they are by themselves outside for an extended period of time, they are going to explore and sometimes get into trouble. Thankfully, it has seemed to work since it was undisturbed when we got back Saturday night and on Sunday afternoon after church. It doesn't look very good, but it can be removed relatively quickly if needed. Here is a picture:

Plant flowers...check!

Since I really needed to mow on Monday, I decided to just spend the whole day outside and also plant all the cool plants Judy had gotten us for the new planter. It was a beautiful day outside so I didn't mind "having" to be outside all day. I also put some weed and feed on the lawn and got caught watering it all in in the dark because I had already forgotten that it got dark so much earlier. Evan was a sweetie and made dinner for us and it was waiting for me when I came inside from all the yard work. It was a very productive day!

Evan took this picture of me with my new gardening gloves. I think he was just jealous :)

The finished planter...all cleaned up and new plants! Thanks again John and Judy for all your help!

As you can kind of see in the picture, I ended up with a few extra plants and I think I am going to plant them right by the entrance to our gate. Hopefully, I can do that this week sometime.

Great weekend!

This past weekend we were blessed with a visit from Evan's parents to come help us with the work we have left to do on the house. The main objective was to finish a planter we had started building the last time they came to visit. Whatever else we were able to got done was going to be a bonus. We were very successful because not only did we finish the planter but we finished repairing our back fence (from Ike), repaired a gutter, repaired a piece of siding that was no longer holding up a different piece of gutter, filled in all the holes in the back yard that our dogs had dug over the last couple of years, bought plants for the planter, cleaned our a big part of the garage, and installed some baseboards in the bathroom. We got all of this accomplished on Saturday. I made dinner for everyone that evening as a way to attempt to say thank you for all they had helped us with and so we could stay home and watch the UT vs. Tech game. Well the dinner went great but as many of you know, the game was not so great. While I was the only UT fan (Evan and his parents are big Aggies), we all could agree to root against Tech. Oh well! At least we got a lot accomplished during the day :) Here are some pictures:

This is what the planter looked like when we started this weekend. As you can see, we go a good amount done on it the last time but it was not quite finished.

Judy and I pulled up all the weeds while Evan and John worked to add the last row of wood.

Evan and John putting in the drain pipe we connected to the gutter and then buried.

The finished planter! Well, almost....flowers to come soon.

The next day we had a picnic with our Sunday school class for lunch. It was a lot of fun and Evan and I were really glad that we got to go, especially since we were not able to go to the last one they had in the spring. We ate, played games, and just hung out. The new missions/outreach pastor, Greg Despres, at our church also came to the picnic with his wife and kids. It was a lot of fun to hang out with the kids and get to know both Greg and Allison a little better. Here are some pictures:

Claire, Jordan, and Carissa hanging out.

The boys playing a game of bean bag toss.

More bean bag toss.

The rest of us enjoying watching the bean bag toss.

Evan riding the mini bike. He was going too fast to get a good picture!

My new friend Sawyer. He is the son of our Missions/Outreach pastor. He and his sister Sophie shared Doritos and fruit snacks with me (since we brought too much food!) and we got to go feed the fish in the pond together. He is SO cute. All of the Despres kids were great fun!

After the picnic, we came home and both fell asleep. We had a great weekend but it was a little exhausting. I had originally thought that I would be able to plant the flowers we bought on Saturday when we got home from the picnic, but that didn't happen. By the time I woke up from our nap, it was dark outside...thank you daylight savings time :)

Candy Corn Anyone??

I got some candy corn at the store today and Evan decided to play a little game with Baxter...I thought it was pretty cute.

The Bathroom is ALMOST done!

Tonight Evan finished cutting all the baseboards (after a geometry lesson) and I got the first coat of paint on them. We also installed the trim around the mirror. There was only one minor issue with the mirror trim...one of the pieces of wood we nailed to the wall to then nail the trim into is too wide and can be seen poking out from behind the trim. We measured it but for whatever reason, it is too wide. We didn't realize it was too wide until it was nailed into the wall so we decided to go ahead and put the trim up and see how bad it really looked. If you are shorter than the average person (me) it is noticeable but not too bad, but if you are average height or taller (Evan), it looks pretty bad. After discussing our options, we decided Evan would try and chisel off the excess wood. I really didn't want to rip everything down because of all the extra work we would have to do if something was damaged in the process (the wall, the trim, the mirror, etc.). I know that the chisel idea sounds risky but it was the best option we could come up with. Thankfully, Evan is very skilled and the part he has done so far looks great. Here are some pictures:

All of the baseboards with their first coat of paint.

Mirror trim installed!

Here you can where the backing is showing (left) and where it is no longer showing because Evan chiseled it away (right). Most importantly, he successfully chiseled away the excess backing without damaging the trim or the wall! Great job babe!

Hustle, Bustle, and Scrapbooking...

So, I mentioned two posts ago that I would "explain later" why things would not be slowing down anytime soon....so here it goes. We are going to be moving. Not real soon, but it is going to happen. Basically, Evan is probably going to be taking a job in the near future that will require us to move. The details, at this point, are a little fuzzy, but the odds are by Spring 2009, we will be moving. There are a lot of issues to be worked out and it is not a sure thing yet, but it will most likely happen, we're just not sure when. We are confident enough that this opportunity will work out for Evan to go ahead and put the house on the market. That is why we have been working so hard to finish all the remodeling projects around the house. Because of the current housing market and the great likelihood that we need to sell our house eventually, we are trying to put our house on the market sooner rather than later. Thankfully, since Evan currently works from home, if the house were to sell before we know we are moving, we could just go stay with our parents and he could continue working from there. We will just have to wait and see what God has in-store for us. As you can imagine, we are very excited. God has really brought me a long way when it comes to anxiety. I used to be controlled by it, but now, while all this is stressful for me at times, He has really helped me enjoy all of it instead of focusing on the unknown aspects that we can't control.

So there you have it. All this stuff with Evan's job has also been why I haven't blogged much in the last couple of months. There have been a lot of things happening but we were waiting to blog about them until more people at Evan's current job knew. Also, some of it is just stuff we wanted to keep private. It had been hard to not include some of the exciting stuff that has happened recently since I see this blog as a kind of scrapbook for us. Although, I guess that is also part of having a blog, instead of an actual scrapbook. We have to make decisions about how much we want to share with the world. When we started the blog, we decided that we wouldn't be sharing all of the details of our lives but that it would be a way to keep family and friends up to date with us. Since I took over writing I have continued this philosophy and added a "scrapbook-like" element to it. While I know we aren't planning on changing the original philosophy of the blog anytime soon, I am still looking forward to the future and getting to blog about most of it :) I guess I could start scrap-booking to capture the more personal moments in our lives, but I don't really see myself keeping up with it. I like the idea of scrap-booking but I don't know...it just seems like a lot of work. Although, I was definitely eyeing all the cute scrap-booking stuff the lady in front of me at Hobby Lobby was purchasing this morning.

Another Shower in SA

My Mom, sister Lisa, and I gave one more shower for Kim in San Antonio this past weekend. It was a Lingerie shower. We had a great time and it went really well. The last shower we hosted went well too but this one went smoother than the last. It was A LOT of fun. Thanks to my friend Ashley who sent me the recipe for one of the appetizers that she always makes at the showers she hosts and for a super cute decoration idea. The baked brie was a hit (not to mention I finally have the recipe for my favorite appetizer of all time) and the decorations were perfect! While there was a lot of leg work that went into preparing for the shower last week, it was all worth it. I hope I get to host another one in the future. Here are some pictures:

Baked brie...yummmmmm!

Cute decorations. Good job putting them up Lisa!

Kim with her cake.

My Mom, Kim, and her mother, Rebecca.

Me, Lisa, Kim, and her sister, Jenna.

Only one more month until the wedding!!! I still can't believe sometimes that my baby brother is going to be married! Eric and Kim, we are really excited for both of you :)

Where have you been???

I know that all those faithful readers out there are wondering what we have been up to the last couple of weeks and are anxiously awaiting a new post. I first want to apologize for leaving you in the dark for almost three weeks. Next, I want to do a quick catch up post so we can all get back on track with our lives.

In all seriousness, the reason there hasn't been a post since the end of September isn't because we haven't had anything blog worthy happen to us in that time. It is because it has been CRAZY the last couple weeks and there doesn't seem to be any signs of it slowing down here. I will go into more detail about this in the next post. Right now I need to do a quick catch-up:

1. My roommate and friend from college Julie got engaged on September 20th! She will be getting married sometime in Early 2009...it is looking like January! I am so excited for her and Justin (her fiance). Congratulations!!! Looks like we will finally be making it to Atlanta to visit :)

2. My sister, mom, and I hosted a shower for Kim (my soon-to-be sister-in-law) in San Antonio on September 27th. It was a lot of fun to get everyone together to celebrate their upcoming marriage. It was actually only the 3rd shower I helped plan and only the 2nd that I had a substantial amount to do with. I really enjoyed planning and giving the shower and I hope that Kim enjoyed it too! Here is a picture of us from the shower:



3. The next day we celebrated my Grandma's 80th birthday. We had a family lunch over at my parent's house. Thankfully, my Grandma lives in San Antonio so we get to see her quite a bit. It was a lot of fun to spend more time with family members, including my Grandma, who were at the shower the day before but that I didn't get much of a chance to talk with because I was helping host. Here are a few pictures:

My Mom putting the candles on the cake. My Grandma is in the middle and my Great Aunt Evelyn (Grandma's sister) is on the right. Evelyn is 92!

The grandchildren that were able to be at the party with the birthday girl. Top: Eric (my brother) and Lisa (my sister) Bottom: Charlotte (cousin), Grandma, Shannon (cousin), and me.

Grandma, Evelyn, and me sitting at the table.

4. Alot has been accomplished on the master bathroom remodel since I last posted. We successfully scraped, sanded, and painted the door trim for all four doorways (this took a long time). We made some repairs to the cabinet, sanded and painted the cabinet, doors, and drawer faces. We put the cabinet doors and drawers back on and installed the new cabinet hardware. We also cut and painted the trim that will be installed around the mirror. While all these tasks took time, the biggest one that was completed was the tile floor. Evan and I spent a whole weekend tearing up the existing linoleum flooring and measuring, cutting, and laying out the new tile. Evan then finished laying all the tile the weekend I was in San Antonio for the shower and birthday party. I wished that he could have come with me but he had obligations at church he had to stay for. I am very thankful that he got so much accomplished while I was out of town. Here are some pictures:

Evan nailing new panels to the cabinet.

Floor after the old linoleum had been removed and the cabinet painted.

Where we got by the end of the first day of measuring, cutting, and lying out tiles. It definitely took a little longer doing the diagonal pattern but I think it was totally worth it.

Me at the tile saw. I was nervous to try it but with some encouragement from Evan I gave it a try. This picture is of my first cut. I went on to finish measuring and cutting the remaining tiles the second day while Evan moved on to starting to lay tiles at the other end of the bathroom.

Evan did a great job finishing laying all the tiles and grouting.

My cabinet door and mirror trim painting station.

Evan installed the cabinet doors with new hinges and I put on the new hardware.

5. After the tile was finished, it was time to replace the carpet in the two bedrooms and closets. We used a guy recommended by a friend of ours and it went very well. We got a great deal! We had to move out a lot of stuff before they came to replace the carpet so some members of our small group graciously offered to help. Two closets and two bedrooms may not sound like much but when one closet is easily the size of a small bedroom and we use it as a storage room, there was lots to move. I forgot to take a picture of them helping us move but I want to really thank Roy, Claire, Mike, and Teresa once more for all they did to help! Here are some pictures after all the stuff was moved and of the new carpet:

Evan working with a make-shift desk the day after we moved everything out but the day before they came to replace the carpet. Bye-bye old carpet!

We moved everything that could handle being outside into our garage. Where did all this stuff come from??

The new carpet!! Since Evan works from home, we moved his desk back in first.

Close-up of the new carpet. I admit, that at first, I was skeptical, but after having if for a few days, I REALLY like it!

6. The last major change that happened the day after the carpet was installed is that we had our newly purchased bedroom furniture delivered. We have been looking at (I call it stalking) this set for about a year now. The store that sold it was having a moving sale and selling all the floor models in their show room. Thankfully, the set we wanted was in really good shape and we got a great deal! The bed in the store was the wrong size so we ordered that new but it was actually on sale too. The bed is also on back order so it will be a month or two before we get it but it will be worth the wait. The furniture looks SO GOOD! I told Evan that I feel like we have a brand new house with the bathroom almost finished, new carpet, and new furniture. Here are some pictures of the new furniture:

The armoire.

The dresser.

As you can tell, it has been a very busy last couple of weeks. I will explain in the next post why all this craziness with the house and why it will probably not slow down anytime soon. And I promise, it won't be three weeks from now :)

Power Update

Thank you for your prayers! My brother, aunt and uncle, and cousin all got power back over the weekend!

Still In The Dark

Please pray for my brother, his fiance, my cousin, his wife, and my aunt and uncle who are all still without power and are in the areas that they are now saying it will probably be after 9.22.08 before they regain power. None of them sustained any substantial damage to their homes but as you can imagine, the no power thing is really starting to wear on them.

My cousin, his wife, and my aunt and uncle live pretty close to us so they have been coming by to get ice, take showers (their hot water heaters are electric), and get things from their deep freeze that is plugged in at our house. While we love being able to help, they are getting tired of the set up. I really feel for them and wish there was more we could do. My aunt and uncle and cousin are a camping family so they are really handling it all very well but as we talked about last time they were here, it is getting old. The first time they came over for showers on Monday, it was kinda fun getting to hang out. The novelty has worn off for them. I told them our Bath House was open for business indefinitely but I know and understand that they much rather have their own electricity back. Please pray for strength for all of them. Here is a picture of us celebrating Amanda's (cousin-in-law) birthday on Monday night when they came over. It wasn't much but hopefully it was a nice distraction for all of them.

The other thing that has helped is that my Dad came to Houston on Wednesday to check on his employees and the office they have down in Webster (near NASA). He took them a commercial ice maker and then brought my brother ice and some other supplies. He then came up to us and brought us some luxuries like milk, butter, eggs, and cheese. He also brought us ice to give to my aunt and uncle. We had dinner and then he headed back to San Antonio. He had a long day but we and many others really appreciated it! Here is a picture of him with one of the company vans and the gas can he brought with him fearing that it was going to be tough to get gas in Houston. He said from driving around town and observing all the gas stations he passed that he could have gotten gas without any problem up by us.

The other thing that has helped is that my Dad came to Houston on Wednesday to check on his employees and the office they have down in Webster (near NASA). He took them a commercial ice maker and then brought my brother ice and some other supplies. He then came up to us and brought us some luxuries like milk, butter, eggs, and cheese. He also brought us ice to give to my aunt and uncle. We had dinner and then he headed back to San Antonio. He had a long day but we and many others really appreciated it! Here is a picture of him with one of the company vans and the gas can he brought with him fearing that it was going to be tough to get gas in Houston. He said from driving around town and observing all the gas stations he passed that he could have gotten gas without any problem up by us. Thanks again Dad!