sandy’s puppy tanner

Just a little update on Sandy’s travel puppy Tanner.  He is getting much bigger and more playful.  Sandy is now trying to get him used to the leash.  He is the most adorable little one!  Sandy told us that he will be about 50lbs according to the vet.  Also, Tanner apparently has some Chow Chow as part of his ancestry because his tongue is blue-black in places.  You can’t see it in this picture, but Tanner also has an adorable thin white stripe on his forehead.  He is a very cute puppy.  Can’t wait to bring our dog Barkley down here to play with him!

moving yvonne- day 2

There was a lot left to move out of Yvonne’s apartment, so Monday we took the box truck and the van back to the Regatta.  We filled them both back up!  We loaded a lot of heavy furniture.  The most fun was the washer and dryer, especially lifting them into the box truck with no ramp and carrying them to the back porch of her house (no dolly).  🙂  Everyone worked really hard and was really tired by the end of the day.  One nice break in the day was eating lunch at Clear Lake Park at a nice little pavilion and, of course, getting slushies from Sonic before we unloaded the truck to cool off. 

It was a good day where we continued to pour grace into Yvonne’s life.  I feel guilty that we couldn’t move everything, but now it is up to her to figure out how to get the rest of it to her house.  I think it is mostly good because it forces her to take initiative instead of relying completely on us.  I just hate disappointing people, but I also recognize it is not good to enable them.  I’m always learning or wrestling with something!  Sorry we don’t have pictures of the loaded truck and van.  We were all to tired to even think of it at that point!  We just wanted to be finished.  Praise God for the strength to accomplish all that we did today. 

Jenn and Liz moving furniture

Tim and Amber move the dryer

Washer loading successful

And now for the dryer

Ridiculously heavy!

Push it in!

Lunch break!

Lovely Clear Lake

sunday fun

Sunday held all sorts of fun for us.  Amber, Liz, Tim, and I all went to Shrimp N Stuff for lunch- fried goodness!- and then hung out at the beach.  By the time we were all showered and cooked dinner it was 9:30pm!  Liz and Amber created a lovely pasta with meat sauce.  The beach was fun and the clouds were glorious.  The water has been a beautiful blue all day too.

While they are in Galveston, Amber and Liz are staying at Edgewater Retirement Community, a place where we have been housing volunteers the past few months.  One of the wings is closed due to ike and we have restored it somewhat to house people.  Edgewater has a large kitchen on the first floor and bedrooms on the second.  The girls even have private rooms.  How much better for Amber that she is not sleeping on my couch!  🙂  The only issue is that there are several dead critters around.  I threw out a decayed mouse Sunday night which was completely nasty.

Meanwhile, Tim and I are about 20 blocks away in the RV.  We moved it back to the Wesley Parsonage at Pompano St.  We are grateful for the water and sewer hook ups once again.  It’s funny how much we enjoyed being able to use “our own” shower.  Sometimes, it’s the little things that give great pleasure.

It was a good first day in Galveston.  Looking forward to many more!

Blue skies and water

Pretty shell heart in the sand

Playing in the gulf

Look at that beautiful pass

Sunset at the beach

Pretty clouds

Eek! A mouse!

they’re here!

We're back!

On Sunday, my sister Amber and my dear friend Liz came back to Galveston for another round of fun!  I am amazed at their willingness to serve and love they have developed for the people here.  I am even more astounded that they are willng to deal with the summer heat!  I’m so excited they are here.  May God bless them this week as they build his kingdom.  Let the fun begin! 

Liz can't quite fit back in the van with her pack on

new life after ike

Nita

I loved meeting Nita on Friday!  She is exactly the type of person you would want as your grandmother.  She is extrememly fiesty, young at heart, and full of stories.  She is also the strongest hugger I have met in a long time!  As soon as you arrive at her house, you are greeted with a wonderful hug!  Even if she doesn’t know you, she is very grateful for the help.  She is a very sweet lady.  She has been living in the small travel trailer you can see in the picture from the previous entry.  On Saturday, her family was finally able to move the bed back into her house so she could stay there.  Nita is so grateful; it’s been 11 months since she’s been back into her home.

Saturday she showed me her prized possession after ike.  In her backyard, Nita found a small curled piece of her neighbor’s cactus.  She was excited because the cactus was growing roots.  So Nita planted it and gave it a home with her.  She loves that cactus and loves telling its story.  I think it is symbolic of something good that God can bring out of disaster, that there is new life in spite of the hard times.  Nita reminds me of that.  She is a very beautiful lady.  May God bless her as she moves back into her home and may her house be completely finished soon! 

Nita's cactus

team from sunset umc in pasadena, TX

Surprise!  Found out Wednesday that we had another team scheduled for Friday and Saturday of this week!  So no day off for us and we were even more spread out.  I worked with this team in Galveston Friday and Saturday while Tim finished up with the MA team in San Leon and Baytown on Friday and then finished up the trim at Frances’ house and drove the RV back to Galveston on Saturday.  It’s been a whirlwind week for sure and we are grateful we are now through it!

The group from Sunset UMC was a group of 21 middle school aged kids and 6 adults.  They stayed at Moody Methodist Church and worked in Galveston.  It was tough working out all the details and transporting all the tools to the sites.  Middle school students need a lot of supervision, and I had divided them up into different sites.  I learned that unless the adults are providing good supervision, I need to keep them all together to avoid going insane!  🙂  I also need to be clearer about expectations for cleaning up, etc.  It was really hot these two days but the group was able to accomplish a bunch of things.

Friday we split into three teams.  One worked at Frances’ house in Galveston on Grover Ave weed wacking and cutting the lawn.  One team helped out at City Hall filling flower beds with mulch and painting 35 park benches in the afternoon.  The team I spent most of the day with emptied the trailer into the dumpster at Edgewater and loaded and unloaded the box truck for three runs to the Help for Galveston warehouse.  They moved about 18 hot water heaters, oak doors, and tons of lights.   

Saturday we painted two houses- Nita and Mrs. Salinas’ home.  The groups did a good job but were really affected by the heat.  After working out the logistics and a few crises and frustrations, everything worked out fine.  One of the crazy things was that the second bucket of paint was incorrectly matched to the first, resulting in multicolored blotches on the house.  We have the right color now and ended up using that bucket for the trim color- there was a very noticable difference!  One scary thing was that one of the youth was missing for a bit- but then she was found- praise God!  We continue to pray for safety and that God would watch over our volunteers.  We are very grateful for all those who are willing to give some time to serve and live out their faith!

Group painting at the Salinas house

Cute kitten at the Salinas house

Painting Nita's house

Painted siding

Nancy loves being way up high

Group painting Nita's

Painting the Salinas home

Nice painting line-up!

Mismatched paint

Priming the last side

 

Help arrives to speed things up

Working together

Mrs. Salinas is very grateful for all the help!