1st Day of 1st Grade

Abby and Emma started first grade on Monday. It didn't seem as big a deal as it was for Kindergarten. We are already familiar with the school. We know how lunch works in the cafeteria. We know how the bus system works. Just a different classroom with a different teacher and different classmates (oh, and they get desks this year!). So, going to first grade just isn't that big a deal. But we expect that a lot of learning and growing will take place this year. I look forward to watching it happen.

T-minus 4 days...

...Until the start of school. The girls need to go back - for more structure in their life again and for the sanity of their mother. This afternoon, the class lists were posted outside of Cline Elementary. I think knowing their teachers' names made it a little more real for the girls. Tomorrow, doubly so. We have "meet and greet" Friday afternoon - where they get to meet their teacher face-to-face and see their classrooms, etc. Exciting times.

And in other household news: A crew from the city came and took out two sections of concrete remaining in the front of our driveway (see previous post). But they've done nothing else. Now we can't use our driveway at all. Gotta love the swift progress of government-run operations. I'll keep you posted.

Raising the House

The same forces of drought at work on the water mains work on house foundations as well. About a month ago, I walk out onto our back deck and see that the corner of the house has slipped down about an inch and a half. After further inspection, we found another crack near the front door (explaining why it's so hard to get that door locked.) The house has had foundation work in the past. So we called Olshan, the ones who had done the previous work. Their guy came out and took some measurements inside and out. Part of the damage was covered by their warranty. However, the house was never completely "wrapped" in the past - they had only put piers under about 2/3 of the house. So, we needed 8 more piers.
That work was done yesterday. It was not cheap. But I consider it an investment in the house. A foundation completely covered by the best foundation company in the area is a good selling point.

Plugging the Leak

Last Saturday, I noticed water coming up out of the ground close to our driveway. I knew immediately what was going on, because this was now the third time in two weeks this has happened on our street - water main break. So, I called the city. They came out and got to work. But as you can see, they had to take out part of my driveway as well. The good news is, I can use a new driveway; and the city should be responsible for it, because they were the ones to dig it up. The bad news is all they've done so far is fill it with a fine gravel. Stay tuned to see what happens next.

Emma's Surgery Tomorrow

On Thursday, Emma will have surgery to put tubes in her ears and remove her adnoids. Procedure is supposed to take about a half hour. Abby will be at a friends house so Sheri and I can focus on Emma. We talked to her about it, but she doesn't seem worried or even cares. Let's see when we get to the hospital tomorrow! Pray for the surgeon's skill and wisdom and for a quick recovery.

About Time

I happened to wander back to my blog and noticed I haven't posted for over three weeks! So here's just some headlines to bring you up to speed:
Last week was busy. Girls were in VBS and I was working in VBS. That Thursday, I flew to Dallas to represent Hope Lutheran Church for the 58th Convention of the Texas District of the LCMS. Rather tame convention. Good preaching throughout.
This week, we found out from a specialist that Emma will have to have tubes in her ears and her adnoids removed. Doing that will help reduce the number of ear and sinus infections she gets. Procedure will be July 9th.
Today is the 3rd anniversary of my Ordination into the Office of the Holy Ministry and Installation as Associate Pastor at Hope. That was a quick three years. Looking forward to more.
That's the news from Friendswood.

Grandparents Visit

From time to time, our parents will come for a visit. My parents were in Friendswood last week (fortunately, before it started getting really hot this week.) There is the usual visiting and playing with the girls and such. But they have been here a number of times, so it is getting more difficult to find new things to do. They joined us for worship at Hope on Wednesday where they had the opportunity to see and hear me preside the service and preach. There was an organ recital by our director of music on Thursday. Dad is an organist as well, so that was good for him. We saw the Butterfly Museum at the Houston Museum of Natural Science. We ate some local bbq and other homemade fare. Mom and Dad flew out Saturday which was interesting. Their flight originated in San Francisco. That morning, San Francisco International closed one of their runways - causing huge delays. We watched on the internet carefully as that flight finally took off. But Southwest made up a lot of time in the air and on the ground and the next stop in Phoenix. Ends up, an over hour and a half delay became only a 15 minute delay by the time the plane was in Houston. So, we rushed them over to Hobby Airport, and saw them on their way home.
It was a good visit and we look forward to many more.