The Floods

The beautified boys.

I gave Logan a faux-hawk, which Landon made me shave off two minutes later.  I argued that it elongated his face.  Landon's winning argument was that it made him look like a gangster.  

Dad sent the kids Uno in the mail, which helped mitigate the end-of-the-summer boredom.

The kids enjoyed watching the Olympics with me over the last couple of weeks.  Their favorite athlete is Katie Ledecky, an amazing young swimmer who cites her Catholic religion as helping her keep proper perspective in life.  

The kids set up hurdles throughout the house when we watched track events, and they loved hosting their own long jump competition.  (Tristan is part frog.)  My favorite Jones Kids event to watch was their gymnastics routines.  Tonight they spent a couple of hours on the trampoline, practicing.  The only problem they have is deciding which event they will compete in when 2020 rolls around.

Last weekend Lafayette swam in 19 inches of rain, all dumped on Friday and Saturday.  We sometimes would walk to the neighborhood coulee just to be sure it wasn't overflowing.  Fortunately, our little drainage canal was capable of handling whatever the clouds threw at us and we did not flood.  Someone told me that the older neighborhoods were built on the highest ground, which makes sense.  Made me glad for my 1969 house.  Someone else told me it's the older neighborhoods with the mature trees that are hit hardest during hurricanes.  So I guess it's a trade off.

Those living right next to the Vermilion River were not as fortunate as we were.

This is kitty corner from our house.  The inside stayed dry, as far as I know.

I finally kicked the kids out of the house.  They had a mud fight.

And then school was canceled for a week.  We made sock puppets, visited friends, and checked for samples at Sam's Club.

I was able to drop the kids off with baby-sitters and help gut houses that had flooded.  (This is my friend Erin.)

(And my friend Brittney.)  I finally got a Mormon Helping Hands T-shirt, which I've always wanted!  Church will be reduced to one hour the next two weeks so we can help more flood victims over the weekends.  I will probably have to stay home with the kids and send Landon instead.

And, randomly, here is Dane wearing a training bra.

Landon has been in Washington DC all week at a conference.  He was able to visit with Garrett while there, which was a bonus.  On Friday night when he called and asked how my day was, after a week of being a single mom with the flood-aftermath and the kids all at home, I replied, "I already had to live it--there's no way I'm going to re-live it by talking about it."  He was smart and skipped our nightly phone call on Saturday.  He should be coming home around 2AM tonight.  I sure love that man.  Even Dane has been asking about "Dada" recently.