The wind in our willows...

....well, actually, our hackberry trees, if you want to get technical. 

It started this morning with lots of clouds and a gentle rain.  During breakfast, however, I noticed that the rain was becoming more horizontal and the wind was picking up.  The lights started to flicker.  I heard a soft thump, but didn't think much of it, until Scott walked out of the bathroom where he'd been shaving and calmly announced, "There's a tree on our house."

It looks pretty rough all around the neighborhood.  This is across the street from us:

This afternoon, I went outside to take pictures and couldn't help noticing the constant noise: firetrucks, people out surveying the damage, chainsaws going already.  And I'm pretty sure I saw a Red Cross Natural Disaster Response van at the rec center!

We're so thankful that we're not hurt, but I'm mourning the loss of our one large shade tree.  Sure, hackberries aren't really pretty, it's growing through our fence and it makes these tiny berries that I have to constantly pull out of Kip's mouth.  Plus our garden will be getting a lot more sun!  But, it was shady and our windchimes made beautiful music hanging up there.  I'm going to miss you, old girl!

Lone Star state

Kip wore this today....

...and it reminded me that I am extremely late in posting the photos from our wonderful trip to Texas a few MONTHS ago.  Yikes.  So here you go!

First we headed to Houston to be with the Noll side of the family.  We stayed with Scott's Aunt and Uncle and made trips over to see Mimi and Grandad at their new apartment. 

Three of the 4 Guses

 This was also when Kip finally decided to take her first steps!  Crazy lady.

Then we were off to Dallas where we spent a few days with Aunt Dee Dee and Nonnie Lewis.  Who knew we would have to go to Dallas to get our third snow of the winter!

It was a long drive.  Between TN, two cities in TX and the trip back we logged over 2,000 miles in 6 days!!  The kids did great though and we so enjoyed seeing Scott's family.

Thanks so much for hosting us, everyone.  We had a really wonderful time!

Porsche

Gus and I (Scott) ran some errands earlier today.  At one point, he said, "That's a cute car."  I saw the car to which he was referring and it was an old Porsche.  Good man, Gus.  Good man.  Now, if I can just get him to use a more manly adjective than "cute."  Hmmmm.  I think he must be spending too much time with the girls.