Back to School...again!

Today we went back to school after 9 days off.

We still had lots of kids absent as many of our families (students and staff) are still displaced.

Every student wrote letters and drew pictures for the firefighters, law enforcement and volunteers who have made such a difference in our community.

I love seeing kids' work and hearing their words.

Their insight often amazes me.

progress

Today was a good day...no big plumes of smoke over our heads. The smoke was still in the air, but not billowing black clouds. Many evacuated areas are being opened back up for people to return home.

I took this information from Facebook. It gives an idea of how much "firepower" it is taking to get the fires contained.

This is what was up in the air today: The 11,000 gallon DC-10 Air Tanker supported the firefighting resources again today. Total Aircraft resources on the fire include: 4 Single Engine Air tankers (SEATS), 4 Black Hawk Helicopters, 1 Type One Helitanker, one DC-10 Air Tanker, 1 Type Two Helicopter, and 1 Type Three Helicopter. And the California Interagency Incident Management Team 4 was deployed this morning.

It was a good day--maybe I'll unpack my car tomorrow!

Fire Images

Yesterday was a scary day for us. We have been out of school all week because of the unpredictable wildfires in Montgomery, Grimes and Waller Counties.

We have been fortunate that our neighborhood has not been threatened or evacuated, but so many people have not been so lucky.

Every morning, we wake up to a fairly calm situation, and every afternoon, the winds kick up and things change rapidly.

Yesterday, parts of Magnolia city limited were evacuated, and we packed up my car just in case. Thankfully we did not have to leave.

Wildfires

Birthday Girl

Happy Birthday to my precious girl!

You've been a blessing to us for the past 10 years.

You're growing up to be a beautiful young lady,

and we are so proud of you!

I'm a week late in this post, but when you have an August birthday and your mom is a teacher, you get used to getting the shaft.

Fall Pinterest

From craftaholicsanonymous.net

From urbandaisies.blogspot.com

From bhg.com

I am loving these ideas for fall and Halloween from Pinterest.

Classroom Pics

I'm so excited about my new rain gutter bookshelves! They were really easy to put up, even on a cinder block wall. I hung them by myself in about an hour. I bought two 10 foot pieces of gutter which cost around $12. Then Cody helped me cut the pieces into four 5-foot pieces. I used 2 end caps and 3 brackets for each section. I don't remember how much the end caps and brackets cost, but I think they were more than the actual gutter.

You can go here to see the tutorial. I'm trying to figure out where I could put some in my house!