Unexpected dinner guests

The arctic air has thrown us for a loop here in Southeast Texas, and we are all glad to see that it is finally warming up a bit with temperatures tonight only expected to be around freezing. Luckily our pipes are okay, but many people did not fare as well. We did lose some plants even though we covered them up. Sadly, the Beaumont Enterprise reported the other day that someone had left their dogs outside in the cold causing one of them to die. Being the dog person that I am, that breaks my heart. It makes what happened tonight with our dogs so insignificant, although at the time the boys did not think so at all.

All of the kids have been dragging lately with colds and coughs, so when they got home from school today I told them they could wait and do their homework while I tutored. Nicholas turned on the TV (Katie went to her room to listen to music and read while Andrew started his computer game)and much to his delight the movie "Shark Boy and Lava Girl" was beginning. Nick claims he has never seen the whole thing through, and that "it only comes on once a year!" So when thirty minutes later I told the boys it was time for them to go to the back of the house and do their homework, Nicholas burst into tears. This was not because of the homework, but our TV in the back does not get the channel the movie was on. Pete was home by then, so I let him handle it.

After I was finished with my tutoring, Pete and the boys came back to the front and Nicholas rushed to turn on the TV. The movie was ending, but the network was going to show it a second time. So being the softy that I am, I let the kids eat out in front of the TV, which we usually only do on Friday or Saturday nights. We spread a big blanket and the boys eat on that, while Katie sits at the table in front of the couch. We have one big room, so our kitchen table is right there and Pete and I can watch TV, too, if we want. But we began talking about the pipes that had burst in the neighborhood, some simply from icicles, and that prompted Pete to go outside and investigate to make sure our pipes were still okay. Can you guess what happened? The dogs barged in when Pete opened the door (they were out while we ate) and before you could wink, they had gobbled up all the food on the boys' plates. Can you blame them? Nicholas was more upset than Andrew, but after replenishing their plates and putting the dogs back out, everything returned to normal...for now.

FIRE!

This picture appears in the the Beaumont Enterprise depicting a fire that engulfed some apartments I lived in for several years before Pete and I married and several months after until we found our house. Luckily no one was hurt.

When I saw this article this morning, I was taken back to 1989. I was student teaching in The Woodlands. George Mitchell, who founded The Woodlands and is also an alumni from Texas A&M would pay for housing of a couple dozen carefully selected graduating seniors while they student taught. I was lucky to have the opportunity to participate in this highly regarded honor, and I also found a permanent teaching job in this Houston suburb.

But some of the student teachers were not as lucky. I remember vividly the night our apartment complex caught on fire. I was sitting on my bed grading papers and my roommate was preparing for a lesson. Four of us shared a two-bedroom unit and the other girls were in their room, too. It must have been between nine and ten o'clock in the evening when we started to smell something burning. Before we knew what had happened, smoke started to fill our apartment and someone was knocking on our door, yelling "FIRE! Get out immediatly!"

I scanned the room quickly for something to take with me and ended up grabbing my teaching materials. I gathered outside with the rest of the student teachers, some of them wearing nightgowns and crying hysterically. The fire department was already working on the four-alarm blaze. When the fire had been finally put out, it was clear that half of the girls had lost everything inside. We were some of the lucky ones. Our apartment had smoke damage that ruined most of the furniture, but we were very fortunate. Some of the girls lost treasured items, like engagement rings or family memorabilia, and many left their teaching assignments incomplete to go home. They would have to start all over the following semester and graduate late.

I found it hard to go back to that apartment. My roommate decided to stay with her fiance and commute an hour each way daily. I had already gotten my teaching job and was being paid as a full-time sub until I graduated, so I rented a little efficiency apartment. The horror of that night stayed with me for a very long time, and the fear of fire always lurked when I was living in apartments. The cause of our fire was faulty wiring, and the cause of the fire Sunday in my old apartments is undetermined as of now. I pray for all the victims, though~ I know what they've been through.

In the News

Today on my poetry blog we had to write a poem that had a news headline as the title. Can you believe that when I opened up this morning's paper, the headline was about CARDINALS?
(Lamar, that is).

Cardinal Turf

"Cardinal Turf" is what the headlines read
about the local college, bringing football back ahead.
Years have passed since Lamar had a football team;
basketball, baseball and golf have ruled this college scene.
But when I read these glaring headlines in the 'Beaumont Enterprise,'
I was taken a few steps back, much to my surprise.
A football team did not come to mind when I read these great big words,
instead I was reminded of my true friend~ my bright red birds.
My cardinals, you see, appear to me, in times of dire need
as a reminder of God's true love, and Mary who died too young, indeed.