Our weekend house guest

Dave and I dogsat this weekend. Let me introduce you to Cooper, puppy of our friends Jared and Kate Mann. He is a Maltipoo (Maltise and Poodle mix) and was so fun to have around. He only weighed about 5 pounds, 7 wet, and he behaved so very well for a puppy. We only found one chewed up paperback book cover when we had to leave him home for a while alone. It was a small sacrifice if you ask me. And Dad, you're right, we aren't ready for a puppy yet, as cute as they are!

And the thunder rolled......

This is what rolled through our neighborhood last night. A tornado did some major damage about 10 miles from our home. In the middle of the storm Dave made me sit in the bathtub with a pillow over my head and he said "when it hits I'll come join you". How comforting.

As you can see, the hail was huge. Dave is holding these two pieces up to his eyes, but half of their size is covered by his hand.

This is what he scooped up from our back yard after the storm was over. It took about 2 hours to melt because it was so thick on the ground.

Praise the Lord for covered parking. Those white dots all over are hall stones. It fell consistently for about 10 minutes, and in the last two got so heavy we thought it was going to break the windows.

Here is a picture of the storm occurring through our front window. The street is totally flooded and hail is everywhere. The tree in our front yard was blowing so strongly before all the hail started, and then the wind died down to almost zero, which was what made us think the tornado was going to hit. In the 18 years I have been in Texas I have never been in a tornado, but I thought my luck was going to change last night. Thank you Jesus for answering our prayers and keeping your hand over our home.

Changes, Changes

Hey this is Dave. Just wanted to stop in and make a quick post. Karen and I find ourselves on the brink of lots of change and the vast majority of it is really good. We feel that the Lord is guiding us and so we pray that he would take us step by step into each phase of our lives.

Thus, I will be Grapevine Elementary School's newest fifth grade teacher next year. Due to some openings occurring for next year, my principal (a man I really respect as an administrator and Christian) decided that he would first like to make some alterations among the existing staff. He asked me if I would like the opportunity to make a change. For those of you who don't know, I want to eventually get an education administration master's degree and become a principal. This would be a positive step in that it would show my quality in multiple grade levels and subject areas. So, suffice it to say that I have prayed with Karen and we feel that this is the Lord's will in our lives, so I am walking in faith here.

As of now, I will be teaching language arts, though this may change due to further reallocation of personnel. I am excited and interestingly enough, I get to work with the students I had last year in 3rd grade. This will give me a leg up on working with them and hopefully will contribute to their success in fifth grade.

Well that's it. I hope you enjoy this latest bit of Norvell News.

Tree Pruning!

Dave spent the afternoon trimming our unusually large tree in the front yard. We are trying to grow grass on our mostly dirt lawn, and this tree is so huge that it prevents all sun light from aiding the grass growth. We borrowed a pole saw and barely made a dent in the much needed pruning, but at least we didn't have to pay someone!