what's the haps

while we were gone on our vacation, 8 or 9 inches of rain fell...in one night. it caused major flood damage pretty close to our home, and we actually had a little bit of water come in our basement. several houses were moved off of their foundations by flood water, one only just around the corner from us (maybe quarter of a mile "as the crow flys") and a couple of miles down hwy P, the highway completely washed out. an 8 foot sized section just washed out. this is right by my hubby's uncle's house. his house is fine, but several houses a little lower than his washed away. like 50 feet away. one of the homes belongs (ed) to a friend of my mother in law. she was in her home with her two daughters (one of which is disabled). they escaped it when it came to rest, and had to drag the disabled daughter to safety. she lost her husband just a year ago, and has now lost her home and her car. please keep her in your prayers! i don't know if they had flood insurance. if they didn't, they are totally screwed.
i don't think we had much water in our basement. the rug down there is shot. it was pretty wet when we got home. we had 2 boxes that got a little wet, but for the most part, we got away pretty clean.
while we were in florida, my oldest 2 stayed with my dad, stepmom, and little brother the whole time. they usually go with them for a couple of days or a week in the summer...or the school year. they really love going on vacation with them, and they are able to go places that...well, we can't afford to take them. they've been to mexico a several times, aruba, jamaica a couple of times, and to florida several times. most of the time, the rest of us stay home. grace has been able to go the last couple of years. she doesn't go with alex and haley though, she goes with my neices...they are about the same age (they'll be 8 and 7 the end of june).
alex caught a 10 pound flounder, a couple of 4 pound mackeral, and a stingray. he was the only one to catch anything while we were down there. my dad has been there since march, and has been fishing the same dock (since march) and hasn't caught anything. alex caught 3 of the 4 fish from this dock. the kid loves fishing. he reminds me of myself. i loved fishing, and getting into the creeks and rivers, and lakes...you know, catching minnows, or turtles, or tadpoles...whatever i could.
my kids are out of school! yeah, yippee...for now. until the start to wear on my nerves...then i will be counting the minutes until they go back. they get awards the last day of school. this would probably mean more if it wasn't an "every kid gets x-number of awards" ceremony. if it was based on actual merit, well, i would be totally stoked about the both of them getting 4 awards. with that said, haley got an award (voted on by her classmates) for being the "most understanding" in her class. very cool. she also got an award for being in the excelerated math group. also very cool. alex got a reading award (he better get that award, the kid finished his reading goal 3 weeks into the quarter), an a couple of other english type awards. really cool, considering boys are usually better at math. i guess my kids switched. not that they aren't good at the other, haley especially.
this monday is the last day for the rest of the kids. we really need to get the pool cleaned out. otherwise these kids are going to drive me batty!