Waiting out a hurricane

Hurricane Alex is going to get close but it the eye of the storm will miss us completely! Thank goodness! We are just getting "tropical storm" weather, 50 mph winds and very heavy rain. I feel very safe here at Silvia and Lews. We aren't worried about flooding or anything. Their land is much higher than all around them, probably by a good 5 feet. They are totally prepared for the worst also, so again, not worried. Plenty of food storage, water, gas and even a generator! Talk about following the church's teachings!

This is however, the worst week for a hurricane! I have rent checks to collect and 2 families moving out of Luis' houses and 2 new tenants moving in... one of which still hasn't signed the contract! I have been working frantically today! You should see me. I had to stop by one of our houses that will be rented out next week and pick up glass that someone dumped in the front yard! We got a phone call from a city official saying he was going to issue us a citation... so I worked that out and he removed the citation, but that's how the valley is... people know it's vacant so they dump their crap on your lawn or in your garbage can! I hate it! That will all change next week, but their I was in the pouring rain, in my hoodie sweatshirt b/c everything else is in storage... picking up big pieces of glass and putting it in the back of my SUV. I also ad to go pick up broken tile that our tile guy left in our yard... so annoying... I was SOAKING!(I am especially bummed b/c 2 of my friends invited me to separate Eclipse showings and parties and I have to miss both!) Why am I doing all this work, you may ask??? Because Luis is at boy scout camp in San Marcos... 5 hours away! And yes, it has been raining there too almost the whole time. He comes back on Friday night, right when the storm is supposed to be leaving. I hate being business woman and mother... it is so difficult. jackson gets so attention starved on days like this and drives me up the wall with all the whining. I know he needs me, but there are things that MUST get done! This week has reinforced how important it is for mothers to be in the home! I love my boys and can't imagine working full-time and not being with them to raise them and see them grow up.

Jackson is making major progress with speaking. He says or attempts to say pretty much every word we ask him to. He even says new words on his own, without prompting. He usually throws a fit and screams and cries when he can't reach something or is stuck or something like that. Now he says "help". I am so proud of him. Next step is to get him to combine words into phrases. We are trying easy things like "juice please" or "help please"... he even says thank you. It is so cute. The words aren't perfect... but he is doing great!

That's about it! Hope you are all doing great.