Friday, October 30, 2020

Halloween

 

It is a tradition at Ocean Springs to have the seniors do Trunk or Treat for the elementary students.  And these kids go all out with decorating and their costumes!  It is such a fun tradition that everyone enjoys and we all desperately needed in 2020.  
We were so happy for Amelia because the school district decided to go forward with Trunk or Treat despite Covid.  And then...Hurricane Zeta came and schools were out for days along with Trunk or Treat.  These poor kids were devastated and had already done all the prep. 
Thank God, the schools rescheduled after Halloween so we still go to participate!

Amelia and Ashlegh were adorable as Minions and the kiddos loved it so much!

Halloween Night!
Most trick or treat and Halloween events were cancelled due to Covid but our friends invited us to trick or treat in Biloxi with them because their neighborhood was still doing it despite Covid and Hurricane Zeta.  (We still had no power)

Cutest Minion ever!

Addison as the Cat in the Hat!
Trick or treating with our friends Adrienne and Nolan. 
Happy Halloween!

Monday, October 26, 2020

Hurricane Zeta

 Hurricane Zeta hit us directly in late October.  It was forecasted to be a Category 1 and after all the hurricanes we had in the Gulf this year, everyone was a little storm prep weary.  Nobody evacuated, most did not prepare with the same gusto in the beginning of hurricane season.  Everyone said the same thing, how much more can we deal with in 2020?  

So we did not prep much, we did not have days of non perishable food or tons of water.  We knew we would lose power for a bit, figured we'd have some wind and that would be it.  We were wrong.  Hurricane Zeta came in 1mph under a category 3.  We always evacuate for category 3 and above.  It was insanely loud and we lost power hours into landfall.  We did not get power back for five days.  It was intense.  The water surrounded our house and we had waves crashing into the bottom of the house.  God's grace and mercy kept us from having any water damage to the house.  We did move everyone up to the guest house to keep us safe as the water rose.  


We lost power early on so we hung out by lanterns.

Early on, before the water rose and we had to evacuate upstairs we heard a lot of trees come down.

These are all taken at dawn when Stephen and I ventured downstairs.
The shed had been floating in our yard about 25 feet away from it's foundation.

A lot of tree and giant limbs fell.  Miraculously no damage to our house or cars.





Debris lines from the waves, all of it is sea grass from the ocean.

The trampoline lost it's life in Hurricane Zeta.  It flew to the front yard and got crushed even though we had it anchored with cement blocks.

Lovers Lane was impassable.  We were trapped.  With no electricity and not as much food and water as we would have liked.  

The debris was unbelievable.  It took weeks for the cleanup.

But look!  The sun came out, neighbors and church friend's arrived to help and after days and days and days we removed all the debris.

The trampoline became a debris mover attached to a pickup.

Stephen managed to make us coffee over an open flame, thank God for small miracles.  
Love this guy so much.

Amelia and I were twinning during yard clean up in our Valpo gear.

Not many pictures with this cute guy.

We had friend's bring us meals (most of Ocean Springs got power back day 1 or 2) but our street had extensive damage so it took almost 6 full days.

Thank you Castlemans for coming to help us dig out!!



Friday, October 23, 2020

PPA Vegas Championship

 



Brad and I were so lucky to get to go compete at the PPA Championships in Las Vegas!  The courts were amazing and we loved watching all the pros compete!



Lucy Kovalova and me!
 Lucy is number 2 player in the world and is on Team FILA and she checked in with us throughout the tournament day to see how we were doing.  The pros are all super approachable.

We watched the pros, now it was our turn!
My face shows I was nervous.

First a good luck picture with pro, Shelton Jean Baptiste, otherwise known as the Unicorn.

In between matches I struck up a conversation with Simmone Jardim, the top women's pickleball player in the world.  She and I have a mutual friend, so fun!

Another pro, Callie Smith, who has the best "Come On!" after a good shot! 
 I love her intensity on the court.  In between all these photos, Brad and I were playing lots of pickleball.  And we kept winning!!!!  

This was on the same court the pros play their medal matches on.  We went undefeated and won the gold medal!  

Once again, we were taking the medal stand late into the night!
It was so worth it, we played so hard and all of our drilling, practicing, working out, paid off big time. 


We did it!

This is center court!!!
Lucy Kovalova had just won her gold medal in women's doubles and she let me come down to center court and take our picture together with our gold medals!  So special!
Team FILA!

To top off the night, Simone Jardim and Lucy Kovalova tossed me the winning game ball and they both signed it.  
It was a fabulous weekend and I was so happy to be able to tell Stephen and the kids we were bringing home another gold medal!
Pickleball is so much fun!















Monday, October 19, 2020

Homecoming

Amelia and Ashlegh, friends since they were in 2nd grade.
Well, homecoming is a misnomer.  
Like everything else, Covid stole Homecoming away from these seniors as well.  
Amelia's group of friends decided to do a safe dinner outside and pictures to commemorate what would have been their senior year Homecoming.  

Amelia and Mckenzie, friends since they were four years old.

We are so proud of this beautiful girl!



Emma and Amelia

Some of the mom's set up this beautiful dinner for the girls on the beach so they could be safe and still celebrate.