Gullywasher

Earlier this week, the Houston Chronicle printed an article using the word "gullywasher," which is so much fun to say that I've been giggling about it all week.

Officially, Houston has gotten 7.2 inches of rain so far this year. On average the area is at 11.7 inches by now, although a gullywasher to end the week could close the gap.

Little did I know that they weren't kidding around! I ran some errands this morning (including ordering my bridesmaid's (or bridesmatron's?) dress for Jessie's (and Jon's) wedding!) and it was a little dark and drizzly, but nothing major. I came home, we all ate lunch, and then put the girls down for a quick nap before their friend Trevor's birthday party.

It started to rain in earnest---"red rain" according to the satellite images---and the emergency broadcast system kept interrupting things on TV to let us know how bad things were, but they sensationalize the weather a lot around here, and hey, it rains a LOT in Houston, so we weren't too concerned. We got the girls up, put their hair in pigtails, and got ready to go. AND THEN...

Yes, that's right, this is the street in front of our house. WOW!

This is about as high as it got. It rained HARD from about 2:30ish until after 4. Happily, the storm sewers did a good job, at least in terms of not letting the water level rise much past the sidewalk....and once it stopped raining, the street drained very quickly, BUT we missed Trevor's birthday party, which was very sad :( I'm pretty sure that our van would not have made it out of our driveway...

This SUV went by about 20 minutes after the rain stopped, and the water had already receded several inches... and it sits much higher than our van. It (and the other vehicles that crazily made their way down our street) created very big wakes. Like boats. But CARS!

So that's our excitement for the day! And yes, I know that there are no pictures or videos of the girls... I'm sorry! We've had a rough few days... Abby woke up Thursday night VERY upset, which is highly unusual for her, so we brought her to the pediatrician on Friday to learn that she doesn't have an ear infection, which was actually a big relief. She seems to be fine, but kind of on edge and cranky, which hasn't been a lot of fun. She had a mild fever last night (but we're not supposed to call it a fever unless it's over 101, which it wasn't), and she's drooling a lot, so we think it might be new teeth, but we can't feel anything on her gumline. A cranky mystery. SO, long story short, no pictures of cranky babies.

I did get a very happy Easter present from Izzy... she started saying Mama! Hurray! I'll get it on video VERY soon. Also, the girls are learning VERY fast about LOTS of things, including animal sounds (dog, snake, lion, fish, octopus (ala Taryn), and bear), body parts (head, shoulders, knees, and toes, and nose, hair, and ear), and personal niceties ("pleased to meet you," kisses, and hugs). We'll get the camera rolling tomorrow and let you see for yourselves!