This one was too funny to pass up putting online. Cheers!
Friday, September 26, 2008
Wednesday, September 24, 2008
Ike Cleanup
Most of these were at our house (and our neighbor's). The Moses family was so sweet and came to help us cleanup.
We are so grateful. We really received very little damage at all (especially when you consider Galveston, just 30 miles a way.) We had just a little water in our front window (about 8 feet of carpet got wet), two fences down, and a LOT of tree debris in our back yard. I went out and started working on it the day after we got back. I worked for about 3 hours and barely made a dent. I was starting to get discouraged... it was going to take me WEEKS/ months to clean it all up. Especially with Ian tagging along, I was never going to get it done. BLess his heart, he was SO cute out there dragging branches out to the curb. I'm sure I have pictures of that too. It really lightened my load to have him so joyfully helping. Then my best friend, Janine and her husband Kyle and the kids came over. Within 2-3 hours it was all gone!!! I was SO very relieved! I am so grateful for their help!!!! I can't tell you what the help meant to me as the task was truly insurmountable without it.
We are so grateful. We really received very little damage at all (especially when you consider Galveston, just 30 miles a way.) We had just a little water in our front window (about 8 feet of carpet got wet), two fences down, and a LOT of tree debris in our back yard. I went out and started working on it the day after we got back. I worked for about 3 hours and barely made a dent. I was starting to get discouraged... it was going to take me WEEKS/ months to clean it all up. Especially with Ian tagging along, I was never going to get it done. BLess his heart, he was SO cute out there dragging branches out to the curb. I'm sure I have pictures of that too. It really lightened my load to have him so joyfully helping. Then my best friend, Janine and her husband Kyle and the kids came over. Within 2-3 hours it was all gone!!! I was SO very relieved! I am so grateful for their help!!!! I can't tell you what the help meant to me as the task was truly insurmountable without it.
Ike's Mess
I just wanted to get some pictures up so everyone could see what our house and area looked like after Ike.
Monday, September 15, 2008
Ike evacuation
Well, The Wednesday morning before Ike hit, Ike was a level 3 hurricane, but it was headed to Corpus Christi. Corpus is 5 hours from here so there was no need to evacuate. I went to work that day and then by that evening, it was predicted to be a level 4 and headed just south of Galveston.
Alot of our friends sat around contemplating whether to evacuate or not. Our family plan that states that if there is a hurricane that is a level 3 or higher and headed towards Houston/ Galveston, we evacuate. It made our decision easy. We packed that night planning to leave the next morning if predictions didn't change. I called my mom and a few close connections letting them know of our plans. We left the next morning.
We were planning on staying with a close friend in Austin. My mom called my Aunt DiDi and she offered us to stay with her. I can't tell you how grateful we were for her generosity. Her home was comfortable. But more than that she and Aunt Sherry were just genuinely warm to our little boy!!! He can be a little loud, but they just didn't notice. They were nothing but complementary about him and I am grateful. He's right at that age, where it's easy to criticize him for being developmentally exactly what he should be- an active and talkative little boy. We interacted with a couple of people that long evacuation weekend who had never had children and who weren't so accepting. It was challenging for me to not feel frustrated with them for their ridiculous philosophies about children---"Sit down, shut up (don't make noise), don't get dirty, don't touch any thing, and don't ask me play with you." It meant the world to me that they found him to be exactly what he is.... a delightful, happy, active little boy. They really made their home a comfortable and safe place for us and our little one.
In fact, I was REALLY impressed with Ian. He tolerated the whole experience very well. He was really quite a trooper and seemed to enjoy the different people and places he got to be and see in this new world. He had a lot of fun. He clearly had grown from his infant years of absolutely ZERO patience. All he wanted was "food" and "go" and stopping at a stoplight did NOT constitute going. He would scream the entire time until the car started going again. Breast feeding was tough for all of the screaming.. he would back off to take a breath and then scream because the food went away. I enjoyed him then, but am certainly grateful for the increased flexibility and patience. He has developed into quite an adaptable and enjoyable little boy!
Alot of our friends sat around contemplating whether to evacuate or not. Our family plan that states that if there is a hurricane that is a level 3 or higher and headed towards Houston/ Galveston, we evacuate. It made our decision easy. We packed that night planning to leave the next morning if predictions didn't change. I called my mom and a few close connections letting them know of our plans. We left the next morning.
We were planning on staying with a close friend in Austin. My mom called my Aunt DiDi and she offered us to stay with her. I can't tell you how grateful we were for her generosity. Her home was comfortable. But more than that she and Aunt Sherry were just genuinely warm to our little boy!!! He can be a little loud, but they just didn't notice. They were nothing but complementary about him and I am grateful. He's right at that age, where it's easy to criticize him for being developmentally exactly what he should be- an active and talkative little boy. We interacted with a couple of people that long evacuation weekend who had never had children and who weren't so accepting. It was challenging for me to not feel frustrated with them for their ridiculous philosophies about children---"Sit down, shut up (don't make noise), don't get dirty, don't touch any thing, and don't ask me play with you." It meant the world to me that they found him to be exactly what he is.... a delightful, happy, active little boy. They really made their home a comfortable and safe place for us and our little one.
In fact, I was REALLY impressed with Ian. He tolerated the whole experience very well. He was really quite a trooper and seemed to enjoy the different people and places he got to be and see in this new world. He had a lot of fun. He clearly had grown from his infant years of absolutely ZERO patience. All he wanted was "food" and "go" and stopping at a stoplight did NOT constitute going. He would scream the entire time until the car started going again. Breast feeding was tough for all of the screaming.. he would back off to take a breath and then scream because the food went away. I enjoyed him then, but am certainly grateful for the increased flexibility and patience. He has developed into quite an adaptable and enjoyable little boy!
Wednesday, September 10, 2008
Hurricane IKE
Well. It was looking like Ike was headed to Corpus Christi as a level 3, then suddenly this afternoon the models shifted to a category 4 headed north of Corpus, now it's a 3 headed towards us. Our Family's plan is to leave if it is a level 3 or higher and leave before the evacuations become mandatory. Ideally we should leave tonight, but we didn't arrive home to look at the changes until 8:30 tonight (too late to evacuate my little Ian). So tomorrow morning, probably 6am we will check the models again. If it still looks like a 3 or higher headed towards us, then we will leave ASAP. Hopefully that will get us out before the crowds somewhat. We shall see. If not, we will probably utilize our alternate route. None the less, we are packing just in case and it looks like we will likely be leaving in the morning.
Tuesday, September 09, 2008
Dave's birthday and his dreams
Dave just turned 29 today. Last weekend was Dave's birthday weekend. We don't have birthdays in our house, but birthday weekends. (As a direct result of poor birthdays as kids, I'm sure :) Anyway, we had a blast. We had left over Schlitterbaun tickets. Dave LOVES Schlitterbaun. We had an enjoyable and relaxing day. Nothing exciting, just a lot of fun!
So Dave has this dream of owning a company that flies helicopters when he "grows up", 20 or so years from now. He likes helicopters. He knows that most programmers get burnt out by about age 45-50, so why not go ahead and plan a second adventure. I think dreams are important and am completely supportive. So last year I got him Microsoft FlightNavigator for his birthday. He has really enjoyed it. This year I decided it was time for the real thing. I got him a helicopter flight for his birthday.
Ironically, on the way to Schlitterbaun, Dave brought up his helicopter dream again. I just smiled. (He had no idea what was ahead of him.) After Schitterbaun, I asked him if he knew. He still had no idea. He was thrilled when I told him. I don't know that I could have picked anything in the world that he would have been more excited about. It was awesome!
So Dave has this dream of owning a company that flies helicopters when he "grows up", 20 or so years from now. He likes helicopters. He knows that most programmers get burnt out by about age 45-50, so why not go ahead and plan a second adventure. I think dreams are important and am completely supportive. So last year I got him Microsoft FlightNavigator for his birthday. He has really enjoyed it. This year I decided it was time for the real thing. I got him a helicopter flight for his birthday.
Ironically, on the way to Schlitterbaun, Dave brought up his helicopter dream again. I just smiled. (He had no idea what was ahead of him.) After Schitterbaun, I asked him if he knew. He still had no idea. He was thrilled when I told him. I don't know that I could have picked anything in the world that he would have been more excited about. It was awesome!
Sunday, September 07, 2008
School starting
I was in primary for over 6.5 years. Literally, from the first Sunday after I got married until about 4 months ago when I finally got desperate lonely enough that I broke down sobbing in sacrament meeting and they decided to let me out of solitary confinement. I had made one friend in the last 6.5 years, fortunately a good one.
So School has started here and I am thrilled! What this means is all of those moms who I would love to get to know now only have 1-2 kids at home as opposed to 4-7. With a little effort on my behalf, I'm already starting to make friends again and starting to feel like myself again. I miss my personality. I had one once. :)
So School has started here and I am thrilled! What this means is all of those moms who I would love to get to know now only have 1-2 kids at home as opposed to 4-7. With a little effort on my behalf, I'm already starting to make friends again and starting to feel like myself again. I miss my personality. I had one once. :)
Potty training 2
So, I week or so ago, Ian had an accident so he watched me unload all of the contents into the toilet, flush it, and then attempt to rinse the remaining contents in the toilet. I should have known he found it a little too interesting.
So yesterday, I was taking a nap and I hear Dave say, "That it a bad idea." Apparently, Ian had thrown a pair of underware in the toilet. 20 min later, the house gets quiet..... I walk in the bathroom and there are 7 pair of previously clean underwear in the toilet. There wasn't a single stich of water left. The underwear had soaked it all up! We just shook our heads and laughed in total dismay.
So yesterday, I was taking a nap and I hear Dave say, "That it a bad idea." Apparently, Ian had thrown a pair of underware in the toilet. 20 min later, the house gets quiet..... I walk in the bathroom and there are 7 pair of previously clean underwear in the toilet. There wasn't a single stich of water left. The underwear had soaked it all up! We just shook our heads and laughed in total dismay.
Potty Training
Well. We've survived the first couple of weeks of potty training. Wow!!!!! There were a couple of days there when I thought I might croak over. So it took him 2 weeks to progress to 45 min. We were on 15 and then 30 min intervals for quite a while.
So week 2 of potty training, Dave went out of town in Atlanta, setting them up on his software. Ian has always been energetic. He got it from me. But recently, there has been quite a surge in those levels. WoooHooooooo! So on Thursday of week 2, Ian and his new found energy levels practically destroyed the entire house. I don't believe there was a toy in the house anywhere that he didn't play with in between his 30 min potty breaks. But he was doing great on his potty training. So Friday, I decided that I HAD to get him out of the house. So I took him to the children's museum. He had 3 accidents in the first 20 min. I thought I would die.... It was a loose,loose situation. Stay at home and watch your house fall apart or go and destroy all luck of ever potty training your kid. :) He's doing great now, but wow I was a little overwhelmed.
So week 2 of potty training, Dave went out of town in Atlanta, setting them up on his software. Ian has always been energetic. He got it from me. But recently, there has been quite a surge in those levels. WoooHooooooo! So on Thursday of week 2, Ian and his new found energy levels practically destroyed the entire house. I don't believe there was a toy in the house anywhere that he didn't play with in between his 30 min potty breaks. But he was doing great on his potty training. So Friday, I decided that I HAD to get him out of the house. So I took him to the children's museum. He had 3 accidents in the first 20 min. I thought I would die.... It was a loose,loose situation. Stay at home and watch your house fall apart or go and destroy all luck of ever potty training your kid. :) He's doing great now, but wow I was a little overwhelmed.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)