Life Back to Normal

It feels great to be back at home with electricity. We got our electricity back Sunday afternoon. We were over here cleaning up the yard and my mom and I came inside to get some water and she noticed that the fridge light was on. YIPPEEE!!!

I downloaded my pictures and videos of the hurricane...here you go. The video is the back side of the storm. It was worse when it hit during the middle of the night. These pictures are of my parents house and neighborhood. The ones of my house and neighborhood are on my mom's camera and I haven't gotten them downloaded yet.

We're Evacuees

We're at my grandmother's house now. We got here yesterday (Tuesday) afternoon. We left the house at 11:00 AM and didn't get here until about 6:00 PM. It is supposed to be a 4 hour trip, but took us 7 hours...which is still so much better than the 18 hours it took us to get here when we evacuated during Hurricane Rita. It took us an hour to get to Cleveland because of all of the traffic lights being out. I think that we counted about 30 trucks between Dayton and Cleveland that were either tree trimming services or electric companies from tons of other states.

We stopped in Cleveland at Dairy Queen because it was the only place to eat that was open. They were only selling chicken finger baskets or steak finger baskets, we put in our order and sat and waited. It was a little over an hour before we got our food. Once we hit the interstate in Conroe, it was smooth sailing from there. We stopped at Gene's office to visit with him and headed to grandmom's house. We'll be here until we get electricity or mom has to go back to school. Dad and Jeremy stayed home. Jeremy's office didn't lose electricity so he's having to go in this week.

I don't have any pictures of the storm yet because I forgot to bring my adapter to download my pictures. I'll have to either go get another one or wait until we have power at home to put my pictures and videos on the blog. The storm wasn't too bad in Dayton, especially compared to Galveston. We had alot of trees that fell...some on houses and some crossing the roads and in yards. Nothing happened to our house, we just have some yard work to do because the back yard is a mess. Jeremy's parent's house is fine and so is my parent's house. Their next door neighbor had a tree go through a room in their house and the neighbor beside them had a tree hit the roof and cause damage, but it didn't go all of the way through. We were very blessed to have no damage.

Well, I guess that is all of the news. I'll post pictures when I get a chance.

Riding Out Hurricane Ike...yIKEs!

Well, no real hurricane news to report yet. The winds are blowing about 40 mph, but they're not consistent. We should feel more effects later. I think that it's going to hit us in the middle of the night. We have had a few flickers of the lights, but still have electricity as of now...9:45 PM.

Jeremy and I got up at 6:00 AM to finish cleaning up the yard of any possible projectiles. We put everything in the shed that would fit, took the net off of the trampoline, turned Parker's swingset over on it's side and burned the limbs that we had already put in a pile. We left the house about 1:15 PM.

We were going to stay at Mike and Heather's house and have a hurricane party, but called them earlier today and they decided to evacuate. :) Heather being 8 months pregnant, decided last minute that she didn't want to be here through the storm, but mostly she didn't want to be here through the heat after the electricity went out. We're staying over at my parents house in town because we didn't want to be in our mobile home with such high winds.

We had some excitement earlier today. Dad had a big pile of limbs in the side yard and decided to burn it. Because everything was so dry, the flames went pretty high. A few minutes later we see a fire truck driving up...and then another one...and then a cop...and another cop...then a jeep and suburban from the fire department. Dad is spraying the fire with the water hose as they drive up. Apparently someone from the neighborhood saw the fire and called the fire department when all we were doing was burning limbs. It was crazy.

One For The Record Books!

I can't believe it...I have both kids down for a nap at the same time and in their beds. I just don't know what to do with myself...so, this is what having free time is like. Parker was playing computer games, I gave him his 10 minute warning for nap time, 10 minutes passed, we went to his room and picked out a book to read. We read the book, he laid down without a fight and within 5 minutes was asleep. That is a rare occasion. Brooklyn went down for a nap in her bed for the first time. I usually let her sleep in the swing because she sleeps better there. She wasn't sleeping good in the swing so I figured that I might as well try the bed. She cried for a minute or two and konked out. I can actually clean up my living room and dining room without having to be quiet.

It is so hard to believe that it is already September. Halloween, Thanksgiving and Christmas will be right around the corner. I asked Parker the other day what he wanted for Christmas. He said that he wanted a big slide and a bigger stool because the one that he has now wasn't tall enough for him to stand on and reach the top of the entertainment center. Crazy little man. He said a few other things but I can't remember. I'm sure by next year he'll know exactly what he wants.

Parker and I enjoyed the cool weather this morning, it was so nice. There was a little breeze, the sky was a little overcast and it wasn't humid. He played on his swingset and in the sandbox for a little while. Then he ran to the house all of a sudden and said that he was running from the ants. I didn't see any, maybe he was just using his imagination...who knows.

Brooklyn is getting to where she doesn't like to be by herself for any amount of time...she loves attention. Parker is always trying to entertain her and in her face. Brooklyn and I play for awhile and then I lay her down on the floor to play. She is only happy for about 5 minutes now and then she wants someone to entertain her. Parker tries to entertain her when she cries and if it doesn't work he comes and tells me that she is crying for me. He tells me what he thinks that she is saying, mom said that I was that way with Gene when we were little. Of course with us, I would always tell her that Gene was saying things like he wanted a cookie...because then if he got one, I would too. :)

I am still enjoying being at home. A few of my friends from work said that they were stay at home moms and didn't like it as much as they thought that they would and wanted to go back to work. I really didn't think that would happen with me. Of course, there have been a few days that by the time that Jeremy gets home I feel like I can't handle another minute! Me staying at home has helped me to put my priorities in order, I have more time with the kids, but make more time to be with Jeremy now. I didn't realize that I had taken so much of my time away from him and focused that time on Parker. I use my time more wisely now...of course I feel like I have so much more time now to get everything done.

Well, I better take advantage of the rest of nap time and get some stuff done around the house.

A Fun Long Weekend

We enjoyed our long weekend, we didn't do anything Friday night, but made up for it the rest of the weekend. Saturday morning we went to Aaron and Justin Walters' Open House. We stayed there until about 2:00 PM. We had already seen their new house, but not all decorated. It looked very nice, they really seem to be enjoying it! Parker got in the pool but stayed on the steps...except for that one time. :) He reached out to get a flower that was floating in the pool and slipped and couldn't get his head back above water. Jeremy VERY quickly went in after him. Parker got over being scared pretty quick and was playing on the steps again.

Jeremy and Heather came over Saturday evening. JJ (which is what he goes by when him and his cousin are around each other...less confusion) grilled ribs...which were very good...and we just sat around and talked and they wanted to check out Wii Fit.

Sunday, Heather and Mike came over with Paige and Carson and the kids played with every toy in the house I'm pretty sure and we ate and started playing cards. We put a few movies on for the kids, they sat still for the most part and we played a few more card games.

We went to my parents house yesterday for Labor Day and dad grilled chicken, sausage and a few other things. Parker enjoyed playing over there for several hours. He doesn't go over there as much now that mom is back in school and I'm staying at home with the kids. We got home about 6:00 so I put Parker in the tub to play while I bathed Brooklyn in her little tub beside him. I got Brooklyn out, handed her to Jeremy and finished giving Parker a bath. He was squirting his water gun (or gunner as he calls it) and it was getting me wet. I told him to stop and he didn't so I popped him. He looked at me, very serious, and said...that wasn't a real pop. I popped him harder and asked him if that was a real pop. He looked at me and said no, so I started to pop him again and he quickly changed his answer to yes. I told Jeremy about that last night and he was cracking up. Parker is so crazy.

This morning I was changing Brooklyn's diaper and I had to go to the bathroom so I asked Parker to watch her. He does really good with her. As soon as I got in the bathroom I asked Parker if he was still watching her. He said that he had lost her...you lost her? He says, just kidding mommy, I'm teasing you. Oh my goodness, that boy acts just like his daddy...it's scary.

I finally downloaded the pictures from when we went to Gene's so here are some of the kids there and some of his house.