Countdown to the big Three-Two...

Well, for the last month I have been setting my alarm for 6:00am, to get up before Chris leaves for work to go running and attempt to lose the last few (actually way more than a few) pounds I have been holding on to since little Gracie was born. Every morning for the last month, I have snoozed right through said alarm, and promised to start tomorrow, that is until Tuesday. I finally got my lazy butt out of bed and made the first steps toward my goal. I have committed to every other day. I am starting out slow and short. And hoping to work up to about 3miles. I know it is no huge feat, but it is alot for this out of shape, lazy mama. I am also considering joining a gym.

I really enjoy working out, but I find it hard to go run with the kids and I am not much of a morning person. This is where all my friends and family come in... I need you guys to make me accountable. I have added a counter below. It is only 5 weeks until the big day. I know that I won't be able to lose all the weight I want by then, but I hope that in 5 weeks I can at least establish a pattern and a habit to get me on my way. I want to fit into my skinny jeans by 2009. Do you think I can do it?

Bubble Babies

We bought a new bottle of Mr. Bubble this weekend and the girls had so much fun taking a bubble bath. I think it might just be Gracie's first time in a bubble bath. She is so mistreated. Anyways, it was so funny watching them playing. Gracie was eating them and Lucy thought is would be great fun to try and swim under them.... Unfortunately, the tub is not nearly big enough. The last one was taken about 1/100th of second before I almost had to jump in and save Gracie from a slippery hug that went to far...

Caught on Film - The last few days...

These are just a few pictures I took before and after Ike... Nothing too amazing! Our street didn't have near as much damage as others. You can see my neighbor lost his fence and tree and across the street they lost the same! Mostly, these are just of the girls outside running off steam!

Don't judge me by the organization of my closet... The girls' hideout from the storm.

Running off steam with Daddy in the backyard before the storm.

Our little hurricane!

The morning after the storm. We got so lucky that we didn't lose our two big trees in the front yard. I was sure we would lose at least one!

Lucy living it up at Nana's house in the A/C watching Noggin.

We met some friends at the park today. We are all going a little stir crazy. We ended up back at our house for an impromptu playgroup, because the park was a zoo. I think all the moms had our same idea!

It is impossible to get a picture of my girls together. They refuse to look the same direction at the same time!

Back to the real world...

Well, we are back on line. We came back home on Monday morning and our power was restored late Monday night. We got cable, phones, and internet back today. I went to HEB and got milk, bread, chicken, and hamburger. We are back to normal. That is except for the huge pile of trash in front of our house. And Lucy is still out of school.

I am still glued to the continuous coverage out of Galveston, Bolivar, and Beaumont. It is amazing the devastation that is just a few miles away. This storm touched every single person in our area, but it is amazing the amount of good will people are passing on. Every place I have been, it seems people are happy. Maybe I am being overly optimistic, but even in the crazy crowded grocery store, people were talking to each other, smiling, even laughing... I know that we were not as hard hit as other areas of Houston, but maybe this is widespread.

One of the biggest hurdles we have had with our new house, is that we haven't felt like we had met many of our neighbors. Well, Ike took care of that. We are now fully introduced to all our neighbors. Monday night, we had a street wide cookout. We had lots of fish that needed to be cooked from our freezer. We invited anyone interested to bring anything they wanted to cook too and we would set up a big buffet. Before we knew it we had 30 people out in our driveway, enjoying the food and lots of fellowship. We made lots of friends and really feel that this is more like home.

It is amazing that even in the midst of such horrible tragedy, God has a plan. And that plan is great!

Waiting on Power...

We ended up leaving home Saturday morning after the storm went through... Chris and I didn't sleep much and were in need of some R&R. We are currently at Chris' parents house enjoying the A/C and watching all the storm news coming out of Houston.

The storm was pretty wild. The wind started to pick up around 6:30pm and by 8:30 it was getting rougher and we lost power. The heavy stuff started about 11pm and lasted until around 6am. We were able to listen to the Channel 2 news cast for most of the night on the radio until the station went off the air. I spent alot of the night in the closet with the sleeping girls, just so I couldn't see what was happening. Chris and Kurt watched the whole thing in the dark through the windows. They said it was amazing how hard the wind can blow. We think the eye must have missed us by just a few miles because we had 12 hours of constant wind and rain...

We were extremely lucky. Our house has minimal damage. We lost a few shingles and have a leak in the family room. Our backdoor leaked pretty bad during the worst part of the storm, but we were able to keep it from ruining anything. Overall, we are very blessed. When we were leaving yesterday, we saw lots of trees down, roofs damaged, and most fences were gone.

Sara and Justin didn't have any damage either, except they may have lost the famous peach tree. They stayed behind with their generator, so they are at least cool.

We are planning to return home tomorrow unless power comes on sooner. We may leave the kids here, so that we can start the clean up process and they can stay cool...

Anyways, I just wanted to let you all know we are fine and thanks for all your thoughts and prayers. I will let you know as things progress!

Storm Update

Well, it is looking like Ike is coming for a visit. We have been up since 7:30 am glued to the coverage. We took the girls to the park this morning and then out to play in the backyard to run off more energy. It is pretty much a normal day except for the impending, huge storm coming for us.

We made beds for the girls in our closet and have all the flashlights and radio batteried up. I was hoping the girls would sleep through most of the storm, but it looks like it might be making landfall a little earlier. I am actually getting more nervous and wondering if I am going to regret our plan to stay. We are pretty sure that we will lose power at some point. I am sure Chris, Kurt, and I will be up all night monitoring the weather and playing Yahtzee!!!

**** Update - 7:00pm
The wind is starting to pick up. It is really cloudy, but the rain hasn't started. Chris is outside with the neighbors taking bets on who loses trees. The girls and I are eating dinner. The power has been flickering off and on, but so far we still have power. I will try and keep updating as long as we have power!

Ike...

Well, it seems that Ike has his eye on our little neck of the woods. We have been watching the news and studying the maps and have decided to "hunker down" here at home and pray for the best! We have our provisions(water, diet coke, and beer) and a plan in place.

The hardest part is the waiting... It seems we have been talking about this storm forever. When Rita followed this same path several years ago, Chris and I sat in traffic for 10 hours to go 12 miles. We ended up turning around and going home. After that, we said we would never evacuate again. Hopefully, that declaration won't come back to bite us in the booty!

Please say an extra prayer for all the people in our area that are facing an uncertain few days.

I only cried twice...

These were the very profound words of my 4 year old on her first day of preschool. She then told me that next time, she would only cry once. And that on the third day, she would cry zero times. It seems she has it all worked out how to wean herself from me and making it through the school day.

She looked so big and grown up this morning on the way out the door. I was so proud that she was excited. Lately, she has been going through a little seperation anxiety and hasn't been looking forward to a new school. We have been talking alot about how much fun it would be... How she would make new friends, do art, learn to read and write, play on the playground. Last night I overheard her telling Gracie about all the the things she would do... Then she said "Sounds like a lot of work to me... I wish I could stay home with you and Mommy..."

But, she did it... She made it through with only crying twice and had a great day. She sang some silly song all the way home and has been practicing all afternoon to sing it for her daddy. She made a friend with a little girl in a brown shirt (it is hard to remember so many names) and ate her whole lunch. She even got a happy heart!

She was trying so hard, not to cry.
While Lucy was at school Gracie and I, cleaned house and played outside. I even convinced her to sit still so I could attempt to fix her crazy hair. Pretty cute if I do say so myself!



I am so glad school is back in session and we can get back to some sort of schedule. Here's to a great year!

HOT, HOT, HOT!

The girls and I braved the heat and humidity, ants and mosquitoes, for an outing to the park last week. I have been really lazy all summer and we just haven't taken advantage of the park behind our house as much as I would have liked. So, we are turning over a new leaf and making outdoor play time a daily requirement again. In Fairfield, we spent just about everyday from 4-6(or 7) outside playing with all our neighbors. In our new neighborhood, we don't have the social circle that we did before, but we have an awesome park and playing field just a minute away. So, as of today, September 2, 2008, I am on a mommy mission to get back outside and enjoy the great outdoors (or at least our little slice of suburbia). The girls love it and it sure does beat the late afternoon blues. Hopefully, my good intentions will outlast the Texas heat!