And now that I have a few seconds, here are a few pictures I've been saving up. I took these one afternoon when Patrick was at school and the day was beautiful outside. Nathan and I couldn't resist enjoying the pretty day.
Showing posts with label Personal. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Personal. Show all posts
Tuesday, September 16, 2008
Nearly Normal
We made it back home today. The house has power, gas, water, all the amenities. Matt even found things like milk and cheese at our local grocery store. Apparently not very many stores in the area have perishable items like that. We're really living it up, I guess. (Oh, and we have Internet; did you figure that out?) From here we should get back to normal slowly but surely. Matt will be back at work tomorrow, and the day should feel pretty normal. Too bad Patrick can't go back to school on Thursday, though. I'm looking forward to that one thing going back to normal.
And now that I have a few seconds, here are a few pictures I've been saving up. I took these one afternoon when Patrick was at school and the day was beautiful outside. Nathan and I couldn't resist enjoying the pretty day.
And now that I have a few seconds, here are a few pictures I've been saving up. I took these one afternoon when Patrick was at school and the day was beautiful outside. Nathan and I couldn't resist enjoying the pretty day.
Sunday, September 14, 2008
Ike Update...The Last...I Hope
I apologize for the silence for the last few days, but as expected, the power went out. It happened sometime during the night Friday night, when Ike was blowing his hardest. The wind was quite scary. I spent a fairly sleepless night listening for noises out of the ordinary that could signal problems. Then I was awake because of the heat in the house after power went out.
On the bright side, we woke up to much calmer weather Saturday morning. The worst had passed, and by late morning the rain was a mere drizzle and we were able to assess the damage. It was minimal, thank goodness. Our area and neighborhood fared quite well, much better than the scenes you have been seeing on the news.
Personally, we have some roof damage from the winds, but nothing that will leak during rains (this morning's thunderstorm tested that already). I am sure that our roof issues are very low on the priority list for repairs. We also had one small section of fence blow over and some minor damage to our air conditioner. Considering how bad things seem to have gone all over the area, we were very lucky. Even one of our neighbors had a huge section of their roof down to just plywood and already have six different leaks in the roof as a result. Another house in our neighborhood in the progress of being built, just a frame and plumbing, blew over entirely onto the (uninhabited) house next door.
This morning our power attempted to come back on. When Matt went outside to inform our neighbors who were enjoying a breakfast in the relative cool of their porch, he watched as a nearby transformer blew up, shooting sparks and bursting into flames. Coincidentally--or not--our power immediately went down again. That's when we made the decision to try a post-hurricane evacuation. We were tired of living like refugees on peanut butter and jelly and bottled water, unable to even shower and wilting in the heat.
We are now with my parents in Dallas, among many other refugees who got out before the hurricane. We have air conditioning here, as well as cold food and ways to heat food again. It's amazing how much you appreciate such simple comforts after living without them for a few days. Naturally we found out when we were nearly here that power had returned to our neighborhood sometime this afternoon, but we decided we would be better off staying put here until things had returned to a semblance of normal down there, when we could get things like milk at the grocery store again.
The boys are doing about as well as could be expected after the uncertainty of the past few days. They both slept like...well, babies through the hurricane but have had troubles napping every since because of the heat. Any little change from his normal routine, like not turning on his fan at naptime, has thrown Patrick into hysterics. The last hour of the drive today had both boys reaching their melting point, and all Matt and I could do was laugh at the simultaneous tantrums thrown by inconsolable boys in our backseat. What else was there to do?
And now we are just planning to sit tight for a few days. You can be sure we'll be watching the news carefully and talking to people from back home to find out when things in our area are back to normal. It will probably only be a few days for us, not the weeks or months like people who live farther south. I'm sure you will find out shortly after we get home and what we see when we get back there. Hopefully things will seem a little more normal then than they did when we left.
On the bright side, we woke up to much calmer weather Saturday morning. The worst had passed, and by late morning the rain was a mere drizzle and we were able to assess the damage. It was minimal, thank goodness. Our area and neighborhood fared quite well, much better than the scenes you have been seeing on the news.
Personally, we have some roof damage from the winds, but nothing that will leak during rains (this morning's thunderstorm tested that already). I am sure that our roof issues are very low on the priority list for repairs. We also had one small section of fence blow over and some minor damage to our air conditioner. Considering how bad things seem to have gone all over the area, we were very lucky. Even one of our neighbors had a huge section of their roof down to just plywood and already have six different leaks in the roof as a result. Another house in our neighborhood in the progress of being built, just a frame and plumbing, blew over entirely onto the (uninhabited) house next door.
This morning our power attempted to come back on. When Matt went outside to inform our neighbors who were enjoying a breakfast in the relative cool of their porch, he watched as a nearby transformer blew up, shooting sparks and bursting into flames. Coincidentally--or not--our power immediately went down again. That's when we made the decision to try a post-hurricane evacuation. We were tired of living like refugees on peanut butter and jelly and bottled water, unable to even shower and wilting in the heat.
We are now with my parents in Dallas, among many other refugees who got out before the hurricane. We have air conditioning here, as well as cold food and ways to heat food again. It's amazing how much you appreciate such simple comforts after living without them for a few days. Naturally we found out when we were nearly here that power had returned to our neighborhood sometime this afternoon, but we decided we would be better off staying put here until things had returned to a semblance of normal down there, when we could get things like milk at the grocery store again.
The boys are doing about as well as could be expected after the uncertainty of the past few days. They both slept like...well, babies through the hurricane but have had troubles napping every since because of the heat. Any little change from his normal routine, like not turning on his fan at naptime, has thrown Patrick into hysterics. The last hour of the drive today had both boys reaching their melting point, and all Matt and I could do was laugh at the simultaneous tantrums thrown by inconsolable boys in our backseat. What else was there to do?
And now we are just planning to sit tight for a few days. You can be sure we'll be watching the news carefully and talking to people from back home to find out when things in our area are back to normal. It will probably only be a few days for us, not the weeks or months like people who live farther south. I'm sure you will find out shortly after we get home and what we see when we get back there. Hopefully things will seem a little more normal then than they did when we left.
Friday, September 12, 2008
Ike Update 4
We're still not getting rain yet, but the wind seems to be picking up some. Matt and I will probably head to bed soon, and we're praying the weather lets us sleep. The worst will probably hit here in the few hours before dawn. As it is, nothing is too bad here yet. The worst so far are the noisy neighbors who are taking the opportunity to have a hurricane party, complete with copious amounts of alcohol. I'm more worried about them waking up the boys than the weather.
This will probably be the last update tonight. If we have Internet tomorrow, I will update. Most likely we will not, though, so I'll get word to the parents as soon as we have cell service (if it even goes down).
This will probably be the last update tonight. If we have Internet tomorrow, I will update. Most likely we will not, though, so I'll get word to the parents as soon as we have cell service (if it even goes down).
Ike Update 3
There's still nothing exciting to report, but I figured that was a report in itself. It's finally getting pretty cloudy, but it doesn't look like rain yet. The only indications that anything is happening are the constant hurricane updates on the news, the abandoned air of the neighborhood (since everyone is already taking shelter in their houses), and the gusty wind. According to the news, it's about to start raining pretty far south, and the storm surge is already flooding many areas to the south. Fortunately we are out of the storm surge area by a long shot, so any flooding will have to come from rain, which is apparently still several hours out. There's a good chance the worst weather will happen overnight for us. We're in play-it-by-ear mode, so we'll see what ends up happening this evening and tonight. I hope I'll get to update again soon.
Ike Update 2
As of almost 1:00 here, there is still little action. It's getting a little breezy outside, but nothing more than a typical west Texas day. This morning Matt and I made our final preparations for Ike, pulling in everything from our yard. We even had time to take the boys down to the playground for a few minutes to let them run out some energy before being cooped up for the next few days. On our way down there, we saw several of our neighbors also preparing for the storm. It looks like most of our neighborhood has chosen to stick around as well.
We've done just about everything we can to prepare, so all that's left is to wait and pray. I'm still not terribly worried. I'll try to update again in a few hours after it's started raining as long as we still have power and wireless. I fully expect to lose both sometime this evening, and we will probably also lose cell service. Please don't worry if you try to call and can't get through. As soon as we can get on our phones again after an outage, we will call both sets of parents. Depending on how difficult it is to get through, we may task them with passing on the word of how things have gone (I hope you guys are okay with that!).
And now the excitement starts--at least in the next few hours.
We've done just about everything we can to prepare, so all that's left is to wait and pray. I'm still not terribly worried. I'll try to update again in a few hours after it's started raining as long as we still have power and wireless. I fully expect to lose both sometime this evening, and we will probably also lose cell service. Please don't worry if you try to call and can't get through. As soon as we can get on our phones again after an outage, we will call both sets of parents. Depending on how difficult it is to get through, we may task them with passing on the word of how things have gone (I hope you guys are okay with that!).
And now the excitement starts--at least in the next few hours.
Thursday, September 11, 2008
Hurricane Update
Okay, so I'm assuming that most of you have heard about Hurricane Ike. Yes, he looks to be headed straight towards Houston. No, we are not running.
As long as we have power and wireless Internet, I plan to update as often as possible to let you know what is going on here. Right now, it's beautiful, sunny, and hot. There is also an aura of busyness in the area. Everyone is stocking up on water and food, filling up their cars with gas, and beating a path out of town for many. Pretty much everyone on the south and southeast sections of town are taking refuge wherever they can. I've heard from several of my friends over there, and they have found places to stay already.
We are on the far west/northwest side of town, so we are not even in a voluntary evacuation area. It appears that most people around here are staying put and are planning to just weather the storm. Because of the increased traffic from all the evacuees that NEED to get out of here, the roads are pretty much packed already. That's one of the main reasons that Matt and I decided to try our luck here instead of picking our way across Texas to somewhere safer.
We've taken most of the preparations we're going to. Around lunchtime tomorrow we should see the beginnings of the storm, and at that point we'll see just how well we prepared. We're expecting lots of rain and some fairly high winds (although I doubt they're that bad, considering both of our experiences in west Texas). Power will probably go out at least for a little while and possibly for a long while.
At least we know what we're getting into. And it's sad, but part of me is actually excited to go through my first hurricane. I wouldn't feel that way if we were closer to the coast, but this far inland, it may actually be a fun adventure.
And of course, if anything changes and it looks like things will end up worse here, we are ready to leave at a moment's notice, traffic and all. But then, just like Rita three years ago, the hurricane could just be psyching us out and hit somewhere else altogether after all.
Either way, we'd appreciate some prayers sent down this way, for us and for everyone else who is about to be affected by Ike.
As long as we have power and wireless Internet, I plan to update as often as possible to let you know what is going on here. Right now, it's beautiful, sunny, and hot. There is also an aura of busyness in the area. Everyone is stocking up on water and food, filling up their cars with gas, and beating a path out of town for many. Pretty much everyone on the south and southeast sections of town are taking refuge wherever they can. I've heard from several of my friends over there, and they have found places to stay already.
We are on the far west/northwest side of town, so we are not even in a voluntary evacuation area. It appears that most people around here are staying put and are planning to just weather the storm. Because of the increased traffic from all the evacuees that NEED to get out of here, the roads are pretty much packed already. That's one of the main reasons that Matt and I decided to try our luck here instead of picking our way across Texas to somewhere safer.
We've taken most of the preparations we're going to. Around lunchtime tomorrow we should see the beginnings of the storm, and at that point we'll see just how well we prepared. We're expecting lots of rain and some fairly high winds (although I doubt they're that bad, considering both of our experiences in west Texas). Power will probably go out at least for a little while and possibly for a long while.
At least we know what we're getting into. And it's sad, but part of me is actually excited to go through my first hurricane. I wouldn't feel that way if we were closer to the coast, but this far inland, it may actually be a fun adventure.
And of course, if anything changes and it looks like things will end up worse here, we are ready to leave at a moment's notice, traffic and all. But then, just like Rita three years ago, the hurricane could just be psyching us out and hit somewhere else altogether after all.
Either way, we'd appreciate some prayers sent down this way, for us and for everyone else who is about to be affected by Ike.
Friday, May 9, 2008
The Dreaded 29
Yesterday I celebrated the last birthday I will celebrate for a long time...29. From here on out, I guess I just get to celebrate 29 again and again, right? Is that how it works? I finally caught up to my mom's age!
We didn't do too much to celebrate, but I did have several presents and cards to open and Matt is taking me on a shopping spree for new clothes. I've already gotten some stuff, but he doesn't think that's nearly enough yet. Have I mentioned how much I love my husband?
Matt also followed through with a new tradition we started two years ago on my birthday--taking pictures of me with Patrick. This year, though, the photo shoot was much more complicated with two boys to figure in, especially when one of them has trouble sitting still. I'm quite impressed with some of the shots he managed to capture. (By the way, if you want to see last year's go here, and the year before's pictures are here.)
We didn't do too much to celebrate, but I did have several presents and cards to open and Matt is taking me on a shopping spree for new clothes. I've already gotten some stuff, but he doesn't think that's nearly enough yet. Have I mentioned how much I love my husband?
Matt also followed through with a new tradition we started two years ago on my birthday--taking pictures of me with Patrick. This year, though, the photo shoot was much more complicated with two boys to figure in, especially when one of them has trouble sitting still. I'm quite impressed with some of the shots he managed to capture. (By the way, if you want to see last year's go here, and the year before's pictures are here.)
Sunday, May 4, 2008
Fulfilled Expectations
I'll never forget one day when I was a math teacher. As we all gathered in the math department office to eat lunch, several teachers started an intellectual discussion about derivatives, the unit circle, and other, more complicated math issues. They quickly left me behind with their far superior knowledge, but all I could do was start giggling. Unable to see what was so funny about derivatives, they asked me why I was laughing. "Because this is what our students think we must talk about over lunch!"
And ever since then I've noticed occasions in my life when things have happened exactly as people would picture them, as I would picture them. There was the day when I held Patrick for the first time, and looking down at that tiny body looking up at me and feeling the complete awe that I was a mother and this was the child I had waited so long to meet--that was absolutely how I expected to feel (even if none of the rest of the birth was at all as I'd expected). It was the same when the nurses placed a gooey Nathan on my belly moments after his birth, and I felt this surge of love for him, my first words to him being, "I love you, little Nathan."
Then yesterday, I looked over at Patrick having lunch and realized that it was exactly how I expected life with a two-year-old to be.
He even gave me a cheesy grin (get it? he's eating a grilled cheese) to complete the look.
And ever since then I've noticed occasions in my life when things have happened exactly as people would picture them, as I would picture them. There was the day when I held Patrick for the first time, and looking down at that tiny body looking up at me and feeling the complete awe that I was a mother and this was the child I had waited so long to meet--that was absolutely how I expected to feel (even if none of the rest of the birth was at all as I'd expected). It was the same when the nurses placed a gooey Nathan on my belly moments after his birth, and I felt this surge of love for him, my first words to him being, "I love you, little Nathan."
Then yesterday, I looked over at Patrick having lunch and realized that it was exactly how I expected life with a two-year-old to be.
He even gave me a cheesy grin (get it? he's eating a grilled cheese) to complete the look.
Monday, October 15, 2007
Where I've Been
Sorry for my recent absence around here. I'm starting to not want to blog unless I have adorable new pictures to post, and I haven't managed to take any lately. The real problem, though, is that I was hit this weekend with my first breast infection with Nathan. Those of you who have been around here for a long time may remember that this was a real problem with Patrick. It's already been rough with Nathan too. Now that I'm on day three of the infection, it's lasted longer than any I remember with Patrick. I also spiked quite a fever with this one, something that only happened once with Patrick. And that time, it was only a moderate fever; this one was definitely severe. At least I'm on the down side of the illness now and should be back to normal in the next day or two. Hopefully that means I'll be up to taking more pictures and blogging more. Maybe I'll post more of Nathan's newborn pictures that I never got around to posting at the time to tide you over until I have true new pictures.
Monday, October 1, 2007
My First Broken Bone
My doctor confirmed today that I've most likely suffered my first ever broken bone. It seems as though Nathan broke my tailbone during his birth. It's frustrating because there's nothing that can be done to help it heal; I'm just on lots of pain meds to help me cope until it does. Unfortunately, some of the more effective medicine has also been making me sick, so I've been trying to suffer without it. Needless to say, the pain has made taking care of both Patrick and Nathan difficult. Matt has been a huge help, but his boss doesn't seem to like the idea of him avoiding work until I'm all healed up.
So I'm sorry I haven't been keeping up with updates here often enough, and I'm not taking nearly enough pictures to satisfy even myself, much less posting the ones I have. I hope you'll all be understanding as I work toward getting used to taking care of two children on my own during the day and coping with the pain at the same time. Eventually I'll feel better, and life will settle into a decent routine again--and then I'll be able to blog on a more regular basis again.
So I'm sorry I haven't been keeping up with updates here often enough, and I'm not taking nearly enough pictures to satisfy even myself, much less posting the ones I have. I hope you'll all be understanding as I work toward getting used to taking care of two children on my own during the day and coping with the pain at the same time. Eventually I'll feel better, and life will settle into a decent routine again--and then I'll be able to blog on a more regular basis again.
Friday, June 29, 2007
The Ultrasound
I have lots of pictures to post to get caught up, so you can expect several picture posts in the near future. First and foremost, though, I need to show off the newest pictures of Nathan.
If you remember, last weekend we went to Dallas for the sole purpose of getting a make-up ultrasound done. We had the great luck of getting to visit with both sets of grandparents as well as a great-aunt and -uncle (pictures to come). As fun as that was, though, I had the most fun at the ultrasound. Everything looked like it should be exactly as it was last time--same place, same group of people in the room, even the same ultrasound tech--but Nathan looked nothing like he did last time. That creepy E.T.-lookalike had been replaced with a real little baby.
Most notably, you may notice that Nathan's face has filled out considerably. We asked the ultrasound tech about it, sure that it was a common feature of babies his gestational age. It turns out that just like newborns, babies this age can be either scrawny or chubby. Unlike his big brother has always been, Nathan is chubby.
It was neat to watch Nathan keep moving his hands, too. That one hand kept drifting up to his face, and we were able to identify all his fingers on it even. Once it looked like he was sucking on his fingers, and he flicked us off at one point. We also watched as he opened and closed his mouth several times and even blinked. The open eye looked a little creepy, but it's cool to be able to tell that in a sonogram.
It was also neat seeing the peach fuzz on his head when the tech switched back to a normal ultrasound. I can't believe we actually saw his hair--and he has lots of it already!
Oh, and of course it was easy for the tech to verify that Nathan is still a Nathan, if you catch my drift.
If you remember, last weekend we went to Dallas for the sole purpose of getting a make-up ultrasound done. We had the great luck of getting to visit with both sets of grandparents as well as a great-aunt and -uncle (pictures to come). As fun as that was, though, I had the most fun at the ultrasound. Everything looked like it should be exactly as it was last time--same place, same group of people in the room, even the same ultrasound tech--but Nathan looked nothing like he did last time. That creepy E.T.-lookalike had been replaced with a real little baby.
Most notably, you may notice that Nathan's face has filled out considerably. We asked the ultrasound tech about it, sure that it was a common feature of babies his gestational age. It turns out that just like newborns, babies this age can be either scrawny or chubby. Unlike his big brother has always been, Nathan is chubby.
It was neat to watch Nathan keep moving his hands, too. That one hand kept drifting up to his face, and we were able to identify all his fingers on it even. Once it looked like he was sucking on his fingers, and he flicked us off at one point. We also watched as he opened and closed his mouth several times and even blinked. The open eye looked a little creepy, but it's cool to be able to tell that in a sonogram.
It was also neat seeing the peach fuzz on his head when the tech switched back to a normal ultrasound. I can't believe we actually saw his hair--and he has lots of it already!
Oh, and of course it was easy for the tech to verify that Nathan is still a Nathan, if you catch my drift.I was personally surprised at what a bonding experience it turned out to be. I thought that was just one of their corny catch phrases, but it turned out to be true. I suppose there's something that makes me feel closer to this anonymous baby when he's not anonymous anymore, when I've seen his adorable little face, when I know things like whether he has hair and how chubby he is. I also like being able to feel a movement in my belly and not just know that it's Nathan's, but his legs or his head, based on where the jabs happened. This ultrasound was a big step in the process of being emotionally ready for Nathan to arrive. I feel like I'm just about there--but I keep hoping he'll decide to wait quite a while yet, just to be sure he's completely ready.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
