Please cover little Carter with your prayers today. He is 6 months old and is scheduled to have heart surgery this morning. His surgery has already been delayed a week and his parents were just informed that the surgeon is currently in surgery performing a lung transplant. Please pray that the new delay is a short one and that they will be able to go ahead with the surgery today. Also pray for peace and comfort for his parents and family during his surgery and that the doctors will be God's hands healing him. Thank you!

Carter's surgery is now scheduled for Tuesday morning. Aww, he got an extra day of prayers!

Once again I have become a slacking blogger. So here's the week in review:

On Tuesday morning, Katie left her sweater in my classroom. I saw her around 10:30 on the playground and asked her if she wanted me to go put it in her cubby. She looked at me and said, "Yes, you can go right now, I'll watch your kids." Thanks darling, but I think I might get fired if I allowed you to do that. What a sweetie though.

On Wednesday, I finally took Tucker to the vet. It's been a year which doesn't seem that long, but he's supposed to go every 6 months so I felt guilty that I had waited so long. And if you recall when I started this blog, we had a little flea problem. I thought we had eradicated the problem and the kitties have been inside since then, but in the last month our house has been overrun. Derek went ahead and flea bombed the entire house on Tuesday so that we could try to get this under control once again. We thought Tucker was having some arthritis or some kind of kidney pain or back pain because he wouldn't let us pet his back. He would wince in pain if we tried to touch him. So I was expecting to get some horrific news this week about his health. Oh no, all of his lab work came back normal, he's in good health besides being overweight (like the rest of us). Apparently his pain is caused by the flea infestation all over his skin. He was put on two medications, one oral and one topical to try to get it under control. He spent the next 12 hours laying in my bathroom sink which I thought might be attributed to the oral medication, but the vet just said, "that's odd." So I deducted that it is easier for him to reach his back when he's all curled up in my sink. His back is looking much better and we haven't even gotten the topical prescription yet. Hopefully that will be here on Monday. In addition to his flea issues, he has been urinating inappropriately (the vet's phrase) all over the house. Since his labs came back normal, she thinks that he may have a behavior issue. Tucker? Of course he has a behavior issue! So now we have a cat pheromone plug-in in the wall and a new litter box with a new type of litter that is supposed to encourage him to stop the inappropriate urination. And if it doesn't work, he may need some kitty paxil. Why does that not surprise me? And so far the pheromone plug-in I think has encouraged him to stop going in my study, but it seems that he has just moved to the carpet right in front of the litter box rather than in the litter box. And if it wasn't enough that my house has this lovely odor throughout it, he decided to inappropriatly urinate in his cat carrier while we were driving to the vet which means that now the passenger seat of my car reeks. Yet, I still love my cat.

On Friday, while I was folding laundry I heard Owey climb into the litter box. And wouldn't you know she completely missed and peed all over the wall. What is going on???

Katie had her first soccer game today. She still doesn't seem to get the game, although she said she had fun. Then later she told us that she was so hot and just wanted a drink but she couldn't leave her goal. So I guess she gets part of the game. Kyle, on the other hand, is so ready to be on the team that we had to spend the majority of the game keeping him off of the field. "I just want to play soccer!" Poor thing has to wait a whole year! It's so nice of Coach Tim and Coach Jeff to allow him to invade their practices though. But he doesn't understand why he can play with them during practice and not during the game. It's quite frustrating to him. Sadly the YMCA is still closed (they haven't had power all week)even though we were able to play our games today. I figured I'd take him into Child Watch since I was having so much trouble keeping him off the field, but the building was all locked up.

I still have friends around here that are without power. We were very blessed to get our power back the Wednesday after the storm. I know I never wrote the "stories" that I was going to tell, but I think that week just took it out of me. There were so many people who were affected so much more than us and it felt selfish to even complain at all. I just pray that the power is restored soon.

Hello all! I am happy to report that we are all fine after Hurricane Ike. We have had quite a weekend and I have many pictures to put on here at a later date. We had no damage to our home, but we did lose some trees. There was quite a bit of damage in our neighborhood, but no one had severe damage to their homes. However, I do have a friend very close to our neighborhood who had a tree come through her study. And her mother-in-law who lives in another close neighborhood had a tree split the main beam in her house. Scary!

We maintained power until about 6:15am on Saturday morning and by 7:30 Derek was watching a tree fall in the backyard as I shooed the children back into the closet. The power is still off, but thankfully a cold front came through on Sunday so it was a very pleasant day today. The rumor is that our water would be turned off since all water north of The Woodlands is contaminated.

We fled the area this afternoon and headed to College Station to get some a/c and some rest. We've been working hard to clean up our yard as well as several of our neighbors. It's definitely been a team effort.

So for now I just wanted to let everyone know that we are fine. I have many stories to tell, but I'm just too tired to bother at this point. Plus once the pictures get on here, they will tell most of the story!

The winds have started to pick up and we're about 3-4 hours away from the heavy stuff yet. But, we've heard through the grapevine (blackberry) that Magnolia has lost power. That is fairly close to us, so I'm going to go ahead and turn this baby off. But before we go, I had to share the two pictures I just took. What a beautiful sunset!

Kyle started singing this while sitting on the couch after bathtime. Thank you Guitar Hero!

before the storm. Today has been relatively uneventful. I did stock up on hurricane survival foods (donuts and coke) this morning. Granted, they are almost gone and not a drop of rain has fallen. We spent the morning finishing up the garage. Both cars fit and I can even get out of the car and walk out of the garage! Usually they are so packed in there that I have to squeeze myself between the two.


We also cleaned out the Fort (closet) and put Katie's full-size mattress in there for us to sleep on tonight. And there is still room for all of our other necessities (books, toys, stuffed animals, and a picture of Katie and her cousin Meredith, all the important stuff!). The kids are really excited about sleeping in there tonight - I hope they are still excited when the power's off and the wind is howling!!!

We decided to take inventory of everything, so Derek went around the house photographing various items that probably aren't really worth all the much. Kyle thought he needed to get in the photos which is important since he's worth more than all of the stuff!


But here's the backyard "before the storm." You can see that pretty much everything has been removed. When Kyle saw the playset this morning he said, "Oh no Mommy! We lost our swings!"

Hopefully the yard won't look too much different when I take the "after the storm" photo.

I've been watching tv all day and the pictures from Galveston are just incredible considering the storm technically hasn't arrived yet. It has just recently started raining there, but check out some of these photos: ABC 13 Slideshow

More updates to come...

What is it about a storm that makes me sit in front of the television for HOURS?!?! Seriously I have not watched this much tv combined over the past 3 months.

Besides the fact that it took me almost an hour and a half to get home today (15 miles) and I didn't even go near the freeway, everything else is pretty much normal. I guess not exactly normal, my backyard looks so desolate. Derek spent the afternoon securing everything which means he dragged it all to the garage. I spent the rest of the afternoon sharpening my tetris skills (he told me those hours of playing tetris in college when I should have been studying paid off) trying to get everything packed into the garage so that we could also fit 2 cars in it. So now the garage is housing two sandboxes, a playhouse, an airplane, a picnic table, a hammock stand and hammock. I should have taken a picture - one of the sandboxes is hanging on the wall and the other is bungee corded to some shelves. Might have to do that tomorrow.

But what I really got on here to say was that I was checking out Storm Pulse to see how things are progressing (my assistant teacher introduced me to this site this morning and we were checking it all day). And I noticed that there is the possibility for a Hurricane Kyle this year! How appropriate! Not that I'm wishing another hurricane would churn up and strike, but I thought that was an appropriate name for the season of life that our little guy is in. It's like a hurricane around here on most days!

Anyway, we decided to stay put this weekend. We are planning to camp out in our closet which luckily is big enough for our entire family and the cats. But, I will have to clear it out in the morning which may take a while. At least I might get it a bit organized in the process!

This afternoon while I was running errands, I happened to notice several new visitors to the area. I dropped my groceries at home, grabbed the camera and headed back to the pond. Check out our new feathered friends!



I obviously scared them away. Aren't they beautiful?

I picked Kyle up from school while he was still napping. I gathered his things and then went over to wake him up. As I rubbed his little back, he opens his eyes, sits up and says, "I don't see my Mommy [pause and looks at me]Are you my Mommy?" Obviously he was still asleep! That was very strange to hear come out of his little mouth.

So then his teacher is telling me that he had a great day, she loves him, he's such a helper, but oh yea, I had to put him in time out today. [my face drops with the news that my precious little angel who can do absolutely no wrong (ha ha) got in trouble at school]. You know I knew this was coming, I mean who would I be kidding - I had him in class last year, I know how he can get! Turns out that he pushed down a little girl (why oh why could it not be another boy?). Even worse, she was in a younger class than him. Now as I am typing this I am thinking back to him pushing little Joey down all the time last year. Why does he pick on those who are smaller or differently abled? So then his teacher goes on to say that she put him in time out and that it was chaotic all around because another little boy bit someone right before that [thank God Kyle just pushed someone and didn't sink his little chompers into someone else!]. She continues saying that after about 45 seconds, he turns and looks up at her and says with all sincerity, "I'm so sorry Miss Mindy." And her heart melted, she let him get out of time out.

Kyle and I sat in the car after MDO waiting for Katie's school day to finish (he's done at 2:30, she's done at 3). We were able to watch her in P.E. playing some type of game of tag where they were pretending to be octopi. Strange, but they were obviously having fun. I asked Kyle, "did you use soft hands today?" His face drops and he looks at me and says, "no, I touch somebody and they fell down." So then I said, "was that a good choice?" "No, Mommy, I so sorry." The amazing thing is that happened this morning outside on the playground.

This is the first official day of both kids being at school and me being home. I should be doing something like vacuuming or laundry, but here I sit at the computer. It's so quiet and peaceful in here.

Driving to school this morning was not so quiet and peaceful. The kids were fighting over who gets to open the garage door and then who gets to close the garage door. Unfortunately the little fight over that resulted in Mommy getting to close the garage door and the kids losing that privilege for a while. Then Katie asked for the little mirror I have on my rearview mirror. They did a great job taking turns - she kept it for a few minutes and then handed it to Kyle. Then she asked for it back "when we get to the cows" which translates into "when we get on Spring Cypress". I'm not sure what she planned to do with it when we got to the cows, but it seemed like a reasonable request since that was still about 5 minutes away. I let Kyle know that he would have a few more minutes with the mirror and then he needed to share it with Katie again. His response? Let me throw it into the back of the car because if I can't have it, no one can. Typical two-year-old behavior which for some reason shocked me because he usually seems so much older than that. Of course some tears were shed by both parties and after a few minutes we moved to the apologizing stage. Kyle is very good about telling you he's sorry and for what and then asking for forgiveness, however, I have noticed lately that he is just going through the motions and not looking directly at the person he is apologizing to. So, now his apologies go something like this:

Kyle: I'm sorry for throwing the mirror in the back of the car.
Katie: He's not looking at me!
Mom: Kyle you need to look her in the eyes when you speak to her.
Kyle: [glances at Katie and turns head] I sorry for..
Katie: He's not looking at me!
Mom: Kyle, look at Katie's face.
Kyle: [turns head toward Katie but won't look at her] I sorry for throwing
Katie: You have to look at me!
Mom: Katie please don't yell at him while he's trying to apologize. Kyle, look at her while you apologize.
Kyle: [looks at Katie] Isorryforthrowingthemirror.Iforgiveyou. [as fast and as quietly as he can get it out]
Katie: No you don't forgive me, you have to ask! And I don't forgive you.
Mom: Kyle, sometimes the person that you hurt is not ready to forgive you when you ask for forgiveness, but you have done all that you can at this point.
Kyle: Katie's still mad, but I said I sorry.
His little mind could not wrap itself around the fact that she was still upset. I'm hoping that he got over it, but when I left him at school he was obviously still upset and threw a fit as I tried to leave him (which is not normal at all). The other thought in my mind is please don't let him be getting sick!!!

So for now I will enjoy my peace and quiet for it is sure to end around 3pm today when I go back to pick them up from school. Maybe I need to borrow Derek's noise cancelling headphones for the drives from now on...

So, I took the little tag off of the corner because I didn't think it went well with my new background, but I figure I better give credit where credit is due. This layout is from The Cutest Blog on the Block I have a couple of friends and fellow bloggers who grabbed some of these before I did, but I just loved them so I had to follow suit.

We are off to soccer even though it's thundering. Hopefully it's not raining on the other side of The Woodlands...

So much for our trip across town (ha ha). It poured on the way there and we were rained out. Katie was happy. I don't think she wanted to practice today. She didn't even want to change out of her school clothes, wear her shinguards or bother with cleats. Guess she knew...

Yesterday Kyle told me, "I a big boy Mommy!" which translates into Kyle used the potty at school! Hooray!

And then this morning, I decided to just leave his pull-up off for a while and he tried to go but couldn't. Then ten minutes later he came to me and said, "I guess I need to go potty." And he did!

Maybe we'll be done with this by Christmas...

Yes, it's just Mother's Day Out, but you know it's "school" to me. Kyle had a fantastic first day. His teacher was so impressed with his language skills (as his mom, I think he's very smart but I usually think it's just because I'm his mom, so it's nice to hear it from someone who just met him) and said that he had a great day. I loved that I was able to just pop over to the other hallway and peek in the window to check on him. He was "cooking" as usual. That's his favorite thing to do. He was so excited this morning and said to me, "I want to go to school today Mommy." I replied, "you are going to school today Kyle!" And he looked at me and said, "Thank you so much Mommy." Awww, I love him!


And yes, I did end up working today. I had heard that the MWF class was not as easy as the Tues/Thurs class, but really I didn't think it was all that much different. We were definitely busier since there are 17 as opposed to 10 children and 13 in the afternoon instead of just 6. But, all in all, we had a good day. There weren't any major behavior issues. I had all but one fall asleep for naptime. And they were all great for me in chapel. I think the main difference is that you have to have a much more watchful eye for that class because of the social dynamics. It could also be that they were good for me because half of them didn't know me and weren't comfortable yet.

Unfortunately now I have blisters on my toes because my feet are still not used to wearing real shoes. I guess I shouldn't have worn flipflops for 2 years and then all of a sudden started wearing flats and loafers. I have no idea what I am going to wear to work tomorrow either. I haven't built up my work wardrobe that much since I was only expecting to work 2 days a week...not to mention that most of my clothes are a little bit snug right now. However, that is changing because I have finally started to move my weight in the opposite direction and am now on a losing track. Hooray!

Katie's doing great in school. Tonight I asked her what she learned in spanish today. She couldn't recall right away, so I started saying, "Hola! Me llama Katie." And she said, "no, we had to say that last week for a piece of chocolate." [grin] Then she looked at me and said, "buenos dias!" No mention of chocolate for that phrase though.

I was so sad today when I picked Kyle up from Amy's house. He has spent so much time over there in the past few months that it was almost like packing up and leaving today. I only took 2 essentials...the potty seat and the car seat, but it was still bittersweet. He starts MDO tomorrow and she will be in school on the days that he is at home with me, so it may be a while before he gets to spend time over there. She's probably happy to have the space back in her bathroom and her car though! We've jokingly named her house "Miss Amy's House of Fun" which it truly is. I'm so thankful to have a great friend who loves my little guy as much as I do. She even happily welcomed him into her home at 6:45am this morning. Thanks Miss Amy!

I have a great class at school this year. It's a little different in that I am sharing a class with another teacher. She works on MWF and I work on Tues/Thurs, but the kids I have all go 5 days a week so they have both of us. In my opinion, I have the better deal since she has 17 kids and I only have 10 (6 in the afternoons). I might get to find that out firsthand tomorrow as my co-teacher has been home sick. I'm not too excited about possibly being called in, but my boss warned me today that she might be calilng so I have mentally prepared myself to be ready for work (real work!) tomorrow. I'm a bit sad because it's Kyle's first day and I had already made plans. But, I will pitch in when needed...at least for now since I don't know what I'm getting myself into!