Dancing with the Stars and Brinley

Brinley has become obsessed with watching Dancing with the Stars. I have never seen an episode until this year when I accidentally stopped on the station when getting up to answer the phone. Brinley LOVED it from the second she started watching it! Now every Monday night she watches and imitates each move the dancers do. It is quite funny to watch. I guess we will have to sign her up for dance next fall! Sorry for the shaky cell phone video, but I still haven't figured out how to get our camera videos small enough to put on here!

Pumpkins, rain and family from Switzerland

We have been very busy this week with all sorts of fall festivities. We started out the week by going to our church bazaar. Even though it was very humid and did not feel like fall at all, we enjoyed ourselves. Brinley especially loved the big blow up slide. She climbed her way to the top and slid down for about 30 minutes. She kept telling the girl, "no help" as she was trying to help her climb up. She is a little monkey and got her way up to the very top, even as 3 year olds were needing help getting up there!
Wednesday, my sister in law, Vickie, and nephew, Wyatt came into town for a visit. They are currently living in Switzerland but will be moving back to the US next year. Brinley and Wyatt were born only 2 days apart, although you can't tell since he is 2 inches taller than her and outweighs her by 10 pounds (BTW, she is older!!) We started the day by heading out to a pumpkin farm and animal ranch, but torrential downpours stopped us right as we got there. Instead, we headed to the new outlet mall they opened right by the ranch. It wasn't as much for the kids, but we enjoyed it! The kids had a great time playing on their playground and running through the stores chasing each other.

Since Thursday was a rainy day as well, Vickie and Wyatt came over and the cousins played at our house. Friday we went and did the hospital tour where I will be having Clayton. My doctor switched hospitals so we will not be having him at the same hospital I had Brinley. After the tour, I realized how good I had it at the other hospital. But I guess that is the difference between a private and regional hospital!


Saturday morning, we went to Chloe's first birthday party. It was a costume party, but Brinley didn't wear her Halloween costume. I decided it would be too hard to clean after cake, ice cream and juice, so instead she wore a precious outfit I bought her when I was in Canton a few weeks ago.
After a nice afternoon nap, we met up with my mother in law, brother in law and nephew Wyatt. We took them to a pumpkin patch right by my house and let them terrorize the place. They ran around picking up pumpkins and chasing each other for an hour!



Sunday for lunch we met up with Jason's family to say goodbye to Vickie and Wyatt. We really enjoyed spending time with them. Brinley and Wyatt had so much fun this trip and really bonded as cousins. Hopefully they will get to make a trip down here this winter so they can play together again!

Good bye my beautiful trees

The arborist finally came out this week to murder...I mean trim our trees from the damage done during hurricane Ike. It was determined that both trees needed to be topped off in order to save them since the "heart" of the trees were damaged. If we didn't do this they would slowly die....kinda dramatic huh?? He did tell me that they should grow new branches in the spring and eventually get back to normal size. So on Tuesday, they got started. It scared me to watch them as one guy climbed all the way to the top with just a rope tied around his waist and saw in hand while another guy held the rope on the ground. I was wondering how this would save him? If he fell, how is the guy on the ground going to stop him from plummeting to his death with just a rope? So I only watched a few minutes and spent the rest of day listening for blood curdling screams...which there weren't. The backyard tree had 50% taken off due to branches being broken all over the place in order to make it even. So now we have no shade and it makes our living room and bedroom much brighter in the morning without that coverage!

before the trimming

after the trimming


After seeing the backyard tree, I asked about just trimming the front instead of topping it. I was almost in tears thinking about my gorgeous tree being reduced to stubs. He said they could trim it to try and raise the canopy and see if that would work. I am very pleased with how it turned out and hopefully the tree will bounce back so we won't have to top it. I wish I had a picture of the tree before the storm because it covered the entire front yard (we never had to water in the summer)

before the trimming
after the trimming

On another note, I am feeling much better and slowly getting my strength back from my kidney infection. I have just realized I am going to have to really slow down these next 10-12 weeks since my body doesn't seem to be able to catch up with me. Brinley has enjoyed having a mom who can't chase her and can tear up the house as much as possible! Here is how she came out of her playroom yesterday.....

24 hour hospital stay

I woke up Saturday morning cramping really badly. Fearing something was wrong with the baby, I called my doctor and she told me to head to the hospital to get on the fetal monitor to make sure I wasn't having contractions. Once we got to the hospital, my lower back was hurting so badly, I could hardly sit up. Thankfully, the baby was fine and I wasn't having contractions. Here comes the fun part, figuring out what was wrong with me... after many hours of sitting, laying, giving blood, two IV attempts and a ultrasound of my kidneys, it turns out I have a severe kidney infection. The doctors decided to keep me overnight so they could monitor me and see if I have stones (which I didn't...thank goodness!)

I must say that pain was very intense and became very nauseous several times due to the pain. I was thankful I had no stones (which I heard hurt worse than giving birth). I got home this afternoon and now have to take it easy this week, drink lots of water and take my antibiotics. The only positive was I got to listen to Clayton's (we FINALLY picked a name) heartbeat, moving and hiccuping for several hours!

Kylie's wedding and visit with the Lipsey's

Well life is somewhat getting back to normal around here. I still find myself surprised to pull up to a store that I need something at and it still be closed due to Ike damage. But for the most part, things are back up and running. Brinley starts back to MDO on Tuesday as do most of the school districts, so I think that will bring the normalcy to our lives again. My poor parents still do not have power and are being told it could be until October 8 until they get it. But they have a generator, small room air conditioner and FEMA delivering them lunch and dinner. (FYI, my brother and I have offered millions of times for them to stay with us, but they keep saying no!!) My mom does come over to my house every few days to do laundry and enjoy the AC and TV. I still haven't gotten the courage to drive past Kemah Boardwalk, our favorite waterfront area to eat and let Brinley play. I have cried just looking at the damage from pictures, so I don't think I could handle it in person!

As promised, here are the pictures from Kylie's wedding and our visit with the Lipseys! We had a great time while we were there. It was so much fun watching Brinley and Meredith play together. Hopefully they will grow up and have as many great memories as Rachel and I did! We look forward to seeing them in November when they come to visit us!

Kylie's wedding was beautiful and held by a creek. The weather was gorgeous and the rain held out long enough for the ceremony to be conducted. Once we got inside for the dinner it started to pour! I wish I could have enjoyed the wedding more, but my nerves were rattled worrying about what was going on at home and dealing with a two year old who had been in an airplane or car for the past two days!

Brinley and Meredith watching TV and eating snacks at the hotel
Kylie and Brett's ceremony by the creek
3 of 4 roommates- Wendi, Kylie and Me...we missed you Binns!
Meredith and Brinley posing on the Razorback

Hurricane Ike Damage

Brinley and I flew home from Arkansas yesterday morning. It was very shocking to see all the damage on the way home from the airport. It was so strange to see all the trees, billboards and freeway signs snapped in half. Brinley fell asleep in the car immediately (I think she was so relieved to see her Daddy and be home) and slept the whole way home. Once we got home, I put her in her bed, opened the window (no power) and she slept for the next three hours even with all the buzz saws going in the neighborhood! Luckily, a cool front has made the weather gorgeous and bearable to stand outside.

I took a look around our house to see the damage. I am most saddened by our front yard tree. It was this massive, full oak tree that covered our entire yard. The middle part snapped in half and is now hanging on the other branches that did survive and is in the shape of a Y. We are hoping to get a tree guy here to see if there is a way to trim it so we can save the tree and not have to cut it down.
Our fence fell down on the front, left side and back (right side is still standing!) Which is making it hard to let Rylee outside to go to the bathroom. We have to go out with her because she thinks she has a huge back yard now!

Many shingles were blown off our roof as well as all the protective gravel. Jason saw no problem until it rained Sunday and it leaked into the attic. He got some aluminum spray to temporarily fix the leak until insurance adjuster takes a look at it.

Our extremely tall backyard is still standing but there are tons of big broken branches just sitting on others waiting to fall. We will have to get someone out to professionally trim this tree because it is so tall. Hopefully no big winds will occur until we get this done.

Our neighbor behind us had the side of their house blown off. You can see into their attic and 2nd floor of their house!
After Brinley woke up from her nap, we headed into Baytown to see my parents house. I almost came to tears when I saw the neighborhood I grew up in. Trees laying in houses, flattened cars from trees, and cranes being used to remove the massive trees, it was so devastating! The back part of their neighborhood is on the bay, so we drove back there and saw houses in utter ruins! One house was completely gutted by the water to the point where you could see through the house to the bay (siding, windows, everything gone!) The contents of the house were in trees and scattered around the front yard. My parents house looked bare without their big backyard trees and they will be without power for a while (they are predicting a month) but are thankful for a house that is standing.

On our way home, I prayed the entire time for us to have power. The closer we got, the more I realized it wasn't happening! I was almost in tears as we drove into our black street. As soon as we drove into our driveway and turned the car off the street lights came on...HALLELUJAH!!! Our power was back and everyone in the neighborhood was cheering...some even set off fireworks! Jason was the happiest, who had been living in the dark for 4 days! After a hot shower, we all went to bed and got a great nights sleep!

I went to the grocery store today to attempt to restock my completely empty fridge and freezer and was excited to see them stocking fresh fruit and meat. So we can have a kinda normal dinner tonight (I was expecting to eat PB&J sandwiches for the next week).

I will post later about Kylie's wedding and our visit with the Lipsey's. but this post is already to long!

Update on Hurricane Ike

All my family survived Hurricane Ike with no injuries. All of our houses are standing. That is the good news. Bad news, our house lost all of our fence, most of our huge tree in the front yard and a leaky roof due to missing shingles. Jason said it was pretty scary listening to the 110 mph wind rip things apart. And he is very glad he boarded up the windows since the wind picked up our storage bench on the patio and blew it across the patio into our window! There is still no power and he is miserable surviving on frozen pizzas (he grilled on his BBQ grill), pickles, slim fast (he says for the nutrients) and ham sandwiches!

My brothers house was fine (which is where the rest of my family was hunkering down). My parents got to drive to Baytown yesterday and see their house. The lost a massive tree in their backyard, which flattened their gazebo, swing set, trampoline, and ripped the electric box off their house. It only missed their house by a foot! So as you can see, we have a lot to clean up. Thankfully, no major damage was done to the houses nor did any flooding occur.

I am sitting here in Arkansas waiting for the airport to open (maybe Tuesday, they are telling me) so I can get home. The wedding was beautiful, I just wished I could have enjoyed it more without worrying about what was going on at home. We are enjoying our time we are spending with the Lipsey's. Brinley and Meredith are playing and staying busy.

I will update with pictures when I get home and we get power, which hopefully will be soon!!!!