Sunday, June 24, 2012

Hopeful

We've had the TV on The Weather Channel all day.  We're getting mixed messages from them though.  In one instance they are saying, "Yes, it's going to the panhandle of Florida and will travel North."  In the very next segment, they show it hitting Louisiana and then Southeast Texas getting rain and wind on Friday.  They are so clueless.  It's frustrating when you have plans.

For now, it's a beautiful day in Southeast Texas and the heat index is 105.  We're cleaning the house, doing yard work, washing laundry, and later this evening I'll be going grocery shopping for all the things we will need for the week. 

WOOHOO!!!!  We're going on vacation!!!!

Keeping an Eye on Tropical Storm Debby

Our beach vacation, that we planned in March, may be interrupted by Debby.  UGH!!!  We are staying at a beautiful cabin at Crystal Beach for a week.  We're heading up there tomorrow morning and weren't supposed to come back until next Sunday.  Looks like things may change.
The beautiful beach cabin that I've been dreaming about for nearly 3 1/2 months.


If you look closely at the Southeast portion of Texas.  I put a black circle around where we live.  I put a red semi-circle around Galveston, which is where we're going on vacation. 
Debby is sitting near Florida right now.

This is the projected path of Debby. 

I've lived through 3 hurricanes.  I was 25 when I experiened my first.  Rita hit us in 2005 and caused serious damage.  We evacuated to Dallas and stayed for quiet some time.  When we did return, we had no electricity for over a week and the temperature was well near 100.  Toward the last day without electricity, we had our first cool front come through...it was my sister, Brenna's birthday.
 I was living with my dad at the time and our house flooded.  He lived in his garage for a year while his house was being renovated.  I moved in with Eben because my grandparents had to move in with my mom. 

Hurricane Rita - Category 5

In 2007, we had a sneak attack by Hurricane Humberto.  The meteorologists had no idea what this storm was going to do.  It was a tropical depression heading for the mid-southern region of the Texas coast.  Well, over night it turned into a hurricane and came in right on top of us.  I was traumatized by it.  I slept in the hallway, pretty much on top of Katie, and I kept my tennis shoes on just in case.  I was a wreck the entire night.  I did however get to experience the eye of the storm, which was pretty awesome, until the other side of the storm came through. We could hear tree limbs ripping off the trees and it sounded as if hundred tornadoes were all around us.  Experiencing that in the dark with no electricity is horrifying.  Thank goodness there was no significant damage.  Just a lot of downed trees and no electricity for a few days.

Hurricane Humberto - Category 1

In 2008, we were hit by Hurricane Ike.  My mom's house had 3 1/2 to 4 feet of water in it.  My childhood home had to be demolished.  The apartment I was living in at the time had the roof ripped off of it.  I had just purchased new furniture a month before and it all had to be replaced.

Hurricane Ike - Category 4

To think that I'm going to have to sit through 80 mile an hour winds freaks me out, to say the least.  I'm already starting to panic and the fact that we'll only get 2 days out of our vacation kind of makes me sick.  We NEVER get storms this early in the season.  We usually start preparing for them in late August and stay on the watch until the middle of October.

Ugh!  I'm so depressed!!!!


Just Another Katieism

Katie came in & asked for her rain boots. I told her that I gave them away because they were too small. She said, "Did you bring them to Nice William?". Confused, I asked, "Who is Nice William?"  She said,"Not who, momma. It's a place. The place you bring bags of stuff to when you don't want them anymore. You gave a bunch of my toys to Nice William."
 
She was talking about Good Will.
 
HILARIOUS!!!!
 

June Update - Busy, Busy, Busy

We've been very busy lately.  Not that we've really been doing much of anything, but preparing for vacation on top of Father's Day and other miscellaneous adventures has kept me away from the computer lately.  I'm sure my husband and kiddos are happy about that.  Time for a recap of what's been going on around the Louvier home.

I'm loving this picture.  It cracks me up.  This is Katie after we had a discussion about her fake smile that she gives me when I pull the camera out.  Now this is a real smile. 

Now this is my sweet Katie.  Posing pretty for momma.  This NEVER happens.
Kinsley got to go to the beach with Maw Maw and Paw Paw for the day with her other little cousins.  I swear my mother is gluten for punishment when she decides to take on 2 two year olds and a very rambunctious 1 year old.  They all had a great time though and were on their very best behavior.

All three of them on the way to the beach.  Those carseats were crammed into that Honda Accord.  Kinsley's carseat was actually way too big, so Maw Maw had to borrow one from Aunt B for Kinsley to sit in.  I now know that it is possible for 3 carseats to fit in the back of a small car. 

This is just too stinkin' ca-ute!!!!

Kinsley and Lilly with Maw Maw in the water.  For those of you that are used to crystal blue waters on the East Coast, this is what the water from West of the Mississippi looks like.  Dirty, dirty, dirty, but we're used to it and love to be down at the beach.

Maw Maw and Paw Paw wore them out.
While Kinsley was at the beach.  I decided to give my sister, Brenna, a break from motherhood for the day.  Brendon and Breanna were with their MiMi, Chloe was with Maw Maw, Lindsey was - well, not really sure where she was, but she's 15...she comes and goes, and Journey was with Nanny (me :).  We snuggled a lot.

She thinks that Nanny is super comfy.  She always falls asleep on me.
When Maw Maw brought Kinsley home, Chloe got to stay with us.
Brenna picked them the girls up at 11:00.  I was wiped out.

Father's Day was June 17th.  We had a lazy Sunday.  Eben barbequed some things on the grill.  Then later that evening we went to my sister's mother-in-law's house, which is directly behind my mom's house, for steaks.  It was a very relaxing Father's Day.

The girls got to play in the water all evening.  The weather was unusally cool (85ish) for June.  We got to spend all evening outside.  Unfortunately, I didn't get any pictures of the girls with daddy. 

Friday, June 22nd, my sister, Amy, took Katie and Kinsely for the night.  Eben and I went to see Miranda Lambert.  I LOVE HER!!!!  I really love The Pistol Annies.  They are my fav.  2 of my oldest friends were there.  They sat closer than we did.  I will never buy floor tickets again, unless I'm on the front row.  Everyone stood as soon as she came out and didn't sit back down once.  I couldn't see anything.  I even had a hard time seeing the teletrons.  The pictures we took turned out horribly because of the crazy lighting they had going on, but I did get some of my friend's pictures from her view from the front row.

Lauren (Nikki's little sister), Brandy, Nikki, and me.  I love these girls.

Me and Eben enjoying our time together at the concert.

This is the best picture we got from the concert.
This is the picture a friend of mine took from the front row.  JEALOUS!!!
The Pistol Annies singing Hell on Heels.
Saturday morning I had to pick the girls up from my sister's house.  We then had to rush home and get dressed for my cousin's baby shower.  She's having her first child in August. 
I can't wait to meet Mr. Jaxson.

That's been our June 2012.  Something else that I did this past week was read.  I did A LOT of reading.  I'm almost ashamed to tell what books I've read.  I'll let the graphic tell you.  I read all 3 books this week.  My poor kids were soooooo neglected.
Yes, I will be going to see Magic Mike even if I have to go by myself.  I LOVE me some Channing Tatum.  HOT, HOT, HOT.  I would love to see him as Christian Grey in the Fifty Shades of Grey movie.

Last, but not least, when we got home yesterday, I was taking the girls out of the car when I looked down at my feet and saw this HUGE creature near my foot.  Thank goodness it was dead.
I've never seen anything like it.
I had to find out what it is.  It's a cicada killer.  Look at the stinger on that thing!


Thursday, June 14, 2012

Thankful Thursday

Today was a very important day for my hubs.  He is the GM of a local cemetary.  He designed and had made a Veterans Memorial.  He is so proud of it and we are so proud of him.  He joined forces with the American Legion to have a dedication for the memorial, which was sheduled today. 

The weather didn't seem to want to cooperate with us, but God is always in control.  It never rained and no one was struck by lightening.  The funnel cloud that was reported was over 10 miles away from us, so we were doing pretty good.  In fact, it was like the sun was right over us, shining down on us during the ceremony with huge dark blue clouds lingering in the background.  It really made for some pretty pictures.  The fact that the wind was blowing, made it even better because we were all pretty sweaty out there. 

Here are a few pictures that I took during the ceremony.

Kinsley thought this guy was pretty interesting.  She must like Navy men....LOL.

Katie asked what the headstones were for.  She said, "Are they to keep them in the ground? Is God in there?"  She was pretty fascinated by it all.

I love this picture.  Kinsley's allergies have been acting up again. 
She was sneezing and coughing the entire time.

The Color Guard with the big bad storm in front of them.
They actually did the Three-Volley Salute.  Scared me and the girls half to death.  I didn't even think they'd really shoot the guns, but they did.  Kinsley started screaming.  It was a little comical.
This fine man played Taps.  It was awesome.

Eben being presented the United States flag.  He was so proud and we're so proud of him.

Old Glory flying in the breeze.
Eben being interviewed by Fox 4 News. 

After spending some time with Daddy after the dedication, we left before the weather got worse.  One of our Bucket List items includes eating at Rao's Bakery for lunch and a dessert.  That will never happen again.  I almost fell over when I received my bill.  We spent $30 on 3 chicken salad sandwiches that included chips, 1 chocolate milk, 1 bottle of water, and one small fruit bowl.

Katie has got to make a silly face everytime I pick up the camera.
We sat near the water fountain and they made a wish with nickels.  I didn't have any pennies.  Did you know that Canada has stopped the production of their pennies?  They cost more to make than they are worth.
I'm loving this picture.  I may have to frame this one.
After we let our food go down, we each picked out a dessert.  Didn't I mention earlier that my diet had been thrown out the window the day before?  Well, it carried over into today.
Katie likes anything chocolate.

Kinsley likes anything strawberry. 
Neither of them finished anything they ate, so they are having Rao's leftovers for dinner tonight. 
I truly can't eat anything else, especially since I topped off lunch with:

a fruit tart!

This was them picking out what they wanted.  Doesn't this look like a dream????

They have life size statues of the Blues Brothers in the cafe.  They both wanted to go over to see them.  As they got closer, they got scared to get near them.  I was cracking up.  They were both waiting for them to move.  We decided that we would sacrifice Bear (the little pink thing on his leg is Bear). 
Once Bear made it out alive, both girls decided that it was safe to stand near them.  I quickly got a picture and we were out of there.

Now we're home and they are eating apples.  Don't eat the expenisve lunch and dessert momma splurged on you, but eat an apple instead.  I guess the dentist would appreciate that.

Our Long Wednesday

What a day we had yesterday.  Unfortunately I didn't take any pictures of our busy, busy day. 

We started off the morning being a little lazy, or atleast the girls did.  I spent the morning making appointments that I need to get out of the way since I have time in the summer.  I have a check-up Friday, eye exam on Wednesday, and I think I'm going to push my appointmet for the girlie doctor to July...I'm supposed to go Thursday, but I really don't look forward to those visits unless I'm pregnant. 

Then it was time to get dressed for our dentist appointment. Our appointment was at 1:00 and we had a 20 minute drive to get there.  I needed to make a few more stops along the way, so we left at 11:15.  We made it to the dentist at 12:30.  We had to sit and wait because everyone was at lunch.  There's not a whole lot of places to hang out in the town that our dentist is in, except Wal-Mart, so we just decided to wait at the dentist's office. 

The staff was so incredibly friendly and they were so good with my two girls.  The girls did a great job.  They were so well behaved and we even received a compliment from the girl that was cleaning my teeth.  She was very impressed and so was I. 

After the dentist appointment we met my mom for lunch at Chili's.  My diet went out the window yet again, although I did eat a salad, just not a very healty one and I sipped on a mango margarita (wasn't very tasty).  Afterward, we came home and piled up in Katie's bed to watch a Leap Frog movie.  Then Daddy came home and asked the girls to go to the grocery store for some eggs and bread.  They jumped up and ran off with him, which gave me some time to pick up the house. 

Guess what Daddy gets good little girls that have awesome reports from the dentist.  Powdered doughnuts.  Yep...let's just ruin those clean teeth a little, right?  Katie decided to make a mess of it.  What does a 5 year old do with powered doughnuts?  She rubs it all over her face.
When I went to clean up the mess, I found my little Kinsley asleep on the chair...LOL.


What happens to a 2 year old when she falls asleep at 6:30?  She is awake at 5:30 in the morning.  UGH!  Not a happy momma.  I stayed up until 12:30 trying to finish my GT training that I'm working on to be certified as a GT teacher.  I sooooo didn't get enough sleep last night and my little angel was wide awake at 5:30 this morning.  That just shows me that we had an exciting fun-filled day at the dentist.

Wednesday, June 13, 2012

Fun Filled Day from the Bucket List

It was a rainy, yucky day yesterday.  So, in honor of rain day, we pulled a few items from our Bucket List so that I didn't have to hear, "I'm bored," a million times.  We had a BLAST!

Bucket List Item #1:  PJ Day (we really didn't pull this one out, but I didn't feel like getting dressed, so I faked it...shhhh!)

Bucket List Item #2:  Build a fort - It was awesome and cozy, and I soooooo wanted to take a nap in it, until Katie decided to slide off the back of the big chair using the blanket as a slide.  I told her not to do it, but she did it anyway, and guess where she landed....on her bottom.  It wasn't a nice, soft landing either.  It made the house shake.  She hurt her bum, and I had no compassion for her for like the first 30 seconds.  Then I gave her a booboo bear and told her to listen to me when I tell her something.  She got over it quickly and the fort came down.  Yeah, I know...I'm so mean!!!!  I'm told that quite often by Miss Katie herself...oh, and I don't like kids. 


Kinsley was enjoying herself.

Bucket List Item #3:  Picnic lunch in the living room and a movie
So, that diet I'm supposed to be on kind of got thrown out the window during lunch.  I have a thing for tuna and/or chicken salad.  I made tuna salad sandwiches, cutie oranges with grapes and apples, and single serving bags of chips.  I threw our picnic blanket down on the ground and laid it all out.  Woohoo!  We get to eat in the living room!!!  I just knew they were both thinking that.  We watched a movie and ate lunch together.  It was quite lovely, until Kinsley choked on a cutie.  No more fruit for her.

Bucket List Item #4:  Marble Slab in our PJs
After dinner we all took baths and put on fresh PJs....yes, we were in PJs ALL DAY LONG.  It was very liberating.  Then we headed out the door to Marble Slab.  I had already thrown my diet out the window because of the tuna salad, so I ate the biggest bowl of coffee ice cream with a dipped cone bowl thingie with Heath Bar crumbled all over it.  It was heavenly.  They girls loved it, but didn't finish it all.  I was so tempted to finish them both off, but I had a little bit of self discipline left from the day. 

Daddy and his girls!


My little Smurf.

We had dentist appointments and errands to run today, so we didn't get to do anything from the Bucket List.  Tomorrow is going to be a little crazy too, but we should have time to do at least one thing.  We shall see!