At the park

Today had one of those moments that all moms dread. As my friend and I sat on the park bench talking, Grace was sliding off to the concrete sidewalk.  She had already done it several times, but somehow she lost her footing this time and face-planted into the sidewalk. It was awful!! She cried so hard! She bumped her head pretty bad and skinned her knee. Luckily, I live within walking distance of the park, so we rushed home to take care of her wounds. After I washed her off, I had to go borrow Neosporin from my neighbor, as I haven't stocked up my medicine cabinet yet. Then I tried to put something cold on her head, but she wouldn't have it. We've been able to trick her before with a frozen Gogurt (but thinking back to that, I think it was her hand that hurt, so holding the frozen treat actually worked then), but it didn't work today. I gave her some Tylenol, and then I read on WebMD not to do that. Ugh. (She fell once at the German dr.'s office, and they gave her something similar to Tylenol, so that's why I gave it to her.) I was waiting for her doctor to call back, but it took a while, so I just monitored her. It didn't take long for her to be back to her normal, bubbly, silly self. It was just so scary to see her hit her head. The dr's office finally called back, and said that I didn't do anything wrong and to keep monitoring her. Whew! That was a relief!

I was at the park today because I made a new friend, and we have decided to start walking together 3 times a week. She has a 3-month old, so Grace loves looking at the baby, pointing and saying "Baby!" I've very thankful for this new friendship and for having a workout partner! I really need someone to get me moving again! 

All about Grace... again :)

This one's all about Grace again. She's just so much fun to write about!

I think Grace really misses all our company. She really enjoyed playing with her cousins, and now she's stuck playing with me. Guess I'm not as much fun as 7- and (almost) 4-year olds! She's been copying what she saw the younger cousin doing. The cousin would get up to the edge of the mattresses, fall to her knees and then fall all the way forward, keeping her back straight, like a trust fall, but face-forward. Grace started doing it, and loves it! She's so cute when she does it. 

We got back from taking John to school this morning, and she saw our neighbor's door. She looked up, and said "zhu zhu". I said, "Are you saying Susie?" She repeated it, "zhu zhu" and looked at the door again. We could see Susie sitting at her table. She definitely was trying to say her name! It was adorable. 

John started playing with Grace's nose and "honking" it. He'd press on it and go, "Honk, honk." Then he'd press his own noise and honk. We've been doing that for a few weeks, just playing at random times. She started touching her nose and making the noise herself! It was so funny. She'd just laugh when she did it.

I know this is 2 posts in one day, but I just had to write and say... I'm so lonely today! haha. You'd think I'd be enjoying being by myself, but I guess I'm too much of an extrovert. I need people around! 

A quiet house

My mom unexpectedly got power last night! Dad left late afternoon yesterday, and when he got home, the neighbors had power, but he didn't. He waved down a passing electric company truck, and asked when he'd get power, since he had a line down. They said to ask the supervisor in the next truck. The supervisor said, "well, let's go look at it!" Then he asked to borrow dad's ladder, and fixed it right then! Yeah! So Dad called Mom, who had been planning on staying a few extra days until the power was back. She was so excited! She packed up and left almost immediately. So now we have an empty house. I enjoyed getting to spend time with my family, but I'm really glad to have my house back. I think Grace wonders where everyone is, though. She's a little lonely with just me to play with.

After mom left, I made a cake. It was for one of John's coworkers sons. I had a hard time coming up with this idea. I had to borrow ideas from a cake website. But I liked the final product. Of course, I can see all my mistakes, and those are more visible to me than the good points, but I learned something new on this cake too!

I made a cake last week too, for the National Honor Society induction at John's school.

This one was a 12x18, half yellow, half chocolate. I need to work on my handwriting, but I'm getting better!

PS. One of the fun things we did when the family was here was to go to the Blue Bell Factory. If you're on my facebook, check out the pics! 

And then there were 2...

My house is so quiet right now! Both of my sisters and their families left this morning. My mom is still here, and my dad joined us for the weekend while he's off work. It's so quiet and peaceful. Mom and Dad went to get lunch, so it's just me and Grace. (John's at an away football game.) It's so different after a houseful this past week. It was fun getting to spend so much quality time with family, but I think we were all ready to get back to normal life again. One of my sisters still doesn't have power, but hopefully it will get turned back on soon. My mom won't have power for a while, since the tree that fell on their house took out the power line leading to the house. She's low on the priority list for restoring power. So she may stay a few more days, but 1 extra person is a lot easier than 7. I'm so thankful to my neighbor who let my family stay in her house all week. We need to go buy her some flowers or something. I think she really enjoyed the company. Her husband died about 7 years ago, and they didn't have any kids, so she doesn't have a lot of family visiting her. She's busy with friends, still! She's gone so much during the week. I hope that if I live to be 91, I'll be that active too!

Grace

**Disclaimer- if talking about breastfeeding makes you uncomfortable, don't read this post!

Grace has finally weaned! I nursed her for 15 and a half months. I always planned on self-weaning, as long as it was over 12 months, but really didn't know when that would be. Grace loved nursing, and I didn't think she'd ever want to stop! But this week, she did! I guess she was too distracted by her cousins being here that she was ready to stop. I'm very proud of us for nursing so long. A few people didn't think I'd even make it a year, so I'm very glad I made it past that. I'm very glad I'm done, but I don't regret nursing as long as we did. I realize that to some people, I did it too long, and others will think that was nothing compared to what they or others have done, but I didn't nurse for anyone but Grace. It was the perfect amount of time for us. I honestly didn't think she'd self-wean. I thought I would have to stop her. But she didn't ask for milk the last several mornings, and I didn't offer. So we're done! Now if I can only get her to drink cow's milk! 

Grace now weighs 21 lbs! She is 30 inches tall. She's around the 25th percentile for both height and weight, but she just looks so small to me! She's still in 12 month clothes. I guess she takes after my size of the family with being petite! 

Kindness of friends

The kindness of others never ceases to amaze me . When people here found out that John and I were hosting 7 family members, they all asked if we needed anything and offered stuff beyond what they normally have. One family has chickens, and they give us eggs any time we ask for them, but this time, John brought home 3 dozen eggs! One woman in my Bible study had offered last week to give us some frozen meat they had stored in their freezer. I got her phone number today and stopped by to get the meat. Her freezer was so full! She said to get as much as I wanted, so I filled a box with what I could fit in my freezer. She offered her spare rooms to my family too. And she said that when my family is ready to head home, they can have the extra ice that was in the freezer in case the electricity went out last weekend. How sweet of her! She told me that any time I needed more meat, just come on over and fill up! We are so grateful for that!

We are enjoying the nice break in Texas weather. We've had the a/c off and the windows open. It reminds me of Germany. I've missed having the fresh air flowing through the house. I hope the weather stays like this for a while. It's been really nice. 

Full House!

Who knew our little apartment could hold so many people? My mom, older sister with her husband and 2 kids, and my twin sister and her husband are all here, seeking a place with electricity and running water. It's fun to have this many people here. My mom and twin sister and husband will sleep at my neighbor's house, and the others will stay here. We're not sure how long everyone will be here, but we'll have fun while they are! Talk about quality time together. :)

I talked to my best friend from high school, finally. Her house was spared! I was so grateful when I heard that. They lost their fence in the back yard, but that was it. I was so glad they weren't flooded! 

I feel so helpless as I watch the news of the clean-up efforts in Houston. It reminds me of when I was in Germany watching Katrina and Rita coverage, where I couldn't do anything. But even though I'm only an hour and a half from my parents, I can't help. I call and get updates, but that's it. 

I'm reminded of a time when I was in junior high, and we had a tornado come through town. My sister and I were at a band competition when it hit, so we went home with a friend and weren't allowed back home until mom and dad had cleaned up the yard and house some. I remember being so frustrated that I couldn't be a part of it, and I feel a little of that now. It's not so much frustration now as just extreme helplessness. I've offered my home to my family, and some of them may take me up on it while they wait for electricity to be restored. My dear, sweet, 91-year old neighbor has also offered her spare room to my family. (Grace and I have been going over there the last few days, and I think that's going to be a regular occurrence. She is such a sweet woman and absolutely adores Grace.) It's the least we can do to help those who have been affected by the storm. 

Please continue to keep my family in your prayers. Some of my sister's in-laws lost their home, and I still haven't heard back from my best friend from high school. She and her fiance just bought a house, preparing for their new life together, and it was in the middle of one of the evacuated areas. I hope it's not under water, but she said it wasn't far from the water. She did evacuate, but I don't know about her house yet. Thanks for praying for those I love!

Forgot to add that my dad is ok too. He had to work (he works at a chemical plant) but everyone is ok. They lost the roof, but were not injured, and sought safety elsewhere. 

I'm so thankful that we are all ok!

Saturday updated #2

I just talked to my mom. They are ok. A tree came down and took out the patio, but didn't damage the house. Their roof is leaking in a back corner of the back room, which is an add-on room, so it won't damage the main part of the house. It looks like a tree is about to come down on their driveway, so their neighbor came and warned them to move their cars. The water is about ankle deep in the yard, but it's not coming in the house. They have a bayou behind their house, but she didn't say that it's coming up to the house. (I forgot to ask specifically about that.) Her cell is working, but they lost power in the middle of the night sometime.

She talked to my brother and his wife, and they are ok. Several trees are bending, but they haven't come down. My twin sister and her husband are ok. So is my older sister and her family. Everyone has no power, but no major damage. 

It's so sad for me to read about Galveston right now. They estimate that about 20,000 people didn't heed the mandatory evacuation, and officials told them to write their SSN on their arms in black marker. I want to cry for everyone who didn't make it, but especially for those kids who had no choice because their parents were too stubborn to leave. 

I heard my neighbor outside just now, so I went out there. He said that winds got up to about 97 MPH around 3 am here. (I have no idea how accurate that is, considering we still have our satellite!)  I'm so glad I slept through it! But I think the worst is over now. We're still getting some strong gusts of wind, but only periodically.

Saturday morning update

It's almost 7am, and the storm is here. From the radar, it looks like we're on the outer edge of it. We still have electricity and, amazingly enough, our satellite tv. Grace woke us up, so we decided to just get up. She went back to sleep, thankfully. 

The wind sounds pretty strong, but not "hurricane-force" here. We're getting some rain too. We'll be in it for several more hours. Hopefully it won't be much worse than it is right now, but time will tell. 

Please pray for my family, as they are in the middle of Houston. I'm not sure how they are faring, but hopefully I'll hear something in the next few hours.

Storm update

The storm has turned slightly, so we are no longer in the direct path of the eye. But we're still definitely in the path of the storm. It stretches over 200 miles across, I think. We're ready for the storm. We have flashlights, candles, water, food, etc. We're preparing for the worst, but hoping for the best. I'm a little worried for the rest of my family, who are in the direct path of the storm. But they are all prepared, and we've all gone through storms before. (We experienced Alicia, the last major hurricane to hit Houston, and we remember several tropical storms over the years.) It's hard to be in this waiting game, just watching to see what happens. I heard one newscaster mention 36 hours until it's over. Wow, that's a long time. Then, of course, we have to deal with the aftermath. I'm praying it's not too bad!

On an evacuation route

Our town is on an evacuation route, and you can definitely tell that today! The hwy was very busy today, when it's normally not. There were police at the 2 stoplights we have in town, waving people through, instead of letting people follow the lights, to keep the flow moving. I normally drive about 20 minutes to the grocery story (since Walmart and HEB are cheaper!) but I didn't want to get stuck in the evacuation traffic heading that way. I stopped at the local store today, and it was so crowded. They were already out of bread and bananas, and were low on other supplies. We're hoping and praying that we keep electricity, but one of the forecasts has the eye going very close to us, so I'm trying to prepare myself for not having some. We have an ice chest and some ice, so we can last a couple of days, and we have some non-perishable foods too. 

Please pray for us over this weekend! Thanks!

Watching and waiting...

It's so hard to be patient and see what's going to happen. Hurricane Ike is heading this way, and who knows where it's going to hit. A couple of models show it coming this way, and we're on the "dirty" side of things, which means high winds, rain, and possible tornadoes, I think. Not fun! We bought a few essentials tonight, but I may go get some more tomorrow just in case.  I'm supposed to make a cake for something Monday night, so I need to get supplies for that. I usually go Saturday, but that's the day the hurricane will hit if it comes here. 

Speaking of cakes, I made a new kind today! It's a cheeseburger cake! No, it doesn't taste like a burger, but it looks like one! What do you think?

I had a lot of fun making this one... well, maybe I should say decorating this one. Baking the cake wasn't as fun. I made it from scratch, and I don't often do that. I usually enhance a box mix. But I didn't have all the supplies I needed for the enhanced recipe, so I followed a new recipe. We'll see tomorrow how it tastes! John's taking it to school. He told his students that whichever class has the highest average on the test gets the cake. He announced at lunch today that the 7th graders won! He also said it was the highest average each class has had, so we may be doing more contests. Anything to encourage students to study!

Funny Grace stories

Time for some funny Grace stories.

- Grace has been learning how to give kisses. She'll touch her lips to our cheeks, and then say "bah!" We're guessing it's because when we kiss her on the cheek, being silly, we make a noise, so she thinks a noise is associated with a kiss. It's so cute!

- Sometimes, she'll dance on command. We say, "Grace, can you dance for us?" She'll put her arms out, almost like she's hugging a tree trunk, and twist her torso really fast back and forth, but she keeps her head stationary. I don't know if you can get a picture of it, but it is so funny!!

-When she sees a dog, she says, "Puppy!" Then she says, "Fffff!" (When we taught her what a dog says, we would say Ruff, so she picked up on the end of it.) 

-When we lived in Germany, we had a cordless phone that had speaker on it. When we would talk to relatives, we'd put the phone on speaker so Grace could hear and "talk". Now, she wants to talk on the phone all the time. She'll pick up our phone and walk around the house, talking away. But she puts it on her shoulder, not up to her ear! She kept making too many calls with the cordless phone, so I finally had to take the cord off the corded phone we have and let her have the handset so she could play with it. But every time she has that, even, she'll talk and talk, pause like she's waiting for an answer, and talk some more. So cute!!

-Tonight, she picked up John's belt, so I wrapped it around her (twice) and hooked it. She loved it! She kept walking around, playing with it, and didn't want me to take it off.

-We like to tickle her to make her laugh, so she's started tickling us back! But it's not as much tickling as it is pinching, but we still laugh. She just laughs and laughs at us! 

Yesterday was a nice day. We went out to lunch with the pastor and his wife of the church we've been visiting. They treated us, which was awesome. It was good to talk to them to find out about what the church has to offer and for them to get to know us. We told them we still want to visit another church before we decide where to go permanently. 

Unfortunately, Grace didn't do so well. She didn't sleep well the night before and woke up at 6:30, soaked. By the time I changed her PJs, diaper, and sheet, she didn't want to go back to sleep. I tried to get her to just sleep in our bed, but she wanted to get up. So by the time we went to church, it was nap time. Then we pushed her for 4 more hours before she could sleep.(Church plus lunch) Not good! She was overly tired, and then she only slept for 1 hour for a nap. She was so tired, but just screamed and cried. I don't know if she's cutting a new tooth, or what, but something's gotta give! She's had several nights where she's woken up in the middle of the night, just crying. She hasn't done that in months! But she's done it for several nights in a row. Yuck! She had been spoiling me by sleeping 12 hours every night without waking up. Hopefully this will end soon!

Saturday, when I was walking on the square, I noticed a new shop called "The Cake Box." It wasn't been there last time I drove through the square. They sell decorated cakes! I had been told that there wasn't a good place in town to get them, so she just landed in a great place! I went to visit the shop today. It's a little sandwich shop. She opened it to get more cake business (she's been selling from her house for 5 years,which technically is illegal, but she did it, like a lot of people do), but she's had most of her business from the sandwich and cookie side of things. I gave her my name and contact info and told her that if she ever needs an extra set of hands for decorating to call me. I went in there with Grace, and she asked what I'd do with her, and I said I'd get childcare, but because of that,  I don't think she'll call. I did tell her that if she needed help at night, I could help because my husband would be home. I mentioned that I'd love to watch how she decorates cakes too. She took a class from Bronwen Weber, a professional decorator who is on Food Network Challenges. Lucky her! I really want to take a cake class. The closest one is an hour away, though, so I'll have to wait until John's schedule isn't so crazy in the evenings. 

I've been reading way too much on a cake website, and now I want to go decorate a cake! I told John that he should have a contest with his students for the next test, that whichever class has the highest average, they get a cake. I don't know if that's fair, so maybe we'll do something else to get rid of it, but I just want to make a cake, but don't want it around the house for me to be tempted to eat. 

More reverse culture shock

When you're in training for going overseas as a missionary, they tell you that you should get out and experience the culture of your area. You really need to get a feel for what the people are like and what they do for fun. We've learned that it's important to do that when you move back to America. We did that last night. One of John's students is involved in the Youth Rodeo Association here in town, so he invited John to come to the first meet of this year's season. It was pretty cool to watch, but I definitely felt underdressed in my capris and flip flops and John in shorts and Birkenstocks. Almost everyone else was in what I called "kicker clothes" growing up- Wranglers, boots, and Western shirts. The student did well in one of his events. He came out of the shoot with his arms wrapped around a calf's neck, and he had to wrestle him to the ground. I was amazed! The calf was not small, compared to the student! Grace loved it too! She clapped when she was supposed to and danced around to the country music playing. It was as much fun to watch her as it was to watch the rodeo! I've always been really interested in watching rodeo events. It amazes me the skill involved. I guess because I've only ridden a horse maybe 3 times in my life, it's more exciting to me. (Maybe living out in the country, I'll get invited to ride one!)

I'm still not used to going to different stores and hearing English around me. Today, I stopped at an antique store "going-out-of-business" sale. As I walked around it, I didn't say anything to anyone, even "excuse me". It struck me as I was leaving that I did what I would have done in a German store. I smiled at people, but didn't speak. I always wanted to try to blend in as much as possible when I was overseas, so I stayed quiet because if I opened my mouth, I stuck out. I felt really rude when I realized what I had done. 

Today was "1st Saturday Market Day" here. It was pretty interesting. Grace and I walked over, as it was only a couple of blocks from our apartment. There were vendors selling everything from candles to veggies to saddles to woodwork. We bought some vegetables and contemplated buying a candle. But I told the vendor it's too hot to considering buying a candle! I'll buy one in November. (She won't be there in October.)

(You may notice that I have been slipping and using names. It's too hard to remember to use nicknames for us, so I give up!)

Memories

Isn't it funny when one small thing triggers so many memories? This morning as I was driving back home after dropping my husband off at work, a song came on ("This is your life" by Switchfoot.) It immediately took me back to Italy a couple of years ago during Beach Break. The program team used that song as entrance music to one of the program times. We heard it every day (I did for 2 weeks!), so now every time I hear that song, I think of Italy. That year was a really good year. I had been meeting with 3 girls all year, every Friday for lunch. At camp, two of them made commitments to Christ. It was an amazing year at camp.

The second memory happened this weekend, as I was driving down to my sister's to finish the cake. I drove down a highway that I've only been down once before, 6 years ago. My single's group from church was going down to the beach for the weekend, so I decided to take the direct route instead of going through Houston. I don't remember driving through the town where we live, but I remember a town several miles south. All the buildings were on one side of the road, and the other side had the railroad. That town was so strange, only on one side of the highway, so it really stuck out in my mind. I remember being so careful driving that weekend because I didn't want a ticket, and small Texas towns have reputations for being speed traps. That weekend was a really fun weekend, and I got to take my niece (the same one whose cake I did) into the Gulf for the first time. It was so much fun watching her play. If I remember correctly, she didn't like it at first, but I think she got used to it. It was a lot of fun.

The last memory from this weekend happened Friday night coming home from the football game. I saw Double Dave's Pizza. Oh, the memories of that place! I was first introduced by a friend who went to TAMU when I went to visit her one weekend. Then back home, a friend I worked with had a husband who did satellite installation all over Texas, and whenever he'd go to College Station, he'd stop at Double Dave's and bring us back dozens of pizza rolls. (It's like they took a slice of pizza without the sauce, but with the cheese and pepperoni and rolled it up into a stick and baked it. Then you dip it into sauce.) She would tell me usually the day before or the day of that he was going, and I'd go over there for dinner. They were like my home away from home. I was over at there house at least once a week, sometimes more. I did my laundry over there and just hung out with them. I always felt so at home with that family. Once they even put up with me for a couple of nights during the week because we thought I might have a stalker at work. I'm so grateful for the friendship they gave me. 

Busy weekend!!

We had a good Labor Day weekend. My in-laws came in Thursday and the whole visit was a whirlwind! They flew in Thursday afternoon to Houston. We went to my parents' house for a little bit before Hubby's game, which just happened to be at my parents' church! Unfortunately, the game didn't turn out that well for our team. After the game, my dad was in a "Pops and Praise" concert. We thought there would be a nursery that Grace could go in, but my mom couldn't find it, so she stayed with us. We were AMAZED at how well she did during the concert! She danced around, looked at the pictures on the screen (she loved the cartoons characters during one song), and just overall was just so good!

Friday was a busy day for me. I made my niece's birthday cake, so I started off baking all morning. It was a fun cake to make, but took a long time. My in-laws wanted to take Little Miss and I out to lunch, so we went to a very yummy Tex-Mex restaurant. Our little girl is such a friendly little girl! She made friends with the hostess. Everytime she walked by, they would smile and "talk" to each other. It was so cute!! After lunch, I worked on the cake some more before heading to the 2nd game of the weekend. This time it was the high school game, and it wasn't much better than the first. But we had a lot of fun. I got to talk to several people at the game and get to know some more local people. I spent most of the game talking to one woman. We found out that we know the same missionaries in 2 different countries! What a small world we live in! She invited us to visit her church. They are starting a "Love and Respect" marriage series in a couple of weeks, and I've really been wanting to take it. (They offered it several times in Germany, but we were never able to go.) So we're going to visit that church next. I came away from the game feeling more at home. It was nice.

I got up early Saturday morning to go to my sister's to finish the cake. It was such a fun cake to do!

It is supposed to be crooked. :) It's a "Topsy-turvy" cake. Everyone loved it!! It was exactly what my niece wanted. She was so excited about it.

The rest of the weekend, we just hung out. My in-laws sent us on a date so they could babysit, so that was really nice. We enjoyed some alone-time away from our little munchkin. We love her, but we need date times! 

My in-laws flew back home yesterday. After I dropped them off at the airport, I went to visit my brother. Grace loved his 2 dogs!! It was so fun to watch her look at them through the window.

Today, I'm cleaning and resting. It's nice to have a lazy day again where I'm not going anywhere (except maybe the park, if it's not too hot, which it probably will be. haha) I think the Little Miss would rebel against a car seat if I tried to put her in one again today.