Back to it…

This week was my first week “officially” back at work and it actually feels good. I do miss the monkey and planning my days with him and having the house straightened and the laundry done but whatever…it will get done eventually. I have fell right back into pace and being out is just a tiny glint in my already crazy and hectic work “to do” list.

I could not have asked for a better week “trying out” our new schedule. I get as much done the night before as I can, wash and prep bottles, get my food for the next day ready, lay clothes out. I get up at 5 -5:30 to be at work by 8:30. How crazy is that? I must say though the boys have been great.

I figured out a way to get the boy to get himself dressed without constantly nagging…the TV doesn’t go on until he is dressed. Just like that…no arguments, no begging, and no frustrated mom walking out the door, it’s pleasant.

The monkey has been sleeping until I get him up in the AM, except for one morning he got up just as I got up therefore he had to stay up as I got ready for work. He was fine except for the last 15 minutes it took me to make breakfast for me and the boy and get everything…including the kitchen sink in the car. I kept telling him…which I’m sure he understood completey…if he just would have slept later he wouldn’t be so upset now. Two seconds after we were in the car he was out. Buckethead.

The monkey loves daycare…that I can tell anyway cause he hasn’t come out and said “I love daycare”. He hasn’t cried once when I have left him, except for the first day but mom was crying too. They tell me he loves to be talked to that he just smiles and smiles, I love his smile. It totally draws you in with his innocence and genuine nature. They say lately he has been finding his voice and telling stories. I’ve noticed this too and that story about the rabbi, the priest and the blonde…freakin hilarious.

The boy had a better week at school this week. I would even categorize it as a good week. He had one really bad day, an excellent day and good days the rest of the week. Keep your fingers crossed I didn’t jinx today by admitting he’s been doing well. I am hoping we have turned a corner since I am back to work and we are really trying to work with him and pay attention to his needs. Not the needs that are I need another car, another chocolate milk, another story, another five minutes…those are the annoying needs he thinks he ‘needs’. I mean the spending quality time, teaching him the right choices and not letting him get away with the wrong ones. I’m seeing progress, although there are setbacks sometimes which overshadow all the progress but more often than not I’m beginning to see the amazing brilliant boy fight through this…whatever…and shine brightly.

No rest for the weary…the hubby. Sigh…they lost a lot of time and momentum with the business after the hurricane. They are still not up and running at full capacity. I know there is perspective and yes, at least he has enough of a business to get back up and running and I feel deeply sad for those that don’t. With that said…the hubby…he’s been working hard…harder…the hardest. I am proud to see how hard he has worked and rallied around the biz to do what he has to do to get things up and running. No electricity…ha…bought a generator. Chocolate doesn’t do well in heat…ha…got a refrigerated truck. No internet for an internet based company…ha…work at Starbucks and process almost 100 orders in a day with artwork to boot; dyes ordered and customers satisfied. BAM! I have and continue to witness a man that will persevere through anything. Have I mentioned he never once forgot about making sure his wife and two kids were safe and comfortable? A man like none other I’ve known and I’m so very happy to call MY husband. Yep…he’s all mine. Take that chicken soup girl! I love you sweetie and I’m so very proud of you. I want to be just like you when I grow up…you cradle robber you.

We are taking our family pictures this weekend. Green jeans….lol meaning we will be wearing green (sage) shirts with jeans. We all have dark features and look exceptional in green, although it is going to be tough finding stuff for the baby. But here’s hoping. I have some really cute ideas for poses…I’m really excited.

A couple of other things on tap for the weekend…one that may involve a pecan pie…made by me! YUMOLICIOUS.

Mid WOE report!! Staying on track this week…I’ll give a full report on Monday.

Everyone have an outstanding weekend.

**Edit**How could I have forgotten to mention the monkey slept THROUGH the night last night! I turned over and looked at the clock and it said 4:30. I shut my eyes and processed what I just saw and they flew open...4:30! Oh my gosh...something is wrong. What if something is wrong. SIDS...oh many I can't go up there. I can't imagine what is waiting for me. I was almost in tears. I layed there for thirty minutes and contemplated when I was going to muster up enough courage to check on the monkey. I was halfway hoping he would cry out waking himself up. That never happened.

Around 5 I get up and make my way upstairs. Still wrestling with my feelings as to what I was going to find. I open the door, peer over the crib and there my beautiful son is peacefully sleeping. I touch his cheek to rouse him awake and pick him up and nuzzle his head under my chin and breathe in his scent. All was good in the world.

I did the same thing with my firstborn. I think as a mom you get in a routine with getting up during the night and unbeknownst to you at the time there is comfort in those midnight hours when it is just the two of you. The first time that isn't there most moms cannot help but think the worst.

My monkey is safe and beautiful and loving and amazing. Our family is so blessed!

Smiles!

WOE Week 4 part 3

Yes, I’m starting week four yet again. I started off ok but didn’t stay on track due to mostly the same reasons as the previous post. I am happy to report that I am officially at work and it has been great…WOE wise anyway. I am able to eat my 4 meals without interruption as opposed to being on the road commuting from Clear Lake to Humble to Clear Lake and back to Humble and ending up finally in Clear Lake…yes my life last week. Thankfully we got our power back on Saturday and I couldn’t pack my crap fast enough.

I have to again thank Jodie and Bryan for taking us in…it was a blessing to have a cool roof over our head and they took care of us as any BFF would. After over two weeks of being a nomad I was ready to get home and get things in order.

Now I have to get caught up on my blogging, for myself and the kiddos, I’m behind on their newsletters. Add that to my ever growing to do list.

The hubby’s business is coming along. They worked their asses off last week to get things back up and running. They moved to a new facility while theirs is under contraction; meanwhile, they are having attempting to try and process orders without power…they are an internet company…so not having power is not a good thing. You found them at any given Starbucks around the city trying to work. Crazy stuff man…crazy. Thankfully they too got power back late last week.

Funny story…Last week I was in the car with my oldest (4) and I was listening to talk radio. No, I’m not in my 60’s and I swear I hated it when my Dad used to listed to that crap but for whatever reason I’m drawn to it….yeah…just go with it, don’t try and analyze it.

We were listening to talk radio and whoever was talking about Barack Obama and the boy asked “Who is Barack Obama?” and I asked him who he thought he was and he said loud and proud…”A rock star”. I almost puked all over the windshield. I said you’ve been listening to the liberal media too much and hanging around your father. I then proceeded to explain…to my four year old…that Mr. Obama was the Democratic Nominee for President of the United States and made sure he repeated it over and over. I threw in McCain as well for good measure.

Monday, September 22, 2008

That would be today…whew…tiring aint it. I was supposed to start work today as my official day back from a three in a half stint on maternity leave. Well…thanks to Ike my plans had to change. Both of the boys’ schools are closed and we over course still have no power. I really want to acclimate the monkey so it won’t be so traumatizing to him to leave him there all day, my days are running out and I really need to get back to it.

Thankfully I spoke to my manager and she agreed to let me telework this week. Thank God.

Oh, I drove around Kemah and Seabrook this afternoon. Crazy…crazy stuff. A week and a half later and there are still boats in people’s yard and the debris of trees is truly amazing. I can’t believe how many trees were lost. I can’t imagine what Galveston looks like in person. They still aren’t letting people on the island…perhaps Wednesday.

I am so thankful I have great friends that have taken us in and have fed us and given us a nice cool, comfortable place to stay.

Sunday, September 21, 2008

After a good nights sleep we settled in. I watched the boys while Jodie and Bryan took the boards off their windows and mowed. Nic met us and we took the boys to McyD’s so the boys could burn off some of their energy. They really played well together all day and I was happy they could occupy each other.

Saturday, September 20, 2008

Holy hotness. The fam worked outside to cut down the banana palms that had lost a ton of limbs and just straighten up overall. I did laundry and hung it on a line to dry. The house got up to 85 and we were all miserable. I tried to put the monkey down at night and I couldn’t swaddle him because it was too hot and he would scream when I would put him down in the bassinet, in front of a fan. That’s it…I called Jodie and the boy, the monkey and myself were headed her way…she had power. We got to her house about 10 and it looked like we were moving in…I hadn’t unpacked from Dallas so I zipped up the suitcases and loaded them up.

A/C glorious A/C.

Friday, September 19, 2008

The first night without A/C was bearable. Thankfully the temps were still down and the house got down to 78 at night. We went out to Costco to pick up a generator for the hubby’s work and get a few fixins for din. Let’s just say it didn’t go well with the boy. He had a meltdown at Costco when we were leaving and the hubby and I had had enough. Let’s just say we talked and sorted a few things out…we will see.

Thursday, September 18, 2008

We left Dallas at 1 pm and made it to Houston by 5. The boys did great! I only had to stop twice for the baby and that was about right. I, however, don’t think I was prepared for what I saw. Of course I saw the wind damage starting at about Conroe and didn’t see much more until I got to our community. Holy smokes…we ended up losing about 50% of our trees and we live in a heavily wooded area. The hubby said it was much worse when he came in on Monday and they had cleaned up most of the mess. I couldn’t believe what I was seeing.

The neighbors were out barbequing which had become a nightly event. Everyone would bring over their food to cook so it wouldn’t go bad. I so love our neighbors. Do you want to know how amazing our neighbors are…well I’ll tell you but first a little insight to my previous experience with neighbors. Growing up there was a time when all the neighbors knew everyone, we even had a block party one forth of July holiday. That was about the peak of socialization, everyone started moving away shortly after. From then on we never really socialized with new neighbors and kept to ourselves. The same rang true when I moved out. The house the hubby and lived in before our current house I couldn’t tell you one of the neighbors name. It all changed when we moved into our current house and on our very special street.

I’ve mentioned before we have flamingo parties every few months but from the get go all of our neighbors have been truly special and always going above and beyond.

One of our neighbors owns a trucking company and offered a refrigerated truck to the hubby in order for him to store their chocolate and they wouldn’t lose their inventory. Another one of our neighbors gave the hubby gas to put in the generator when none was to be found.

Yet another neighbor showed the hubby how to hook the generator to the fuse box to have power for pretty much everything.

AND finally before we even got home a bunch of the neighbors went up and down the street standing up all the trees that had fallen over and specifically propped our fence back up with another two by four.

I get a warm fuzzy feeling knowing there are still good people in the world that are always willing to extend a helping hand without even being asked.

PCL has the best peeps ever. Oh…there is a house for sale on our street. If you are lookin you better jump on it cause it would be the best experience ever. Did I mention we have Flamingo parties!!

Wednesday, September 17, 2008

I decided to take the kids to a children’s museum….surely Dallas would have one…right? Right? Well the ‘attractions’ listing that the hotel provided claimed to have a children’s museum right by the Museum of Natural Science out at Fair park…ya know…where the Cotton Bowl is…whatever. It was the poorest excuse for a museum or park or whatever the hell it was. There was workers everywhere and they were setting up for something, which I later discovered was the state fair, and it was totally unuser friendly. I finally got fed up, not to mention frustrated and left. Went back to the hotel and took a nap.

Good news came from the hubby he was getting a generator and we could come home. I was so ready. So I packed up and got everything ready to head out by noon on Thursday.

Tuesday, September 16, 2008

The report from the hubby was the office was better than expected but still bad. They are all but shut down. This is huge blow as they are nominally ramping up to their busy season about now. I have ache in my stomach but I ignore it in order to keep a positive outlook on everything. We have our family…that is the important thing. I tell myself that over and over again.

In the evening I meet Mandy and her three kids for dinner, this was supposed to happen on Sunday but was postponed due to the news on the business. Mandy texted me the address to the restaurant we were to eat at and I was like coolio I’ll just put it in my trusty GPS. One drawback people is you need to make sure you update your GPS every year at least. Mine is a couple of years old and newly developed areas do not register on maps that are two years old. So…the address I was attempting to locate did not exist according to my GPS. FUN! What turned out to be a ten minute commute ended up being an hour. (I only found out it was ten minutes on my way home). Isn’t that special…

Needless to say it was great meeting Mandy’s kids and we had good conversation. I need to plan a girl’s trip one weekend to spend some quality one on one time, with zero distractions.

Monday, September 15, 2008

The hubby left in the wee hours of the morning and the boys and I were left to our own devices. It was a beautiful day as a cool front had moved through the area and it was necessary for us to enjoy the gift. We headed out to the Dallas Zoo. We had a good time. It was a lot of work for me corralling two kids well…one kid and trying to keep the baby happy but we did it and overall we had a good day. The hubby’s parents called me to check on me and I think they fell out of their chairs when I told them I was at the zoo. Oh well…gotta do what cha gotta do and sitting in a hotel room scared to manage things would have been ten times worse.

Sunday, September 14, 2008

This day we had to come up with a game plan. We had received word from our neighbors that our house was fine, we lost a gutter, the fence had blown over in a couple of places and our trees were sideways but could be righted with some effort and no electricity. Bad news, the hubby’s office had the roof torn off and their offices had standing water and the chocolate needed to be rescued. Thankfully they were on pallets and off the floor. So a game plan was formed and the hubby was headed out first thing Monday morning with his business partner leaving us in Dallas until things became more stable and hopefully electricity was restored.

Saturday, September 13, 2008

As soon as I woke up Saturday morning I turned on the news to see what had transpired during the night and needed to know about the storm surge. Thank God it didn’t happen as bad as they predicted. I called my Granny and they were fine and no water to be seen. I checked in with the rest of my friends and family and neighbors and all reports were good, minimal damage in the form of trees, fences, a few shingles and one lone trampoline. I could breathe again. Our neighbors did mention that the eye of the storm came right over our community. It was dead calm for 45 minutes before the Northeast wall came through. Crazy stuff and I’m glad we weren’t there for the experience.

We continued to watch the news to see how bad the storm really was. It is amazing being in another city, looking out the window at a beautiful day and seeing such devastation in your city, the city you grew up in, the city you live and work in, the beaches you grew up on…seeing that all go away in less than 24 hours. It is hard to believe.

Friday, September 12, 2008

We decided to make the best of the situation and do a little site seeing. The hubby had never seen the grassy knoll so we went a ‘ridin’ and saw it all. One thing I found out during this visit was there are x’s on the street near the grassy knoll that signify where JFK was shot. It was very creepy. I’ll post pix when we get them off the camera. We also drove around Deep Ellum. Too bad the hubby and I couldn’t go see a few bands that evening…that would have been amazing.

The remainder of the day we stayed glued to the news hoping against all hope the storm would turn or move or just fade away as I don’t wish this devastation on anyone. Of course the reports were getting worse and worse and for a city that was barely in the “cone of uncertainty” a few day prior the storm was barreling down straight away. The most disturbing thing I heard was meteorologist telling people to get out because the storm surge was going to be over 20 feet and those left behind were to face certain death. That hit home and hit home hard, my grandparents chose not to leave. They suffered during the Rita evacuation and eventually turned around and went home…this was when Rita was a CAT 5 and headed straight for us my friends. They didn’t want the same thing to happen so they chose to stay. I called many times and ask them to reconsider but my Papa would not. My Granny told me they had a sledgehammer, an axe and life jackets in the attic. I just cried and prayed they would be spared.

Present day, September 11, 2008

We are evacuating from a little ole hurricane known as Ike. The familia and I packed up and headed to Dallas to escape the storms wrath. You may ask if we live on the coast and the answer is no, no where near the coast but we are concerned about losing electricity for an indeterminate amount of time and in order to spare our four year old and three month old that hardship we packed em up and moved out.

We bypassed traffic by heading up 59 then cutting over to 45 around Cleveland…gotta love GPS. It still took us about 6 hours to get there with the three or four stops we made to console the three month old. I was glad to be out of harms way but worried about my family who had decided to stay in a mandatory evacuation area.

We ate at a crappy Italian place and turned in relatively early. We were all spent from the day’s activities.