Glad to be home

Yesterday was a LaPorte day. I was supposed to go LAST week, but got rained out. I was a bit anxious about the weather, but since it was all clear at 5 AM, I decided to go ahead and go. It took 3 hours to get to work. Not a horrible trip, just long. Great day at work, great meeting at the end of the day. And then another 3 hours home...

My first memory of the Washburn Tunnel is my brother telling me that we were going underwater. In my head, I pictured my family (in our Cordoba, of course) driving underwater...imagine my relief when it turned out to just be a tunnel. That image came to mind last night as I drove through heavy, heavy rain...the kind of rain that seems to surround the car and that wipers just can't do anything about. But I couldn't stop, because the rain wasn't going anywhere and it would have just prolonged my agony. So I kept going. As I drove over Spring Cypress, I saw a Suburban literally up off the ground, spinning down the other side of the highway. I don't know that I have words to really capture the image--it was surreal, awful and awesome all at the same time. I hope the people inside are okay...I didn't see how it landed, but I'm hoping it just slid to the side somewhere. God must have been watching out for them, because amazingly, that section of highway was clear instead of packed with slow-moving cars.

So I'm glad to be home, and grateful for 6 hours of safe driving yesterday. It was weird to get home 14+ hours after I left...and to know that 6 of those hours were spent in the car. I was figuring up how far I could have gone if I'd been heading for Kansas, or anywhere...Oh! And I did such a girl thing yesterday...still not sure how I did it, but I caught the Pilot's running board on a curb and tore it up. It was one of those things that I heard, but I was already up on it...had no choice but to get off of it and do that much more damage as I went. Yes, I'm sighing at myself. But I'm grateful that it was my running board and not a wheel...and then when I got into the nasty rain, I was reminded that it could always, always have been worse.

This morning I'm a lot tired and a little melancholy. I'm supposed to drive in again today for a lunch meeting, but understandably, I'm not too excited about driving INTO that again. We'll see how things shake out in a couple of hours. Right now, it's time for some coffee and a shower...and I'm already looking forward to our family breakfast outing. :)

Best. Monday. Ever.

So, about 11:00, the back door opened...James came home from work since he wasn't feeling well. Which gave me the opportunity to drop everything and hang out with him all afternoon, watching TV, eating soup, and even, yes, taking a little nap. But alas, as car line time approaches, even this good thing must come to an end. In an hour, our house will be filled with the shouts and laughter of not one but three first grade girls (long story, but good times) and one little boy who loves nothing MORE than first grade girls (Noble during Kayci's Girl Scout meeting here yesterday...priceless!). And I've got cookies to bake, which on this rainy day, pretty much makes me the best mom ever.

Happy sigh.

I Love Fall!

Doesn't that just make you smile? Found an awesome pumpkin at the Farmer's Market today!


-- Posted from my iPhone

Like a box of chocolates...

Today I have/had the whole day blocked off to be at home and just crank out some work (I need several sitting at the computer typing hours--not the most exciting, but necessary). Hmm. I blew right through my 9:00 start work deadline (Noble needed wipes for school, I found out that a friend hasn't been feeling well so I thought I'd cook some soup for them today...you know, things snowball once you get to the grocery store). Oh, and I realized that once again, it's the end of the month and I forgot to get the Teacher Appreciation Committee moving on something...so I spent a lot of time at HEB just THINKING of what I can reasonably put together for next week. You know, next week when I have to fit in a day at GP, a day at LP, oh yeah, and a day at the Renaissance Festival for Kayci's field trip. Oh, and get our family of 4 ready for the trip to Philadelphia next weekend. (By the way, congrats Phillies fans...but didja HAVE to make the World Series the one and only time I'll ever be in Philly? I'm just sayin'.) So I've got a lot on my mind this morning, but it's all good stuff. I'm going to start my work day at 10, with a short break to help out a friend. This just means I'll have to work a couple of hours tonight to finish up my billing day, but that's not a big deal, either.

Just have a lot on my mind. You know, what Amanda calls "mind chatter." I can't sit down to work until I unload some of it and can focus on the task at hand instead of the tasks I'm trying to schedule for next week. The good news is: we're home this weekend. ALL weekend. We'll make one trip to drop off a DVD for one of James' clients near Navasota, but even that should be fun in this gorgeous fall weather. And we might run through College Station to hit the bank and maybe pick up a pizza or something...who knows. The weekend is wide open! We have promised to finish our scarecrow and at least START on Kayci's tree house. And if we have time, James and I are hoping to lay out our new flower beds and figure out exactly which stones we'll use for edging and price them out...maybe we'll even bring a load home and work on it one evening next week. Or not, depending on how much time I'm in Houston. :) We'll see--that's not a big problem, having muddy ex-flower beds ringing our house. I just keep thinking how much we're going to appreciate our new and improved beds...right? Right?!

Anyway, I'm wandering. Time to wrap it up--I've got a bed to make before I go sit down to work, and a few more groceries to put away. Oh! The title...I should get there before I close. So, you know Sami dog is old. She'll be 15 in February, and she's been "old" since she was 7 (she's a big dog). So, she's old. She's started a new thing where she doesn't just bark in the morning and evening when it's time for her can of food...she barks ANYtime somebody pulls up in the driveway or by her fence. And she barks and barks and barks until she gets a can of food. She started this last week--it was lots of fun during the police stand off, let me tell ya. But today I was a little bitter about having to get out in the rain yesterday to buy more canned food because she's eating an extra can a day and I keep exactly enough on hand for 2 weeks at a time...but I digress into my OCD tendencies. We've been using a lot of dog food lately, and it's thrown me off. So she started barking when I got home a little while ago and even came around to the kitchen window to bark at me and remind me that she wanted to eat. Again. So, I thought, this has got to stop. I thought if I tricked her and put dry food (not her favorite) out in her bowl, she'd leave me alone and quit begging for food outside of meal time. Geez, this has turned into a long story--but seriously, this is the crap that's filling up my mind this morning! Anyway, so I went to get her dry dog food to take it outside. And found this in the tub.

And I thought, that Bubby...you just never know what you're gonna get. (Hence the title--keep up.) I wonder what he was doing in the dog food in the first place? Probably best not to know. But the shovel...seriously, now I wonder what I'm going to find FILLED with dog food. Again, best not to know.

And then I thought, how funny is it that I blogged this morning and included a picture of Kayci in her "Smart Girls Rule!" shirt (yeah, we do!), holding her monster. She is a smart girl, and a good girl, and a fun girl, and a beautiful girl...she makes me proud. I know you're not supposed to compare your kids, but seriously, Noble's a goofball already. I think this is going to be fun to watch, raising these knuckleheads.

Noble cracks me up...life with him is truly an adventure, because you just never know what you're gonna find. This morning we had our weekly family bakery breakfast. As we were all getting ready to leave, I asked Noble for a kiss. He shook his head and said, "mo!" (that's no) and then turned his little face up, all puckered up for a kiss. Just melted my heart. And then I got back in the car and couldn't find my phone to take a picture of Kayci...and had that "oh, crap, Noble left my phone in the restaurant !" feeling. Turns out, he'd just hidden it in one of my makeup bags in my purse...which of course I didn't discover until I drove home, went into the house to look to see if James had put my phone on to charge, found a cordless, dialed long distance to CALL my phone...which Kayci heard ringing out in the car. Sigh. Well, a sigh and a smile. That's just how it goes around here anymore--there's always something to laugh about. I guess I could get grumpy about some of the stuff, but you know, life's too short.

And I'm wearing my fuzzy pants today (the Mom-iform, velour jogging suit--I only have one that I break out on special days, and James digs it and calls them my fuzzy pants. I'll stop there.) So how can I be grumpy? And the windows are open and fall's all in my house...seriously, gotta smile and be happy and grateful.

And now I've gotta get to work! Have a fun Friday!

In My Arms

I started out for LaPorte this morning. It was raining and thundering and carrying on, but I took the truck and thought, I'll be okay. I need to go...I'm going. 30 white-knuckle minutes later I was like, what am I DOING? Seriously--driving toward the bay? One of the schools is practically in a swamp...so I debated for a few more minutes, then turned around and headed home. And I'm glad I did; turns out, it's just as bad there as we feared. One of the teachers just called; she just made it to work herself, not a single kid is there, and the houses around the school will flood if it rains much more. :( So I'm not glad that the weather's bad at all--but I'm glad that I was able to listen to, as James called it, that still small voice of God. In my life, that voice is often in the form of gut feelings--if you know me at all, you know that when I say I have a gut feeling about something, it's usually spot on. So when my gut feeling tells me to go or not to go...I try to do what it says. But now I'm rambling. But I can, I guess, since I basically just won a free day this week. I still have tons of work to do--and I'll get to it--but I've cut out 4 hours of driving time today (minimum...that's not factoring in rain time), so I feel like I've just been handed an 8 day week. My new goal for today is to take time to do some organizing work stuff I've been putting on the back burner while I put out fires...you know, the boring stuff that nobody sees but you that you've still gotta do or it drives you nuts. Or gets in your way. So that's what I'll do today. It was great to surprise the kids this morning--James didn't tell them when they woke up that I was coming back home, so their faces when I came in were just priceless. And since I was already out in the rain I stopped at Wal-Mart for dog food and basic groceries, so I don't HAVE to run errands today (but if I can hit recycling while James and the truck are home at lunch, that would rock!). The house is pretty clean, the laundry's pretty well done (not put away, but hey). I'm feeling very lucky right about now that I'm not out in the mess, stressed about getting back home in time to pick up the kids (James has a Parade meeting tonight). And I'm still babbling, right?

Yesterday Kayci went to work with me. It was such a great day, even though in a lot of ways it was NOT a great work day. To just be able to spend time with her, and not have to rush around (although we did visit several schools and take care of lots of little things)...for it to be just me and her, to have nothing more important to do than count slug bugs...it was a priceless day. She was so excited about her loose teeth (and kept wiggling, darn it!), she had to tell all of our teacher friends the good news. I love that kid!

We had to stop and go potty on the way in yesterday morning (okay, Kayci and her Daddy-camel bladder were fine...it was my pea-sized bladder, okay?), so we stopped at a Starbucks. Next door there was a cupcake bakery, and my girl was sooooooooo excited. Of course, they were already open. So we popped in, and she took a while to decide. The cupcakes were gorgeous, and I bought a red velvet one and a carrot cake one to bring home and share with James. Keep in mind, these cupcakes cost $3.25. Each. After lunch, Kayci remembered her cupcake and dug in. It smelled great and looked great, and I was jealous, I'll admit it. When she was finished, I asked her if it was good. She was like, ehh. I fought down the part of me that paid $3+ and asked her what she meant, didn't she like her special treat? And she knocked my socks off--she told me that it seems like whenever she gets a special treat, they always LOOK good but don't taste so good or just taste okay. She went on about that, but I was absolutely floored that she already gets it--that it's what's on the inside that counts. Maybe she can't say it in that many words, but she's GETTING IT. Now that's my girl!

This morning I heard this song on my short-lived (well, still hour and a half there and back) commute, and other than the baby blues--she's a brown-eyed girl--this made me think of Bitty. She's growing and changing so fast (see my family blog post today...trying not to dwell on it!), and I'm grateful that she still comes to me for comfort and guidance. I know that those days will end at some point and I'll become the enemy. But for now, I'm so grateful to have the power to heal and hold and make it all better...

In my arms--Plumb

Your baby blues
So full of wonder
Your Curly Que’s
Your contagious smile
And as I watch
You start to grow up
All I can do is hold you tight
Knowing

Clouds will rage in
Storms will race in
But you will be safe in my arms
Rains will pour down
Waves will crash all around
But you will be safe in my arms

Story books
Are full of fairy-tales
Of kings and queens
And the bluest skies
My heart is torn just in knowing
You’ll someday see
The truth for lies

Clouds will rage in
Storms will race in
But you will be safe in my arms
Rains will pour down
Waves will crash all around
But you will be safe in my arms

Castles they might crumble
Dreams may not come true
Cause you are never all alone
Cause I will always
Always love you

Clouds will rage in
Storms will race in
But you will be safe in my arms
Rains will pour down
Waves will crash all around
But you will be safe in my arms

In my arms
In my arms

That's gonna leave a mark

Guess who saw 16 slug bugs on the way in this morning?

Kayci had a dentist appointment in Houston this morning, so she's hanging out at work with me today. It's fun to have my "cassistant" again!


-- Posted from my iPhone