Three years ago today...

...I married my best friend!

Our First Family Pictures!

Last weekend, our friends Josh & Grace Hill were kind enough to take some family pics for us! Here are a few of them...

Family Time

The weekend before last, Rhett went fishing with his brother & I spent some time with the big sis & nephews at the air show. I've never been to an air show before & I really enjoyed it! Here are a few pics...

And a couple of pics from Rhett's fishing trip, too.... (sorry, not the best quality!)

Fall!

I love this time of year when I can get out my Fall decorations & burn my pumpkin pie-scented candles! Since Rhett has been studying for his P.E. (professional engineer) exam, I've had plenty of weekend time to shop for cute new decorations.

Our kitchen table (not the greatest pic, but you get the idea)...

I actually found these super cute napkin ring holders at Wal-Mart...

And I got these candle holders at Kohl's...

Found these placemats at Garden Ridge...

And here's the centerpiece I put together. I feel like it's missing something, so I may change it if something else comes to me.

I also got some leaf-shaped cookie cutters and Fall stencils at Garden Ridge. I attempted to make cookies on Sunday, and here are a few of them. They didn't turn out as good as I had imagined, but I'm just getting into the whole baking thing. They were yummy, though! I think I'm gonna try to make/decorate some cupcakes this weekend.

HAPPY FALL!

Headline: Hurricane Ike Ruins Wildcard Race for the Astros

Well, I figured it was about time to post a blog about Hurricane Ike...and how he ruined the Astros chance at the NL wildcard spot. Here ya go...

Let me just start off by saying that we are fine and our house is fine! Praise the Lord! On the other hand, my heart aches for the citizens of Galveston Island and the Bolivar Peninsula. I'm sure you've seen the pictures...not pretty. Rhett and I have a lot to be thankful for...well, we always have, but events like this just serve as a much needed reminder of all our blessings.

Here's how "Hurricane Ike Weekend" played out for us...

All week long, we'd watched and tracked the storm. At first, they said it was headed for Louisiana. Then, it was headed for the Corpus Christi/Brownsville area. I think on Weds/Thurs of that week, it started to become more of a reality that it would actually make landfall near Galveston/Houston! We had already bought a bunch of batteries when Gustav formed a few weeks earlier, so we were cool there. Rhett did go to Wal-Mart that Wednesday to get non-perishable food items and more water. The evacuations of coastal and near-coastal areas started and Thursday arrived. Thats when "pre-Ike anxiety" began!

We went to work as usual, but you could just tell that people were in a state of semi-panic. We all wanted to go home & prepare our homes & families for the storm...but it was business as usual at my pharmacy. We were told that we'd be open on Friday and that we needed to try to come in if possible (storm was projected to hit early Saturday morning), but if we missed it would be excused (just not paid). I decided not to go in on Friday. I drive all the way into downtown from NW Houston, and I didn't want to chance getting stuck in the evacuation traffic. Rhett's work closed, so he stayed home as well.

I spent most of the day doing laundry and cleaning my house. We also topped off our gas tanks and brought in the patio furniture. We live far enough inland that we were not too worried about flooding or boarding up our windows. The only thing we were worried about was a tree falling on the house. We have two large oak trees in the front yard and one really tall pine tree in the back...and our neighbors have trees as well. We watched the news all day long, which probably didn't help with my anxiousness! The weather was nice, so we played in the backyard with the dogs. They didn't know Ike was going to pay us a visit...here are some pics:

Tag chewing on a pine tree branch. Yummy!




Rio running from Dad. Tag wondering why Rio took his pine tree branch.

The girl...in desperate need of a haircut.

We lost electricity around 9:15pm on Friday night. We had just finished watching an episode of Flip That House, and were about to get some ice cream when the lights went out. We had almost an entire gallon of ice cream that we knew would soon melt, so we enjoyed that in darkness. I was surprised that the lights went out so early. The wind really started picking up around 11pm. We camped out in the living room with the pups. Rhett tried to go to sleep and mostly succeeded. I could not go to sleep for anything! The wind was crazy! I had my weather radio properly tuned and listened to the weather broadcast. Ike made landfall near Galveston/Bolivar as a Cat 2 around 2am. We didn't get the heavy rains until around 4am. Luckily, our dogs could care less about storms. They slept through most of it. Rhett woke up periodically to check on our heavily swaying pine tree in the back yard. Again...SO thankful we didn't have any trees fall!

After the sun came up & things started dying down, we were able to check things out. We had a lot of branches down in the front yard and our gutter on the back of the house malfunctioned, but other than that everything was fine! Here are a few pics:















We got a call from our friends Jenn & Jarod (our travel buddies) that they had roof and water damage at their house not too far away. They had stayed the night with our friends Karen & Keith who live in our same subdivision. We gathered a bunch of towels and buckets and slowly made our way to J&J's house. They were not so lucky. They have a two-story house with virtually no tall trees in the subdivision, so a lot of the houses there had roof damage from the wind. The ceiling in one of their extra bedrooms had caved in from all the water leaking in through the attic. We did what we could to put buckets out to collect dripping water. The forecasters said all day long that we would not get anymore rain, so we thought the worst was over for J&J...but it wasnt.

Sunday morning, it started pouring at around 3am. We got a call from Keith & Karen at 6am to head to J&J's b/c things had obviously gotten worse. By then, the kitchen ceiling had collapsed and their master bath & bed were getting wet, too. We moved all their furniture and belongings to the portions of the house that weren't taking on water. Things were a little chaotic. I felt so bad for them. They have been staying with K&K since then (except for a couple nights last weekend when they stayed with us). They did get a new roof put on a week after Ike, so they were blessed with that rather quickly. Now, they have to take care of getting everything else fixed.

My sister and her family weathered the storm at their home in Pearland, and they were all fine as well. My aunt and uncle evacuated to Austin from their home in League City. Believe it or not, they both got power back before we did! (they're both further south than we are). My parents were without power for about a week.

Life without electricity is no fun. Work without electricity is even worse. I had to go in to work the Monday after. We had 2 generators, but it just wasn't enough. We could only power so many computers and lights. Not fun. Tuesday, we were asphyxiated by gasoline fumes half the day. Wednesday, still no electricity and hot as hell. Thursday, we blew a generator b/c the boss lady was determined to power so many freaking things with it. Finally, we got power back on Friday around lunchtime. That was probably the worst week I've ever experienced at work. We do business with vet clinics and pet owners all over the U.S. so we didn't have the luxury of just shutting down. I hated every minute of it. Traffic since Ike has been a million times worse than it normally is....fun stuff.

Each day, as soon as I got home from work we would hop in the car and drive until we found an open restaurant. Eating out and basking in the electricity and A/C was the highlight of each day. We did finally get electricity at home the Thursday after Ike, so we were out for 5-ish days. It could have been a lot worse...our friends Karen & Keith were in the dark for nearly 2 weeks! I think now, nearly all power has been restored. Life has slowly gotten back to normal here in Houston. I think it will be a long while before things go back to normal along the coast, though.

Now, to explain the title of this blog...

The weekend of the hurricane, the Cubs were supposed to come to Houston to play the Astros at Minute Maid. My 'stros were doing so great & were on a roll leading up to that weekend. We were fighting hard to take the NL Wild Card spot! Since they obviously couldn't play here in Houston, they moved 2 of the 3 games (3rd one was not played) to the Brewer's stadium in Milwaukee! We lost both games! Then we lost a few more... Although we didn't go down without a fight, I'm blaming Ike for ruining the team's momentum. STUPID IKE!!!!

Waiting on Ike!

We're waiting........ Rhett & I have been having our own pre-Hurricane party all day. Ok, I lied...we haven't partied at all. We cleaned the house. Then we brought in our patio furniture. Then we played some on the Wii Balance Board. Now we're bored. And we're waiting.........

Labor Day Weekend Fun at Minute Maid Park!

Our Labor Day weekend plans changed a little when Hurricane Gustav decided to visit Louisiana. Rhett's family wasn't able to come like originally planned, but we already had 7 tickets to the Saturday Astros game vs. St. Louis. So, Stephanie & her crew came with us! We also brought along our friend, Okie. He is a Univ. of Houston international student from Nigeria.

This was Luke's very first Astros game! He was most concerned with his hotdog and the choo-choo train that goes when an Astro player hits a home run. Every time someone was at bat, he would ask "Is that guy gonna make the train go?" It was too cute! This was a great win & the Astros actually hit 3 home runs! Here are some pics of the nephews and one with me, Steph, and the boys.

Ranger Rogers

This blog is just to brag on my favorite little brother! :o)

On July 25th, Josh graduated from Army Ranger school and received his Ranger Tab! Rhett and I were disappointed not to be able to make it. This was the day before we left for our vacation, so there was no way to make it to Georgia. We've made it to his boot camp graduation, deployment ceremony, and homecoming ceremony...so I was sad to miss this. Luckily, my parents and aunt and uncle were able to go, and my dad pinned his Ranger Tab on him.

We are so proud of Josh for all of his accomplishments. Whatever he sets his sights on, he achieves! And he's one of the most humble people I know, so I know he'll hate that I'm bragging on him! (too bad, bro!)

Here are some of the pics my family took at his graduation. For some reason, only Dad made it into the pics...


Dad pinning on his Ranger Tab:

Part of his initiation...

Vacation Recap

Well, our vacation to Playa del Carmen (July 26-31) came & went in the blink of an eye...boohoo! We had a great time in Mexico with our friends Jenn & Jarod. Here's a little recap of our adventures...

Prior to our trip, Jenn & I had both been reading reviews on the travel website, Trip Advisor. The resort (Grand Riviera Princess) has only been open since December 2007, but there were/are a good number of reviews. It seemed like for every good review, there was a terrible one. For me, all it took was reading the words "traveler's diarrhea" one time before I began to worry. Just days before our trip, I prepared an emergency kit mostly consisting of anti-diarrheal products. I stocked up on loperamide and got Rhett's mom (a nurse practitioner) to call us in some ciprofloxacin, an antibiotic. Luckily, cipro is on the $4 generic list at Wal-Mart and we were able to get 20 tablets for $4. At 1 tablet twice daily for 3 days, each potential diarrhea sufferer would need 6 tablets. Lets do some math...6 tablets/traveler x 4 travelers = 24 tablets. Being 4 tablets short, this meant that only 3 of us could get sick. On the way to the airport, the group decided that Jarod could not get diarrhea.

We arrived at the airport to find a long line for checking baggage. Jenn & Jarod, the travel experts (Jarod works for Continental), had thought ahead & printed their boarding passes. Actually, we usually have this part taken care of...but for some reason we weren't on our game this time. J&J got in the speedy line for prepared travelers, and we resolved ourselves to the slow line for the less prepared. When Rhett's suitcase weighed in at 46.something pounds, I got nervous b/c I always pack way more than he does. Luckily, mine weighed just 47 pounds & we were able to move through to the security checkpoint. Rhett noticed that a group of about 30 students and chaperones were about to get in line, so we ran quickly and cut them off at the pass. We were short on time, so line manners did not matter at this point. We finally made it to our gate as they were calling for all remaining passengers to board. We didn't really cut it dangerously close, but close enough to where I was getting worried. The flight was fine...fast forward to our arrival in Mexico...

Rhett's suitcase did not make it to the Cancun airport on our flight. We've never had luggage problems, so this was kinda nerve-wracking for me. His suitcase contained both our cameras, so thats what we were mainly concerned about. After searching high and low for it, Rhett finally just filled out a baggage claim form & we went to catch our shuttle to the hotel. It took about an hour to get there. We were closer to Playa del Carmen, but not actually in the city.

The entrance to the resort was kinda "blah" due to a lot of construction (its a new resort), but the lobby was really nice. We got in line to check in and soon experienced one of the problems we'd read about on tripadvisor....sloooow check-in. After waiting our turn, we were told our rooms weren't ready. To compensate, they said they'd upgrade us from the Junior Suite (lowest end) to a Junior Suite Deluxe (only difference was slightly better location & a jacuzzi tub). While waiting, we went to hit up the buffet before meeting with our Fun Jet representative to talk about activities/excursions. We were not too impressed with the buffet spread (something else we'd read about). I won't go into much detail about the buffet here...it deserves its own paragaph...more to come. So after eating & talking to the Fun Jet guy, we went back to stand in line again..and they said that only our room was ready...not Jenn & Jarod's. So, we had our luggage (minus Rhett's) sent to our room & we walked down to check it out.

This resort was huge! Lots of walking! From the lobby to the beach was probably about a 15 minute walk...10 minutes if you're Rhett. The grounds were extremely nice with a lot of pool space. The rooms were also very nice. We all hung out in our room for a while...resting & waiting for J&J to get their room. We watched a random movie broadcast in English, but with Spanish subtitles. This allowed us all to brush up on our "Spanglish" before interacting with the locals. By this time, it was probably around 5pm or so. We were surprised to receive a call from the concierge that Rhett's luggage had been delivered from the airport! I was relieved that Rhett would have his clothes & our cameras were safe. J&J finally got into their room, and we all suited up to head to the pool. Like I said, it seemed like half the resort was a swimming pool...which was nice! We swam a little bit, then cleaned up & got ready for dinner. I will share some pics of the grounds & such before moving on to the buffet...

Now, more about the buffet. To sum it up in two words...it sucked. Or maybe I should say they sucked....there were like 5 of them total. They all served the same things every single day. Actually, the breakfast buffet was pretty good. I can't complain about breakfast, but the lunch & dinner buffets were "no bueno" as they say in Mexico. I guess I don't partake of buffets very often, so it was just weird for me. I like the various foods on my plate to compliment each other. I just don't understand the random selections of dishes they'd serve. I think my first meal consisted of cream cheese-stuffed peppers, chips & sucky queso, pizza, assorted rolls, watermelon, and ice cream. Over the course of our trip, I ate various combinations of the aforementioned selections, rice & beans, french fries, spaghetti, mystery meats, chips & guacamole, and unidentified deserts. Here is a picture of us on our first night there after dinner. We're not smiling because of dinner. We're smiling because of the yummy tropical coconut frozen drinks!

They did have various themed restaurants that were available for dinner. The crazy thing was that you had to make reservations for them only at specified times of the day, and you could only reserve 2 days in advance. The Saturday we got there, we were able to reserve the "grill" for Sunday night and "fondue" for Monday night. On Sunday morning, Rhett had to stand in line to reserve Tuesday night's "Italian" dinner. Then on Monday, Jarod reserved Wednesday night's "seafood" dinner. The dinner restaurants were much better than the buffets.

So anyway, moving on... Sunday was a lazy day at the pool & beach...it was great! We all read a lot & got in the pool off and on throughout the day. I read quite a bit of my book, Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince. (on a side note, this is my favorite HP book so far & I'm upset that the movie release is delayed until next summer!) We tried lots of fruity drinks & ate soft-serve icecream from the poolside bar. It was a very relaxing day. After choking down a late lunch, we headed to the beach. Jarod played beach volleyball while the rest of us got in the ocean. The beach was a good bit more crowded than what Rhett and I are accustomed to from previous beach vacations, but still nice. It was a little rocky near the beach, but once you got past some rocks, it was fine. The water felt awesome. Jarod eventually joined us after dominating in beach volleyball. Here are some pics in the ocean...

Sunday night we ate at the "grill" restaurant. I had "baby chicken" (??) and it was decent. Rhett & Jenn both got the plate of various grilled meats & we spent most of dinner trying to decide which one was the rabbit meat, haha! Rhett cleaned his plate, but we still don't know if Jenn ate the rabbit or not!

Monday was another lazy day at the pool for me and Rhett. Jenn and Jarod took the ferry to Cozumel to do some shopping. We were close to going, but then decided not to because we didn't wake up early enough to catch an early ferry. For dinner, we had fondue and it was actually pretty good. This was an uneventful (but relaxing) day, so I don't have any pictures to share.

Tuesday was our busy day! We went to a water park of sorts called Xel-Ha (http://www.xelha.com/) then to Mayan ruins at Tulum. The Xel-Ha website describes it as an "open-sea aquarium." It was really cool! Because we also went to Tulum that day, we didn't get as much time as we really needed at Xel-Ha. We made the most of our time though and started out with some snorkeling. The water was absolutely FREEZING! I don't think I've ever been in water that cold. We swam around for 20-30 minutes and saw lots of fish. Then, we moved on to the lazy river. I liked the lazy river. Lazy is for me. We sat in two-person tubes and floated for a while. You could also get out of your tube and swim around if you wanted. I started baking, so I had to suck it up and get into freezing water. There was a cliff where you could dive off into the water, so Rhett did that. I don't do cliff diving, so I just watched! Jenn did some sort of rope thing where you walk across a rope while also holding onto a rope above your head. I was too lazy to do it, lol! This trip was "all-inclusive" so again, we found ourselves at another buffet for lunch. This was a buffet of Mexican food and was a good bit better than the hotel buffet. I think I was just really hungry. They did have some awesome ice cream, though! Here are some pics from Xel-Ha...

After eating lunch & changing clothes, we headed to the tour bus to go to some Mayan ruins at Tulum. Had I given 100% of my attention to the tour guide, I could tell you all about the city Tulum and it's ancient ruins. But I didn't, so you'll have to google it if you really want to know! I can tell you that it was hot. Luckily, we would periodically catch an ocean breeze as the site is located on a cliff overlooking the Caribbean. Here are some pics from Tulum...

And here are pics of us before dinner that night...

Wednesday was our last day there, so we relaxed some more! We had more tropical coconuts and soft serve icecream, and I read more of my book. Not too much to write about, so here are a few pics...

Don't ask...

After sitting at the pool all day, Jenn and I forced the guys to dress for pictures on the beach. We felt a little goofy walking to the beach dressed all alike, but it had to be done in the name of cute beach pictures. They didn't turn out as good as we'd hoped, but here are a few of them. I think we waited a little too late and the lighting wasn't just right. I still think we look cute, though! :o)

And a cute one of our good friends, Jenn and Jarod...




Well, I think that about wraps up my detailed description of our vacation. I'm impressed if you've made it this far! We had a great and relaxing time in Playa! However, after traveling to Mexico and back, it was a unanimous decision to have dinner at Lupe Tortilla. I'm sorry, but you just can't beat good Tex-Mex food!