Weekend Fun

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Miss Taylorbug had an absolutely fabulous time in Austin with Nana and Boppy! From the State Capitol to the Bob Bullock Museum of Texas History and The Great Duck Adventure to an Imax movie, she was definitely busy. Add in a trip to Joe's Crab Shack and "that cajun place on 6th Street" (those are exactly the words she used, lol) and you have a well-rounded weekend trip.

Oh, and she "went through myself" - aka, she drove through Taylor, Texas - and "went to a different country" - aka, drove through Holland ;-)...she was a bit tired when I picked her up yesterday but rallied long enough to take an hour long walk with me through the neighborhood. Did I mention our neighborhood has LOTS and LOTS of hills? Needless to say, it was a good workout...

Haven't gotten pics from Boppy yet but hope to do so soon...other than that, not a lot going on except that Tay will be in the Heart of Texas Fair Parade tomorrow night with her soccer team.

Off to the Capitol!

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As September comes to a close, Miss Taylorbug is planning to take the State Capitol by storm! She's heading to Austin this weekend with Nana and Boppy. In addition, she's bringing along Champ, Hershey Bar and Poof (all stuffed animals who apparently were really ready for a trip!).

She's been suffering with allergies the last couple of days so we did not attend dance last night and enjoyed a 'quiet evening at home' instead. That's really what she called it :-)...now all of her bags are packed and Nana will pick her up from school. 

She's super excited and wanted to know if it will be big (I gave her a resounding 'yes') and then she asked if they would have a map (wasn't sure about that one). Then she informed me that Miss Whitney (from daycare) told her she would "learn a lot of stuff." I figured that one was a pretty safe bet as well!

Dave is working all weekend so it looks like it'll be me and the pups for the majority of the time. I've been suffering from allergies as well so a little down time is completely fine with me. Not to mention that I began working out again this week (after being too sick to do so for more than 2 weeks) so I'm a bit sore as well :-)...

Surgery to fix my deviated and twisted septum has been approved and scheduled for December 1. I fought for so long to get it approved by insurance and, now that it is, I realized I'm actually going to have to go through with it now! Oh well, it will be worth it...and I won't have to miss Disney on Ice, Thanksgiving or Christmas. Ok, enough whining from me...

Hopefully, we'll have pictures from the Capitol...I'm sure we'll have lots to discuss here next week!

Build-A-Bear, Lost Tooth and Soccer!!

Well, Miss Taylor had a very busy weekend starting with her first soccer game of the season on Saturday morning. We had to change teams unexpectedly in the middle of last week so she hadn't even had a chance to practice before taking the field. So imagine our surprise when Miss Tay scored a goal!! She played soccer when she was 3 but didn't really enjoy it and, despite the coach's best efforts, never did manage to get the ball in the goal herself. Looks like she's gotten over that trouble. After she made the goal, it was like she went into overdrive and started running faster, getting into the huddle and making a path for herself. :-)
Then we headed to the mall because there's a new Build-A-Bear store here now. She made a cute little bear that she dressed in a baseball uniform and named him Champ. We had planned early last week to take her but kept it as a surprise until we walked into the mall. You should have seen her eyes get big as saucers!

Champ went with us to run errands and do some grocery shopping before enjoying his new home that afternoon with Miss Tay. She even had him go with us to church yesterday morning. He was very well-behaved...not a word ;-)

After cleaning house, doing laundry and putting out our fall decorations, we took a trip to Nana's to pick up goodies that Maw Maw had sent us. We now have a Clydesdale Webkinz who has been named Hershey Bar (he's chocolate brown colored) so Champ and Tay decorated his virtual room last night. Build-A-Bear also has a virtual world now as well so Champ was able to see himself on the computer too. It's really cute because he showed up on screen with the exact same clothes that Tay had picked out in the store. Gotta love technology!

So we had fajitas last night and Tay kept chewing and chewing and chewing her meat because she had a loose tooth. She was hoping to make it come out quickly and she succeeded. Right before bath time, she walked into our bedroom looking for a tissue to stop the bleeding a baby tooth in her hand. She was excited to see the Tooth Fairy had paid a visit this morning!
After all of the excitement of the weekend, I'm hoping to get a bit of rest at work today, lol...in all seriousness, though, she does have soccer practice this evening so we won't have much down time...thank goodness for the weekends!

Cooler Weather

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We've been enjoying much cooler weather this week with lows in the upper 50s and highs in the low 80s. I would love to see each of those numbers 10-15 degrees lower but, given that we had a stretch of 100+ that seemed to go on forever this summer, I'll take it! Temps are supposed to inch up through the weekend so I've recruited Dave to steam clean our carpets one last time before the fall and winter roll in.

Miss Tay's doing really well and I think she's starting to get the hang of this third grade stuff! She reads voraciously every night--they have to read at least 100 minutes each week (7 days) but she consistently more than doubles that--which makes us terribly proud. We've scheduled her 9th birthday party (amazing how she keeps getting older when I don't, lol) at the local skating rink and we'll be taking cupcakes to school for a class celebration as well.

The Bears are playing football at UConn this week so we won't have a game to attend this weekend. We did learn yesterday that Build A Bear has opened a store in our mall so we're going to surprise Tay with a trip on Saturday after her soccer game. She was a tremendous help last week and over the weekend around the house. With me being so sick and Dave having to work, she emptied the dishwasher, fed the dogs, changed laundry around in the machines and brought me snacks and liquids to keep hydrated--all without ever being asked! So this will be her treat for being such an awesome little one...

Dance and gymnastics are clicking right along and she's loving both classes. Soccer begins this weekend so that ought to be interesting...we changed teams just yesterday so we missed the Monday practice...basically, we're flying by the seat of our pants on this one :-)...

There are still many areas around us that are helping Hurricane Ike evacuees. The pictures from the coast are heart-wrenching and I just can't see how people will be able to live there for several months. Our church is helping with one of the evacuation centers so I'm going to get more information on Sunday about how we can participate.

Enjoy the cooler weather--and pray for it to last!!

Childhood Cancer Awareness Month

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We made it through the weekend and really didn't feel the effects of Hurricane Ike very much. It was windy and drizzled most of the day on Saturday but we were spared from the worst of his wrath. There are so many who weren't, though, and it seems they have a long road ahead of them before returning to normalcy.

One of my sorority sisters, Jen, lives in Houston with her husband daughter, who was diagnosed with leukemia earlier this year. She's doing her second round of chemo right now and this was one family I knew didn't need additional complications from a hurricane. Thank heavens they only lost a couple of trees and part of their fence.

As you may already know, September is Childhood Cancer Awareness month. This is one area that doesn't seem to get nearly enough awareness. There are 46 children diagnosed with cancer each school day. That statistic just blew me out of the water! Knowing that we'll all be wearing pink ribbons for breast cancer awareness next month (which I wholeheartedly support as well), be sure to pick up a gold one for the kiddos this month...

We No Like Ike

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Well, I'm still sick and even had to miss work yesterday because of fever...and the fact that my co-workers really don't want to get this junk. Can't say that I blame them...

Anyway, we're gearing up for an uncertain weekend as it appears Ike has us in his crosshairs. Even though the eye of the storm should pass by us to the East, his girth is gigantic so we've been told to prepare for Tropical Storm force winds and up to 5 inches of rain. While we could use the rain, I'd a bit leery about the winds...and I'm also nervous about trying to get three puppies to go potty outside when it's pouring :-)

Dave's already gotten a call letting him know they're expecting a number of babies at Hillcrest that have been evacuated from the coast so I'm sure things will be hopping for him this weekend. We're dreading the possibility of not having electricity but have stocked up on batteries, flashlights and a camp light so Tay can read her library books to stave off boredom. Assuming that we manage to keep electricity, the satellite is sure to go out but we've been recording stuff all week so hopefully Tay won't be to unhappy.

We are very thankful that what we're facing is so minor in comparison to those down in Galveston and surrounding areas. A 20-foot storm surge is expected and waters are already rising--and the storm isn't supposed to hit for another 12 hours! Needless to say, devastation is very likely and we're praying for those who had to evacuate their homes.

We're hoping for the best!

Happy Fall, Y'all!

Looks like I'm falling behind again on posting but we've been super busy with school, and its related activities, beginning again. Between dance, gymnastics, homework, soccer, Baylor football games...well, you get the picture...we've been quite busy!

Anyway, this will be a short one because I've come down with the upper respiratory gunk that's been going around. It's compounded in my case because I have a twisted and deviated septum from when I broke my nose 5 years ago. I saw a plastic surgeon last week and all of the paperwork has been sent to my insurance so, hopefully, it will be fixed either at Thankgiving or Christmas...way to spend the holidays, huh? That also explains why I'm at work instead of passed out at home...I'm trying to save sick days :-)

On to Taylor news...she was ecstatic that Baylor beat Northwestern State last weekend (by a lot!) and we're hoping to attend the Washington State game this weekend (right after her first soccer game); however, Hurricane Ike may have other plans for us...his current track puts him heading directly for Waco although he will only be a Tropical Storm when he arrives. We desperately need the rain but it could be a long weekend with just me, Tay and the puppies...long for Dave, too, as they're expecting lots of babies that have been evacuated from the south.

I'm sure there's more going on right now but I just can't think clearly today...we're looking forward to cooler temps in a couple of weeks. It's been a long, hot, sticky summer!