Taite Votes!

Taite got to vote at school. She said that the guy she voted for won! I asked her how she decided who to vote for. She said, his name was on the top. She couldn't remember who she voted for so I asked her if it was McCain or Obama. She said, "Oh, yeah, I voted for John McCain. Rock Obama only got, like 6 votes!" Too funny! Just had to share!

Taite's Journal Writing

Yesterday, Taite brought home her 1st 9 weeks journal from school. When I was teaching, journals were one of my favorite teaching tools. They allow kids to use creative thinking and they allow kids to practice writing skills they have learned.

She had a handful of entries in the journal, but Lewis & I really liked two of them in particular that I wanted to share:

The first was an entry that the kids did when they returned to school after Ike. They were supposed to draw/write something about the hurricane.


Here is Taite's interpretation:

"The hurricane"

She said the "clouds" above show fallen trees, broken traffic lights and lost dogs.

The 2nd entry I wanted to share is one she did recently about her Halloween costume. (See if you can read what she wrote!):

"Taite's costume is a fairy"

Luke & Mindy Visit

Mindy & Luke were in town for the weekend....on their way to Dallas to meet Mindy's new nephew in Dallas! We spent Saturday at Mom & Dad's visiting with them.

Taite LOVED playing with Luke. Luke loved playing with the pumpkin on Taite's shirt!

We all went to the pumpkin patch.

Then, back to Grandma & Grandpa's to play some more....

My Uncle Ronnie (Dad's brother) & Aunt Ronna were also in town visiting. When Paige saw Uncle Ronnie, she said, "hi Grandpa!" Grandpa told her, "that's my brother!" She kept eyeballing both of them - in her world, they looked the same. The rest of the night, she was calling Uncle Ronnie "brother". When we left, she said, "bye Brother!" So cute!

Aunt Marilyn, Uncle Bill, and my cousin Dana and her fiance Bryan also came over for dinner that night. Exciting news - Dana & Bryan asked Taite to be the flower girl in their wedding! She is SOOOO excited! They're getting married next October. We are really excited for them. Bryan will be a great addition to our family!

Humpty Dumpty

One more....Paige reciting "Humpty Dumpty". By the way - the shirt she's wearing in these videos is her "painting shirt", which she also wears at dinner on spaghetti night! Didn't want anyone to think we dress our kids in rags! ;)

Paige Singing

Here is Paige singing one of her favorites, "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star":

A Trip to the E.R.

We have been waiting for the day that we'd need to take Paige to the e.r. and today was the day. It wasn't that bad, though. The girls & I were eating dinner early to get ready for gymnastics tonight. Taite & I were still eating while Paige was running laps through the kitchen, dragging a sheet with her. She tripped on the sheet, fell down & bit her lip. She has had plenty of busted lips in her 2 yrs., but this one seemed worse - I got a quick look right after it happened & the inside looked pretty "opened". There was, of course, a lot of blood, but she was good about letting me keep ice on it.

Anyway, I called Lewis & we decided to take her somewhere to have it looked at. We decided to go to a new stand-alone emergency room in Pearland. It was great. We walked in & we were the only ones there. By now, by the way, Paige was bouncing off the wall (like normal). You wouldn't have thought anything was wrong with her. We literally walked in & went back to see the doctor within about 5 minutes.

The long story, short is that her lip is fine. She didn't need any stitches. He said the bottom lip heals well. She will live. Like Lewis said, now she's in the "system" there WHEN we need to take her back! ;)

The funniest thing about the whole ordeal was seeing her lying on the hospital bed! I wish we could've gotten a picture. Here's our little 2 year old, lying there (happy & actually STILL, by the way), with a miniture blood pressure cuff on her arm, a thermometer under her arm & that pulse thing on her finger. It was too funny. She was a little miniature e.r. patient.

While I'm talking about Paige, I have to include a video. I have more that I'd like to add later. Last night, she was singing songs to her Mema on the phone. She won't usually 'perform' for the camera, so this was a great opportunity to tape her (while she was focused on singing to Mema). Take a look....

Even Crazier Fish News!

Today is Saturday - a week since we took the dead fish back to Petsmart. Today, Taite was looking at the empty fish tank & she called me, "Mom! There is a baby fish in here!" I told her it was probably junk floating around in there. Just to prove my point, I turned the light on....only to discover FOUR baby fish swimming around! SO FUNNY! I don't really know what to do with 4 microscopic fish. We put a little bit of ground up fish food in the tank. They may not last through the day. But, it would be cool if they did make it! Maybe this is why their parent(s) died...do they lay their eggs & die??? Who knows. The picture above is the best shot I could get of one of the rapidly swimming microscopic fish we have inherited! :)

UPDATE: The fish didn't last through the day. I'm sure we caused that, somehow. I read up on this type of fish - they are acutally "livebearers", so they did not come from eggs. I guess those little buggers have been hangin' out in there for a week. Little did we know. I'm sure when we started messing with the tank we killed 'em. So sad. That was pretty cool!!!

Fish News

Just a quick entry here. NOTE: Fish #2 (Mickey) only made it until last Friday. I am not one to return stuff (I hate making the trip). BUT, we took the fish back to Petsmart because of their 14 day guarantee. It wasn't for the $$, just the principle of the matter. We got our money back, no problem, however, they said we need to have our water tested. This is a little "high maintenance" for $2 fish!! Needless to say, we have not replaced the fish yet. We'll try again. Maybe this weekend....

Big News!

No, no, it's not news about US!

Quick little story.....

Last Friday, we had a flower delivery with the balloon above & a boquet of pink flowers. My initial thought was that it was for our neighbors. But, I noticed that the card on the flowers was addressed to Taite. The balloons were from Aunt Gyn & Uncle Chad, Lewis' sister & our brother-in-law. They're having a girl!!

So, in Febrary we will have a niece. Taite is exited. I am ready to pawn off our tubs & tubs of pink clothes to them! :)

Congrats, Gyn & Chad!

A Beautiful Sight....

Yay! The "claw truck" came & it finally picked up OUR debris!! Yesterday, it was across the street picking up limbs, and the truck was full and they were done for the night. But, today, they picked up where they left off & they have now gotten our limbs & bags.

We still have some "heavy trash" that needs to be picked up. Our pool, which seemed to make it through the storm ended up having some pinhole leaks. So, it is trash. You can kind of see the ladder to the pool sitting in the right-hand corner of the picture above.

With BOTH girls back to school this week, things are starting to feel like they're getting back to "normal".

New Pets

At the beginning of Sept., Aunt Gyn brought Taite a pet hermit crab that she got for her at the beach this summer. Taite named it Mr. Krabs the Hermit Crab. Mr. Krabs, miraculously lasted about 3 weeks. Long story short, I was not sad to see him go. I will never even be able to look at hermit crabs ever again. Ick.

Upon Mr. Krab's departure, we told Taite she could get some fish. So, we picked out a little tank & went to Petsmart & bought two little guppy-like fish (I forgot the name of them). Taite named one Daisy & the other Mickey (because its tail has a mark that looks like Mickey Mouse). The store has a 14 day guarantee on the fish. Daisy lasted 3 days. I'm having flashbacks from the 'carnival' goldfish that we won in elementary school. So, Daisy is now double-bagged in a ziplock bag in our freezer, waiting to go back to Petsmart to get a new fish.

All I can say is....the things we go through for our kids! Too funny! Both of the girls enjoy the fish, so, if they'll live, this is a pretty easy new "pet"!