Head Cold

I'm sick and tired . . . not of anything in particular, just sick and I need to get some sleep. Cassie brought home a cold and I seem to have gotten it. I'm going to try to keep everyone else from getting it too - especially Eliza. Sick babies are no fun.

There is a bottle of this in the medicine cabinet

and I'm very tempted, but instead I'll have this.

All because of this little person.

It better be worth it!!!!! I feel like my head could either

A.) Explode - at least the pressure would be stopped

B.) Leak until it's all gone. Brains and all (wouldn't take long)

Anybody have any drug free ways of easing the pain and stuffiness?

More on the fish

His name is AJ

He's now been with us for four days

It's a good sign.

Farewell Max . . .

I killed the fish!!!I stayed up almost all night watching the coverage of the hurricane live on the TV. I went out to the kitchen around 1:30 for a glass of water, said "Goodnight" to the fish, and went back to watch more coverage. When Jon got up around 6:30 Saturday morning (to start our overly scheduled day) he saw that the fish had been sucked up into the filter and was stuck and dead. What a way to start a day. We tried to tell Jeremy that Max was trying to escape like Nemo did and that he was just too fat to fit into the filter. There were tears and drama and promises of another fish later in the day.

We had too many things to do that day to worry about a "proper burial" for Max.

Poor fish - we didn't really even get to know the guy.

At 8:00 am we went to a pancake breakfast for church. My ward has the best pancake, hash brown, sausage, and made to order egg set up around. The breakfast took place in a local park and it was fantastic.

Cassie had to be at her soccer game at 8:30 so we rushed over to that. Her team won and Cassie had some fantastic saves while playing goalie. Her team is looking pretty good and they are passing and setting up plays much better now. She was named the player of the game and received some nice High School Musical pencils as a prize.

Then it was over to picture day. What a mess!!! I'm the team mom for both teams and I thought that I had brought everything for the pictures that I needed. I turns out that I did not bring the official roster for the directory and that turned out to be a big deal. UGH! I had to fill one out on the spot while the girls were in line. Jeremy's team was scheduled for photos about an hour later so we stayed.

Jeremy's game went about as well as a bunch of four year olds playing soccer can go. Nobody cried about wanting to sit down so it was a good day. Jeremy did take a break while he was supposed to be playing to swing on a nearby tree branch with the coach's little girl. Then the a little girl from the other team decided that swinging on a tree branch looked better than playing soccer. It was funny to hear, "Come on guys, we need you to stay on the field." I love soccer at this age. I'll post pictures of the tree swinging as soon as one of the mom's sends them to me.

After Jeremy's soccer game we went to the pet store.

I brought in the filter with me to the store to see if really was the filter that killed the fish. It was. There is a piece missing from the bottom that prevents fish from getting sucked in. We bought a new filter and Jeremy picked out a new fish.

His name hasn't been finalized . . . Jeremy wants to name him "Black Man", but I'm not so sure about the name. Cassie wants to name him "Afro". I'm sure we can come up with a better name than those. Maybe something a little more politically correct . . . like Gus or Sam.

While talking to the pet store people I expressed my surprise at using bottled water for the fish. I said, "I hope this one likes 'Arrowhead' water". The guy then tells me that the ph balance of Arrowhead water is bad for the fish and I should use Evian water. Can you believe that? Or do I have "sucker" tatooed on my forehead?

Good Luck fishy (whatever your name is)

I hope you last longer than 2 days.

Hurricane Ike

This is a picture one of my bestest friends, Jessi, and I.

The center of that big nasty hurricane is where Jessi lives.

Please pray for her safety and peace of mind.

She lives Houston, but not one of the zip codes that are facing mandatory evacuations. She's been told to "hunker down" and ride it out. She and her husband, John, stayed for the last hurricane that they thought would hit Houston (Rita a few years back), but now they have a two month old baby and it makes it that much scarier. It's projected that they are going to get hit with the "dirty" end of the hurricane (it kind of makes everything look like a garbage disposal blew up - chunks of anything you can imagine scattered everywhere).

The satellite picture above is actually a picture of Hurricane Alicia from 1983 hitting Houston. I was unfortunately in Houston for that. It was big and scary and the eye passed right over Houston. I have to admit that the eye of the hurricane is SUPER cool ( eery and deathly still with churning clouds). It's just the endless hours of wind, rain, thunder, lightning and tornadoes on either end of it that sucks.

Update as of 10:00 - Jessi, her husband, baby Jamison, their two Golden Retrievers, their cat and all their important papers are heading out. I talked to her while they were driving and they are going to ride the storm out with John's parents. I'm soooo glad that they left. Her younger brother lives about two blocks away from her and is going to stay. Keep him in your thoughts . . . the hurricane looks like its gaining strength and headed directly for Houston.

A day to remember 9/11

Someone asked me if I remember where I was and what I was doing that September morning? I thought, "How could I forget? Will I ever be able to get those images out of my head?" The confusion, the fear, the heartache? Then the overwhelming sense of love I felt for my own family. How I held my baby daughter a little tighter, squeezed my hubby a little bit longer, smiled at strangers a little bit more, hung my flag outside with a little more gratitude, lit candles on the porch for the ones who were lost and those who were looking for them? No, I don't think I'll ever forget that day. I won't forget how time stood still and nothing has been exactly the same since then.

So today I wear

black in reverence and

my flag pin with honor and

tonight I'll light candles on my porch

for all the loved ones that were lost that we didn't know

and the one that was lost that we did.

Will I ever be able to think of that day without crying? On the other hand, do I ever want to not cry when I remember? I don't think so.

Meet Max and Amber

All Jeremy wanted for his birthday was a pet. He really wanted a dog (so did his mom and sister), but Daddy said "No". We were able to talk him into getting a fish. Jeremy has been talking about getting his fish non-stop since his birthday. We had to wait until after our vacation - who knows what would happen to a brand new fish if left unattended for 6 days. When we got home Jon dug the aquarium out of the depths of the black hole that we lovingly refer to as the garage. I cleaned it and then we headed to the pet store to ask how to prepare water for fish. The pet store people recommended bottled water.

Bottled Water?

For a fish?

Are ya' kidding me?

I went home and used this as an opportunity to rotate some of our drinking water from food storage. I certainly wasn't going to go out and purchase a case water to store my fish in.

After school today we went back to the pet store so Jeremy could pick out his fish. He only wanted a boy fish. I showed him the tank with the fantailed goldfish and told him that all the fish in that tank were boys. Luckily the nice owner confirmed that story. She said the girl fish would be coming in later. Thank Heaven for little white lies. Jeremy pointed out a lovely plain goldfish with a little white on its tail and into a bag it went. I bought Max a lovely plant as a house warming present and we took him home.

Well, Max looked kind of lonely in that tank with the ominous skull so when Cassie got out of school we headed back to the pet store (which now had "girls only" in the fantail tank) and cute little Amber came home with us. Amber is kind of a cool looking fishy. She's all white with a gold "toupee" on. I really hope my next blog entry doesn't include a photo of the family dressed in black in the bathroom ala the Cosby show (remember Rudy's funeral for Lamont the fish?)

Teaching alternate uses for toilet paper

Cassie and her girlfriends from church have been dying to go toilet papering. Katharine's mom, Pamela, was brave enough to organize a night for them to go and supplied the toilet paper. The girls really wanted to toilet paper a boy that they think is really cute. Pamela (who is ever so thoughtful and considerate) called the mom of this boy to find out if it would be O.K. to TP their house. We found out that she was hosting an Open House for the pre-school that she runs out of her house that next morning. She said that normally it would be OK, but for some reason that I can't figure out she couldn't decide what would be worse

A. her clients walking through a sea of toilet paper before she tried to show off what a wonderful (and clean) school she's running

or

B. to have to get up early to clean up all the toilet paper while trying to get ready for a parade of people that didn't want to walk through a sea of white toilet paper.

We had to admit that she did had a valid reason that her house shouldn't be hit that night. Then Pamela had an brilliant idea . . . Sarah Hull was having a significant birthday the next day (she was turning 29 again) and she's a good sport and lots of fun. Luckily she agreed to let the toilet paper rolls fly in her front yard. I'm so grateful for all of my "fun" friends that provide safe ways for my daughter to have fun.

The girls (and Pamela and I) made construction paper hearts to add an element of a "heart attack" to the festivities. Jon came over to the Reese's house as soon as he got home (9:30)to take Jeremy and Eliza so I could go out with them. It has been WAY to long since I've gone toilet papering myself. That opportunity doesn't seem to come knocking like it used to in high school. We talked to them about being quiet, but at one point I heard one cute voice yell out, "Be Quiet - I can hear you all the way over here!" That was laugh out loud funny. Pamela and I were pretty certain that we weren't going to get caught so I took pictures. It is extremely difficult to take pictures with a digital camera in the dark when the screen is completely black. Luckily I got some cute ones.