Monday, August 29, 2011

Baby It's Hot Outside

I thought living in St. Louis area my whole life, I thought I understood what hot was. Midwestern humidity is nothing to joke about. But I didn't have to slightest clue what heat was until I have experienced the last month plus in Texas. The heat here is oppressive. Today marked the 35th day in a row of 100+ temps. and the 275th day of no measurable rainfall. This past weekend, Houston set a new record heat-109. It has never been that hot in Houston, EVER.  I have talked to several people who when I tell them we are from St. Louis, the first thing they say is "I'm sorry about this heat, it is not usually like this." I hope they are right and this summer is just a fluke. We could really use some rain and some heat relief.

*According to the local weatherman, starting Thursday we will rain and cooler temps through the holiday. Please cross all your crossables that this actually happens.

Sunday, August 14, 2011

A little of this and a little of that...

Whew, it is has been a busy last couple of weeks.  Nothing has really been going on but is seems that we have been super busy. Daniel's mom and sister were here at the end of July-beginning of August. We had fun when they were here. We went to the Museum of Natural Science, or the Dinosaur Museum as Olivia calls it and we also went to Moody Gardens in Galveston. It was a lot of fun. Then my mom, dad, sister and nieces came for a few days after Daniel's mom and sister left. We didn't do much while they were here except for veg out in the house, partly because it was hot and partly because Cameron had 2 days of diarrhea and my nieces weren't quite feeling up to par either. Even though we didn't do much of anything, it was still really nice to see everyone. It made our house feel more like a home.

Since we have been company free we have been working at unpacking, finding a home for and throwing away stuff, lots of stuff. Today we cleaned out our garage and we have so much trash, I am afraid that the trash men are going to leave a nasty note. But we got the garage cleaned out enough to be able to put our cars in there, so HOORAY for that!!!  Our next project to tackle is the dining room and study and finding some sort of workable toy storage for all the kids toys. But all in all, we have been making good progress.

We have our dogs back now as well. I forgot what it was like to take care of a dog and it is taking some remembering. I love them and they have fallen right in sync but the amount of hair Cooper produces is unreal. We have to keep our furniture covered because otherwise, I would have to take a lint brush to it several times a day to stay on top of this shedding. Daniel went out yesterday and purchased the Furminator from Petco. It was like $60 bucks, but it may well be some of the best $60 bucks we have spent lately. It gets the real fine downy fur of Cooper's and not only helps keep him cool I am sure, keeps him looking svelte but it seems to maybe, just maybe cut down on the shedding.

Let's see, what else. After much debate, we have decided that we need to find a babysitter for rare occasions that we would need one. My friend Misty is more than willing to help out and watch the girls, but I don't want to take advantage of her kindness. So, we found a girl in our neighborhood and "interviewed" her yesterday. She seems like a good girl and I am excited, if not a little afraid, to have a babysitter watch our girls. I say afraid only because we have only ever let family or friends that we consider family as babysitters, so this hiring a sitter thing is new to both of us.

A few weeks ago one of the neighbors from up the street stopped by to invite us to a happy hour at their home. Daniel didn't really want to go, but I convinced him that it would be a good time. So, we went and it was a good time. There were kids for our girls to play with, everyone there was very welcoming and we all got along really well. That is until CJ was sitting on one of the fabric kitchen stools and decided it would be a perfect time to puke all over the place. I guess that was a make it or break it in the introductions department. We have been invited back to their house, so I guess they were telling the truth when they said it was no big deal.

I think that is really all that has been going on with us, like I said nothing to really speak of but we have been keeping ourselves busy.