Summer Storms

So, last night I came home from work and immediately put on my running clothes so I couldn't talk myself out of running last night. (After running, I had planned on updating the blog with pictures.) Although it looked it might rain, I checked the radar and it appeared to be going north of us. I left Colby on the couch watching TV and Tristen was at football camp. While running, Jason (who was working one of his 24 hour clincial rotations at Addison Fire Dept.) sent me a text telling me that we were going to get hit hard with rain/storms and for Tristen not to start the sprinklers tonight. I blew it off b/c the radar showed it going around us. I get back from a quick 20 minute run around the neighborhood and take a breather. I decided to go sit under our *almost* finished covered patio and read through a magazine while I cool off. While I'm sitting out there, I realize that eh, it might rain. I decided to head up to the football field early just in case they end early due to the weather. As I'm driving up there, Tristen calls me and tells me that they ended early. (We live like 2 minutes from the high school football field.) I pick him up, and we make the short drive home. No more than do I pull my car in the garage, and get inside and then I hear the tornado sirens. WHAT????????? Seriously. I thought it was just a fluke so I turn on the TV and they are talking about the storms, but I was too impatient to sit and listen further so I went to the computer and saw that CRAP....we really were under a tornado warning! Holy Crap! I called Jason right quick and put the dog in the garage. Jason said, 'I told you so!' I said, 'Ok, love you....gotta go.' The boys were in a standstill like what the heck is going on. I told Tristen to get the blankets and pillows and to put them in the bathroom. I grab the candles and flashlight, and then the power went out. The bathroom was HOT and finally I moved us to the hall. It was scary for about 15-20 minutes and then I decided all was clear. After the storm has passed and we had been without power for 2 hours, I decided that we'd go eat somewhere and at least get out of the house. The power company said restoration time was 2-4 hours at about 7;30. So, at 9 we went driving around looking at the damage and we went and ate at Rosa's to kill some time. We get back to the house around 10 and still no power. By this point the house is pitch black, so I lit the candles. The boys took showers by candlelight. LOL! I put the boys to bed and then went to bed myself. I woke up around 1am and the power was back on.

Soooooooo.......to make an even longer story short. We survived. There are trees on our street down, split in half, or small to large branches broken. Fences are down and a business that is near the entrance of our subdivision lost part of it's roof and it is lying on top of a neighbor's swingset/fence/pool. There are scattered pieces of roof all throughout that side of the neighborhood. I took more pictures last night after the storm had passed, but I haven't gotten to up load them yet. The boys and I walked the neighborhood to see all the damage and to talk to a few neighbors. Here are some snapshots I took with my phone this morning. Fortunately, the only damage I think we suffered was a broken tree branch. It flew from one side of the yard to the other side of the yard....fairly close to Tristen's large window. So....it was a scary night. I just can't believe how quickly the storm came in. I'm 99% sure there were still some kids at the football field house that had not been picked up by the time the big part of the storm blew through. There was some rotation about a mile and 1/2 from our house, so it was definitely close. My guess is that straightline winds are what came through our neighborhood and did the damage. In my 8 1/2 years in Dallas, I don't know that I've had this strong of storms come directly through my area.

One of our neighbor's trees

Same neighbor's other tree & speed limit sign

Another view of down trees

This is the only after effect that I've seen around our house. This branch came from our tree on the opposite side of the yard.

Vacation to San Antonio

We headed out Friday morning after boarding Tigger. We wanted to leave at like 6:30am, but the place where we leave Tigger doesn't open until 7:30am, so that put a damper on us leaving before the sun came up. Kids were packed with their game boys, iPods, word search books and snacks. We made pretty good time and the question, 'Are we there yet?' was only asked maybe 5 times. The first one came - an hour into the trip. We made our first stop in Round Rock to eat lunch and then got back in the car and went to Natural Bridge Wildlife Ranch. We had the boys choose between the Wildlife Ranch and the Natural Bridge Caverns. They chose the Wildlife Ranch, thankfully. I went to the Carlsbad Caverns (in Carlsbad, NM) so many times in my childhood, I'm set for life on seeing caverns. We drove through the ranch and had fun feeding the animals. The Emus and Zebras were the best. The Emu scared the CRAP out of me and then Jason decided to feed him out of the bag. While the pictures show just a little bit of it, it was quite amusing. The Zebras were hilarious. They would not leave the car. We had people driving around us b/c the Zebras wouldn't move. I was trying to get Colby to hand feed one of them and he got scared. One of the Zebras got a little friendly with Jason and then sneezed all over him. (Thank goodness I'm a prepared mom and packed the antibacterial wipes.)

After our tour of the ranch and getting to see all of the animals, we were back on the road for what we had hoped to be a short 20 minute drive to our hotel. Well, the short 20 minute drive turned into an hour due to a terrible wreck on our route. We finally arrived at our hotel, got settled in and unpacked. We then headed down to the Riverwalk to meet up with Jason's dad and step mom. The boys got to see the Alamo for the first time, but we were unable to walk through it b/c it closed before we got there. We enjoyed dinner on the Riverwalk at Zuni's. It really wasn't our type of 'mexican' food but it was good. We walked around the Riverwalk for a little bit and found our way to Marble Slab. Yum! We finally called it a night and headed back to our hotel. The following morning we get up and get ready. I opened the curtains and saw in the parking lot, my old high school charter bus! Mind you, we are 400 miles from my hometown. I was determined to see someone at breakfast from Wink. Although, any of the kids that were there probably don't even remember me, since it has been 11 years since I was in high school. I did run into one girl who recognized me and then I ran into my old Computer Applications teacher and my old Biology II teacher/coach. It is such a small world!!

Saturday, we got up, had breakfast and headed to Uncle Mike's house (Jason's Dad's Brother) for Jason's Grandma's 80th b-day. All of Jason's Dad's side of the family were there. There were lots of Uncles, cousins and 2nd cousins that the boys and I had never met and that Jason hadn't seen since they were little kids. We had a fun filled day of hanging out, swimming, hot tubing, and catching up. Uncle Mike smoked brisket and sausage, Aunt Kathy made potato salad, pasta salad, and lots of other goodies. We were all fed VERY well!!!!!! It was great for everyone to be together to celebrate Grandma's 80th bday. She made sure to let us know that we had to do this again for her 90th bday. We can't wait!

After a long day of hanging out with family, we finally called it a night and headed back to the hotel to get some rest before Sea World on Sunday. We got to Sea World right as it was opening. I packed a few snacks and a bottle of water in the boys backpacks. We came up with a game plan to watch all of the shows we wanted to see first and THEN go to the water park. We went and saw Shamu, Sea Lions, Water Ski, and we tried to see the Dolphin show, but not once but twice, we got there too late and the place was packed. We finally headed over to the water park but had to wait 25 minutes to get in. Right as we go to the turnstile to get in, it started raining and thundering. So, we waited under the awning for 15 minutes. I was getting antsy. I'm not a 'crowd' type person and I had all of these people around me trying to get in under the awning. Eck....It grosses me out just thinking about it. They finally started letting people through into the water park, but it was still lightly raining. They couldn't open the pools/water slides until they didn't hear thunder/lightning for 30 minutes. It would be silent for about 10 minutes and then a rumble of thunder would pass. Finally, we said screw it. I went and go a locker, put all of our stuff in it and then went about our way back to the rest of the park. It is still lightly raining and at times raining pretty good, by this point. We made our way over for the boys to feed the dolphins ($5 for 3 little minnows or whatever they are!!!!!) We then went to see the Sharks/Coral Reef area.....trying to stall and hope that it will quit raining. Nope...it was still raining when we left the Shark exhibit. We made our way back over to the Dolphin show, mind you an hour early this time. Guess what.....we got a seat! Whew! It was a long hour of just sitting, but it was worth it to see the dolphin show. The sun finally decided to show it's face again. Thankfully, b/c the radar I kept checking on my iPhone during the dolphin show didn't show to be very promising. We hauled booty back over to the waterpark and thankfully did not have to stand in line to get BACK into the water park. The boys were in heaven! They mainly stayed in the wave pool which they just thought was the best thing (even though they've been in one before). They didn't seem interested in riding any of the slides or tube rides. We finally convinced them to go hang out in the lazy river for a little bit. We are lucky that the boys are at an age where we can give them a little freedom, and not have to be by there side every step of the way. They are pretty good about being punctual and checking in when needed. While the boys were enjoying the lazy river, Jason and I decided it was about time to go. We packed up and hit up the gift shops. We gave the boys a certain amount of 'spending money' each day that they could use or carry over to the next day. (My mom did this with us kids when we went on trips and it worked out well.) The gift shops were the biggest BEAT DOWN of all at Sea World. We went to 4 freakin' gift shops and they boys STILL had the hardest time finding something. They wanted to get SOMETHING, but nothing really seemed to catch their eye. It was a jurassic beat down doing this as the last thing before we left, but I didn't want to lug around whatever it was they bought all freakin' day long. After we finally finished up in the gift shops, we made our trek back to the entrance to leave. We 'had' to take a family pic, but it was at the end of the day...a LONG day, so it really isn't that fabulous of a picture. Oh well! While treking back to our car, we found out that J's Dad, Sisters & Family, and Uncle Rudy were all down on the Riverwalk for dinner. We high tailed it from Sea World to downtown just in time for dinner. We ate at The Original (I think that is the name of it). It was damn good mexican food!

Monday, we packed up and headed out. The boys HAD to swim at the hotel pool, so J let them swim while I packed up our bags. We hit some traffic along the way, but nothing terrible. We made a stop in Salado at Dairy Queen. A road trip in Texas isn't complete without a stop at Dairy Queen and a Blizzard!!!!!!!!!

Summer Fun

We headed up to Denton to go to Denton Waterworks. I wanted to take the boys to a different waterpark besides the ones here in Lewisville, so I found this one. I didn't realize how far it was and it seemed like it took FoReVeR to get there b/c of the construction in Denton on Loop 288. It isn't terribly priced, but it seemed a bit more expensive than some of the other waterparks that compared in size. The boys had fun, regardless.

There were 4 slides. A tube slide, an orange slide, a blue slide and a yellow slide. I knew the boys wouldn't attempt the yellow slide b/c it is one of those slides that is at an 80 degree angle/drop (aka - huge wedgie giver). Colby got all the way to the top and was about to slide down the blue slide and he realized he had his cell phone in his pocket, so he had to come all the way back down. He was practically in tears. Tristen ventured off on his own and had already done 2 slides by the time I saw him again. I told Colby I would go wait in line with him. He decides he wanted to do the orange slide. We get to the top and realize that it 'technically' is a smaller kids slide. They weren't kidding! It looks the same as all of the other big slides - except for the water pressure! I went down it anyways.....but ended up having to push myself down 1/2 of the slide.

I wanted to try out the tube slide, but Colby wasn't having ANYTHING to do with it. I told him that I was thinking about trying to plan a trip to Schlitterbahn and wanted him to show me that he was brave enough to ride some of the bigger rides. I also was intentionally trying to help him overcome some of his fears. He SOOO is not the risk taker. Tristen had already been down the tube slide several times. While we were waiting in line, you could tell Colby really wasn't sure about the slide. (Mind you the slide, is an enclosed tube, so you cannot see anything.) Finally, we are next and Colby goes down. I was HOPING that he enjoyed it and wasn't scared and crying at the bottom. I went down the tube and learned that, I'm pretty claustrophobic. Knowing that there is an end to the slide, but not being able to see anything (not even my hand in front of my face), the end could not come fast enough. (This slide, is really, not that big of a deal!) Anyways, I get to the end and see the biggest smile on Colby's face. He LOVED it and went on it numerous more times. I'm so glad I was able to convince him to go down it!

Our niece Abby watching the boys come down the slide.

Colby coming down the slide.

Tristen - posing for the camera.
Jason - trying to hold his sunglasses on his face.

Quick Update

We've been busy this past week with everything from job changes to baseball tournaments to birthday parties to holiday parties. Here's a quick update:

• Jason changed jobs effective Monday! He's back to one of his old places of employment, which is about a mile from the house and he got a raise!


• Due to Jason changing jobs, he took last week off of work and spent it with the boys. Below are some pictures of them from when they went fishing.


• Colby had a baseball tournament 4th of July weekend. He got to pitch (finally) and he did great!


• We helped celebrate Aspen's 13th birthday (our niece). Check out the bounce house water slides below! I think we might need one of these in our backyard!


• We celebrated the 4th of July at one of Jason's friend's house who just put in a pool in their backyard. I failed to take any pictures of the festivities. Oops.

Notice Colby is doing a flip down the slide...

Tigger's Cousin, Charlie (aka my brother's dog)

Lessons in Dog Sitting

We are dog sitting Jason's sister's dog, while they are in California. We have a black lab mix, Tigger. The dogs were doing great for the first two days that Kimchi, a 12 week old white Maltese, were here. Tigger and Kimchi seemed to be getting along great. Although Kimchi is quite annoying with his jumping and yapping, Tigger seemed to tolerate him. I really think Tigger enjoyed having a friend to play with in his new backyard. He seemed so happy!

Well, Friday, I get a frantic phone call from Colby, telling me that Kimchi is bleeding from his eye and that Tigger bit him. I figured Colby was exaggerating, as most 10 year olds do. So much for me assuming Colby was exaggerating. My nanny got on the phone and told me, 'Uh, no, he is bleeding bad and probably needs to go to the vet.' We use a'mobile vet' for Tigger, so I didn't really know where to take Kimchi. I frantically call around to a couple different Vet Hospitals that are close by. I finally found one that could get him in w/in 15 minutes of me calling. Let me just say that my nanny is awesome. She told me not to worry about things and that she would handle getting Kimchi to the vet. Mind you, it would've taken me 30 minutes to get from work in Richardson to home in Lewisville. I called the vet and handled everything over the phone so all she would have to do is take him and get him fixed up. My nanny handled everything so well, and the vet even complimented her on how sweet and caring she was. Well, $288 later, Kimchi has a cone around his head, antibiotics, pain pills and ointment for his eye. They only found one puncture wound right about his left eye. I'm not sure how he only got ONE puncture wound.

What actually happened? Well, I'm not 100% sure. Colby told me that he was putting out food for both dogs (in 2 separate bowls) and apparently Tigger thought both bowls were for him and told Kimchi to get the heck away! I'm not really sure what got into Tigger b/c they had been fed from 2 separate bowls at the same time the previous 2 days and Tigger did nothing. I really don't think Tigger was trying to harm Kimchi, and I think he is sad now that he no longer has a friend to play with. Much to our dismay, Kimchi has had to stay inside b/c of his open wound. Tigger isn't allowed inside, but we had no other choice.

Kimchi has made me realize I'm not ready for another kid yet b/c:

• He follows me non-stop.
• He yaps/cries when he wants something, or doesn't want to be in his crate.
• I'm saying NO every other word out of my mouth.
• I didn't get to sleep in today b/c after I took him outside and then put him back in his crate, he continued to yap and cry.
  
• I tried putting him in the bed with me so I could sleep and he just wanted to play.
  

Kimchi is fine now. He still has a cone around his head, but still just as annoying and cute.
He is such a cute and sweet puppy, I'm just not ready for another puppy!!! Don't get me wrong, I love the little white fur ball to pieces, but he isn't housebroken and so I really can't just let him roam the house. I either have to carry the 4 1/2 pound fur ball or I have to keep an eye on him constantly, which is hard to do since he scrambles away so fast.

Not sure how much more dog sitting we will do. I think we learned our lesson!!!

Kimchi Before:

(This is the picture I was sent on my cell phone.....I quickly realized he need to see a vet.)
Kimchi after:

Kimchi now:
will post picture sometime later...

Colby's Team Party

Colby's regular season baseball team had their end of season party at Sun Valley Water Park on Saturday. He received his trophy and game ball. His coach commended his excellent performance playing catcher and being at the top of his team in stealing bases, runs scored and his batting average.

Colby, Conner, Dylan, Matt & Tristen (at the bottom)

Colby & Coach Joe

Summer is finally here!!!!!!!!!!!!

Colby brought home his awards from 4th grade today. He received the A/B Honor Roll, Best Sense of Humor Award, QuickThinker Award, Excellent Attendance and a few others. He will be changing schools next year due to our move, so his last day of school was bittersweet. He has several friends that I'm sure he will keep in touch with and continue to hang out.

Although the school year is quite tough and at often times stressful, both boys did great this year and made the A/B Honor Roll. We are so proud of them. They celebrated the beginning of summer by going to the waterpark yesterday with their cousins.

Our summer weekends are already jam packed through the first part of July. This weekend Colby has his end of season baseball team party at the water park. Before he heads off to his team party, one of his good friends (who moved to a different school district) is having a birthday party and they are taking a ride in a Hummer limo. (I didn't tell Colby about that part, so he is going to be EXTREMELY excited.) Colby continues to play baseball although the season has ended. He is playing a tournament team and will be playing in 5 tournaments this summer. We've played in one already, and we have another one next weekend. We signed Tristen up for a day camp through LISD. It is an introduction to Middle School. It isn't until August, but it should be beneficial since it is right before school starts. I hope that he finds it fun and useful. He will also be starting band in the fall and will be playing the Trumpet. Should make for some interesting times around our house!

We hope to make a trip to San Antonio to take the boys to Sea World, but looks like that trip will have to be in the first part of August some time to accomdate our busy schedules and Colby's baseball tournaments.

Countdown to summer....

37 days until the end of school for the boys! This school year has flown by! Next year we will have a middle schooler. OMG! The boys will be transferring schools due to the new house. Tristen is wanting to participate in band, as one of his electives. We have his band interview set up for May 12th.

TAKS testing is today and tomorrow. I'm so over the TAKS test. Both of the boys do fine on the TAKS tests, but please don't get me started on how this test has overtaken our schools.

My younger brother Bear has a boat that is currently being stored in Austin. I'm hoping we will be able to get it up here and take it out on the lake a few times this summer. Our new house is only minutes away from Lake Lewisville! Can't wait until summer!