Photography and Jogging

This weekend was very relaxing. Everything in Houston is starting to return to normalcy . . . post hurricane Ike (except for the street lights). Slowly but surely, the debris from the hurricane is being picked up and and most of the restaurants and stores are back up and running.

On Friday afternoon, Matt and I met with Greg the architect from Allegro Builders to begin the process of finalizing the house plans. The house plans are almost complete and the major action items now are to finish the design of the kitchen and other built-in items. The pictures below are from some of the Allegro homes that are currently under construction. The field trip allowed us to visualize the kitchen design (placement of cabinets, types of cabinets, wood finishes, etc.) and built-in book shelves and other detail items.








On Saturday, Mom and I took Reese to get her 8 month pictures. It took fooooorrrrrreveeeerrrrrrrr, but was worth the wait. We arrived around 11:15 as "walk-ins" and didn't get started until after Noon. By that time Reese was hungry and tired, so we took a break. By the time Mom and I grabbed lunch, Reese woke up from her nap, we returned and resumed picture taking and selecting photos and all of a sudden it was 3:00 p.m. It was an all day affair. I am so glad Mom was there to help with Reese. I couldn't have done it without her!

Here are some of the pictures:
















Sears loved the picture below and said they planned to hang it in their studio. Reese; already famous at 8 months. ;)



















While mom and I were getting pictures, Matt went shopping for a jogging stroller. He had been doing research all week on the internet, and finally decided to pull the trigger and make the purchase.

When I got back home, Matt and I ran to Target before dinner. Reese was in need of pj's! While I was out of town last week in Lafayette, Matt and Grandma decided they preferred to dress Reese in tops and bottoms rather than one piece pj's. It's easier to dress her backwards that way. Seriously, she will not stay on her back for more than one second. So back to the Target shopping spree...Reese got new pj's, jeans, tops and a pair of shoes. Everything was sized 12 months. The jeans are so cute; even though they are a little long. We tried them on her before placing her in the jogger on Saturday night.

Here is a picture of Reese in the clothes as we tightened the straps to make sure she was snug in the running stroller. Matt was adamant the baby stroller would set sail on Sunday morning and was like an anxious kid the night before (making sure everything was packed and squared away). We also bought Reese a pair of sunglasses which she chose to chew.




At 6:59AM on Sunday morning, Matt got up and put on his running shoes and was ready to go. I hoped to sleep a few more minutes, but Reese woke up as soon as Matt stepped out of the room. I guess she was just as excited to go for a run as Daddy.

He even took a picture of Reese waking up in the morning (she was fussing at 5AM . . .so Matt put her in bed with us for two more hours of sleep). Here is the precious baby girl wondering why Daddy was up so early . . . it is usually an Act of Congress to get him up on Sunday morning.




Here we are at Memorial Park locking her in for the maiden voyage.




We did a combination run/walk. Matt ran up ahead of us so he could get a picture of Reese on her first jog (one of many to come). I must admit I am out of shape, but that is to be expected since I have only worked out one other time since Reese was born. One thing is for sure, I'll be sore tomorrow. We are hoping to make this a weekly routine on Saturday and Sunday mornings.




Here she is looking at Daddy as we strolled past him. She loved the ride and talked most of the way (when she wasn't people watching or chewing on her toy).




Here is Daddy and his precious little love. Matt said he thinks she has talent and will undoubtedly be a NCAA trackster. . . . he said any 8 month old that can run 3 miles has talent.




Mom came over later today and we went to get pedicures while Matt and Reese napped.

Reese is 8 months old!

Happy 8 Month Birthday Reesie! I told you that you can't get any bigger, but you don't listen and you just keep growing and changing every day. Don't get me wrong, we love seeing you learn new things, but it all goes by so quickly. We are savoring these moments. Here is a list of what you have been up to lately.

• You are almost impossible to diaper! You love to be on your belly because you can go places this way, so when it's time to dress you or change your diaper you throw a fit! We try to keep you on your back, but inevitably you win and turn over. I've learned to change you backwards. It is sometimes easier than wrestling you over on your back while you scream in my ear. When Daddy and I are both at home we work as a team which helps, but you have a mind of your own and don't want us cramping your style with pettily things like clean clothes and diapers.
• You are holding your bottle all by yourself for most feedings. We have started propping you up on pillows on the bed or couch so you can recline and guzzle it down. You usually are too tired to hold your big nighttime bottle, so we still help you out.

Here you are this morning.

• You are really on the move these days...I've posted pictures of you scooting on your belly further in this post. So, since you are trying to pull up on things we finally lowered your mattress in your crib just in case you decide to pull up or stand up one day in the near future.

Here you are today trying out your low rider bed. Daddy gave you some stuffed animals to help you get acquainted to the new surroundings.

• The other day, you were laying in your crib on your belly and you sat up all by yourself. I walked out for a split second and when I came back your were sitting up. I called for Daddy and Grandma Ruth and then laid you back down and you did it again! You are so smart!
• Now that you are sitting up so well, we opened some new toys for you to play with. You like to put the rings in your mouth. Who would have thought?

You also discovered the texture of your rug today; you kept rubbing your fingers through it.

You are strong for an 8 month old! You can pick up a lot of things.

Here you are today trying to crawl to get a toy. If you see something you want you go for it. Sometimes we move it right before you reach it so you can practice. Plus we just love to see you on the move. Before we know it, you'll be following us from room to room on those hands and knees.




I am not sure if you are crying because you could not reach the toy fast enough or if the rug was burning your arm like carpet burn. You are usually laying on the wood floor, your blanket or your mat.

As I wrap up this list of milestones, I must also say that you are getting more hair too!

Getting "back to normal" after Hurricane Ike

Let me start by saying we are thankful that we, our family and friends did not sustain serious damage to our homes.

However...Mom and Sam and Sharon still do not have power! I think they are starting to lose their sense of humor (about being without power). Thankfully, we had power almost immediately, so everyone has been able to come over to our house for a hot meal, hot shower and to run a load of laundry through our washer and dryer. Slowly but surely Scott, Lauren, Chris, Joe and Pat had their power turned back on this week. Although we had power, we did not have TV or Internet, so we missed a lot of the news coverage of the aftermath. The newspaper and radio were our only sources of information.

Before I get into the Hurricane details, here are are some pictures of Reese the week before Ike hit.

Reese with her bunny (almost 8 months).



Cheese!



Last Thursday, September 11, 2008, it became apparent that Hurricane Ike was making its way towards the Houston area. That morning, we took Reese for a doctor check up and learned that she weighs 20 lbs and is 28 inches long! Whoa!!! She is a growing girl! Afterwards, Matt and I decided to swing by Kroger to gather hurricane supplies before heading back to work. We knew the grocery stores and gas stations would be a mad house as the day went on. It was only 10:30 a.m. and the store was packed. I was able to buy a loaf of bread, can goods, 1lb of hamburger meat, spaghetti & sauce, water and a bag of chocolate (all of which came in handy later in the weekend).

On Friday morning, we packed up and headed to Aunt Sharon's house at Lake Conroe. Our motto during Hurricanes is "Go North!" We were not confident the roof from our house built in 1939 would sustain the 100 mph CAT 2 winds that were expected on Saturday morning.

Mom cam over and picked up Grandma Ruth and they hunkered down at Mom and Sam's.

Sharon ended up with a house full. The manifest included Andy, Angela (and their dog named Pancho and cat named Magnus), Scott, Lauren, Reese, Matt and myself.

Reese did well and really enjoyed all of the attention she got from Lauren and Angela. She met her first doggie named Pancho.



As you can imagine, we didn't get much sleep on Friday night as the winds began around 11:00 p.m. Reese slept like a little angel, but Matt and I were up on and off to check the news. I don't know when the rain began, but at some point during the night it made its way through Sharon's living room windows and upstairs sliding glass doors. Sharon, Andy and Angela stacked up towels and buckets trying to catch the leaking water. We lost power around 4:30 a.m. and Sharon still doesn't have power as of this Saturday evening.

As you can see, Reese is fine tuning her sitting up skills.



She also found a new favorite toy; a water bottle.



When we finally ventured out on Saturday this is what we found along Sharon's street. Trees and debris galore! Huge trees were down everywhere.




Look at the base of this tree; it's hard to imagine a force so strong that it could do this.



The tree above fell onto this Toyota...ouch!



We stayed at Sharon's Saturday night as we didn't know what the roadways would be like as we headed back to Houston. We feared running into floods, falling power lines and debris.

This is what we found when we arrived back in town on Sunday around Noon. The fence is the side of our house.




The neighborhood was a real mess! A tree fell on a house a few houses down. The kids were bored and offered to rake our sidewalk for $10.



This is another picture from the side of our property.



Most of our neighbors had already started cleaning up the debris in their yards before we arrived back home.





Matt, Scott and Chris spent Sunday and Monday cleaning up. They did a superb job!







I went to Kroger on Sunday and it was an eerie place to be. The store was running on generators, so most of the lights were out. There was a line of folks waiting for ice; you could only buy 2 bags per person. Bread was practically non-existent. I was able to grab a frozen loaf of french bread the bakery pulled out and place on the shelf. Meat was hard to find; luckily I bought 2 packs of chicken because when I went back on Monday there was almost no meat to be found except lamb and ribs.

Mom had to go back to work on Monday, which I thought was crazy since most of the city still didn't have power. The street lights were all out, so every light was a four way stop. People in Houston already drive crazy and when they don't have lights to guide them it's just flat out dangerous. I took my life in my own hands every time I drove.

I headed back to work on Tuesday and most folks still didn't have power. The ladies at work all had "bad hair" but looked great and hung in there! Our building didn't suffer too much damage, but glass was strewn over the street and walkways from the windows above. Some offices had water damage, but nothing too bad. On my way to work, I saw cars lined up to get gas as most stations are not operational yet since they do not have power. Fortunatley, Matt and I work close to home, so we do not use much gas. We filled up both cars the Thursday before the storm hit.

Matt headed back to work on Wednesday. His office is downtown and the building didn't suffer much damage. Some of the buildings downtown had major damage with windows blown out. Among these was the JP Morgan Chase building.

We are very fortunate and send our thoughts and prayers to those who lost their homes, businesses and communities during this tragic storm. Today, 1 million (46%) of CenterPoint Energy customers are still without power in the Houston area.