Claire's Birthday!

Claire turned 3 last Friday. She wanted "bubbles" for her party. So we did bubble invitations by using washable paints to make our own homemade bubble solution. Then we painted the bubbles (by blowing through a regular wand) onto the invitations. She had so much fun, it was easy, and they turned out great! Then we did a whole bubble theme with tons of wands, bubble solution, and bubbles! We even took our inflatable pool and filled it with bubble solution and then took a hula hoop to make a huge bubble wand. She had so much fun!











Grandma and Grandpa also came down from Michigan to spend a week with us to celebrate Claire's birthday. We didn't let them have a vacation however, I mean they're retired. They have a vacation all the time right? Ha! Anyway, we had our carpet installed while they were here. This meant that all the furniture had to be moved out of the rooms, including the baby grand piano. That booger is heavy! Good thing my dad was here though, he's the pro at moving that thing. He's moved it at least 20 times I bet. They enjoyed the work we put them to however, at least I think so. They never complained and boy were we grateful. We could have never gotten through the week without them! A huge thanks again! We also enjoyed having them here for Claire to get to know them better. It's hard with us being so far away from everyone, so hopefully their visit cemented their relationship to Claire a little bit more. She missed them today while we were on the way home from the airport.



We also went over to Houston where my cousins live. We got to visit and catch up with them on Sunday. It was so good to see them since we haven't seen them in a while. My first cousin Wendy has twins that are 10 days younger than Claire, so it was neat to see all three of them play together since they're so close in age. I thought I had forgotten my camera so I didn't get very many pictures until later once I'd found my camera in my purse.

Oh the things kids say!

On our way home, Claire had fallen asleep. When she woke up, she complained that her neck was hurting. Justin tried to explain to her that she just had a "crick" in her neck and that it would go away once we got out and walked around a little bit. Sure enough we made a quick stop for gas and potty breaks and when we got back in the truck, he asked her if her neck was feeling better. She replied,"Oh yeah, i'm feeling much better. The cricket is gone!" How precious!

There is Power!

So apparently we only thought it would be a smooth transition to fall and the new school year. Boy, were we wrong! We had a little thing called Hurricane Gustav come a few weeks ago and it looked pretty scary and a lot of people evacuated. We talked and talked and talked about it some more about where we would go, how long we would stay, etc. and the more we talked the less sure we both (Justin and I) felt about it so we would talk some more and eventually the storm had come and gone and all we had done was talked. Oh yeah, and put up the boards around the house. It didn't even rain at our house during the worst of Gustav. Well, we did get some days off of school and some more time together which was lots of fun. We do have fun as a family. Mainly it's Justin and Claire making me laugh, but I certainly don't mine. Then 2 weeks later (yes I know I should have posted before now) Ike came along. Again, we were watching the projected path of Ike in relationship to where we live and decided to NOT make a decision until Thursday morning (Sept. 11). By Wednesday night around 9 pm we both felt assuredly that the right decision for us was to get out of dodge. But again, where would we go? How long would we stay? We decided the best decision again for us was to go to Michigan. Now this may seem like a little out of the way, but for us it was the best decision. Our friend Elizabeth rode with us for half the trip until we dropped her off in her hometown. It was so nice to have her with us for this leg of the trip. She kept me up talking while I was driving, she played with Claire in the backseat and of course navigated us halfway home. We continued to drive and 26 long hours after we had begun our trip, we made it to my parents home in Michigan. I almost forgot, the longest trip Claire had been in her car seat prior to this was for 2 hours. But she did FANTASTIC! The first 30 minutes she just thought it was a normal day to day car ride and she exclaimed, "We're almost there!" All we could do was chuckle. Thankfully, she never repeated this expression. She slept all night and then watched some of her shows on a portable DVD player we got for Christmas a few years ago. She really did fabulous! We made it to Michigan Friday evening and watched the weather channel for a little bit before dropping dead asleep. Saturday we again watched news coverage of our area and caught up with my parents on all the latest happenings at "home". Saturday evening, Kevin, Kari, kids, and Jimmy came over and we all played games and ate dinner. Sunday we went to church and the Lord always speaks if we would just listen. Ike was not affecting too many people in Michigan at this point in fact it was never even mentioned in the service, but the opening song was "How Firm A Foundation." The storm had hit Saturday morning and here it was 24 hours later we're singing how when God is our foundation, nothing else matters. We had no idea what had happened to our home and most of our earthly belongings. Whether they had been swept away in His storm, or protected by His hand. However, we knew that whatever had already happened and what will happen in the future, our foundation is sure and He is in control. It was so comforting and tears just came streaming in His presence. Sunday afternoon, Matthew was able to make it to our street and relay word back to us that our house had been protected through the storm but our gate had not. We are so grateful for His protection in the big and small ways. Sunday afternoon, Steve, Marni, and the kids came over to see us and catch up. We had lots of fun playing games and talking. It's amazing how fast the kids seem to grow. I guess that means I'm getting old. (No comments please!) We then waited for word that our electricity was back on and we were going to use that to judge when to come back home. The next week was both refreshing and full of anxiousness. It was nice to not have our crazy routine for a while and spend family time together as well as with my parents and family, but at the same time we were wanting to come back home and see it for ourselves, get back to our routine, and our own home. Finally on Thursday, we decided that it was time to start to head back. Our good friends Walker and Stacy just moved to Chicago in July and that's one of our favorite cities and friends too! We wanted to spend some time with them before we headed back to Beaumont, but wasn't too sure how it would all work out. Justin spent Thursday afternoon calling close to 30 hotels before finding one that had just what we needed. So, Saturday morning we packed up and headed to Chicago. We spent Saturday evening in Chicago going to the Lincoln Park Zoo and Navy Pier. Justin and Claire got to ride the famous Navy Pier Ferris Wheel for nostalgia and then we went to Chicago's to eat genuine Chicago Deep Dish Pizza. Yum! We spent a long time talking and laughing with Stacy and Walker once Claire went to bed and I stayed up much later than I usually do. Thanks again Walker and Stacy for lodging us for a night! Sunday morning we headed back onto the road again. We ended up in Memphis where we checked into our hotel. Monday we took Claire to the FedEx World Headquarters, Nike Headquarters, and the Children's Museum of Memphis. She liked the last stop the best, I think. On Monday evening, I got word that I was supposed to be back to work on Thursday, Justin was supposed to start classes on Thursday, but we didn't have power yet. We just decided it was time to come home. I have to admit that I dreaded it just a little, okay more than a little. We had spent almost 2 weeks completely together, no work schedules, school schedules, or anything else to work around. It was all coming to an end--too soon for me. But I knew it was time. So we headed back on Tuesday morning. We got here to find out that the other side of the street had power, but our side? nothing! So we spent a night in Meemaw and Papa's motor home at their house. They had power, but no air conditioning, so it worked out for us in there with a/c! Wednesday, we worked on the house getting it ready for power to come back on. We cleaned, picked up the yard, worked hard all around. 4:15 pm was a bright spot. It was when power came back on! Now we can enjoy the air conditioning, electricity, internet, and refrigeration just in time to go back to our crazy routine. However, not for long! We see the end of the tunnel and Justin's school not too far off. If you made it this far in this boring blog, you should check out an exciting, more detailed view at Justin's blog. Here.