Ready, Set, Go!

Here are just a few things we did to get ready for the Hurricane. I realize that after each hurricane we become a little bit more prepared. I think a generator will get on our Need List next. We really felt good about staying and knew we would be all right, but just weren't sure what was going to happen. I think the best thing was that the kids all fell sleep so quickly. We tucked them all in and I went to brush my teeth and got ready to come back and sleep with the kids and they were all asleep. And didn't wake up until the morning. I am not sure how they slept through the whole night. The wind and rain were so loud. It was a little scary. I got up quite a few times to check on everything and just kept praying the kids would be able to sleep through it all and they did.

Matthew did get up once to go to the bathroom in the dark. I was hoping he took a flashlight with him, but no such luck. I ended up cleaning our guest bathroom in the middle night, thinking that just in case we had to use that bathroom for shelter, I wanted it to be clean.

Steve got up a few times too, mostly because he was uncomfortable with his shoulder, the heat and the noise. He is the one that heard our front window blow in. It had already had some kind of malfunction that we hadn't fixed yet, and the wind blew it in. It was just one corner of it that we duck taped down, jammed a broom handle up against it with a kitchen chair on top of that. It really did work, if you can't get the picture.

Neighborhood IKE Party!

Lauren with her hair blowing in the wind. Notice her turtleneck sweater? Well, I was cleaning out under the stairs today and pulled out a bag of too small clothes for Lauren and she pulled some of her clothes out and just couldn't get rid of them. This is one item she insisted on keeping and wearing. Rachel enjoying the wind Rachel and Friend Isabele Matthew, Kyler, Jango Fett and a Stormtrooper Hula Hoop Games! Go Rachel! Ethan and his WindBoard! Friday night after dinner we told the kids we were all going to take a shower, make some muffins for breakfast the next morning and then make our beds in front of the TV and have a movie night till we all fell asleep while we were waiting for Hurricane IKE to come. Well, we ended up having a Hurricane Party in our cul-de-sac with all the neighbors. It was a great way to get the kids all ready for bed with no showers. They had lots of fun playing in the wind without any rain. All the mom's must have been inside relaxing while they could and the Dad's stood outside telling stories. Steve had the kids all go get skate boards and beach towels and built them a WindBoard to scoot down the street with. There is video below that also gives you an idea of how windy it was just starting to get. I was the only Mom outside because I couldn't relax. After getting Steve home from the hospital, I realized how I relieve stress. I clean. I could not stop cleaning and for what. I think the not knowing what was going to happen was really stressing me out. We were prepared, but there is always more that can be done and I just kept on doing. I finally stopped and went outside to spend time with my family. We were out there until about 9:45, when all the electricity went out.

You Know It's Bad When...

Wal-Mart is closed and boarded up.

Before & After IKE

View out our front door Friday Night

View out our front door Saturday Night

Our house Before Ike

Our house After Ike (We feel blessed, but do notice our two "Christmas Trees" leaning on both sides of the house.

Back door view Friday Night

Back door view Saturday Morning

Rachel standing next to our young tree blowing in the wind Friday Night

Rachel Standing next to our young tree Saturday Morning after the winds of IKE

Ike Update

Just a quick post to let everyone know we are doing fine. We had some visitors this morning, Amber and Mike from Sugarland, who stayed with us for a while and now we came to check out how their place weathered out. They have electricity, so here I am sending a post. We are a "little" humid and hot. We have no electricity since 10:00 pm last night, our back fence is down, a few leaks in some windows and a few leaning trees. The kids, not the parents, slept through the whole thing. The wind was loud.

Steve decided to take a quick joy ride on his mountain bike Friday morning before all the trails were flooded and had a nice crash that ended in a trip to the ER. He separated his shoulder and is in a lot of pain. He will visit our Orthopedic Surgeion on Monday. Otherwise, we are safe and will be fine. Thanks everyone for your calls and prayers.

I'll post lots of pictures and more info later.

Hurricane Ike

Just in case you were wondering what we are doing today....We are hunkering down. We think we are prepared for whatever may come our way. A friend told me this morning that my house is pretty strong, we'll see how strong it is or hopefully we won't have to.

Anyway, for those of you not in Texas and aren't getting the luxury of seeing the Hurricane Ike news everywhere you go, TV, Internet, grocery stores, gas stations, Home Depot, traffic lines, etc... You can follow Hurricane Ike here. School and all extracurricular activities have been cancelled starting tonight through the weekend and Steve's office has been closed for today and tomorrow.

Although, we have not been advised to evacuate like the many coastal counties, we have been advised to stay put inside. We should start to feel the affects of this Hurricane sometime late Friday night into the day on Saturday.

My first instinct is to clean my house, do all the laundry and cook some meals. But what to do with the kids? If we lose are electricity it will be a fun adventure, right?

We hope everyone has a safe weekend.

Another Just For Fun Friday - Amber & Melissa

Only because I know she will read this, did I think to post this. Amber is my cousin Janie's daughter, I am just going to call her my cousin. She is 20 weeks pregnant and has a cute little one year old, Van. And a pretty nice husband too. How is that Mike? And they now live 25 minutes away from us.

Well, for the longest time in our house she was known as one of the little girls in white. Her and her sisters with their long blonde hair and pretty white dresses added the extra flare we needed at our wedding reception. They were so cute, still are cute - actually beautiful.  And I just wanted to post these then and now pictures

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Wordless Wednesday - Oh, Joy!

Rachel's First Soccer Game

We talked Rachel into signing up for Soccer this year because we thought she could be on her friend Shea's team. Well, it turns out you can't make that kind of request. But it is okay because Rachel is loving it. I think she loves the fact that it is an all girl team and that her twin brother Matthew is not the star player, she is. She made at least 4 goals her first game. I don't know what the final score was, but it was fun to see her having fun and getting so excited. She is #37 on the Green Gators. Tonight at practice I heard one of the dad's say that Rachel has some power legs. We love that Spendlove gene. Here is Rachel showing us some of her quick moves.

Tackle Football and Allergies & Asthma

Ethan was so excited to start tackle football while Mom & Dad were a little anxious. Deep down we wanted him to really not like football but still really wanted to him to do great and we were looking forward to being his #1 fans and cheerleaders. We even got matching green Jets football t-shirts with Spendlove on the back.

Well, it turns out he really doesn't like it. He says it isn't his sport. It has even brought him to tears when it comes to having to go to the practices. He complained that his helmet was too tight, he didn't like being tackled and felt he was one of the smallest ones on the team. What does a parent do? You just spent all this money, he joined a team and should be committed and supportive. But your son does not want to go. Ethan loves sports. He has done just about every sport you can think of, is good at it, loves it and has never quite.

So we made it to the first game. He did great and actually had a little bit of fun. Here are some cute pictures of our Spendlove in his Jersey.







THEN in the middle of the night Ethan had a scary Asthma attack. He hasn't had very many of them and it has been at least 3 years since his last one. I tried to get him in to the doctor on Monday but couldn't until today. The doctor took a CAT scan of his sinuses and couldn't believe how infected he was. This is something that has been a work in progress for a while now.

Poor Ethan, of course he hates football. He really is miserable in his helmet and being at the bottom of a pile of football players out on a grassy pollinated field. He will be on an antibiotic for 20 days to make sure this stuff is gone. In the mean time, no football for at least a week.

While Steve & Ethan were away.....

While Steve and Ethan were bike riding at Lake Bryan and then attending the Texas A&M Football game (which was part of Ethan's birthday present), the rest of us entertained ourselves pretty well here in Katy, Texas.

After a morning of pulling teeth trying to get a little bit of cleaning done, we made our first stop at the library. Matthew, Rachel and Lauren read 20+ books this summer and were eligible to recieve a trophy from the library along with a certificate signed by Governor Rick Perry. Here are our proud children.

Then we headed on over to LaCenterra to use our reading coupons at Coldstone Creamery. Oh the decisions, the decisions. Good thing we didn't go to Baskin Robbins/31 flavors, it would have taken us forever to decide. While we were enjoying our ice cream, we also watched all the cub scouts, girl scouts and boy scouts set up a big back to school fair right there before our eyes. I had one other errand to run and told the kids we would come back to check it all out.


Our next errand was to the Sam Houston Area Council Headquarters-Scout Shop. I needed a few things for my Bear Den. The kids had fun checking the grounds out. It is a beautiful facility and a great tribute to all scouts.

About this time we were starving, so we went to Chili's. Our poor kids hardly ever get to enjoy a sit down restaurant. I enjoyed all the questions like, "What is a tip and our we going to leave on?" "Do we get refills?" They loved making the waiter really work for his money. I haven't been to Chili's in a long time but I had the best unhealthy salad ever, called "Quesadilla Explosion". I almost licked the plate the clean.

The travel log continues....our next stop was the Scout Fair at La Centerra. It was so much fun. They gave the kids a card to get stamped at every station that had a game or activity to participate in and then needed to return it to claim their prize. We played all kinds of games, watched some Indian dances, saw a huge TeePee, made some crafts, did some science experiences and enjoyed a few treats. They were entertained for a long time. And when it came time to claim their prize, Matthew got a Scout T-shirt, Mug, patch & pin from the cub scouts and Rachel and Lauren got some yummy girl scout cookies.

Bike Ride & Texas A&M Football Game

For Ethan's 10th Birthday, I thought it would be fun to take him to a football game at my alma mater, Texas A&M. The games there are very exciting because of the fans and the field, plus there's a great mountain bike trail at nearby Lake Bryan. I got the tickets, and we planned for a full day of fun.
We got to the trail head a little late (Ethan forgot his helmet so we had to get another one), so it was already in the 90's when we got started. Luckily most of the East loop is in the shade. Here's Ethan at the top of a wash where we found some petrified wood (Ethan loaded his pack up for the rock tumbler). We rode about 12 miles in 3 hours and then took a shortcut back to the van to get cleaned up and ready for a quick meal and the game
We ate dinner at my favorite burrito joint of all time, Freebirds (Ethan likes it too). We stop at Freebirds every chance we get. Ethan get's an adult size burrito with chicken, BBQ sauce, lettuce and tomato every time


We found some good parking behind Northgate thanks to some tips from Aggie football regulars and began the walk across campus to Kyle Stadium. They were just finishing the North section of the stadium when I was there ('97 - '99) and that place is huge. We had great seats on the West side, in the shade and not in the student section where you stand for the entire game (one of many Aggie traditions).
We missed the band's entrance to the field but caught the jet fighter fly over and the team's entrance. Ethan thought both were very cool.
Ethan was very much into the game and even making play comments to the young coed next to him. I think she was a bit surprised because he knew what he was talking about. I had given him a new Aggie shirt for his birthday, along with the tickets at his birthday party and ended up getting a new shirt myself. It's very important to wear maroon at these games.
Even in the shade, it was still smokin' hot. And even after a huge burrito, Ethan was hungry again by halftime. I let him get whatever he wanted, as long as he brought me back an ice cold soda. He got a burger and chips and two ice cold sodas. Thank you Ethan!

The game was a lot of fun even though the Aggies lost. All in all it was a near perfect day; 12 mile bike ride, Freebirds burrito, and a great football game with my #1 son.

End of California Trip w/ the Cannons

Since we were flying out of Burbank, we were able to spend some time with my side of the family. We were hoping to see my Grandma, but she was lucky enough and her health was well enough that she took a trip to Utah for a Buetler family Reunion.

My Uncle Ray had the whole family at his house for BBQ which was fabulous. And again the weather was so perfect we ate outside in his beautiful green and flower flourished backyard. Steve and I were a little late getting there, so everyone else was done eating but we had a fun catching up.

This was another trip of firsts for me: I got to meet my Uncle Ray's new wife, Kelly. She is as wonderful as everyone kept telling me she was.

My Uncle Dave and Aunt Emily, my cousins Karilyn, Christine, Michael, Paul and his wife Laticia, Traci and her kids Sophie and Kevin, Korry and his wife Shannon and kids Hunter and Brody were also there.

Fun Times with the Cannons. Can't wait to see them all again at Christmas.

Cousin Traci's Daughter Sophie

Cousin Michael, Me, Steve & Cousin Christine


Aunt Emily (my dad's sister) Cousin Karilyn and Christine, Me, My Uncle Ray (my dad's brother) and his wife Kelly.

Uncle Dave, Steve, Me, Aunt Emily, Laticia (cousin Paul's wife), Cousin Paul, Karilyn & Christine

Cousin Traci & Sophie

Happy Boy Kevin!

(I scanned alot of these pictures, from the pictures my Uncle Dave printed out for me before we left.)