Thursday, July 27, 2006

Ten Years Today - A Love Story

27 July 1996

This day in the Summer of 1996, Dan and I exchanged vows in a beautiful garden ceremony surrounded by our loved ones. It was the first of the days I call "The best days of my life" because it was overflowing with raw emotion. Several other days on that list, four to be exact, involved the birth of my precious children, for which this day, ten years ago, was the beginning of that story. But let's go back even further...

Our story began on a dark midnight in Spring of 1994; a diverse group of college dorm students ventured out into a grassy expanse occupied by a children's athletic arena. (It was actually just a playground, but that does not sound as romantic!) Our adventure was called "Midnight in the Park," a dorm social event meant to get students out of their rooms and mixing with other crazy people having nothing better to do! My excuse was I did not own a car and suffered from cabin fever! Dan's was that he roomed with the hall council member who sponsored the event. Yes, Dan was on the hall council. We were both nerds in our own way, but we were social nerds!! (We both eventually became RAs, the ultimate social nerd, but I digress, as usual.)

As I stared into the thousands of dewy grass leaves, flashlight fixed against my forehead, he observed my peculiar behavior from afar. "Why does this girl have a flashlight on her forehead?" he thought. He was intrigued and compelled to learn more about her. He had seen her before, around the dorm, and thought she was cute. He remembered her from his door to door travels as the girl who brought oodles of pennies back from her visit home, just like she said she would, for the dorm's penny drive. (Truth be told, I might have been flirting a bit with him when it came to those silly pennies. Do you think I was trying to buy his love?) Flanked by his pals, Dan crossed the space between his group and hers, leaving the comfort of his swing set and pursuing the object of his favor.

Embarrassed, my friend and I explained that we were in search of spiders. She mentioned learning in girl scouts that if you place a flashlight against your forehead, like a third eye, and peer into the grass that spiders' eyes glow red. I still am not certain of the validity of this claim, but it did snag me a husband - so who cares!?! From then on, Dan pursued me in a slow and calculated manner; he must have paid attention in preschool for he took note of the moral of the fable "The Tortoise and the Hare": slow and steady wins the race! After a few days of reconnaissance, gathering all the information he could about me from his friends and acquaintances (you know, Does she have a boyfriend? Is she a whack job? - those sorts of important facts fundamental when considering a potential soul mate), we began the grueling, albeit enjoyable, week long interview process during which we spent our nights staying up until the crack of dawn, barely making it to classes, because we could not stop finding things to talk about. We shared stories and musings, we laughed, we cried, and began falling in love. Oh, and he finally asked me out on our first official date!

I was already hooked, and I think he was also. So I cannot imagine why he was so nervous when he asked me out that first time. He had to know I would say yes. I will never forget the way his eyebrows were trembling as he asked me for a date. He took me to the Jolly Fox, a local tavern in Huntsville where they have pool, beer and country western dancing, but before that, he had to teach me to dance. I fell in love with Dan that day, in those moments when he whisked me around his dorm room floor to the tunes of Garth Brooks and held me close in his arms. I still love to be in his arms, and I believe I always will. As he taught me to two-step, his eyebrows were trembling once again, giving away that he was possibly having the same feelings of affection for me. Why else would he be so nervous? I enjoyed our date and the dancing, but it was not nearly as intimate as those first dances we shared in his room. Our date ended with our first kisses, and I knew in my heart that I was in the arms of the man I would marry (provided he asked!)

On December 31, 1994, at my best friend's wedding, Dan proposed marriage with a beautiful verse he had written just for me whilst his eyebrows trembled as if in suspense of my answer. He had to know I would say yes! We danced to "I Swear" by John Michael Montgomery on the reception dance floor, just like that dorm room floor where he danced his way into my heart. On this night, he danced his way into my future. Giddy and intoxicated with joy for the rest of the evening, we rang in the new year with hopes and dreams of our life together.

On July 27, 1996, as we recited our vows to one another underneath a vast chapel of blue skies and pillowy white clouds, I gazed affectionately into Dan's hazel eyes and witnessed, for the last time since, his eyebrows trembling with anticipation as we professed our forever love and devotion to each other. He had to know I would say yes!!! And I did. And he did. And we still do...



I love you, Dan! Happy Anniversary! Love always, Carrie

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Time warp to 1994...

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Here we are in one of the 1st pictures taken of us together (our first was probably the one taken of us together before we left to see Phantom of the Opera at Jones Hall in Houston while I was on a 40 hour break from my job as counselor at Camp El Tesoro; I can't find it!) - It's August 1994 at my Nanny & PePa's place on Lake Livingston. That's Dan's car in the back:

And this is one of my favorite pictures of us together while we were dating, taken in the Fall of 1994. We're sitting in the "Little Seattle" fountain at SHSU outside the residence hall where we met, Smith Hall (where Dan would later be an RA). This is where it all began...

Rock'n River Family Aquatic Center

These are pictures of the new water park in Round Rock that I am going to take the kids to on Friday (Dan took them when he was there checking out the BSA camp before his week to volunteer). It's not spectacular, but I bet the kids will like it - they love the neighborhood pool! It has a couple of water slides, a huge super shallow splashing section for the little kiddoes and a "lazy river" with inner tubes that you can float around in...

shaded shallow pool for the young'uns:


lazy river (I guess more like a lazy creek - it's not really that big!) and you can see that the 2 water slides let out right here:

3300 Palm Valley Blvd (in Old Settlers park)
10 a.m. - 8 p.m. Mon., Tues. Thurs. Sat.
5 - 8 p.m. Weds
1 - 8 p.m. Fri & Sun.
$3 for Adults$2 for childrenNon-residents: add $1Pool Swim Passes (Good for 10 visits) Adults: $22.50 Children: $15 Non-residents: add $10

Monday, July 24, 2006

A small sample of A Day in the Life...


Savanna loves to go get the Bub after I get her up from her nap. She is quite noisy when she is up and about, so Dallas and Noah heard her when we went in there this afternoon and decided to join in on the action. Noah hopped in the papasan, and Savanna followed close behind. She is in a copycat phase right now. She likes to do whatever her Bubbas are doing. She asked for her "Meenie" because she wanted to chill out and relax, suck her thumb a little. I went to get my camera because I knew this was going to be cute. Savanna asked Dallas to come in for a sit, and Dallas wanted to hold Bailey. Dallas asked me to make a movie of them, so I shot some video with my camera. I got From Chillin' to Screamin' in 17.8 Seconds, and I shot the sequel, From Screamin' to Chillin' in 60 Seconds, immediately afterwards. It's about 3 minutes total, but I have to say this is a really good sample of what I go through all day long.

There are many fun, sweet moments, sometimes calm, hardly ever quiet, mostly packed with action, and often loaded with conflict of one kind or another (mostly to do with Savanna screaming about something). Bubby cries a little here and there when he wants or needs attention, and Dallas and Noah have always got something going on. Savanna just wants to be included. She is the little sister and wants to be the center of attention, even with her "Bubbas." So she thinks she has to scream in order to be heard, and sadly, most of the time this is true. What's a little squirt gonna do? Isn't it amazing that such a loud noise can come from such a tiny person? I cannot even scream that loud (and definitely not at that pitch!) Did it make any of you jump a bit when you heard it (kind of like when you hear fingernails on the chalkboard)? Just wondering if it's only me, or if maybe it affects me more since I'm the mama. Can you believe I have not been committed to the looney bin yet? It's only a phase, it's only a phase... that's what I keep reminding myself, anyway...

This is the photo I took right after shooting the video. They are such good kids not to let Savanna's tantrums get them down. I am able to handle it so much better because of how easy they make it for me by remaining calm and collected and often times coming to the rescue by distracting her just like we parents do. I think they will make great dads someday, these boys of mine. I love all my babes!!! ...the Geegers, the Nani, and the Bub...

P.S. Savanna is wearing her favorite shirt: her "Nemo" shirt. Finding Nemo is her favorite movie right now, and when I saw the shirt for only $4, I thought she might like it. Little did I know... I can hardly get it away from her to wash it!!!

Sunday, July 23, 2006

Our Little Angel

These photos are from the same time when we took the video of Bailey sleeping, but I thought the black and white would enhance the effect, and, boy, did it. I like to play with the camera sometimes. You can see how dramatic his eyelashes are, and the little baby feet look so much more timeless in black and white. I just love baby feet! I would think I had a fetish or something, but you can ask anyone in my immediate family, I have a huge phobia of sorts with feet - I usually find feet completely gross, and don't even let your feet get near my pillow! But no matter where they have been, I just dote and kiss on the baby feet. Anyways, here is our little angel man (and his precious little baby feet)...

Noah's New Haircut

Noah got his hair cut this Saturday. He was excited about it since it has been so long. We looked at the book, but he was sure he wanted something "spiky." We only looked in the book so he could have something to show the stylist. After he was done, he had a smirkish grin on his face, so I knew he was happy with the results. I used to cut the boys' hair, but I don't think I could do this!! We stopped by HEB afterwards, and Noah got me these roses (I asked him which ones he would get for me since they were on sale - only $6 for a dozen!, and I thought they were all beautiful). He was proud that he got me flowers (he even wanted to give the cashier the money), and I used this as one of those "teaching moments," telling him girls love flowers or the thought and time you spend getting them flowers, but they don't want you to spend too much money on them!! (my opinion - I could be wrong...) Here is Noah showing off his new haircut (and my roses - didn't he choose well?):

Saturday, July 22, 2006

Schlitterbahn

Last summer we went to Florida which was a great vacation (in theory), but for a pregnant mom of a toddler who does not do well in strange locations (even still), it was not so great. Dallas and Noah had a great time, and we made some good memories, but vacations are really for the kids, I have realized. I personally love Schlitterbahn (even more than roller coaster theme parks), but there was no getting me there this year being the mother of a tantrum throwing toddler and a nursing infant. Next year, I am there, man!!! (provided I have a babysitter for Savanna and the Bub)... Here are some photos from this year's trip with Dallas, Noah, and Dan from Thursday, July 20th, 2006:

The beginning - before getting wet...

Noah, racing down a slide (he had to hold his shoes)...

Dallas, Noah, Chris, and Erin, hangin' on while Dan takes a pic (those are his feet)...

COPS! Schlitterbahn... Dallas and Noah have been detained for having too much fun - bad boys, bad boys, whatcha gonna do?

Dallas and Noah are getting dumped on underneath one of the slides in the park. I remember this from last time I was there... The water is sooo cold!!! But I bet it would feel great since we have had temperatures over 100 degrees here lately!!!

Noah seems to be posing here seriously like he is getting into the pirate theme (they are in a pirate ship!) Noah has been really excited about seeing the 2nd Pirates of the Caribbean movie, but we have yet to take him. He loved the first movie, but I am not so sure the 2nd one is 8 year old fodder...

Here the boys are at the end of the day, getting blasted by the waves. Dan said they hung out here in a sort of "Lazy River" type of thing, only there were monsterous waves every few seconds that could knock you off your tube! Here they are on a beach in that section just a chillin' and letting the waves hit them...
TTFN - Carrie

Video of the Bub now showing on the WWW

I just posted a precious video of the Bub to google video and sent it to some friends and family. If you have not already gotten to view it, it is called Dreams of the Milky Way (click on that). Have a great weekend! I hope to post some pictures of Dan and the boys' trip to Schlitterbahn soon. I have to tend to a baby who is calling for me right now!

TTFN - Carrie

Wednesday, July 19, 2006

Sibling Rivalry - sort of... July 11, 2006


I was taking multiple pictures of the Bub in his play yard (check out his little teethies; if you click on the picture you can see a larger version), and Savanna wanted the same attention so check this out. As I was clicking photos, I got this:

Savanna decided she wants in on the action! She climbs in, and strikes a pose, just like the Bub:

Isn't that sweet? A few seconds later she was gone - she's always moving! Here is another cute shot of Bailey. He's officially 7 months on this day. He is scoot-crawling really well but not yet sitting up on his own. He rocks back and forth on his hands and knees a bit and then leaps forward, over and over. He can do this very quickly and get anywhere he wants to go!:

TTFN - Carrie

Bye Bye PaPa

We are leaving to head back to Austin after an action-packed weekend visit at Nana and Papa's. Savanna is over stimulated and will grace us with one of the worst car rides of our lives, but here she is having a soft, tender moment with her PaPa...

Popcorn Kiddoes


Noah, Dallas and their cousin Alex are having a blast hopping around. Cousin Sierra is helping Savanna jump on the trampoline. Savanna loves to bounce. She has been jumping in her bed since she could stand. She can bounce all over her bed right now without ever falling down - she's really good at it and performs strong, tight jumps. So this was almost too much for her to handle. Dan had a hard time getting her away from it because she did not want to leave.

I'm Gonna get you Uncle John!!


I was trying to hide out of the picture while Dan took it, but he did not get the joke I was trying to play so did not zoom in for the funniest shot. Once I get my photo program on the computer, I will crop myself out of it and repost! Bailey is reaching out to grab his Uncle John's hair.

Savanna's 3 Loves (or Lovies, rather)


Savanna loves three things: The Meenie, The Spongebob, and her thumb. Meenie is the name she has for that cover she is holding - I have no clue where she got that from. This is the original Meenie which I gave to her (to use - it was actually my favorite throw cover) to cover up with last fall when it started getting cooler. She calls all covers "Meenie" but specifically she likes to hold the corners and touch them to her lip as she sucks her thumb. She can enjoy one or all of these things througout the day, but she cannot, without a doubt, even entertain the thought of falling asleep without all three. Gotta have the triad. We have season 1 and 2 of Spongebob on DVD, and there is no telling how many times she has seen them. Dallas and Noah love the shows also, so if they were VHS tapes, I am afraid they would have been stretched out by now.

At nighttime, only the original Meenie will do. I have tried to switch it for other meenies, and even got her a Spongebob meenie because Meenie is a feather cover and is entirely too hot to be sleeping with in the summer; she wakes up all sweaty, especially at naptime because her room is on the hot side of the house. She is "nesting" with all 3 in the furniture dolly (in the photo above) that was used to move some furniture from Albert's house in the Woodlands to Dan's parent's house in Katy. We spent most of Saturday moving before we had Dallas's party that evening. Savanna didn't like all the traveling; it worries her when we move around too much, and she longs for the comfort of her room at home. This is why we like to bring her favorite things with her when we go places.

Before the Meenie, she couldn't sleep without the Buddy, her little pink soft n silky animal blankie. We left it in Katy once, and Dan's mom FedExed it to us next day - it is that important!! After that, I bought 2 more buddies on clearance for $3 each because Carter's was discontinuing that line of layette items. They came in very handy. But there is only one original Meenie! We may be in trouble later... Bubby has his own white Buddy similar to hers right now that he loves; he is always holding it when we go in to get him out of his bed. It was on sale at the same time those pink ones were, so it is the only one like it - hopefully he won't be quite as attached as Nani is. Dallas and Noah didn't form attachments to any material things (other than Dallas's suck-suck which I was able to get him to give up very easily by chopping off the tips - he rejected them after I did that, so I didn't have to hide them or take them away). Dallas and Noah were always together so they were only attached to each other!

Since she found it, Savanna was the casual thumbsucker, mostly at bedtime. I nursed her until she was 1, so her sucking needs were met well. I became pregnant with Bailey around the time she turned one, and she slowly began refusing one feeding after another as the flavor/consistency of my milk changed. She knew I was pregnant before I did! After she gave up her last feeding (the first morning one), she began thumbsucking like mad, especially while holding her Buddy. She had to have the Buddy with her almost all day long wherever we went. I don't think she was really ready to give up nursing, so she found other ways to find comfort. It can get chaotic around here, so I am glad she has outlets for comfort. Thank goodness for the Meenie, the Spongebob, and the Thumb!!

Dallas's 9 1/2 Birthday Party - July 8, 2006

Dallas was born the day after Christmas, so the last real brouhaha we threw for him was his 1st birthday party when everyone and their dog came to celebrate with us despite Christmas having been a few days earlier. It was great! But since then, he has been completely robbed of a real birthday party experience. We always do something with the family, sometimes including extended family, whoever we happen to be spending the holidays with because I do feel it is important to have party of some kind, even for us old fogies. Someone else who experienced the same lack of attention from having a holiday birthday mentioned that her parents gave her 1/2 birthday parties so her friends could attend. It has financial advantages as well since everyone is strapped around Christmas and the new year which also happens to be when property taxes are due for us! So this is the first year for the 1/2 birthday party tradition. We asked Dallas what he wanted to do, and he chose Chuck E. Cheese's. I had never been there before, so this was new to me. Noah had a party a few years ago at Gattiland which is similar. So his cousins, Alex and Sierra, and grandparents and Uncle John could go, we decided to have the party at the Chuck E. Cheese's in Katy. The kiddoes ran around like their pants were on fire, and we ate crazy expensive pizza that actually was pretty good. Here are some photos:

The first thing they found of course was the Jurassic Park video game. They love the video games, and Noah loves the movie. It rocked around while they played. Notice the superman T-shirt... we went to see the new Superman movie after the party. Dan loves all things Superman and has been wanting to see this movie since he found out they were going to make one. The last book he read cover to cover for enjoyment that wasn't a technical manual or how-to book was about the history of Superman, about 6-7 years ago. The man doesn't read books, but he will if it's about Superman! He is really worried the film won't make enough money in which case they won't make the next 2 pictures. We'll see... Noah was especially excited to get his Superman with the cool flames T-shirt! If you noticed him wearing a party hat also, it's because the party was partly for him also since he did not get to have a party with friends this year (we did have a family party). I left Dan with the camera after this because he was following them around while I was with Savanna and Bailey, but he did not take any!! This is why we hardly have any pictures of me - I am almost the only one who records our life! I saw a carousel and thought Savanna would like it, so I snagged Dan and the camera. Noah got on also:


Nani seemed to like it for a bit, and then:

Dallas really loved this attraction. I guess he's not afraid of heights like me!

Here is Bubby with Albert checking out that silly talking animatronic - what is it? A mouse? I guess that would explain the "Cheese" in his name! Bub doesn't look too sure about him - he's giving him the sideways glance...

Here the boys blow out the candles on Dallas's cake:

Dallas and Noah get a surprise visit from Chuck, and he gives them ice cream sandwiches. We sing "Happy Birthday" once again:

Yay!!! Everyone was clapping when they blew out the candles, so Savanna chimed in (so cute!):

Bye-bye Chuck! Thanks for coming! Dan's mom (Nana) looks on as the boys wave goodbye to Chuck and the party comes to a close...

Piggy Back Ride - June 5, 2006

Bailey loves being in the thick of things and was whimpering his "I want Mama to hold me" cry while I was trying to make dinner. My nerves cannot handle when my babies are crying (I think it's the "mommy" hormones from nursing), so I put him in the mei tai on my back. Voila! Happy baby! After a while, Noah pointed out to me that he fell asleep so I asked him to take a picture for me since I could not see my back! I was able to see that he was slipping a bit (I did not make it tight enough!):

Noah has always loved my different baby wearing methods, so he was quick to ask me if he could carry Savanna in the mei tai once I took the Bub out:

Here he is wearing Savanna last November in a carrier I got from my friend Jenny:

All it is is 6 yards of stretchy fabric. I had just gotten it because it looked like a good way to carry a newborn (and it was, Bailey loved it and still does). Jenny carried her 2 year old around in it, so I tried it out and was able to carry Nani in it even with my prego-belly. Noah just had to try it also!!


Of Course, Savanna is a lot heavier now than she was then, so he could not carry her around as long! She's about half his weight I think! Dallas noticed the attention being paid to Noah and Savanna and had to be part of the fun also. Here he is posing with them (Savanna is eating up the attention!):

and also acting super silly, for laughs...

Since then, Noah has been giving Savanna piggy back rides often. She loves them! He gets on the floor like a horse, and she climbs on and grabs hold to him and up and off he goes. Savanna has Noah wrapped around her pinkie right now - poor kid... But I am so thankful for his ability to keep her entertained - it is a huge help for me!!

We are sooooo unCOOL... Or are we too cool?

I say this because we seem to have trouble with anything that cools. A couple of weeks ago, I noticed that our fridge was not cooling like it used to. I kept having to turn it up until it was on the highest number. The freezer worked fine - ice was not melting, but the butter in the fridge was soft and milk was not as cold as I would like it and went bad before the sell by date. We called Whirlpool, and they mentioned that if a frost free freezer is in a really hot environment for a time (like the 2 times our A/C broke and our house got over 85 degrees) it can develop condensation which will freeze and the fridge will not cool as well. So this made sense, and we put everything in the deep freeze or in an ice chest while we were away in Katy for the weekend, so we would not lose all our food. Then when we got back, we unplugged the fridge, and we did see where there was a block of ice up in a vent where it probably shouldn't have been since it is a frost free freezer. It worked just like it used to for about a week, and now we are having the same problem again. We will be calling again to see if maybe we didn't let it dry out long enough. We also cleaned the dust off of the coils which we hadn't done EVER just in case that was causing it. If you have not done this, I highly recommend it, because it was really gross! I think it should be done at least once a year! If we thaw it out again, and it happens again, we will have to call out a repairman. At this point, I think it is comical that these particular types of things keep happening to us. I can only surmise that we are absolutely uncool!! Dan and I are in our 30s now, and I think we sometimes forget how old we are. Maybe this is life's way of reminding us we are no longer hip and cool. But then again, were we ever? (If I had a scanner, I would insert a picture here of us when we were in high school so you could judge for yourself.) I think we may actually be cooler now than we were then!! But you wouldn't know it from our recent history with cooling devices! Maybe we are in fact too cool and the "cool"ing devices fall apart because they simply cannot compete with our level of coolness. =-)

This is getting weird - it is late, and I should not be writing when I am tired and Pink Panther is on the TV in the background - do you remember that cartoon? I am really cool right now - I love A/C!
TTFN - Carrie

Tuesday, July 04, 2006

Copycat



May 2006

My Cub Scouts



Dallas and Noah at the end of year picnic in May when they were presented with their rank badges....

Dallas received his Wolf rank and is now a Bear cub, and Noah received his Tiger rank and is a Wolf Cub. I am planning on being the leader for Dallas's Bear scout den this year - please pray for me (and that we will have some assistant or co-leaders)!! There are at least 8 cubs returning, and we will most likely recruit more! Cub Scouts is a lot of fun, and I am looking forward to it - it will give me a chance to use some of that teacher training my dad sent me to school for!!