So... I'm Carrie

**Not for the squimish.

I haven't had anything remotely interesting or intellectual to say here, so I just haven't.  My only complaint as of late is the insanity that is Houston traffic post-hurricane.  and seriously, don't even get me started.  The water cooler conversations at work have gone from "Do you have power?" to "How long did it take you?" and the standard reply is 2 hours.  Doesn't matter if you live 17 miles away or 70.  2 Hours. Every highway is a veritable parking lot.

It Sucks.

So then there was last night.  I made it home in an hour 45, now that's progress.  Cassie came over to get something I had for her at home.  Carter was AMPED.  Spinning circles, running, jumping, laughing - just typical 2 year old enthusiasm.  I warned, much like my mom would have when i was a kiddo "you better take it easy, you are going to make yourself sick" 

Dude - I had my first 'Mom's always right' moment. 

Carter puked.  Thank god he happened to be standing in the kitchen on the tile floor. we get that all taken care of and start working on fixing dinner.

So jason and i get dinner together, post pukage - and we sit down and carter is acting weird.  "All Done" he says and starts moaning and doing this weird little cough.  Then gagging.  and you guessed it... puke again.  I have a bite of food in my mouth while holding the child over the kitchen sink.  I promptly spit it out, get carter calmed down and cleaned up.

Jason looks over and says to me "are you done eating?"

Um... yeah. 

Raising the bar.

so... i just figured out that the guy on raising the bar is zack morris. he looks totally different with the long brown wavy hair...

i'm a little slow.

oh... the show is really good if you haven't watched. 

normal.

tomorrow i return to work.  i left hurriedly on thursday afternoon to go and get my grandma and i haven't been back yet. 

the past 2 days i have spent with carter and we have just been enjoying ourselves.  we took a little walk yesterday over to the park that is around the corner.  just to get out of the house for a little while and get the dog a walk in. 

he loved the slide and thought he was big stuff.  he finally got to where he could climb the ladder by himself, of course, i was way too afraid to not be there with my hand right there in case he slipped up.  i know for a fact he comes by clumsy naturally.  ahem.

he slid over and over and over.  didn't want to do anything else, except occasionally check on scarlet.

and here are a couple from today. 

oh... one more thing before i go...

Ike gave us the most beautiful sunset.  this was the evening before the storm... you should have seen jason and i trying to get these pics.  i had my aperture wide open and had the camera on the tripod.  i had the camera on a timer, would push the button and jason would shove the tripod into the air to try to grab a shot over the fence.  the wind was already blowing pretty good, so it was quite a challenge to get a shot in focus.  it was pretty comical i am sure.  but... worth it.  the sky was absolutely stunning and the clouds were racing past us.  it was surreal.

as always... you can click on any image to view it larger.

ike. continued.

we are still doing ok.  we saw some very scary wind and rain.  we have power and are somewhat of an anomaly, as more than 2 million people in the Houston area are without.  mom and dad don't have power, but it sounds like they got a lighter side of the storm.

it is still raining quite a bit and the wind is still blowing strong.  i will update with more later.

Ike.

I have received a couple of emails regarding our well being, so i will post here about our good friend Ike who is brewing in the gulf.

We are about 50 miles inland - i think. it's probably more like 75.  We should be ok.  I don't doubt that we will get a lot of strong wind and rain, but the storm surge will not affect us.  We are at home, and we have Meemaw - my 94 year old grandmother, here with us.  Jason's mom, Dianna, will most likely come down to our house for the night so that we are all together in one place. 
My Mom and Dad, last I heard, are staying put for a little while longer to decide if they need to flee.  They live closer to the coast and their area is more flood prone. But, if the storm keeps moving more east, they should fair ok.  They might decide this evening to pack up and get out of dodge and head to Cassie and Mike's house.  Matt is on lock down in the Fort Bend county emergency response center.  He will be there until Sunday, I believe.  They are required to be there in case of emergencies and to help anyone in need.  Carey and Brendan are at home, they live a few miles from our house. 

We should all be okay - I hope our bunch down in clear lake has found higher ground. 

Jason's main concern is loosing satellite/power for tomorrows big Ohio State vs. USC game. 

I will post as the evening goes on... we are already seeing some gusty winds.  

Someone forwarded this image to me... thought i would share here... funny stuff.

Genius.

those marketing people over at apple are brilliant.

with every single email they send, they have me wanting.

have you seen this?

 

i don't need another iPod.  I have 2.  Jason has one.  but Dang if this new ad doesn't leave me wanting one in that perfect shade of green.

I hope they don't break out a new line of laptops in this rainbow of color.  i will definitely HAVE to have one of those.

rock of love.

we had a little rock band gathering a couple of weeks ago and this guy showed up....

and the women swooned.

he also showed up with chocolate cupcakes topped with not sprinkles, but bacon bits.
those 'rockstars' eat weird shiz.

it's a shame we don't all have a little more free time to do this type of thing more often... we are lucky to have some really great friends.

doh.

i had a post typed up and somehow managed to delete it.
dang.

here is a picture of the boy.

and the boy and his dog.

and... i added a few pictures to our house album.  we have made quite a few changes in the past two years.  oh my gosh we have almost been in this house two years! wow.  seems like yesterday we were living in a crappy second floor apartment where the neighbor below us HATED us. 

yesterday. a day like so many others.

since school has started back up, my commute is ridiculous.  It takes me and hour and 15 minutes door to door.  it is trying.  it is exhausting.  it is frustrating. 

by the time i get to the daycare, carter has had a full day.  i hate that he spends more time at school than he does at home.  he is usually exhausted and a bit on the cranky side. 

yesterday - for whatever reason, traffic was horrendous.  i didn't even reach the daycare until 6:28 - about 40 minutes later than usual.  he was one of 2 kids left.  and he was exceptionally cranked out.  every song that i played for him on the ride home - he told me he didn't like it.  so i turned of the radio.  a fit ensued.  i turned the radio on. more screaming.

i knew the evening was going to be a tough one.

i noticed he was drooling quite a bit and steadily chewing on his fingers.  so, we got home, i tried to give him dinner - he refused.  i took his plate away - he screamed.  nothing would satisfy him. 

and during all of this, i surprised myself.  i remained calm.  i didn't get worked up.  i just tried to figure it out.  tried to appease him.  i gave him hugs.  tried to talk to him. 

i finally gave him a couple of teething tablets and took him outside to play.    it always amazes me no matter how upset he is, just taking him outside changes his entire attitude.

these are the parts of parenting people forget to tell you about.  the day in, day out things.  the meltdowns.  the crankiness.  the trying of the parents. how hard of a job this really is. 

every night before i get into bed, i walk into carter's room to make sure he is covered up and just to check on him.  and seeing him laying there, sleeping. so sweetly, so beautiful. so peaceful - it makes it worth every single second.

and she runs, through her days, with a smile on her face.

so.  this weekend.  Mom and Dad took the dude.  We met up with them on Friday evening and I went and picked him up on Sunday afternoon. 

we are so lame.  we didn't even know what to do with ourselves.  and we missed him soooo much.

Friday night we had plans to go see the toadies with eric and lara.  and how nice of the toadies to return almost 7 years to the date that we last saw them.  and just how do i remember such trivial pieces of information?  just so happens that 7 years ago jason and i went to that toadies concert as a second date and we never stopped seeing each other.  turns out the toadies are magic.

so... they came to celebrate with us.  and closed this show the same way they closed the last one.  with my favorite toadies song, which apparently is EVERYONE's favorite toadies song - Tyler.

so... that was friday.  and it was indeed magic. although, standing in general admission for 3+ hours through the duration of a show is becoming increasingly more difficult.  i might need to break out some orthotics or something.

Saturday morning i went to my government class... I think it will be an interesting class. and a really ideal time to take it with so much going on with the elections.  came home and took a nap while jason rooted for the buckeyes.  we really didn't do anything else except laundry.  and ordered in chinese food.  and i spent some time in the office scrapbooking and finishing up season 2 of Dexter (on itunes)... HOLY!  i can't wait for season 3!

Sunday, as i said, I went to get carter and that was about it... more laundry.  i think i did 30 loads.  SHEESH!

yesterday we hung out, did some more chores.  Had dianna over for dinner watched HGTV and food network, and just chilled.

I spent the better part of the evening watching gossip girl and getting my stuff organized for my classes.  jason hid out in the office for some reason... probably because i was watching gossip girl. 

it was a lovely weekend.  it just wasn't nearly long enough.