The Wrath of Hurricane Dolly

A recap:

Hurricane Dolly hit us Wednesday morning. Early that morning, J was called into work to help prepare. I decided to tough it out and stay at the house to weather the storm. Well that lasted until around 9 am when our power went out and I heard the wind crack one of my neighbor's trees. Within 10 minutes, Goob and I were packed up and on the way to my aunt's home. I figured that we'd be there for a few hours and then come home. (Ha!)

My aunt lost power around 2 pm and that's when things got really interesting. The wind was horrible! It was bending her trees so much that they practically touched the ground. Their fence (which has steel beams going 3 feet underground) toppled. Their neighbors trampoline ended up on top of the neighbors roof. Since we had no power, we all just sat and looked out the windows. The rain was continuous for 8 hours. That was the absolute worst part. When it rains here, it floods! My aunt had no flooding because her house sits high. But my truck was parked in the street and the water was about 1/2 up my tired.

Around 8pm Wednesday night, I needed to go home. I needed diapers and formula for Goob. Plus, J was on his way home. Just as I was leaving, J called to warn me about flooded streets. I thought he was exagerating, but nope. I tried to get home but as soon as I got to the main road, I had to turn around. I probably could have made it in my truck but I was too scared. J thankfully made it home.

Goob and I headed back to my aunt's house for the night. My cousin just had a baby on Tuesday night and they were sent home on Wednesday afternoon (in the middle of the hurricane! but that's another story!) so my cousin has some formula samples and extra diapers. THANK GOODNESS!!! At my aunt's house we still had no power so Goob and I had a rough night. He was so hot he couldn't sleep. Plus it didn't help that my cousin's newborn baby was in the next room. (Can you imagine spending your first night at home with a new baby in a hurricane!?)

As soon as the sun came out Thursday morning, Goob and I headed home. The water had gone down enough that I was able to make it home okay. And there was debris everywhere!!

We were extremely lucky that our house made it through without any significant damage. We lost a few roof shingles and most of our backyard fence. But everything else was okay. We had no flooding. Our next door neighbors actually lost half of their roof!

Thursday afternoon we received word that power would not be restored for approximately 72 hours!!!!! So J and I packed up and headed to the ILs who live a few hours away. As we were leaving town, we could see how extensive the damage was. North of us in some of the more rural areas, it looked like lakes! The flooding was horrible. Cars were halfway underwater. We could see fire fighters on boats going from house to house. We spent the whole ride saying how lucky we were. It was also pretty cool to see how many disaster relief trucks we saw going down to help out.

Our power came back over the weekend so we came home Sunday morning. Everything was fine here at first. I was SOOO glad to be home.

Weekly Pic: Week 12 & 13

Week 13: July 29 (Goob's 3 month birthday)


Week 12: July 22

Hurricanes suck

Never thought Hurricane Dolly would affect us as bad as it did....

We just got power back at home. There has been no electricity since Wednesday morning.

Thankfully my inlaws only live a few hours away so we drove up Thursday afternoon. There is no way we would have survived with no AC and a 3 month old..

We are heading back home tomorrow morning.

There is not too much damage to our neighborhood. We lost most of our fence but we had no flooding or roof issues. (Our neighbors lost about half of their roof.)

the worst part of all of hurricane dolly is that I lost my whole supply of breast milk. There is just no way it could survive in a deep freezer with no power for 3 days. I had at least 1000 ounces there. So sad.

What is going on in the crib during nap time?

So I usually put Goob down for nap time like this:



Today after naptime, when he started to whine, I found this in the crib. What happened?

This is his sleep positioner and blanket. His head was up there when I put him in the crib.

I can't find the other sock.

The culprit.

Uh oh...

This is not good. We live a few miles north of Brownsville. It's scheduled to hit on Wednesday night. And guess what? J's working overnight on Wednesday. Not good.

Sweetheart Siggy

I love it! Thanks Julia!!

Weaning from the pump! Woo hoo!

I absolutely hate this machine. It's awful. And I'm so thankful to say that I'm weaning myself from it. I go back to work in about a month. DH and I agreed when we first realized that I'd have to be an exclusive pumper that I'd stop pumping at Aug 1. (I've been pumping for 2.5 months)

After much research about the weaning, I've decided to start increasing the time between my pumping sessions. I started about 2 weeks ago. At that point I was pumping every 3 hours at getting about 40 ounces, so I started pumping every 4 hours for a week and was getting 36 ounces. Now I'm pumping every 5 hours and am now getting 32 ounces and decreasing. Next Sunday I'll go up to 6 hours between sessions. and I'll keep increasing until I totally stop on August 3. The pump will go to the very back of the closet. Woo hoo!! I can hardly wait to not have to stop what I'm doing every few hours and attach myself to a pump.

This is my freezer supply. I have saved about 1000 ounces of breastmilk. That should last us an addiional 3 weeks after I finish pumping. So Goob will have been exclusively breast feed for 4 months. I'm happy with that. It's better than nothing!

Weekly Pic: Week 11

July 15th:


Plus a bonus pic!

Now and Then:

I wanted to do a quick now and then picture.

Then: He was a few days old.


Now: This were taken yesterday. He was two months, two weeks, and a day.

He laughed!

Goob gave his daddy his first and second laugh last night. And then some more laughs this morning.

He hasn't given Mommy any laughs. I guess I'm just not as funny as Dad.

Getting back to work

So I've got about 5 and a 1/2 weeks until I return to teaching. I've got a bunch of new ideas that I need to work on. Yesterday I kept trying to find the time to sit down and organize some things but never did. This morning I've managed to make a partial list of stuff I need to work on. The only reason I found time to work on things is because Goob woke up at 5:30 to be fed and changed. Well, he went back to bed and I didn't. (By the way, Goob slept from 9ish until 5:30. He did get a dream feed at 11:30 but he wasn't awake so it didn't count!) Now I figure I've got about half an hour to work on things until he wakes up.

Here's my To Do list:

• decide how to decorate the walls
• morning folders
• homework: to have or not have?
• writing folders
• wednesday folders or graded work binders?
• journals
• parent contact binders
• turn in area
• classroom jobs
• supply list
• behavior managment system
• classroom economy
• STARS binder

I know I'm forgetting something...

I survived the weekend!

We arrived to San Antonio on Friday morning around 11. We were the first out of towners so Goob's grandparents had him all to themselves. Once everyone else arrived and cooed over my gorgeous baby, we pigged out on barbeque then headed to J's grandparents (Goob's great grandparents) house to introduce everyone to my baby. (For some reason, I don' have any pictures of Goob meeting his aunts and uncles. My ILs have them so I'll put them up when I can.)

Goob enjoyed meeting his great grandparents.


Here's J, Goob, and the great grandparents.


Then I got the 4 generations pic that I bugged J about.


Then grandma scooped him up and wouldn't put him down again.


Finally after we got back from the great grandparents and had more barbeque, it was time for Goob's bath, especially since he was passed around and around and around and he now smelled like everyone else's perfume. Ugh. After his bath, Goob went right to sleep and slept for 8 hours. It was AMAZING!


The next morning Goob was again passed around and around and around from aunt to uncle to grandma to aunt to grandpa to dad to uncle, etc, etc. All that passing around makes a little boy exhausted. So while J and I got dressed for J's dad's retirement party, my baby passed out.



Then it as off to the retirement party. 100 people showed up. And again my baby was oohed and aahed over (of course!) and passed around and around and around. I really wantedd to bust out my hand sanitizer, but then I worried that the ILs, et al, would think I'm a nut case. As the dinner was wrapping up, my BIL managed to take a nice picture of my little family. It's one of the few that we have since usually one of us is taking the pictures. (forgive the cleavage, oh the joys of breastfeeding!)


The next morning, we trekked a hundred miles to see MY family (YAY!) at "the River." Every year my grandparents and aunts and uncles "camp" at the Frio River for 3 weeks. I've been going every year since I was born (I think I missed one year). They "camp" with the same group of people every year (my grandparents have been "camping" here for 30+ years. Everyone is really good friends with everyone else. So my Meme was dying for me to come out so she could show off her great grandson. (I say "camp" because it's not like tent campings with no running water. Everyone usually has a big 5th wheel trailer with personal restrooms/showers. It's not exactly "roughing it.") Anyway, here's my Papa with Goob.


Me and Goob




This is Goob and my Meme (my hero!). And look we are in her big ole trailer! It's definitely not "roughing it"!


Then we had to take a picture overlooking the River. It's a tradition. Every year everyone takes pictures here. (In fact, J and I took our engagement pictures about 50 feet from here! Wow, that was 2 years ago.)


Here's our beautiful River.


Another tradition we have is the "River Dunking." Every family I have that was born after my grandparents started coming to the river has been "River Dunked": my uncle, Mike, me (at 3 mos), my cousin Caitlyn (14 mos), my cousin Chandler (2 mos), my cousin Mason (11 mos), my cousin Rylee (9 mos). Now it was Goob's turn. Here's Daddy preparing to River Dunk Goob. A River Dunk is just putting your feet in the water!


And here's the dunk! As soon as Goob's feet touched the water, the crying began. He didn't like. I think it's cause the water was a little chilly or maybe we just surprised him. The tears didn't last long cause as soon as I got to him, he was fine.


A few hours later, he was happily playing in his new bouncy seat at the ILs.


Then J went off to hang out with his brother and left Goob and I to play by ourselves.


Monday afternoon we headed home. As soon as we got home, I realized that I left my beloved bottle brush at my ILs and had to go get another. J had a little too much fun with it.

Weekly Pics: Week 10

July 8th:

Fourth of July

Happy 232nd birthday, America!

J, Goob , and I are on our way to San Antonio to spend the weekend with the inlaws.

I'm having mixed feelings about it. I'm excited to see my SILs and niece. I'm excited for Goob to meet J's family. I'm not looking forward to spending the weekend in my IL's house with 10 other people. (that's just J's immediate family, plus spouses and kid. ) My ILs live in a huge house but I'm just used to the 3 of us. I'm not looking forward to seeing my BIL. We've got issues. I'm not looking forward to not getting to hold my son. I just know they're not gonna put him down the whole weekend.

We'll see.

Happy 4th!

(sent from Centro)

I hate packing...

...especially when I have to pack for my husband, a 2 month old AND me.

We're going to the inlaws on Friday for the holiday weekend. It's my FIL's retirement party as well. Plus it'll be the first time most of J's family gets to meet our little guy.

Weekly Pics: Week 9

July 1st, 9 weeks old



Here's the end of one of his smiles. (My dumb camera takes FOREVER to take a picture and has about a million flashes so I can never get a good smile pictures.)



And I just had to throw this one in. He was having play time on his gym mat. I got up to go get something to drink. I was gone maybe 30 seconds and I came back and he was passed out. ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz!! What a hard life to have.