S.T. Prather, Treasure Maps, Mums and so on...

A lot has happened since my last post, and that's the reason I haven't been posting! We've been so busy in the last month...after Will's surgery and recovery we've been going, going, going. Will has changed schools--he's back at Children's Day Out on Wednesdays and Fridays along with Claire. He has been doing really well there, and seems to remember his old classmates. He is as funny as ever and one of his new things is dressing himself. He comes up with some funky outfits. Take this one for example. My first thought was gansta rapper!

Claire took her first couple of steps a couple of weeks ago and hasn't really started "taking off" yet, but she's gradually getting there. Every day she goes a bit farther on her own.

I have been VERY busy at work, making LOTS of homecoming mums and trying to get my other work done as well :) We had two of our local homecomings on the same week (not this past Friday but the one before) and our other one is this week. We are just trying to get caught up because they were all so close together at the beginning of the year. It's been nuts. I stayed at work one night last week til nine and the next night til eleven. I even worked today from 12:30 to 6:00! Craziness!This is the mum I made for Claire (we went to one of the school's homecomings b/c one of our youth group girls was on the court)

And of course, Scott began his semester on the 26th. He is taking two classes this semester, and both are 8:00 classes in Abilene, so he has to get up those two mornings at 5:30 and drive for 2 hours to get to class! But the nice thing is, he's done by 11:00 and can get back in town to eat lunch and get back to his office (that is, if he doesn't need to do any library time!).

We've gotten to do a few fun things since Will's surgery as well. On Labor Day weekend, I was able to travel up to Amarillo and spend a few fun-filled days with my two good friends, Jen and Chelsey. It has been a tradition for us for about the last seven years to spend Labor Day weekend together. It's something the three of us look so forward to each year and we really enjoy our time together. We had fun just hanging out, cooking, and watching movies. We went to see both Mama Mia! and Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants 2, which were both good girly movies.

The following Wednesday, Harmony came and stayed with us as she had some work to do here in her Big Spring office. It was fun to see her again and she stayed til Friday morning. That night, Jen came again (her hubby has a hunting lease and our house is on the way!) and stayed til Sunday. That next Wednesday, my mom had some unexpected time off and came to visit us. That was also the same week of Hurricane Ike. Her work was cancelled, so she was able to stay until Sunday.

On the hurricane: My Dad stayed home to weather the storm with their dogs and watch the pool, etc. He did lose power for about 12 hours, and had some minor debris and damage, but nothing too horrific. A neighbor down the street lost a pretty big tree, but thankfully it fell into the street and not on their house. My parents' backdoor neighbors had a worse fate: the house they had just spent the last 6 months remodeling flooded on Sunday due to backed up drains (remnants of Ike dumped another 5.5 inches of rain on Katy on Sunday morning). My dad helped his neighbors rip up the flooring they'd just finished laying not a month before. My grandparents still do not have power at their house, last I heard, but are managing. Thankfully the weather at night has been cool enough to allow for sleep. My great aunt who lives on Lake Livingston had some damage to her small peir and two trees came down. She sent me some amazing pictures of the waves slamming the bulkhead that are below. It is amazing how the storm held up so far inland.

Okay, so about S.T. Prather: Claire now has a new nickname, as of tonight--Snaggle Tooth. At our youth devotional tonight after church, she fell on some brick steps (in the backyard of the house at which we were having the devo) and chipped not one, but two of her teeth! It was quite frightening as there was blood coming from her mouth and with her screaming like she was. The chips aren't bad; we're going to consult with a dentist who goes to church with us and see if he thinks anything needs to be done.

Cross-pollinated pumpkins: Yesterday, we needed to make a quick trip to Abilene to pick up a book that Scott needed for his class that was unavailable til this week. He needed to read part of it by Tuesday, so he needed it right away. We used the opportunity to visit our friends, Ty and Beth, who live there and see their new baby boy again. They have several varieties of pumpkins planted in their backyard. They didn't realize until after they had planted them, however, that some of the varieties need to be several acres apart in order to grow properly! So some of the pumpkins have cross-pollinated. We went out to show Will the patch and found a rather interesting looking pumpkin. They let us take it home (I thought it looked pretty cool!).


Treasure Maps: I FINALLY finished a gift for some friends at church I was working on for like 6 months! Their son's nursery is done in a pirate theme and I wanted to make a pirate's treasure map for them. So I started it back in March and just finished last week. Here's the final product...I'm pretty proud of it!!


Well, that's about all I can think of to share right now. I hope that everyone who might have read this and hasn't completely given up hope on me is doing well and loving life. We are, even if it is a bit hectic!