JP Star

Sunday afternoon, after we had the Callaway-situation under control, we drove back north for our friend Jacen's birthday cookout. Travis and I were both in a horrible mood by the time we were en route. We fought Aiden for two hours, trying to get him to lay down for a nap, with no success. Then we had to deal with Callaway. We thought about not going to the party at all, since neither of us were in a socializing type of mood. But then I decided it would be good for us to go. If we stayed home, we would definitely remain in a funk. If we went to a party with friends, we would have the opportunity to cheer up. And man am I glad we went. We all had a lot of fun.

I took boat loads of photos (to make up for missed shots in the past?) and I had trouble choosing between them all. Chris made sure to show off his muscles for the camera...

It was outrageously hot on Sunday, but if you stayed in the shade it wasn't so bad with the breeze. Some of they guys played the Longest Game of Washers in History, while the rest of us lounged nearby.

Supermodel Marina (pictured on the left below) did a great job with all the food. There were hot dogs, hamburgers, chicken breasts, ribs and then pasta salad and veggie salad and corn. I'm not even going to go into the list of appetizers she had out beforehand.

Kai, Travis, Skylar and Marina's right half:

After the Longest Game of Washers in History, we continued to hang out. There were a lot of kids there, which were quickly dubbed the Pack of Children. Aiden followed behind as they ran around the large property with walkie talkies, looking at rocks and plants and the horses and doing whatever else it is that entertains children for hours without a single toy (aside from the walkie talkies, of course).

Eventually a few of the older boys pulled a boat into the little pond. It was so funny because all they could really do was push the boat in and quickly turn around again. Aiden watched from the grass, while I tried not to have an anxiety attack about the possibility of him falling in. We could see everything the kids did from the house on top of the hill, but just because I can see him doesn't mean he's safe.

At one point, a small group of us went with Jacen over to their barn to feed the horses. We took a moment to check out the chickens and the one rooster with the longest spurs I've ever seen. Aiden was absolutely enthralled with all the animals.

When I was in middle school, I was at my friends house when she decided we were going to go play in the woods behind the horse pasture. That meant we had to climb the fence into the pasture with the horses for part of the trek out there. My friend warned me that one of the horses was still a little wild and I should run for the fence if she came over. Well, she tried to come over, so I ran. I had no experience with the large animal, so I just did what she said. My friend quickly realized I was not faster than a horse and yelled for me to stop and stand still. The horse then bit me on the shoulder.

I'm fairly confident that it was mostly lips and just a little nip with the teeth, but it scared the crap out of me. Nothing was broken or torn, but I had some bruising for a week. Ever since then I have been terrified of horses. I have tried to show courage, but I always had that animals-can-sense-your-fear saying in the back of my head. It doesn't matter how calm I am or if I have a smile on my face, I am sure that animal knows I am terrified.

Lucky for me, I'd had a couple glasses of Sangria before heading over to the barn, so I was (mostly) carefree when we stepped into the pasture. Personally, I think I did pretty well considering.

Here's a shot of Jacen (AKA JP Star) feeding Choctaw, the biggest horse I've ever stood next to.

Blair watches on as Choctaw and Cowboy eat their dinner.

Note to self: Do not mess with horses while they eat. They may get irritable.

The Working History of Travis

Travis' first week at the new job is going great. He likes the guy he's riding around with this week, but he hasn't had much of a chance to get to know the other guys (aside from the one he already knew). I really hope this week is a glance at his future with this job. He has worked so hard for many years, he deserves a job with a little slower pace of work. Because they service such a wide area, he spent more time driving than he ever did at the last electrical company.

He already has his own truck that he is in charge of inspecting, although he won't be driving around on his own for a few more weeks. He came home Wednesday night, excited about getting to arrange the truck how he wants. The guy he's driving with right now had some great ideas on how to set up the bed of the truck, so I have a feeling Travis will be doing some of that to his own truck.

When we first moved to Galveston, Travis got a job immediately working for Quizno's, since that's who he'd worked for in Illinois. He worked there for a few months before hearing about a job at a plant east of Houston. It was a horribly long drive, especially during rush hour. He had an hour and a half commute each way. That was in addition to a 10-hour work shift. We barely saw each other while he worked there. I hated it.

Soon after I started my first semester at Texas A&M, I made some friends. We hung out at their apartment frequently and got to know their neighbors, Cristin and Kai. They had a baby who I think was around 1 year old at the time. Kai was in the middle of building a house on the west end of the island. He had contracted out all the big work, but was getting ready to get his own hands dirty to do all the smaller jobs. Since Travis had some construction experience from when he worked for my dad during the summers in Illinois, Kai hired him to help.

Travis spent the entire summer helping Kai finish up the house, along with a occasional help from another friend of ours. The work Travis did for Kai was hard labor, but Kai was a good boss. It probably helped that we were friends. While Travis was working there, he got to know one of the guys Kai had contracted out to do the interior work. His name was Patrick. When the guys had finished the work at that house, Patrick took Travis on as his first full time employee.

After a couple months, Patrick hired another guy to work along side Travis. He did general construction for Patrick as well - trim, painting, installing appliances, windows and door knobs. He even took a stab at a little electrical, helping out some of the other contracted workers. Eventually, Patrick's health declined as he lost his battle with Hodgkin's Lymphoma (hopefully I'm recalling that correctly). Patrick was unable to stay as busy with work as he wanted to and had to let Travis go.

While working with Patrick, Travis got to know his last boss, Guy. Guy quickly agreed to hire him on with his small company. Travis had always shown interest in the electrical side of construction and was looking forward to learning more. He immediately got his Apprentice license and began learning the trade. After a few years, he tested for his Journeyman's license and has kept that active ever since.

Working for Guy was hard work. They worked long hours during the week and every Saturday. The work itself was grueling and fast paced. A lot of what electricians do involves houses and businesses without the electricity turned on. That means no air conditioning, which in southeast Texas is a pretty big deal. Add to that a lot of work in attics and you've got one tired employee by the end of the day.

Travis also worked at an oil refinery plant as an electrician for about a year in the middle of his time with Guy. Needless to say, Travis has been working his butt off for years. I'd say that he is overdue for a job that is a little more laid back and I think this new position is just the thing he needs.

A little poo shoveling

What an excellent weekend! Friday, after work, I did a little Christmas shopping. I had planned to visit several more stores, but ended up not having time to head up north. Instead, I went to a couple places in Galveston, before heading home with Aiden. When Travis got off from work, we partook in Friday's Movie Night that a few of my friends from work do almost every week. They've invited us several times before, but we always had previous plans. Since the past few weekends had been so busy, I had decided we would take it easy this weekend, so we didn't have anything on the schedule for Friday night.

Aiden trying to find out where the 'Mouw' went

Everyone brought some food that we all shared and then sat around the TV to watch Buddy the Elf and do a little chatting. It was a nice laid back evening, although we did keep Aiden up quite a bit past his bedtime.

Travis had to work Saturday and I still had some Christmas shopping to take care of. Aiden and I got up, ate breakfast, then were on the road to Shopper's Hell. That's how I feel about the city of Webster. There are so many stores and restaurants in one small area, that the traffic is always horrific. Top that off with Old Navy opening up a new store and having crazy sales to celebrate and you've got one stressed out Nikki.

Aiden and I did the forbidden and got fast food while we were between stores. Aiden LOVES chicken nuggets. What kid doesn't? Funny thing, is Aiden calls them crackers. Ha! We spent a few minutes in PetCo looking at fish, lizards and tarantulas before I picked out some new fish. I only got three, but we need to fill up our tank a little. What I REALLY need to do is buy some faux-plants to put in the tank. I still have all my saltwater decor in the tank, but it's actually a freshwater tank now. The coral doesn't provide the same protection that a plant would from the aggressive fish in our tank known as Bubba (the orange one).

That afternoon, Sue came over to watch Aiden at our house while Travis and I went to a wine party. Our friend Kai threw a party for 20 of his friends at an Italian restaurant. It was from 4 to 6:30, they served appetizers and unlimited wine. Bad idea. At least for me. I drank entirely too much. Although that was not quite apparent to me until it was time to leave. Everyone went over to Kai's afterward and once we got to his house, I realized the extent of the damage.

I still enjoyed the rest of the evening and we were home by 9 to relieve Sue. Thankfully the next morning I only had a headache - no nausea. Phew! We spent the morning lounging around. Travis made breakfast burritos and then we headed outside to play.

Travis was cleaning up the dog poo from the yard with two shovels. I looked over to find that Aiden had found his beach shovel and was following his daddy around. Every time Travis leaned over to scrape up a pile, Aiden would squat down and hit the ground with his shovel. It took them about 15 minutes before the entire yard was cleared out. I know he missed a lot, but it's better than nothing; that's for sure.

After Aiden's nap, we all went grocery shopping for Thanksgiving food. Then we headed down to Galveston to hang out at Ariel and Robert's until dinner time.

I have heard several people mention going out for Chinese food recently, so I decided it was our turn to hit up a buffet. Aiden has never been to a buffet, let alone out for Chinese food, so I was looking forward to the trip. It was nice to be able to offer Aiden a little of everything to see what he liked. He mostly seemed to enjoy the low mein noodles and a pork dish. It was an excellent, random meal spent with family. It's fun to do stuff like that every once in a while. We should probably do it more often. Especially when it's so hard for us to find a time when we are all off work at the same time!

In Summary

Friday night: Oktoberfest with Ariel for her birthday, then we headed to Squeeze for appetizers.

Travis, Aaron with Aiden and Phillip (Travis' co-workers)

The birthday girl and Bo

Saturday night: Got to see Kai's new house and have dinner (fajitas!).

Chris and Travis with Aiden

Alexa and the kids hanging out in the living room

Sunday afternoon: Ariel's birthday BBQ at their house, then they all went to their softball game.

Monday night: Pumpkin carving at our house.

Aiden liked the pumpkin guts!

Except he kept trying to eat it...

Our pumpkin, the mummy (carving courtesy of Travis)

Frivolous Days

Travis and I have been really good lately about our spending. We are trying to do our best to save up for all the things we need for when we have the baby. The way I figure, if we are so lucky to get everything we need at our baby shower, then we will use all that saved money on diapers and daycare.

This weekend we splurged a little. Scratch that, a lot. Saturday morning and had my hair highlighted. I know, lots of people are gasping out there - pregnant woman getting her hair dyed! You'll be happy to know that I had the green light from my doctor to get my hair done once during my second trimester. My hair stylist was nice enough to use an ammonia-free recipe, so I wouldn't have to sit in the fumes. The thing I was worried about most was having my hair turn a funny color. I've read a lot of articles that say your hair reacts differently to hair coloring during pregnancy due to the raging hormones. Thankfully, I did not have that problem. Although, I think you run into more problems if you are dying your hair, not highlighting it.

Travis worked all Saturday and when he got off, we went up to Main Event for his friend's birthday party. He's a guy Travis works with. I really like him and all the guys Travis works with. They are like a family and we always have such a great time when we get together with them. I was grateful for my two-hour afternoon nap, because we didn't get home until a little after 2 in the AM.

Jeremy, the birthday boy (in blue), Travis and Alberto

We slept in Sunday before heading up to Babies R Us to pick out the travel system (stroller + infant car seat) we would like. We are not registering it because some of our friends want to buy it for us. Shannon pointed out that the stroller we originally picked out at Target had some really bad reviews. When we went to the store to try it out (which we couldn't do at Target because they screw the strollers to the shelving), we found that we had the very same complaints. Thankfully, Shannon noticed this before we had gotten too far! I LOVE the new one we found. It is VERY easy to use and has some great ratings. Not to mention, Consumer Reports doesn't have much bad to say about Graco strollers.

After making that decision, we went over to the crib department AND BOUGHT THE LIL WODIE'S CRIB!!! My dad is getting it for us, but since he's in Illinois, he is just sending the check so we can purchase it here. I was a little disappointed when I found out that they didn't have it in stock. There is a 5-7 day wait for it to come into the store. I'm hoping it'll be in by next weekend. I want so so so so badly to put it together the second we get it, but Travis is making me wait until he can paint the nursery to put it together. I know that is the right thing to do, because I would be upset if he somehow managed to get paint on the crib. BUT I WANT IT NOW! Ugh. I'll get over it.

For lunch, we met Chris, Alexa, Kai and Melinda at this flippin awesome new greek place near the Kemah Boardwalk. The food was delicious and we will definitely go back for more. We ran back to Alexa's house to pick up some more hand-me-downs from Blair. (THANKS ALEXA AND CHRIS!)

It was awesome getting to see Blair walk in person. He just takes off. Between his new-found toddling and obsession with moving furniture around, I had a few good laughs. He is such a happy kiddo.

For the Super Bowl, we went to Ariel and Robert's house for their party. I couldn't believe it when we walked in the door and found TWO flat screen TV's. TWO! LOL! They got one from my dad for Christmas, and then they just bought another larger used one from a friend. Both TV's were set up in the living room, but they plan to put one in their bedroom. Needless to say, there was plenty of football viewing. Or in my case, commercial watching.

Although I do have to say I was impressed with Steeler line backer James Harrison's 100-yard interception and resulting touchdown. I was not surprised at all when they handed that 240-pound man an oxygen line after his sprint.

Ariel was prepared with enough 3D glasses for all of us to watch the 3D commercials during the half time. Those commercials were SO FUN. We even rewound the DVR and watched them a second time.

Allison and Jerry (who gratefully loaned us a swinger and bouncy seat for Lil' Wodie)

Jayne, Ariel, Travis and I watching the commercials in our super-cool glasses.

That weekend went too quickly

Not a whole lot to say about this weekend. Friday night, Travis and I went over to Chris and Alexa's for dinner. Kai and Melinda came too, so we finally got to see Kai's big, new GMC truck. It's very Texan-y, AKA LARGE. Silly boys with their toys. We also got to meet the newest addition to Kai and Melinda's family - a little fox terrier named Marley. He is so cute! Only a few months old. Anyhoo, the food was delicious and it was nice to spend a little time in Chris and Alexa's "new" house. Blair is such a happy kiddo, so he is always a delight to be around.

Saturday, Travis worked and I went shopping! I decided to get started on our Christmas shopping so I don't have to do it all at once right before the trip to Illinois. My hope is to buy a few gifts each weekend. I got everything on my list for this weekend, plus groceries. Saturday evening, I made steaks and fillet Mignon for dinner (just cuz) and we watched a movie. We tried to watch one of our movies from Blockbuster online, but when I pulled it out, it was broken in half. Annoying. Our second choice was Baby Mama. That movie was FUNNY - even Travis liked it. Tina Fey and Amy Poehler are so good together.

Sunday, I did nothing except catch up on the DVR again. I think I cried at every other show. Which is not a good idea right now because it is SO dry outside. The cool weather got rid of a bunch of the humidity and my body is not used to this. Travis made himself useful yesterday and FIXED THE KITCHEN CABINETS!!! Yea!!! Now I don't have to worry about my dishes crashing to the ground at any moment. It sucked for him though, because he forgot his drill (again) and decided to do it manually with a screwdriver. It took him FOREVER to put in four screws. It made a HUGE difference though. I can no longer see the unpainted portion of the wall that had been exposed as the cabinet drooped. Scary.

Imminent Eduoard

Yesterday was a lot better than the previous few days have been for me. Travis and I slept in and slowly got up and ready for the day. Sunday was our friend Kai's birthday, so we made plans to meet up with him in the afternoon. We ran a few errands beforehand, including dropping off the camera AGAIN to get fixed (this time it wasn't my fault) and spending a small fortune at PetCo, despite my 10% off coupon (what does that cover anyway? Tax?). We got to Kai's house five minutes before he got there and then went inside to check out a few of the new updates to his home. Our friend Chris R. is a painter and he made a couple really great paintings for Kai. A little while later, Kai's girlfriend Melinda showed up with a strawberry cheesecake and candles. Good timing on Travis and my part!

After cake, we went over to Melinda's and ended up hanging out for a while to watch a movie (entertaining, but not worth buying). For dinner we went to a hibachi grill near Kai's house. We got there a little early so we sat at the bar to have a drink and appetizers. The appetizers were a bad idea because I did not have any room for the main course. That just means that I have a HUGE lunch waiting for me in a styrofoam box. Yummy. Chris and Alexa met us there with little Blair. He is getting so big! I cannot believe how aware of his surroundings he is. Alexa surprised us with a new do - she cut her hair up to her chin!!! It looks really cute, and VERY healthy.

While we were waiting for the show to begin, we noticed the palm trees and boats outside were getting knocked around quite a bit. We knew there was supposed to be some rain, but we didn't know to what extent. Chris looked up the weather on his phone and it turns out there was some serious weather heading our way. We got a taste of what Tropical Storm Edouard is sending in our direction. It looks like we are almost dead on in the path of this storm.

Awesome. Somehow this little guy popped up out of nowhere. I am not looking forward to this at all. Travis and I were here for the evacuation during Hurricane Rita, and let me tell you that was one of the most stressful things I've been through so far in my lifetime. We were living on the third floor in an apartment at the time, so the good news was we didn't have to worry about losing EVERYTHING. But we still boarded up our windows to conserve what we could. We pushed everything away from the windows, just in case, packed up everything that was important to us in our two cars and headed north. Travis didn't have air conditioning in his car, which meant I got stuck with three cats meowing their heads off as we finagled the roads of Houston. The drive was the worst. They hadn't quite got the concept of contra-flow yet, so traffic was backed up FOREVER. It took us eight hours to make a drive that usually took us under two.

About halfway through the drive I started to panic about gas. I realized that it would add at least an hour to our drive to get off the interstate to get gas, and even then I wouldn't be sure that the gas stations at that exit even had gas anymore. Needless to say, we spent the majority of that "trip" drinking the time away and keeping our eyes on the TV for any news about our area disappearing. When we tried to buy food for the house, our options were limited as everything had pretty much been bought out already. Thankfully, the storm turned away from us before it hit. A few days later we were back home, checking out the damage. The building across the street from ours had caught on fire and burnt almost completely down. One of our windows (in the closet) got completely sucked out, which let in tons of soot from the fire. Our place was covered in crap and everything in our fridge had gone bad from the power being out for days. The marshmallows in our Rocky Road had floated to the top when the ice cream melted and it had refrozen that way.

It turned out to be a very expensive evacuation. Between the cost of gas, eating out for three days and then completely restocking our fridge, we were running a little thin in the wallet for a while. Fortunately, at the time our friend David's parents lived just north of Houston, so we had a place to go that was not horribly far away. This time we are not so lucky. We have decided to only evacuate if we are sure it is going to be really bad. We stopped at Walmart last night to buy some more canned goods and water to add to our hurricane kit. And this morning we both filled up the tanks on our trucks. At least if we have to go this time, we both have AC and a lot more space to pack and carry our belongings. It's a little more stressful this time because I worry about our home. We are a little farther from the coast, so that gives me hope. I hated the storm shutters on our house when we first moved in, but now I have a little more peace of mind knowing that all we have to do is close those suckers and head out if need be. It may only be a tropical storm at the moment, but the stress is already building...