I can't wait for our grass to grow back

The wall is coming along!  We started painting the wall this weekend.  We chose a shade that is between the dark grey of the stucco and the light grey of the mortar that holds the "stones" up on the exterior of our house.  If I didn't have the white of the trim to compare it to, I'd say that wall is white.  

We used paint rollers, so we still have to go back through with a paint brush to get the cracks, corners and edges.  I need to do a closer inspection to determine if we need a second coat.  It was really difficult to paint the stucco because of the texture.  

After we're done with the grey, we'll be painting the wood trim black to match the house.  You can sort of see the black shutters and soffit of the house...  

This next photo is the view from the end of the driveway.  I'm hoping the black trim will help give the wall some definition.  We are also planning to put in a walkway from the driveway to the front door and lining the wall with bushes.  That will have to happen next spring since we need to attend to some interior home improvement first.  Now that Callaway is not around to scrape up the trim on the doors and Sagira's not around to scratch off the paint of the doorways, I think it's time to repaint!

This gap in the wall is where that gate is going to go after I bring it home from Illinois.  Man, I hope it looks okay.  Buying a gate in Illinois while I'm in Texas is sort of like planning a wedding in Illinois while I'm in Texas.  Only smaller scale.

We're in the home stretch!

I Remember

10 years ago on September 11th, I had just started my second year at the community college near my home in Illinois.  I was getting ready for work when my mom called and told me to turn on the TV.  A plane had run into one of the World Trade Center towers.  I turned on the TV and watched the footage of the burning building.  I couldn't believe that had happened.  How could that happen?  That's a little low for a plane to be flying around a city.  Maybe something was wrong with the pilot?

I called my dad to see if he had seen the news.  He hadn't.  As I stood there pondering over what could have gone wrong with my dad, the second plane ran into the second tower.  Wah??  Did someone manage to get video of the plane running into the tower and they were just playing it over?  No that can't be it.  I can see the first tower on fire behind the second.  The SECOND tower got hit??  I'm so confused.  What the hell?

My first class that day was calculus and the teacher was this really angry woman that I didn't feel like testing.  I thought about not going into school. I didn't know what was going on.  But then I thought about that teacher and her irrational anger at the world.  I made the choice to go in.  I left the TV on while I got ready and it was so horrible.  People were jumping out of the building.  I could only imagine the fear these people were facing.  

While I was driving into school, I heard that the Pentagon had either been hit by a plane or a bomb.  Not sure which.  Still confused.

When I got to class, only half the students had shown up.  The teacher asked the remaining students if they would be up for a lesson.  We all said no, so she let us go early.  I went to the lobby area of the school where they had set up a bunch of TV's all set to different news channels so I could watch the events unfold. 

I could not believe my eyes when the first tower fell.  All I could think about were all the people in that building.  My second thought was about all the people on the street that they showed staring up at the burning buildings.  The dust in the air was tremendous.  The the second tower fell.  Insantiy.

Then I heard about the fourth crash into the field in Pennsylvania.  By this point, I wasn't sure what was true and was rumor.  I walked around in complete disbelief for the majority of that day.  I wasn't close with anyone living in New York, but I was still numb about the whole situation.  How could something like this happen in the United States?  Don't we have excellent safeguards against stuff like this?  Come to think of it, how could the US prevent other stuff like this from happening?  We can't be everywhere at every time of the day to 100% guard US soil.

Suddenly I was afraid for my family in and around Chicago.  What if there was another big attack?  Oh the stress that surrounded that whole situation and I didn't even know anyone who was there.  It just struck me as so intense that an attack had occured on US soil.  Is this what people in 3rd world countries feel like every day?  At any moment, their village could be attacked and they wouldn't have any police to run to.  Hell, it might be their very own government that's doing the pilaging.

Life is scary.  We've got to make the best of it.

I thought this 9/11 timeline at Wikipedia was really interesting if anyone wants to look it over.

Labor

We had an abnormal Labor Day weekend.  I think normally we would be running around visiting lots of friends, but this year we focused on laboring.  It only makes sense, right?  Travis enjoyed the three-day weekend with us.  I love that he gets holidays off with this new company!  We spent most of our days working on the Great Wall of Ward.  Travis got all the trim up.  I primed the stucco and caulked the wood.  Travis moved the cyclone fence over to connect the back yard to the newly walled in area in the front.  I still need to prime the trim and then we can paint everything!

We also need a gate.  Right now we have plywood up to help deter stray animals from our yard and to help corral Aiden. My dad texted me yesterday to say the gate he found at a store in Illinois is on sale.  I told him to go ahead and buy it.  It's REALLY simple, but you can't beat that price!  I'm planning to bring it back with me on the plane when I visit Illinois for my cousin's wedding at the end of this month.

Besides working on the yard, we had the Yeager's over for a BBQ on Saturday.  Luke was sitting at the end of the table when he says, "Mommy?" and holds out his hand towards Linsey.  She took his hand and he just sat there holding her hand.  He just wanted to be close to her!  It was so sweet!  So Zach scooted Luke around to their side of the table and said, "Now you can be closer to Mommy and as a bonus, you get Daddy!"  LOL!  That man cracks me up.

After dinner we sat outside and enjoyed one of our first days of "cool" weather.  By cool, I'm talking low 90's, high 80's.  It was amazing.  It started to sprinkle a little, so Linsey threw a blanket over baby Kenley's head.  She proceeded to ham it up for photos.

Sunday afternoon Ariel and Michelle came over.  We played it easy and ate leftovers for dinner.  We also spent some time in the kiddie pool with Aiden.  He enjoyed our company, and we enjoyed the cool water.  Actually, it was pretty hot.  We had to empty half the water and fill it back up with water from the hose so it would cool down.  Oh Texas.

Not All There

This past weekend I went shopping for groceries sans Aiden.  I've been able to do that the past two weekends and it's been fantastic.  Aiden is generally not difficult in the grocery store, but I still feel like I'm able to focus on comparing products better when he's not there getting bored with the lack of cart-movement.

Anyway, on this past trip, I was headed to the cash register with a cart load when I hear a baby start crying.  Shortly thereafter a woman starts yelling at the top of her lungs.  I couldn't really tell what she was saying, but she sounded angry.  I was getting closer to the source of the sound when I saw who it was.  They had entered the store at the same time as me.  It was a two-year-old girl and a woman I assumed was her mother, although she looked to be in her 40's.  Since it's not impossible to be a mother in your 40's, I was wondering if it was hers or if it was a grandchild.

The woman was walking around the produce section a little haphazardly while I was in the same area.  The little girl followed her, but the woman barely looked back to make sure the child was with her.  I was thinking about how I am constantly looking back for Aiden, until I start to get dizzy and I just take his hand.  At one point, the little girl grabbed an apple off the shelf and took a tiny bite.  I was waiting for the woman to notice, but since she rarely looked back to check on her, she didn't see the kid eating the apple for a quite a while.  When she finally did, she walked up to her, asked for the apple and took a bite.  Not quite honest behavior, but to each their own.

Back to my trip to the register and the screaming - I parked my cart before the aisle that the woman was in because I finally found the batteries.  (Why does it seem like every store has a different location for those?)  The child was upset, probably bored, and crying.  The woman was YELLING at her, "I know, I know!!  You're bored!  We've been in this store WAY too long!!  I'm trying to hurry but you're not helping me!"  None of those words were things that would aid the situation.  If anything, as the mother of a two-year-old, I know the yelling and screaming will just make the toddler more stressed and less likely to stop crying. 

At this point, I was starting to wonder about the mental capacity of the woman.  She picked up the little girl and was trying to get her into the cart seat.  She was yelling, "I'm going to put you in the cart!  I know!  You barely fit! But you want to sit here!!"  I really think the woman was not all there. 

That got me thinking.  Anyone can procreate.  Who gets to decide if the parents are well enough to care for a child?  Does anyone get to take a baby home from the hospital?  And then they are only reported for negligence when the situation occurs?  How sad.

Speaking of procreating, my fish is attempting to do so.  Forget the fact that she is the only fish of her kind in the tank.  She is moving one rock at a time out of the back corner of the tank and moving it to the front, creating a little divot for her eggs whenever they arrive.  There won't be any fertilizing of the eggs, since there is no male in the tank.  She'd probably eat them before they had a chance to hatch anyway.  She's a little hostile to any other fish I attempt to place in the water.

I actually just found out last weekend that Bubba is actually a Babette.  My friend Michelle has a tank full of red blood parrot cichlids and she noticed they had laid eggs.  She looked it up online to find out how to sex them.  Apparently the females have an appendage that differentiates them from their male counterpart.  I think the appendage only comes out when they are "in season".  At any rate, it should be interesting to see the whole process!

I whistle while I work

It's been a little difficult getting used to being so busy at work.  When I worked for my last boss, money was low, which meant work was low.  Eventually I was just let go.  Working for the new boss is a totally different game.  He has LOTS of money, which means job security for at least 3 years.  He will most likely continue to bring in grant funding, so there is hope for many years after that if I choose to stick around. 

I'm still helping out the old boss when he needs it and he is training me in a higher level lab.  So I feel like I'm balancing three separate parts of my professional life: Old boss work (when he needs it), new boss work (learning new assays and techniques) and training for UTMB to be able to do work for the new boss.  It's tiring.  I feel like I've been falling behind on my blogging abilities because of it, but work must come first!!

I do really dig that we listen to music all day in the new lab.  There are a lot of young people in this group, so nobody minds the music.  I've worked in labs in the past where I got yelled at for having music playing so softly from my computer that I couldn't understand that words.  CALM DOWN SCIENCE NERDS.  Anyhoo, I'm learning about lots of new artists that I'd like to download their music.  My iPod's been acting up a lot lately, so I think it's time to get a new, bigger iPod.  ; )

Here are some randoms I forgot about on my camera:

We pulled out the Bumbo for when Skylar and Kenley come to visit.  Sometimes Aiden likes to hang out in the "baby seat".

For his birthday this year, Luke got him this horsie.  When we went to Luke's house for his birthday party, I tried to get Aiden to wear a cowboy hat because of the cowboy theme.  He refused.  I figured I would leave the hat out for him to put on whenever he wants and it seems to have worked!  He calls it his Cowboy Woody hat.  You can see the fallen Woody in the bottom left hand side of the following picture...

I have a YouTube channel saved with videos that Aiden really likes.  Every once in a while, I turn on the channel and it automatically flips through the videos.  He loves it.

For Travis' birthday, I made Pepper Steak for dinner and an ice cream pie that was AMAZING.  It was insanely sweet, but it rocked.  After dinner Aiden helped Daddy open his presents.  He honestly seemed interested in what Travis received.  Here he is studying Daddy's new razor.

After Travis opened up a gift bag with a new shirt and swimming trunks, Aiden proceeded to put the bag on his head.  I'm not really sure what his obsession with putting things on his head is, but sometimes I worry about him.



The other day he ran around the house with a bucket on his head.  The impressive part is he can run from his bedroom in the back of the house all the way to the back door in the kitchen without running into a single wall.  I like to think that makes him talented.

Well, I'm off to more training!!

Oral Fixation

Aiden likes to eat things he shouldn't.  I'm just going to preface with that.

I don't know how often I have walked into a room to find Aiden standing there guiltily with his mouth shut, but obviously full of something.  Since I know he hasn't had anything to eat for hours, I question his behavior.

"Aiden, what's in your mouth?"

Mouth stays shut and he gives his head a little shake.

"Aiden!  Open your mouth!  Spit it out!"  I immediately stick my open palm under his chin. 

"Cat food?!  Gross Aiden!!  That is gross!  Do not eat cat food!  What will they eat if you eat all their food?"

He's now got chewed cat food/slobber smeared across his chin.  Seriously.  It's gross.  This cat food routine happens at least once a week.  It must not be half bad if he keeps going back to it.  I should try it.  I might get back to you on that.

The other night I heard Aiden get his 'piggy' bank off the shelf (its actually a monkey head) when he was supposed to be in bed, so I go in to take it away and tell him its night-night time.  He's got the guilty, mouth-is-full-but-shut face on. 

"Aiden, what's in your mouth?"

Denial routine again.

"Aiden! Open your mouth! Spit it out!" I immediately stick my open palm under his chin.

He spits out the plug to his 'piggy' bank.  It's huge.  It's larger than a quarter.  Maybe the size of a silver dollar.

"GROSS.  Seriously kid, you've got to stop putting random items in your mouth.  Now go to bed."

There's this new thing he's been doing.  It'll be a good 30 minutes after we've eaten a meal or snack and I'll realize he has something in his mouth.  I go over, assuming it will be some random item, and tell him to open his mouth. 

It's food.  He has been sucking on his last bite for THIRTY MINUTES.  Sometimes it's a piece of broccoli.  Sometimes it's mushy cracker.  Sometimes it's yogurt.  How he keeps that stuff in his mouth for so long without gagging is beyond me.  I mean, yogurt?  COM'ON.

Now when he says he's ready to get down from the table, we have to wash his hands AND check his mouth for that last bite.  "Swallow your food" is becoming a common phrase in my vocabulary.  And I thought that was a given.

Katie Johnston Photography

A couple weeks ago we went to get our family portraits taken by a friend of mine from work.  She also took photos at Luke's second birthday party and did a really great job.  I've seen her work on Facebook and have been really impressed so I decided to hit her up for her start up deal.  We went to a park on Galveston Island that I've never heard of.  It has a pirate theme, which was really fun for Aiden since he's really digging pirates at the moment.  We have to go back now. 

After looking over these photos, I really feel like we belong in some magazine.  I mean seriously.  I can't wait to get them printed!  I think Katie did such a wonderful job.  Check out her website if you're in the area and interested.