Hurricane Gustav

So this is the latest projected path of Gustav. It's actually more West than they were saying earlier this morning, which is better for us, but worse for people who live where it is now headed. I've been asking Heavenly Father to lessen the storm or let it just dissipate. I can't pray that it will move away from us because then I will be praying it on someone else.

This year is the first year that I have had a house with a , what is said to be, major storm headed in our direction. I have so many emotions running through my head. I'm worried about my family, my friends, my possessions, and so many more things. I really don't want to evacuate. It would be hard to leave my home and things behind. I think Kev has decided that we will be staying with Caryn and her family in Lufkin depending on the severity of the storm. Hopefully we'll know more in 3 hours. (That's when the National Hurricane Center updates their sites.) I'll post then!

Mom's Progress

My mom had a total hip replacement on Friday at about 4pm. Kev and I got up this morning and drove to Lufkin to see how she was. When we walked in at about 10:30 she looked like she had been hit by a truck, poor thing. She was talking great though and didn't seem like she was in a lot of pain. Shortly after we got there Kevin, my dad, and Claire went to Caryn's house (Kev's sister), who lives about 5 minutes from the hospital, to try to fix our car door. It won't open from the inside, weird. Anyway, so that left just Mom and me. I enjoyed just talking to her. My mom and I have always been close. She's more than my mom, she's one of my best friends. At about 12:30pm the Physical and Occupational Therapists came to get her up and moving for the first time. They sat her up which was very painful for her. She didn't cry or anything which is good because if she had cried I would have been crying right with her! After a couple minutes of sitting on the edge of the bed they got her to stand up with the walker. It actually made her pain level go way down. She said when she sat up her pain level was a 10 on a 1-10 scale. However, when she was walking her pain level went down to a 2-3. It was awesome to see my mom walking without a limp and without much pain. I teared up watching her do such an awesome job less than 24 hours after a total hip replacement. I am so proud of her. She says she's a wimp, but I don't know if I could walk so short after a surgery like that. I know once she feels better she will be SO glad she made the decision to finally have this surgery. I wish I had remembered to take the camera out of the diaper bag before Kev left the hospital. I wanted to get pictures to document this time in her life. She's doing GREAT!!

2 Year Check Up

Claire had her 2 year check up yesterday. I switched doctors after we got insurance. She was going to a doctor in Port Arthur. I was not impressed with her. I really liked her as a person just not as my daughter's doctor. I switched her to Dr. Worley in Beaumont. I'm very happy with him and his staff. Claire has always SCREAMED at the doctor's office. Once the nurse would come in the waiting room to get her, the water works would start. I was so proud of her this time though. You could tell she was a little nervous when the nurse came, but I reassured her she would be fine. The nurse (Beth, I believe) did a great job. She talked to Claire and played with her while she was getting all the vital signs. She even let her push the buttons on the thermometer. I was SO impressed! Claire weighed in at 24lbs 8oz and 34 inches tall. She's getting so big!

Then Dr Worley came in and talked to me. He asked me if I had any questions. I guess that's what doctors are suppose to act like. In past visits with Claire's other doctor I was never asked once if I had any questions. Anyway, Claire was a big girl until he had to look in her ears. Claire has ear infections a lot so she doesn't like people to even touch them. He looked Claire over and found that she had a little female issue that she has had since birth, that is actually pretty common he said. I was shocked because this was the first I had ever heard anything about it. He prescribed something that should resolve the issue though. If not, she might have to have a procedure to correct the problem. Because of this issue though she is more prone to getting urinary tract infections, so he wanted to get a urine sample. In order to do this they had to put a "pee bag" on her. Not fun!! Poor thing was so traumatized she wouldn't go. It took her like 4-5 hours to go.

And if all that wasn't enough, she had to go get routine labs done that they do at 9 months and 2 years old along with her 2nd Hep A shot. Thank goodness this doctor's office has a lab right there in the building. I had to bear hug Claire while another nurse held her arm down and one more nurse to draw the blood. I cried like a baby! It was heart shattering to have to listen to Claire beg me to help her and hold her. I'm tearing up just thinking about it. Even today every time I tell Claire that it's time to change her diaper she starts crying and says, "No, Mommy!" I have to remind her that we took the bag off and that it's all better.

On a happy note, we were told that our insurance pays for Well Exams so that saved us about $200.

Claire's Party

Eating some food

Blowing out her candles

Dora Cake

Claire's cousins

As I said before we were planning on giving Claire a Blue's Clues party for her birthday. So Kev and I went to Party City on Friday before we had to bowl. We get there and there is no Blue's Clues stuff anywhere. I asked one of the CSR and she said that all the Blue's Clues stuff was on clearance today, and one lady came in and bought the entire shelf. Not cool... So Kev and I went to Wal-Mart to see if they had any. NOPE! I was so upset and heart broken at the thought of telling Claire that she couldn't have a Blue's Clues party. We changed it to Dora and bought some stuff just right there at Wal-Mart. Party City had way more things, but we didn't feel like going back up Dowlen in rush hour traffic. (It was 5pm or so)

It turned out good though. Claire didn't mind that we changed it too much. I kept telling her she was going to have a Dora party over and over again, and finally she would say Dora party instead of Blue's Clues party. We had a lot of fun. All Claire's cousins were there except for her cousin, Jace. We walked by a picture of Jace, and Claire asked me where Jace was once. It was cool that she new he wasn't there, and she missed him. Kev did really good cooking the meat and our families helped us out and brought baked beans and potato salad.

I spent Saturday night making Claire's cake. The Blue's Clues cake would have been easier I think, but the Dora cake actually turned out okay. I bought a oval cake pan that was sort of shaped like Dora's head. One side was chocolate and the other was white. Then I got some food coloring and free handed Dora's head onto it with icing.

Claire got a lot of presents. She got books, 2 Princess movies (yesterday alone we watched The Little Mermaid 4 times and Princess Enchanted Tales 5 times), some puzzles, a Dora wall hanging that you can put book in, a cash register that Claire takes EVERYWHERE, a baby doll pack-n-play, and much more. Thank you everyone for coming!

Claire's 2nd Birthday Party

Claire & Mommy

My little Model

She is so pretty!

We are having a little family birthday party for Claire on Sunday at 3pm. Claire has decided she wants a Blue's Clues party! She's been calling people and telling them to come to her Blue's Clues Party. It's so cute! Last year we did a BIG first birthday party for a kid that won't ever remember it. So we decided to just do little family parties until our kids are 5. Our families are so big though. Even though we are just inviting our families it is still at least 30 people! It will be a tight fit in our little house, but it will be okay. We are going to have a cookout. Kev's grilling hamburgers and hot dogs, and I'm going to try to bake Claire a pretty cake. (We'll see how that one turns out!) I'm looking forward to it. I can't believe she will be 2 in one week! That's crazy.

She is such a blessing. She says prayers all by herself. She is a good example to me. We will sit down for lunch, and she will fold her arms and say, "Prayer Mommy!". She keeps us in line! Last night Claire and I were sitting down for dinner while Kev was in our room listening to music, and Claire yelled at Kev, "Daddy we say prayer now!". It blows my mind that at 2 she knows that you have to be quiet and reverent during prayer.

She also knows who Jesus is. When she sees a picture of him she will yell out "JESUS!" It's too cute! She knows what a temple is also. She was coloring a picture this morning, and when she was done she brought it to me and said, "Look Mommy. I color a temple." It melted me heart. I must be doing something right, I guess!

My brother called me a couple days ago, and asked if it would be okay if we watched my nephew, Jace, for awhile so that Heber could spend time with his wife, Ashlei. Of course we said yes! It would be good for Claire and Jace to spend a few weeks together. Jace is really shy and quiet so hopefully Claire can help bust him out of his shell, and Claire needs to learn how to share big time! It will be fun for them. Jace is just 3 weeks younger than Claire. Kev and I have been looking for a toddler bed for him. I think Kev wants to get him a Transformers bed.