I'm trying to think...

why it's almost been a whole week since I've posted. I can't even barely remember what I've been up to in the past week. Is that sad or what!?!??

Last Thursday my friend Kim had her baby, Callie. It's super fun to hold a little one again, and it seems so surreal. I hate to think that I literally can't remember Abby being so tiny in my arms like that. Thank you God for pictures!

We had a great weekend. The weather was beautiful outside, so we took a trip to the park. Abby is sportin' her new tennis shoes. Love em'!




She didn't cry when I dropped her off at school the other day. I think we're getting back into the routine now, so it doesn't seem so out of the ordinary. She looked so sweet in her outfit. I love the leggings look, and these leggings are so cute! I didn't get these pictures until after she came home, and they are only from behind...but when she stands on her tip-toes, I just love it :-)



I know we have been busy watching a particular TV show. We always seem to get hooked on a show after it's been on TV for 3 or 4 seasons. That's what happened with 24, Lost, and now....Prison Break. I was skeptical of this show. I didn't think I would like it, but I do! I did find a new actor that I think is quite good looking. Don't you agree??
His name in real life is Wentworth Miller. I mean really, Wentworth? His looks make up for a bad name, though :-)

What have I done?

I have always let Abby watch a bit of TV, but she never seemed that interested in any of it. We really enjoy the Noggin channel, and recently there were a few shows Abby had really started liking, so we decided to record them just to have them on hand. Remember the video when she got ultra excited about Miss Spider's Sunny Patch Friends? Well, she really only likes the opening credits of that show (and she still does!) But there is ONE show Abby is asking for these days. And that is... Jack's Big Music Show. She is addicted to this show. She sits in her Princess chair and points to the TV. If I don't turn it on, she cries....and cries....and cries. It's pathetic! And we only have ONE particular episode recorded, so we watch this same one over and over. I won't lie, it's kinda cute and the music is addicting to me, too! I usually have them stuck in my head throughout the rest of the day.

Lately, we've been hearing much more crying around here (well, for me during the day anyway) because I will NOT always turn this show on just because she's requesting it. I know....I'm sooooo mean :-) But when the show is on, she's standing up and clapping her hands, tapping her foot, and beboppin' along. It's too cute!

Another new thing for Abby is climbing up on this little chest I have in the living room. It's right by Sandy (our look out dog on the back of the couch), which is why I think Abby is doubly interested in it. She's started to say several more words thoughout the course of the past week. She has a little twang to some of these words, which just makes me laugh!
The words are:
- Mommy
- Daddy
- Baby (this came because we were trying to get her to say Abby, which she said ONE time! This is the word with some twang)
- milk (more like "mil")
- mix, mix, mix (yes, we say it 3 times. she stirs this one bowl, so we started saying mix, mix, mix. The "x" sound isn't quite there yet, but I know what she's saying!)
- amen (which sounds more like "mamen")
- bow (when she wakes up in the morning, she points to her bow holder and says bow...then I put one in her hair, to which she immediately takes out. Stinker!)

I have noticed that she is really starting to repeat us. Even if it's just one word, I always hear a little something from her after I've finished talking to Josh.

This video has her saying a few things and some of her amazing dance moves :-)

Make an on-line slide show at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Mini Josh

We were hanging out with Johs's parents, while we were out of town because of Ike, when Josh's mom started showing me all kinds of pictures of Josh. Of course, I had to snag a few for your viewing pleasure :-)

You can't help but smile (or laugh, sorry babe!) at some of these!

First, though...could my child look any more like her daddy? It's crazy!
Here are 2 of Josh's school pictures
And Josh setting the fashion trends

What a cutie! Can't you see why I married him now?!? :-)

10 Things Learned

I know we've probably all read and heard enough about Ike, but I've learned some things (that I wanted to document for myself!)...

1. Having a generator would be SUPER helpful. People prepare in advance and load up on ice, but if you don't have something to keep that ice cold, it will melt (and ruin) just like everything else after a few days. Obviously.

2. Not many people do prepare in advance in the first place. If they did, 2 days after a huge storm like that, the line wouldn't be FOR-EV-ER long to get gas and groceries.

3. Unless the news anchors specifically say we have a night time curfew, instead of scrolling it at the bottom of the screen like I saw when I got to my parents' house, none of us that are actually under the curfew know it because we don't have power to see it on the TV in the first place.

4. Candyland, a game of absolutely no strategy, is hard for me to win. Josh and I played 13 times in a row. I was NOT going to stop playing until I finally got a win. And yes. We played Candyland.

5. Pictionary is a weird game to play with just 2 people. We really wanted to play it, though, so we made it work :-)

6. Our neighbors are super friendly. We really got to know more of them while walking up and down the streets after the storm.

7. I didn't really "learn" this, but it got reinforced. I have a fabulous group of friends here. Everyone was checking on each other. When I was finally able to retrieve my e-mail, I was able to read through all the e-mails of everyone asking one another who had heard from whom, just to make sure we were all accounted for and safe. Love you guys!

8. It's really good not to have trees in your yard.

9. It's wise not to park both vehicles outside and right beside each other during a big storm.

10. Hurricanes bring out the redneck in everybody :-)

37 hours

(I've been working on this blog for the last 3 days, so I'm now going in and adding some updated information in red.)

Hurricane Ike. A category 2 storm. Just a category 2. Wow.

I'm happy to report we're all doing absolutely fine, and our friends are all doing great, too! Thank you God! Our plan all along was to stay, and then assess once we had a chance to take a look around. After 37 hours, Josh and I decided to quit waiting for the power to come back on, and head on home to our parents until things were up and running here. On Wednesday evening our power finally came back on. Hooray! Almost 5 days. Please say a prayer for some of our friends in Kingwood who are--as of Saturday--still without power! Obviously, not to mention all those south of us who will be without power for some time to come.

Here's our story:

Friday evening was LOVELY. We had a wonderful breeze, we chatted with the neighbors outside and were able to see everyone's preparations. Abby really enjoyed playing with the older girls. A little after 8, Abby got her bath and went to bed. I also took a shower because I wasn't sure what the next morning was going to hold for us! We stepped outside again, and the wind was about 50mph (We only know this because we were still able to watch the news, and that's the information it was giving us.) We were talking to some neighbors again, but some debris was starting to pelt us, so we all decided to say goodnight and be safe.

Once we came back inside, we wiped down the bathtub and put all the blankets and pillows inside the bathroom. This was our place we were going to go in case of tornado warnings, the wind, and all other hurricane related things ;-) Doesn't the tub look extra comfy?

I fell asleep early on the couch, around 9:45pm. I guess I was anticipating I would have next to zero amount of sleep that night so a power nap would do me good :-) Around 10:30pm our power went off, and that woke me up. It came right back on though, and continued to flash on and off every so often for the next few hours until we lost it for good at 12:30am. I am definitely surprised we kept it that long. The wind seemed so strong then, but actually the wind was nothing like what we experienced when the strongest part came. Between 2:30am-3am is when the extreme rain and wind was hitting. It was the craziest thing! LOUD! Everything in the house was making some kind of noise.

I turned on the camera at 3am when I was sitting in the middle of my living room (obviously it's pitch black). This is basically what I heard. Keep in mind I was not standing beside a door or window. I know it doesn't sound like that much, but trust me, it totally was! The next part of the video is the next morning when things had TOTALLY calmed down, but on any other day we would consider this a pretty strong storm.

Make video montages at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Surprisingly Abby did SO good during the night. She woke up one time upset because it was so dark in her room (she usually sleeps with a night light), and she couldn't find her paci. Once I held her for a few minutes, and popped it back in, she pointed back at her bed. She wanted to go back to sleep! That's my girl :-) She woke up at normal time that morning.

Once everything started dying down, we were so eager to take a look around. Here are a ton of random pictures of what we saw throughout our neighborhood and around town.

These are the only two things that we got...one slat of the fence down and a leaning fence, and this limb.

Lucky neighbor...

Not so lucky neighbor...

Our friends, Matt and Kim, with a tree down in their backyard...

Signs and trees down all around...

This particular tree was down in front of Target on 1960 (one of our main thoroughfares)

We were SO surprised to see this EXTREMELY long line for gas just 2 days after (on Sunday). I mean really, didn't they know a hurricane was coming? This line was way longer, but by the time I actually got the camera out, we were more than half up it. Crazy!After a category 2 hurricane--pure genius! :-) We got home yesterday (Friday) and had the pleasure to clean out our most nasty fridge. I will say, this is the most clean the fridge has been since we moved in! Things didn't smell that bad, but they looked gross! Unfortunately we lost a lot of food--we didn't have room or ice for that matter to take it all home with us.

There are still some people in our neighborhood without power, and some of those people are right down the street from us. Crazy how that works.

And during ALL this chaos, our friends, The Snowden's, had a baby! Noah was born on Thursday morning, and he's doing fabulous. Our friends told us they have 24 babies in the hospital nursery, and that doesn't count the babies that are in their parents' rooms. The hospital has kept the families longer so people wouldn't have to go home with a newborn to no power.

Hurricane Ike pictures

Tune in to...

the Beasley blog for all your up-to-the minute weather coverage of Hurricane Ike! :-)

Josh got to spend the whole day with us today because his building was closed due to the impending hurricane. We've had a great day! We enjoyed breakfast at IHOP this morning, picked up a few last minute things, let Abby nap, had lunch, took Abby on a wagon ride (considering we've had a lovely breeze all day), then ran to Target, and drove around looking at some sites we've never seen around here before.

Site 1 - Wal-mart has a clear parking lot, and NO buggies in the buggy bends.Site 2 - The gas pumps have plastic wrapped all around them, along with yellow tape wrapped around the entire gas station so no one comes in.Site 3 - Houses completely boarded up.Site 4 - Stores completly boarded up with sandbags by the doorways. (Kohl's is the store that did this, but the picture is on Josh's cellphone. I'm sure you can imagine what it looks like!)

Site 5 - A chalk message in the road that says "Take a Hike Ike." (Also we've seen this message on the boards on the windows that also included the message "...Tina's already gone!")As of the moment it's cloudy, breezy, and it just started to sprinkle. Obviously, most of our bad weather is expected during the wee hours of the morning. It's going to be interesting. Stay tuned...

Ready

As many of our friends have put it, "We are hunkering down" and prepared for Ike. 3 flashlights, 1 radio, candles, charcoal, lots of water, a lighter, canned food, bread, peanut butter, cars filled up with gas, and friends who live one street over with a generator :-)

Have a look at our supplies, with one sweet little munchkin as the cherry on top! Her hair is a bit crazy, but she refused to keep her bow in. I try to tell her the bow really helps to keep her hair out of her eyes, but she doesn't seem to mind that :-)

Apparently we're going to start feeling some of the effects of Ike tomorrow, so we'll keep ya'll posted (as long as we have power!). You KNOW I'll have my camera ready!

Just Because

Are you ready for randomness? Because I've got lots of it...

Look at this super cute dress! I know Abby isn't looking at the camera in ANY of the pictures, but these are the best pictures I have for the dress purposes (and the cute matching bow!). Thank you Nana Beasley...it's all adorable!

And the sweet face to go with this dress (and the scrunching of the nose!)...Mommy and Abby...

My mom had sent me these next few pictures. When Abby looks at someone while she's eating, she always has this little face. I just think it's precious--the pursing of the lips, y'know?

And her hair. How I love it :-)

Lastly, siblings! You have never heard so much squealing until you hear Sandy and Abby playing together. It's so fun! Abby LOVES Sandy, and I'm so very, very glad!! Sandy is utterly fantastic with her. Abby has definitely made Sandy yelp by pulling her ears too hard, but Sandy never snaps. Sandy just continually gives kisses :-)