walk for a cure?

The latest on Landon's sleep walking. Obviously, we are still walking...and snoozing...

...and walking... and snoozing...


Really, I found him in the middle of the night sound asleep on the stairs...agian! It scares me! I am thinking that maybe I should start locking him into his room at night. Suggestions? Crazy kid!

My new DIET...

I have been forced into a new diet. Not so much because of the reasons I should be on a real diet. Let me explain.

You see, my thighs are the same circumference in inches as my husband’s. Really, this is a true fact. A true fact that I should have never discovered.

I would like to take a minute to address all the ladies out there about an important issue. Please read carefully.

If your husband or significant other ever urges you to start an exercise program by measuring your body parts, JUST SAY NO. If you by chance fall victim of his good looks and persuasion, seek emotional support immediately. Especially, if he observes and says something like, “Look our ______ are the same size!” Otherwise, this emotional scarring has the potential to wear your morale and motivation to participate in any kind of physical exercise or intimacy for the next several months. I repeat, never Never NEVER measure body parts and compare them with your significant other, or...ANYONE!

So, the real reasons for my new diet started with Hurricane Ike. That storm took so much from so many people, but some people take their excuses to the extreme. (I actually heard a woman blame her tight fitting pants on the hurricane. The gym must have been closed.) I feel trite complaining about our loss, but due to the lack of power we had for several days, he left our refrigerator and freezers looking like this:

Actually, I would be an ungrateful and horrible friend if I did not document just how all the food was cleared out. When we got about an hour on our way out of town to ‘evacuate’ our powerless house, I called McCall to see how they had fared through the storm. To my surprise, their home phone rang and she told me they were only without power for a few hours. Because she is so on the ball and one of the most giving people I know, and possibly because she thought we probably wouldn’t take her up on her offer, she asked us if we wanted her to go save any of our warming by the minute food. We hesitated and then gratefully agreed. By the time she

made it to our house, I am positive it reeked and there was lots of melted rotten food all over. She and her son, Brady, took care of it all! Now that is what you call a FRIEND! We love you, McCall!

So you are saying to yourself, get over it already and go buy some food. You see I would, but for the past two days I have been spending a majority of my time battling these little beasts taking food out of my kitchen. No, not my kids. (I have grown used to that kind of beast.) These pests are hundreds of fire ants that are coming in through the cracks of the cabinets and underneath the counter tops.

Who knew ants are fatally attracted to oil? The ones that didn't crawl into my olive or canola oil containers were actually building a mound on our kitchen floor. Honestly, I have no reason to joke about this matter. They are truly going to drive me insane! (Can someone remind me why we live in Texas again: hurricanes, fire ants that bite and sting, and swarms of mosquitoes???)

As part of my explanation, I need to explain a little bit about a genetic trait that I seem to have inheirited from my father. If we ever got ants in our kitchen, it didn’t matter who was there or what food on the counter, out came the can of Raid. More precisely several cans of it. I can do spiders. I can do earwigs. I can even do geckos and roaches (birds and bats are a whole ‘nother story), but when it comes to these swarms of ants I’ve met my match. Blasted marching ants taking over my kitchen!

In conclusion, my new diet is caused by power outages and fire ants and hopefully has the potential to last long enough that I might loose a few inches on my thighs. Actually, I think I would rather have monster thighs than hundreds of ants. Hooray for the pest control guy who comes today at 4 pm! Maybe after I will go see my therapist and make a grocery run.

We got one!

A dinner invitation that is! With Damian at school Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday nights, I have been having a really hard time being motivated to provide my children with, ahem, good nutritional meals. Insert phone call from a friend, and I bailed yet another night of slaving over a stove- yesterday just about did me in. Who knew Tuesday nights were kids eat free at Denny’s night?

Below are the five important lessons Mimi taught me tonight at dinner:

1. It’s not nice to swear under your breath at people for not answering their cell phone when you are lost; they might have forgotten to bring it with them. (Just kidding, Mimi. I was just frustrated with myself for driving past it at least 100 times prior to tonight and never seeing it there.)
2. You shouldn’t have to depend on a navigation system when you are less than three miles from home, but come on Garmin update you list of Denny’s already!
3. Breakfast foods at Denny’s are surprisingly yummy, even for dinner. (Or maybe I just need to go grocery shopping and start cooking again.)
4. It is ok that I am oblivious to our 6 kids loudly laughing, climbing under the booth, climbing over the table, throwing food and blowing bubbles in their drinks in a public restaurant while I am having stimulating adult conversation. (What your husband doesn’t know won’t hurt him, but so sorry to all the nice people who don’t have kids who choose to patron Denny’s on kids eat free night!)
5. Friends don’t let friends eat meals comprised solely of canned foods two nights in a row. Thanks, Mimi!

complete meal in 5 cans or less...

This is what we had for dinner tonight.

The Vest family is accepting dinner invitations.

In my defense,

the kids did have their gummy vitamins

with their Fruitloops at breakfast this morning.

Oh wait,

um,

maybe that was dinner last night…

'Hurrication'

Houston, we have power! Well, when we rolled into town tonight we found that we do anyways! Unfortunately though some still don’t, so we are counting our many blessings! One of them being the past week we got to spend with family and friends on our ‘hurrication.’ It was an unexpected reprieve from the monotony that was just beginning to settle into the back to school routine, and we loved every minute of it.

Since today is the last official day of summer, I decided to sum ours up into three words:
HOT, FAMILY (separate words, I mean we are pretty hot and all, so put them together if you wish) & FUN.

SUMMER 2008 highlights:

June: Jami spends a few days as a leader at girls camp, Eden spends a week with Mimi and Pops sewing, crafting, and cooking, Jen and Shayne visit, our day at the beach in Gulfport, walking on the Appalacian trail outside of Gatlinburg, our week in Williamsburg with Jami’s grandparents and family, Vacation Bible School, Eden’s cooking camp

July: Kevin and Megan visit, Our road trip to Utah, Time with Utah family and friends, St. George, Boating on Utah lake

August: More fun with family in Utah, High School Musical Play, Todd’s family visited for a long weekend, Macy’s blessing, Our road trip home with a Colorado Springs pit stop, Eden and Carter got to spend a week letting Mimi & Pops spoiling them, Eden started 1st grade, Carter started his last year of preschool

September: Randy & Kris came to visit over Labor Day weekend, somebody turned 30, Jeff got engaged, we met Ruth, Hurricane Ike, Our ‘hurrication’

It’s good to be back home
and I have to say
I am ready for the monotony once again…
Let the school bells ring!

Caught red handed...stealing AGAIN!

I am a blog criminal. I steal. I steal ideas. I steal stories. I steal complete blog posts. Why am I a blog-clepto? Call me jealous or call me lazy, but I want a record of another one of Jen's posts. So, I copied it and voila...here it is...her account of all the fun we had the past few days. I love you, Jen! Thanks for letting us hang out with you and your cute family, and thanks for forgiving me for stealing...again.

For the past week and a half I've had a lot of family in town... and I am Blissfully Exhausted!! It really is the best form of exhaustion. I love being with my family and seeing my kids interact with their aunts, uncles and cousins. But being off my schedule (and I say "my" because I think I need it more then my kids) and always on the go has left me super tired, ready for a relaxing week... but at the same time leaving me completely rejuvenated.

Rejuvenated, say what?!? Seriously, the rejuvenations starts with watching Ava and Nolan get some good cousin time. Ava just adores her cousins and calls them 'my friends'.... for those 5 days all I heard was "Mom, when are we going to see my friends again!?" or "Are we going to go play with my friends?" or "When are we going to go eat with my friends?" Ava and Carter have their own special bond and Nolan just adores Eden. He got giddy excited when he'd see her and would reach for her. Which he doesn't do too often at all. But the rejuvenation ends with me being able to hang out with Jami and soak up her - love for life, her creative juices, talking projects and Mom stuff with her... and it leaves me completely rejuvenated.

With my brother and Ruth leaving, my Mom and Dad skipping town, Damian in Houston working, Shayne working... we still had 5 days to hang out with them!!! So what do we do but hit up the parks, Let's Jump, hang out around the house, eat and play some Wii.

Jami and I took the kids to Let's Jump bounce house and I don't know who had more fun - the kids or us?!Nolan wasn't too excited about it at first, but after we went to Chick-fil-A to grab some lunch and came back for more bouncing - he was all over that. Huh... imagine that - food changing his mood?! And a run up and down the slide with Aunt Jami made him all about the slides. He'd even climb up them himself, reach the top, plop himself down and take off down the slide. The kid ain't scared!!
Jami and I tried to hide out for a while in one of the obstacle courses to escape our children - didn't work for long... but we sure had fun bouncing each other, chatting and being well - dumb and childish. I told the dude that took our money at the beginning that they really should start charging for adults because I think we'll have more fun then the kids!! {Though I hope he doesn't take me up on that offer!!}

SO good to talk to a Mom that has the same love for what she does but yet has the same trials and frustrations while doing it. You know in high school when the really cool and fun chick wanted to hang out with you?!? Well, my brother married the fun, really cool chick... and I'm just glad that she's forced into hanging out with me sometimes - thank you Hurricane Ike!

We also did a little Wii Fit... and I swear, that thing is the best form of entertainment. It's hilarious to see the concentration in faces, the intensity these games are played at and the violent thrashing of heads, limbs and torsos while trying to compete. And if your part of the family, check these out {they're videos, and I don't know if I have permission to post them on this blog... so I'll play it safe, keep the love in my family and post them on our family blog. Let's just say that Damian's hips don't lie and that Jami got major whiplash from headbutting soccer balls}.

I was so "blissfully exhausted" that on Saturday afternoon when the kids were napping or having quite time - I was napping too. And I was so dead asleep that I didn't hear them both crying/screaming and Ava peeing in her pants {not that I'd normally hear that} because I didn't hear her banging on the door to go to the bathroom {and yes, I feel terribly bad about that!!}. And that it was so bad that it was a good thing that Shayne was working from home and just coming home from an inspection - and could hear them both crying even outside. Now that's exhausted!!

I love, love, LOVE my family and am so glad that they were able to come up and hang for a while... And CUTE park pictures - coming soon...right Jami!?!?

mommy...

I was determined not to stay in the house all day today, so we got up and ready and headed to the park. Nice mommy. I even brought snacks and water. Good mommy. The kids played and I got to read my book. Happy mommy. We went out to lunch. Tired mommy. We got a milkshake with our meal AND ice cream cones after. Bad mommy.

While I was busy talking to a nice lady at the park, Eden helped herself and her brothers to the contents of my purse, which included the camera. I had no clue what they were up to until I downloaded the pictures. I guess I should be paying closer attention (OR maybe I will just invent a mild shock system for anyone who touches my purse besides moi! My mom used to get so mad when I got in her purse and I thought she was nuts. Oh mommy, I am so sorry. You were a good mommy and I was a naughty girl!)

We dined at Braum’s and we did have a reason to celebrate…we got to see Alex and Eliza and meet baby Lisa! The other day we were riding in the car and Landon said, "Mom, where's Alex?" He was so sad when I told him that he and Eliza moved away. We love the Wu's!

Looking at Eden and Carter with Lisa in these pictures made me think they would be great helpers with another one…if only their mom and dad had enough stamina to keep up.

It's 2 a.m...

Do you know where your kids are? Thought I did!

Do I consider this more proof of sleep walking?

Please oh PLEASE...

Let Damian get home safely, and almost as importantly
please make sure that he doesn't enjoy the ride too much.

After we sent Damian back home to work, the kids and I planned to take full advantage of our time here in Colleyville with electricity. We got our air conditioning fix this morning and spent the afternoon at the park with our cousins. The kids got some energy out and some sand in all those crevices sand should not be.

Note to self: take cute cousin pictures at the beginning of fun park outing, not the end.

How come no one in my circle of friends and family has clued me in on COSTA VIDA?

Seriously? It even knocked Café Rio down a few notches. Same style, but I liked the salad, dressing and tortillas better. Yum, oh yum come and getcha some! It even had surfing footage and a water wall that entertained the kids. All I needed was a little chocolate when I got home and I was set. Thanks Kris for treating us for dinner and introducing my taste buds to some serious satisfaction.

As I walking out to the car I saw this:

Then this:

And while I was fixing that this happened:

Whose kids are those anyways?

Disclaimer 1*: the rock was small, and when thrown did not leave a dent in either of the cars.

Disclaimer 2*: the light globe on top of the pole was already really loose before anyone scaled the pole.

**If my association with these children prevents my consumption of Costa Vida food or allows Costa Vida to refuse me service at any time in the future, then I claim no responsibility for them or their behavior. (I might know who their dad is though.)**

cHimP-LiKe...

We spent the day at the Ft. Worth Zoo. I am not sure about my kids, but my favorite animals were the chimps. How amazing is it that they are so human-like yet oh so hairy? They were putting on quite a show for us today.

Picture this:

3 adult chimp and 1 little chimp just chillin’. Then all of a sudden, little chimp starts acting majorly hyperactive, swinging and running chimp-like all over the habitat. Out steps big chimp #1 and grabs little chimp’s wrist, wrestles him to the ground and then sits on him. No joke; Big ol’ chimp bootie on little chimp for a full on 30 seconds! After that scenario repeats itself a couple of times, big chimp grabs little chimp and puts him in a certified WWF headlock and proceeds to tickle little chimp, who laughs all loud and chimp-like. Then, picture a game of ‘you can’t get past me!’ with little chimp laughing when he gets smashed against the wall and big chimp mocking little chimp with a noogie and a chimp-like victory dance. All this is followed by a hug, cuddle, and a little picking the bugs out of your hair and eating them because I love you.

Seriously, I saw it all. It reminded me so much of life at our house (well, we don’t eat the bugs we get off each other though) that it made me wonder. We had a great time. Perfect weather, great company, and me wondering just how sure I am that chimp life wouldn’t be better than my life. Just think. All the play and no responsibilities!? The hair would get kinda itchy though, and I bet they don’t feed them chocolate in there. Never mind.

** I shouldn’t be allowed to type on my computer past 11 p.m.**

This is what I should have written about the zoo. I love stealing from other people's blogs! Thanks, Jen!

• What was cool is that we even had Diego as our tour guide (see my Mom in her safari hat).

• My sit and stand stroller can easily push along 4 kids.
• Jeff and Ruth really are the cutest couple of the year!
• Jami and Ava couldn't stop dancing - especially at the penguin exhibit where they both had "Happy Feet" and Nolan joined in.
• Nolan loved the monkey's... probably because he acts like one half the time. With all of his grunts - I figured I could just leave him there at the zoo and he could quite possibly fit in.
  
• My Mom truly loves being a Mimi. I love watching her with her grand kids, and thinking about the joy that she must have gotten out of raising us. I try to remember that when I'm pulling my hair out in my current stage of life. I love how she's always there to help and assist... and puts aside any of her own plans, desires or wants just to be with the kids. It means a lot to me...
• Nolan actually held onto my Mom's hand for a while... the kid hates hand holding and LOVES to explore. After I was buckling Nolan in for the 50th time, Damian was like "Plip, there are like 6 adults here that can help look after him that you don't need to have him in the stroller all the time." I said, okay - watch this. I got Nolan out and he just took off... D was so great to tag behind him... and even take him into the bird atrium with him. It's the cutest thing to see your brothers with your kids.
• Jeff had fun taking the kids in the little underground dome thing to show them all the snake food - aka mice.
• Ava told us that penguins are now her favorite animal - kinda figured that after wanting to rewatch "Surf's Up" over and over... she loves her some Cody Maverick!
• Damian had Eden do a pull-up on a tree branch - so naturally Ava had to join in and do the same. I think she'd jump off a cliff if Eden or Carter did... she just adores her cousins!
• As we were leaving Ava and Damian were "racing" to the front of the zoo. It was so cute to see them together and cute to see Ava running her little bootie off!! She did pretty good, maybe she'll be a runner like her Daddy and like her Mom once was.
• Damian pointing out the crocodile that rides the short bus.

meet RUTH...

Night #2 without air conditioning was so not cool. No pun intended. We all woke up uncomfortable and sweaty, and by 10 am all of the kids’ hair was matted to their faces. When we heard it would most likely a week until our power was restored, we waved our white flag and loaded up the car for Damian's parents.

We left behind tons of work cleaning up around our house, but we knew it would be there when we got back and we knew Jeff and Ruth were still in town. We LOVE Ruth! She is down to earth, great with kids, helpful, thoughtful, intelligent, and perfect for Jeff! They are so cute together!

I got to take their engagement pictures. Engagement shoots are probably my favorite sittings because the couples are always so happy, and for lack of a better word it is intimate. Once they get comfortable, I get to see the chemistry between them and how they really interact. It is fun challenge for me to try to capture that with my camera, and to be honest I am a hopeless romantic so I just can’t get enough! (So Damian, if you are ever wondering why I come home from a photo shoot ready for a hot date, now you know.) Jeff and Ruth are so cute together! Did I say that already? I had so much fun spending time with them and couldn’t be happier for their upcoming marriage…in, um, two weeks!

Ike blew!

Amazing what the insulation of an interior closet will do! I slept like a baby until Carter woke me up at 3 am because he had to go to the bathroom. He went right back to sleep, but I found Damian pacing the floor looking worried. He said if any of the windows were going to blow it would be in the kids rooms, so he headed upstairs to barricade them with their mattresses. I sat in the hallway literally too scared to move, but wanting to follow my husband around like a puppy dog so he could protect me. I have never been in a storm like that, nor heard our house shake and rattle as it was pounded with sheets of rain and relentless gusts of 70-90 mph howling winds.

As the sun came up, and we realized the worst was over we were relieved to find that we were still standing with no major damage! As soon as the rain let up, we were anxious to get out and see how the rest of the neighborhood fared. To sum it up, we were so lucky! Several trees around our neighborhood snapped like toothpicks, although some of our nearby neighbors weren’t. We saw many houses damaged, and some even with trees through them. Even 70 miles from the coast, hurricane Ike left major damage in his path.

The power went out last night about 11 pm, and we along with 4 million other Houstonians are still in the dark. According to our battery powered radio, it could be up to a month to restore power to everyone. We are also being told that all water needs to be boiled because of a sewer back up into the water supply. Schools in our district will remain closed for a week, along with many other businesses who incurred damage. I am so grateful we had a little warning and were prepared, but nothing can quite prepare you to brace yourself for the heat and humidity when you are used to the comfort provided by air conditioning! Things could have been a LOT worse, so we will take a little sweat. We, along with all of Houston, are glad that Ike took a hike! So sorry to all those in the northeast who are now suffering his wrath.