Well, they say that pregnant women end up nesting and mine is arriving in the form of wanting to make sure we have gotten rid of the extraneous junk that has accumulated in the house over the last five years. With no basement, an attic that is scorching hot and humid in the summer and a growing family that requires giving up my storage room, it’s time to rethink what is important and what can go.
We started in the study today, cleaning out the desk. Three garbage cans later, we finished the computer desk. Robbie even dusted all the shelves. He also vacuumed the floors and along all the baseboards. There were more than a few dried up spiders behind the desks.
Unfortunately, the path through all our clutter may be a long one. My desk is still piled high and the filing cabinet is in need of a thorough weeding out. The shredder may be hopping for awhile. Hopefully my motivation will continue and we’ll be able to keep things moving out of the house.
Here’s the before on my desk, which is the next thing to get tackled.
My world is slowly returning to normal. The brush piles are slowly beginning to disappear from the curbs. All but a couple of people in my department have power back. My husband left work at a reasonable time and is at the driving range. The blinking stop light that was adding ten-fifteen minutes to my commute in the morning was up and running on the drive home today. Life is still rough for many people, but things are starting to work their way through the system.
On the baby front, we signed up for our birthing/parenting class at the hospital, so we will be doing that in November. They take Christmas off and we felt like if we waited to start until after the first of the year, we’d be pushing to get it done before I was too round and miserable to get anything out of it. We also took a wander through the baby section at Target last night for our unplugged activity. The range of baby products is amazing. Like the car seat with dual pop out drink holders. Does the kid really need to be able to throw TWO sippy cups to the floor?
I know I should be appreciative of my week off from work, even if it is due to the events of a hurricane that is affecting millions of people. However, I’m about to go stir crazy in the house. I will definitely keep this week in mind as I prepare for maternity leave. I’m sure the baby will keep me plenty busy, but it’s adult conversation that I miss the most.
I was reading some old blog posts and came across this one that I had written after I had gotten pregnant, but before I knew it. My three “projects” were to keep reading, cook more and PR at the half marathon. Well, PRing is definitely out, since I sold my bib for the marathon. I will have to postpone that until next October when I hope to run the Koala half marathon. Cooking has been going reasonably well. I’ve been cooking more, but not necessarily new recipes. Having Joey around makes it a little easier, since we don’t generate so many leftovers. And reading is good.
I finished three books while we were in LA. I read “The Middle-class Millionaires” which was a demographic look at millionaires who have earned their money and their effect on the economy, “Animal, Vegatable, Miracle” which was about eating locally for a year and “Isaac’s Storm” which is about the hurricane that wiped out Galveston in 1900. That was a well-timed read. I also started “The Nine” which is Jeffrey Toobin’s look at the Supreme Court over the last two decades or so. It’s been a little slow so far.
At Christmas last year, Robbie and my dad spent an entire afternoon cutting dead wood out of the three pine trees in the front yard of our house. We were grateful for the work when we returned from Los Angeles and discovered we had one of the smallest cleanup piles in the neighborhood. We had also done some back yard cleanup with Joey ahead of Hurricane Gustav that came in handy.
Robbie and I went to Los Angeles for Joe Stehly’s wedding last weekend and escaped Ike in the process. There are lots of pictures up on Flickr, along with a few scattered below.
Hurricane Ike caused mandatory evacuations to be called for our zip code as of noon on Thursday. Our flight out of Bush was at seven o’clock on Thursday night. I was dismissed from work around 9:30 that morning and Robbie got turned loose around 1:00 pm. Our normal forty minute drive to Bush airport took us around two and a half hours. It was bumper to bumper traffic, but unlike with Hurricane Rita in 2005, we moved the whole way. It left us with a LOT of time to sit at the airport, but we were glad to be there.
The wedding was a good distraction to keep us from just sitting in our hotel room and watching the news coverage. Joe Stehly was Robbie’s college roommate in Farrar Hall at the University of Missouri-Rolla. He works out in Los Angeles and was marrying a woman he met out there. She is the bookstore manager at the Gamble House which is one of the Arts and Crafts houses that the Greene brothers built in Pasadena California around the turn of the century. They had their wedding photos taken there and it made a beautiful backdrop.
The reception was at a country club next to the Rose Bowl, so Robbie enjoyed seeing that. They had a 10:00 am wedding, so the reception was a brunch. The french toast was fantastic and it was a nice alternative to eating chicken or beef like most weddings. I got in a baby bump photo which I guess would be the fifteen week picture.
Our return flight on Sunday got cancelled due to the storm which left us with three days to kill. Because LA hotels were so expensive, we decided to take a road trip to Las Vegas and get a cheaper hotel room. With the rental car being a Prius, we didn’t really have to spend much on gas (51.1 mpg!) We enjoyed Las Vegas. We watched the fountain show at the Bellagio three times and walked through the Forum Shops at Caesar’s Palace. We didn’t spend a dime on gambling. Seems like we should have at least put a quarter in a slot machine, but the smoke bothered Margie and Robbie’s work was keeping him busy. Guess we won’t help build any new expensive casino’s with our losings.
One of the most enjoyable things we did was take a trip out to Hoover Dam. The drive through the desert was gorgeous. We drove through a rain storm on the way home and went through a forty degree temperature swing between the rain and the sun. The dam was pretty amazing.
Pictures and stories from our trip to Los Angeles will be forth coming, as soon as I get them off the camera. I’m balancing indoor chores with outdoor cleanup.
The flight back into Houston last night was eerie, because I’m used to seeing the sea of lights that make up the Houston sprawl. With 1.3 million customers still without power, the city looked a lot different. It was odd to see cars moving around in the darkness. We saw some damage on the way from Bush to Clear Lake, but for the most part things seemed to be in good shape. Trees down and some sign damage but things were alright. Our yard looks awesome because of Joey beating us home and getting the cleanup done. He had it in great shape. Robbie will appreciate that with his long weeks ahead.
Robbie will be working thirteen hour shifts at the refinery until things are back up and running and Joey and I don’t have to report in until at least Monday. I’m trying to figure out what kind of a birthday supper I can make for him on a non-perishable food basis. Kind of limits my options. Mac and cheese? Spaghetti-os? Not quite the steak and baked potato dinner I had planned.
We lost a good portion of our back fence, so we need to figure out what the subdivision rules are for splitting payment and then talk to our neighbors about whether they want to repair it or replace the whole stretch. Fun with insurance companies. Overall though, we are in good shape. The power, cable and internet is on, so we are quite comfortable. For those without power, we’ve had an unseasonably cool stretch of weather so people are able to sleep at night.
Just a quick update to say that Robbie and I are safe and dry after Ike and our house is in good shape. We are counting our blessings for having made it through the storm and only having lost a refrigerator worth of food. Small in comparison to the losses of others and easily replaceable.
We are travelling home from Los Angeles today after extending our trip by three days when Continental shut down flights into Houston.
The models and forecasts for Ike continue to bounce around. Who knows where this thing is going? They are evacuating low lying areas along the coast and telling everyone else to stay put. The lines at the gas stations this evening were out into the street. We helped Joey put a few things in his car and he is taking a change of clothes and some food and water along to work tomorrow, just in case things change drastically while we’re at work. Hopefully, Robbie and I will be able to make our flight tomorrow evening, but I guess worst case, we’re on the north side of town with several changes of clothes. Worse places to be.
All of this is making me quite glad that my baby is due three months before hurricane season. What a mess.
There are pictures from Robbie’s trip to Cincinnati up on the Flickr site. I don’t think he took a single one of them, since he seems to be in the bulk of them. = ) I guess his sisters helped him out and kept him out of trouble. What are good sisters for?
The way this summer is going, I may need to rename the blog to babiesandhurricanes from booksandbasketball. Ike is now looking to head into the gulf. So far we’ve had two rounds of wait and watch with little to no impact to the Houston area, so hopefully this storm will be the same way. Although I certainly don’t want to wish another storm on Louisiana. They have had more than their share this season already.
Robbie is coming home from Cincinnati today and I’m quite excited. It sounds like he really enjoyed his trip home to see his family and grandparents, but that doesn’t mean I’m not being selfish and ready to have him back. He rescued me last night by ordering pizza for me so I could go pick it up at the place near our house for dinner. The number is only on his speed dial and it wasn’t in the phone book and the internet was acting up. Hubby to the rescue. = )
