Rude Manor: June 2008

Friday, June 27, 2008

Katie's back!

She's back and it's wonderful. Yes, the noise level has been much higher in our house this evening and the bickering started within 2 minutes of her arrival but our house feels more like home now that Katie is back. She had so much fun visiting Meredith, seeing Joel play soccer, going swimming three times and making a new friend, Olivia who is 4 and who also let Katie play with her green bouncy ball. She missed seeing Noah because he is away at camp and won't be back until tomorrow. Kyle was so excited to see his sister and he kept wanting to hug her once she came home. He asked me several times this week, "Where's Katie?" I think this is the first time that he's really missed her being around. They are so sweet to each other when they want to be.

In other news, I turned on KSBJ this evening as Katie was falling asleep. It was the last hour of their yearly Share-a-thon during which they raise their operating expenses and money for special projects for the upcoming year. In the past few years, they have exceeded their goals fairly early in the day on the 3rd day of Share-a-thon, but this year they had some issues with their telephones on the 1st day and they got behind. So this morning, they met their monthly operating expense goal but lacked about a million dollars for their special projects goal. So I'm guessing this morning at 9am they had reached about $700,000 toward the $1.7 million goal. When I turned on the radio at 9pm, they had almost reached 1.6 million dollars. God as usual worked his miracles and it was down to needed $72,000 in the last 10 minutes...then $36,000 in the last 8 minutes and wouldn't you know it at 10pm on the dot, they had reached $1,701,792. Even if you don't live in Houston, you can still check out the station - they have an incredible world-wide ministry considering that it's a local non-profit radio station. There wasn't a doubt in my mind tonight that they wouldn't reach their goal, but it was amazing to watch (or listen) as God worked that miracle and moved people to raise the funds. They have never raised $1 million in a day during all the years of Share-a-thon and today God did it in 12 hours.

Thursday, June 26, 2008

Making progress, but probably getting cavities too!

Well I'm here to report that Kyle has used the potty (the big potty, not just a potty chair) 4 times since we started this on Tuesday evening. However, he has also been bribed with lollipops and cookies. It works everytime! I think I'm going to have to go get some smaller candy (skittles or m&ms) or we're going to have a problem soon. I'm so proud of my little guy or "big boy" as he keeps reminding us.

Update from the last hour...he pooped too!

Tuesday, June 24, 2008

I did it Mommy, I a big boy!

Katie's out of town this week visiting her cousins, so I decided I would see if I could gain any ground on potty training. We do not have ideal conditions since I am volunteering at VBS each morning, but I figured I see what would happen tonight if we let Kyle loose in the backyard. We spent about half an hour outside trying to get him to go on the tree with no luck. Then I decided to try to speed the process along by giving him a drink. Once the mosquitos started biting we gave up and moved inside. He sat on his froggy potty for about 20 minutes but never went. I finally gave up and we left to run an errand. He told me in the car he was still clean and dry. So after dinner we tried again. Sat on the potty for a few minutes and then I asked if he wanted to go outside again. "I peepee on tree Mommy" was his response. So outside we went. And he walked right over to that tree and went! This big smile spread across his face and he looked at me and said, "I did it Mommy! I a BIG BOY!" We went inside and he told Derek about his accomplishment and then he galloped all over the house. So I let him put on his Cars pull-ups and he told me, "no pee-pee on the trophies!". It's just the beginning and we've a long way to go, but he was so proud so I had to share...now to just get him to go on the potty.

Sunday, June 22, 2008

Another trip to the ER

Only this time it wasn't quite an emergency. I know on Friday I said that Derek was finally feeling better. Well, he woke up Saturday morning and his eye was all crusted over and swollen shut. I took the kids to the Y for t-ball and left him sleeping. Katie and I started to get ready for a birthday party she was going to an noon when Derek comes in and says, "Look at my eyes! I've got to get to a doctor." Of course at this point, it's almost noon on Saturday and most of the doctor's offices that are open on Saturday close at noon or 1pm. He tried to go to the place right around the corner but they changed their hours and are no longer open on Saturday. Then he headed to our doctor in Alden Bridge who had to be downtown at 2pm and couldn't see him. He sent Derek to First Choice Emergency Center in Sterling Ridge. Turns out that it was a good decision to go to see someone. Derek has bronchitis and conjunctivitis (pink eye). He was given a nebulizer for breathing treatments, a shot, a couple of prescriptions and some eye drops. He also has to stay away from people until after Tuesday. He's doing much better today.

Saturday, June 21, 2008

Fourteen Lisa Rudes???

How is it possible that there are 14 people with my name, yet there are only 2 Derek Rudes in the US? Funny thing is - the other Derek worked (may still) at Frito-Lay in Plano at the same time that Derek had his internship there. Small world! I checked my maiden name too - there are only 5 of us with that name.

HowManyOfMe.com

There are
14
people with my name
in the U.S.A.

How many have your name?

Night Owl

Well, I can definitely tell it is summer because I am still awake at 12:30am for the third night in a row. I forgot how much I can get done when everyone is asleep...funny thing is I'm not doing anything but playing on the computer. I could be cleaning, but who wants to stay up and do that?!?!

I got really frustrated with this thing tonight (the computer, not the blog) because I had a request to add a field to a web form that I created a year ago. I had never done one before that and I haven't done one since, so I had to relearn the coding and it was not cooperating. I even upgraded the software which was completely unneccesary (I will be invoicing for that) because they did not really change any of the features since last year (and really made it more difficult for me to customize the forms for which they had templates). After several tries and probably a couple of hours I finally figured out where my problems were and got it done. Every time I get a request to update the site I cringe because it is just a hobby to me and I don't keep up with things like that on a day to day basis. However, I do enjoy it so I'm glad to have that little creative outlet to keep my computer skills and web design somewhat up to date.

The good news of the day is that Derek is finally getting somewhat back to normal. He still has a lot of congestion, but he is feeling better. We went to Katz's for dinner - it was really yummy. The kids love going there because they get to eat breakfast for dinner. I love the free pickles. Just kidding, the food really is good so there's more to it than the free pickles.

One more thing - Amy, the kids and I were running errands this morning and we were driving south on I-45. I usually don't notice billboards since they change so infrequently - you have the ones that Katie always calls out - Hannah Montana (which is actually a billboard for an adult club) and Cinderella (which is an ad for Cindie's, another adult store) - so glad that my 4 year old notices all the strippers on the billboards and compares them to what should be decent rolemodels. However, this story is not about that. We were driving along and I see this huge picture of Michael Nacol (I think Jen and maybe my parents and sisters if they actually read this are probably the only ones who might know who that is) along with his name and I think something about being in an 18-wheeler accident (he's an attorney). So you are wondering why am I bringing this up (not sure, but it's now 1am and I just thought of it again). Michael went to our little tiny high school (Jen and I graduated with 37 other people), Second Baptist in Houston and his sister Holly was one of my best friends. During my junior year I went on a ski trip with my church youth group and Michael went with us (Holly was in Brazil for study abroad). I had completely forgotten about that ski trip until I saw that billboard. It's been probably 15 years since I've seen him so it was strange to see his big smiling face on a billboard on I-45. So I guess the point to the story is, if you ever get into an accident with an 18-wheeler in Houston - call Michael!

We have another t-ball game tomorrow bright and early at 8:30am. So I guess I better head out and try to get some sleep. Have a great weekend!

Rude Manor

Made by My Cool Signs

I just like the way these things look and I wanted to add it to the blog. My friend Marcie has one of these on her MySpace page and I copied her and added it to mine...then thought it might work on here too. Just playing around!

Friday, June 20, 2008

LOOOONG Day

Here I am at 12:30am posting to the blog because for some unknown reason I am still awake despite being exhausted. Here is a recap (very long recap) of my day: This morning began with dropping Kyle off with Miss Amy, rushing Katie to soccer camp at the Y, heading over to church for a VBS meeting, rushing back to soccer camp in an attempt to make the certificate ceremony (I missed it), meeting some friends (and Kyle and Amy) at Culver's for lunch, and running over to a friend's house to change into our swimwear. Okay, it's now about noon. So then we picked up one of Katie's friends to go swimming, on the way we learned that the pool we were planning to go to was closed so our other friends headed in the opposite direction to go to another pool. We picked up Taylor and started toward the other pool only to find out that it too was closed? So we ended up at our neighborhood pool and finally got into the water. After about 15 minutes the thunder started. 10 minute thunder break...then the rain starts...then it thunders again...and again...and again. Finally after about 25-30 minutes we decided it was time to pack up the 9, yes I said 9 children (ranging in age from 1 to 11) that were with us and head back to our house where Derek was potentially sleeping since he's been sick in bed since Monday night. Thankfully as we turned into our neighborhood I saw him driving off and called him to find out he was running an errand. We put in a movie and attempted to keep 8 children entertained (one went home to take a nap and soon after we put Kyle down for a nap...speaking of he just woke up). We made cupcakes, all had a snack and then after an hour and a half we headed back to the pool (3pm). The kids were surprisingly well behaved and cleaned up after themselves with a little help from the bribe of a cupcake! We stayed at the pool for an hour and a half then rushed home with Katie, Kyle and Taylor to get dressed since I had to take Katie to a Kindergarten ice cream social/meet the teachers tonight at school. We were going to drop Taylor off on the way home, but her mom surprised us by banging on the garage door while we were loading up in the car. So Katie and I headed off (6pm). We picked up some dinner on the way, get on the freeway and Katie asks me why she has ketchup in her bag. I answered her and within 30 seconds she was asleep. Poor thing got a 15 minute nap on the way to school. We stayed at the ice cream social for about an hour and half and then decided to meet friends at a softball field on the way home (now 8pm). I was only planning to stay for the first game at 8:30, but somehow 8:30 turned into 9:30 and the next game was at 10:30 and by 11:20 I could barely keep my eyes open...but I was still there, with Katie by my side. I know, I know, I'm getting mom of the year! Katie made a new friend who we finally figured out was named Kyle, but he couldn't pronounce his K, so it sounded like he was saying "Tile" and we thought maybe his name was Tyler, but then he spelled it for us. We both had a fun evening and enjoyed hanging out at the ballpark. It was a nice change of pace and luckily we have nothing planned for tomorrow. I will say it was great having an 11 year old at the pool because Kyle was constantly entertained and I actually got to sit and leisurely watch my children instead of follow them around. I guess I will go to bed, although knowing my reading habits I will probably be up for at least another 30 minutes. Here's to an uneventful Friday...

Tuesday, June 17, 2008

The thermometer is behind the window

"Mommy, I have a headache and a sore throat."
"Hmm. Let me check your head." I go over to feel that Katie does not have a fever and she responds while I'm walking away:
"Mommy, the thermometer is behind the window" (behind the couch in the window sill is what she means).
"I wonder how it got there?"
"Maybe it walked."
"It doesn't have legs."
"But Mommy, it has ONE LEG!"

Just had to share.

Need to add that when I looked behind the couch in the windowsill, I found not only the thermometer, but a paci (yes he still has it), two play thermometers, a play otoscope, a microphone, a stuffed animal, two books and a toy from Sonic. Been a while since I cleaned back there, you think?

Monday, June 16, 2008

Destin

We had such a fantastic time in Destin last week. We left in the wee hours of the morning (4:29am) with the Pilot as packed as it could be. Surprisingly, the kids did not fall back asleep for quite a while...and when they did, each only slept ONE HOUR of the 10 hour trip. Despite the lack of sleep, they were extremely well behaved and were great little travelers. I think the best decision we made was to take along Miss Amy and Miss Bethany (or Duffy as Kyle affectionately calls her). Derek and I got to relax quite a bit more than we would have if it had only been the two of us. They were nanny, cook, driver, disciplinarian (at times) and entertainment! It was great. We even got to have Thursday almost all to ourselves. It wasn't all work for Amy and Bethany - they took some time out to go parasailing and had an amazing time.

Check out Kyle's hat - anyone recognize it? I remember wearing it back in either 1984 or 1985 when we took a family trip to Padre. It's starting to fall apart, but he loved wearing it.

Sunday, June 15, 2008

Happy Father's Day...Mommy

Kyle just doesn't understand yet and he keeps telling me, Happy Father's Day Mommy! I tell him to go say it to Daddy and he says, "No, it's yours Father's Day Mommy!" Poor Daddy. Not only has he had to listen to Kyle say that to me repeatedly today, but I forgot altogether this morning that it was Father's Day and when I heard Kyle crying I sent Derek upstairs to get him since I woke up with a headache. Then I sent him to get donuts for the kids. After he got back I realized that it was Father's Day and I felt horrible. Sorry Derek. We love you!

Saturday, June 7, 2008

Here comes the flowergirl!

I got a little nervous last night when Jackson (ring bearer) decided he was not participating in the wedding any longer and he refused to walk down the aisle with Katie. During the rehearsal, he took off down the aisle and Katie just looked at me, like what do I do? Then she turned and ran down the aisle leaving a trail of flower petals behind. But everything turned out great today! They walked down arm in arm and did a great job. Granted, I found out after the ceremony that Derek had bribed the two of them. Jackson started out wanting $12 to walk down the aisle, but Derek got him down to $3. It only cost him $2 for Katie! He only had a $5 on him, so that worked out well...I hope this is not a sign of things to come (Dad bribing boys for Katie). Our little princess looked so beautiful...almost as beautiful as Miss Amy, oops I mean Mrs. Amy!

Congratulations Mr. and Mrs. Abell!

Sunday, June 1, 2008

2nd T-ball game

The Cheetahs had their second game yesterday. It was fun since we knew a few of the kids on the opposing team (Sam, CJ, Grant and Jacob). They all did a great job! Here are some pictures: