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Hurricane Ike/ Charlie Bit My Finger!

Just a quick note to let you know we're battening down the hatches for Hurricane Ike this weekend. My hunch is that we'll end up with only a sprinkling of rain from Ike - that's how it's been in the past: Katrina, Rita, Dolly. But I could be wrong - hope not.

Here's a link to the Ike tracker: http://www.weather.com/newscenter/hurricanecentral/2008/ike.html

If there's any personal news I'll make sure the word gets out, but I'm sure we'll just get a little wet. At last check the storm is predicted to skim past us to the east.

Anyway, on the upside the school district is releasing the kids 2 hours early tomorrow to use the schools as evacuation shelters for those people closer to the coast ie Houston, Galveston etc. There's the silver lining (umm, for the kids)!

And on a completely different note, here's my laugh out loud YouTube video of the week. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_OBlgSz8sSM
I've posted a link to it on the right side of the page. Enjoy!!

Can a trip to the waterpark get "rained out"?

Ours sure did. A couple weeks ago we finally got around to going to Schlitterbahn Waterpark in New Braunfels, which is about an hour and a half from our home. All summer long we've been planning to go and all summer long it hasn't rained hardly at all... except for the day that we schedule to go!!! We crossed our fingers anyway and headed south hoping to dodge the thunderstorms.

We hit a few on the drive, but kept an optimistic attitude that the storms wouldn't be bad enough to close the park. Unfortuately by the time we parked and got in line to get our tickets it had started sprinkling. As we finally walked up to the window for our tickets the downpour started and, yep, they stopped selling tickets in preparation to close the park until the storm had passed. Ugh, now what?! Do we sit and wait out the storm which is predicted to last all day, or do we um, find something else to do? We were already soaked and we hadn't even stepped into the water. But sitting in a rain storm getting wet isn't nearly as thrilling as a waterslide. So we decided to find something else. The Checketts were with us and so we piled in the cars and decided to keep heading south and find some lunch and someplace dry to entertain the kids.

The rain just got worse and worse and when we saw a Costco we decided that was best place to stop for lunch. Hey, the deli is cheap and filling and dry!

After lunch we headed to the Witte Museum in San Antonio. Natalie and Emma had gone there a couple months ago with their grandma to see the Leonardo Da Vinci's Machines exhibit. They loved it and insisted on taking Brooke and Berkeley to see it. The exhibit is creations of the machines Da Vinci had drawn in his records. It was really amazing. The things he was imagining were hundreds of years ahead of his time. He had drawing for flying machines like helicopters and hang gliders and there was even a drawing for a tank! It was neat to see someone actually create working models of these machines. If the exhibit ever comes to your city I would definitely recommend going to see it.

The museum also had a wing "the treehouse" for kids that was full of science-based hands-on demonstrations for the kids. We spent quite a bit of time there until the museum closed. Overall what turned out to be a soggy day at the waterpark was a great time a the museum. Enjoy the pics.

Dani's Sucker

So I just entered Dani's Sucker video to America's Funniest Home Videos. Cross your fingers that it's funny enough to make us some "Cha-Ching"!!!!

It's back to school time! And other stuff...

Natalie and Emma just started school again yesterday. Natalie is now a 5th grader and Emma is in 1st. I'm starting to freak out when I realize that this is Natalie's last year in elementary school! Look at the pics of her I took yesterday - she's so grown up. We can actually share some clothes!!!

Emma is Emma! She's really taken off with her reading this summer, so I'm sure 1st grade is going to be a breeze. She's just like her dad. She can figure things out quickly and then she's bored until everyone else catches up. In fact, in the father's blessing Jeremy gave her yesterday he blessed Emma that she would excel in school but not become bored. Guess I'm gonna have my work cut out for me.

Dani is back to being my sidekick 24/7. We did a little shopping today and she was pretty good until the end. Then the waterworks came when I wouldn't go into the Smoothie store. She cried all of the walk to the car, getting in the car, and for about 5 minutes after we left the mall. Then she conked out... I suspected she was more tired than thirsty.

Jeremy and I are just plugging along. I just finished a 30 minute video montage for a friend's daughter's wedding. I recently switched from using Pinnacle Studio to Adobe Premier Elements to create the video and I fought the learning curve this whole project through. But it's done and I'm very happy with it. I hope the bride and groom are too. If I can figure out how to post it on my blog I will. It might be too big though.

Finally, a little bit of fun Christmas news - we're done with our shopping already!!! Yep, just one phone call to Carnival Cruise Lines and our family is booked for a cruise in January! Jeremy and I had so much fun on our cruise, that we decided for Christmas this year we would give the girls some fun vacation memories instead of more toys! We're actually not going to take Dani this time - we'd rather take her when she's older and can enjoy and remember it more. We're leaving out of Galveston on a 5-day cruise to Cozumel and Progresso. I think I'm more excited this time than I was my first time. I know what new and exciting things to expect this time and I can't wait to share them with Natalie & Emma.