Burnt Offerings

Happy Holidays!
From Ben, Lucas, Trish, & Amy in the belly!

(This is a shot from my school carnival two weeks ago.)

Thanksgiving came and went. I cooked my first bird. It wasn't dry so I guess it was a success. Everything worked out and was ready right on time except....

I checked them right before the meal and thought, "Hmmm, I'll give them a few more minutes." You'd think one of the 9 fabulous people eating over would have said, "What about the rolls? Didn't you have rolls on the counter all morning? Mmmm, do I smell rolls?!!!!" No! It wasn't until 2:00 a.m. the next morning that I shook Ben awake and said, "The rolls! I forgot to take out the rolls! I wasted the whole bag! It's my favorite part of Thanksgiving and I left them in the oven!" Ben couldn't really figure out what I was saying or why I was waking him up. I was so sad. It took me forever to get back to sleep. Oh well, what can you do? Thanks for coming over Kerby's! It was an awesome weekend!

Anyway, the next day we went to the Renn Fest and it was really fun. I was kind of sad about missing the Black Friday sales but Carly and I went through the paper and we didn't really find anything we HAD to have. It was a good day. I tell you what though, if you want to go to a Renaissance Festival and actually be able to go 10 feet without someone stopping you for a picture, don't take your wizard grandpa.

Boy, he was a hit and he loved every minute of it. The kids all thought he was a real wizard and wanted him to do magic. I kind of felt like that bodyguard that walks around with Mickey Mouse.

This is my sexy husband. We're not sure what he was dressed up as. His puffy shirt didn't work out so he kind of just turned out looking like a punk bounty hunter. I, of course, had no outfit to fit my expanding belly and it was too hot and humid for Lucas to wear his dragon costume. That's right all you cold snowy states, I said too hot! November 28th and we're still sweating. I can't wait to come freeze with you this Christmas. Until then, take care and spread the holiday cheer.

XOXOXOXOXO

Sweet November

No big news to share. Just enjoying the month and weather. A few things we have been up to: I turned 27. My belly is getting bigger and bigger (and my face too). I'm trying to figure out how to make my first turkey. I'm excited about having the Kerby's over for Thanksgiving and Renn Fest. I'm going on a road trip to San Antonio next weekend while gas is still reasonable. I will explore the Alamo while Ben hits up About Australia. It has all his favorite Aussie foods. I'm trying to decide if I should spend Christmas in Salt Lake or Kona. There is a lot to think about and do but mostly we just love to spend time watching our baby turn into a little boy.

Just some pictures of what we have been up to lately.

If your child is obsessed with your computer equipment I have a solution. Get him a laptop of his own. This little gadget gives us at least 10 minutes before he wants to get on ours. Top Picture: My boys hard at work. Bottom: Lucas a tad bit excited to be on his laptop.This is not the most recent picture of Amy but it's the only one I have saved on the computer.

Lucas around and in the house.

Our little family going out for my birthday dinner. We went to Joe's Crab Shack. I don't know why. Ever since they raised their prices and gave you less food is has been a disappointment. Oh well, it was nice to be with my family. This picture demonstrates the fat face I was telling you about. I came home from work one day and our nanny at the time told me to go look at what Lucas had done. I walked in the game room and there was my sweet little boy with his friends pretending to play X-Box. It was so cute. I don't know if he is lonely or just has a great imagination.

I Miss Halloween Already!

If I knew hitting my head on a desk would get me 10 comments in 48 hours I'd do it more often! Wow, thanks everyone for your love, care, and support. I'm doing just fine and trying to take better care of myself. I can already tell Amy is more trouble then Lucas. LOL! Every time I write LOL I think, "Wow, that's cheesy." Do you have to put thoughts in quotation marks? I can't remember. Anyway, I'm good. Halloween was great. I didn't think Lucas would get into it but I was wrong. He totally figured it out. He walked up to those houses and said some version of, "Rik or reat," and held that Frankenstein head up to be filled. People couldn't resist him! How could you in that little dragon suit? Even other kids on the street wanted to give him their candy. I must say I love getting compliments about my son. Even more then getting them for myself. Only problem now is he knows what a sucker is and no place is out of reach for that kid. He finds a way.

I think my new neighbors are either running a brothel house or a place for runaway teens. I swear young girls walk past my window every couple of minutes. I'll bet it says something about that in our deed restrictions. HHHHHMMMMMWEEEEELLLLLLL, I guess if you wanna run away or get a new job you can come live next door to me.

Trish gives her students a lesson in blood sugar.

I walked through the door of the emergency room, not entirely sure why I was there. The smell of fresh lacquer on the slippery wood floors making my already light head swim. I shifted the weight of my 21 month old on my hip, his precocious weight making my arms shout in pain, but not as loud as the confused questions in my head. "A2" I said to myself again. I turned left and saw a plaque on the wall by a closed door A1. The door next to it was open, another plaque on the wall A2, a nurse walked through in front of me and I followed. She pulled on the curved wall of curtain that was hiding the room from me, hiding something I did not understand.

The room was small, white, and full of people and tubes. The only thing I saw was Trish lying on the bed, center stage, what I did not understand was looking back at me. The entire left side of her face was swollen and red. Her eye pressed closed from the dark purple swelling. She looked like someone had picked up a flat piece of wood and slammed her across the face with it. That wasn't too far from what did happen.

"Holy cow." I said.

She had fallen in class, hitting her face on a student's desk as she fell. She remembers feeling light headed and telling the kids to wait a minute. The students were standing around her screaming when she came to. "Get Mrs Cox." Trish managed to murmur. The ambulance came with sirens blaring. The EMT's fed Trish a tube of glucose before strapping her to a board and putting her into the ambulance. En route they inserted an IV, pumping the equivalent of three tubs of frosting directly into her blood.

She's doing fine today and recuperating. Her body is still a little stiff and sensitive to the foods she eats, but she will make a full recovery. The baby is healthy and safe too, the little one was wiggling more then Trish had ever felt it, enjoying the sugar rush.

In the end, I think the biggest victims of this episode are Trish's eye and my heart.

Couple hours after hitting the desk.

Shiner as it looks today.
The good news is as it turns out, purple looks pretty good on me.


We want to end on a happy note and let you all know that the day ended with this bit of info:

Amy Dawn Ireland

Arriving March 1st 2009

Dragon Lu

As promised, here is Lucas ready for Trick-Or-Treating. We found this little gem of a costume at Old Navy while we were staying at Ben's parents.

David Swimmer & Naps

I really try to keep my blogs focused on one topic but I have three stories that need to be shared. So I'll share two and save Lucas' Halloween costume for next time. Believe me, it's worth coming back for.

This week back at work has been killer exhausting so I've barely been able to stay awake when I get home. This is the other night when I crashed during Heros. Mommy was too tired to play with Lucas so he found a way to play with her anyway. Ben thought it was hilarious and took the picture.

The pool was green from the hurricane and Ben and his brother Michael were on their way to bucket it out. Michael yells, "There is a squirrel swimming in the pool!" So Ben pulls out the camera on his phone and films this.




Notice Ben saying, "Actually...." Yeah well, at that point Ben realizes this squirrel is swimming for his life and drops the camera to fish the poor little guy out. This next clip is the conclusion.

That poor thing must have been swimming for hours and he just gave up at that exact moment Ben was filming him. After they fished him out he lay on the grass and slept for an hour! He was SO tired. After his nap he popped up and ran to the tree so we are happy to report he is alive and well. We decided to name him David Swimmer.

So there you have it. Naps for me and David Swimmer. What a crazy week.

A Day of Refuge

As many of you know our house and family was effected by Hurricane Ike. (See previous post if you missed the details.) It has been 10 days and we still can't go home because half the city still has no power, including our home and my school district. Ben's parents are being very kind and patient with us. Ben and I are used to Lucas terrorizing everything but it's been awhile for them. We have felt very comfortable and well taken care of during this stressful time. Even still, after awhile we were starting to get a bit of cabin fever so Grandpa Ireland had a great idea to go to the zoo! It was a great day for all of us.

The Birds



They really liked Lucas. It started with 1, then 2, then 3, and they kept coming!

Ben is a bird whisperer.

The American Wildlife exhibit

Cute couple

Cheetahs

The Penguins



We finished the day at a cute little cafe with a great view of the elephants.

Refugee or not, it was a great day.

Ben wanted me to add that the scruff on his face is an evacuee beard.

Don't Like Ike

First of all, thank you everyone for your prayers and support. My little family is safe. We are staying with Ben's parents in Tyler, Texas because our community is unlivable right now. There is no electricity, gas, or food. We left our house Saturday evening as the storm started to let up a little bit. During our 200 mile drive we didn't see power or gas until about 150 miles into it. If we didn't know what we left behind I'd say we're even enjoying ourselves, but the images are constantly in my mind and I know what I am going home to. We have a lot of work to do.

The top picture in this set is the first view I had when I went to my back window. It was foggy so I was like, "Is the pool equipment on the power lines?" I slid open the window and my jaw dropped, "Ben, our tree is down! We lost a tree!" It was crazy. Notice all the pictures of the bird house? That is because I am flabbergasted by the fact that this tree had about a foot width of space between the garage and the bird house and it fell right between them! It landed on the power lines and my neighbors garage, therefore leaving very little damage to my fence. What a place for it to fall! Just try to tell me we weren't blessed. However, once we saw this we knew it was going to be a long time before our house had power again and we decided it was time to leave.
This is the street after the storm had been gone a couple hours. If you look at the lawn you can see the line of debris that shows how much higher it was.

These three pictures show the foot path to my front door and the tree that goes over it. The big black branch is the top half of the tree that has broken in half and is now dangling ready to fall on anybody who comes to my house.


My driveway. Ben had to saw our way out. I didn't even recognize half the tree branches (limbs) blocking our path.

This was a little freaky. When Ben was clearing the driveway he was like, "Uh Trish, come look at this. Our neighbors trees are leaning against their house." When they fall, guess who's house will break their fall? Yep, that'd be mine. I hope the fall as gracefully as my backyard tree.

This is the view down my street. I kept seeing cars turn around on my street and when I saw this I figured out why. I wish I had my camera in hand when we drove out of our neighborhood. It was worse then we could have imagined. Trees were down everywhere. They were on houses, cars, and blocking streets. The traffic lights were swinging a foot above the ground like pendulums. Restaurant signs were blown to smithereens. It felt like an end of the world movie. . .

. . .but don't worry about Lucas. He was having a heck of a time!

Last but not least, if you want to see more of the same stuff here is some footage I took on my camera. If my neigborhood is this bad, you can't begin to imagine how bad it was for the people in Galveston. I'm out of work until Thursday but I'm effected forever. There is nothing like a natural disaster to help you get your priorites straight. I LOVE YOU ALL SO MUCH!!!!