Playtime at the Thompson's

Lots has been going on lately. It seemed to be hard to get back into the swing of things after the hurricane blew through. There are still trees down, fences down, and debris all over the place. I still can't believe how lucky we were.

Wade has been going to school two days a week for 2 weeks strait now. His first 2 weeks (before Ike) was really tough on him and must have been tough on his teacher because she asked me to bring his lovey to school to help him adjust. I any of you know Clay, he is the guy who said "I don't want my son dragging around a blanket !" Well our son is the kid dragging around a blanket on the playground at school, hahaha. I think it is so funny. According to the teacher it is really helping him.

I thought I would share a few photos of our new addition to our "playroom". Wade's first day of school, I went shopping at Big Lots. Sounds kid of crazy that I picked Big Lots to shop at but I thought I am kid free and I have never been there so I randomly dropped in. I found a small slide there for $30. I couldn't believe it. Thirty bucks??? I have shoes that cost more than that. Why not? I could give the thing away if he didn't like it, and only be out $30. I think it is a little big for Wade right now but my niece, Avery, has been here for the last week and a half and she is having a blast on it.

Our First Hurricane

These last few months we have been through a lot of firsts. Wade's first birthday, his first day of school, our first family vacation, and our first hurricane. I am writing this from my parents house due to Mr. Hurricane Ike. I am pretty sure we have power there now, but from what I hear, it is not too fun to be there right now. So we will stay put for now. Let me give you a little summary of what we went through during our first hurricane....

The whole week everyone was watching Ike to see exactly where he was going to go. First Corpus, then Victoria, then Galveston. We were just in Galveston the weekend before. I feel so privileged that I got to see that city before it was wiped out. So Wednesday, we knew it was coming for us, so we started the hurricane preprations. We made a list of everything we needed and Wade and I headed to the grocery store on Thursday morning (after our storytime playgroup at the library of coarse). As I suspected, the place was nuts. People everywhere with this worried look on their faces. I calmly walked up and down the isles and got what we needed. I did feel the panic for a minute at the Pop-Tart isle and felt the need to buy some just because everyone else was. haha. So as Clay fixed up everything outside (mowing the lawn and putting away potential projectiles), I fixed up the house (fill the tubs with water, fill tons of containers with water, set up the Pack n Play in the closet, oh and do the laundry). Friday morning, we are ready for this storm to get here (aside from the windows, I talked Clay out of trying to board them up and he stressed about that all day). We had lunch at Willies Ice house, with tons of other people partying it up before the storm. So Friday night came, we gave Wade a bath and put him to bed and watched the radar. The wind started blowing around 10:30 or 11:00. About 11:30 I started getting scared so I went to get Wade and put him in the Pack n Play set up in our closet. This was supposed to be an easy transfer, but of coarse it did not turn out like that. He woke up and wanted to play. I didn't mind too much because it kind of took my mind off of the loud wind outside our house. So finially about 12:30 or so I put Wade in the Pack n Play and got back in the bed so he would fall asleep. The boy will not go to sleep if he sees you in the room. I sorta fell asleep until 3:00 a.m. when we offically lost power. Then I could really hear that wind howling and blowing stuff all over the place. I said, I can't do this and ran to the closet. Wade and I stayed in that closet all night. I had a little battery powered tv in there with me so I could check on the radar periodically and see where we were in relation to the storm. The wind was so loud, the house would creak and it felt like it even moved a little. I was so scared, I tried my best to just close my eyes and try to sleep. Clay was sound asleep in the bed, dang men, they can sleep through anything. Then around 7:00 a.m. people stared calling to see if we were ok. I sat up and said, "I think so". Then I ventured out of the closet to check on things. The wind was still going crazy outside, but now I could see it since the sun was up. There were leaves and little tree branches all over our yard. I ran to wake Clay up. It felt like Christmas morning when I used to run to go wake Stephanie up, "come on lets go see what Santa brought us". Only this time it wasn't Santa, it was Ike.
Our house really didn't get any damage. We were very lucky. It is hard to believe because there was so much damage around us. We fired up the generator and plugged in our refrigerator and a couple of fans. It really wasn't too bad in the house with those fans on us. Around 3:00 p.m. though we decided that this blows and we should just pack up and head to my parents house. As we were packing the car, one of the neighbors came over and started making small talk and then said, "So I hear you have a generator.....I don't know what we are going to do with our freezer, we have so much meat in there". I didn't want to offer it up without Clay's consent so I just kind of said, I know. Then Clay came outside and offered it up to them. I was glad to let them borrow it. They have 5 kids, one of which was just born August 15th.
As we were leaving town, we got to see some of the damage on Barker Cypress. WOW! Power lines down in people's back yard. Some of the poles that were down poked holes in people's roofs. Traffic lights dangleing in the middle of the street where you had to drive around them. It was eerie to think, we just went through a hurricane. A hurricane with winds up to 100 mph. That just freaks me out. And that Galveston is pretty much gone. We were just there. I am still in shock a little bit. I am sure it will be in shock again once I go home.

I know this post is forever long (sorry), but it is the whole story and one day I will look back on this post, read it and still be in shock that we were in hurricane Ike.

Thanks be to God for taking care of our family and our friends. Please be with all the others who lost everything.

First Family Vacation.

This weekend we got to take our first "family" vacation..... on SBM Atlanita's dime ;). Clay's company has been taking all the employees on a "Company Weekend" for 14 years now. We have gone to the last 4. They pick a resort within driving distance and book rooms for all the employees for 2 nights. Then they give us $100 to spend while we are there. This year we went to Moody Gardens in Galveston where they even gave us two tickets to all the attractions there.

We had a really good time while we were there. We checked in, set up our room (i.e. Wade's stuff), and headed to the pool. On Saturday we decided to do all the pyramids there. We hit the rain forest first, then went to the Titanic exhibit. Wade did not do well there. We couldn't take the stroller so one of us had to hold him, and he was ready for a snack so we did not get to "see" the whole exhibit. Back in the stroller he went and we headed to the aquarium pyramid. They also have an IMAX theater there, but with a one year old...yeah right. So we headed back to the hotel for a nap then back to the pool. On Saturday night there is always a dinner, dance, and casino night with these company weekends. They provide us with babysitting, which I have been stressing over for the past month.... Leaving my baby with a TOTAL stranger? How am I going to do this? I called earlier in the week to hear about where they get these babysitters. That eased my mind and Clay and I walked into the 0 to 2 year old room to sign Wade up before heading to the party. We handed him over to the total strangers that I was worried about and they just took him away to get us out of his sight as soon as possible. He didn't cry but I did! I found the first waiter handing out white wine at the "cocktail hour" party and downed it like I was in college. After a couple of those, my worries were gone.

We had a nice dinner, talked with some friends, and danced to a few songs on the dance floor. Then it was time to go pick Wade up. As soon as he saw us he started crying like crazy. Why do kids do this? Do they see you and remember..."Oh yeah you left me and I am mad at you." That just breaks my heart. It really broke Clay's heart. So we took him back to the ballroom to show him off a little. I took him to the dance floor for a song or two. It was fun. We had a great time and Wade was so exhausted, he fell asleep as soon as we put him in the pack n play.

The next morning we had a great breakfast, provided by SMB Atlantia (yay) and headed back home. It was tons of fun and will probably go back to Moody Gardens one day. Here are a few pictures from the vacation. Also a video of Clay teaching Wade how to dance in our hotel room. We were dieing laughing.

First Day of School.

Today was Wade's first day of school. I was so excited for him. I got everything ready last night. I made a list of everything I needed to put in his bag and his lunch box. I put labels on everything. I even had iron on labels made for his clothes. ha! I couldn't go to sleep last night. I was up until midnight writing thank you notes. Then when I got in bed I tossed and turned and dreamed about making Wade's lunch. So this morning I got all dressed and ready before Wade woke up (I am so lucky that my little man sleeps until at least 8:00 a.m. every morning). I made his lunch, packed his bag and made him breakfast. When he woke up I told him that today was the first day of school. He smiled so big. I think he could pick up on my excitement because he actually seemed excited too. We got to school about 20 minutes early. We sat in the car for a little bit then waited in the hall with the other moms and kids. I packed his cubby and saw the other moms handing off their kids to the teacher. I sat in the back for a minute or two then said here we go. As I picked Wade up off the floor to give him a kiss and say goodbye, I could feel my chin start to quiver and my eyes fill up with tears. It took everything I had not to just sob right there. So I handed him off to his teacher and walked away with tears in my eyes. Luckily I ran into a friend near the door who had just dropped off her 2 and a half year old daughter. She was not crying but said her little girl did. So we talked for a minute (I stopped crying) and I got in my car and drove away. I went strait to Dr. Carey's office where the girls there are pretty much my family down here in Houston, so it was good to see them. I also had to pick up some teeth whitener. I had Dr. Carey check out one of my teeth because I had lost a sealant and it had been making me paranoid. So my first day off, I was in the dentist's chair getting a tooth worked on, haha. (no shots though, yay!) I did get a pedicure afterwards which was very nice. Here are a couple of pictures from today. One of him at home all ready for school and the other in front of his cubby at school, right before I handed him over. Lets hope next time will go as well if not better.