Things That Go Boom in the Night

Last night at about 10pm one of Transocean's rigs in the Gulf of Mexico had an explosion. Right now, 24 1/2 hours later, the rig is still burning and eleven are missing.


When I first found out about this at 6am this morning I immediately felt the same way I did when the Cougar helicopter went down in Canada a little over a year ago. Jeramy is home today, not out on the rig like he was when the helicopter went down. But the feeling in your stomach is the same. It's horrible, just really horrible. We are hoping and praying that the eleven missing are found alive afloat in an evacuation capsule. Yet as each minute goes by, our hope and optimism can't help but begin to slip.


It's days like this that make me take a moment...or many moments...and think about our home, our family..our life. My husband has a dangerous job. He spends three out of every six weeks in a very dangerous environment. He does it for us, me and the girls, so that we can have a home and a life filled with all that we desire and so very much more. When Jeramy is home we strive to make each moment count. We love each other and the girls fiercely and are so very proud of our daddy when he leaves to go back to work every six weeks.


My heart aches for the families of those still missing and those that were injured. Jeramy's boss while we were in Canada is one of the injured. He has a family. They all have families and I/we/all Transocean employees are with them in thought and prayer hoping for the very best.

Thank you so very much to our daddy and to all the oilfield men out there, including my dad, grandfathers, uncles and many other relatives, that do a job that is highly unappreciated, highly needed and filled with danger.

I love you Jeramy and are happy every day to be walking this road with you, hand in hand.

Spring Break 2010

Okay, Spring Break. So what if it was a month ago, here is how it went down for us. We decided to head on over to San Antonio to hang out by the hotel pool, ride some roller coasters and see beautiful sea creatures being held captive in clean tanks free of any predators. It was a really great time!

Lots of work went into preparing for our trip. Getting four people ready for a three night trip takes some thought. Good thing I only had to worry about three people. What I packed:

What Daddy packed:

Don't feel sorry for me, he's not allowed to pack anything other than his own bag. His job is to drive and my job is to pack and read a book all the way there.

We stayed at the Hilton Hill Country Resort, which I love and will now take a moment to plug. It's right across the street from Sea World and has a free shuttle to the park. Hotel activities for the kids include nail painting, face painting, hair braiding, jewelry making, coloring, a nightly movie outside and smores cooked over the open fire pits by the pool. And there are three pools one of which is a kiddie pool only a foot deep....and a jungle gym...and a basketball goal and half court. It's a great place for families with small children and I highly recommend!

An hour after we arrived we were all in the pool. Ryleigh in her floaties and Avery with her circle tube. Both were all over the pool except for when Avery decided to get out and jump back into the pool with the tube around her waist....with "No Mama Help"...get back you crazy woman, I am 2 1/2 and am fully capable of jumping into a 4 ft. pool by myself. Of course you are baby, jump away. ...only it didn't go like that because I didn't want her to smack her head or slip through the tube and sink to the bottom of the pool. Silly Baby.

The first full day we were there the weather was pretty yucky. We spent the morning just hanging around the hotel letting the rain pass. By the afternoon the sky had cleared so we ventured on over to Sea World. With the bad weather, not too many people were there which was great for us! We caught a few shows and Ryleigh and Daddy rode the Shamu roller coaster.

The next day the weather was really great and half of Texas decided to go to Sea World! Here are the girls and I at the Shamu show. The trainers weren't allowed to get in the water but it was still a great show and the girls really enjoyed it.

And here are the giant scary penguins that Avery wouldn't have anything to do with.

I think family vacations are sooo important. And they don't have to cost a lot of money, it's just all about spending time together away from the stresses of everyday life. Our family trips center us and I treasure each and every one.

Sea World....maybe later

We just got back from a really awesome little family get-a-way to San Antonio! When Ryleigh was two we took her to Sea World for the very first time and so to start off this blog post I thought I would post what I blogged from that trip on our old blog. Apparently I did not blog about that trip, but the synopsis is that Ryleigh threw up in the hotel lobby after the day at Sea World because we were new (dumb) parents that didn't understand the limits of a two year old in August at an outdoor adventure park. I did however come across this blog post and thought it was worth reposting since we are in the midst of potty training Avery. Once I get the Sea World pics up I'll let you know more about that trip.

Monday, October 30, 2006
Okay, I knew that it had a been a while, but two months! Bad Mommy, Bad, Bad Mommy. This deserves a good poop story...

This happened at least a month ago, I think probably longer. One Saturday we invited my boss and her boyfriend over to the house for a little cook-out. I was crazy busy trying to clean the house when Ryleigh decided she didn't want to wear her diaper. I consented to the white-trash potty training techniqe and let her run around diaperless. When I was about done cleaning, and while Jeramy was at the store, I decided to get her dressed, diaper and all. I took her upstairs and commenced laying her down and putting her diaper on...wait a minute...what is this??? It's poo-poo...on your hiny!! I cleaned her up and finished getting her dressed and then went through the whole house with her looking for the remaining "pieces". There were none to be found and Ryleigh was of no help.
Did you poo-poo? Yes.
On the floor? Yes.
Where? Huh?
Where? Huh?
I finally gave up finding and it and went on cleaning up the kitchen. In walks Jeramy. "Daddy, come play kitchen with me." "Sure Ryleigh, that would be oh-so-much-fun." (Silence while Daddy and Ryleigh play and Mommy cooks)

Daddy: What the....WHAT IS THIS?
Mommy: You found it!!!
Ryleigh: I poo-poo in my pan.

Yes folks, Ryleigh poo-pooed on the floor and then scooped it up with her spatula and put it in her pan. (best we could tell) Thank God we found it before she played kitchen with my boss!!

Boys vs. Girls

Ryleigh got invited to a boy's birthday party this weekend. It's a boy from her class. I RSVP'd and said that we would be coming. The mother replied back and thanked me for my RSVP then went on to say that Ryleigh is the only girl that her son had invited to her party. When the mother asked why only Ryleigh he replied with "she is way more fun than the other girls".

Hmmmmmm.

Really.

Define fun.

Clearly this is a behavior that we should nip in the bud. This act of funness. It shall not be tolerated.

All joking aside, I thought this was really sweet and cute. And very interesting. Ryleigh has always tended to gravitate toward the boys. From 18 months until she was 4 her very best friend was Adam. Adam whom she competed with every second she was around him but who she was so sad to leave behind when we moved to Canada. Then there was Kyle, her true love, her prince. Kyle's picture hangs on the mirror in her bathroom and often accompanies her when we go out. There are many that have never met Kyle that know a lot about him.

This year in school is really the first time I have seen Ryleigh become overly concerned with her girl friends. She has tried to wear bows like them, wear pink like them, talk about Hanna Montanna like them and even got her first yellow mark at school over an argument about ICarly...she is not even allowed to watch ICarly!

Ryleigh is definitely all girl, all princess and totally concerned about her hair. But it's nice to know that her knack for forming boy friendships is not completely lost to the preschool years.

Donation! Donation!

Ryleigh will be participating in Jump Rope for Heart next week. If you would like to help her reach her goal of $100 please visit her website below. Yeah, the kids have their own fundraising websites now. It's officially a crazy world.

Thank you in advance for your support.

Ryleigh's Jump Rope for Heart Page

The Olympics

Did you see the opening ceremony? I let the girls stay up an hour later than normal so they could see as much as they could. My favorite part was where Ryleigh went and got her globe and made me point out where each country was as they marched into the arena. My second favorite part is where they paid tribute to Newfoundland! If you missed that part, they did a pretty cool fiddle and tap dancing performance that the creator said was inspired by his trip to St. John's. Honestly the only time I think I ever saw someone tap dancing was when we passed a bum on Water Street (downtown). The fiddle however is a really big part of the Newfoundland traditional folk music which is influenced by their large Irish population. Every Sunday they would play only traditional folk music on the radio and I always looked forward to getting my weekly dose of fiddle playing and singing about fishin' and drinkin'. See, not that big of a difference between Texas and Newfoundland.

So the Olympics are in full swing and now I'm just looking forward to seeing Stephen Colbert make speed skating worth watching.

You're a great and brave Americna Stephen Colbert...I salute you.

What Three Weeks?

Um, wow, that was three weeks? Really?? It just went by so darn fast!

Jeramy left yesterday for another three weeks out on the rig. The big reason that these last three weeks went by so fast was the 30 hours of CASA training that I went through. And now, 5 full days of class later, I am certified to be a Court Appointed Special Advocate. In a nutshell, what I'll be doing is this.

When a child is removed from their home by CPS for abuse and/or neglect they are placed in a foster home with up to 7 other foster children. A CPS caseworker is assigned to them and they are one of 40 or so cases for that caseworker. The child is provided with an attorney and they are one of 50 or so cases for that lawyer. Their case will go before a judge every few months and they are one of hundreds of children that judge sees. If I am assigned to that child they will be my only case. Fort Bend County is one of the very few counties that are able to provide a CASA for each and every child that have been removed from their home. I will monitor the child's situation and write a report for court one a month so that all involved will have a personal account of what's going on with that child. I am required to meet face to face with the child at least once a month, more if possible. I will interview their caregiver, their parents, their lawyer, their teacher, their doctor, anyone that can give me information that will help me make suggestions concerning their placement and their needs.

I've wanted to do this for about four years now, but just haven't ever felt like I could give it all that I wanted and needed to. I've wanted to do this because it is needed and because I feel so blessed for this life that I have. I'm lucky as hell, I know that. I'm lucky that I hve such a strong mom and such a great step-dad and that I got steered in the right direction. My support system growing up was endless and I think that's what gets me the most. If my parents gave up on me there would have been a line a mile long of suitable people that loved me and would have taken me in and given me all they had. These kids I'll work with, most of them don't have a single person. Not a single person that wants to care for them and can care for them. My hope is that I can provide a ray of hope and a set of eyes and ears to watch over a child that so many others have abandoned. My hope is that I can give back.

So now I wait for my first case. I have requested a pre-teen/teenager. And that's pretty much all I can say about that. Once I get a case, I'm not allowed to talk about it for obvious reasons.

To those that have encouraged me through the application and training process....Thank You!