Charlotte

Some cute pictures of the Char-baby because these are much better pictures to have a the top of a blog.
I just love her eyes!!

The Biggest Loser

I've been debating posting this all day. On one hand, I'm really proud of what I have accomplished. On the other hand, I don't really like posting pictures of myself and I am really not fond of these first three pictures. But I have decided to be brave.

For the last 8 weeks I have been participating in an online Biggest Loser competition. I have lost over 10 pounds and over 3 inches from my stomach. Our final weigh-in was today. We won't have the final results until Monday.

Before:

After:

Two little monkeys...

I put Charlotte down for a nap today. She was awake when I put her into her crib, so I was pretty sure she wasn't going to fall asleep. Five minutes later she is still quiet, yay!!! It is so nice to be wrong sometimes. Addie heads off down the hall to go play - I should know not to let her do this. I hear screaming coming from Charlotte's room.

I knew Addie had woken Charlotte, but I wasn't prepared for what I was going to find. I walk into the room and BOTH girls are in the crib! Addie is jumping up and down just as fast as she can and Charlotte is screaming because she is being bounced into the rails.

I think I'm going to go out and get one of those child-proof doorknob things because Charlotte obviously is no longer safe in her crib.

6 month stats, a month later

Well, Charlotte had her 6 month checkup today. It was a month late because I wasn't on the ball about scheduling it. She is 14 pounds 8 ounces, which puts her in the 30th percentile. And she is... are you ready for this... 28 inches long, which puts her over the 99th percentile for height! The doctor said there may have been some wiggling going on, but she is still probably in the top 20%. I couldn't believe it, she just doesn't look that big to me.

In other news, a few days ago she pulled all the way to standing. We were giving Addie a bath and Charlotte crawled over to the tub, pulled herself up, and then proceeded to try to climb in the tub. I told you, she just wants to do everything her sister does.

Going on a Berry Hunt

We've been really busy these last couple weeks and I've fallen behind with the pictures. Over Memorial Day Weekend we went to a berry farm. We were originally going to pick blackberries, strawberries and blueberries, but it was blazing hot so we settled with just blackberries.

Ready, set, lets go!

Look, Mom! I found one!!

And she's off!!

Charlotte is officially crawling. Addie is not happy. She spends half of her day tackling Charlotte - giving her hugs and kisses. The other half of the day she spends trying to keep her books and toys away from her. Poor Charlotte just wants to do everything that her sister does, but now that she finally has mobility and can chase her sister around she just isn't fast enough.

Don't trust the gas light.

I avoid going to the gas station for two reasons. #1 - It hurts when the numbers keep going up and up and they don't stop before $40 anymore. #2 - We've started using Dave Ramsey's envelope system so we use cash for gas. With two little girls, it is too much of a pain to drag them both into the gas station to pay.

The needle dropped to 'E' on Friday, but the light didn't turn on, so I decided to wait until Saturday when Sean could fill the tank. Saturday came and we began our normal errands. Sean was driving. He mentioned that we needed gas. The girls weren't very happy to be in the car, so I wanted to keep the trip as short as possible. I asked him if the gas light was on. Nope? Okay, we'll be fine. He joked that maybe the gas light had finally burnt out, but this is our little Saturn and it seriously goes forever on empty before the light turns on. So we didn't fill up.

Later Saturday I was out by myself. On my way home I noticed again that we needed gas. Still no gas light. I decided to wait until I was closer to home because gas in our neighborhood is about 10 cents cheaper per gallon than the part of town I was in. The Saturn can go atleast 30 miles after the gas light comes on, so I knew I would be able to make it home.

So I'm driving home on the freeway, marveling in the fact that the gas light STILL isn't on. Man, I love this Saturn!




Then the engine cuts off...




It is amazing how fast your speed drops when you are not giving the car gas. Of course I am in the fast lane of the freeway and nobody wants to let me over. I turn on my emergency flashers and work my way over to the shoulder. Then my phone beeps. It is almost out of batteries. Great.

As I'm sitting by the side of the road watching cars zip by the only thing I can think of is the fact that my gas tank is on the drivers side, mere inches from these speeding cars. Houston drivers aren't the best, and I've seen numerous occasions when people have been killed while changing a tire because someone hits them going 70 mph.

As I'm waiting for help to arrive (and contemplating the gruesome death that they are surely about to face) I notice a tow truck pulling up in front of me. Great, some passing tow truck noticed me and is now going to try to drum up some business for himself, he's probably going to want to charge me $200 or some other ridiculous amount. It turns out Houston has a program called "Safe Tow", they have cameras monitoring nearly every section of freeway looking for cars that have broken down (you can also call 311 or 911). If they see you they send a truck and will take you to the nearest gas station free of charge. So I was towed off the freeway and nobody got squashed.

Moral of the story: Ignore the screaming kids and let your husband fill up the tank.

Goats

We went to the park this weekend. We saw a goat. It was a cute litte 7 week old baby goat. Addie was very interested in the goat, but she didn't want to get too close. We sat and watched as its owner led it around on a leash and people came up and asked questions. I was amazed at many people seemed to have never seen a goat before. Atleast 5 people came up to this man and asked, "Is that a goat? ... a real goat?" My favorite was a lady who came up to me and said, "Did you know that is a goat?! Not a goat mixed with a dog, a real goat. Strangest thing I've ever seen. And he's keeping it as a pet! Can you believe it?" I just can't believe that people are so amazed with a goat. I guess we're not in Nebraska anymore.