Thursday, September 18, 2008

A typical evening at our house goes something like this

You are going to be so jealous when you see these videos. You are going to want to get on a plane right now and come see these babies. They are SO much fun!! First video is just some honest fun...tickling. I should have kept the camera going because right when I stopped it, they both crawled/walked over to the "tickle mat" and laid on their back so they could both be tickled. It was pretty funny.

And the second one is just some more walking. This a great video showing what most of our days are like now. They just want to walk back and forth...sometimes with help. As you can tell, they love it and we are very willing participants in their shenanigans.

Lots more is going on right now outside of Anchorage. As many of you know, lots of my family and many of our friends reside in the Houston area. Houston kinda had a hurricane last weekend. What you may not have heard since that weekend is most of Houston is still without power and won't be for quite some time. There was extensive damage around Houston but my family and as far as we know, our friends all escaped with only minor damage (I could be wrong but that's how we understand it).

After almost a week, I finally talked to my brother and he explained what all was going on. It's insane to think it's like that right now in the nations 4th biggest city. No power. Grocery stores were closed but finally opening with very limited supplies. Gas is at a premium. What gas stations are open will have 30 to 60 cars waiting in line. Cell phone coverage is very limited...he said he had to drive to the freeway to get a signal. Just a really bad situation all the way around.

In addition, we've had a couple scares in the family. My cousin's wife went into labor and after a loooong delivery, finally gave birth last night to a healthy baby girl. She is a little early so she's having some difficulty breathing and sustaining her temperature so she'll be in the NICU for a while. We certainly know what that is like and will be praying for a fast discharge. Congrats Josh and Bethany! And by the way, those two pictures were taken by the new father after Ike came through in my Aunt and Uncles neigborhood.

And a tragic...my nephew (brothers oldest son) caught the tip of his middle finger in a door jam. My brother sewed it up himself and he said it took 45 minutes...it was pretty bad. I haven't seen pictures yet but it sounds awful. I know he's still in a lot of pain and worrying about his baseball future. Austin is certainly in our prayers too.

So we feel a little guilty having so much fun up here with our new walkers while everyone down there is going through some difficult times. Hang in there. These videos are dedicated to you to bring you some smiles.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Andy, Lisa, please know that with everything going on "family-wise" down south we certainly appreciate the videos. They give us all reasons to smile and laugh out loud. We all need that with all the worry that has gone into the last week. I'm thankful for a family of prayer warriors and feel so close to all of you because of that. We sit and wait by the phone for any news from Houston and all the 23 relatives we have in that area. We still have not heard from 9, but hope to soon!
A very special thanks to Dennis and Terry and their very loving offer for any of the family to come stay with them. I LOVE family and all that it stands for. Mom

Anonymous said...

Congrats on the walkers! How exciting! They could not be cuter. A tip from me (that won me money in Better Homes and Gardens years ago)....buy some "plumbers' foam" at the hardware store. It slips onto edges of tables and such to cushion a falling child, and it's great if you cut a small length to slip on the top of a door so it can't close all the way. Toddlers LOVE to open and shut doors 1,000 times, and that gets dangerous when 2 are going at once.

Ike came through Ohio last Sunday with 70+ MPH winds, and many are still without power around here (including grocery stores and gas stations). It was quite a mess. I can't imagine adding water to the mix and dealing with the damage down near Houston. Many prayers for your family in TX. I have family down that way and received word yesterday (FINALLY) that they are without power but safe.

Laurie in OH

josh said...

Hey Andy, thanks for mentioning us in your post. Just an update, if anyone wants one: Bella is healthy and at home! She only had to be in the NICU one night for monitoring, and ended up being able to regulate her body temperature and sustain her breathing. She just had a rough start with such a long labor. We came home Friday afternoon and have had a blast getting to know her and figuring out parenting. I have no idea how y'all have survived having two of these.

Houston is bouncing back somewhat from Ike. In our area, there are still a few stores and stoplights without power, but we're functioning Ok. I'm not sure what the over-dramatic news shows are saying these days, but the power companies are doing extremely well getting power back on across the city, usually ahead of schedule.