So, apparently ANOTHER hurricane is headed our way. Ok, the other one was a tropical storm, but the only difference is how strong the wind is, they are all bad storms. We were very thankful and quite surprised that Fay never hit us. That's right, I can see the mid bay bridge from my house and the storm never hit us. It went completely around us. If you watched the weather it looked like it was right on top of us, slamming us, but it never touched us. I think we got maybe an inch of rain the entire 4 days. It was crazy!

Unfortunately that means this one is probably going to slap us up side the head! (Don't you just love crazy sayings?) I was very smart and loaded the kids up to head to the base grocery store and get ready for my in-laws coming to visit this weekend and rushed through the crowded aisles trying to hurry before either child lost it. I get home, and bring the first bag of groceries in when the phone rings and it's Brandon telling me that we may have to evacuate b/c of the storm. You can imagine how thrilled my car loaded down with groceries was to hear that!

Then my dear friend Kara called to ask me if she would be stupid to go grocery store since we may have to evacuate and I told her not any dumber than I just was! I tell her I don't understand why we have to leave. Our house has obviously lasted through numerous hurricanes and survived. After all, it is made of concrete and steel and was built 40+ years ago. She reminds me that the bay is practically in my backyard and so I agree with her. But I just bought groceries!!!!

Oh, and did I tell you that my surprise was that I completely redid our bedroom for Brandon? I kept the furniture, but got new bedding, curtains/rods, paint, lamps, pillows, plants, everything and now a storm is threatening to possibly ruin it all! I DON'T THINK SO!!!!! As far as I am concerned, Mr. Gustav, you can just turn your pretty little self around and go back to where you came from. I may not have the hormones of a pregnant woman anymore, but I just fixed up my house for the first time in 5 years and you are not about to tear it down! So there. I guess I'll just see you guys up on Alabama this weekend for shelter.

If you are wondering why I haven't written anything lately or posted any new photos it's because I haven't had much to say about what's going on here. Not a whole lot has been happening. The most exciting thing that has happened recently is my parents did visit last weekend for their anniversary (thanks for that too! not many people would go away to visit people when they are celebrating themselves!), so that was a lot of fun. We played on the new trampoline (in case you haven't heard, we got a trampoline), made a trip to Lowe's, worked on a project, went out to dinner, went to church and then it was time for them to go home. It seemed like it was a really quick trip, but it was just what our family needed. So again, thanks for visiting! We live for company. We love having people over and enjoy each other more when we are hosting someone in our home. Don't get me wrong, we like each other, a lot, but we get bored doing the same old thing all the time.

Now about the lack of photos on here, Brandon's computer has been acting up and so he cleared everything off and restarted it and so I haven't been able to go through the ones we have on the camera. What about my computer you ask? Well, if I had 30 hours to do the job in, I would, but it takes too long. Even if I had the time I definitely don't have the patience.

Oh, here's something exciting! Brandon bought me Wii Fit, and just because he loves me that much! No holiday, birthday, anniversary, just because. It was one of the main reasons I wanted to get a Wii, so I was very excited! I can't go workout because I don't have anyone to watch the kids and it's too hot to get the mail, much less do anything active. I wasn't sure what to expect, but the first night I used it I was practically crawling to bed. Of course we had walked up to the splash pad on base and pushing a double stroller up a hill certainly had something to do with it, but still. We aren't very good at holding onto or keeping surprises from each other, so we tend to give them right away and then we don't have to bother with buying anything for holidays or birthdays or anniversaries come around. I know, I know, to most women that doesn't work, but we like to spread out the fun instead or bunching it all together.

I have a HUGE surprise for him that has been in the works for 2 weeks (probably why I got the Wii Fit) that he will get on Saturday when he gets home from being on call and I can't wait for him to see what it is. I just hope he likes it. (NO, we are NOT pregnant! And it's not a dog either.) I'll try to put photos on here so you can see for yourself. I just hope I can pull it off and I hope even more that he appreciates it as much as I want him to. Is that bad? It's too late now, so we'll just have to see. He is about IMPOSSIBLE to surprise and I've NEVER been able to pull it off in the 6 years we have known each other. NEVER! He either finds out or ruins it by buying it or doing it within days before I was going to surprise him with whatever it was, so this is huge for me. It's a big gift and probably a bigger deal than the gift itself. Ok, now I'm getting in over my head. He's probably going to hate it and it's going to seem stupid once it's revealed. Oh well. I'm going to bed.

Not much happened over the weekend. I take that back, I got a lot done, but nothing exciting. In honor of the Olympics starting Friday night I taught Christopher how to play volleyball. He always wants to hit things in the air so I figured we might as well get him focused on another sport. As soon as he can start playing anything we will have him signed up for sure! If the kid doesn't play sports I don't know what he'll do because he's too young to start working construction any time soon. On Saturday I finally got to organize the kid's closets, a task I have been wanting to do since we moved in over 2 months ago. Sophie is outgrowing clothes so fast that I haven't been able to keep up with the turnover. Plus, it's hard to clean out and clean up anything with a 2 year old who wants to take out and see how far he can throw anything he can get into. Nap time is the ideal time to get anything done, but when the work is in there room there is nothing you can do about it. You say, "Just put the kids in your room," well, that would work for anyone but my kids. It's too exciting to sleep in our room for Christopher and Sophie HAS to sleep in her bed for every nap. Saturday night we went and had dinner at our neighbor's house and the boys hadn't seen each other in over 3 weeks so they were thrilled to be together again. Sunday we went to church, which thankfully is a pleasant experience for us, and then came home to fix ribs Brandon had bought. The kids took very, very short naps and so we didn't get anything done while they were sleeping. Once they woke up I figured I might as well make another mess to get something in order and dumped out the 3 bins of toys that were in the den and let the kids play while I organized them. We are finally down to one box in the den, one in each kid's room and sent more stuff out to the storage shed. Thank you Air Force for putting 2 storage sheds in your homes!!!!

On a more interesting note, Sophie's teeth are finally cutting through and I'm guessing by next weekend they will have both broken completely through the gum line. We are also working on standing up. She will pull up while holding my fingers, but it hasn't crossed her mind yet to pull up on anything around her. I stand her next to the exersaucer and she got really excited until she fell down and then she spun around and started reaching up for what she was just holding onto. Problem was she couldn't figure out how to get there. In time, my dear. Most people don't want to rush their kids into crawling and walking, but I encourage it. When they start weighing over 20 pounds it's time to get around places on their own! She started to scoot forward a little this weekend too and gets frustrated that she isn't getting places fast enough, but she'll get there soon enough. So, it may not have been an exciting weekend, but it was a really good one!

Now that Sophie has passed the 6 month mark you can really tell a difference in her. She is babbling all the time, and not quietly. Sometimes we think she's crying and we'll go check on her and she's practically yelling at whatever toy she's trying to chew on at the moment. I had to help out in the nursery at church yesterday and ended up in her room, which I thought was funny. I was kind of curious to see how she did when left with others, so I didn't mind. She sat in her teacher's lap playing with her necklace before getting down on the floor. We thought she was going to be the only baby and then a little boy showed up. She got really excited and starting flapping her arms and scrunching her face making her sniffing noise. We set him down on the floor and she immediately started to go for him. Then a little while later another baby came and she got even more excited and started flapping and sniffing again. It was really cute. She's definitely going to be our social child. She could have cared less if I was there, but I didn't mind. I find comfort in knowing my child isn't screaming their head off when we leave them. (That's what Christopher was for. But yesterday he was dragging me into church b/c he couldn't wait to go, success!!)

Now, when we are at home she does not like to be put down on the floor, she wants to be up where everyone else is. (I think she gets bored with me b/c she's much happier when we leave the house to go somewhere.) Which is kind of a problem since she won't sit still and you aren't supposed to put babies on tables or counters. So, instead she is carried around most of the day on my hip. It only took 2 weeks for me to realize that was probably why my hips were hurting so bad at night and keeping me from sleeping. The last time they did that was when I was about 4 months pregnant and I know I'm not pregnant so that wasn't the answer. So I guess carrying over 20 pounds on your hip for several hours a day is a problem. Needless to say I can't wait for her to start crawling, which is another thing that she is trying to figure out right now. She spins around on her belly like a top and somehow gets to places without crawling so I'm sure that it's just a matter of time. This weekend she would briefly push herself up onto her toes and hands or try to pull her chubby little knees under her. I think it's just around the corner, let's hope!

She has been teething for a while, but they are finally starting to appear. A few days ago I felt the first tooth and when I checked today I saw the second one starting to peek out as well. Yeah!!!!! Maybe they will break through in the next few days and we'll finally start sleeping through the night again. Between my hips aching so much and getting up every 2-3 hours to put a pacifier back in her mouth, which she usually doesn't even care about, I wake up a little tired every morning. Nothing a nice cold Coke can't fix though. But surprisingly I'm really not that tired during the day. I think it's b/c the kids play together so well and she is changing all the time, life it pretty fun right now!