Yikes...IKE!

I wanted to send along an update on how Greg is doing in the aftermath of Hurricane Ike. Last Thursday, he headed back to Houson three days early to prepare the business for the storm. At the office, he was able to deal with issues first hand, shut systems down, back up data and retrieve important paperwork well ahead of the storm. Unfortunately, he had to spend his birthday away with a dude named Ike (poor baby!)

He stayed in the condo 18 floors up, with hurricane supplies and a video camera, ready for the big storm. According to Greg, it was quite horrible. The wind blew so hard that it seemed that the building was breathing with each gust. Water came in under the huge sliding doors in the living room and he spent two hours sopping it up as the wind continued to blast the rain directly at the doors. He felt like the glass would explode at any moment and he spent most of the night in the closet with no power.

In the morning, he was able to see surrounding streets of the Galleria were under water and wind damage was visible everywhere. By Sunday, his power was restored and on Monday, he went to the office to check on power and water. He arrived to discover that the roof of the building was half torn off and many of the surrounding office areas had severe water damage. In fact, the business next door had over two inches of water in their space. No doubt, there was some heavenly sandbagging going on, because the water quite literally stopped at the doors of ROI Staffing. Greg is hoping to have power restored by the end of the week, so folks can get back to work. Quite amazingly, some of the contractors were back in the saddle as early as the day after the storm. You just can't keep those programmers from pounding out code!

Our friend Melissa who lived next door to us in Cypress sent some photos of the damage on our old street. Most of the problems were due to those darned pine trees...

Our old house...

On our old street...

Many many thanks to friends and family who covered us in prayer. The more Greg has seen over the days following the storm, the more we realize how blessed we are. Compared to so many who still have no power, water and major cleanup ahead, we were relatively unscathed. We continue to keep all of our friends in the Houston area in our thoughts and prayers...can't wait to hear from you ~ hope all is well!

IT'S A GIRL!!!

I should have known when all I have wanted to wear lately is pink and the only names I can think of for our new little one are of the girlie variety. Greg was unscientifically 100% certain that it was a girl. Well, now we can say that our intuition was correct...After the ultrasound, we giddily went back into the jam packed OB waiting room to lovingly gaze at the black and white blur our baby girl's snapshots. I squinted in wonder at how they really know what they are looking at and how sure they really can be on gender. Greg said, "It's easy to see...the baby is on its side with both legs staight out and there are no nuggets in between!" I looked up to see ten pairs of eyes looking at us (trying not to laugh.) Just in case, Greg got the ultrasound tech to agree to re-paint the baby's room if she was not accurate in her gender determination. Here's a sweet little profile of BW2 ~ she looks so cozy and I'm sure she's smiling!
We are officially at our half-way point in the pregnancy...20 weeks and counting. My baby bump is well defined and it's kind of nice to finally look pregnant. Until now, I've just looked like I really love beer.

A Guy Weekend

Recently Brian asked, "Why do the girls always get to have all of the fun?" Good question...so Greg set up a fun fulled guy weekend with his brother. They went fishing, golfing and had a good time visiting with the whole family. Cheryl and her boys even came in for the weekend and stayed with us. While the boys went golfing, we took the kids to the Children's Hands On Museum. Very cool. Carson still asks for his cousins every day.



Click the link below to see a photoshow of our fun weekend:

http://www.photoshow.com/watch/pi6Ny9Mm

Swimming update

Carson has been working so hard in swimming classes and is making alot of progress. He can swim across the short length of the pool with one breath, slides down the big slide by himself and can dive to the botton of the shallow end and grab dive sticks. You can see from these pics how happy he is in the water...




We think he has been inspired by Michael Phelps along with his cute swim instructor, Natalie and his new swim buddy, Bella.






Click below to see a video clip of the little man in action...

Daddy's Home!

What a fun week we had with Daddy at home for 10 whole days! We're trying out a new schedule where Greg is in Houston for 12 days then home for 10...it sure was nice having him here for a long stretch. Here's a picture of Carson waking up to find his Daddy at home.

Daddy got to take Carson to school, play at the park, take bike rides, visit with all of the grandparents and of course, he was very impressed with Carson's new swimming skills. We went to Largo Park on Sunday. Not only is it one of our favorite playgrounds, but once a month, they offer miniature train rides that wind through the beautifully landscaped park. I don't know what it is about kids and trains, but they sure do dig them! Click the play button to see the train in action...

Playing soccer in the park...

A fun weekend

Carson and I had a treat this past weekend...a house full of company! Gayle and Joy's neice Vallie came for a visit to Florida from Odessa, Texas with her husband and two boys. Andrea and Elise also joined us in showing our Texas friends some good Florida fun. We enjoyed Vallie's awesome culinary skills, had a day at the beach, swam in the pool and enjoyed some good food at Molly Goodhead's Seafood restaurant. Click on the photoshow below to see more...

http://www.photoshow.com/watch/CY3RA9Pc

Our little swimmer

We have been playing with Carson in our own pool all summer and he was starting to get really confident with himself in the water ~ I have to give Greg all the credit for helping him learn to hold his breath under water, choo-choo along the edge and jump in off the wall. We decided it was time to make sure he was really safe in the pool with swimming lessons. We found a private instructor who had real success with our neighbor's twins. He began with 30 minute lessons every day and despite his love of the water, was extremely reluctant to be passed into the hands of strangers while Mommy waits in hiding (parents in view are too distracting.) He now looks forward to his time in training even if it is only for the big treat bin of sweets he gets to dive into after his lesson..."pops" (lolipops) are his fave. He has also taken a shine to his instructor's daughter Natalie who has worked with him several times. After only five lessons, Carson is actually swimming! Amazing how fast they were able to get him to hold his breath, put his face into the water and kick his way through the water several feet to the steps! They also managed to help him float on his back without freaking out and melting down in tears (something we have been working on for a year now.) Way to go Carson!

Rays vs. Cubs

It was certainly going to an epic series...Tampa Bay Rays vs. Chicago Cubs baseball ~ never before have these teams played each other. The majority of the Sadock family being long-time Cubs fans, it was a tough call, but the home town Rays won our favor. In the first two of the three-game series, the Rays defeated the first place Cubbies and we were ready to witness a sweep! We had great seats on the center field camera deck with our brother Keevan (the video camera man.) Leslie, Vic, Becky and I had such a great time in a ball park filled with electric energy, great nachos, our television debut and a big win from our team!

Click the link below to check out the fun and in case you missed us on TV, catch it here:

http://www.photoshow.com/watch/uM8Ys7MB

Off the grid for a while!

Hi! Remember us? Wow, it has been a while since we have blogged. I have had a pretty full plate the last few months (all good) and have just not kept up with getting the highlights posted! Literally just about every week has been stacked with out of town visitors, family gatherings and celebrations, or major home renovations. Of course, being the camera happy person that I am, I have lots of memories, pics and photoshows to share, so my goal is to post a recent event every day or so until I'm all caught up.

I think I'll start with today...quite a big day for our little man Carson. Today was his first day of school!!! I didn't sleep much last night, I was so anxious and nervous for this momentous occasion. I fought back the tears on the drive to Ascension Day School. We walked through the door to the two year old summer class and Carson headed straight for the sand box, then off to the trucks, then the train table. He completely avoided the little boy in the corner playing dress up in a Princess gown. Mommy...who's Mommy? I fought the urge to be a "helicopter mom" and left my big boy in very capable and compassionate hands for three whole hours. I may just try to enjoy this whole "me time" thing.

Spring Fever?

OK, this is one for the baby book...the other day, Carson and I ran into the pool supply store to pick up a couple of things. They didn't have a shopping cart to keep him contained, so I kept a close eye on him. As I was paying for our things, he was right on my heels. Good boy! The cashier diverted my attention for a few moments by asking alot of questions for their database and in an instant, Carson was not in sight. I could see the entire store from the checkout area and didn't spot him right away. That was because very quietly, Carson had climbed up three steps into the store's display hot tub and was bobbing up and down, fully clothed up to his chin with a huge mischievous grin on his face! I couldn't believe it. As we squished our way to the car for a change of clothes, I was thankful that he wasn't hurt. It was definitely one of those "it's hard to be mad" moments that I giggled about for the next several days. I figured that Carson must have had a touch of "spring fever" so we took a ride over to Grandpa Larry and Nana Marsha's house to enjoy a beautiful day and a dip in the pool. Lot's of fun...click below to see the photoshow:

http://www.photoshow.com/watch/cD8hd6Gc