Keepin' it cool

After lots of research, we bought a new refrigerator to replace our other one. We tried just about everything we(and everyone else) could think of, but the freezer still stinks! Luckily the fridge is ok, so we're using it as a garage fridge:) Here's our new one!!!

It has a smooth surface and lots of room on the inside!

It's absolutely perfect! We love the ice and water dispensor! It has a child lock for when Coopie figures out how to work it;) MoM has seen videos of dogs learning how to work them. Since our dog seems to have a knack for figuring out how to do (and doing) the weirdest/craziest things in the world, it's a feature that we're thankful for!!


Things to fix from Ike:

1. Cut up and get rid of fallen trees. Check!

2. Rake yard. Check!

3. Clean out refrigerator. Check!

4. Get rid of smell in refrigerator. Half check.

5. Buy new refrigerator. Check plus!! It's awesome AND all of our appliances now match:)

6. Get fence fixed.


Almost there...

Ike Pictures

This is what Ike did to our house/yard.

Front yard

Part of our back fence that was down.

The trees on our roof in the back yard.

"The Little Tree that Could"

This little tree supported the weigh of the big tree and kept it from crashing through our living room! Unfortuately, the Little Tree that Could was too damaged to save! We lost the largest and the smallest trees in our backyard. We're thankful that we still have two trees though! Most of our fence was still standing...or leaning actually. We still need to get it fixed, but everyone is very busy, so we're still waiting. We are so thankful and blessed that this is the only damage we had. Actually, I think the guys enjoyed chopping up the trees with chainsaws:)

My dog wears....

Socks!

What about yours?

His new nickname is Prancer because he prances like a racehorse. He just loves it;)

Aftermath of Ike

Our house made it through the storm! A sweet friend called me to tell me about the damage to our property. We had two trees on our house in the backyard, TONS of limbs and leaves on the ground in both the frond and back, and our back fence is down in two places. (Pictures will be posted soon.) We had no flooding, no major roof damage, and no broken windows! We didn't come back down here until last Wednesday because we didn't have power. We thought we had power on Wednesday, but it turned out that we didn't. So our awesome friends, Chris and Jerica, let us stay at their apartment with our crazy 65 pound lab!! THEN, Chris recruited a friend who got a gas chainsaw from his parents and the two of them helped D cut down the two trees in our backyard on Thursday!! We have some seriously great friends! We are INCREDIBLY blessed!!! They thought nothing of it as if we just borrowed a stamp or something. We knew they were awesome before now, but we were completely blown way by their generosity! (We love you Chris and Jer!!)
So D and I raked the leaves up and took the board off the windows this weekend. We're waiting for the insurance company to come check out our roof and fence. Meanwhile, Coop is really unhappy because his doggie door privileges are obviously revoked. Needless to say, they would be with or without the fence because the mosquitoes are horrible!! Several factors are playing into this: we don't think the city has been able to spray recently, plus there's just a ton of vegetation and such all over the place. I went to the mailbox, which is right across the street, and got 2 bug bites! So taking Coop out is pain! The bugs are bothering him too! Needless to say, he will be VERY glad when things get back to normal!
School has been cancelled now for two weeks. Teachers finally go back on Friday and then school resumes on Monday. It's been kind of nice to have a few weeks off, but we're wondering how this will impact our schedule. We have nine weeks tests that everyone in the district takes. Those are thrown off. Science Fair due dates have passed. Plus, we might end up going to school until the third week of June now!! Yuck! Hopefully the state can forgive some of these days!!! I'm not trying to complain...well I guess I am...I really do like my job, it's just overwhelming right now! And, as my loving hubby would point out, I'm a planner. I've gotten MUCH better about going with the flow since we've been married, but uncertainty just really unnerves me sometimes. Especially when 165+ kiddos and their parents are looking to me for answers about school deadlines and such. Actually, I've just been pretty overwhelmed with "starting over" in general. It's an adjustment...new grade level...new subject matter...new school. I know it'll all work out and I'll get used to it soon!
Slowly but surely our city is getting back to normal. A company came to pick up our tree limbs this week! That was exciting, but they didn't get the ones in the back. We're not worried because they didn't get take anyone's in the back. They said if it wasn't all taken the first time around, then just be patient and they'll pick the rest up soon. We are just so thankful that our house is ok!! Thanks to everyone who prayed for us and our house! We know that all of your prayers were answered! Our God is a great God!!! Please continue to pray for the community of Galveston and all those who have been affected by Ike.

Hurricane Ike

Right now as I type, the eye of Hurricane Ike is probably pounding our house. Derek, Cooper, and I are safe! We boarded up our house and left late Wednesday night. We arrived in Arlington around 4:30AM on Thursday. Derek drove the whole way and Cooper tried to sleep on my lap. We're thankful that we didn't get stuck in evacuation traffic! We feel helpless right now being so far away. The truth is that we couldn't do anything even if we were there. The only thing we can do is pray. (This is true all the time, but we like to think we're in control when we're not.) God is bigger than Ike. God will see us through this storm. I think the not knowing what's going to happen is the worst. The waiting and wondering. But God knows. God knows what will happen. We were praying that our house would be safe and spared. My mom-in-law reminded me that God will also see us through any damage that might happen to our house and belongings. I had been so focused on not getting damage, that I forgot how big our God is and how He cares for us at all times and in all ways. Our God is sovereign and reigns over all! We will continue to pray and wait, but wait in peace that God will carry us through the next few days and weeks after the hurricane.

"Even though my heart is torn, I will praise you in this storm!"

What we've been up to

Sorry for the lack of blogging! I was trying to get much better at it this summer....and then July hit! July was the month of travel! We went to Arlington twice. Once for July 4th and once for TWO weddings. We each went to our own friends' weddings. I went to Brent and Abby's wedding in Arlington and D went to Jordan and Ashley's wedding in McKinney. Even though he had farther to go, at least his buddies were all there. I have NEVER been to a wedding alone before. Let me tell ya...it was really weird! I had a great time though! Everyone looked beautiful/handsome that weekend and we got to hang out with the Gators+fam on Sunday, which was nice! The following Thursday we went to CA for D's cousin Keith's wedding. We had so much fun with the fam! They had the coolest wedding! It was in a renovated movie theater. It fit their personalities perfectly!! We of course go to see the cutest little nephew in the world AND we got to meet Dylan, who is the coolest almost 3 year old ever! He's very smart and such an all around great kid!! We found out that he's going to be a big brother in April too:) Lots of exciting things happening on the Cain side of the fam!

My little, baby sister got engaged (I still can't believe it!!) She's planning her dream wedding for sometime next fall. I got to help her pick out her dress and try on lots of bridesmaid dresses! Planning a wedding is MUCH less stressful on this side of it:) We're so excited for them and we can't wait for fall '09!

I started back to work in August with a week of GT training, then new to the district training, and then staff development. School started on August 25th. I teach 6 classes of Pre-AP Science. I was very nervous about teaching middle school, but I actually really love it! My kids are so sweet and well behaved! All of the kids are very respectful. They say "Yes Ma'am" and "No Ma'am" without being reminded. They're considerate of others. If they're corrected, they say "I'm sorry Ma'am. It won't happen again!" I was very concerned that it would be the complete opposite, since I've been teaching 10 year olds. The transition has been very smooth and I look forward to a great year!

I've been listening to "Give Me Your Eyes" by Brandon Heath a lot recently. I heard it a few times this summer and really liked it. I heard it on my way to school a lot the first week of school. I always pray for all of my kids throughout the year and especially before the year starts, before I even know them. The Lord is so amazing and always provides exactly what I need to reach them! The chorus of this song is:

Give me Your eyes for just one second
Give me Your eyes so I can see everything that I keep missing
Give me Your love for humanity
Give me Your arms for the broken hearted
The ones that are far beyond my reach
Give me Your heart for the ones forgotten
Give me Your eyes so I can see

Middle school is a time that kids are joining clubs, sports, and the arts for the first time. They're figuring out who they are and what they want to be. I know they come to me with so much baggage and so many needs. By the first week of the school year I knew about several kids whose parents are going through a divorce right now. Several kids had lost one of their parents within the last year...some even a few months previous. And those were the once I knew about it. Some kids switched from a school where most kids came from low SES families (and many of them come from low SES families) to our school. Our school had been a pretty small middle school until this year. Many teachers were complaining when 5 to 8 more desks were put in their rooms to accommodate the new students. If the teachers haven't heard of a kid they said "They must be a Westbrook kid." They say "Westbrook" as if it's the plague. All of these kids, along with the rest of my kids, are just 11 and 12 year olds trying to figure out how to deal with the changes going on in their lives. This song really spoke to my heart and I've been praying that God allows me to see my students as the kids they are first before I see them as my students. I sent home a parent sheet where they told me about their kid's study habits and personality. It was really great to hear those things from the parents' perspective before I really knew the kids. Many parents opened up and told me a lot more about their kid than I had gotten the past 2 years I've sent this home. God is so good! So this year is really starting out well and I know that things will continue to be really great!

Never a dull moment...

We do a pretty good job of filling our weekends with sometimes more events than we can handle. I think that describes most people though. Every once in awhile our plans have to change because of our little black bundle of joy. He keeps us guessing, that's for sure. I hope you don't think that our Cooper is a constant pain! He really is a joy to be around most of the time. He's very obedient and mellow. Those aren't the "exciting" things he does, so I don't blog about them. So here's the latest "Cooper Story"



Last Saturday, we were going to meet my parents and sister in College Station. Derek and my dad were going to the game and my mom, sis, and I were going to come back here and do some shopping/girly stuff. So we were straightening the house and getting ready to leave. Cooper was hanging out in the living room with Derek. All of the sudden I heard this huge crash and Derek yelling, "I can't believe that just happened!!" over and over. So I ran in the room to find Cooper outside in the flowerbed on the other side of a broken window!!!!! (Note: I meant to take a picture, but I didn't get the chance. So just picture a 33in by 28in broken window. Thanks!) When we came out of shock, Derek told me what happened. Cooper had seen a squirrel and barked once. D told him to "leave it," which means to ignore/drop whatever has his attention. Well Cooper didn't "leave it" and the next thing D knew, he was sprinting (which is hard for him on our floors) across the room. Derek had pulled back the blinds to dust and I guess Cooper thought the window wasn't there anymore. He jumped right through it after that squirrel. The "best" part was just before he landed, he realized what happened. He turned back and looked at D as if to say, "What just happened?!?" He gave up on the squirrel and came running inside (through the doggie door, mind you.) This was Labor Day weekend so we were sure that no one could come out and fix our window and we'd have to be hot with guests all weekend. Luckily, we found someone!!! He came out and had the window fixed in two hours...right before D HAD to leave to meet my fam.



I thought Cooper managed to jump threw a window with not a scratch, but that's not quite true. A few hours later he was licking his paws and I found cuts on each of his front paws. They are healing slowly, but I'm still watching them. Luckily my mom and sis are both nurses and then knew just what to do to help him. This dog has had more leg wraps in his year and a half of life than most dogs ever get! He's a rough, tough, cream puff though;) He never cries or whimpers!



I have a theory about why we have so many crazy Coop stories. We've pretty much confirmed that he's part Lab, part Dalmatian. Labs are known to be very smart and Dalmatians are not so much. Most of the time the Lab is dominant and he's pretty smart, but every once in awhile the Dalmatian takes over and he just can't help himself! I feel bad for him because he quickly realizes his mistakes and feels badly.



Needless to say, Cooper is truly preparing us for parenthood! (Although I hope our kids don't do the same crazy things!)



I was watching the pictures go by on my computer earlier and I saw this one:

It's his first time in the pool. He was sooooo scared! You can see how much he loves the water now in his little swimming video below.


What a difference a year makes!!