New growth

Spring had finally spring, even though it been about 75 degrees for the last month. My mom brought me some lilies from Iowa in the fall and I ran out of room so I threw this one on the corner of the house. They all died except this one and it bloomed yesterday.

Erin was so excited and said it was very pretty. I told her not to pick it or it would die and she said she understood. Five minutes later she walked into the house with it. Jared told her it made mom very sad and now no one could enjoy the pretty flower.

A while later we went into the back yard and Erin had carefully set the bloom back on the top of the stem and exclaimed "look mommie, I fixed it"! We were just cracking up, sometimes they make you so mad, but then they are too sweet.

Renshaw's Spring Break

Jared three youngest brothers and sister and his mom came down for a week over their spring break. We spent a day at Bolivar Beach playing in the sand. Erin had always been scared of the ocean, I think because of the vastness of the waves. But she finally decided it was fun to chase the tide in and out.
Devin and I constructed an sand alligator and Erin decided that she would ride it like a horse.

Tuesday we spent the afternoon at the Natural History Museum. They have a really great exhibit on the oil drilling process. The museum is huge, it can be a whole day adventure if you can take that much natural science.
And Jared had his moment of fame this week. Monday Jared, Devin and I went out golfing at a par3 course. Jared hit a hole-in-one on the second hole. He got his name in the Houston Chronicle and on the wall of the club house. As for me a was just happy I could still hit a strait shot while attempting to swing across the bowling ball in front of me.

The rest of the week we spent playing Frisbee golf, did a little shopping and just chilled.
'

And the terrible two's begin.....

We just dropped over $200 bucks on a top-of-the-line Britax car seat, only to take it out of the box and hear Erin say "I don't like it" and refuse to sit in it....grrr.

Anyway we just got a call and our car is FINALLY finished. Its been almost a month. Erin's last car seat had to be replaced when Jared was hit and we decided that it was worth the money to buy a Britax since most car seats are only designed to take a 30 mph crash. Plus this one is good up to 65 lbs so it should last her a while, if we can get her to sit in it :)

I just want to soak up the sun....

Jared surprised me with tickets to see Sheryl Crow at the Houston Rodeo last Wednesday. We parked downtown and took the light rail to Reliant stadium. I guess I would consider the rodeo comparable to the State fair - lots of odd people and deep-fried food. We got to the area in time to see the bull riding and the chuck wagon races. It was also breast cancer awareness night so all the cowboys wore pink shirts to support the cause.
Sheryl Crow put on an awesome concert! The photos are not great since we had top-of-the-world seats, but we had a great night out...alone!

Good-bye to an old friend

We sold my 1994 Achivea this weekend! Yes the one I purchased the year I graduated high school. After 8 years of road trips from Vermont to Yellowstone and Canada to Texas I passed it on with 196,250 miles on him and I still got $800.00.

The car formally known as Maverick no longer had air, heat, defrost, socks, struts, the windows didn't roll down, the locks didn't work (except when it randomly locked you out every now and then), and was the only car I have seen with major rust damage and gravel dings on this side of the city (thanks to those salty Iowa roads).

May he have a few more good years!

24 Weeks

I had my second fetal echo yesterday with the fetal specialist and we are happy to report the baby looks strong and healthy. Now I am officially released from the specialist and will go solely with my midwife.

The baby is:
...still a girl (there was a shot that no one can deny, and my specialist said if she came out a boy he would pay for the plastic surgery :)

....Weight: 1.5 lbs

.....Growth: 23 wks 3 days growth

......I was promised that I would not be having a 10 pound baby woo-hoo!

I can't believe I am already six months along, it has gone so quickly this time. A few of you were badgering me for some preggo photos so here they are, as always I carry my weight in my face and in my trunk, not my stomach.


Last week I was at Lowe's picking up soil and had 2-forty pound bags and a 60 pound bag. There was a man leaning his truck parked right next to me. I was dressed in my pregnancy shirt, so it was pretty obvious that I was expecting. I threw the first bag on my shoulder and tossed it into the bed of my pick-up, then the second and low and behold that man just stood there and watched the preggo woman load 140 pounds by herself. There are days I hate Texas.... I decided either he was a lazy prick or he stood there in shock to watch a pregnant woman load her own soil.

Erin's New Pet

I was working outside yesterday and our neighbor was throwing away this giraffe. Erin has been a giraffe kick lately so I went over and asked what the deal was. It was his x-wifes and he didn't want it. He said that its hand carved and she brought it back from Africa.

Needless to say he was hit.

Day at the park

Grandpa's visit

Last week my dad drove down for a visit. Initially it was to be a five day visit, but he ended up staying eight days because O'hare was closed down for weather. He started to have truck problems on the way down so we spent the first few days of his visit getting his truck fixed and dealing with the lovely insurance company about our car (which is still in the shop).

Day three we decided to spend the morning rummaging through lumber piles at Lowe's to built a new gate to connect our back yard to the community park. Finally, we both came to the conclusion that Texas lumber is crappy and commenced the building of the new gate, which is built more like a fortress door. I think by the time we were down it weighed close to 200 lbs. I was really happy how it turned out, but it makes our old fence look really bad.
We had just finished the fence and it was about 80 degrees and sunny so we decided to drive down to the beach and break in my new rental car that had 400 miles on the odometer. By the time we reached the island it was about 60 and rainy. We hit a local burger joint and then took the ferry over from Galveston island to Bolivar peninsula. We drove to car out on the beach, tracked in some sand and Erin filled the back seat with seashells. When we returned to the ferry we were pulled over for a random security inspection. We got to laughing because when we drove up there was a big sign that read" Do not verbally or physically abuse the inspectors." I thought it was odd until I saw the guys inspecting up, they looked like they were a few teenagers working at McDonald's. Got to love national port security. Dad razzed them a bit and then asked if he could have his picture with them and then got really nervous about it and said it was a security violation.

Then we decided to stop by Sea wolf park back on Galveston and tour the sea wolf sub. It was very claustrophobic with just a few of us on it. It typically carried 60 men on a mission and was amazing to see restored.
Erin and Papa in the missile launchers
Erin trying out the bunk quarters. I think she had to jump on every bunk
We deiced to buy dad's 96 Dodge Dakota to replace our 94 achivea so we flew him home, which ended up keeping him here a few more days then planned.

Erin loved having him around. Jared and I had some meetings during the week so Erin and papa just hung out. We had some wood left over from the gate and he built her a swing and hung in up in our oak tree. As you can see they had a blast.