The Chronicles of Motherhood .....

7/11/2006

The great adventures of Emm and Kate Reconvene

My childhood buddy came down to visit for a week. Kate and I grew up and frankly I think our parents were surprised to see us both graduate high school alive. It always seems like when we were together trouble was only a few steps behind. From ditching cars on icy rural roads, to canoeing flood stage rivers, to a pack of rabid wolves and an outhouse, life was always eventful when we hung out.

But now we are mature adults…..unfortunately bad luck still seems to follow close behind us.

Kate flew in Thursday morning and I picked her up at the airport. We had big plans for the night. We started off at 6:30 pm and headed for a stampin up party to appease a good friend who has been attempting to drag me into stamping for some time. I will admit we had a good time and made some way cute cards.

Then we headed to pick up 80 pounds of tomatoes I had purchased. 40/lbs boxes were only $6.00 so I decided to buy two and attempt to freeze of can them ( something I have never attempted). I went to pick up the box and the bottom row of tomatoes were rotten and I found myself covered in rotten tomato juice. We thought about going home to change prior to heading out for the night, but then again I have no one to impress so we headed to rock the dock for some live music on the bay.

When we pulled into the parking lot we realized that our back tire was completely flat. Not a big deal, a couple of Iowa girls know how to change a tire. We did not have a flashlight and the custom jack had to be fitted perfectly. Because it was dark, we had the jack a few inched out and it slipped. Luckily we had three police officers come and hold a flashlight for us while we laid in the greasy parking lot changing a tire. I don’t think they could of changed it if they tired. They probably too one look at Kate’s biceps as she muscled off the lug nuts and thought “I don’t want to make and idiot of my self in front of these women, so I’ll just stand here like a stud and hold a flashlight.” They were a great help, glad someone was not holding a gun to my head.

So finally we got the donut tire on and caught the last 30 minutes of the band. We sat in the front row eat ice cream smelling like rotten tomatoes and covered in rubber and grease.
The car spent the next two days in the shop, one for new tires (which we were planning on anyway) and one for a $300.00 repair from the jack slip (which we were not planning on, but in reality something had to go wrong that night, or it just would not of been an adventure).

7/08/2006

New Paint

I finally finished Erin’s dresser. Brittany and I started it a few weeks ago when she was down visiting. This dresser has a long history. Jared’s dad built it from scrap wood when Jared and his brother were little and they used it through their childhood. When we got married, we did not have a dresser so we inherited Jared’s one from his childhood. It was layered with superman stickers. I stripped it down and stained it and we used it until last fall when we upgraded to a new dresser, which we found in the dumpster.
We thought Erin’s room could use a little more spunk so we gave it a new paint job. After twenty years its still going strong…..

7/04/2006

God Speed and Come Home Safely

STS 121 - Discovery launched today, the third times a charm. This is the 32nd flight of Discovery. We watched lift off on the NASA channel as a start to our 4th of July celebration. This is Jared's first flight to work. He has the graveyard shift from 8:30 pm-5 am. He was pretty excited when he left.

We had a downpour most of the morning and then we went to a BBQ this afternoon at some friends house. Erin and I watched the first part of the fireworks, but she was tired and the skeeters were horrible so we headed home around 10pm.
Happy 4th of July! This is the 32nd flight of Discovery.

Photos from Newsday.com

7/02/2006

Rainy Weekend

It was a slow weekend for us. It rained all day Saturday and NASA cancelled the shuttle flight both yesterday and today. They will try to fly again on the 4th, but the weather is not looking promising.

We took Erin to see Ice Age 2. She really liked it, but go bored about ¾ of the way through the movie so we took turn running her down the hallways of the movie theater.

We had our new neighbor over for dinner Friday night. Her little boy is just a month younger than Erin. Now Erin finally has someone her age to play with in our building.

6/30/2006

New Balls

This was Jared exciting purchase for the month. We got him a set of billiard balls for the pool table. We purchased them off ebay for $.01...of course shipping was $30.00 but still a great deal...at least until Erin chucks one through a double-paned window :)

Update

So I really haven’t updated any specifics lately. I got a minute this afternoon so I will fill you in on the semi-exciting life of the Renshaws.

June has been crazy. I turned 25 years old a few weeks ago and got the long awaited discount on car insurance. Jared bought me a power sander (don’t worry I asked for it, he’s not in the dog house because I got a power tool for my birthday).

We locked in our mortgage rates for the house, the rates jumped a quarter point right before we locked in, but that’s life. We could not lock prior to sixty day before closing; therefore we had no control over the situation and no reason to fret. Now all we need to do is decide on insurance carrier and we are ready to close.

We just purchased our first thing for the new house – a 5 hp 12-gallon wet/dry vac – good deal at the HD. Our two new hangouts are Home Depot and Lowes. It is a bit ironic because we both dreaded the “do-it-yourself” stores when we were little. Our parents would drag us in and spend hours looking at faucet fixtures and garden hoses while we almost died of boredom. Now we get to pass that wonderful childhood memory onto Erin.

Britt, Jared’s sister visited us for a week. We had a good time, just tooled around the city and hung out. The photos are from the Children Museum of Houston. She babysat a lot for us, which was nice to have some alone time. Her boyfriend from Dallas also came down and stayed a few days.

Erin is wild as ever. She is now talking up a storm, but mainly all I hear is a constant round of “puppy”, “kitty” “cow” and “baby” – her four favorite things. She has been obsessed with cows since our trip to Iowa and cow finally earned a ride in a bleach laundry load today – he had been through much trauma.

I just finished the greeting card line I have been working on for last past three months. They were going to print 100 and start locally, but the print quality was poor so they are printing 12,000 initially. The proof should be in by tomorrow and then the printing starts.
They are still building the website, but check it out http://www.angeltalk.com/ I’ll list it on my side bar also. That leaves an opening so I am looking for a new design gig although I am not too serious, July is a busy month and I still have some projects going on.
That’s about all!

6/26/2006

To the Zoo...

So Shannon thinks I need to update more, so I am going to get better about it. I guess I have let my blogging slip a bit :) My SIL Brittany got into town Friday and we have been hanging out all weekend. Friday we went to the zoo and had a great time. Minus the point it was 98 degrees - hot temperatures and the smell of zoo exhibits just do not mix well. Today we are heading downtown Houston to the organic market and then maybe to the children’s museum. Anyway here are some pics from the zoo…

Monkey Viewing......

Britt & Erin

Erin took her first ride on a carousal. She was scared the first round but then she loved it. Most of our pics from the zoo did not turn out because it was so humid.

6/19/2006

Rain Rain Go Away.....

Just to let you know we are fine. We live on the second floor and and our area did not flood, although we recieved between 6-8 inches of rain in under four hours. The bayous are full and we are looking at another 2-5 inches tonight. They are comparing this to T. S. Allision. I guess its just a warm welcome into hurricane season :)

Besides that we worked out financing for our house today and we were happy with it. We can't lock in our rate until 60 day prior to closing, which is in about 10 days, so lets hope rates steady a bit...keep your fingers crossed. Now we just need to find insurance and we are set.

6/18/2006

Happy Father's Day

Happy Father’s Day to both Big “E” and Larry Dean from the three of us. Time moves quickly. We love you and miss you!

Every now and then, the diesel fumes from the traffic will cross with the weekly mow schedule of a suburban neighborhood and the combining smells triggers the memory of Dad packing my blanket and a snack and loading me in the old case tractor cab. For hours, I sat on that old metal floor coloring and napping as he planted spring crops and mowed summer hay. That innocence of childhood only seems like only a moment ago; then I realize I can begin to count the decades and watch the generations progress.

Big " E" & Emm - 1983

Big "E" and Emm 2005

Jared ~ 1983

Father’s Day is now not only for my father but also for my husband. Jared and Erin make me laugh together. They are pretty buddy buddy, she is Daddy’s little girl and loves him dearly. I know everyone say she looks like me, but looking at Jared childhood photos I see a lot of resemblance.

6/13/2006

CPR Certification

Tonight I attended an annual CPR refresher course. Its only a hour or two, just enough to get updated on the new techniques and become comfortable with it again. Erin also attended and almost received her certification. Unfortunately, she had a little trouble with the chest compressions, but she loved kissing the dummies.

6/11/2006

One Step Closer…

We put an offer in for the house Friday morning and they accepted our first offer Friday afternoon on the terms that we close a month later. This works great for us because we have our apartment contract until Aug 31 and were just thinking we would have to eat August rent for our roach infested cave in the ghetto.

Now the ball is rolling and things are getting crazy. Our inspection is this coming Wednesday (keep your fingers crossed) and then we work on financing and finding an insurance company that has not exhausted the number of hurricane policies they can write.

We are really excited, I think we have stayed up the last three nights just talking about things we would really love to do with the house, but in reality will not be able to afford for a decade.
Wednesday I will take some more photos at the inspection and post them. Photos like the façade of the house, which I will give an early warning, its not exactly pretty, but nothing a tree and a few vines can’t fix.