Fun in the (absent) sun. And other ramblings.

When Joel came to stay with us over spring break, it rained every single day. So when I watched the weather forecast and heard that this weekend was supposed to be sunny and beautiful, I was pretty glad...for him and for me, because who wants to spend the weekend with 2 fun boys stuck inside? I promised him we'd go to the park, and even the BIG park instead of the little one within walking distance, and he was really excited. When we were eating breakfast on Friday and talking about the fun we were about to have, I noticed Sydney was glued to my side and looking really nervous. Which means one thing: RAIN. I opened the blinds and sure enough, it was pouring. Seriously?! What is the deal with the newsweather peeps lately? They said the same thing about Labor Day weekend and then a tropical storm blew through.

We waited around for a break in the clouds, which never happened, but loaded up in the car anyway and hoped for the rain to at least stop. Which luckily it did. For about 5 minutes.

(water) slide

quit taking my picture and push me!

We played at the park for about 5 minutes until we noticed the mosquitos. Stupid mosquitos. I hate them! But I can't blame them 100% for ruining our fun because as we were headed back to the car it started pouring again.

So back to the house we went. Joel used his imagination and made a "picnic" for he and Harrison since the one that I planned for us was canceled.

Picnic of TOYS?! This is way better than food!

That night Jon came over with the key to my heart, aka Mamacita's fajitas. Then the Forbi (as Rick likes to call them) stopped by and we all just hung out and ended up watching Date Night. Kind of cheesy but pretty funny!

Saturday's weather was a little better. It only rained some and we were able to get out of the house a little. We took the boys to Chick-fil-A for breakfast since we got a free coupon in the mail. While Joel was busy playing we were hanging out at the table and looked up to see Jeff & Katie randomly walking in. They were there to use their free coupon too. Ha ha! So we hung around talking with them while they ate and Joel got to play even longer which made him pretty happy. I think we spent about 2 hours there...we're really living it up these days! Ha!

Saturday afternoon my mom needed a little assistance with one of her assignments for her class (she's working toward her master's degree). The assignment was to film a PSA and her group had chosen pet adoption as their topic, which is totally up my alley if you couldn't tell by the small zoo of animals at my house. We drove to the Houston Humane Society to get some footage and it was the first time I've been back there since they finished their rennovations. It looks amazing!!

Annnnnnnd, tangent begin:

I love this organization. They are a no-kill shelter (with very few exceptions) and everyone there has such a passion for animals. I honestly think that the strays there have it better than a lot of the pets out there with homes, which is beyond sad and makes me so angry. In fact it's the main reason that pet placement agencies do such thorough reference checks on pet owners before adopting out because it's so important that the animals are truly going to loving, responsible families. I just can't imagine why anybody would buy or adopt a pet if they don't genuinely want to take care of one responsibly and it just breaks my heart that there is such a high number of homeless animals out there. So sad!!! I know I'm totally rambling now but walking through the shelter just reminded me how much of a need there is for quality homes for these cute little guys. And walking through there made me want to kick negligent pet owners and animal abusers right where the sun don't shine.

Annnnnd, moving on. Glad I got that out of the way. :)

After our field trip to a couple of shelters, we went back to Mom and Tim's house for some pizza and to get a little more footage of Harrison playing with his newly adopted doggy actor, Lexi. They are pretty meant for each other because this boy loves doggy kisses and Lexi just might like to give them. Ha ha! Can't wait to see how the finished video turns out. {I'm sure they will get an A+ because my mom is quite the overachiever :) } After all that doggy action the kids were pretty slobbery and in desperate need of a bath. I snapped these pictures of them playing "shark" as Joel called it.

 

 

Sunday at church I almost had a full blown panic attack. It was our turn to greet and Rick had checked Harrison and Joel in to PeeWeeVille while I started getting things set up. Well when I went to go pick them up after the services, I didn't see Joel right away. I kept scanning the room and when one of the teachers asked what he was wearing I told him that he was in a dark blue shirt and madras shorts. He picked out every single kid in the room with a blue shirt on and none of them were Joel. And then he did a roll call asking for Joel to stand up and...no Joel. My mind started racing as I went to go get Rick to see if he somehow had him without me knowing. Security is great at our church so I knew he couldn't have snuck out or been kidnapped or etc. etc. etc., but WHERE IN THE HECK WAS HE?!!! Well come to find out, Rick had checked him in to the wrong class and Joel was safe and sound in the nursery with the 4 year olds, completely oblivious and happily painting away. For those 2 minutes of panic though, it was seriously the worst feeling in the world and I'm pretty sure my stomach sank to deeper depths than the Grand Canyon. I haven't told this story to Ashley yet, so Ash, if you're reading this, sorry for temporarily misplacing your child! It's Rick's fault, of course. :)

After the West Campus services, we drove over to the Egret Bay Campus to watch Jeff's testimony that they were showing over there. Jeff - you did a great job and didn't cry nearly as much as I was expecting. :) Then the Normans came over and we grilled some burgers and the guys watched football while Katie and I watched the kids swim in Harrison's kiddie pool and worked on her new blog (!!!! - more info on that later). It was a great day and beautiful weather. Really wish I would have taken some pictures...

Hope you had a great weekend, too!