2 kids!

I love how I can put cute little clips in her hair!

I can't believe I have two kiddos. Seriously. Bo and I are still in shock. They are fun, but man is it HARD! Wouldn't trade them for anything, but man it is quite the juggle! I have to keep reminding myself that it's only been 2 weeks and that I'll get the hang of it. I hope so, otherwise we might be looking like a 4 person family for forever. ha.

We flew into Seattle on Monday night at 11 and then drove straight home, so it wasn't till 3 in the a.m. that we were able to finally get in bed. As you can imagine, Tuesday was pretty much an all day nap. I'm still so tired. I could go to bed but all the new seasons are starting, and I can't miss my shows!!! I was dead tired by 7 tonight, but I'm staying awake because in 15 min. Criminal Minds starts up. I love the show! I never get to watch it because of Mutual, so I'm excited to have the chance now.

Here are some fun pictures Bo and I have taken of Megan and Carter. Hopefully I put enough on Amanda!

More on Megan

I don't want Megan to feel gypped off for not having anything blogged about her!  Megan, we love you and you are very very VERY important to us. I can't believe she's already a week old!!! . . . and yet it has been one of the longest weeks ever! 

As previously mentioned, Megan was born last Monday.  When Carter came to see her on Tuesday, all he would say is, "out!  The baby is out!"  Over and over and over and OVER!  He was so cute though.  He kept pointing to me and saying that.  Now he says more things about her.  He really really loves her.  It is fun to watch him with her.  He just comes up and will say, "Aww Megan is soooo cute!" and then kiss her.  Seriously, he does it all the time, each time commenting on how cute she is.  haha.  My kids rock!

Megan is a champion eater.  She just will not stop!  She loves to eat.  Carter was easy, he would just nurse real fast, about 10 min. tops, and be done.  Megan, noooooo.  She likes to take her time, and she really does take her time.  It's kinda frustrating, to be honest.  I hate seeing all the things I need to do, and not being able to do them because I'm strapped down an hour feeding my little chica!

We took her in to see a pediatrician today, here in Katy, for her one week checkup.  She is 9 lbs. 10 oz. now, and still 21 inches.  We're not surprised she's gained wait, she seriously loves to eat.  I think the weight might be a little off though because they didn't take her clothes or wet diaper off.  All the same, way to go girl!  The doctor says she is great!

We feel real blessed that she is a little on the heavy side.  Bo and I agree it has been such a help to know she's so healthy, what with all the chaos in our lives right now.  We are flying to WA on Monday, and when we were talking to the airlines, they were saying Meg couldn't fly unless she had a Dr.s permission.  I really believe that Meg is the way she is so that she could ride out this storm healthy and be able to travel with us!  It sounds like I think my baby is fat.  Well, she is chubby, but that's not it.  She's just 2 lbs heavier then Carter was, so it is just an adjustment to think of my newborn already almost out of newborn size diapers!  :) 

Megan has the most gorgeous hair. It is long and dark and soft!    She looks really good in pink and brown, what with her dark hair and skin, and I'm having so much fun putting her in clothes those colors.  She smiles in her sleep, doesn't get disturbed by anything, even Carter's yelling.  She really is such a perfect little beauty.  Oh yeah, and her cries sound like a cat meowing.  Really.  It's funny.  She still likes to curl up in a little ball, especially when you burp her.  She just tucks those little legs in.  What cute legs, toes, hands, and everything else you have Megan!!!

Oh how we love her and she is such a joy to us.  She is fun to talk to.  She'll just stare and watch us.  I love watching Bo with her.  It might possibly be my most favorite thing in the world.  He is just so caring and wonderful, and when he holds her I just want to squeeze them both. . .and Carter, who is usually running around somewhere else.  I have the best family!  We are right now staying in a king size bed, and the last two mornings I have woken up to see my whole family in the bed, and I LOVE it.  I love the feel of our family being together in a nice warm bed, amid the stress of our lives.  It gives me peace and joy.

So there you have it.  We love her and are glad she's here.  She has brought such joy to our lives.  Is it weird to say she makes our family more complete?  We felt wonderful when it was just the 3, but now with her it seems more there.  Does that make sense?  I'm sure I'll feel that way after every child.  We love you Megan!!

Carter giving Meg a kiss.  Such cuties!!

Carter and Me killing time.  This was taken the day after the hurricane hit. 
These are pics of Meg leaving the hospital. She already looks so different from what she looks like in these pictures.  Sad how fast they change.







This has to be my most favorite picture of all time!!! I LOVE it!!  Doesn't it just make you laugh?
I have more current pics of Megan, I just forgot to download them.  Guess I'll just have to do another post!

Look and Leave

So Galveston had what they called a "Look and Leave" yesterday.  Basically they let on anyone with proof of residency on the island from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m.  Bo and I found out about it at about noon, and as soon as we heard the news, we got in our car and took off.  When we got close to the island we got stuck in the traffic trying to get on the Island too.  We waited at least an hour and a half in line.  We were able to get on though, and it was only later in the evening that we heard how lucky we were.  Apparently not long after we got on they started turning people away because it was just too much.  The emergency crews were having trouble getting on the island because of all the traffic.  They were originally going to do the Look and Leave every day, but now they aren't.  Bo says they might start it up again, but in smaller doses.  

When we got close to the island you could really start to see lots of destruction.  It really was sad. I, of course, took pictures of some of the places around where we live.  Let me just say that our neighborhood didn't even get that much damage compared to other places. So these pictures are only a GLIMPSE of some of the destruction. 

Luckily our apartment is okay!  Some of the siding and such from the apartments next to ours were ripped off, but our building made it through!  I have no clue if the first floor received any flooding.  My guess is that it did, considering the neighborhood next to us had their homes under 4 feet of water.  My poor friend Jana, lived in that neighborhood and had us check on her house.  The whole place was soaking, which only tells me that all the other houses recieved the same damage, and this is damage that isn't visible on the outside!  

After leaving the island, I was big time depressed.  It is going to take a lot of effort and time to get the place working again.  Poor poor Galveston.  I hope all my other friends that evacuated are doing okay.  After seeing the damage and realizing just how long it will take to get the island close to working, Bo and I came home and bought tickets to Washington.  We are going to go home for a while.  School sent an email out saying not to expect classes to start up till Oct. 6th at the EARLIEST.  So that is what we are going to do.  We have been very blessed from our friends/family here, but hate the idea of imposing on them for 3 more weeks, even though they say it's okay.  

The following 6 pictures were taken on our drive to get on the island.  The first one is a pic of what used to be a billboard.

This was taken through my window, so it doesn't look very clear, but notice the upside down boat out in the water?

The picture below is our apartment building.  It looks fine, but look at the car.  It totally got moved in the storm.

These next two pictures are of boats on 61st street, a road you take to get over to my part of town.

 

What to say, what to say

What is there to say?  My baby turns a week old today.  She is soooo cute and perfect and just everything I could ask for.  I would post pictures but I am someone else's house using their computer, meaning I don't know how to get them up and I don't want to mess up their stuff. 

As for the hurricane. . . stupid IKE.  I want to go home.  I want to be spoiled the way a new mom should be. . .at home in bed with my mom and Bo bringing me water and eating fun food that I don't have to cook or clean up.  Instead I'm at my sister-in-laws (Bridget) brother's home with my parents and cousin's family, and Bridget's dad.  

So on Thursday morning, after not even being home 24 hours, we packed up really quickly, with my parents in tow (they had come on Monday to help with the baby) and headed up to Sugarland.  We only grabbed clothes and diapers and important documents.  I didn't grab my wedding ring.  For some reason Bo didn't take his laptop.  I blame the forgetting on the fact that we had guests and we had JUST gotten home from the hospital.  Oh well, we have our kids and that's all that matters.

We got to Sugarland fine, with no traffic or anything.  On Friday night, the night of the storm, we lost power at about midnight.  We still haven't gotten it back.  We were with Bridget's Dad, and after a day with no air conditioning, we decided to head over to Clint's, Bridget's brother, because he had electricity, he lives in Katy.  People, please don't ever EVER take electricity for granted.  It was hard.  IT was hot, the bathrooms were dark and had no water because they ran off an electric pump.  All I can say is, thank goodness for food storage.  Don and Carla, Bridget's parents, have  a wonderful supply of food and snacks and water and everything.  The prophet knows what he's talking about!!!  I feel bad for all the people down here who don't have that.

It's crazy here.  There's no gas, no electricity, nothing.  People are lining up at the gas stations that do have gas, no joke.  We went to a grocery store yesterday that happened to be open, and you wouldn't believe how empty all the shelves were. All the produce was gone.  All the breads and lunch meats and well really everything was gone.  WOW.  

Bridget's aunt gave me tons of baby diapers as a baby gift yesterday, and it is wonderful.  We didn't have time to get any of that before evacuating.  I need things for breast feeding that none of the stores that were open had.  It's just so weird not being able to just run to Walmart or some store and get what you need.  There are really not that many places open because of the no electricity.   I feel like I'm in some other country.

As for me. . .well I want to go home.  I want my bed, my shower, my clothes, my baby's clothes, my food, my new couches and recliner that I was so looking forward to rocking my brand new baby in. I want my life.  I am so grateful to the generosity of everyone around me.  Bridget's family has been WONDERFUL.  Still, what am I going to do in the upcoming days/weeks?

Galveston is closed.  The bridge is COVERED in debris.  There are a couple dozen boats among other things on it.  There is no power, water, gas, anything on the island.  They haven't even mentioned when they will let us in.  The school sent an email out saying that UTMB doesn't expect power for 2 to 4 weeks and that school won't be open for a week.  I find it hard to believe that they would be open before the power comes on.  My guess is that they are just taking one week at a time, in hopes the power comes back earlier.

One of the news stations had a helicopter fly over Galveston, along the seawall, and we were able to see the tops of the apartments next to the ones that we live in.  Their roofs look fine, which is a big relief to us.  We live on the 3rd floor, so while we weren't worried about flooding, we were worried about losing the roof.  Hopefully all of our belonging are fine.  IF not, it's just material things, right???

We are talking about going to Washington for a couple of weeks.  We don't have family in TX, and feel bad staying at someone else's for as much as we have.  THe thought of using their hospitality for that long makes me upset.  I need some stability.  My child needs her checkups.  Which she won't get here what with no power and everything. Crazy crazy crazy

Evactuating with a Newborn

So it's Cass, that's right, I'm back! As mentioned in the previous 2 posts, I had my baby on Monday, and on Thursday morning we evacuated Galveston. Let me just say first that I have the most beautiful baby girl in the world. Bo and I are so blessed to have her sweet spirit join us. Labor went fine. It's amazing what an epidural can do! :) On Wednesday we came home from the hospital, only to find out that the storm had shifted and was heading our way. With that in mind, we packed up and headed out Thursday morning. That's right, I evacuated with a baby not even 3 days old.
We are here in Richmond, TX, which is right next to Sugarland. We thought of driving all the way to Temple, TX, but honestly, with a newborn AND my parents in town, the thought of driving at least 4 hours was just not cool. My sister-in-laws parents live here and their house is out of major harms way. We are worried the power will go out, but that's about it.
The storm is headed straight to Galveston, which is where we live. We are of course nervous about our apartment, but glad we have our children. Really that's all that matters. We are okay. I am of course not up to par, but count my blessings that I had Megan before the storm hit. If I hadn't had her, I'd be having her now, what with all the stress, at the house I'm staying in. So although I'm stressed about taking her out of the house, exposing her to all sorts of things, and not getting the rest that I am in big time need of, I am still glad that I had her when I did.
This blog is short because the storm is coming, and the power could go out at any moment here where we are.
Please keep us in your prayers. We have no idea what the future holds for us. Thanks for all your well wishes! Who knows when I'll be able to blog again, but when I do, I'll feel you in on all the details.

Ike

So Hurricane Ike has kind of killed our fun this week, and we've decided we need to evacuate. So we will get more pictures of Megan up as soon as we can, but now we're getting everything ready to leave. Fun, fun.

Megan Lee Beus

Megan was born at 9:20 pm on September 8th. She weighed 9 pounds, 3 ounces and has some seriously chubby cheeks. Cassidy and Megan are both healthy and doing fine. Cassidy made it all look really easy. I'm sure she'll want to add more details later, but for now here are some pictures. There will probably be plenty more to come.

No baby yet

So I think if I had just walked around, instead of taking it SUPER EASY on Wednesday night, I could have had her then. I was in some serious pain with pretty regular contractions. My problem was that Bo had two big tests in the next two days, and I didn't want him to miss them, considering he has been studying like crazy for them. So I layed down and took it way easy.
Yeah. Now here I am, ready to go, and nada!!! I'm ready. I have everything ready to go, the bags are packed, Bo has the week off, Carter is pumped to go stay at Jackie's, and no contractions! Or at least painful ones anyway.
Let me just say that when I went into my Dr.'s appt. 2 weeks ago, the Dr. said he "moved things around" for me when he was checking me. I was only 1 cent. then. Last appt., which was on Tuesday, he checked me again, said I was almost a 2, and then he did some wonderful painful jabbing and claimed he "stirred things up" for me again. I'm guessing he stripped my membranes and so forth but nothing is going on! DAH!
I've walked the mall and everything else, hiked the stairs a bunch, scrubbed my house, did jumping jacks (yes I actually did), and I'm not getting anywhere. Help friends! I'm sorry, but I don't think I can force myself to drink Castrol Oil. 4 days to go. She'd better not be late. The Dr. said he would induce me on the 14th if all else. Keep your fingers crossed that I don't have to wait that long.

Movies

So last week I was supposed to go to Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants with my cousin Jackie. We met at the mall (Bo had Carter) and walked over to the theater, only to find out that it wasn't showing anymore. We, of course, were big time disappointed until we happened to walk by a nail salon. I think it was meant to be. Jackie and I went in and got some pretty wonderful pedicures, and now I have pretty toes to get me through labor!! It was really fun and EXACTLY what I needed. Ahhhh.

This week, and last week, Bo has been studying like crazy for some tests he has. I have been pretty bored at night, so last minute I went and rented PS, I Love You, without reading what it was about. I knew it was a girl movie, and that was enough. Well friends, let me tell you, it's not exactly the best thing to watch when you are already super SUPER hormonal. I think I lost about 5 pounds in tears. No joke. I bawled the whole time. Really. Bo says I'm no longer allowed to watch anything close to that in the future.

It was a good movie though. Really it was. There was a naked butt scene, but other then that it wasn't too bad. The only thing that really really bugged me, besides the butt scene, was the main actress' headbands. She wore a lot of them and I just don't think she looked good in them. Funny thing to notice, I know. It definetly had some funny parts, so I would have tears running down my face and then just bust up laughing. For those who don't know what it's about, it's about a woman who's husband dies and her finding letters he's left for her. Very good, but I just was too into it and could just picture how I'd be with Bo gone. Not good for someone about to have a baby. haha. I sometimes cry in movies, I admit it, but I have never NEVER had to use a tissue before. Yeah, when the movie was done I had a pile of them. I think I used like 5. oh goodness. I think I am going to have to hold off on movies like that for awhile.

Bo--"At what age does reverse psychology stop working? 'Cause it's GREAT."