Intruder

The other night I awoke several times to noises in the house. You know how when you are dreaming and you hear a sound that sound is probably really happening?? Especially when the sound jolts you up out of your dream. Those are the sounds I heard. The last noise I heard sounded like footsteps or a creaking of the floor. Now, my first thought was Avery because she tends to get out of bed a lot and she'll come right up next to me by the bed. Well, I didn't see her anywhere. It was pitch black though because we hadn't turned on the night light in the hallway so I sat up and listened and waited a little longer. Nothing. Maybe I was just really out of it, I thought. I had taken a sleeping pill that night. No, this was like the third time I had woken up. So I woke Derek up and explained everything to him. He must have thought I was crazy because he didn't grab the gun this time. He just grabbed his cell phone and turned it on to use as a flashlight to check the hall. The minute he turned on the light to the stairway I was comforted and fell back to sleep! Next thing I know Derek is back outside our bedroom - peeking around the door. I see him holding something........Is that a bat?! It's something long. Why is he whispering? And panting? "Brooke, I need your help!" "Didn't you hear me scream and yell for you?" Did you fall asleep as soon as I went to check for an intruder?!" Uh, I guess so.....my heart is pounding. My first thought is.....should I grab the gun? Then I start to see a little clearer and see he's holding a broom. I don't think that would hold off an intruder. I go downstairs with Derek and he explains that he found the intruder in the pantry.......and now it's somewhere behind the refidgerator. Yeah, it was a mouse! Ugh, this is our second mouse. I don't know where they are getting in at. Anyway, Derek set up one of those sticky mouse traps at both sides of the fridge and he slowly scooted it back. Nothing. He got a flashlight so I could watch for it better and then he started swatting the broom around back there. Next thing we know we hear the mouse squealing. Derek's trap worked! The intruder had been captured. Derek took care of the rest of it while I went right back to bed and fell fast asleep.
I still have no idea what those sounds were that I heard.

Pump It Up and Dress Up

Allie was invited to another classmate's birthday party. This one was at Pump It Up and the girls had so much fun!!! I was pretty impressed with Avery. She was tentative at first and had Derek climb the slides with her but by the end of the party she was doing it all by herself.....inluding climbing through the obstacle course with the super steep ladder!



The Party Goers minus the birthday boy

Allie and Avery like dressing up and putting on little dances for us. I love it when they play nicely together (which hasn't been much the past week). They also like putting on little birthday parties for their babies.

Aide

Well, Derek got the job as Aide de Camp to the General. I have mixed feelings about it, but know it's the best for him if he's going to make the Air Force a career. Derek is very honored and a little nervous but also excited. I'm very proud of him too and I know a lot of our family is proud of him as well. He starts in March so he'll be taking some time off here soon to work on his SOS stuff. It's going to be tough on me these first few months but I know I'll figure something out. We have some good neighbors and Allie has made some good friends and they are all willing to help out if I need it.

South Texas Snow

Our phone started ringing this morning at 6:00 and didn't stop until about 7:30.......most of them were due to Derek's work and the whole recall roster thing. Of course, no one was answering their phones so he called most of the people and they all had to call back saying they got the message............that they didn't have to be at work until noon! There were also 2 calls on each of our phones from the school telling us that school is canceled! It was quite the humorous morning......all of this for a light dusting of snow (and I guess there was a little ice).

The funniest thing though was yesterday when Allie told me her teachers told her it was going to snow. I laughed and said, "It's not going to snow!" She said, "Yes, it is! My teachers told me." I was just like okay, whatever.

Then this morning when she woke up the first thing she said was that she needed to get something for show and tell for school. Derek said, "You don't have school today." Her face lit up and she ran to the window, looked out and shouted, "I WAS RIGHT!!" Then Avery said, "I wanna play in it!"  Love.these.girls.

Avery was in awe of the snow. I didn't even think about her not remembering it last year!

100 Days

Yesterday was Allie's 100th day of school! For a home project the kids had to decorate a t-shirt with 100 objects on it. I let Allie do it all herself. She chose to put on those foam stickers. I gave her the idea to add some googly eyes to the frogs and ducks.........she loved that. As soon as we put the shirt on the stickers started falling off. I think by the time she got home there were probably only 20 stickers left! Poor Scobee janitor! I asked Allie what all of the other kids did and she said the same thing that she did.....but theirs didn't fall off.   {I Felt bad that they were falling off and so before we headed to school I grabbed a box of paper clips and started cliping them together in groups of 25. I also grabbed some safety pins and another t-shirt. I didn't have time to pin them to the shirt b/c we were running late so I just told Allie to ask her teacher to help her. She said her teacher said they didn't have time for that! I didn't feel too bad about the stickers being all over the classroom after that.}

Avery saw a podiatrist today for the ridge on her toenail that always seems to get some sort of fungus underneath it. He seems to think that we should file that nail down and gave us a prescription nail polish of sorts to stop the fungal growth. Her pediatrition had said to let the nail grow out.........I guess it's best to go with what the podiatrist says for now.........

Allie went and played with her friend Ethan again on Monday after school. I think it's kind of funny that one of her best friends is a boy! I'm sure that will all change in a few years.



and just a random picture of the girls showing their Purdue spirit. Even though Allie was not a happy camper to be wearing this outfit and repeatedly said she hates Purdue. :-)