Weekend to remember

This weekend was a packed-full, weekend of fun with my family. Ryleigh and I left Thursday afternoon and drove up to visit Grandma and Granddad. Ryleigh did pretty well in the car, stopping only once to get dinner, walk a bit, and change her diaper. G & G were up and waiting for us when we arrived, and Ryleigh started putting on the show right away. Friday, we spent the day catching up and watching Ryleigh be silly. She LOVES her Great Grandma and Great Granddad. She enjoyed playing with the velcro on Granddad's shoes, and kept getting Grandma to wind up her music box. The toy legos were a lot of fun, and made lots of noise-- even better! Granddad showed Ryleigh how to push the buttons on his remote control and watch the lights.
She was having so much fun, she just decided to sit back, relax, and share a few cuddles.
We had a GREAT visit, though Jesse was sad he was not able to be there. Can't wait until we can come up again!

About mid-day on Saturday, I followed Grandma and Granddad over to Uncle Charlie's house in Dallas, for a couples wedding shower in honor of Micah and Sarah. This was no ordinary wedding shower- it was a luau! Everyone came dressed to party, and we had an excellent time, hanging out with family, playing games, eating great food, and celebrating the upcoming wedding of Micah and Sarah.

Ryleigh loved playing with the beach balls. She brought home a purple one, and still plays "fetch" with herself...throwing the ball and chasing after it. Silly girl.
Everyone in the yard, lining up for limbo. Bet you can't guess who won?? YOURS TRULY! Haha, it was luck for sure, and I must admit, my back and thighs hurt afterwards for about 3 days. Yes, I'm officially old.
The opposite-sex, dress-up race. The men had to dress in ladies clothing and the women had to dress in mens. The contestants ran back and forth (you should have seen the guys trying to run in high heels, through the grass, no less!) until every last team member was finished.
Uncle Charlie, sitting on top of his shed, video-taping all the games.
Jesse and I :)
Everyone chowing down on the delicious food!
I think this is when Mom was feeding Ryleigh cake...Ryleigh seemed very focused on that spoon...haha.
Julie and I: not the best picture of us, but we had fun nonetheless.
So, after the shower, Jesse, Ryleigh, and I stayed with Matt, Michelle, and Savannah. It was getting late by the time we got to their house, and both girls needed a bath. So, we just put them in together! Fun times!

We had to leave early Sunday morning to make it back for a church event. We stopped a little bit down the road for brunch, and finally found a decent patch of bluebonnets to take pictures of Ryleigh. I know it seems like there are a lot of bluebonnet pictures, but trust me when I tell you that I only uploaded a few of the best. We took a TON. I really wanted one up-close, showing her pretty blue eyes next to the bluebonnets. Unfortunately it was a little to bright, so she is practically squinting in every one. Oh well. They still turned out cute.



We had a very good weekend with the family. Looking forward to seeing them all again real soon, when they come back down for Sarah's wedding in a few weeks. Hooray!

Thanks Grandma, Granddad, Matt, and Michelle for you generous hospitality! We loved spending time with you, though it was short, as always.

Lots of love to everyone!

Lost and Found

Tuesday night, Jesse and I were leaving our house to go to a celebration dinner (more to follow about that later). It was already later than we had anticipated, and I was anxious and hungry! We had tucked Ryleigh in her carseat, and I was getting in the car to go. Jesse calmly said, "Mel- come here." I was annoyed and nervous, thinking we had another leak or something from his car (we have been working on it nonstop lately- and every time we think it is fixed, a new leak springs up). I got out and walked around, to find him pointing at the driveway. A TINY baby bird, not even old enough to have feathers was laying there.

We both looked up, thinking it had obviously fallen from a nest, but there was no tree directly over us for it to have fallen from, and the closest one, was super high; if it survived a fall from there, it must be a miracle bird! I looked around in nearby shrubs, and we could not find a nest or any sign of mommy lurking in the leaves. Well, about that time, we noticed a man walking his huge dog around the corner, and I panicked. Jesse thought we ought to leave it there, but I could not watch it get eaten!! So I quickly went inside, grabbed a plastic container, and made a makeshift "nest" for the baby. We moved him inside, and then left for dinner.

I was nervous that we were going to come home to find a dead baby bird. I don't know anything about caring for baby birds, but I knew that they have to eat pretty often. So when we got home, sure enough it immediately threw back its head, mouth open, gaping at us for food. Jesse went into the back yard, and came back with a worm. You can watch the video of him attempting to feed the bird, using cut up worm and tweezers. The bird ended up eating a worm and a half!

Obviously, I was not going to stay up all night feeding the bird. I looked up a lot of information online, and realized there was no way I would be able to care for this bird. I found several nearby Texas Wildlife Rehabilitation locations, and planned to call in the morning. When I woke up yesterday, the bird sat up and threw its head back again for food. I went out and struggled to find a worm. Finally I found one, and tried to do what Jesse had done the night before. No luck. The bird would not eat them. He was chirping (sounded like crying), and seemed weaker than the night before.

I moved the makeshift nest outside for about 2 hours, settling it into a small tree nearby and watched eagerly for a mommy to return and care for her young. It never happened. I saw some nearby swallows come check it out, but kept flying into a tree way across the street. There was no way the baby could have made it from their nest way over there to our driveway. It can't move!

I called my vet first, and they of course said they don't treat baby birds. They gave me a new phone number and I called right away. Would you believe of the 4 TWRs I called, only 1 called me back? I sent numerous emails and never received a response. The one who called me back was located in the Memorial area, about 40 minutes away. I asked her on the phone, "you all take care of baby birds?" She said "yes ma'am, of course!" So I drove all the way down there. The bird was obviously in distress, as it "cried" (chirped) the whole way there.

I got out of the car, grabbed Ryleigh and the bird, and went inside. There were 2 ladies up front, and 1 was talking to another man holding a shoebox. Apparently he had a baby raccoon. She was practically yelling at him, saying "you just gave this raccoon a death sentence. You cant take it back, we can never release it into the wild, you just handed it its death sentence." The man looked appalled, seeing as how he it brought it there to try to help it! I stood back, nervously awaiting what she had to say to me. Luckily, the other lady approached me. I showed her the bird and told her I had called earlier. She asked me to fill out some paperwork. There was a box on the form that said "Do you want to know the outcome of this animal?" I checked yes. I gave a $40 donation and was finishing up my paperwork.

The other (mean) lady looked over and said, "you brought in a sparrow. Sparrows are not protected, and we cannot give you the outcome, because there are just too many."

I said, "Ummm, okay. But is the outcome usually good?" still thinking that she meant there were too many birds to keep up with, so she couldn't track it. Well, she just walked away.

The nice lady waited until she had left and whispered to me, "they will probably euthanize the baby. That is why they don't promise an outcome." I was furious. Absolutely livid. She had just read this man his rights saying he handed the raccoon its death sentence for bringing it in trying to help, and she is going to blatantly kill this baby bird??

I said, "I called before I came. I asked if you all would care for the bird. I drove 40 minutes. I would have at least attempted to care for it if I knew you were just going to kill it!"

She looked at me and whispered, "I'm going to take it home with me, don't worry. I care for baby birds, and I will take care of it."

I looked her dead in the eye, and said, "you promise? Because if you are not, you can give it back to me now. I would at least give it a fighting chance."

She promised.

So I left. I was so frustrated. The man had been reamed out for trying to do the right thing. Be the good guy. It had gotten him no where. I felt his frustration. What in the world are we supposed to do?

I know that I could not have cared for that little bird. I wanted to give it a shot at life. The lady told me she had a special bird formula-type liquid that she would feed it until it was able to eat other things. I hope I made the right decision. I guess I'll never know. I did kind of miss the chirping this morning when I woke up. He was a cute little fella, and I wish he had never been separated from his mommy. Such a sad little story.

New Holder family additions

My parents have two Yorkies, one boy (Tiger) and one girl (Bella). So, you know what that means...now they have puppies!! Haha.

I must say, Bella was a very pregnant Yorkie. She was wide, and waddling, with huge nipples. Last week, you could actually put your hand on her belly and feel the babies kicking inside, while watching her belly move around. Kind of brought back memories for me, in a strange way.

Well, Thursday morning, my dad woke up and went to check, and two puppies were already out! Bella had not whimpered or cried, or done anything out of the ordinary to wake them up. By the time my parents got up and in there, one of them had already passed away, as it suffocated in its sack. So sad. :( But, Bella went on to have three more healthy puppies. So, there are three boys and one girl.

Honestly, I imagined they would look like tiny drowned rats, but I was pleasantly surprised. They are incredibly tiny, but are super cute puppies.

Mama Bella with her pups

Ryleigh checking out the puppies, and making Bella nervous
All four pups
Proud, but nervous Papa Tiger
So sleepy! It has been a long day for all of them.
Welcome to the family, pups! (I'll let you know when they get names. So far, no one can agree on names, so they are still #1, #2, #3, and #4. Sounds good, right?) ;)

Good 'till the last drop

Ryleigh has discovered that she likes pudding. Chocolate or vanilla, makes no difference to her. Obviously, she cannot (or should not) eat an entire container by herself, so naturally, I have to help her. :)

These pictures are from our afternoon snack last week. After we finished sharing the container, Ryleigh reached out and took it and the spoon from my hands. It was as if she was determined there was still something in there she could get!
Trying with the spoon...
Trying with her hand...
Ah- forget this! I'm just going to go for it!!
Like I said...she LOVES pudding!

Crawfish Boil 2008

Jesse and I decided we were ready for another annual crawfish boil. He and I attempted it once in College Station by ourselves, and we're frustrated. Then once we moved down to Houston we decided to try it again. Last year, it was much more successful. We had fun and the food was good- though the friends we invited were not "into" it as much as we were. This year, we changed it up again, and invited people over to test with us.

Hayden wasn't thrilled with the idea of eating the crawfish, especially once Jesse started chasing him with the live ones...
Here is batch #1. And we learned something new from this batch: make smaller batches. The problem is that it takes so stinkin' long to get any meat, that you are still hungry, and yet it starts to get cold. Cold crawfish is not so good.
Sarah and David, Lindsey and Thomas, and Lauren's ponytail...sticky (spicy!) fingers.
The corn and potatoes were SO hot. Seriously, I thought I was going to die after eating a piece of corn. Well, the guys apparently like hurting themselves, and of course decided to make bets to see who could eat the most corn, the quickest, and go the longest without taking a drink. The trick was to not let the spice touch your lips, and certainly to avoid licking your lips. (Much harder than it sounds!) Lindsey even tried to help Thomas out by holding his lips back, but I don't think it helped much. I believe David was the winner, and Hayden definitely took the first drink!
Afterwards we played some music game, that I was absolutely terrible at, and then celebrated Lauren's 26th birthday. Happy Birthday Lauren!
It was another fun, baby-free, night with friends. And we learned even more about the art of boiling crawfish. I can tell that 2009 is going to be the best yet! :)

Thanks, Mrs. Corbin!

My mom and I have been friends with Mary Beth and Sarah Corbin for as long as I can remember. Sarah and I grew up in school together, from 1st grade through 12th; going through activities such as Girl Scouts, the American Girls Club, Bearkats for Christ, and Cheerleading/Standleaders. When I transferred to Texas A&M, I got lucky, having classes with Sarah (Latin-yikes!) and meeting some of her sweet, Christian friends.

My mom and Mrs. Corbin have had a similar friendship. Well, not similar due to sharing their own activities...but similar in sharing our activities. And still to this day, they are great friends, meeting for lunch, celebrating each other's changing lives and growing families, through weddings and grandbabies.

Mrs. Corbin made Ryleigh this beautiful smocked dress, in light pink. She had originally made it in white, but when she realized I received one that looked similar, asked to re-make it so Ryleigh would have one that looked different. Once it came time for Ryleigh to wear the pretty dress, we sadly realized that the neck was a little small, and would not fit comfortably around. I did not want to say anything, since she had already gone through so much trouble. Well, somehow she found out, and insisted she wanted to fix it.

THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU for all your hard work to make Miss Ryleigh such a beautiful dress. She looked absolutely precious, and received many compliments at church on Sunday.
Now that Sarah is pregnant, we can only hope she gets a baby girl, so her mom can continue to make pretty little dresses. Congrats again, Sarah!

I'm so thankful for such good friends. :)

Caught red-handed!

When Ryleigh gets quiet, I always know it is time to go investigate. And lately, I have found her in some interesting situations, so I try to grab my camera.

I was working in my office, and Ryleigh was playing in her room next door. She has just started opening all cabinets and drawers and pulling everything out of them, but she had not figured out she could do it in her room yet; or at least not to my knowledge.

I tip-toed around the corner, camera in hand, and this is what I found!
Busted! (Not that it looks like she cares...)

Haha- how can I get mad at that little face?

Some things just aren't meant to be...

I am so bored with my "look" I can hardly stand it. I want, more, I need a change. Normally when I get this way, I go get a hair cut. But, this time I did not really want to do that, simply because I never really achieve the look I want.

I'm frustrated. I grew in my eye brows (they were really thin before), thinking it would help frame my face differently. No luck. I whitened my teeth using Crest Whitestrips. Not the most successful ever. (Apparently, you have to be religious about using them, and anyone who drinks soda or tea is in trouble; yeah, that's me.) I played with some new eye makeup. Let's face it, I don't have a clue how to "play" with makeup, and make myself look better.

So, naturally, the last idea was some way to change my hair. I decided I would try curly. I got a perm once, in 2nd grade, as a reward for making good grades. Yes, it was in the 80's, and yes, it looked like a crazy, frizzy mess. Ever since, I have avoided the curls. But, living in Houston where the humidity frequently destroys my smooth, straight hair, I thought perhaps it was curling because deep-down, it wanted to be curly...it just needed a little help from me.

And thus, the experiment began. I did my reading. I went online, researching how to get my hair curly. I organized them in a Word doc, color coded even, and printed it off. I asked friends who fluctuate between curly and straight hair. I went to the store and bought "product," as my sister Julie calls it. I was ready.

First, I attempted the "curly" mousse, scrunching, blow-drying method. Yeah, my hair was still straight- just sticky.

So then, I tried the oh-so-lovely sponge rollers (as pictured below). I applied the mousse to my damp hair, took 30-minutes to separate and curl my hair, and let it sit and air dry, as suggested for almost 3 hours, using the blow dryer on low at the end to "set" it. Um- half of my hair was in tight ringlet curls, and the other side? Board straight. Seriously.
By this point, I was more than a little frustrated. I had spent all morning trying to achieve a "look" that was obviously not coming. But I refused to give up and let it all go for waste. I pulled out my tiniest curling iron, and patiently, strand-by-strand, vertically curled each piece of hair, using extra hold hair spray. I just knew this would result in curls- how could it not??

Well, this is a picture of me...5 minutes later. A few curls near the bottom, but that is it. After using curling mousse, curlers, curling iron, and hair spray, this is the closest I ever got to curls.
I guess some things just are not meant to be.


I have considered going to get another perm, cause I'm sure they have changed and improved in the 18 years since I had one. But what happens if I hate it?? Or Jesse hates it? Then what?

Any advice from all of you how there who can go back and forth between curly and straight?

Perhaps I should just go get some new glasses instead...

Jesse's new toy

Jesse has enjoyed road biking for over six years now. He had just gotten into it when we were dating, and had gotten so excited he went and bought the first "good" bike he found on sale. However, a few years later, once we were married, he took it to the bike shop and was told that the bike frame was way too big for him. This new explanation confirmed why he never felt comfortable riding (he just thought it was supposed to be uncomfortable).

Well, life changed when we graduated from college, found job, bought a house, and had a baby. Jesse was not spending nearly the amount of time riding, and quite honestly did not enjoy it as much because he was uncomfortable. He sold his bike and all the extras to a friend of ours who is slightly taller than Jesse, and the bike fit him perfectly.

I had thought this was the end of the bike riding era...I should have known better. A few months back, another one of Jesse's friends got into the sport. He put the bug in Jesse's ear, talking about how the three guys could go ride together, on quiet highways on Sundays after church. For those of you who know Jesse, you know that once he gets "the bug" for something, it is only a matter of time before he gives in.

So, the Sunday we left for the cruise, we went by the bike shop and put a deposit on the bike Jesse wanted-- never guaranteeing that we would be back to purchase it. When we got home from the cruise, Jesse started asking me...seriously, every. single. day. Finally after three or four days, I said, "Babe, we have talked about this several times. You already know how I feel. But you clearly have your mind made up, so go do it." (I just thought he should wait a month, since his birthday is in May! No waiting in this family- haha!) No joke, that afternoon he left work and went and paid the rest. All he wanted was "approval," or more specifically, me telling him what he wanted to hear, and it was a done deal.

Jesse has since gone riding both weekends, and really loves his new bike. I'm happy he likes to stay active, running and riding his bike. However, we have since bought a new helmet, new riding jersey, and new shoe "clips"...so happy early birthday, Jesse!

Ryleigh wanted to help Dad...

"See, Dad? Here it is!"

Getting so big!

I can't believe Ryleigh is already 10 months old. The time has flown by! It is strange to think we will soon be celebrating her first birthday...and yet it is very exciting watching her become her own little person.

But frankly, that is what is sad to me. She is becoming her own little person. Every day she looks more and more like a little girl and less like a baby. My baby is growing up!