it's raining, it's pouring

Well, to say we're all a bit water logged here would be an understatement.

But, to be honest, I think it's been absolutely wonderful. Of course, I could have done without the driving rain that forced traffic on 359 down to 25 mph, but in general, the house has been cool and pleasant, Liam's been sleeping until about 9:30 because his room is staying dark and I'm loving how lush and green all my plants are.

You, my friends, shall reap the benefits of our being trapped pretty much at home, because I have taken about 100 pictures in the past 2 days.

Yesterday, my mom, mother-in-law and I headed up to Brookwood for a tutorial and lunch taught by the owner and head pastry chef of Ooh La La in Katy. It was a lot of fun, and after lunch we headed over to the gift shop and greenhouse to do some shopping. Roger (who was beyond thrilled to get to spend the morning at our house watching Liam) loves quirky, weird, irregular plants - as do I, and Brookwood offers a great selection for people like us. Steph and I found these:

Kangaroo's Paw!! I had wanted these SO badly to plant in front of the house, but never found them. I was THRILLED. And not only that, but they had fuschia as well, which is my all time hands down favorite flower/plant. Needless to say, I was a happy girl when we left. Roger and I have decided we need to do some work in my flower beds before Liam's party... wonder what else we'll come up with.

Because it's raining, the backyard is a marsh. Because the backyard is a marsh, Jethro's massive paws are muddy and wet. Because Jethro's massive paws are muddy and wet, he's been spending a lot of time in the kitchen, much to his chagrin:

Liam has been perfectly happy to stay at home, play and watch movies these past few days.

{he was giving me an earful, the picture cracks me up}

{when i told him he couldn't come outside with me (raining!) while i took a picture of my plant}

{i caved: he was happy to come out, sit in the drizzle and play. and i let him}

TODAY was a FABULOUS day, though, because my FIL, Roger, got UNPLUGGED for what we hope is the LAST time ever! Today concluded his last chemotherapy treatment! Heavens be praised! Now we just hope and pray and hope and pray that he's actually clean this time so we can start the process of moving on. Roger's been battling this cancer for quite nearly 3 years at this point: by the time he's actually done with everything (God willing, this time) he will have been "sick" for over 3 years. It's been a long journey, I pray he's nearly there!!

To celebrate, we decided to go out to lunch at La Cocina (it's oh, a building down from Zach's place of business)... no worries! I decided, since it wasn't raining hard, and the danged weather people said it was going to be light until after lunch time, to go ahead with the much blogged about "curl down" technique and give my hair some sass today. Yeah. Deluge, party of me?

I got s-o-a-k-e-d. My hair- got wrecked. Oh well, I post the following unflattering picture to show me and Liam in our matching Target baby blue tees. Target rocks.

Oh. EXCEPT. It was 11:30, and I was going to let my dogs - who had been outside for 2 hours- in the house to put them away so I could leave for lunch. I let them in, went to open the gate, went through it, turned around and saw Shiner empty her bladder all over my kitchen floor. I'll just say it was a darned good thing for her I was headed out the door because I was seeing red I was so mad. Still am seething a little bit. Then when I went to pull out on 723, I got behind a lady in a red Corvette- excellent, I thought, because she'll at least drive. Oh no. She went 40 on a 60 road. Messing with her danged phone the WHOLE time- I could see it- and then when we were right by Rolling Oaks, just passing an entrance into the neighborhood, she slammed on her breaks and pulled the wonkiest u-turn to get back to it ever. I had to swerve onto the shoulder to avoid missing her. Hello, you stupid blonde a-hole, I have my angel baby in the car, I am in my mom's old Explorer, with it's high center of gravity- not your low, wide wheel base. Your stupidity with your phone in your car is not only a danger to YOUR life, but also to mine and my SON's. I screamed more profanity at her than I have in a long time. Seriously, people, WTF?

{seriously, i love this picture. i love this face. i love my boy!}

{trying to get a good picture of his shirt...meh}

The hubbers outdid himself tonight with his Bobby Flay inspired Tikka Masala-- we love Bobby's Throwdown show, and last week they did Chicken Tikka Masala, and Zach lapped up the episode and we decided to give it a go tonight. Um, yummmm. Of course, Zach followed in TRUE Bobby fashion and put in too much of the chile pepper, but live and learn, right? Seriously good, though, folks! He's getting pretty handy with this Indian food.

{i took the shoulder straps off his high chair so he could sit up at the table with us. i think it worked out well.}

This next photo is for my dad to see-- his little toothy nubbins!! SORRY about the bib, Daddy-o, it was the ONLY one I had clean besides my Rob Zombie "spookshow baby" bib, and he's not allowed to wear that while he's eating because it's precious to me. Yep. If you click on the picture, you can make it bigger and really see what I mean: at least they're through now and we won't be battling the gum bleeds with those anymore.

And, lastly, our 4th of July plans went down the d-r-a-i-n. We were going to leave tomorrow morning for our big Kennedy family trip to Rockport, but Dr. Clark is on call this weekend and there are patients that need medication over the weekend, and thus, we are forced to stay here so the puppies and kitties have their doctor to give them their medicine. We figured it's for the best. Liam isn't himself with the teething and the last thing that would be fun for him is to go down to the coast and be cooped up in a smaller place than home due to rain for a weekend. Besides, we were going to miss out on the real 4th of July festivities because the good Doc has 2 surgeries scheduled for Monday morning, so we were going to have to drive back Sunday for work Monday anyway. Some people don't have desk jobs they can skip away from any time they feel like it, and it doesn't really bother me that we're staying around here because of it. We're going to Port Aransas in September, anyhow, for Zach's Continuing Education "CE by the Sea" conference. Just the 3 of us. So THERE.

I think that's all for now- I still have my dear Burberry wellies to go rinse off- they smell! I hope you all have a fun, safe and most of all DRY 4th of July weekend...

and just think of it this way...

Mother Nature is just trying to make sure everything's good and wet for all the fireworks this weekend-- no scorching!