Carter, the football player!

Carter has just begun playing football and he loves it! He has played soccer for years and people always tell us 'he needs to play football'! So we finally decided to have him play flag this season. My friend Kay took these great pictures and I had to post them! Thanks Kay!!

Kiersten

Fascinating Hurricane Story

As the wife of a builder, I was highly interested in this story and thought I would share. Though it has been on lots of shows as well as on many online news sites and blogs so you may have heard about it. But look at that ONE house? The entire neighborhood in Gilchrist, Texas was flattened by Ike, roughly 200 homes. Yet this one stood. So who can't help but wonder why?

This family's home was destroyed by Rita in 2005. So they rebuilt at the same site in 2006 and built it to withstand a category 5 storm. Seems to have worked pretty well! Though as I research this a bit more, I have learned that they still had a lot of internal water damage and this home is uninhabitable. Considering the area, that doesn't seem surprising nor a failure though, don't you think? I can't help but wonder how this builder and/or the structural engineer are going to prosper after this? If YOU were going to rebuild in this area, who would you hire? Pretty exciting for that team!

Sadly, this family is devestated by their area and having to endure yet a second major loss. They were only able to move back into their home last April. They love the beach and said their home may still be a loss because of the massive interior damage. I personally can't imagine any view being worth all this. They are unsure at this point if the county will let them move back into this area since it is so badly devestated and they are now in yet another rental until they can decide how to move forward.

I didn't stumble upon any article that talked to the builder or engineer (okay, I didn't look that hard so it could be out there) but again, I'm excited for them as I do hope they prosper from obviously seeing their extra efforts pay off for this client. They must be very proud and deserve to be. Too bad water can still get in though . . . seems the efforts still aren't truly good enough for mother nature.

A few simple standards

We all have our own routines and personal grooming essentials. I'm kinda a freak when it comes to shaving and shave every single day, regardless. Others, perhaps don't do that. But there is a 'standard' that you shave when you at least need to. There are other standards for a normal girl and one would certainly be keeping your feet as smooth as you can. I'll say it. Mine aren't always perfect. It in fact annoys the HECK out of me when a slight crack shows on my heal and I buff the heck out of it and use my awesome little pedegg. I get pedicures often but even if you can't do that, buffers and vaseline are NOT that expensive. So there's no excuse. I can't stand it when they are rough at all and do my best to maintain.

So, imagine my horror while I was in New York at, get this, a Style Network makeover center, surrounded by women like me who were put together but sure, I'd love a makeover or to have my hair done! And THIS is what I saw.

Seriously, how disgusting is that? She otherwise seemed pulled together and had been in and out of the makeover area a few times, leading me to believe that she had an association with the network. I was just amazed at this and had to take a picture! HOW can she walk around like this? I mean, wouldn't it hurt??? I am stumped at how anyone could not deal with that . . . EEEEWWWWW.

I'll post pictures of our makeover another day! Fun!

I'm heading to NYC this week!

I am so excited to go to New York City this week with my friend Julie! This trip began because we wanted to see Wicked. The show came to Orlando but the tickets were very over priced for the Bob Carr Theater and we decided if we were going to spend too much money on this show, we should spend it on travel to see the Broadway show!

We decided we might as well see as many shows as we can so we started looking at other shows. Rent is closing this Sunday after 12 years on Broadway so we decided we had to see that since we will be there just a few days before their last curtain.

We bought tickets to these shows since they do sell out but we will go to the TKTS booth and get tickets to another show as well.

Both the music of Wicked and Rent are amazing and I know I am going to enjoy both shows immensely!

Kiersten