UPDATE:
On Monday, I got pooped on. No joke. So last Monday, Sam got pooped on. This Monday, I got pooped on. Next Monday, Dan had better watch out!

The Houston Zoo was free on Monday for Presidents' Day so Sam and I went to check things out. It was jam packed with annoying teenagers and lots of strollers (yes, I'm guilty) so it was kind of hard to see the more popular animals, but we had a great time! Sam liked the giraffes and meerkats. He also liked some kind of crazy looking bird. Most of the other animals were just sitting there so they didn't really hold Sam's attention. The birds wanted to leave a token of their love with Sam and it landed right smack dab on the top of his head. I looked down as I was walking to the parking lot to see that Sam had bird poop right on the spot of his head where there's a hole in the helmet. Buried deep into his hair. Thanks, birds. I wish I had my camera. It's true that Sam's my child. He's got my same stroke of luck. I've gotten pooped on far too many times! At least my luck isn't as bad as this kid's.

We visited the neurosurgeon this week and he said Sam's head is looking great! He may only have to wear the helmet for 6 more weeks, but just in case, I'm still not getting my hopes up.

I got an ad in the mail for a place called Value Village. They had a picture of this lady wearing a cute dress and a coupon that said 50% of all clothes! I have been wanting to get a dress and still have some Christmas money so I thought this would be perfect. I mapped it all out and drove the 20 minutes to get there (even though it's only 6 miles - have I mentioned how I hate Houston traffic?). I lugged Sam out of the car, put him in the stroller, wheeled him in, and smelled that familiar smell from my youth... It was a thrift store! What the heck?? I was so bummed. That ad was so deceptive. Now, don't get me wrong, I used to be a huge thrift store fan and still like going there to look for things like furniture, etc. I still have a Star Wars shirt that I got at a Salvation Army in 6th grade for a quarter. But I felt betrayed. I rummaged through some books and picked out a few, but saw that the checkout line was miles long and decided to leave. Never to return.

Sam will be 9 months on Wednesday and is doing great. Still no teeth and not crawling, but that's fine with me! He loves bathtime and has graduated from the small plastic tub to the real deal. He rolls around in there long after the water has drained. He loves it!

Notice the helmet head.

He's also a really great eater. If he likes the food, he'll just sit there with his mouth wide open like a bird.

Happy Valentine's Day!

Dan and I had a pretty normal day yesterday. Dan made me a blueberry muffin breakfast (okay, that's not really normal) and I went to a rehearsal for a church function. Later Dan and I went to the design studio to pick out things for our house: cabinets, countertops, flooring, etc. It was kind of overwhelming, but now that it's over, we're excited to see what it all is going to look like! My parents might be the only ones, but just in case you're interested, here's the combo for the kitchen. That wood isn't going in the kitchen, it's going in the living room right off the kitchen.

Our tile flooring will be laid out in a pattern like this:

This is the combo for the master bath:

And this is for the bathrooms upstairs:

After that, we came home so Sam could take a nap. Then we went out to Red Robin for some gourmets burgers, fries, and a wonderful chocolate shake. It was a nice day. Dan bought me a beautiful rose and I made him some cookies.

Just in case you're wondering, Nelson County High School's parent-teacher conferences have been rescheduled from Feb. 11th to Feb. 25th. How would I know this, you ask? Somehow I wound up on their phone tree automated calling list.

It all started about a month ago when my phone rang at 4:45 in the morning. I stumbled up to answer it, thinking that someone had died.

"Hello??"

A robotic woman's voice:"Hello. This is a message informing you that Nelson County Schools will be closed today due to inclement weather. Goodbye."

What the heck??

The next day I got a call telling me that schools were delayed 2 hours. Dan kept telling me to call someone and get off the list but I forgot. Until I got ANOTHER call at 4:45 in the morning letting me know that, once again, schools would be closed due to icy conditions.

Finally I remembered to call them. I wasn't sure exactly who to call, so I called the Superintendent's office. I spoke with the secretary. After explaining that I've been getting calls about their schools... and I live in Texas (she broke out laughing) the lady told me that she'd fix it. I thought she had until that all-too-familiar number showed up on my phone again!!!

How can I make it stop? I'm afraid I'll be getting calls like this every winter until I change numbers.

In other news, today I took my very first trip ever to an IKEA. Holy cow it was huge. I spent 1 hour in there and could have stayed so much longer but Sam let me know that he was ready to go.

Have I mentioned that I hate Houston driving? Today I ran over an entire tire on my way to IKEA going 60 or so MPH. As far as I can tell, the car is okay. But it was kind of scary. I'm pretty sure it went right between the tires because it didn't feel like I ran over it with a tire. I just heard one thump.

Lastly, I've been trying to take a cute picture of Sam for Regis and Kelly's Beautiful Baby Contest but he keeps making funny faces. I think he's teething because he always rubs his toungue on his gums like this:

Copper, Copper, Party Stopper

This week Dan and I had to go up to our future home area to finish signing some more papers. When we got to the developers office, the people who are buying the lot next door to us where there, too. Our future neighbors. Turns out that they are both cops. This can either be a really great thing, or a really not-so-great thing. He doesn't really look like a cop. He's got a goatee and an earring. So we think he must do undercover stuff.

Here's a picture of what our house is going to look like: dark shutters, red brick, and tan colored trim and garage. It's pretty similar to my parents' house. Dan likes the classic Virginia style. So we introduced ourselves and they seem really nice. But just to be paranoid and to freak ourselves out, Dan and I rented "Lakeview Terrace" from Redbox. It's a movie about an interracial couple who buys a house next to a psycho cop played by Samuel L. Jackson. Turns out Sammy L. is really a racist lunatic who wants to destroy their lives. So yes, we're really excited to have cops next door! (By the way, we wouldn't recommend the movie. It has some soxuality. That's right. Soxuality. We don't say s-e-x.)
Friday night we tried out a Greek restaurant called Niko Niko's. Dan got a gyro (pronounced euro - um... why did I not know that before?) and I got a souvlaki sandwich. SOO good. We'll be back. Mos def.

Saturday we went to the park. It was about 70 degrees and gorgeous! Sam really only handles the swing for like 3 minutes and then he's done. Everything else there is too big for him so we went and lounged on the grass for a while. Here's a picture of when I took Sam to the park earlier this week. I didn't want his head to get burned on the top so I put a hat on him. But the only hats that fit are adult hats. He didn't mind. To compensate for our first DVD rental, we rented another movie: Fireproof. Yahoo users gave it an "A" so we thought that was a good sign. It has Kirk Cameron in it. He was on "Growing Pains" back in the day but now you see him a lot on Christian TV channels. It was a cheesy movie and the acting wasn't that great, but I liked it. It made me happy and mushy.