Wreck 'Em

...Kate visiting my office as a Tech pom girl for Halloween. We had been telling everyone she was going to be a cowgirl, but only to keep the element of surprise for my very Tech-centered office. She was a big hit, and as is evident, thoroughly enjoyed herself. She managed to give a good "Guns Up," participated in a cheer, played with pom-poms, and even did her super-excited neck-flex face. Seriously, the kid is just more fun than a barrell of monkeys. So, from Baby Kate to all of you, "Wreck 'Em!!!!"

Who Knew Hell Ponies Could Find Their Way To Lubbock?

...a visit from Kate's "Uncle" Jason. I say "Uncle" because really he's Kate's cousin, but we prefer using Aunt and Uncle with our family members. Jason was in town because his band was playing a concert that night, which, since his nights start a little later than ours, came over and hung out, had dinner, and got some down time before he had to go on stage. It was great to have a family member in Lubbock, and equally great to be able to have a conversation with Jason. I always enjoy talking to him about religion, politics, and conspiracy theories. Unfortunately because of his band's touring schedule we don't get to see him very often...usually only Thanksgiving and Christmas. If you ever get a chance to catch Jason and his band live, they put on a great show; and if you can't, let me recommend buying his latest album "Comal County Blues."

Thanks for coming to see us Uncle Jason!

What's a Week Between Friends?

....our trip to Oklahoma City to see U2 last weekend. It seems like all of our posts have been about a week behind lately, but hey, what's a week between friends right? We don't take many nights away from Baby Kate, but when we do we make them count. The concert was the best one I've ever been to, hands down. We even got to see the Black Eyed Peas, who opened for them that night. I would have never cared to see the Black Eyed Peas in concert, but they were fun and sounded good. U2 was a blast and Bono's voice got stronger and stronger as the night went on. He was every bit the front-man I expected and put on a great show. Here are a few pictures I took that night.

the stage before the concert started. You can see the 360 degree screen (silver) just below the main structure of the "rocket ship." The ship was as tall as OU's football stadium. I would not have wanted to change a light bulb in that thing!


As you can see the screen could also be stretched out during a song--very cool.



Can I be Bono when I grow up?

...a trip to Uncle Jason & Aunt Kaci's place last weekend. Kate got to see her Aunt, Uncle, and cousins Kason & Krece. She loved it at their house, especially since she spent most of the visit outside with animals. Here are some pics from the day...


Krece thought it was okay if Kate sat on the tractor, but that she was too little to drive it. Can you tell they're all related?!


Uncle Jason needed some help turning the horses out.



This is what it looks like when you are not real happy your daddy is carrying a girl to turn the horses out...at least Granny was there to stop the tears.

A Boo

...a saying between our friend Stephanie and us. We typically say, "a boo" when something doesn't go right. Well, something is definitely not going right for Kate. For a while Kate has had some unexplained illnesses. Sometimes she just has a fever and sometimes it's full blown puking. Well, about 2 months ago the fever would just not go away. We took her to the pediatrician a couple of times and they decided to test her for a UTI. Initial results revealed nothing but when the cultures came back they found lots and lots of ecoli growing in her pee. To make a long story short, and to skip explaining the terrible tests she had done, Kate has reflux in her ureters (the tubes that carry pee from the kidneys to the bladder). That means that once her pee gets down to her bladder it goes all the way back up to her kidneys. It can be a very dangerous situation and cause kidney damage. It comes in varying degrees and Kate's is pretty bad. Because of that, she is going to have to have surgery to fix the problem. They have to move her ureters down farther into her bladder and fix the openings of her ureters. We are finding out that it is quite a surgery. She will have a pretty big incision and will be out of school for 4-6 weeks (she is NOT going to like missing school). She will be having the surgery the Tuesday before Thanksgiving. That also means that we will not be home for Thanksgiving this year. So we have been saying "a boo" a lot lately. Everything should turn out fine but please keep sweet Baby Kate in your prayers.
A boo.

More Pumpkins, Different Farm

....a trip to a different pumpkin farm/corn maze place. We decided to visit this one while in Oklahoma for the U2 concert tomorrow night! We rode a train, went on a hay-ride, rode a carousel horse, picked pumpkins, visited the animal barn, and of course took pictures.

Family Saturday, the Afternoon Part 2

...some grilled corn. Kate had already had a lunch (and a snack) but she was eager to eat my grilled corn. It was a little tough for her so she munched on a hot dog. We had the best time.

Family Saturday, the Afternoon

...Michael coming home earlier in the week and announcing that we would be doing something fun on Saturday and that we had never done it before. At first I could not figure out what we were going to do. This is Lubbock, after all, and I figured we had done everything there is to do here. I was wrong. After Kate took a long nap after the parade we put her in the car once again and took a short ride to the Raider Red Corn Maze. It was even colder by this time than it was at the parade but Kate didn't care. She just loves to be outside. She played with pumpkins (one of her favorite things to do right now--they have been playing with them at school) and we went through the maze. We also shared some grilled corn and it was yummy. We really had a great day.

Family Saturday, the morning

....a day planned with fun family stuff to do, with no dissertation or work to interfere. We started with Tech's homecoming day parade. It was cold and gray, the coldest October 10th in Lubbock history, but we knew the Goin' Band would be worth the weather. So, we all bundled up and headed to campus. Kate got to see her friends Stephanie and Jon Mark, horses, the band, and dogs. For our Oklahoma readers, yes, that is a statue of Will Rogers above. I love the fact there is a statue of a famous Oklahoman on Tech's campus, and is the main feature of our main entrance to campus. A fun Tech fact: Will Roger's horse, Soapsuds, was positioned so that his hind quarters are pointed directly at Texas A&M in College Station.

We will have pictures posted later of our trip to the corn maize and pumpkin patch!



the parade had already started, but was going on behind her. She was smiling and pointing at two dogs who came to watch the parade.


watching the Goin' Band

Pigtails and Tutus

...Kate playing with a tutu and getting her hair done by mommy! On Monday night we were having family dance time (Sophie and Stanley just roll their eyes at us now) and decided to put Kate's tutu on for fun. She enjoyed it and she looked so stinking cute. However, we have come to the conclusion that she is just not a girly girl. Don't get me wrong, she likes to look fabulous, but she's just not the princess type. Even my mom now says that frilly stuff just doesn't look right on her. I agree but the tutu may be an exception. She had fun in it and that is all that matters.

Tonight we decided to take her to her first girls volleyball game at Tech. If you've been around us much you have heard us joke about Kate getting a volleyball scholarship to Stanford. Well if her level of enjoyment tonight is any indication then we might be on the right track. She sat perfectly still for an hour and a half with her eyes intently watching the match. She paid no attention to the cheerleaders right in front of us (although she did see her friend Josh the cheer coach and she ALWAYS loves to see him--he works in Daddy's office). All of the warm-up volleyballs were just to our right and Kate wanted them BAD. She kept saying "ball" and smiling. I don't know much about sports but I think I'm about to learn! I fixed her hair for the game tonight and she had dog ears for the first time. Sooooooo cute.

2nd Annual Grandma Debbie Day! part 3

....the finish line. Since Kate started walking last week we thought it would be meaningful to have her walk across the finish line on her own. As you can see, she was very proud of finishing the race. Such a big girl.

2nd Annual Grandma Debbie Day! part 2

....our Lubbock Team Magnolia teammates (we had 3 not pictured--Candice, who raced with us today, and Kim and Megan who were both out of state today). Of course I can't forget our other teammates who have donated to our race or are racing in Oklahoma City next weekend. Thank you all!

We took so many pictures today we have at least a couple of more posts to go. For Grandma Debbie Day we woke up early, went to the race, ate some chocolate, went to Barnes & Noble and read children's books to Kate, took a nap, ate pizza for dinner, and watched the OU vs. Miami football game. All things, I believe, paid homage to my mom. Maybe the only glaring omission was not reading an Agathe Christie novel. Hercule Peroit anyone? Murder on the Orient Express maybe? Anyway, we had a great day, but I'm getting ahead of myself, because I have more posts to go. So, here is our team just before the race got started...it was low 50's, cloudy, windy, and cold this morning--but we all made the most of it.

Kate, Stephanie, Amanda and me in our team shirts


Zach, Leah--who by the way, came out to race after working a 12 hour shift at the hospital and had to go back tonight; thanks for coming out today (I hope that's how you spell your name Leah!)--and Golden Retriever Remi


Remi's close-up


Kate's new best-friend, Remi...Remi, I hope you're okay with me posting so many photos of you on our blog. Thanks for racing with us today Remi

2nd Annual Grandma Debbie Day!

...our desire to keep Michael's mom's memory alive so that Kate would know as much about her as possible. We have decided to celebrate her life every year in conjunction with Race for the Cure. Today was Lubbock's race and it was great. Lubbock's goal was to raise $400,000 and last time I checked they had raised over $433,000. Over 8,500 people showed up this morning to celebrate Grandma Debbie Day with us (at least that's what we told Kate). It was pretty cold so we opted to do the 1 mile fun run rather than the 5K. We were just thinking of Kate (right!). We had some great friends racing with us as part of Team Magnolia (and several others that were out of town but still part of the team). Here are a few pictures of how the day started. As you can see Kate was pretty excited.


My sweet friend Dawn from high school made these adorable post-it note pads for all the team members. She is so sweet and talented. There is a link to her blog on the right hand side of ours.