The greatest Rug in the World

For those of you that don't know, Lisa has been slowly furnishing our house and is on the verge of completing the living room. More than a year after buying couches, we bought a coffee table and two end tables. I thought going to every furniture store in Houston multiple times to look at coffee tables was bad, but little did I know . . .

After we got the tables, Lisa decided we really needed a rug. So we returned to all the same furniture stores to look at their rugs. If you have ever shopped for rugs, you know that it is quite a hassle to look at them when stacked or hanging. Lisa eventually picked one from Lowes. We bought it, brought it home and decided it was too small. They didn't have a larger one in the same style, so we bought the size we wanted in a different pattern to see if we liked the size. We liked the size, but wanted the first pattern. After some research on lowes.com we found that the Lowes in Austin had the one Lisa wanted (Note: lowes.com is very difficult to use as you have to go to each lowes location to search for items, and there is no way to search all locations for an item.) We try to order it online, but it wont let us since we live too far from Austin. Lisa calls and they inform her that they will not ship it to Houston or transfer it to a Houston Lowes location. They say our only option is to go to Austin to pick it up.

I immediately say no. There is no way we are driving to Austin to get a rug. This was a mistake. I suggest we find a similar rug in Houston, so we visit the same stores again to find a rug, but Lisa is set on the Lowes Rug in Austin. Did I mention it is the only store in Texas that has the rug and they happen to have three of them?

I eventually give in after wasting time at other furniture stores and we decide to go to Austin. (Note: I also tried to get a co-worker to get it on one of his trips to Austin, but his car is too small). We rationalize the trip with the idea that we will stop to see the sites, have a picnic and visit the blue bell factory.

Saturday morning we head out for Austin on 290. Along the way we call the Blue bell factory to see when the tours are etc. They inform us that they don't have tours on weekends and the store closes early. It also starts to rain or I mean pour. Halfway there BC finally falls asleep. I had been drinking a diet DP and needed to go to the restroom, but since BC was sleeping, Lisa didn't want to stop and wake him and was going to force me to pee in a bottle. Well as I am driving I decide to attempt to use the bottle, but Lisa says no and lets me exit to use the restroom. BC does wake up and doesn't go back to sleep. We uneventfully get the rug from lowes and try to use the Garmin to find a local Austin restaurant to take advantage of being out of town. After a few u-turns and Restaurants that only exist in the Garmin universe, we give up and go to a Waffle house we saw on the way into town.

As we are eating in the waffle house, a curmudgeon looking man comes into the restaurant with a trach. I go to point him out to Lisa as he walks up and "pets" the boy's head and says how cute he is. This is kind of freaky since he is a stranger and that he has to plug his trach with his finger to talk. He finally goes to his seat. He says something to me and I nod politely. Then all of a sudden he is next to me again to show me pictures of his kids and grand kids. I politely look at the pictures and comment about how lucky he is etc. As he is standing there, BC is not happy and is in fact quite terrified of the creepy old dude that is spitting through a tube in his neck. I mean BC is screaming and trying as hard as he can to get out of his high chair into Lisa's lap. Lisa is doing all that she can to consul him, but the creepy guy doesn't even notice or take the hint to go away when Lisa and I mention that he is scaring the child. He eventually left and BC calmed down.

We drive back to Houston in the rain and it only clears up as we get on beltway 8.

After all this we finally put the rug in the living room and That rug really ties the room together ***Warning: Clip contains foul language***

Finally we are done . . . What we need lamps now???

Trees are out to get us

Lisa must have really PO'd mother nature recently (or I did) because she (mother nature) has been taking out her anger on the Caughran family this past week.

Some background: A few weeks back Mother nature tried to electrocute us, but she missed and hit our neighbors' trees across the street with lightning. We thought we dodged a bullet, but little did we know that she had backup plans. Well needless to say the lightning killed the trees and our responsible neighbor had their tree cut down so that it would not do damage to their property. Well in the course of them protecting themselves, mother nature decided it was her chance to get us, and when the tree fell it hit our live oak taking out a big chunk of the limbs. That was mother natures first successful attack on us this week.

Then this past weekend the clan took a day trip to Austin (story to follow later this week). Upon our return to the house Lisa slammed on the breaks in the driveway and put the car in reverse so that we could get a better look at something on the side of the house. Low and behold, a tree had fallen on our house while we were gone. This was mother natures second successful strike of revenge.

From our responsible neighbors that sacrificed our safety for their own: "Seriously, what'd you do to tick off all the trees around the neighborhood? Better hope my next door neighbor's pine doesn't come down, b/c I'm pretty sure it'll find a way to end up in your front yard."

Here is a pic of the carnage.



Does anyone know how to appease Trees/mother nature? We need to do something soon before one of our pines takes out half the house.

Reality TV . . . Dangerous?

Is Reality TV dangerous to the Caughran family? It depends on who you ask and what show you are referring to. Recently I have noticed an unsettling trend with Lisa, BC, and me. We are emulating what we see on reality TV. All three of us are victims to it.

A couple of days ago, Lisa and I watched "The Biggest Loser" (one of our favorite shows). And after watching the show, I had to work out. There is something about sitting for 2 hours watching people work out and lose weight that makes you feel bad if you don't work out as well.

Now I usually try to work out daily, so I wasn't concerned with this. But last night another show influenced our behavior. Lisa and I watched "Hoaders". It is a show about people that hoard things and shows them trying to clean up after the state gets involved or a threat of eviction. Immediately after watching the show, Lisa and I looked around the TV room with BC's toys everywhere and we had to clean up.

So for the two past days we have been influenced by TV. I'll admit we took the good parts from the show, but I am worried if this trend continues we might run into trouble emulating Survivor, the bachelor, or any VH1 show.

***Update*** Last night I was surfing through the channels and saw "18 and Counting" on the Duggars and their 18+ kids. Needless to say I did not stay on that channel. . .

Goals

This will be a short post and wont be routed through Lisa for approval.

Goals, we all set them for ourselves, our family and our children. This Post is about a new goal I am setting for the boy. We already have the usual goals for him, do well in school, go to college, play sports, marry a beautiful woman, but I have a new unique goal for him. I can't help him with this goal, but his Pappy can . . .

I want BC to kill a 12 foot alligator by the time he is 5.


Article

From KTRK ABC13: LIVINGSTON, TX (KTRK) -- The catch of the day was just up the Eastex Freeway in Livingston.

Five-year-old Simon Hughes is a real-life gator slayer. Simon didn't even flinch when he and his dad came across a huge alligator. The pipsqueak hunter from Polk County grabbed his gun and shot and killed the 12-foot long monster.

This gator was just five inches shorter than the Texas record, and that's got Simon determined to do it again.

"I wasn't even afraid," said Simon. "Next year I'm going to kill me a bigger alligator."

Simon weighs about 40 pounds, without the gun. The alligator weighs 800. That's 20 times his size.

The next Zach Morris

Another weekly update from the Caughran Clan. As you have read from our previous posts, BC has been going to Mother's day out at our Church (yup we go to Church now). He has really taken to going to "school" and being social. Each time he goes, he seems to be gaining more confidence and personality. When we first dropped him off he would cry as he walked into the room. Now he runs right in and goes straight to playing with the toys. According to the teachers he is a great eater (eats with a fork) and a great napper (once Lisa told them to give him his Pooh bear).

The odd thing is that they say he has been silent. Silent?!?! That boy never stops making noise at the house or blabbering about something. I even posted before that he baby curses, and the teachers say he has never even made one noise at class.

Well silence is slowly becoming a thing of the past. In addition to running into the class, he now socializes frequently. He may even be getting to the point of being the next Zach Morris (From saved by the bell for you old fogies). He doesn't talk to an imaginary camera or anything, but he is a future lady charmer.

***Update from Today's Class***

The teacher said he brought her a ball and said "ball" and threw it at her.

Here is a recent picture before class that Lisa took of him.









Now we just need to get him one of those phones . . .

Months?

At what point do you no longer count a child's age in months? Lisa and I have been meeting many new people lately and they always ask "how old is that kid?" Lisa or I typically say 15 months, 15 and a half months, or 16 months (depending on when they asked and if we were rounding). Typically the men laugh that we still count in months and not years at this point. I typically blame the blog since there is a age counter, but in reality I do still count in months with or without the blog.

So back to my question, when are you supposed to stop? I know for weeks you usually stop around 8 weeks/2 months. For months, I think I am going to stop at 18 months. 1 and a half seems like a good point. I feel that there is such a difference between a 1 year old and a 1.5 year old that it is worth specifying. Now I could be wrong, but I doubt much changes from 18-24 months.

As a rationalization for counting months, I look to the methods used by child care. The child care at mother's day out has the toddlers broken out by 3 month intervals to separate all the 1 year olds so that a 13 month old and a 19 month old are not in the same class. If they do that, there must be a difference and a necessity to count in months.

At some point you also stop counting in years and switch to decades or in my mother-in-laws case, half centuries.

Little Swimmer

This week is Colin's second big week in the last two. Last week was his first day at mother's day out. As you saw in the pictures he cried a little bit when we dropped him off, but before I get into this week, I have a theory as to why he was crying.

It was a Thursday and I (the dad) was home and riding with him in the car to take him somewhere. Now from his perspective, every time dad stayed home and went with him somewhere, something bad happens to him. First trip to the Doctor, Shots, Surgery, Bladder tests. Needless to say, he was very whinny and easily crying before we even got to the car or to the church. Once we got to Mothers day out and he realized the teachers were not nurses and no one had any needles he quickly enjoyed himself. His teachers reported that he had lots of fun and he was good on his second day.

Now for the big week. As you guessed from the title, BC is making a second attempt at swimming lessons (the first week was canceled because lightning caused too many missed classes). Now I thought I had heard BC yell and scream before, but I was kidding myself. I went to his second lesson last night and that boy has some lungs. He seems to be progressing (not that I really have any idea what progress in survival swimming looks like). The teacher also said that he is stubborn and doesn't want to do things her way. She is going to break him of that, but I think it is going to be a running theme in his childhood that Lisa and I are going to be working on defeating his stubbornness.

Also another random update: I think BC curses. He gets very frustrated at times and says gibberish in a angry manner. I think it is baby cursing.

Lisa will post a brief video of a swimming lesson in the next couple of days.