Burn me once, shame on you, burn me twice, shame on me.

This is just a random post on the happenings of the neighborhood. The Caughran family was just an observer of the events. . .

This past weekend was a nice and relaxing weekend full of golf, chores around the house, the pool and the movies (The Hangover, go see it). But for a friend of mine, it was a very fiery weekend. His first (yes first) bout with fire was with the peaceful sun of a lazy Saturday afternoon. He went to the pool to enjoy a few rays, swim a few laps and take in a good book. What he didn't realize was how relaxing the pool would be. 3 hours later when he awoke from his unplanned slumber, he found that the peaceful sun had cooked him like Kramer on Seinfeld (see pic). But as I stated above, this was only his first bout with fire.

Later that evening while drinking on the back porch, he decided that the stump from the tree he lost in Ike needed to be removed. He didn't have a chain saw or a proper axe, so Diesel was the logical choice. He sent his brother in law to the local dump to get some tree branches and with the diesel he proceeded to make a makeshift fire pit on top of the stump. As the night progressed he continually had to add more diesel and wood to keep the fire going. As the easy, small branches ran out, he had to start breaking larger branches so they would fit in the pit (think burning hole in middle of the grass). He starts to break a large branch by putting his foot on the middle and pulling up on the end. As he is doing this I state to the other observers "That is a bad idea, he is going to pull that branch into his face". Not two seconds later, the branch breaks and instead of hitting himself in the face as I had predicted, he fell backwards stumbling until he fell and rolled through the fire. Don't worry, he didn't get hurt, his base tan from the afternoon protected him.

Just another peaceful weekend at the creek . . .

Big Pimpin'

BC is starting early charming the ladies.

This past weekend BC had his first coed party at his house to commemorate his first Birthday (there were chaperons, what kind of parents do you think we are?). Lucky for him some of his friends (Naaman and Val) hooked him up with his first 6-pack. He didn't hesitate to show it off to the ladies. It instantly attracted two cute twins. For those of you that were not at the party, picture a combination between a Coors light Twins commercial and the E*Trade baby commercial. Needless to say, the boy is a natural ladies man.

Outside of the 6-pack, Colin got a bunch of great gifts from his friends and family. He also got a few digits and with his mom's help, he might be able to line up some play dates in the future.

I did learn that I need to keep an eye on Naaman and Val, because once Colin is a teenager, he will know who to call to get some 6 packs . . .

Birthday Boy!! (May 19th)

Colin had a good 1st birthday. We went out to dinner with my parents since Colin shares a birthday with his Pappy. Colin got his 1st chocolate cupcake. He made a huge mess but I think he had fun doing it. He didn't seem to impressed with the taste although, perhaps it was too sweet or maybe he doesn't like my cooking :( I still have a few things to do for preparation for his party but hopefully it will all come together. We can't wait to see all of our friends and family!

Last Day as an Infant

Today is the last day that Baby Colin is an infant. Tomorrow he reaches his first major milestone in age with his first birthday. It is scary to think it was only 1 year ago today that Lisa was at the pool swimming trying to coerce her body into labor. She got her wish and went into labor the next morning.

But there is one problem. He is not walking yet, and all the neighbor kids are walking and making fun of him. He has less than 24 hours to get from walking behind a toy to walking on his own. So he is going through a boot camp tonight to get him walking.

Lisa has tried to tell me that he was born 3 weeks early, so he still has 3 weeks to learn to walk, but I don't agree with that logic because when he turns 21, he isn't going to want to wait 3 weeks to go to a bar. Therefore, he is going to walk tonight (maybe).

All joking aside, Colin is doing very well. He escaped the swine flu, he is walking behind toys and couch surfing, he has been swimming (in a clean pool), and he has even stolen the attention away from puppies at a pet store with his laughter. He has full clearance to do anything he normally would do at this age.

Lastly, we need our followers help. . .The big debate at the Caughran household is . . . Should Baby Colin eat cake tomorrow night or wait until his birthday party? Please let us know your thoughts by leaving a comment.

DBA

When you talk to anyone that I have worked with and tell them "My sister is a DBA", they think that she is a dork that can fix their database or help them do some SQL scripts. I correct them and tell them that she is not a Database Administrator, but she is a Dr. and has her Doctorate in Business Administration (DBA). They still think she is a dork, but now she is no longer helpful to them.

Yes my sister got her doctorate and leap frogged her husband and siblings with their peon Master's degrees. I was once the crown jewel of the family when I was going to be a doctor, but that dream soon sailed when I realized that I don't like dealing with people and that is all medical doctors do. Amy is now the top dog and the rest of us are all second tier in the education realm.

The challenge has been made. Who is going to go for their doctorate next? Not me, and I hope no one soon. Graduations are boring. I don't know anyone that likes to be in or go to a graduation. As you see in the above pictures, neither I nor Curt found the graduation speaker very entertaining.

I am very proud of my sister that she was able to accomplish a very difficult and taxing degree. She deserves it.

Her students better watch out because you can't question a Dr.

Congrats Dr. Bourne

SWINE FLU

Beware. . . The Caughran family and all our visitors during Colin's Hospital stay may have been exposed to the Swine Flu. According to the Houston Chronicle, the first US death from the swine flu happened in Houston at Texas Children's Hospital. The child was from Mexico and had been visiting Brownsville when he/she got sick and was transferred to TCH on 4/14 (while we were still in the same hospital). Now it is very unlikely that just being in the same building could lead to our infection, but it gets worse. . .

Since baby Colin had a fever for an unknown reason, the ID doctors (Infectious Disease Doctors) were involved in his case. Now I am not an expert on types of doctors, but I assume it is the ID doctors that would be involved on a swine flu case. . .

Da Boy

Baby Colin has spent his first weekend back home from the Hospital and he has made a few new milestones.

First some general updates. He has quickly acclimated to home life again. He is back on his schedule, eating well and sleeping well. He had to suffer through three days of oral antibiotics. I use the term suffer because the medicine smelt like something an animal would produce if it ate only cherries. He still is fever-free.

Now to the milestones.

First: After having zero interest with sippy cups and not drinking anything on his own (he thinks he is special and shouldn't have to learn to drink on his own) he just all of a sudden took the sippy cup with both hands and started to down it. (I think the turning point was when I explained to him that in College you drink a lot, and the ladies will not like him if he has to have his mom feed him beer.)

Second: He is able to walk behind his walker. Prior to the surgery, he would just pull the walker on himself because he was too unstable, but last night he was able to walk behind it for a considerable distance and if he fell or sat down, he was able to stand back up without pulling it on himself. Not that this is that exciting, but we were worried that the surgery would set him back in walking, but it looks like he is picking up right from where he left off.