Ole Brook Festival

Today was the Ole Brook Festival. It's mostly a flea market with lots of carnival type food and live music, but it's so much fun to go. The weather was perfect. This was our town's 150th anniversary. We ate greasy food together. Even Hylan got some. We looked at all the booths, but nothing was that appealing this year, except for some dachsund puppies, but Than told me no. :( We did bring home the best kettle corn ever though. Last night, was the Outdoor/Wildilfe Expo. Xander got to pet a baby alligator and a snake. Hylan petted a turtle. Xander also got a free t-shirt supporting a local politician. It's cute. All in all, we had a great weekend.

Updates

So, updates...

Than and I are once again seriously considering him going back to school. I still don't know if it's the right thing to do, but it almost seems like our only option. We've given ourselves to the end of the year to make a decision.

My mom has completed three of eight chemo treatments. She's doing really well, and the doctors expect her to be totally fine when she's done.

My little brother is getting married in the Columbia River Temple in November, so our entire family is flying out. Somehow, we have come up with the money to go. I have no idea how, but we're excited...except for the 5 hour flight with Xander and Hylan.

Xander knows his colors, shapes, and most numbers (0-10). We didn't know he could recognize numbers until we jokingly told him to turn to a certain channel with the tv remote, and he did it. We have since learned how much he knows. I'm pretty sure he can recognize a couple letters too.

He also said his first prayer a couple weeks ago. "Pray, eat, pray, eat, Amen". He currently enjoys calling me Valerie and Hon because Than does, wrestling with Hylan, and being read to while he turns the pages.

Hylan started scooting today. He's been trying to crawl, and he's been able to get around pretty well, but today he learned a more efficient method. He looked pretty happy. We were excited. His current favorite activities include: laughing hysterically at Xander, tearing up paper, and eating baby snack puffs. He is also now fitting into 12 month clothes. He'll be seven months old tomorrow.

We survived Gustav!

Well, it wasn't as bad as they thought, but our little town ended up being one of the hardest hit in the state. Lucky for us, we were without electicity for less than a day. Alot of other people probably won't get power for several days. Baton Rouge has been a very hard hit area. I'm hoping that the temple didn't flood again, but it's possible. We actually had a friend get married there last Thursday...good thing they didn't wait until Saturday. They wouldn't have been able to get to the temple bc all southbound roads were closed. It's been a very interesting experience. Brookhaven has been trashed in a sense. Louisiana folk don't seem to care too much about littering, so they do it everywhere. Wal-Mart was actually closed today.
It was a bit of an adventure also. We got out a propane lantern, played a couple board games, and got out in the weather a few times because were were stir-crazy. Xander and Hylan loved the wind and rain. Hylan was very interested in it falling on the windows. Xander enjoyed finding out what was battery-operated and what was connected to the wall while the power was out. All the canals and ditches are full or over-flowing. This area hasn't seen this kind of rain in a long time, not even with Katrina. It's actually been kind of neat. Than couldn't work, so I had him home for a four-day weekend... I loved it. Oh yeah, and we got a date in some how. My brother and his fiance babysat for us while we went out. All in all, not a bad weekend.