last day of 2008

Today is New Year's Eve. Shelli and I will have my parents visiting over the next few days. It will be good to see them and, of course, for them to spend time with Kailey.

I have been in West Texas for a few days hunting at a deer lease with my brother-in-law and father-in-law. We had a very good hunt.

More West Texas pictures are at:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/michaelandshelli/sets/72157611873126043/detail/

Pictures From Christmas 2008

Is it really almost Christmas?!?

This last month has gone by so fast. I've taken way too much time away from my postings on the Blog. Thanksgiving was great. We spent most of it in Mississippi with family. Since then, we have bounced between various holiday parties, Christmas shopping, and a trip to Washington DC.

Some pictures of Kailey in late November with "Monty the Monkey" are at:

http://flickr.com/photos/michaelandshelli/sets/72157610959576697/detail/

This is one of them:

Next, it was time for the CITGO Christmas party. It was at the Downtown Houston Aquarium. These pictures are at:

http://flickr.com/photos/michaelandshelli/sets/72157611543680754/detail/

Next, I had to spend the week in Washington DC for work. Kailey didn't make the trip with me, but Shelli was able to come for a few days. These pictures are at:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/michaelandshelli/sets/72157611472160001/

Finally, we have to talk for a minute about the important stuff...What is Kailey doing now? She keeps adding words, sentences, and understanding to her personality. She helps keep Bailey's dog food bowl full and has become quite handy with letting him in and out of the back door. To our delight, she has learned a very important word, "yes". This has been a great compliment to what was her favorite word, "no". With Christmas just a few days away, I should have another picture-full update shortly.

From our house to all of our friends and family; Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays!

new picture

Big Bend - 2008

I spent this weekend in Big Bend National Park. This was my second trip to the park. While it was a long drive (over 600 miles, each way, from Houston) and was a bit cold (had ice in the tent on Saturday morning), we had a good time.

We hiked to the top and then the bottom of Window Falls. It is a 200' tall waterfall in the park.

This is from the top:and this is the view from the bottom:

I spent the next day hiking The Lost Mine Trail while the rest of the crew tackled Casa Grande. These peaks were around 7,000'. This is me at the end of the trail. Casa Grande is just over my left shoulder.

We covered almost 20 miles of hiking during the weekend. Of course, I will have a few more pictures uploaded soon at the Flickr page: http://www.flickr.com/photos/michaelandshelli/

Kailey and Shelli are both doing great. I'll try to get some more posted later this week.

Pictures - October '08

More are at:

http://flickr.com/photos/michaelandshelli/sets/72157608604020914/detail/

Pictures!

The Pumpkin Patch Farm:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/michaelandshelli/sets/72157607923565283/

And the local duck pond:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/michaelandshelli/sets/72157607923001905/

What is Kailey up to now?

She has picked up the skill to:

*point her index finger when asked how old she is.
*toss both arms over her head when told to exclaim"touchdown".
*will say "aawww" when she sees a baby or hugs.
*she will go to her chair when we say it's dinner time and towards her tub at bath time.


Oh, and she loves being able to play with the ducks at the park:

Kailey is 17 months old today!!!

September 23, 2008

Hello.... Hard to believe, but Miss Kailey is almost 17 months old! From the non-Kailey-news, I have begun my new job at CITGO as a Feedstock Trader. There is a lot to learn, but I like the challenge and the change.

Now, back to the important stuff....we spent last weekend in San Antonio. Saturday was spent at Sea World. Pics are below:

Then we played outside when we got back home:

And ate dinner before it was finally "night night time":

Pics

The sky just a few hours before Hurricane Ike came to Katy:

Some landscape impacts from Ike:

Re: Ike aftermath

My power came back on at 1230 today. It was out for about 90 hours. The generator is now off!


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Ike aftermath

Good evening everyone....it's Monday night. Kailey is asleep. Shelli is reading, and I am watching tv. It's great; I can either watch two of our spanish tv stations, one local channel with continuous hurricane coverage, or one channel that may or may not be a local channel.....the reception is just that bad.

Ok, so the facts....
Our power has been off for 74 hours. It went off Friday evening around 1900. We have run my generator constantly since Saturday morning.

Gas can be found, but it normally involves a wait in line. It's as cheap as $3.30/gal....the generator uses about 15 gallons per day.

TV....like I said above, we don't have much to choose from. I literally made an antenna out of some old coax, a coat hanger, bailing wire, and some electrical tape......it works ok.

Internet & phone?....yeah right! We have neither. If you've emailed me at mi.barrett@yahoo.com, I haven't seen it. My blackberry still gets the random mbarret@citgo.com email. However, the connections are poor and slow....just overloaded.

House? No damage.....neighbors lost some shingles and some trees...but we are ok. I spent some time today cutting grass and picking up limbs....from the outside, things look normal.

Work? They sent us home at noon on thursday and are asking us to come back tuesday morning. During Gustav, I was very busy with work. Ike has been a lot more calm for me because I have no way of connecting or contributing. However, I also have trained my replacement....but haven't been trained on my new job. Later this month, I'll start training as a "Senior Feedstock Trader".....more on that after I know more to share.

Thanks for all of your calls and emails....

I guess that about covers it....

Enjoy your week's...

MB

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Ike Ike Baby

To all of you have been so interested in what Shelli, Kailey, and I have done ahead of Hurricane Ike; thank you for you concerns and I am sorry for not being as available as I would want. Work with CITGO and preparing the house for the onset of winds have taken up all of my time. Please don't assume that what you see in the media for Galveston will what happens for where we live. Katy is about 70 miles from the Gulf on the northwest side of Texas. We have plenty of food, a generator, and most of the windows boarded up. We have just a few hours until winds pick back up...I'll try to post again first thing in the morning.

15 months

Kailey is well into her 15th month and almost to 16 months. She just recently had her first airplane ride. The three of us flew from Houston to Birmingham for her uncle Jason's graduation. She was very energetic and stayed awake for the entire flight both times. However, she did not cry. She is a good air traveler.

As far as Kailey's development; she certainly is growing up fast. She has about ten words that she can use. She is better at some than others, but we are giving her credit for:

• ball
• dog
• duck
• baby
• light
• mama
• dada
• bubble
• bye
• hi
• shoe
• me

Kailey is also getting pretty good at the game of "where is _____?". For these, she knows her bellybutton, head, foot and nose (among a few others).

In the list above I put in the word "me" as one of the ones she knows. This special word deserves a little expanding upon. The use of the word "me" is Kailey's universal way of asking us to correct the situation and provide her with something. When we are preparing her meals, but have not brought them to her yet, she reminds us who we are preparing them for by exclaiming, "me, me, me, me, me". It is really cute.

We have noticed that she is "catching on" really fast to this world around her. Because she has a lot of practice having bows and rubber bands put in her hair; whenever she finds a rubber band she places it in her hair. I guess she just knows that is where rubber bands are supposed to go. Also, she has raised her little foot and said "shoe" when we have taken her down the shoe aisle at a store.

Of course, this would not be a complete update without pictures. These were all taken in North Alabama last weekend. We visited Kailey's grandpa at work, went to a waterfall and park in Gadsden, attended graduation, saw an ape and other animals, and had a party to celebrate Jason's achievement. These pictures can all be found at:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/michaelandshelli/sets/72157606782254812/

Family Vacation in Gulf Shores

I am still working on the pictures from this past week in Gulf Shores. I am almost finished. You can see the pictures at:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/michaelandshelli/sets/72157606424660256/detail/

Pictures...4th of July and the Beach

I uploaded a few pictures of Kailey "watching" the local fireworks. Also, there are quite a few from our time at the beach this past weekend.

Lot's more are at:
http://flickr.com/photos/michaelandshelli/sets/72157606154840369/detail/

While most of the pictures that I post are the "happy" ones and only the best of the best....there is no hiding that we all have our moments:

Pictures from this past weekend

http://flickr.com/photos/michaelandshelli/sets/72157605815726200/detail/