Vanessa Alter : random thoughts

We ate at the Rain Forest Cafe yesterday and got to sit at a booth right next tanimatronic gorillas. Sean and his cousin were both afraid of them. Sean kept trying to hide under the table until I convinced him that he could stay in his seat and just hid under his jacket. While we were waiting for our food, Sean fell asleep under his jacket. It’s been rainy and gloomy here in Houston the past few days. Yesterday we got to drive by the beach in Galveston and the waves were really slapping the shore. It was a nice sight to see. There’s just something about the ocean that makes it nice to watch, even if you can’t go swimming in it.

We’re having a fun time here. My Dad left a couple days ago, and has made it home safely, Praise God! It was wonderful to get to spend some time with him. My new little nephew, Andrew, is adorable! I’ll post some pictures when I get home. Until then, you can check some out of him at Kev’s page.

Deep in the heart of Texas… Sean and I are leavig today to go to Houston to visit with my brother and his family and meeting up with my Dad from Virginia. We’ll be back January 3rd, Lord willing. Nathan couldn’t come with us because he’s on call this week for work. Boo-hoo! I’m sure he’ll enjoy gaming a bunch, though. Sean and I get to meet his new cousin, Andrew, too! Yay!

It snowed like crazy today. Nathan came home early, and we drove over to the park right near us and played in the snow for a while. We made 2 snowmen and Sean got to knock them both down. We also tried making a snow fort, but the walls didn’t get built up very high. At one point, Sean managed to slip his foot out of his snow boot, and was just standing with a barefoot in the snow. He didn’t like that very much. We also threw snowballs at each other. I managed to accidentally get Sean right in the face, and he laughed. Nathan managed to hit me in the head a couple times, and I discovered that he makes hard packed snowballs, so it kinda hurt. Sean and I made snow angels and ran and fell into the snow several times. It was so much fun. I can’t remember the last time I played in the snow like that. Check out my Flickr page for some pics.

My computer monitor recently started whistling. It’s also got horizontal line problems. This means that I’m the first in our house to get an LCD monitor. yippee! Should be here Friday.

“Where is fancy bred? In the heart or in the head?” -Willy Wonka

We watched “Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory” this evening with Sean. He doesn’t seem to be scared of the oompa loompas. I was happy to get to watch something other than the “Princess Diaries 2″ and “Ella Enchanted”. I think Sean may have a crush on Anne Hathaway, cause he wants to watch those movies ALL THE TIME! They’ve even got the Wiggles beat! I must say, even though I love those movies, they’re getting a bit old. I think I’ve memorized both of them by now. At what age in life do humans decide that constant repetition is boring? I’ll let you know when Sean lets me know.

Space Shuttle Discovery launched last night from Florida on it’s way to the International Space Station. Here’s the NASA web page. You can find photos and videos of the launch, mission updates, info about the crew and more.

While driving around yesterday, Sean saw a truck and called it a fire truck. He said “That’s the fire truck. That’s my first job.” I asked him to say it again to make sure I heard him correctly. He said it again, very clearly. It cracked me up.

Nathan was kind enough to work out with me tonight. We did my “Bikini Ready Fast!” video. Thankfully, it didn’t require either of us to be in bikinis. We tried to get Sean to exercise with us too, but he didn’t want to, so Nathan told him, “you’re gonna get a fat belly”. And one time Sean said, “I want fat belly”.

Sean and I went to the zoo a couple times this week to feed the birds. The first day we went, there were TONS of those fine feathered friends! They had us surrounded and some were trying to make Sean drop his bread on the ground by pecking at it and scaring him. There were also some sneaky peacocks that were pecking at the ducks if they got too close and they kept stealing the bread from the ducks. They were also trying to intimidate poor little Sean by pecking at his bread. One time, Sean got scared, so he threw a big chunk of bread on the ground and started hollering for me to carry him. The ducks ran forward to get it, but the peacocks pecked the ducks til they backed off. It was pretty crazy. The second day that we went, Nathan also got to go, and the ducks were a little more tame and the peacocks were “no-shows”.

Last night Kyle and Amanda’s Jeep had frozen locks when it was time for them to leave church. FYI, don’t wash your vehicle when the weather is freezing, and it’s almost night time. Anyways, our handyman friend, Chad pulled out his trusty mini-can of WD-40 and sprayed it into the lock using the little straw thingy that comes with it, and…. TA-DAH!!!! Kyle could open the locks once again. I just thought this was a great tip to pass along.