9 months...

9 months happened so fast.  Our little girl is crawling, pulling up on everything, side stepping along everything and babbling to say the least.  She hasn't quite got clapping down just yet, she kind of claps her fists together which makes it that much more cute.

We just got back from Oklahoma and Neva and Vivienne met for the first time! These are in their little outfits from Auntie Jessica. It was so great to see the Oklahoma family and to have the "Cincinnati Maxie's" in town too!  Definitely feel lucky to have family so close!  Saturday we will be arriving in Cincinnati for the first time since JANUARY and I can NOT wait to get there.  There are still some people from my immediate family that have not yet Neva yet.  Being a Cincinnati girl - this is very foreign to me.  I was always close to my family so I get a little emotional when I think of aunts, uncles and sisters that haven't met our baby girl yet!  So this is a big, exciting week!  Fingers crossed that all travel goes well.  The last time we flew, Neva wasn't such a big mover.  I have faith in her - she's a pretty chill kid.  I think we'll keep her.

Otherwise, things in Houston are going well.  We have amazing, amazing neighbors.  This past drill weekend, Evan, with the help of our neighbor James, was putting a new outlet in the garage and somehow a water pipe was hit while drilling.  No problem - water was shut off and they went to a plumbing store and got the piece to fix it and all is well.  Well, at about 11:30 on Saturday night, the doorbell rings, I'm sleeping because I have a fitness test the next morning, and I hear rain, AGAIN (it's been raining a ton here).  I answer the door and our next door neighbors are speechless and just pointing up at the roof over our garage where I see a legitimate waterfall coming from our house.  It wasn't rain after all.  The guy at the plumbing place gave us the wrong piece and it burst.  I run in, try to turn off the water, pulled off this panel where the water shutoff valve is NOT located.  Luckily Eric (the neighbor) ran in and shut it off.  So Evan runs out - has a few choice words and he and Eric climb into the attic with towels to start soaking up the water and hopefully keep it away from the walls while his wife and I wring out towels below and try to clean up the insulation and dry wall that is just falling from the ceiling.  James comes down - drills holes in the ceiling and water just comes pouring out.  More towels, more water, more choice words.  This is where Evan and I are probably best separated in situations like these.  I'm in the front, now with two other neighbors, just cracking up because I'm so in shock and wringing out towels and sweeping up insulation and I just stop and laugh - because, what else can you do?  Evan and the other neighbors are up in the attic just setting up fans, trying to find the problem and just being all "guy" about it all.  If he saw me laughing, I think he'd divorce me (just kidding!).  So, it's like 2am and we are still cleaning up, water is off, plumbers obviously are not coming out and obviously, I will not be making it to drill the next day.  Next day, Home Depot, supposed Master Plumber gives us another wrong piece.  We luckily run into yet ANOTHER neighbor that works at said plumbing store, comes and looks at it, takes Evan to the closed store, opens it, gets him the right piece, lets him borrow the correct tool and all is fixed.  Plumber finally shows up, he looks at the work and says it's better than he has ever seen.  Evan still checks the garage every 5 minutes but at least I can take a shower now.  We have fans and everything setup in there to dry it all, but Houston is humid and mold is no joke - so Evan, James and ANOTHER neighbor just tear out the sheet rock and damaged insulation and all that so that it can just be replaced, which is much cheaper than mold taking over.  It's just a mess, but seriously, could a worse situation be better?  And while this was a very long story - can we just take a second to just marvel at how INCREDIBLE our neighbors are and how lucky we are to have landed here. I just can't believe it.

Evan started training on the 777 and he's been home every night.  It really has made the move worth it.  It's very hard to be away from family, but I love having him home every night! This plane is GIGANTIC!

Our puppies are amazing.  They actually stayed with the trainer that has helped us with them earlier in the year while we were in Oklahoma and did just wonderfully.  I have to admit, there are pros and cons to rescue vs. breeder/NEW puppies - but I will forever, forever be a fan of rescue and will always get my pets from a rescue.  I'm not at all criticizing those that do not, just saying for me - I can see the difference.  They know you literally saved their lives and they are grateful and loyal and just amazing pets.  Even with the bumps in the road with my two pups - I'd do rescue again, over and over. 

Here's the thing.. time gets away from you.  I've been trying to add to this and post it - there is so much to catch up, but now I leave for Cincinnati in 7 hours.

Goodnight all... more to come another time.  Much love...