saturday update

this morning my granddad had the tracheostomy which thankfully went well. the purpose of it was to make it easier to take care of any problems that may arise with the ventilator. he will also have less irritation in his throat when they go to take out the ventilator eventually.

we are still playing the waiting game on when/how he will wake up. it doesn't seem likely that any more tests will be done until the first of the week. he still has some (expected) swelling on his face and jaw line from the surgery. however, the head surgeon is very pleased with the progress of his healing with that.

i guess this might not be much a new update, but it is all we know so far. keep praying

prayers please

*update 2 (friday night): the unexpected turn from wednesday has been quite the setback. he has not been able to wake up since then. various tests, drugs, and antibiotics have been given in hopes of figuring things out, but nothing is working quite as it should. a tracheostomy will be done in the morning, but we still may not have any answers for a few more days.

thank you again for the prayers. please keep them coming. pray for healing and clear answers for the doctors and for our family. pray for my grandmother as she tries to keep everything straight and understand what is going on. pray for lee as he drives here tonight and tomorrow.

as i just finished typing this and was about to hit send, we just heard they were just able to get his heart back on regular rhythm which also got his blood pressure back on a more normal level. a small win, but a win nonetheless. there are still many unknowns, but there are also still many prayers being lifted up. thank you

*update 1: continue praying as we are still waiting on more details and answers. thank you for your prayers so far. i will wait to give a detailed update until we know more.*

i know i have not been as active on the blog since i started working, but i promise to make some improvements on that very soon.

in the meantime, please say a quick prayer for my (lindsey's) granddad. he had partial jaw replacement surgery on tuesday which involved taking a piece of bone from his lower leg to make a new half of his bottom jaw. the origin of his jaw problems came from the cancer he fought in that area a few years ago. the cancer has been gone, but infections have lingered due to the damage from the radiation. the surgery was successful in removing the infectious part, but today he had some pretty serious complications. i do not have very much information right now, but i do know things have taken an unexpected turn. please pray for his health (his name is clayton), and my grandmother as she tries to remain strong during this time.

thank you

we love visitors!

it's true. almost as much as we love traveling, we love having friends and family come visit. last weekend, our awesome friend katy paid us a visit. we introduced her to one of our new faves, cafe adobe. seriously, it is amazing mexican food. lee even claims for anything mexican (excluding fajitas) that he would choose cafe adobe over pappasitos. that is a big deal, people.

anyway, we also enjoyed a typical lazy saturday morning, and then the a&m game at kyle & jamie's house. we had a great time with some people from lee's days at a&m even though they did not have the same outcome in their game as i did from the bama game. kason and madeline, the kiddos present saturday night, were definitely our entertainment all night. these are the only pictures from the weekend, but the kids are super cute so enjoy!

(i promise they were smiling half a second before and after i took this picture)

see, they are happy kids...hugs and all!

we wrapped up the weekend with breakfast at le peep (of course!) and almost shopping at the galleria. apparently it does not open until 11am on sunday mornings...who knew?! not us. instead, we went to katy mills because who doesn't love an outlet mall :)

thanks again for coming to visit, katy! come back anytime!

gameday in the pilgreen house

we are a house divided today.

every other saturday in the fall, we cordially watch each other's teams and may even cheer them on at times. today is not one of those days.

alabama vs. lsu. 2:30. it is kind of a big game.

we'll see which one of us is still smiling after the game is over... :)

*update:* in continuing to be a good sport, i think you can assume who was smiling more immediately following the game. luckily, neither one of us have frustration over football that lasts for more than 5 minutes so all is (and was) well in the pilgreen house! :)

interesting conversations with students

two algebra 2 students on my first day...

student 1:"where did you teach before you came here?"
me: "well, i actually moved here from alabama so i haven't taught anywhere in texas."
student 2: "so that's why you talk that way...?"
me: "what way?"
student 2: "that way."
(i am sure some non-native alabama readers just got a nice laugh out of this)


sometimes, students ask me how i like living in houston. one of the first things i mention is how warm it is here and how i know it will not be very cold during the winter to which i received this comment one day...
student: "oh, it gets cold here! it will get all the way down to 40 degrees!"


PUH-LEASE! 40 degrees barely justifies a scarf!



i can imagine there will be more blog-worthy students comments to come. who knows, maybe lee will even chime in with some of his! he has elementary students that almost always have something hilarious to say.

through the eyes of children

last weekend we had the wonderful opportunity to share our home with walter, emily, jonah, and emma. emily had the great idea of combining the need to shop at ikea with a weekend trip to houston, and we were thrilled with the idea!

the main event of the weekend for us was a trip to the zoo. jonah and emma were ecstatic...in fact, jonah could barely sleep the night before out of pure excitement of everything that might happen at the zoo.

we could not have picked better weather for our day at the zoo...i think God knew it would only make the day more perfect for the kids and the rest of us.

we soooo got our money's worth and more at the zoo. no turn was left untaken, no stone left unturned, no exhibit left behind. we saw most, if not all, of the animals, hung out in the children's zoo, and even caught the sea lion show to top it all off.

i hope these pictures do justice to the great time we had at the zoo. i really loved seeing it through the kids' eyes. everything worked out in our favor. the happiness on their faces all day was a wonderful reminder of how we should live every aspect of our lives...excited about what awaits us around each turn and thankful for the opportunities we are given.

by the way it was "zoo boo" the day we were there. check it out if you have kids & live in the houston area...everyone likes trick-or-treating :)

also, i tried to tell lee, emily, walter, and the kids that elephants say roll tide, but they all spell go g-e-a-u-x so that didn't go over very well ;)

football and family makes a great birthday weekend

last weekend we took a road trip to prattville for my birthday weekend. we sandwiched the trip with time in louisiana that included the office wedding with the morrows and allens on the front end and even more hang out time with everyone on the tail end. we love the time we get with both of our families, and this trip was no exception.

we arrived in prattville just in time to grab some mexican for lunch with my mom, dad, and sister....because that is what you do when you live in texas, right? go out of state and grab some mexican when we have the best of the best right here?!

anyway, we spent friday night at tyler's football game. we braved the rain and helped cheer the generals to a victory. tyler is #50...he got to play on both sides of the ball and special teams. tyler, we are so glad we got to see you play!up until shortly after my 11th birthday, i was the only one in our family whose birth month was october. that changed for the better when my cousin, hannah, was born. we shared our family birthday parties for many years, but we have not been able to have our parties together for a few years. thankfully, that all changed this year! we combined our birthday party with all of our family and a full day of football (a&m and auburn, then alabama, and then lsu). everyone was so excited about partying & watching football all day, especially tyler. don't you think so?!

yay for shared birthdays again!

thanks to rachel (who is an auburn fan, by the way) i can represent bama in houston when it gets cold with my new houndstooth scarf! even if that means only wearing it for a week, i will wear it proudly!

hannah got the awesome gift of a snuggie for her birthday! it is the first snuggie i have ever seen in person and totally lives up to its hype. plus, it came with a free booklight. be jealous. be very jealous.
the long weekend was such a great time to see everyone, and the perfect celebration of my birthday/the end of my unemployment/the beginning of my new job :)

math, anyone?

as most of you have heard and for those of you who haven't, i am officially employed! i was hired as an algebra II teacher on monday and start on tuesday, october 13.

i know this might seem a bit surprising to some, but after realizing that my job search was not providing any results, i knew i needed to broaden my search to include what i am qualified to do. this decision quickly resulted in a job!

an added bonus to my new job is that it is in the same district as lee's school so we will get to ride to work together! the biggest downside to the job is that my school days will start at 7 which means i will have to be there even earlier than that, and those of you who know me well know the early morning stuff is not my favorite. oh well! guess the workforce doesn't always start when we would like it to... :)

one last note...thank you to all of you who have been praying for us during this time. God's timing is always perfect, and He has taken care of us over the past few months and will continue to do so. i so appreciate the wonderful support system we have through friends and family, and i hope you know your prayers and thoughts have not gone unnoticed.

fall

football

cooler weather (which we are still waiting on in houston)

colorful, changing leaves (again, still waiting here)

caramel apple spice at starbucks...thank you, shauna :)

decorations of pumpkins, scarecrows, cornucopias and more are everywhere you look

alabama football

caramel green-apple suckers on sale in stores for their once-a-year appearance...yay!

birthdays

our anniversary

new seasons of our favorite tv shows

time with family

the first cool night that requires long-sleeves and a warm drink

football :)

...these are just some of the things i look forward to this time of year. i can't wait for all of them to actually happen (specifically, the cooler weather in houston).

to those of you already enjoying a true season of autumn, enjoy it for the rest of us and send any extra down here!

my very first aggie football game

that's right. i finally attended a football game at a&m! after two midnight yells, a basketball game, and a baseball game, i was able to have the football experience in college station.

a big thanks goes to the garretts again for the tickets to the game. we got to enjoy the game with katy and jason, cara, & ainslee who are friends of lee's i had not had the chance to meet yet. a&m actually played uab which made it more fun for me because it was an alabama team. no, i didn't cheer for uab...i was excited to see the aggies pull out another win. we left after the last aggie touchdown, and not because we had an almost-two-year-old with us. she would have made it long past all of us because her mom was super-prepared with gametime snacks while the rest of us were starving. (thank goodness for chick-fil-a)

fun times are always had in college station. i have decided if i can't go to tuscaloosa on gamedays as often as i would like, at least we have another fun college town nearby!

check the crazy big student section! they are pretty serious about supporting their team.

i snapped a shot of the sky over kyle field as the sun was going down...cool, huh?!

a shot of the corps/band at halftime. more importantly, a shot displaying our awesome seats. row 11!