Texas - Chapter the Last

Our return flight was fascinating because the couple in front of us decided to end their marriage with me as witness and the woman behind me whimpered like a puppy the whole time due to claustrophobia. Bridgette added to the melee by yelling for the first 1/2 hour, not because she was upset but because she likes to hear herself. She yells really loudly.

She finally fell asleep for a mere 15 minutes which would have been longer had the flight attendants not made a ruckus serving drinks and then cooing at her when she woke up. Bad flight attendants. Bad. But excellent canned apple juice. Thanks for that.

Otherwise Bridgette did well. She studied the emergency landing pamphlet for a good long time. (Taking after her momma already? Disaster preparedness in her future?) She didn't cry at all. When we deplaned, the man next to us surreptiously crossed her forehead in a blessing for her impending surgery. I thought it was funny that he crossed her while pretending to stroke her forelock with his thumb. I though it was sweet, but perhaps he was worried I would disapprove.

And now we're home, not quite well-rested, but certainly well-documented!

FYI (because you need more FYI in your life) baby has had two leaks since Monday. Due to my error changing her while I was in Texas (I forgot the stoma paste) her normally raw skin was actually running rivulets of blood down her body yesterday. It was really sad. She was screaming in pain. To make up for it, I used too much stoma paste on her new wafer which prevented a good seal, and this morning she woke up thoroughly soaked in undigested green beans and gastric juices. We have high hopes that tomorrow morning will be better!

Texas - Chapter 6

Saturday night we went to dinner and a movie. It was Bridgette's first movie (UP 3D) and she didn't make it. About half-way through I took her out to the hall where she cried and thrashed about like a mad-woman until she finally clunked out in my lap... 2 minutes before the movie ended. Poor baby.

I really should have taken her back to the hotel after dinner, but I was hopeful she would fall asleep in the theater. I should have known better. And now I do.

Here are all our "hanging out" photos from Saturday and Sunday...

I can't remember when this photo was taken, but isn't she funny? She loves this soft fuzzy blanket, and when we give it to her at night she chews or kisses it until she falls asleep.

Aunt Julianne and Cousin Emma

Bridgette finds the noise-making little button.

When Bridgette arrived at her house Sunday afternoon, Emma suggested that, "Maybe Bridgette might like a friend." Although Bridgette isn't very interactive, it was fun to see them playing "together."

Umm... hard to say what we were doing... but it involved the computer. Maybe looking at photos or at Scott's illustrator project. We played old Atari games later. I lost them all. Even Maze Craze which was my favorite game as a kid. Either I was better at it then, or Scott spent months practicing so he could beat me now.

Emma and Evan played Atari Combat when we were done. Awesome. Passing the pixels to the next generation.

Yep. That's me. And baby. I like her.

As I said, she learned to like water on this trip. And thank goodness. With her Hirschsprung's we have to watch for dehydration, and I think she was feeling the heat.

Yay! Evan's birthday!

Happy 8th birthday decadent chocolate pie.

And this was just cute. Bridgette liked Julianne. She's good with kids.

Texas - Chapter 5

Saturday p.m. --

Through Scott's contacts as a Boy Scout leader, he was able to arrange a special tour of TEEX National Emergency Response and Rescue Training Center. Brian Smith, the PIO, gave us the $5 tour (as opposed to the $0.05 tour) because of my interest and background in disaster preparedness and current connections to Utah response agencies. We spent most of our time driving around and looking through the engineered scenes in the 52-acre Disaster City - the preeminent professional training facility for Urban Search & Rescue.

I was truly impressed by the facility and have chosen only a handful of photos to post here.


Many of the rescue scenarios require the S&R teams to consider points of cause and effect.


The rubble fields are used for training search dogs as well as search teams.


Teams often have to force entry by heavy equipment or explosives. TEEX plans a myriad of scenarios and stocks the buildings/rubble fields with either or both live victims and dummies, dependent on exercise play and danger level.


Here we are looking at the Pancake House. Pancake collapses would likely be widespread in Utah in the event of a major earthquake.


Here we have a parking garage. This particular building was created to simulate an explosion. However, an important element to each sim rescue is that chemical, radiological, or biological elements can be introduced by way of inject.


Here Brian was pointing out where rescue workers would rappel to extract a victim... and where he would place radioactive or biologic materials to add that extra-special contamination effect.


There are two large concrete rubble fields and this one made primarily of lumber.


We sure could have used these actively leaking trains for our simulation during Shake, Rattle & Roll. Decon teams have to figure out a way to prevent the chemicals from contaminating ground & drinking water too.


In the fire suppression area, companies can practice on buildings, planes, ships, or, like this photo below, refineries and other hazardous industrial sites.


The passenger train, donated by Amtrak, allows S&R to extract from a simulated wreck. Volunteer victims come from several local universities and are managed under the Incident Command System simultaneously to the emergency response. I picked up some really helpful ideas for the next time I plan a local exercise.

Texas - Chapter 4

Saturday a.m. --

My brother, Scott, was able to baptize his son, Evan, on Saturday. We were pleased our travel plans synched up well with this event. Evan seemed quite comfortable and serious about his choice to be baptized.


Prior to this trip, Bridgette had yet to meet Uncle Scott, Aunt Julianne or her Hoose cousins. I'm afraid my camera was set on the "night" setting when this photo was taken, so it's a bit blurry. There's really not much to say about it but, "There we are!"


When Bridgette was newly born and placed, bloody and covered in vernix, on my tummy, I remember thinking, "Who are you?" She didn't look like me or Jeff. It took a minute to place it, but Jeff and I both felt she looked almost identical to Scott's daughter, Emma, when Emma was a baby. And they both look a lot like Gramma Hoose. So here they are, all together.


Bridgette is already looking more dissimilar now that she's *gasp* almost a year old. We've heard all kinds of reviews and predictions about who she looks most like now. But with the mix of so many genes, we're pleased as punch to see how much she looks exactly like herself.

Texas - Chapter 3

Friday a.m. to p.m. --

We joined Aunt Julianne and cousins Emma & Evan for lunch and a trek to the Alamo. Poor Emma wasn't feeling well, and it was hot beyond hot, but we all made it and learned something about Texas history too.


We don't look hot do we? My sleep to awake ratio was 1:8 at this point, and between the heat and my personal fatigue, I spent an inordinate amount of touring time sitting on the floor inside the mission shrine -- the only building kept naturally cool -- while the rest of the family looked at cannons and obelisks and barracks. As a plus, Bridgette guzzled several bottles of water which she's never really taken to before.


We spent the afternoon/evening driving to my brother's house near Texas A&M where he is finishing his PhD. No pictures of the drive, but I enjoyed a delightful day on the road with my mother. When we got to our hotel, Papa Hoose was waiting for us. Bridgette took to him pretty fast. I think this is my favorite picture of her from the whole trip.

Texas - Chapter 2

Thursday p.m. --

There are few things so sweet as hanging out with your best friend. Several months ago Alyse procured tickets to Wicked - the main and original reason I flew down to San Antonio. And what a treat! Not only do I love Alyse, but I LOVED Wicked. It was amazing in its own right and considerably more so because the two main characters are just like me and Alyse. Except, we've never niggled over a boy. We decided we really must get together for a girls' weekend every few years.

Here are three heisted images from the musical:

1st - The somewhat iconic image of the Wicked Witch flying over the folk of Oz. Those of you who have seen the show are probably humming "Defying Gravity" right now, one of the most chilling and beautiful pieces of music ever written.



2nd - Here are Elphaba and Galinda played by Eden Espinosa and Megan Hilty. There are multiple casts for the many venues, and these women were the stars of the production we saw. They were brilliant. This is during the scene and song "Popular."


3rd - Eden and Megan face-off after Elphaba's sister is killed by Dorothy's house.


So, true to form but totally by accident, I dressed in black and Alyse dressed in pink and white. Yeah we're pretty much Elphaba and Galinda. We were trying to immitate the poster pose but could only hold it a few seconds before busting into laughter.

I got back to the hotel pretty late. Baby had a hard time sleeping in a new place and woke up multiple times too. Around 4 a.m. Gramma pulled her into her bed to sleep. They both snoozed together for a few hours... the only real hours that I slept at all. Here they are in the morning once we were all awake.

Texas - Chapter 1

Thursday a.m. --

Do you see the orange shirt? Not the man directing flight traffic, the one just beyond the plane stepping onto the gang-plank? That's me. San Antonio's temperature that day was 110 degree F. As such, the flight was beyond bumpy, and I couldn't wait to step onto solid ground.

I had been so worried about Bri's bag, which did fine, that I didn't stop to consider that I would get really sick and vomit on her head, which almost happened. The nice ladies across the aisle were preparing to snatch her off my lap when they saw me start to gag.

When we boarded, the man next to me (on the very last and windowless seat to which I was assigned) took one look at Bridgette, inhaled deeply, turned to the flight attendant and said, "How long is this flight?" It was not a mere question. It was said in a plaintive/annoyed voice. Little did he know I would be a bigger danger than the baby... who didn't even cry.

Mama Hoose arrived in San Antonio 1/2 hour before me and was there to greet me at the gate. So unusual in this ultra-secure nation we've created! It was great to see her, and she was very pleased to see us. Despite the smile, I was still feeling very ill in this photo. Bridgette, still awake, was surviving on her last dregs of energy.

She fell asleep in the Hertz-mobile as it shuttled us to our rental pick-up area.

We were all pretty pooped when we got to the hotel. This is Bridgette chilling out. Being cute. It's her specialty.

That evening the Weidmann's picked me up and Dad Weidmann treated us to dinner at The Magic Time Machine. It's a crazy place. Crazy fun.

Besides bringing Mom Weidmann an entire pitcher of Dr. Pepper and putting dry ice in the other drinks, the servers (all in costume) do a lot of yelling, teasing, dancing, sword-fighting, and other tom-foolery. The photos below show the cookie eating contest foisted upon the willing after we were stuffed to near capacity. Whoever ate all the whipped cream and cookie, without using any hands, got a prize. I never saw what the prize was.

Brett won.