Sunday, February 14, 2010

Hadley Grace Carr is here!

Hello World!!!

Hadley Grace Carr arrived on Saturday, February 13 at 1:51 pm. She weighs 7 pounds, 7 ounces and is 20 inches long. Nichole and Hadley are doing well!

They both had a long day!


Brand new grandparents

A proud daddy


We are so excited for Kevin and Nichole and look forward to meeting Hadley someday. We are thinking it won't be until June when we finish school and head north before our summer at camp. Hopefully, we will continue to get lots and lots of pictures until that day comes! Congrats Kevin and Nichole!

Friday, February 12, 2010

New Address

We have forgotten to mention that we do have a new address. We moved to a new house right after Christmas which is in a much better location and is a much better size for us. We are still renting which is best for us at this point. Anyway, feel free to send us things in the mail! We like that!

The Roddens
1635 Manor Drive
Baytown, TX 77521

The Great Flood of 2010

A couple of weekends ago we were watching a movie in our living room when I decided to finally get up and grade some papers before school the next morning. I thought that it was odd that I was suddenly standing in water so we looked around and apparently the washing machine (that was here when we moved in and had given us no problems until this point) had been spouting water uncontrollably for the better part of an hour! There was about 1/2 inch of water in almost every room in the house! We immediately turned the water off and tried to figure out how to get it cleaned up. To make a long story short, we bought a 1.5 gallon Shop-Vac which we had to empty every minute. We returned to the store and bought the 12 gallon one which was easily filled pretty quickly several times. All of our old towels were ruined and when we finally gave up at about 1:30 a.m., 5 hours after we had begun, we planned for Joe to stay home the following day to get it all figured out.

Since we are renting this house and the washing machine belongs to our landlord, his insurance is paying for everything. All of the flooring in the house, except for our bedroom and the ceramic tile in the entry way and kitchen, was ripped up immediately the next day. For 4 days we had about 20 commercial fans and 3 huge dehumidifiers running constantly. We literally had to yell to talk to each other. Needless to say, we spent each of the next several nights at Starbucks doing work until it was time for bed. The dehumidifiers gave off hot air which meant that our house stayed at a steady 83 degrees! If it hadn't been so loud, I would have been very comfortable! Our bedroom stayed closed off from some of the noise and all of the heat which meant that it was freezing at night (well, freezing for Baytown - 60 degrees or so). Anyway, almost 2 weeks later, we are still living on cement floors. Our stuff is everywhere, stashed wherever we could put it, and it has been hard to clean as we know that the new flooring will be going in eventually - hopefully sooner rather than later.

We have been trying to roll with the punches as we know that things could be a lot worse and we are so thankful for what we have. Please pray for us though as we continue to deal with the unexpected costs, etc.

The scene of the crime - the laundry room.
Isn't that the biggest dehumidifier you have ever seen (the tall machine on the left)?
It was at least 90 degrees in this little room!

Fans were EVERYWHERE!
They were all pointed at walls to try to dry them out. Some of the walls had water 8 inches high!

Our house was a wind tunnel. We are so glad that these are gone.

Wednesday, February 10, 2010

Baseball season...

We have more to fill you in on about our life, but for now we want to let you know that Joe's team started their season last night with a victory. He has started a blog for the players and their parents to follow along all season, so if you are interested please feel free to check it out!

www.bcabaseball.blogspot.com

Tuesday, February 9, 2010

Jake and Jenny's Wedding

Jake married Jenny on November 21, 2009. They have been together for a long time and this was a day we have all been looking forward to for years. It was fun to see them become husband and wife but it was also fun just to be reunited as a family. Joe and I hadn't seen Kevin and Nichole for almost 2 years prior to this event!

Rehearsal dinner at Little Sheba's

The bride and her mother getting the full treatment.

I had to do this for all of his dances in high school.
Now he has a wife to fix his hair - maybe he should learn how to do it himself!

Going to the chapel.

Beautiful bride!

My sweet brothers

The future Mrs. Carr

The Carr kids

Unfortunately for him, he has to dress like this every day for school...I love it!

Good picture Joe!
I don't know how I make it through these readings!

We all knew it would be hilarious :)

We all figured this would happen too...

The Carrs

A proud mama

I love this little boy - he will always be a 10-year-old to me :)

Behind as Usual...

Will there ever be a Rodden blog that doesn't begin with an apology for tardiness? Well, not this time anyway. We're sorry.

Anyway, life has been crazy as usual for us since our last post. First of all, we had a desperately LONG drive to and from Indiana (and Michigan) for Christmas in Richmond, a basketball game at IU, and Nichole's baby shower (as I type, Nichole is being induced...baby Hadley Grace Carr will be with us soon!)
Christmas at the Carrs' is always full of excitement. This year included a small fire.
Jake was bummed about the rolls that went up in flames.

The culprit napkin.
Good thing Jenny pays attention to what is happening when none of us do!

Yummy dinner with 3/4 of the Carr family.

Go Hoosiers!

This is the best venue for college basketball anywhere!
...doesn't he look so good in that crimson jacket?!?...

A late night stop or the BEST breadsticks in the WORLD!!


Christmas in Michigan with the McCauleys.
All Joe wanted was a white Christmas...all he got was wet grossness.

They love looking outside and watching the little ones play.
Aren't they adorable?

The whole Carr family together...a rare occurrence these days.

C'mon little Hadley! We are ready for you to be here!