Take Me Out to the Ballgame

Last night we finally made it out to a minor league baseball game in Austin. I say "finally" because the stadium is just less than a mile from our house and we have few excuses for not being able to make it out there before now. Well, that is, few excuses aside from our extremely busy schedules.  We have had plenty of chances to watch the after-game fireworks from our front yard. This time, we did it right, with the chance to actually see the game AND the fireworks.

We got things started off right with some ballpark hot dogs. How else do you watch a baseball game? 

The kids had an absolute blast. In fact, this park has beach volleyball, jump castles, playscapes and everything else to entice kids to not watch the game, but neither Abigail or Cooper wanted anything to do with those distractions. They were all about watching the game, and we were pleasantly surprised at how much they truly enjoyed it.

...Of course, their enjoyment have had something to do with the hot dogs, nachos, peanuts and cotton candy.

But, the in-between innings entertainment was also a big draw. Abigail loved the chicken dance. It's one of her favorite dances, and there just aren't a lot of chances to do the chicken dance in every day life. Personally, my favorite part of the game was the feeling of knowing we are certainly living back in Texas. "Thank God I'm a Country Boy" was played many times, and the lead-off hitter for the Round Rock Express (named after one of the team owners, Nolan Ryan), used Alabama's "If You're Gonna Play in Texas (You Gotta Have a Fiddle in the Band)" as his at-bat song. Yes!

Summertime Salsa

Don't let the title fool you, this is not a review of So You Think You Can Dance. I have my final PTA meeting tonight and have to share a tasty treat, so I was excited to bring out a summer recipe I love. My friend, Allison, originally passed this on to me on her blog last year, and it's so tasty.

Ingredients

1 pint strawberries

1 large banana

1 red delicious apple

1 kiwi fruit, peeled

1/4 cup lemon juice

1/4 cup sugar

1/4 teaspoon nutmeg

1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

Juice your lemon and stir in the sugar, nutmeg, cinnamon.

Dice all the fruit add to the bowl.

Grab some cinnamon/sugar pita chips from the store and dig in! (You can make your own chips with tortillas, cinnamon and sugar, but the pita chips are yummy and easy.)

A few weeks ago, we spent our Saturday driving to Kerrville to visit Daniel's grandparents. Gamps and Gammie, who live in New Mexico, were there for their annual woodcarvers' guild festival. We jumped at the chance to see more of the Texas Hill Country in wildflower season, but also to see G&G. 

We were super impressed to see Gamps at work carving a church in this relief carving.

There was a class next to his that had just finished carving flutes that they were all playing. The rest of the several hundred carvers would making all sorts of beautiful pieces. They were very talented.

Once the carving was complete, we spent some time at the campground with Gamps and Gammie. 

Cooper joined in his daddy's love of (trying) to skip rocks. But, he kind of missed the point and just started throwing everything in that he could pick up. (This was cute when we were at the river and it was just sticks and rocks. It wasn't as cute at Gran and Granddad's pool when it was his sister and Granddad's big glass of kool-aid.)

Abigail, as always, was picking every flower she could. She loves the "wish flowers" that she can blow to pieces.

We wished Gamps and Gammie lived closer, but we are glad we had this chance for a quick day trip to spend time with them.

Tuesday Treats - Spider Bites (Rice Krispies on a Stick)

Today, I have a guest blogger. My sister, Kelly Ann, is sharing a new way to make rice krispy treats.

Ingredients
3 tablespoons butter
1 package (10oz) of marshmallow cream
6 cups of rice krispies

I melted the cream and then proceeded to add the cereal, only adding 5 cups because I thought it looked like there was not going to be enough cream to cover all the cereal... mixed it all together then when I got it all mixed and I started laying it out I had cereal stuck to my hands and everything else including my face. (I know now to use the whole 6 cups.  As I got frustrated my mom came to try to savage the mess I was making, and we laid it all down on wax paper in little, what looks like, cookies and froze them.  They then stuck together, but if we left them at room temp they fell apart and didn't keep the form of balls. so we had a freezer full of cookie rice krispies.

I then started molding them while they were in the freezer and stuck the picks in them.  I got them out for just long enough to get the white chocolate on them and the sprinkles. 

It was fun but would have been better if I would have followed the directions.  (It didn't help that my mom had told me a couple days before this that I need to experiment with recipes, and just go with it and don't always follow the directions.  So I didn't, and look where it got me, but she did help me fix it so I cant complain.)  Maybe next time I'll let my niece and nephew make these so I'm not so frustrated by the end of the day.  I do have to say that everyone at work loved them.

Movie Monday - Taking Chance

In honor of Memorial Day we saw the HBO movie Taking Chance. It's like nothing else I've ever seen. My cousin, Casey, recommended it to us, and I've heard it talked about aplenty on a local morning radio show so I had high hopes. This film did not disappoint.

It's a bipartisan view of an escort's journey to return a fallen soldier's body to his family. It's very simple with not much dialogue, but it's an eye-opening and, to say the least, touching view. The screenplay was written by the escort and based on his journal entries written as he returned home from his escort job. There are a few aspects changed for dramatic effect, but it's minimal. And, Kevin Bacon's performance as the escort is excellent. Marines are a hard character to pinpoint, but he did it perfectly. 

You must see this movie. If you don't believe me, check out this review from the Washington Post. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/02/20/AR2009022003750.html

On Saturday, the kids and I (Daniel was working) trekked it over to the metropolitan area of Putnam, TX (pop. 88) for a family reunion. It was for my father's mother's family, and because we've been living away from Texas, I haven't been able to attend a reunion in 9 or 10 years so it was very nice to see many people I haven't seen since then. Not to mention, the kids had a blast.

Abigail did not enjoy the sack race, which was her first ever. I think it had something to with her coming in last place. Yeah, she's 5, but she's serious about competition.

But, she's also serious about following the rules. The rest of the kids in this grab-your-missing-shoe race just grabbed their shoe. Not Abigail. She sat down, put her shoe on and buckled the sandal completely before racing to the finish line.

Here's my grandmother and her brother Bill. 

And, here's a(n) (almost) family member I had never met. Chris is my cousin Leah's fiance. They are getting married in Putnam. Just kidding, Leah. I mean, the Dairy Queen is all the way in Cisco so we'd have to drive a ways for the reception. They may have to look into other options. 

Yeah, we all enjoyed the games and visiting. But, things got serious when the food came out. We sat down and got to business. Here is a table of many of my cousins. I don't think there is a lot of talking going on, just eating. I don't blame them.

I was just as serious about my meal. Here is my dessert plate. I'd like to say I didn't eat it all, but...

All that was left when my dad stole my plate was the serving a fresh blackberries topped with whipped cream.

While the rest of us were writhing in misery from eating too much, this little girl was all smiles.

She had too much fun and did not want to leave. We are certainly enjoying being back in Texas!

Is This Thing On?! Testing...

Let's see if I can remember how to do this... It's been a while, a long while, since I blogged. Busy work led into an out-of-town Mother's Day trip that became a week-long trip for a funeral that led into craziness upon my belated return to home that led into a quick trip to Dallas to visit family that led into a visit from my in-laws. I could probably throw in a few more snags in my schedule, but I think you're getting the idea of why I've been absent. Now, my problem is that my blogging brain never took a day off and I don't even know where to start. I have all sorts of entry topic ideas and tons of photos and events to catch you up on. Where do I start?! I think I'll just throw a potpourri entry out to you and hope that by tomorrow my thoughts will be better organized and we can forget this month of blogging ever happened.

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The kids are still a hoot. And, I do mean a hoot. While at my parents' house, they discovered an ottoman in the playroom that was fun to push around. Rather than describe the fun and games, you can see for yourselves, but please don't turn me into Child Protective Services, they were truly having fun and it was all their doings. 

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We are in full swing of summer and have been at the pool every day for the past two weeks. Sometimes it's only for 30 minutes (because Abigail has finally shivered and turned blue long enough to complete her idea of fun), but Cooper always comes prepared with full swimming gear. The only reason that is notable is because Cooper has no desire to swim. He won't go further than the first step into the pool, but he's certainly working on his Michael Phelps Halloween costume. (Please don't tell Daniel about the pink goggles.)

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Mother's Day didn't go completely as planned, but Abigail didn't fail to treat all the moms in attendance at the Mother's Day lunch I served. She (with the help of Aunt Kelly Ann) created beautiful masterpieces of colored sand for all the deserving moms.

I think I'll display my treasured sand art alongside the pillow she made out of a hand towel for me last year. 

Now I've started wondering...  Where is my Mom proudly displaying all the wonderful artwork and gifts I created for each of her Mother's Days. I've never noticed a curio cabinet with lighted glass display shelves, but I'm sure it's there somewhere to feature my talents through the years.

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American Idol ended last night, so I learned on the Internet today. Surprisingly, I don't feel like I missed anything after not seeing this season. My only worry today about Idol is that Yahoo! categorized the article about the finale/winner in the News section. That's troublesome to me, as I've learned over the past few (enjoyable) months of no TV that the results of shows such as American Idol are certainly not news, and I don't even think entertainment. 

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I've had quite a few hours in the car over the past few weeks and that is always my chance to enjoy talk radio. I used to endure long commutes until I began working from home, and entertaining talk radio was a highlight of my commute that I do miss every once in a while. On one of my recent trips I heard all kinds of interesting stories...

1. Kids who didn't get to go to their high school prom due to swine flu closings are now suing. I can't recall if they are suing the school district, health department or pig farmers. Either way, there just seems to be something really wrong with that. I wouldn't mind mediating and letting them know there are much more enjoyable things to come than prom. They are not missing out.

2. The State of Texas has a bill trying to become legislation that will limit the times (not between 6 a.m. and 10 p.m.) TV stations can run commercials for suggestive products, such as Viagra. Apparently parents have been put in awkward situations of having to explain Viagra to children too young for that discussion. What are kids watching?! I've seen Noggin and I don't recall Viagra ever being an issue in between episodes of The Backyardigans and Imagination Movers. Did it ever occur to these parents to TURN THE TV OFF! It's our job as parents to legislate what our children are exposed to, and not the government's job. Goodness sake, people.

3. A recent story about a mom and son evading the law because the court has ordered the 13-year-old boy to undergo chemotherapy for Hodgkin's Lymphoma. I'm not sure how I feel about this issue, but I am certainly concerned about the court mandating medical care in a situation where the parents and child have religious reasons for denying the care. The court stated that the teenager is not old enough to determine what is best for his own health. Apparently the only time a teenager knows the best course of healthcare for themselves is when the resulting death will be an aborted baby, otherwise, he/she is too young to make such lofty decisions.

4. I know there were many more stories that piqued my interest, but this is going on too long, and really, no one has the time or desire to read through all my opinions. Seriously. There's a lot of them.

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Okay, I promise I have many more pics to share and even some great new recipes to impart. The kids and I have one more quick trip this weekend, but I'm committing myself to getting back on this blogging train no matter what. I missed you guys!