Opening Day 2011

Baseball season began for this year's Marlins team this past Saturday.
Being the first Spring Season that we have played in our local baseball league, we had no idea exactly what our day had in store for us.

It all began with a 42 team parade, including floats, trailers, decorated trucks, fire trucks, police officers shutting down major streets, and 300 excited baseball players hurling candy at innocent bystanders! It continued with team introductions, singing the National Anthem, a speech by the Mayor and a ceremonial first pitch, and everyone's favorite spring words, "Play Ball!"

Peter just before heading out to the parade. Unfortunately we did not get any action shots of the game, but we did win, already equaling our total wins from last season!

The following comes from the victory party at the local Braum's!

Quote of the day - Peter on the way home states, "It sure is a good feeling being in the car after you win, isn't it Dad? I mean it is OK to lose, but a LOT more fun to win!"

AL Champion Texas Rangers

Last night I was lucky enough to go the greatest sporting event I have ever witnessed. A great friend of mine, and a monk no less, was given 2 tickets to game 6 of the ACLS at the Ballpark in Arlington.


Needless to say, when he called the day before and asked if I wanted to go, I cleared my calendar and then I checked with my boss, I mean wife. She gave me the blessing, saying, "when else are you going to see a game like this" and knowing the Rangers, it might just be another 42 years!!


Colby Lewis pitched an incredible game, allowing only 1 run on a fluke play.The closer, Neftali Feliz, struck out former Ranger A-Rod on a called 3rd strike to end the game and send the Rangers to their first ever World Series!!

Here is video of the final pitch and celebration that ensued. Warning....this video contains grown men screaming like little girls!

HELLO WORLD SERIES!!

Rangers 10 - Marlins 1

So tonight was Peter's first game of coach pitch baseball! It was an exciting event and all had a good time. Being the head coach I was a little nervous as to what our first game entailed, considering we were up against last seasons first place team, the Rangers.

All of our kids played great, given that 7 of the 9 have never played organized baseball. Despite some untimely bathroom breaks, lots of overthrows, a ton of strikeouts, and an opponent that put 5 runs on the board in the bottom of the first inning, Peter, and the rest of the Marlins, gave it a valiant 5 inning effort, but came up just a few(9) runs short of a win.


Peter played catcher and really enjoyed being behind the plate. He did a great job and is starting to really grasp the concepts of the game.


The team was cheered on by the whole family, including some cousins who came out for the night. We look forward to a wonderful season and many more years to come of little league ball.
It was the first game of the first season for this budding little ball player, who when I tucked him into bed tonight and asked what he thought about baseball, he replied, "Dad, it was the funnest thing ever."

P.S. Peter went 2-3 with 2 singles and the teams only RBI. (Run Batted In for those non-baseball fans)

Zoo

I recently had a Friday off of work and decided to take the older three kids to the Dallas Zoo. Luci and Little Momma got to stay home and take much needed naps. We had a great time with each other and enjoyed a beautiful day at the Zoo!

The favorite thing of the day, especially for Peter and myself, would be the following video.

We just happened to be in the reptile building during feeding time and saw three rattlesnakes and a Gaboon Viper enjoy a rat meal!

Earplugs Anyone?

Last weekend Jenny Lynn and Luci made a visit to Uncle Matty in Maryland, so I had to make due from Thursday at 2:30 pm, all the way until Sunday night. Luckily, a strategically placed call to some grandparents helped me get through the weekend with a little more ease.


On Sunday afternoon we made a trek out to the Alliance Air Show in Fort Worth. It was well worth the drive and Ganpa's money as the kids had fun, Ganpa and I had a blast, and Ganma worked on crowd control and toy airplane hunting.

The stroller seemed to be a sought after seat after the first hour.

Daniel enjoying some of the louder fighter jets!

Peter with his earplugs in.

The group inside a C-5 Cargo jet. It can hold 6 school buses.

The main attraction of the day. The Navy Blue Angels!

The most expensive attraction of the day!

Happy Birthday!

On October 10th we celebrated my wonderful wife's 29th birthday, the first of many I am sure. On the night before, I worked on preparing a great meal for a mother who too often eats peanut butter and jelly sandwiches and pasta with no sauce for lunch on a daily basis.


Normally, I would not brag about my cooking, but this meal turned out amazing! I did a little research and ended up grilling fresh lamb and asparagus. I also tossed a fresh salad to go along.


The lamb had a nice rub with lemon and spices, and the asparagus was drizzled with a balsamic vinaigrette glaze and fresh Parmesan cheese.


All of this was topped off with a nice Merlot!

What a wonderful and amazing woman, mother and wife, who deserves this kind of meal everyday, and too often ends up with much less!

Saturday Afternoon

For FOUR hours these legs stuck out from under our van, at least the hairier of the two sets. But with perseverance that would make a gold medalist blush, oil was drained, filters were twisted, turned, poked and pounded, fathers consulted, screw drivers broken, WD40 employed, and finally a seal was broken with the resulting resolution to never return to a "quick lube" so obviously incapable of reading the label "hand tighten only."

But in a young boys eyes, a hero was made in a pool of sweat and oil that afternoon, wearing the golden medal of fatherhood.

(And the rest of us sighed with relief at not having to push the van back to the "quick lube" to get our filter off.)

Luci's First......

This past Saturday we celebrated our little Luciana's first birthday in West Texas with my parents and sister's family. Being the great father that I am....I decided to let Luci play a little with the big kids on the water slide, with adult supervision, of course!

More of Luci's birthday to follow...

Out with the Old....

In with the not as old. Just a mere 8 months after saying bye to an old friend, we have another slow dying vehicle. A gracious Uncle in Arlington gave us a 1989 Mazda 626 with 192,000 miles after the Roomy Lumy died last summer. For the last year, the Mazda has been doing a great job for my 4 mile round trip commute each work day.

In the middle of April the power steering pump started making noises that scared dogs and turned heads in the neighborhood when I tried to turn the corner. I nursed it for another month until the pump finally died in mid-May. For the last month I have been building my arm muscles for the 6 turns I have to make to get to work.

Finally, this past Saturday, after 3 weeks of searching, I found another vehicle, one with 65k less miles, a functioning power steering pump, and air conditioning to boot.
Introducing our newest member of the family, a 1996 Isuzu Rodeo, which my lovely(sarcasm) wife has gleefully nicknamed Rodito!

Rangers Win! Rangers Win!

Not a phrase that Ranger fans get to see or hear very often, but today was glorious! A chilly 47 degrees glorious with a brisk north wind at the start of the game!


Izzie joined the older boys this year to another Texas Ranger Opening Day. We had a great day with Dr. Pepper, hot dogs, popcorn, peanuts, and some candy as well.

President George W. Bush tossed the first pitch, and even a liberal couldn't call this pitch a ball!

I bet the Cleveland Indian fans wished W. would have kept pitching, because the Ranger ace Millwood threw a great 7 innings and only allowed 1 run.

The scoreboard showed this:

That is Indians 1, Rangers 9!

You have to LOVE that flag!


A parting shot as we left this afternoon.


And after five minutes in traffic!

Favorite Parent??

So tonight during an unusually strenuous prayer time with Daniel, it was his turn to pray for people. Normally he prays for Gia and Momma. But tonight, right after a serious reprimand and correction from his Dadda, this is what followed:

Dadda: "Daniel, who do you want to pray for?"

Daniel: "Gia and Momma....not chuuuu!"


I am sure I will be in good favor again soon.

Demolition Cleanup

Having finished the garage, we had a lot of sheet rock from the walls, and the ceiling, which needed to be broken down and put in trash bags. Being the responsible Dad that I am, I brought the kids along to help.

Looking back, I probably should have had them wear some safety gear....maybe during the next remodel??

Home Improvement???

So over the summer we worked on transforming our garage into a classroom for the kids. This weekend and the next few days, my Father-in-law, Tim, came into town to help me knockout a wall, add a door, and a new window, and continue the never ending process of home improvement. While trying to reroute some electrical wiring, the following happened.

Luckily, there were no major injuries and as you can see, our plans have changed for the next few days.

On a snow slide

People always ask me, with unmistakable disbelief in their eyes, "How do you do it?!" after they have mouthed the numbers one through four, and I have grinned in acknowledgment of they're all being mine. Well, I hardly get to see Luci, as she is always playing with her siblings...

I caught this one on her second lap.

Or having tickle fights with her Daddy.

A West Texas Sleigh Ride

This past weekend we went to my parent's house in Colorado City, which is truly West Texas, not the Panhandle! They live on 9 acres outside the town, and have all kinds of fun things to do on the land, including tractors, frac-tanks, road graders, semis, and lots of other ways to get dirty and have a good time. One of their favorites, at least for Peter, Isabelle, and of course me, are the 2 go-karts. They could spend hours on them if we let them. Here is a fun video of Peter and I taking a quick(35 mph) stroll through the country side.

Careful, this might make you sick...

In case you have ever wondered what Jeremiah's nose sees as he jumps on the trampoline over three squealing kids...

Baby Prep 101

Knowing how important food is for domestic harmony, and how potentially busy our kitchen will be after this newest bundle of joy arrives, I have decided to stock the freezer with all kinds of frozen dinners.

Now, I think I have been pregnant too long, and should begin to seriously examine my decisions in other areas, because the insanity of quadrupling a chicken pot pie recipe (that already normally yields two pot pies), all in one afternoon, never occurred to me. Not as we cooked two whole chickens, nor as we peeled and sliced 2 lbs of carrots, cried through 5 diced onions, or even when we cubed 3 lbs of potatoes... but as Jeremiah rolled his 16th pie crust, I think it had occurred to someone else.

In fact, the insanity seemed to have worn on him quite a bit, because instead of continuing to make pretty little hearts on all of his pies...

Peter talked Daddy into making an elephant on the final pie. At least, that is what he said it was.

BUT, now we have 17 frozen meals in our freezer, unfortunately, the selection is limited to Chicken pot pie, baked ziti and mac'n'cheese... perhaps I should have thought of this also, when quadrupling meals?

Trains, Trains, and more trains...

Peter just recently celebrated his 5th birthday, and anyone who has been around Peter for more than a few minutes will hear stories of his new train pieces, three of which just came in the mail this past week after a most unpleasent 4 days of transit on the UPS truck.

With these three new pieces, which included a turn-table, a switch track, and 6 pedestals to provide for an elevated track. These pieces were a very big deal!

Here below is by far the best track we have ever designed. I am thinking of changing career paths after this successful engineering feat! Now I know what you are saying, "That just looks like a normal toy train set," but to a well trained eye this is incredible. Included in this track layout, is a turn-table, crossover drawbridge, 4 splits, a switch track, a 7 piece long double elevated track, and Cranky the crane.
In this low angle shot, you can see James and Oliver pulling the freight cars through the turn-table one at a time. In the top middle you can see Cranky working hard. On the right is the drawbridge, and to the left is the elevated track.
Here are Thomas and Percy pulling Daisy through the switch track next to Cranky.

Peter was very thrilled with this track, proudly proclaiming, "I never build a train track like this before, it is pretty neat."

And I can't end without saying a very grateful thank you to my assistant track designer, Uncle Philip-pie. We worked hard on this for well over 45 minutes and are very pleased with the results that we obtained.

Demolition Duty

A few weeks ago my parents came into town for a few days, and along with a few brother-in-laws, we transformed our garage into a new school room for the kids. Below are some pics of the progress that we made throughout the weekend.

The old garage was just the studs, so we re-routed cold and hot water pipes through our walls along with enough electrical for 8 new sets of plugs and a 240 line for the dryer.

We installed a new wall just where the garage door tracks end so that we could still have some garage storage. We then moved the washer and dryer and also laid a 70 ft drainline for the washer around the house.
We then insulated and sheet rocked the whole garage. This was by far, the biggest home improvement project I have ever taken on. I was lucky to have a Dad with every imaginable tool available, but we were still always in need of a tape measure, even though when we cleaned up we found about 8 different ones!

We also had lots of little hands available to do the hard work like getting us more Dr. Pepper and beer!
And lots of strong men to help as well....
Peter became fascinated with the chalk line and how it worked, and he became the official chalk line operator, and to commemorate this honorable appointment, we gladly chalked some racing stripes on his face!

Recent Art Work

Isabelle's created this person all by herself, complete with three eyes and four arms (sprouting from his cheeks of course). We were actually very impressed, and he stuck around for a couple hours. It would have been longer but he and Daniel had a rendezvous in a dark hallway corner.

Peter drew this train, with both smiley faces on it.

Daddy wrote smiley face.
(He did very well)