Indiana

One of the things you don't get in Texas is the wide variety of fall color like they get up here in northern Indiana.  So many more reds, yellows, and oranges on all the trees.  It is just gorgeous. 

Are we there yet?!?

Traveling was so much easier before we had kids.  Karie and I would just pack up and go.  Now it requires lists, shuffling items around and between bags to make sure they are not over the weight limits.  Then checking the lists once, and twice, and thrice to make sure when we get on the plane we don't ask "where is the sippy cup" while Samantha is going "AAAaaahahahahahaAAAHhahahhahahahhha!!!!"

Then there is all the looks from the passengers wondering "is that kid going to cry on the plane" or "is that kid going to kick/punch/puke/poop on me during the flight."  Coming down the isle it almost feels like the scene from Forrest Gump on the bus where all the kids/soldiers are saying "this seat is taken" however, we have assigned seats so take that "MUuuahhahahahahaha!!!"

Then there is all the fees for the extra stuff that we have to bring along.  I do give airlines some credit for allowing strollers and carseats to fly for free but the pack-n-play is hit or miss.  I think we have spent enough on fees for that thing that we could have bought 2 more by now.

Even with all that it's still worth it to get out and to share the world with the little one and soon to be two.  Even though Samantha is too small to ever remember her trips to Ft. Wayne and her trip to the Grand Canyon or Yosemite or the Golden Gate bridge, I think these sights will stick with her as she grows up.  I feel like we are helping her to expand her horizons and eventually expand her sisters horizons and however many after that.

I didn't travel much as a kid, the farthest we ever went from home was as far as we could and still get back before bed time.  So our range of travel was very small.  My first airplane trip was in high school when the band went to Disney World.  As I got older, I began to realize how much was out there to see and do and if I had all the time and money in the world that is what I would do.  But sadly I don't have all the time and money in the world so we pick and chose very carefully. 

So far our trips have been a lot of fun and yes there have been exploding diapers on flights.  There have been diverted flights and tarmac waits.  There have been not so happy people next to us.  And there has been some crying and screaming but it's still all worth it.  It's so very worth it to watch Samantha run around the giant redwoods and eat dirt in a different state, which according to Samantha California dirt tastes better than Texas dirt.  To carry Samantha around Yosemite where she got to touch rocks bigger than our house and see a waterfall taller than the highest high rise in Dallas.  These memories are far out weight the miniscule inconveniences of traveling with the little ones.

One day, I hope, our kiddos will thank us for dragging them around to different parts of this country and eventually the world.

Rangers

All of these close and extra inning games are going to give me an ulcer.  It makes for exciting baseball but my stress level is through the roof.

As a life long Rangers fan it is so nice to make the the playoffs and the World Series two years in a row after years and years of mediocre baseball.  But I realized that it doesn't take long for expectations to change.  Just simply making the playoffs or making it to the World Series just isn't enough any more.  Now that I have been given a taste, I want it all.

After tonights nail biter the series is tied 1-1 and it heads back to Texas.  We get our designated hitter back and they can play baseball the way it was meant to be played.  I am hoping the Rangers bats wakeup so we can start putting this series away!  I don't think I can take a repeat of last year.

Kicks

I felt two little kicks from the little one tonight.  Karie is really starting to feel her moving around and has mentioned it several times but this was the first time I was able to feel her.  We are almost to the half way point in the pregnancy, it feels like it is going quite a bit fast this time.  With Samantha it seemed to take forever to get to this point.  I think a lot of that is because  are busy with Samantha.

Tonight I made cupcakes for Karie's birthday party on Sunday and Samantha got to lick the beater.  She didn't really know what to make of it at first until I got her to taste it.  Then she was all over it.  The only problem was that she wasn't in her chair so she walked into the living room, tripped, and fell onto a couch pillow.  This resulted in her losing her beater and there was much whaling and gnashing of teeth.  For the second beater, I put her into her chair so their wouldn't be a repeat.

After dinner we settled down to watch the Lion King and to my surprise Samantha actually snuggled with Karie and watched.  Later she came and snuggled with me a little before she went to bed.  Of course she didn't make it through the entire movie but it was nice to have a quiet movie night.

State Fair of Texas

Yesterday was my Fair Day and I love the State Fair.  I remember going almost every year as a kid and even as I grew up.  Karie and my first day was at the State Fair so needless to say it means a lot to me to go every year.  This year was even more fun because Samantha is old enough to partake of the food and the fun.  We also went with my sister, my nephew and his wife and their little girl.  The fair is always more fun with more people.

If you have never been to a fair then you don't understand that the food is one of the main attractions.  Pretty much everything is fried.  If you are going to go to a fair then eating healthy really isn't an option. We had corn dogs, funnel cake, cotton candy, corn on the cob, 1/2 lbs hot dogs, cheese fries, fried buffalo chicken flapjack, fried Oreos, turkey leg, root beer, lemonade, fried mac and cheese and others I can't remember.  

The fried buffalo chicken flapjack won the award for best food and it was pretty good.  The loser of the day was the Kool-Aide Pickle.  I saw it advertised while we were eating out lunch and I just had to give it a try.   The Kool-aide pickle is a huge dill pickle soaked in Kool-Aide then sprinkled with sugar and kool-aide mix.  It was just too weird, the dill was too much of a contrast of the sweet kool-aide. Samantha's favorite food was the fried mac and cheese.

We also went through the childrens animal barn which is generally a big hit with Samantha.  This year she was old enough to walk around without being carried so she could go up to the animals herself.  However, she isn't quite old enough to feed the animals.  She seemed to be just as happy just to look and to play with the scoops that were attached to each cage.

After we looked at the animals we wandered around the car show and picked out all the cars and trucks that we would love to have but won't.  Samantha really liked this red Dodge truck but mean ole mommy wouldn't let her take it home. 

Samantha did get a little model VW Beetle to take home.  It rode around in the wagon with her all day.  The only time she put it down was to get something to eat or drink.

There were a lot of cool cars and trucks.  Every year we see more and more electric or hybrid vehicles at the fair.  This year they were really hyping the Chevy Volt and Nissan Leaf.  I got to take a look at the Leaf, the electric motor just looks odd under the hood.  But I guess one of these days we will all be driving electric cars.

The hit of the day had to be the aquarium.   Samantha loved to splash in the water in the open tanks where you can touch and feel stuff.  Evidently, Samantha didn't seem to care that there were "NO SPLASHING" signs posted all over the place.  Her and Karie had a couple of battles over the splashing that didn't end well.  Within a couple of minutes Samantha was covered in water.  The Manta Ray tank in the back of the aquarium is just too cool.  They rays swim right up and you can touch them.  Samantha seemed more annoyed by them than anything because they were interrupting her splashing.  They would swim by and suck on her arm looking for food and then move on.  I was able to feed a couple of them and it startled my how much they can suck.  It was actually quite creepy.  But they are beautiful animals!

And of course, you can't leave the fair without riding at least one ride.  I scoped out the rides and the "Winky the Whale" ride seemed to be the least threatening.  The minimum height was 30 inches so Samantha was good to go.  I could tell this ride was going to be a problem for me when I got in and realized I didn't really fit.  I had to put my legs sideways to keep my knees from banging around and had to force my arm against the front bar to keep from smashing Samantha.  So when this thing finally started to move Samantha starting laughing.  I then realized it moved faster and more violently than it looked.  Every time Winky the Whale went up and down it slammed my spine and knees against the hard seat and from of the whale.  As I cringe from the next movement, Samantha is laughing and screaming.  She loved it.  This was the first ride she had ever been on and it opened a whole new world for her.  After that she knew what all these spinning, noisy things were and she would point at the rides that were too big for her and clap.  I am sure she would have ridden everything in the midway.  Next year , I am sure I will be on a lot more rides with Samantha. 

As the way went on, I could tell that Samantha was starting to get tired.  Since we took the wagon Samantha didn't have an opportunity to take a nap like her cousin did, who was in a stroller.  We had left the house just after 9:30 am and didn't leave the fair until around 6:15 pm.  As soon as we got into the van to head home, Samantha was out cold.  It was a long, fun, and exhausting day.  Karie and my feet were both sore from all the walking and standing.  But it was an awesome day and year after year we hope there will be many, many more.

Rangers

These playoff baseball games are going to give me a stroke.  As a life long Rangers fan I  unacustomed to being this involved in playoff baseball.  Last year and this year have been an education in reflux causing stress as I watch the Rangers navigate through the post season. 

Tonight's game was hard to watch.  Even though I knew the odds of winning were low when the Tigers tacked on more runs to make it 5-1, I still had hope that maybe there was some more grandslam magic in Cruz's bat.  But it wasn't meant to be.

I knew they would't sweep the Tigers so now we can move on and win the series!

Pumpkins, Twins, Rain, and Bathtime

What do these four things have in common, pumpkins, twins, rain and bath time.  Well, they are all thinks from this weekend.  Yes, I realize that is a cheesy way to start a blog entry but since it was kind of a random title I thought some explanation was necessary.

Saturday morning Karie, Samantha, and I drove up to Celina to visit the Big Orange Pumpkin Farm.  It was a lot of fun.  They had a petting zoo with cows, longhorns, goats and sheep.  The kiddos were not allowed in the pens with the animals but since we go there first thing in the morning the animals were nice and hungry so it wasn't hard to get them to come over.  Actually the sheep were pretty aggressive and one of them was able to get a feed cup away from Karie and eat it all up.  It was funny because the sheep just shoved it's nose into the cup and tilted it's head back and all the feed was gone!  The longhorns and cows were her favorite.  When she would see one she would run towards them yelling "MMMMOOOOOooooooo!!!!"

Samantha really enjoyed running around the pumpkin patch.  We tried to get her to say "Pumpkin" but it came out more like "Poop" so it sounded like she was running around yelling "Poop!" all morning.  Samantha doesn't get to run around in wide open spaces like I did when I was a kid so we try to get her out as much as we can.  The pumpkin patch was a lot of fun, however, Samantha didn't know what to make of the pumpkins at first.  Once she realized she could pick them up and carry them she was off.  The highlight of the visit was when she found a tiny pumpkin that was just her size.  We also enjoyed a hay ride, which was about 5 minutes too long for Samantha.  She didn't get upset but she was starting to get antsy to move around.

Later that evening we went out to my mom and dad's for dinner and Kevin and Wendy brought out the twins.  They are getting so big and it's hard to imagine how small they were when they were first born.  They are both very aware and look at you and acknowledge you.  They are at an age where they become a lot of fun.  Luke and Grace already have distinct personalities and distinct laughs.  Baby laughs are just awesome!!!  Luke is a little smaller than Grace at the moment but I am sure that won't last for long.  I am so glad that I get to spend time when these two!  It really makes you thing about the blessing in our life and our family when you look at these two!

On Sunday not much was going to happen outdoors because it was actually raining.  It rained on and off most of the day on Sunday and boy did we need it.  It wasn't enough to end the drought but it helped.  The weather man said we still have a 9 inch deficit for rain this year and it looks like it will be a dry winter so unless we get some drought busting rain it looks like my water bill won't be going down anytime soon.

Then finally we get to bath time!  I remember when bath time used to be a fun time, not just a something you did every morning or night that is part of your daily routine.  Samantha loves running water, I guess who doesn't.  The feel and look of it is just cool, no matter how old you are. Samantha was having a really good time in the bath until she fell face first into the water.  For an adult this is not a big deal but for a 15 month old falling like that can be terrifying.  In an instant she was face down and not able to breathe.  Karie scooped her up immediately and I wrapper her in a towel because I knew this meant the end of bath time.  Samantha was crying but it wasn't her normal "I"M PISSED!!!!" cry it was a whiny and pitiful "I'm scared..." cry.  I hate that cry. The pissed cry happens all the time, it's not hard to piss off a little toddler, but the scared cry really bothers me.    It makes me feel like I failed as a parent.  Yes, I know it's just part of her learning but I still don't like it and I know that I can not prevent these situations from happening.  Nor should I try unless I want Samantha to grow up sheltered and scared of the world.  So the best I can do is offer a comforting hug and let her know she is alright.

It wasn't long before she was back to herself and she picked up my brush and decided that she needed to brush mine and her hair. 

So what do pumpkins, twins, rain and bath time mean to me.  It means I had a great weekend with my family and reminds me of how truly blessed I am.

Flowers

I have been working feverishly to get the flowers completed so we can start to distribute them to friends and family.  They are all pretty much cut out and now I am sanding and priming the them.  I have 11 of them ready to go.  Since it takes time for the primer to dry I can only do some many of the flowers at a time.  So this evening I decided to sit down and start designing my flower.


I started off with a standard type flower and working my way over to a more exotic design.  In this process, I realized how much I still enjoy grabbing a pencil and paper and doodling.  I used to be a pretty good artist when it came to pencil and charcoal.  However, I am so out of practice now that I can barely draw a stick figure.  Regardless, it is still really enjoyable to just to sit down and lose yourself in a blank peice of paper.  Before I knew it, I had been sitting there for over a hour and it was time to go to bed.

My biggest obstacle to this whole process is that that I really suck at painting.  My sister and twin brother have skills with a paint brush so I am sure their flowers will look great.  I just never liked the flexiblity of the brush.  The pencil makes a mark exactly where I put it.  So I think I might have to bust out my airbrush, something I also haven't used in a long time either.  It should provide me a lot more control, I hope.  It will also give me the look I am going for if I go with the flame design.  No matter how the flower turns out, it should be fun.

Good weekend

It was a pretty good weekend.

Yesterday Karie, Samantha and I went out to Eisenhower State Park for a hike.  The park was pretty much deserted since the water was off limits.  Due to the really hot summer and the lower water levels the algae in the water is at dangerous levels.  So getting in the water is forbidden.  It wasn't a big deal to us since we had not planned on doing any swimming today.

We hiked around  3 miles and then found an empty campsite to have our lunch.  It wasn't hard to find an empty one so we got to pick a real nice one.  Samantha had the most fun chasing the flies that landed on our food and cooler.

Later that evening, we all went to downtown McKinney to grab some dinner.  We went over to Square Burger, one of our favorite places to eat.  And afterwards we walked around the square.  We eventually ended up at a small park just west of the square.  Samantha ran around for about 30 minutes straight.  She even spent some time chasing a little 2 year old boy around, oh, it's too early to start that.

Today we went out for a walk over to a playground near our house.  Samantha loves the play ground and especially the mulch they put down.  She throws it, moves it, carries it, and hands it to me to hold.  We spent some time going down the slides today.  At first she wasn't that interested until I let her go down herself.  That was a lot of fun and we did that over, and over, and over until I had enough.

On our way back to the house we bumped into a lady walking with a small screech owl on her arm.  I asked her if it was an owl and she said "yes" and come over to talk to us.  It turns out she was trying to determine if the owl could be used with kids and adults as a learning bird.  The owl had been injured so it could no longer fly.  The owl had its eyes almost closed and was making a small cry.  The lady said the noise was his cry, and meant he wasn't happy.  The owl was doing pretty well and seemed to get used to our presence.  However, if the owl cannot get used to people it will be put down since all the stress would not be a very good life for the owl.  I really hope he makes it.  The lady works at the Raptor habitat over by Lake Lavon and said it's open to the public the first Saturday of the month.  We might try to head over there next month and see the little owl.

Marching Band

I went to see my nephew march with the Liberty Redhawk marching band last night.  It was a lot of fun to be at a high school game again to see the band perform. 

My sister and I talked a little bit about our band experiences and it got me thinking that it has been almost 20 years since I was out on a football field marching. 

Damn, I am getting old.