A Little Survey

Updated to show my answers. (and Yes, I know it took me more than a few days. Sorry Cindi! You can see my friend Cindi's answers on her blog here. Thanks to Krissy who answered in my comments! I have been so busy with kickball - haven't I said that before? - but hopefully I'll be posting on a more regular basis now!)

I found this over at A is for Beautiful and thought it would be fun to answer.

You can leave your answers in the comments section or do a post on your blog. (Who I am lying to? I have no readers who are going to be bored enough to actually do this in writing! :)

1. summer television: waste of time or guilty pleasure? Umm, I watch TV all year long. I consider it cheap therapy!
2. baked potatoes: butter, sour cream, bacon bits, chives, cheese? any or all? Everything but sour cream
3. Facebook: must-do or proud resister? I have an account but am not addicted or anything.
4. coupon clipping: yes or no? Yes. When people buy the paper and give me coupons.
5. babyback ribs or key lime pie? Both, of course!
6. Jeopardy or Wheel of Fortune? Jeopardy. It comes on at 1:30 here so I Tivo it and watch it when I get home from work.
7. ocean waves or lazy river? Lazy river
8. pickles: dill or sweet? Depends on what I'm using them for.
9. the economy: still ick or rebounding? Who knows?
10. eBay or Craigslist? eBay
11. Mexican food or sushi? Mexican Food
12. Edward, Jacob, or who cares? I'm obviously out of the loop. Who are these people??
13. pregnancy dreams: annoying or humorous? Humorous, it's the only time in my life that I could remember by dreams - because they were so weird!
14. summer thunderstorms: music to your ears or pain in the rear? Music to my ears!
15. online games: good way to pass the time at work on a Friday or who has the time? Fun way to avoid housework - no access to them at work.
16. So You Think You Can Dance: addicting entertainment or yawn? I've never seen an episode.
17. beach or mountains? Mountains
18. hardback or paperback? Paperback
19. Pepsi or Coke? Coke
20. Ellie or Josh? any bets? Again - who??


I'll post my answers in a day or two.

Water Balloon Fight

Have I mentioned that Jimmy and I are coaching kickball again this season? We coached last year and finished the season in 6th place. (Out of 9 teams - not great but not awful either. We were new to the whole coaching thing and we had some issues with the girls working together as a team.)

Anyway, we are called The Rockers this year. To start off the season we beat the Stingrayz. It came down to the bottom of the sixth inning. We had a two run lead . . . and we let a runner score. A few tense moments later we got the last out and were 1 -0. We were on top of the world because the Stingrayz were in 2nd place last year.

In the next two games our team did not fair as well. We lost to the Cyclones by one run. Even though we lost we were happy with how the game went. Our girls played really well and didn't make any major mistakes. Considering that the Cyclones were in first place last year (they only lost one game the whole season) we were happy.

The third game - our girls just gave up. They were down by three early in the game and never rallied back. We were disappointed in how they lost - not that they lost.

The fourth game was a tie. We played hard to the bitter end but just couldn't score another run to win the game. Even though we tied, our girls were back!

Game 5 - we were set to play the Heartbreakers - who are now 4-0. A good friend of ours coaches the team so it was going to be especially interesting to see who would win.

Jimmy promised the girls a water balloon fight if we won the game. (Can you finally see where this post it going??) Needless to say, WE WON!!!!!!!! and the score was 14-3. Our girls took an early lead and never looked back.

It took Jimmy and I over an hour to fill up the balloons with water. Needless to say, the kitchen floor is pretty clean now from all of the accidents that we had filling them up. I am sad to say that it only took minutes for all of the balloons to be history! However, the girls had a great time.

Just for the record, we won our next game so our record is now 4-2-1.

On Monday we start all over again with the Stingrayz. I know we can beat them again!

GO ROCKERS!!!!!!!!!

Las Vegas Day Three

On our third day in Las Vegas we went over to the New York New York. Tina was determined to ride the roller coaster that is on top of the building. I wasn't so sure about it and Jimmy certainly wasn't going to ride the thing.

My indecisiveness about the roller coaster didn't matter after all because it was only 9:30 in the morning and rides didn't start until 11:00.
We decided to do some more sightseeing and you know . . . walk some more. As we were leaving the New York New York Jimmy decided that he had walked enough and went back to our hotel to hang out.

Tina and I set off to explore.

We walked down to a CVS because I already needed water and chap stick. (How come I can never remember to bring all of the little things like chap stick with me??) When we were paying for our water this lady walked up behind me. Me, being the wary traveler that I am, glanced back to see who had walked up behind us. I thought in my head that wow, that lady really looks like Juanita (my mother-in-law/Tina's mom) but I didn't say anything. Tina, not being shy at all, turns around and sees her and says, "Wow! You look just like my mom! Can I take your picture?" The lady pretends like she doesn't hear her and looks the other way. Tina continues to talk to her and the lady continues to ignore her. I finally finish paying for my purchases and get Tina to leave the store. I guess that old wive's tale about everyone having a twin is true. Juanita - your twin was in Las Vegas when we were!

We passed lots of hotels (they all start to blur together after a while) and finally end up at the Bellagio. We walked through the casino. I was looking for two of my friends who were in Vegas at the same time we were and staying there. I didn't see them. Tina then wanted to find the wedding chapel to see what it look like. Well, we obviously went the looooong way around. It took forever to find the wedding chapel. It was pretty but actually really small. (Tina says the one at the Luxor is actually lots fancier but I don't know because I didn't go into that one.)

We kept walking . . . . and walking . . . and walking . . . and came upon the most fabulous chocolate shop. They had this huge fountain of different types of chocolates running into the gorgeous pools. They also had a fabulous Easter scene set up - bunnies, eggs, etc. that was adorable. Tina and I couldn't resist the temptation so we bought chocolate dipped strawberries and various other goodies.

We walked some more and finally came to the Conservatory. (This is the whole reason I wanted to come to the Bellagio in the first place.)

It was breathtaking. See for yourself:

It also smelled heavenly. We spent almost half an hour in there looking at all of the different types of flowers.

We were exhausted by that point and so we took a cab back to the hotel. We had planned to walk down the strip some more and go eat at Margaritaville but the timing just didn't work out. Oh well, there's always next time right??

Once we got back to the Luxor Jimmy, Tina, and I went back to the New York New York so Tina could ride the roller coaster.

Long story short, I rode the roller coaster. And then I felt sick for about an hour.

We went back to the Luxor and rested for a while and then I went to the Bodies Exhibit. Neither Jimmy nor Tina had any desire to see the exhibit so I went by myself. It was horrifying and fascinating all at the same time. I highly recommend it. Jimmy went to the Titanic Exhibit which he said was really good too. I would have liked to see it too but we were running short on time.

By then it was time to get ready for the last show we were going to see. We went to see:

Not Fantasy!!! We went to see Carrot Top. The show was really funny.

This is Tina with Charlie. Charlie does an opening act before Carrot Top's show. It was neat to get to talk to him. Tina was looking for Carrot Top at the clubs in the casino and spotted Charlie instead so she went up to him and started talking to him. Again, never shy, that's Tina!

Early the next morning (although thankfully not as early as Monday morning) we flew home to Texas.

I can't wait to go on vacation again!

Las Vegas Day Two Contined

Here is a picture of me next to a giant coke bottle. This was outside the Coca-Cola store. As I said in my last post, I was so grateful to find a real coke in Las Vegas. I could have kissed the machine!
We walked farther down the strip sightseeing and having a good time people watching. It was St. Patrick's Day so there were plenty of crazy things to see. (Now that I think about it, there's probably always crazy things and people to see in Las Vegas - St. Patrick's Day or not.)

We ate lunch at P.F. Changs on the strip. These were crab won tons that were really good. The fried rice was also really good. It had lots of veggies in it that I really liked. My entree wasn't great but Tina's chicken was really good.

After eating lunch we walked around some more. (I know I keep typing that sentence out but if you go sightseeing in Las Vegas, plan on doing a lot of walking!)

We went into a Field of Dreams store (sports memorabilia) and went past the Sony store. There was a giant playstation portable on the front of the building.

We then walked back toward the hotel. We stopped at the MGM Grand to see the lion. He wasn't impressed with all of the people who were gathered around to watch him. He basically just layed there. I did buy a cute magnet for my fridge at home. It has a lion on it and the words Here human, human. I thought that it was really funny.

We played the slot machines for a little while and then headed back to the hotel.

We rested for a while and then got ready to go to our next show.

What show did we go to you ask?

(insert picture here)

We went to see Criss Angel.

It says insert picture here because you are not allowed to talk pictures during the show and I am too lazy to find a picture of Criss Angel on-line.

The show was called Believe and it was really cool. I had never seen any of his shows so I really enjoyed it. I know that some parts of the show have to be illusions but the execution of the show is flawless. You cannot tell how he is doing them. The show also had Cirque de Soliel elements in it.

After the show we went to eat at Dick's Last Resort. All I'm going to say about that is that you have to be in the right frame of mind to eat at Dick's or it is going to be a really frustrating experience for you. My burger was good though.

Las Vegas Day Two (Part I)

Update: For some of you who are wondering, Tina is one of Jimmy's four sisters. She went on the trip with us. She isn't pictured in this post but she was in the last post - the picture with the drinks.

Now for the next Vegas Vacation installment:

Jimmy and I were up early on Tuesday of our vacation due to our early bedtime the night before. (We are probably the only people who went to Vegas and were in bed before midnight.

Anyway, we got up early and went to the food court to eat breakfast. (Starbucks has really good oatmeal, by the way.)

After that Jimmy and I went down to the casino to gamble while Tina got ready for the day.

Jimmy sat down and played video poker and I wandered around until I found a slot machine that only took 50 cents to "fill up." (I don't know what the correct term for this is. My mom always told me to fill up the machine. In other words, play the maximum bet. She's been to Vegas lots so I followed her advice.)

Since it was so early there were hardly any people around. I picked a machine based on the fact that is was only 50 cents to play and that there were no smokers playing nearby. (I know that these are funny criteria for most people - but they worked for me ok?)

I put in a $20.00 bill. (Do you know how hard it was for me to do that? It takes me an hour to make $20.00!) Before I knew it, all of my credits were gone.

I reluctantly put in another $20.00 bill. Once again, I was down to almost no credits very quickly.

I had $1.50 in the machine and had already decided that when that was gone so was I.

I pushed max bet and to my surprise this came up:

This was the top prize for the machine I was playing. I looked up and saw that I won but it really wasn't registering how much I had won.

Just then a drink girl came around. "I won!" I told her. At this point I thought I had won $400.00. Come to find out, 4000 quarters is a lot more than $400.00! (Yes, I'm a teacher. I obviously need to work on my mental math skills.)

The look on Jimmy's face when I told him how much I'd won was priceless. I wish I'd taken a picture of it.

I carefully filed away my voucher for my winnings and we went out to sight see.

Here we are in front of the MGM.
We spent over an hour in this store. It was four stories high. It had some museum type parts which told about the history of M&M's and how M&M's are made. It had tons of really cute merchandise to buy too.

(It was also next door to the Coke-a-Cola store so it contained a vending machine that sold Coke! The Luxor only sells Pepsi so I had been drinking Sierra Mist. I had a terrible headache from a lack of caffeine. About an hour after drinking my coke however, I was just fine!)

This was up in the museum area. As a teacher I couldn't resist taking a picture of this little diorama. In case you can't read it, it says "I will not melt in the hand." Adorable!Here's my picture with the big blue and red guys.

Las Vegas Day One

Here is a picture of me, Jimmy, and Tina. We flew out of the Houston International Airport. We had to get up at 3:00 in the morning so that we could get to the airport on time. Never again will I book a flight out at 7:00 a.m.

Since we left SO early, we arrived in Vegas at 8:20 a.m. We took a shuttle bus to the hotel but had to check our bags since it was too early to check in. We were starving but no one was serving lunch yet. We wound up eating a second breakfast at a restaurant inside the hotel.

We walked around a little, gambled a little, and were then able to check in. We went to our room and took a nap to recover from our early arrival time.

We stayed at the Luxor on the strip. Here's a shot from inside the hotel. We stayed in the pyramid portion of the hotel. It was very cool inside.

After a nap we were ready to go. Jimmy and I took a cab to Treasure Island (stop laughing - the two hotels are pretty far apart and we were still really tired!)

At Treasure Island we stood in line for almost an hour to pick up our tickets to Mystere, which is one of the shows that Cirque du Soleil performs.

We ate dinner at Kahunaville where Tina bought me a drink that was larger than my head!
This was a huge seafood appetizer that Tina and I shared for dinner. The grilled shrimp were fantastic
The waitress was sweet and took this picture for us. Tina wanted to have photographic proof that I actually had a drink.

We still had a little time before the show so we went to the casino and gambled a little. I won some quarters but the drink had obviously gone to my head because I was unable to convert the number of quarters I won into dollars. A text message to Veronica later and I knew that I won $18.00. However, by the time she got back to me I had already lost it! Oh well, easy come, easy go as they say.

Mystere was AWESOME! I had no idea what to expect out of it and it was breath taking. I am really glad that we went to see it.

After the show Tina persuaded us to walk back to the hotel. "It's not that far," she insisted. We walked by the Venetian and saw the gondolas and by the Mirage. The volcano was erupting but we were too late to get a spot up close enough to really see it.

We then started walking back to the hotel.

We walked . . .

and walked . . .

and walked . . .

An hour later we stopped for a bottle of water and I drank half of it in one drink.

We proceeded to walk some more.

A total of an hour and a half later we were back at the hotel.

So many people told me that the hotels were not as close to each other as they seemed, and you know what???

THEY WERE RIGHT!

Oh, well. It was really neat to see everything all lit up at night. However, due to some construction, you could only walk on one side of the street at some points so it was pretty crowded.

When we got back to the hotel we gambled a little and then turned in early. (Is it considered jet lag when you fly somewhere with a two hour time difference??)

You have to see it to believe it

Last weekend I went to Houston to visit with my old friends Crystal and Elaine. I have talked about both of them here before.

Crystal - Elaine - Me

Crystal recently moved back to Texas after having lived in Colorado for the past several years. Elaine has lived in Houston for a couple of years now. Elaine is an artist - check out her website here - and had a show opening in Houston last Friday night. It is located at the Art League of Houston in case you are interested. This show was like no other I've ever seen before.

Elaine's sculptures are of taxidermied animals (she rescues them off of eBay - she doesn't hunt) that have custom made crocheted sweaters. She totally outdid herself with this show - if I do say so myself.

Not only did Elaine create several new sculptures, she also created habitats for each animal/group of animals, had a gift shop, had brochures, etc. She created everything she would need for:

It was totally awesome. My pictures DO NOT do her exhibits justice. Part of that is my fault - new camera and all - and the other part is ALL OF THE PEOPLE THAT WERE THERE! The place was SO packed Crystal and I couldn't even see Elaine while she was giving her artist talk, let alone hear her.

Elaine, I am so proud of you. I can remember how you wanted to be an artist even when we were kids. It isn't everyday when you have a friend who has followed her dreams. I love to tell people that I have this really cool friend who is an artist.

Congratulations - all of your hard work paid off!

(Do I sound like a teacher or what???)

An old favorite

Recently I pulled Meagan's lite bright down from the top of her closet. (I stuck it up there a while back when I was tired of stepping on all of the little pieces every time I walked into her room!) She also has a travel lite bright. (You know a mom didn't invent that toy. No mom in her right mind would invent a travel toy that needs bunches of little plastic pieces that have to be loose in order to work correctly!)

Anyway, the kids must have had a good time with the lite brights because they were quiet for the whole afternoon. Let's think about this, a toy that keeps BOTH of my kids fairly quiet and happy? Now that is a winning toy in my book.

I think a bat flew in my house and bit Garrett

Calm down! NOT FOR REAL! He is suddenly obsessed with Batman, hence the title. He's actually obsessed with all superheros.

Jimmy bought this Lego set on vacation and Garrett bothered him daily until Jimmy opened the box and put the set together.

Here's Jimmy. You can see all of the Lego pieces on the table. The pieces are now sorted into the correct piles to assemble.

Garrett checks out the back of the box. He tells us that he wants ALL the other sets to finish his "collection." Once Garrett buys a toy that has other toys advertised on the back of the box he wants ALL of them!
Dad reads the instruction booklet and Garrett supervises.
My boys with the assembled Legos.

A closeup of the assembles Legos. The kit contained Robin and his car and The Penguin, his vehicle, and two tiny penguins. Garrett insists on calling Penguin Mr. Penguin, or Mr. Penguin Man.

I won a Pay It Forward Contest!!

So, I got an e-mail a while back from Clarabella at Living and Learning telling me I won her Pay It Forward contest! Fast forward a few days and guess what I saw on my porch the other day??

This box!
When I opened the box I found all sorts of goodies! There were some really cute flip flop candle holders and yummy pear votive candles to go in them. They have a new home on my dining room table. There was also a cute little journal, pen, and bookmarks that will be perfect for when I start back to school. The photo album will be great for showing off my vacation pictures. (I like to show my students places that I visit.) The kids also hit the jackpot! For Meagan there were sparkly pony tail holders. For Garrett there was a set of magnetic alphabet letters that we promptly put on the refrigerator. These will be perfect for quizzing him on his letters. He is already sorting them by color. The outside toys (airplanes, Frisbee, and chalk) will be great as soon as it stops raining. (We have had an unusual amount of rain around here lately.)

Thank you so much Clarabella! The prize box was just what I needed to cheer me up. (I'm a little sad about my summer ending.) The goodies for the kids were perfect for those I'm bored and I've played with everything in my room end of summer blues.

Stay tuned because I will be holding another contest of my own during September to keep the Pay It Forward game going!

Swimming Lessons

In July the kids took two weeks of swimming lessons. Thanks Grandma Silly and Grandpa! (The swimming lessons were their treat because Grandpa thinks a child can never have too many weeks of swimming lessons.) The kids had a fantastic teacher - Miss T. She is the coach of our local swim team. She did a great job with the kids and they really learned a lot. Meagan can swim all on her own now, even in deep water. She is still working on diving and learning different strokes. She also needs to work on breathing while swimming. Right now, when she takes a breath she stops swimming.

Garrett is going great too. As long as he has his noodle he will go anywhere or do anything in the water. When you take the noodle away, he knows what to do but acts like he can't swim. Next summer he will work on swimming independently. (Considering last year he told me, "No thanks, I'm just going to sit on the side of the pool." We are really proud of him.)

This is Garrett jumping off of the diving board with his beloved noodle.
This is Garrett doing a toothpick jump. When you do this type of jump you wind up going quite deep into the pool. He came back up just fine!
Here he is swimming to Miss T. after one of his jumps.

Here is Garrett swimming to the edge of the pool after one of his jumps. This proves to me he can swim when he tries because Miss T. wasn't even there to catch him and send him to the side. He jumped off of the board, came to the surface, and swam to the side of the pool all by himself.
This is Meagan swimming to the shallow end of the pool after jumping off of the diving board.
Meagan does a handstand in the shallow end of the pool. We need to work on keeping those legs straight!
Meagan doing a cannonball.
The kids had a blast and keep asking, "Are we going to Miss T.'s next week?" Unfortunately, she was booked/we were on vacation/busy, etc. for the rest of the summer.

The kids have had the chance to practice their new skills this summer though. As I have posted about before we found a great pool in Aransas Pass that the kids have really enjoyed. Maybe one day Alice will have something like that!