Yard Waste

Sometimes, you just have to stop and smell the flowers. But try to avoid the funk of the garbage bin next to them.

Eye on the Ice Cream

Andrew wasn't sharing any of his ice cream with Sonny. But, if anything fell to the floor, Sonny was gonna be the one to get it.

Cherry Pickin' Day

So much happened today. Went to the state track meet to watch my niece run. Went to the Nifty Nut House to buy some snacks. Took a nap. Fixed the downspout on my house. Assembled stadium chairs for the Mrs. and I. Watched an episode of Survivor: Heroes vs. Villains. Ate homemade enchiladas for dinner. Picked a couple of buckets of cherries from my BIL & SIL's house. Went to see "Diary of a Wimpy Kid" with the family. You're looking at the best picture of the day.

Visiting Victors

For A2's first game of the year, we hit the road...and we hit the ball! We're off to a good start after winning tonight. My little girl is turning into quite the athlete. It's fun to watch her play the game, make good plays during the game, and celebrate a victory.

The Power of 10

Game tonight. We sucked. We lost. But I still believe in the power of 10. Not just because that's Andrew's number, but because there's always the next game.

SHOUT!

Idol Time

Watching American Idol with the kids. I'm ready for this season to be over. I have two seasons of "24" to watch and the entire final season of "Lost", too. Then there's the shows I had to give up because the DVR was full: Friday Night Lights, The Office, 30 Rock. We have our work cut out for us.

Smoke & Mirrors

Sara wasn't feeling well so I took Andrew to see a fantastic concert tonight. Cavo, Lifehouse, and Daughtry. I never gave Lifehouse much of a chance past their radio hits but they were really good! Daughtry was great, too! I loved it when he covered Phil Collins' "In The Air Tonight" (he broke out the lasers when the drums kick in!) and Billy Idol's "Rebel Yell". He sounded just like Billy Idol, too! It was awesome. But the band who really impressed me was Cavo. I knew nothing about them and their performance was good enough that I did what all people my age do that doesn't happen much anymore. I bought their CD "Bright Nights Dark Days". I've been listening to it all day. Love it! I hope more people find out about them. I'll have more pictures from the show posted soon.

Black Light Night

Shooting video of a dance recital downtown. It's something I do every year for this dance teacher. And every year, they have a black light routine. Crank up the iris!

Shocker Baseball at the Eck

Our office sponsored today's baseball game between the Wichita State University Shockers and Dallas Baptist University Patriots. A little windy but a great day for a baseball game. Our seats were in the shade which was a bonus above and beyond the free tickets. We had some extra free tickets so we stood out front and gave them out to people walking up to the ticket booth to purchase tix for the game. Doing nice stuff is cool. The Shockers won 2-0 and also secured a 1 seed in the MVC tournament.

Firetruck Friends

The crew from Truck 32, just up the road a piece and around the corner near Wild West World, made an appearance at the park tonight to "just be neighborly". I was busy with supervising the baseball fields so Sara and Amber stopped by to visit on their walk home. So, is this where the fascination with women and firemen begins? Hmmm...

Clod the Turtle

Andrew found this guy on the ball diamond the other night. He thought it was a dirt clod. That's why we named him (her?) Claude. How fitting. Took him out for some exercise tonight to run (walk?) around the yard...and my arm.

Rising Water

We had a lot of rain today. A good way to gauge how much is to walk over to the creek and see how high it is. This creek washed out the bridge above it a couple of times last year so they built a bigger, stronger, smarter, better-lookin' bridge over the winter. So far so good, but we haven't had a good, hard, torrential rain to test it yet. The creek was up, though. It sounded like a real river was running through town.

Tree Mail

Well...that's mighty neighborly, in a not so subtle kind of way.

Heavy Chickens

Went to the farm supply store looking for turtle food. A1 found a baby turtle on the baseball diamond last night. He thought it was a dirt clod and was about to kick it when it stuck out it's head and legs. What a trip, huh? So, we have a turtle in the back yard...name Claude, of course. Anyway, all of the spring geese, turkeys and chickens were out on display. These chicks are assorted heavies. I called a farmer friend to ask what a heavy chicken was. I got the answer you'd expect I'd get after asking a question like that. It was like asking "What's a henweigh?" (It's an old joke so you surely know the answer.) So, I looked up what a heavy was on my vast and unpaid research department called the Internet. I found this. That picture above will either make you very sad, or very hungry.

Scoreboard

Spending the evening out in right field shagging bad throws and missed catches from the boys in the infield. Not too many made it out my way. That's a good thing, because I was able to take a moment to snap this one off.

Playing Catch

Although the mist was falling on us, Andrew wanted to practice his pitching. So, I pulled up a bucket, we grabbed all of the baseballs we have and out back we went. The kid can throw some heat! Most of the time, he actually threw it to me. Hey, pitching ain't easy. If it were, everyone would be doing it. He's got skills and my hand is feeling it even as I type this. Ouch.

Having A Ball

The storms this week finally gave us enough of a break to work in a ball game. We beat the Sluggers 14 - 4. Shox are now 2-0.

Living Wax Museum

Tonight we spent the evening talking with Lucille Ball, Mickey Mantle, Joan of Arc, Hippocrates, Michael Jackson, Laura Ingalls Wilder and other great people from history. The school has an event each year that we've attended for a couple of years now. It's what they call a living wax museum. The kids choose a historical (not hysterical) person to profile and they then become that character. They all have colored stickers on their hands. If there's someone you're interested in hearing about, you push their "button" (or colored sticker) and the presentation begins. They have to speak for at least 90 seconds. It's a pretty cool project that provided a good hour of entertainment for our family, and possibly helped A1 prepare for his turn next year.

Mass Band Concert

The kids all did a fantastic job, and the high school band had to be inspiring to the younger grades. They flat out nailed their performance of the Star Wars theme. It was as if John Williams was in the house himself! All that being said, it felt like the longest night ever sitting in those bleachers. Big storms were going on outside. After it was all over, less than 30-seconds after the last note was played, a big bolt of lightning struck outside and took the lights with it. Pitch black in the gym, girls screaming, boys cheering, children crying. THAT, my friends, is the way to end a concert!

Batting Practice

The kids have been helping each other with their hitting game by practicing a little soft toss. The hardest part is keeping Sonny from stealing the whiffle balls and chewing them up. He's a pretty good fielder. I just wish we could teach him to throw.

Storm Front

To quote a line from the movie "The Color Purple"..."It's gonna rain on yo' head."

Tie Dye Tee

Sara finished up Amber's art project from school. I think the design turned out well. Groovy.

Middle of Nowhere

Somewhere between Gypsum and Salina. We stopped to find the one-room schoolhouse that Sara went to school in. We found it and took some photos that'll show up on my other blog. On our way to see her mom for Mother's Day, the road was closed so we had to take dirt roads that apparently don't see much traffic. It was a slow and bumpy ride. But the scenery made up for it.

Bite Me, Mom!

That's not me saying "Bite Me". It's the muffins talking! Since it's Mother's Day weekend, we are going on the "Mother of all Trips" tomorrow to see my grandma, my mom (and dad) and Sara's mom (and dad). It's been several years since we've been able to visit Grandma. Terrible, isn't it? She was pretty happy when she learned that we were coming to visit, probably more so about seeing her great-grandchildren. We will be delivering boxes of TLC Muffins to them which should knock their happiness meter off the chart. They are so tasty and huge (see picture below) and make a great gift. I'm looking forward to the trip.

Coaching Bucket

Tonight was Andrew's first game of the regular season. We won 4-3...barely. We should've won by more but we had a lot of errors that we have to get ironed out before next week. The picture above is our head coach. He's sitting on his coaching bucket. That's where the magic happens. I sit behind him and keep the scorebook and rattle off stats. It's a good system.

Backyard Berries

The wife bought herself a handy doo-hickey to grow strawberries. Huh...I thought that was what the ground was for. Actually, it seems like a pretty cool deal. Hope it works out for her!

Maintenance...or Crime Scene?

Although it looks like a crime scene, I can assure you it's not, unless teaching your son how to do a little maintenance on the lawn mower is a crime. We forgot to spray off the mower the last time we mowed so Andrew is chiseling off the dried-on yard leavin's from the previous job so they don't interfere with the blade. See? I teach him stuff.

A Maize-ing Track Meet

Spent late afternoon and early evening watching the bro run races. I'm proud of him. He walked away with three bronze medals . I walked away with three random images surrounding me. Which is your favorite?

Misfit Trophies

I announced the game for the 10-under baseball championship tonight at the tournament. Andrew ran the scoreboard for me while I also kept a score book and played music from the Zune in-between innings. These are trophies on a shelf just to my left in the press box. They're old trophies that have never been awarded to anyone. How sad is that? It's like the island of misfit toys up there.

Keeping Score

Baseball tournament. Day 2. Marginal performance tonight. Half the team was in it. The other half's mental errors killed us. But, it's only the second game of the season. And we were playing a team who's already played 20+ games this season. More fun tomorrow.