Tucker Time

Brad and Remy came over last night so we could all go out to eat and celebrate their recent job accomplishments.  And let's be honest, Kolby and I needed an excuse to get in some good Tucker time.

Tucker is now four months old.  He smiles a lot.  If that doesn't warrant some new pictures, then I don't know what does.  Enjoy!

He's getting so big!  And although he looks a lot like Brad at certain times, he is starting to look SO MUCH like Remy.  He's seriously the cutest thing.

And here he is showing off his mad standing skills: 

In other news, Kolby and I are going to game four of the World Series!  Kolby went to two World Series games last year but the Rangers lost both, so we're hoping to witness a win this year (and for the Rangers to win the entire thing, obviously).  

It's a beautiful day here today and we're in the baseball spirit, so Kolby and I walked to our neighborhood park to settle a bet that we've had for awhile-- whether I could throw a baseball from home plate to second  base on a Major League Baseball field.  Kolby thought I might could get the ball there, but that it'd either bounce in or would have such a high arc on it that it would never make it there in time to get a stealing runner out.  We brought our tape measure and marked 121' from home plate, then started warming up.  It took about 20 tries, but I totally did it.  Kolby should have known that I'd be stubborn enough to try until I proved him wrong  :)

Then we came home and played Ken Griffey, Jr. baseball on our Super Nintendo.  The game was made in 1984 and I really wish they still made games with that kind of simplicity.  Kolby was the Rangers and I was the Angels, and he won-- so here's to hoping that the World Series game tonight will have the same outcome!

Treat Yo Self

**If you don't watch Parks and Recreation, you really should.  It's my favorite show right now.  Then you would be able to make sense of all the references I make to it (and 30 Rock, my other fave), including the title of this post.  You can catch up on the show here.**

Kolby and I had the BEST.WEEKEND.EVER.  We treated ourselves to a getaway weekend for no reason whatsoever.  We went to a bed & breakfast and had the best time together.  We ate really good food, relaxed, read, took a 3-hour nap on Saturday morning, went to the spa, watched Moneyball, laughed a whole lot, and of course--- hung out and watched the Texas Rangers make it to the World Series!!!

We're going to try to do stuff like that more often.  I mean, why not?!?  Loosening the purse strings every once and a while probably won't kill us.

In other news, Kolby had sinus surgery about a week ago.  It was a septoplasty and turbinate reduction, if you want to get technical.  We learned a few weeks ago that he had a severely deviated septum (and I guess oversized turbinates, whatever those are) and come to find out he could barely breathe through his nose before.  Now he's breathing free and easy, and we're very thankful for that!  

Let's Hear it for New York

I went to New York City this week for work.  It really wasn't a blog-worthy trip but I'm trying to make up for lost time, and the Rangers playoff game is in a rain delay right now so I've got some time to kill.

The building I was at was on Wall Street, and it turns out there is a big protest going on there.  I had heard a little about it but I didn't realize how big it had gotten.  Apparently there are now more than 10,000 protesters marching around.  That made it even more loud and traffic-y than usual.  I am not a big city person, and I couldn't wait to get back home!

But, here are a few pictures I took while I was there.

The New York Stock Exchange:

 Construction of One World Trade Center, aka Freedom Tower, at Ground Zero.

 I really wanted to go to the 9/11 Memorial but there was some type of waiting list through December, and unfortunately there was so much construction going on that you couldn't even see it at all from the streets.

Also, I discovered that no one in New York calls it "Wall Street."  They just call it Wall.  As in, "oh the Hilton, it's on Watters between Wall and Pine."  So play it cool next time you're in NY.

Now for the most exciting part of the trip.... I went through airport security with Stanley Tucci.  I know that's not super impressive but I don't really run into celebrities every day.  Anyway, what's creepier than those TSA body scan machines?  Some creeper taking your picture while you're being scanned.

On the way home I played the SkyMall magazine game that I usually play with Kolby, where you go through the catalog and pick out both the  most ridiculous item and also the most ridiculous item that you would secretly be really satisfied to receive as a gift.  Here were my choices (yes, I played alone and then took pictures.  I'm not proud of it).

Most ridiculous item:

I find several things off-putting and I'm not sure which one is the worst.

1) What is the big difference between before and after?

2)  "100% human hair."

3)  Why not use a real person?  Maybe because they know it is completely unrealistic that the color of this "partial wig" could ever match someone's real hair color when they only offer six color options.

4)  It costs $150

5)  What is it?  How come they never show the actual product?  I'm so confused what it is!

6)  "Hand-sewn for durability."

Most ridiculous item that I would totally use if someone got it for me:

I'm not saying this product isn't completely ridiculous, but I have to say that I would love to "keep the crunch in my breakfast munch."  :)  I think it's a clever idea.  It is probably the biggest cereal bowl I've ever seen, though.  And I think the non-slip grip may be overkill, but the whole thing is overkill so I guess it can't hurt.

So that's the scoop there.  Aren't you glad you stopped by?   

This Morning

7:00am   Kolby leaves for work
7:05am   I let Maya out into the backyard to potty
7:07am   I hear our nighbors' chickens going bizerk
7:08am   I look outside and see said chickens on top of the garage in our backyard
7:09am   I notice that Maya is on the wrong side of the back fence  *oh boy*
7:10am   I calmly call Maya back into the yard
7:10am   Maya looks at me and darts down the alley, crosses the street, and is long gone
7:11am   I hop in my car and barrel after her but don't see her anywhere
7:15am   I'm not sure what to do because I can't find Maya.  I call Kolby to tell him what happened.  He tells me he forgot to record the Rangers game and asks if I can record it.  "HELLO, Maya is missing, the chickens have gone crazy, somehow there is a huge dead possum on the front porch, I need to be leaving for work... I really don't think I can squeeze in a DVR favor right now."
7:20am   I go next door to let the neighbors know their chickens are on our garage and that Maya is missing.  They inform me that three of their five baby chicks are missing too.  *oh boy*   What are the odds Maya has three baby chicks in her mouth and is halfway to Disneyworld by now?
7:21am   I step over the dead possum on my way into the house.  The thing is huge and disgusting.  It probably weighs 10 pounds.  Why do we have so many possums at our house all the time?
7:22am   I grab my stuff work work and get back in the car to look for Maya.
7:50am   I drive by our house and see the neighbors in the front yard.  They have found all their chicks.  One was dead.  Before I can apologize they say that it wasn't Maya because the chick was totally unharmed, just laying there dead with its feet up in the air.  They also found a big dead rat on their driveway.  The mystery continues.
8:00am   I begrudgingly head into work. 
8:20am   My cell phone rings and *thank goodness* someone has found Maya a few blocks away from our house.  Kassidy goes and picks her up and drops her off at our house.

Apparently the neighbors accidentally left their chicken coop open last night.  The chickens were very active this morning and I guess Maya got motivated enough to bust out to go see what was going on over there.  At the sight of a dog, the adult chickens hopped on our garage roof and the chicks scattered.  The neighbors think the one chick might have died from the cool temperatures overnight.  I'm hoping it didn't keel over from a heart attack at the sight of Maya.  The dead possum and rat were just a random coincidence, I guess.  We have a rodent bait box in our flower beds (because of the possum infestation) and so they both probably ate poison and died (lovely).  Maya is a toot for running away, but what else is new?

So that was my Tuesday morning.  Again, who says nothing exciting ever happens around here!?!?!

Instagram

Kolby recently discovered Instagarm.  It's an iPhone app that let's you quickly edit and share pictures you take, and it now serves as one of the ways he keeps in touch with his grad school buddies.  

Here is a batch of Instagram pictures he's taken over the past couple months.

Rangers playoff game

Driving back from the ranch 

 Tucker at the Baylor vs. TCU game

 Yes, In-N-Out burger made it to Texas 

 At In-N-Out for my birthday... Tucker is not so sure about it :)
P.S. Rabbit teeth, much?

 Maya at the ranch

 Smokin' BBQ

 At a wedding (finger in front of the lens... classic)

Kolby's grad school friends

In Santa Fe at a minor league baseball game 

 Around Santa Fe

 Kolby saying hi while he was in Santa Fe while I was still home

Catching Up

Please excuse the fact that this will have no cohesiveness whatsoever.  I'm just trying to keep my commitment to post at least once once a month, even when my computer acquired a virus and was down for the count for the past few weeks.

Kolby started the new school year in August.  Here's my all-star teacher on his first day of school:

My family got together a awhile back to celebrate birthdays, and I took some new pictures of Tucker.  He is serisouly the cutest thing.
[These were taken about a month ago, FYI.]

Here's a picture of Kolby and Tucker from a different occasion.  If I had to name one person who is almost as baby crazed as me, it would be Kolby.  Can't blame him though, there is really nothing sweeter than holding a sleeping baby.

In late August one of my college roommates came in town from Memphis to spend the weekend with the three other roomies that live around here.  Despite the oppressive temperatures, we all had a great time together!

Our church had a "soft opening" of our new building earlier this summer, but we've been working since then to furnish the place, build a stage, assemble a kitchen, decorate, etc. and we celebrated our grand opening on August 28.  It was a great service and an awesome reminder of God's faithfulness.

 


For Labor Day weekend we had our annual family reunion with my dad's side of the family at the ranch.  It was similar to all the family gatherings down there so I'll spare the recap.  But here are a couple cute pictures of my cousin's kids, and a full scoop of the weekend can be found at my cousin Debby's blog here.

Kolby making ice cream with the little ones:

Miss Laura:

I may have mentioned before that our neighbors have chickens.  Well now they have 5 chicks as well and they are absolutely adorable.  A few weekends ago they asked me to come over and snap some pictures.  What started as this:

Evolved to this (albeit at a seven year-olds prompting):

When I woke up that morning if you had told me that my day would include photographing chickens in wingback chairs reading the newspaper, I definitely wouldn't have believed you.  :) 

Because this post is already so random, I'll leave you with a couple recent quotes, for your reading pleasure:

Kolby: He's the one who looks a little like a hobbit.

Emily: Oh, I know who you're talking about.  He's not thin, though.

Kolby:  Hobbits aren't thin.  I think you're thinking of elves.  I would have said he looks like a dwarf, but he doesn't have a beard.

Kolby:  What is that kid's name again?
Russell:  Holden.
Kolby:  Oh, like Holden Caulfield.
Russell:  Yeah (insert fake laugh).
*Kolby was referring to the protagonist in The Catcher in the Rye*
**Russell thought he said "holdin' coffee."**