Take Me Out to the Ball Game...

Perfect Spring night for Boo's first baseball game!

 Dell provided lots of free popcorn, cotton candy, and swag. 

 Which one is having more fun? 

 According to Sammie, this picture captures each of our personalities! 

Boo loved getting his picture taken with the cool Round Rock Express mascot! 

To top off the perfect evening, our team hit a Grand Slam Home Run right before we left!! I think Boo was their lucky charm. 

Have I mentioned how much I love my boys? 

Ice Cream on Yo' Face!

Sammie and Boo love to go out for Ice Cream. Boo manages to get almost as much on his face as in his mouth and Sammie loves to snap pictures of it. 

As per usual for a 5 year old, he loves blue ice cream. When I was little, it was "Bubblegum" flavored ice cream. Now it's "Cotton Candy" flavored. 

 Okay, so this one and the next aren't ice cream pictures, but they're still good! The one above calls for a caption contest. Some of the entries: "You lookin' at me?" "Just a second Mr. President, I'll be right with you." 

This totally counts as double-tasking!

 And now we return to ice cream 

 

And this last one is pretty funny... But it's not Boo that makes it funny! 

And... we're back!!

Hello to all of our Blog readers! So we've been gone for a few years. We've been posting pictures of Boo and saving our snide remarks for Facebook or private emails or texts. We're resurrecting the blog, though, especially so potential birthmothers can learn more about us. There's a link to this blog from our profile on itsaboutlove.org. Here's a link to that profile if you're curious (or, more importantly! if you know of potential birthparents who might be interested in placing their child with us!)
I'm going to be going back a few years to catch up. But want to start with... (see next post)

And I thought keeping the house tidy was impossible BEFORE Boo was born...

That's me asleep underneath the cushions.

What can you do in 1 hour and 49 minutes?

Sammie ran a sprint marathon! It was in downtown Austin on Labor Day. His goal was to do it in 1:45:00. But he was plenty happy with his time. The swimming was tough because of the crowds of people in the water. He was awesome on the bike--hardly got passed the whole ride and did plenty of passing himself! He said he was a little tired by the run (even though his time didn't reflect it) but was buoyed by the Star Wars characters passing out drinks along the way. (How can you say "no" to a cup of water from Princess Leia? And no, she wasn't dressed in her getup from Jabba's palace in Return of the Jedi.)
Boo and I were at the finish line and were SO proud!! Sammie's awesome and really inspires me. He's going to slow it w-a-y down and run a smaller sprint triathlon with me in a week and a half.

Here's a pic of us at the finish line. It's actually a before and after picture. The first is us in Summer 2010 at Breckenridge, CO. We've both lost a few pounds since then. People keep telling Sammie to slow down and put some weight back on. (He looks awesome!!) I've still got a ways to go, but I'm working on it!
Boo's gained quite a bit of weight but, then again, he's a baby. We'd be worried if he hadn't!

Adenoids Out, Tubes In

Boo had a minor surgery on Monday to have his adenoids taken out and tubes put in his ears. He was kind of nervous when we took him to the prepping room. But he tried to be good-natured at first. He didn't complain when we put the hospital gown on him. (So cute! He looked like Yoda! I think I have a great idea for a Halloween costume!) But his sense of humor gave out when they put the identification bracelet on his ankle. Sammie held him and we tried singing songs and playing games with him to calm him down. After a little bit, the nurse gave him a dose of some kind of sedative that they warned us would make him act drunk. Wow! I wish I'd had my camera! Sammie played voice to Boo's inebriated state. Looking at me with a blurry smile, he slurred, "These are the greatest Kleenexes ever! How come you've never given me these before, Mom!" I was worried before that we were disturbing the other patients with Boo's crying. But I worried more that they were bothered with our laughing. Boo makes one cute drunk!

Since I don't have any pics from the hospital, here's one from the backyard.

Tales from the Heat Wave

Well, don't I just feel so blessed to be an Austinite this summer?!? Check out this article where it talks about how on Wednesday we broke the previous record for hottest summer by having 70 days in the triple digits. And we're going to break our own record many more times as the heatwave continues unabated. Lucky us! Take THAT 1925, previous holder of the record. We'll show you what a REAL heatwave feels like!

Sigh. How are the job and housing markets inside the article circle?

Two stories related to the heat: one sad and one funny. One day just after lunch, I was warming up Boo's milk to put him down for a nap. He opened up the back door and, even though I'd already taken off his shoes, I thought why not let him go run around outside for two minutes and get nice and tired for his nap? About two minutes later I heard him screaming on the back porch. I knew immediately that his little feet must have been burning on the concrete in the 100-plus degree heat. I brought him in, soaked his feet in cool water, then put him down for his nap. He was still crying hard, though. And it wasn't the "I want attention, Mommy" cry, it was the distress cry. I put him in a cool bath to try and sooth his feet. It was only then that I noticed the huge burn blister on the bottom of his left foot. I felt horrible! He hobbled around for a couple of days, and was then as good as new. He doesn't go outside anymore without shoes!

On a lighter note, the heat wave and accompanying drought have brought us some unwanted house guests. I've seen 3 or 4 very large cockroaches in our house over the summer. Sammie says they come in for water. They're always unpleasant, but I also lived with a lot of cockroaches in Brazil, so they don't give me heart attacks... Until the other night... I was "in the privy" doing a crossword puzzle. (Hey! some people wind their watches, some talk on cell phones, some read books, I do crossword puzzles. Don't judge.) Suddenly, I felt something on my shoulder. I thought my braided hair had just shifted on my shoulder and I reached up absently to brush it off. A GIANT COCKROACH FELL ONTO THE FLOOR IN FRONT OF ME!! I screamed and attacked it with my book of crosswords. (Fortunately it was the jumbo edition!) Sammie, who bolted out of bed and ran to the bathroom door when he heard my screaming, thought it was hysterically funny. I was finally able to laugh at it the next morning.

So, as my spin class instructor likes to say, "See you next heat wave!"

Walmart

I hesitate to tell this story because it makes me look like such a bad Mom. But it's worth it... Sometimes it's hard to remember to give Boo a clean diaper unless there's a prompting such as a bad smell or the beginning or ending of nap or bed time. So every once in a while, his diaper gets so full that he springs a leak. (You mothers, please reassure me in your comments that this happens to you ALL the time.)
Sammie brought Boo home from Walmart tonight. We had been at the gym beforehand and I guess it had been... hmmm... 4-5 hours since I got him up from his nap and gave him a dry diaper. Sammie threw Boo in the bathtub as soon as they got home. When I asked him why, he explained that Boo's diaper was so full, he had pee running down his leg.
Sammie then said, "And I thought to myself, 'I'm so glad we're in Walmart and not somewhere else!'"

Funkweiler, skunks, non-restful days of rest, and sharpies

Vernon P. Funkweiler made his Austin debut this week! And I think he finally found a place where he fits in. He's the one of the right. And who knew that Sammie would end up working with a guy who plays guitar and owns the same black afro wig? Some might call that serendipity. Others might call it something much different.

And here's Funkweiler, who did all of the vocals for the 4-song set and earned huge applause from the crowd (all Dell employees...)
And now it's time for our Texas Rodent Update. We've noticed that a critter has been digging in our garden. Sammie set a trap last night in the bushes right underneath our dining room window. He woke up this morning, expecting to find a possum. We've seen possums on our back porch at night and they're pretty common around here. He was shocked to, instead, see a skunk caught in the trap! After some desperate phone calls, we thought to call a friend from the ward who owns some guns, has a pickup, and seemed like he'd know how to take care of the situation. He and Sammie were total cowboys. They had a blast figuring out how to dismantle the dining room window, shoot the skunk, then quickly shut the window so the spray wouldn't get in the house. It only took one shot. (Sorry all you PETA supporters! But let's hear your better plan for getting rid of a skunk in your bushes on a Sunday morning!) Before he died, the skunk sprayed. Fortunately, not too much of the smell got in the house, but our garage and back and front yards still smell pretty bad!
While the cowboys were holding a hunting party in our dining room, the RS President called to let me know that there was no 5th Sunday meeting planned for today and we would have to figure out something to do for the 3rd hour of church. While I was on the phone with her, the Primary President called to ask if I would come into Primary to talk about our experience going to the temple with Boo. And during all of this, I was trying to glaze the cheesecake I stayed up late last night making for Sammie's birthday. It was a wonderful day of rest!
I left first for church so I could pick up a friend. When I got there, I sent Sammie a text message to let him know where we were sitting. He responded that Boo had gone in the backyard and started playing with the skunk trap, which was out there airing out, and smelled like a skunk. Sammie was able to get most of the smell out with a good bath, vigorous scrubbing, and baking soda. But Boo was so worn out after all that drama, he fell asleep and both he and Sammie missed all three hours of church. Shortly after the bath, Sammie walked into Phoebe's room and found a huge stinky pile on the floor. When it rains it pours!
It all turned out okay. I went to the store after church to get some air fresheners (the ox wasn't in the mire, but the skunk was in the trap!). Boo and Sammie both had great naps. We had a yummy dinner of steak, corn, and watermelon. And the cheesecake turned out awesome!!!

One last disaster story...
While Sammie was away on business last week, I sent him an email with the subject line, "Take a deep breath before you read this" and included this picture.

Don't miss the purple sharpie on his cheek. That kid is fast and in the few moments that I wasn't paying attention, he got it on two couches, one ottoman, one armchair, two throw pillows, two different walls, one window sill, two different spots on the carpet, one toy and, of course, his face and clothes. Thank heaven for magic eraser, rubbing alcohol and good carpet cleaner! Sammie will need to touch up the paint just a little in two spots and if you look really closely at the right spot on the carpet in really strong sunlight, you'll still see some purple. Other than that, the crisis has been contained and all sharpie markers in the house are WELL out of Boo's reach.