Throwback Thursday

The date: March 28, 1972 was the TV debut but it was released on an album one year earlier.
The place: Sesame Street
The mood: I remember this song when I was a kid. I'm glad to know that 37 years later this song and this blue monster is still entertaining kids. Thank goodness for youtube! Luke tries to sing the song in a deep rough voice. He sounds so funny.

Here's a bit of trivia -- the original lyrics said, "C is for cookie and cookie is for me." Somewhere along the way they changed it to "C is for cookie that's good enough for me." I think I like the old version better.

Garden Update

It was supposed to hit 32 degrees last night. In April. Six days before Easter. 32 degrees. The weather here confuses me.

So far our garden seems to be doing well, but I'm not sure how the plants will handle these crazy temps. Here are some pictures.

Green things coming up - don't appear to be weeds. This is a good sign.

Our strawberry plants are starting to flower. A couple of plants died, but we planted four more.

Broccoli and buttercrunch lettuce. I thought the broccoli wasn't going to make it, but it has rallied and looks like it might be ok. We'll be making a teeny tiny salad any day now with the lettuce.
Our onions and carrots. The onions are looking rough. The carrots have a ways to go.

These are our blueberry bushes. An impulse buy at Sam's Club. There were four bushes - early, mid and late bearing so I thought we'd try them since the boys love blueberries. They are so expensive in the store! The plants we bought are two years old. From what I've read, a plant has to be three years old to really start producing. So we will probably get a few berries this year and then have to find a spot to transplant them for next year. Blueberry bushes need more room than what they can have in this small garden so we'll either put them directly into the ground or find some very large pots.
So there you have it. We've gotten enough rain in the last few weeks that we haven't had to do any watering. Let's hope that rain continues!

Now I have to figure out how to plant our summer plants - tomatoes, cucumbers and peppers. I'll either need another bed or have to wait until the broccoli and lettuce is done. April 15 is supposed to be the "magic" day around here, but after last nights low temps, I'm not so sure.

Cutting The Cord

Or maybe I should title this "Pulling The Plug".

On Sunday we returned our cable box/DVR to the cable company. We are back to basic cable with 20 or so channels - I think we get the major networks, PBS and maybe QVC?! We were paying a ridiculous amount of money each month for what seemed like hundreds of channels. We only watch a handful of shows and I don't let the boys watch much tv anyway. So we decided to go back to basic cable since most of the shows we do watch are on the networks anyway. The thing we will probably miss the most is the DVR. It was nice to have a few shows set to record for us and for the boys and just watch them whenever we felt like it.

Kevin is looking into TiVo but I'd like to just try what we have for awhile. Plus, I've discovered hulu.com. Our library has lots of kids DVDs available for checkout that are absolutely FREE so I'm going to try that for Fletcher & Luke. We'll see how it goes.

Take Me Out To The Ballgame

Finally! Fletcher had two TBall games this weekend. By the way, I'm not sure if it is supposed to be spelled tball, t-ball, T Ball, T-Ball or TBall. Anyone know?

Two of their practices were rained out and he missed the one and only practice they've had because we were in Florida. Thankfully, the coach had them show up about 45 minutes before their first game to go over the basics with them.

He had a good time. There are 8 boys on his team that are 4, 5, and 6 years old. Right now all the coaches are teaching them is to hit the ball and run to first base. When they are in the field, they teach them to catch the ball and throw it to first base. They don't keep score and they don't really keep up with outs. Although, if a kid is tagged out then that kid has to go sit down. All the kids get to bat and there are four innings (I think).

I do have a video that speaks for itself.
In case you can't hear the first part --- Fletcher hits the ball and his coach says, "Run to 1st base."
Fletcher says, "Where's 1st base???"
Guess you've got to start with the fundamentals.

"CPI Security. Please Identify Yourself"

A few weeks ago Luke had a little virus. Thankfully, it was mostly just a high fever and not the vomiting and diarrhea that other kids were getting.

Now you have to picture all of this in your head:

In the middle of the night (technically about 2 am), Luke started to cry. He rarely does this. I woke up and thought I would wait a minute to see if he would go back to sleep. Actually, I went to the bathroom because I am now officially old and have to do this at least once in the middle of the night anyway. Plus, this detail is important for what I am about to share.

Up to this point, Kevin was still sleeping.

I was just standing in our dark bedroom waiting.

Luke cried a little more and then he let out a loud scream.

At that moment our security system started going off and it said "Glass break in bedroom three."

Kevin woke up.

Our security system is incredibly loud at 2am.

Bedroom three is Luke's room. I thought someone had broken in to his room and was trying to take him and that is why he was screaming. **

Good thing I had already gone to the bathroom otherwise I would have wet my pants I was so scared.

Then the real live voice our monitored security system came on and said, "CPI Security. Please identify yourself." Kevin gave his name and our password. The Voice asked, "Is everyone OK?"

While all of this is happening I had run in to Luke's room to make sure he was OK. He was feverish, but otherwise fine.

He had screamed so loudly and at just the right pitch that he rattled the window enough to set off the glass break monitor in his room. (Picture the opera singer hitting the high note and shattering the wine glass.)

How's that for a set of lungs?

Can I just say that I was so very thankful that Kevin was not out of town that particular night?

Fletcher never woke up.

**I realize logically if someone were breaking in, the glass break alarm would sound BEFORE Luke would start screaming. But at 2 AM my brain was not thinking clearly. I was just in mama bear mode trying to protect my cubs!

On another note, I'm working on slurping (their technical term) my blog into blurb.com so I can have a hardbound book of all of our blog entries. Since this blog is sort of like an online baby book for the boys, it will be nice to have a hard copy to give to the boys some day. And we can remember which one screamed so loud he set off the alarm!

Throwback Thursday

The date: March 2006

The place: Bay St. Louis, Mississippi

The mood: This was our college mission trip over Spring Break to help Bay St. Louis after Hurricane Katrina. It was hard to believe that 6 months after the hurricane things were still so bad. I still remember the families we helped. They were so appreciative. We stayed in a church along with about a hundred other college students. Kevin and I took students on mission trips every spring break. I miss these kids (many of whom have graduated and some are married). I miss those trips too. This was Fletcher's first mission trip. He had just turned 2. Hopefully, someday soon we will be able to take both of the boys on a mission trip as a family.

Gotcha & Gotcha Back

I tried to come up with something clever for April Fools' Day today but couldn't think of anything. So instead I thought I share a story of how I got Kevin on April Fools and how he got me back.

We had only been dating a few months, but I knew that I was really liking him alot (and I won't speak for him but I think he felt the same way about me).

The day before April Fools my car battery died. I think this had happened recently before. If my memory serves me correctly (cut me a little slack - it has been 12 years), I took it to a mechanic and he said I needed a new battery. Well Kevin told me that he could put the battery in for me instead of me paying someone to do it. So we got the battery and he put it in. The car started great and I was good to go.

I knew the next day was April Fools, but he didn't. He just doesn't really keep up with that kind of stuff. So early that morning about the time I should have been leaving for school, I called him in a panic saying that my car wouldn't start. I was acting really upset saying that I was going to be late for school. And to really rub it in, I asked him if he was sure he put it in correctly. I asked if he had ever done that before (really crushing blows to the male ego). Kevin goes into his very matter-of-fact "I'm a guy, I can fix this" mode. He tells me he will be right over to get me to school and take care of my car. I just keep saying, "I think you did it wrong." Finally, before he drove across town in crazy Houston traffic, I told him "April Fools!" He breathed a sign of relief and acknowledged that I had gotten him good. Later he said, "I knew I had installed that battery correctly!"

So the day continued and I forgot all about April Fools. For some reason we didn't see each other that night - probably because one of us had small group. I knew he would call me before I went to sleep to see how my day had been. Background note: he had recently gone to Phoenix for a meeting for his job. He starts telling me about his day. Then in a serious tone he said he had a big meeting with his boss, Jack.

Kevin: I'm not sure how to tell you this. It isn't great news.
Rachel: What?
K: Jack needs me to move to Phoenix. . . (he gives elaborate details on why)
R: ((silence))
K: Are you there?
R: Yes, I'm here.
K: Looks like they want me to move pretty quick.
R: (big lump in my throat - I'm thinking that it is waaaaaaay too early in our dating relationship to be making any long term commitments and I would never move because of a guy. But I really like him and I really don't want him to move)
K: Still there?
R: Yes. So are you going to go?
K: Well, I kind of have to if I want to keep my job. (No mention of me - not a good sign)
R: I just don't know what to say (I'm about to cry)
K: Oh, and one other thing.
R: Yeah?
K: April Fools!

Mine was funny. His was just mean.

Ok, so I admit it was funny too. But it took me awhile.

Happy April Fools to you and yours today.