Kenny Chesney and...who was that again?

Last week Pete and I got to go to the brand-spankin'-new BOK Center recently built here in Tulsa. We were there to see Kenny Chesney and Leann Rimes (apparently Pete has a thing for LR so I took out a loan and for his birthday I got us some pretty good tickets).


A sight to behold, for sure, but for us, the beholding-worthy site was right outside the doors:


I would say it pays to have friends in high places, but that would be a trite and pretentious phrase and we here at the Home Team do not flaunt our good fortune when it so very rarely descends upon us. Except for right now.

Dudes, my friends hooked us up.

Here's the scenario: rain...tent...food...beverage (the kind that requires lime) ...tent...food...beverage. And free parking across the street from the Center.

I love these friends!

Here's me and the friend we now owe favors to. (About two seconds before this picture was taken that woman in the brown shirt asked me if I had a hair brush she could borrow.)

"...what to wear, what to wear. Shoot, this Hanes t-shirt still has a few hours left in it. Lemme get my hat. And a necklace!"

The ferocious guards at the entrance to the tent...keeping all the unsavory freebie-seeking characters out.

...or keeping them in?!

Could he have at least grabbed the blue hula-hoop?

Okay, now here's where it gets ugly: Leann Rimes, the whole reason I sold my...ahem. The reason Pete was counting the days to the concert? Called in sick. Something -itis. I don't know. I believe he'll be scarred for a while.

So in her stead, Miranda Lambert sang her substitutin' lil' heart out. Way to step up, girl...

Then the man made his grand entrance...

If you look really closely you can see his jeans standing there.

His songs will make you want to sell everything and move to the Caribbean. Get a boat and just float around all day...

Not too sure Pete feels the same way. He's still feeling pretty bluuuu-uuu-uuuu-uuuu-uuu....

The birthday party

I'm going to spare you most of the pictures from Alex's third birthday party. As I started thumbing through them I realized most of them are of the top of his head as he concentrates on opening gifts. When am I going to learn that toddler gift opening is not a photo op?

So here we go:

Here's the cake with a disclaimer: these sad-looking little cupcakes may looked a little, um, sad, but oh, my they were happy eating. The frosting alone called for two sticks of butter. 'Nuff said.

(This is also one of two times a year you will not see a stage name. Now go forget you saw that...)

Thank goodness three-year-olds are too critical when it comes to cake decorating.

Okay, one gift-opening picture since I think that might be emotion on his face. He was darn happy that Ming-Ming made it to his party.

...and a little more birthday morning in the driveway.

Birthday morning in the driveway

This morning:

One year ago today:

Two years ago today:

...and a short three years ago I was holding you for the first time. Happy 3rd Birthday sweet boy...

A chance to win!

Check out the new site Mommy Come Lately. Apparently it was written for those of us who waited just a tad longer than most to have kids.

And they're having a cool giveaway right now...so go over there and enter to win. You don't have to have a blog, either!

Another misc post

Good Monday! I am painfully behind in posting, but not really that behind for me since going three days with nothing is not unusual for The Home Team at all. So I guess I'm right on time with these miscellaneous items:

-- Alex's third birthday is tomorrow and we celebrated yesterday with a small family party. Pics to come!

-- Ya'll can breathe a sigh of relief: I didn't get crazy on haircut day. Pics to come as proof.

-- Pete and I got the countroyal treatment at the Kenny Chesney concert in our city last week. Um, I have pics of that, too.

-- I just found out today someone I knew in high school found my blog. I guess 'cause I'm also on Facebook. I don't know...the blog, it's out here for the world, but sometimes you forget that everyone is the world.

-- This morning I was sitting on the sofa playing catch with a soccer ball with the boys and watching Rachel Ray. Her guest and apparently undiscovered chef Jessica Simpson was making a chicken and dumpling thing (mostly she was dumping things in a pan and guffawing). Anyway, the recipe looked pretty good so I decided I'd give it a try and then review it out here. Then I decided I needed to get up off the couch...

Trying new recipes: Crockpot Chicken Tacos

One of the sisters (JW) posted a recipe in the comments here for Chicken Taco Meat in the crockpot. Not the taco part, just the mouth-watering, most tender and flavorful chicken you ever tasted. Yeah, that part.

The best reason to love this recipe?

It only has three ingredients.

chicken breasts
taco seasoning
chicken broth

That's it. Put it in your crockpot. Turn it to "on." When it's done get a couple of table forks and shred it up. It's so tender it just falls apart. It wants to be shredded.

(I didn't take a picture of this one. I wanted to eat it instead.)

Ya'll give this one a try; you will not be disappointed.

Wordless Wednesday: Remember when you could sit this way?

Trying new recipes: Brown Sugar Crockpot Chicken

Yesterday I tried Brown Sugar Crockpot Chicken from A Year of Crockpotting. It's a combination of some unexpected ingredients like lemon-lime soda and vinegar, but very easy and cheap to put together.

It tasted fine and the boys liked it. But it wasn't to die for. Could have been it was cooked a little too long. I have a turbo slowcooker that never needs 6-9 hours for anything and yet I continue to think it does. And I cooked the chicken from frozen.

But still, nice to have a new something to try. Next I believe I will try the chicken taco thingie that one of the sisters posted in the comments here. A friend who reads me said she made it already...maybe she will post her results here? Please?

Nonetheless, behold the chicken. In a dish I bought 23 years ago from a traveling salesman. That's right, ma'am...Dynaware!

That thing you do in your 40s

Just got back from having my annual mammogram, which, in case you've not crossed over to FOUR-OH land, is a pretty painless process. Step up ma'am...turn this way ma'am...smmaaaashhh! It really isn't that bad, but for a fleeting second you wonder if the machine could malfunction and continue its smashing mission beyond slightly-uncomfortable to oh-my-gosh-are-you-freaking-kidding-me.

Oh, and if anyone reading this should ever in their next life become a mammography technician, don't, during the process, squint really intensely and lean into the monitor.

Alrighty everyone...now take the visual of flattened out breast tissue and go enjoy your Monday.

Trying new recipes: Simple Hamburger Stroganoff

In an effort to get out of my cooking rut of late, I searched All Recipes and found a recipe for Simple Hamburger Stroganoff that I tried last night. YUM. It was easy, cheap, and, drum roll please...

My whole family ate it. And there was no pleading.

That in itself makes it headed for the recipe box permanently.

(I can't wait to try some of your suggestions, also. Thanks!)

Lower a ladle and get me out of here!

I'm in a cooking rut...anyone want to join me? It's quite nice down here in the Rut since no one expects much out of me and my kitchen. I can put peanut butter and jelly, bread, and mac and cheese on the table for dinner and no one complains because they all know I'm in the Rut and that's the best they'll get from me. Lately all I have to do is pretend I'm actually opening the spice cabinet and I get applause for being creative. But then they realize I'm only reaching for vitamins, which is surely the only thing keeping us breathing lately.

What? No takers? No one wants to jump in the Rut with me? Then help me claw my way out. Please? Help?

Please post in the comments your go-to recipes, the ones you fall back on that you know your families will devour. Maybe they're just little menus you put together for easy dinners. Crockpot recipes, too! I love my crockpot but it has been neglected of late, along with my pots, pans and three drawers of utensils.

And what simple dessert ideas do you have? I don't need a chocolate cake hanging around for days (or hours, who are we kidding) but it would be nice to serve something twice a week or so that isn't a cookie. My fingers are getting blisters from opening those packages.

In addition to trying your ideas, I will be visiting sites like All Recipes and A Year of Crockpotting as well.

Thanks guys. My boys thank you, Pete thanks you (and will probably pay you).

Write Away Contest: Colors

I'm entering Scribbit's Write Away Contest this month. The theme is Colors.

His eyes were supposed to be brown. I already had one brown-haired, brown-eyed boy, and I was supposed to have another one who looked just like him. Just like all ten of my siblings look like me. That's just the way it was supposed to go.

But when Alex was born it was a little like visiting my neighbor's baby in the hospital: he had blond hair and blue eyes. For a fleeting nanosecond I remember thinking...is he really mine? Where's the olive complexion? Where's the dark hair? And my goodness, where are the brown eyes?

But our hospital bracelets matched up, so I took this fair little boy home with me.

Three months went by, his eyes were still blue, and people started to stare. I think they wondered if he really did belong to me and Pete. Meanwhile, his brother's hair and eyes just got darker as he got older.

But not Alex's. His hair got blonder and those eyes...they were well past the point where newborn blue turns to brown or some other color. They just kept getting bluer and bluer. When he was about six months old I finally realized: I'm going to be the mother of a blue-eyed child.

Huh?

Since then those blue eyes have completely and utterly stolen my heart. Now at almost three years old, it's not too often Alex looks directly at me, but when he does all I see is blue (and mischief). I see the unique color that turns even more vibrant when he looks upward at the sky, and I wonder how I got so lucky to get to see it every single day.

My sister once said when you see Alex coming, his blue eyes get there before he does. Hmm, I thought his incessant talking did...but I know what she means.

Both my boys have brought me unexpected joy in a lot of ways. But they're memories now.

Alex's blue eyes...they're my unexpected joy forever.

Wordless Wednesday: Hi, Gustav

These pics were taken Monday at my mom's pool. Less than 48 hours ago.

Today, I put the other kind of jacket on them.

(sigh)

Check out more Wordless posts at 5 Minutes for Mom.

Oh, no she didn't...

This evening I was watching the Weather Channel follow the parade of hurricanes, tropical depressions, big ol' storms, etc.

The woman said...with a straight face:

"...here we have Hannah moving through and right on top of Hannah is Ike..."

But I could pretend we're famous, right?

My littlest has been busily growing his hair long. Not Hollywood-worthy long, don't get me wrong (a la Celine's and Kate's sons) but long enough that I recently bought tangle-free shampoo. For my BOY.

Once a week or so he gets mistaken for a girl, but that doesn't bother me so much because sometimes I wish he was a girl just so I could buy bows and frilly Easter dresses. I guess I could still do that...

Anyway, we have an appointment next Thursday for both boys to get their hair cut. Mickey's is a no-brainer: short as she can get it without using clippers. If I didn't have it cut that short, it would be my horrible childhood hair revisited. So we short it; he likes it.

Then we have Alex, whose hair couldn't be anymore opposite mine and Pete's if he wore a clown wig: it's blonde. It's straight.

And it's getting a tad bit out of control.

He hates to have it combed, until I remind him that Ms. Summer the gymnastics teacher, Ms. Christine who cuts his hair, and Ms. Sarah at school all like to see little boys' hair neat and combed (don't laugh, it works). Washing it isn't so bad since I've conditioned him to enjoy the near-drowning feeling as I rinse the heck out of it.

So yesterday I tried to pull it back and imagine him with a little boy haircut like his brother's. I couldn't. I couldn't even imagine what he would look like. Then my sister asked me if I ever parted it on the side. Every day, I told her.

So I think it's time for him to get a more grown up 'do. We don't live in Hollywood and his hair will soon start obscuring the basketball goal, the wiffle ball, and the golf tee. Horrors!

(Can one mourn after a haircut? Even if it's not your own?)

But wait, I still have a week or so to talk myself down...Please!??!

New lineup

I decided to bring in some new players on the sidelines at Home Team (thanks to all youse guys who were there before. I'm still reading you!). Ya'll check 'em out; they are listed on the right-hand side of your screen in order of who posted most recently:

An Island Life: Check her out for great giveaways. Or maybe it's the retro beach theme that keeps me coming back.

5 Minutes for Mom: One of my favorite all-around mom sites. Always fresh!

Adventures in Babywearing: Met this sweet woman at BlogHer '08. She is due with her fourth child in 17 days! (And yes, that is her in those photos.)

Pioneer Woman: If you aren't Ree-ding, my goodness where have you been?!

Owlhaven: Mothers ten. Kids. Phenomenally.

Simply Recipes: 'Nuff said.

Use Mapquest for finding addresses

I'm trying to locate some physical addresses for two large companies who have locations in my city. I will make a long story very short and tell you that Mapquest was a heckuva lot more helpful than Google or the company websites. See, when you go to Behemoth Company's site, they want you to know everything but where they are actually located. Because no one should ever need to go there. Or, my word, send them a piece of mail! On paper! We might sacrifice 1/1000000th of a tree!

Anyway, all I did was go to Mapquest and put in what I knew: the name of the company and the street name. It instantly popped up the physical address, or at least a very short list of possibilities.

And in case you're wondering, the big companies I was trying to look up are not listed in my local phone book. Guess they don't want us calling them either.

It's a bit baffling when you consider the companies I'm looking up are in the business of communications.

First day of pre-school

In a word: smoooooth! The boys went happily to their classrooms and I had five hours of daytime to myself to do important things like consolidate the partially-used Altoid containers in my purse.

I took this pics this afternoon, but it's almost what they looked like this morning when we got to the school parking lot.

...and then splashed into their classrooms.

*
Let's hope that eagerness lasts another 12 years or so.

* Thanks to JW for that quality cell phone pic.

So busy I forgot to feel guilty for not blogging

I'm attending the Creating Keepsakes scrapbooking convention here in town tonight and tomorrow morning. It's a lot like going to BlogHer '08, actually: have a passion for Hobby, do a little of Hobby at home, go to a conference where everyone else is leaps and bounds ahead of you in their progress on Hobby, come home and vow to spend 25 hours a day developing Hobby.

Anyway, Pete and the boys are busying themselves at the Grandparents' while I feed my feelings of inadequacy on this week's Hobby, and in all the busy-ness I haven't even thought about the Hobby you're reading.

Sorry.

So I will leave you with this rather amusing story from this afternoon: we returned from a car trip to find some trash in our typically-manicured-and-perfect front yard. Pete casually remarked to the boys that they needed to go pick it up and put it in the trash can.

You'd have thought I'd said "...who's going to eat all this ice cream..."

I could not move fast enough to unbuckle them from their carseats amid their flailing legs. Then poor Mickey...he had to watch Alex get unbuckled first and dash out of the garage. "Nooooooo!" he screams. Then he gets released and he's off to chase Alex and the trash.

Thank goodness there were TWO pieces: one for each of them. Otherwise I may have been tearing front yard trash in half.

Hmmm...maybe a new hobby for me...

To Football: a small favor to ask

Dear Oklahoma Sooners, Kansas City Chiefs, Dallas Cowboys, and the Blind Squirrels*,

It's a mere ten days until you begin invading my TV. One could say you already have, what with your pre-pre-pre-season speculations, your pre-pre-seasons media days, and of course the pre-season games that don't really matter but your fans watch anyway. And then come the schedules around which your fans plan their lives every fall. I'll have you know I've already been informed of Big Game days when I will need to severely lower my expectations of The Fan Who Lives With Me. These dates are penciled on my calendar (because I believe he couldn't find a pen at the moment).

Anyway, because of The Fan's enthusiasm for you, I PLEAD with you: have a winning season. And if it's expected of you, and you know who you are, get a berth at the championship game.

You see, I think you don't know the power you wield over households like mine: if you win, I win. Simple as that. If you win on game day, I get sweet pleasantries and an extra skip in The Fan's step. I get a happy, happy camper for seven whole days, until your next chance to disappoint. (And by the way, it wouldn't hurt to not only win, but win decisively. One, two, three point wins are good but not the greatness The Fan expects.)

If you lose....well, let's just say it's easier to leave The Fan to his mourning until he gets over it and begins looking forward to the next game. This could take a few hours to a few days, depending on just how big you lost.

Some would say this letter is ridiculous and one's disposition shouldn't be decided by the performance of a sports team. That may be true to a point, but the fact is I married The Fan. I knew he was The Fan when I let him slip that gorgeous ring on my finger. Maybe in some way I was even attracted to it...the way kids play with matches, I suspect. Bottomline, I signed up for this gig and I make it every year just fine. Mostly.

I'm just asking for a little help here. Make my life a little easier this fall and win your conference, your league, whatever it is you're shootin' for.

And while you're at it, Big Name Quarterbacks, Running Backs, etc...don't get injured.

Sincerely,

The Fan's Wife

*Fantasy league team est. circa 1998. The team name refers to a saying I'd never heard until I met The Fan: "even a blind squirrel finds a nut sometimes..." Amen, honey.

Lost the race so now I'm endorsing...

Sadly, I was not one of the finalists in the 5 Minutes for Mom photo contest. But Jenni at One Thing was! And who could use $500 more than a mother of 12? Get on over there and vote for her (the photo is she entered is enough to make you want freckles).

Good luck, Jenni!

Note to self: set alarm to read this in January, 2009

In the throes of the Beijing Olympics, I've sorta forgotten about the fact that summer 2008 is also coming to the end. Since summer is my favorite season, I like to daydream about it when Oklahoma is dealing with sometimes ice and snow but mostly just dreary, overcast, drizzly winter days that are too cold to amount to anything but an hour in an indoor germ-infested playground.


So sometime in January I'm hoping to re-read this post and be lifted out of the winter doldrums that I'm already dreading. What?! I really am a positive person. Mostly.

Summer 2008


1. My last summer of buying swim diapers at almost a dollar apiece. (Hear that, Alex, last summer.)


2. Swimming, swimming, swimming! This is the first year both boys could really get around a pool with the help of lifejackets. Except for nearly losing Alex, we had lots of fun and stress-free visits to Big Waterpark.


3. BlogHer '08! Pete is still wondering what I'm getting out of this whole bloggin' thing; it was nice to spend three days with souls who don't question the addiction.


4. Giving way too much unsolicited advice to my neighbor who just had her first baby (but looks like she listened).


5. Listening to Mickey and Alex have their first real conversations with each other. As much as they bicker, I believe they will soon start combining their powers for use against me and Pete.


6. The Moms' Garage Sale. I told them all I'd like to host another one next year...if I can get certain people to control themselves.



7. The front of our house finally got some bling.



8. ...and Alex graduated seamlessly to his bbb. Bless him for making that so easy for us.



9. Watching Aunt J and her family further endear themselves to my boys...



...in spite of her idea of fun.



10. The Olympics. Wow. I never get tired of them and I truly wish they would happen every year. In prime time, please. Because watching has been like my second job.


(Okay, now I can get back to doing laundry of jeans and sweaters...)

Softest thing on the planet

My neighbor had a baby yesterday. I thought my own babies had soft skin when they were born, then I got hold of this little guy today. Like buttah, I tell ya...

Welcome home, little J!

Games of the 29th No Sleep-iad

I don't think I can take another 11 days of late night Olympic action. Thank goodness I don't have to get up and face a real job every day...now I get to fall asleep on the sofa instead of sitting in a cubicle. Lucky for me (and my kids) Vancouver 2010 will occur in Pacific time; maybe I can handle a two-hour difference.

Instead of attempting to recap anything, though, I will say I am enjoying the brainiacs who are doing commentary. I'll leave you with these two gems. They are paraphrased to pretty-darn-close to what they actually said.

During synchronized diving:

"...we are often asked why the divers go directly to the showers after their dives. The answer is that the water in the pool is quite cold and they go to the showers to warm up, stay loose, and just have fun..."

During women's gymnastics after a floor exercise:

"...two years ago she begged her mother to let her leave the sport, but aren't we lucky she didn't because that was magical..."

Those whip-crackin' Olympic moms: what would we do without them...

Happy late anniversary to myself

The Home Team's blog celebrated an anniversary two days ago, but since I was busy losing sleep watching the Olympics and trying to figure out how to will Alex to a new developmental phase since his current one is having me chant to myself repeatedly "he's only two, he's only two..." I just flat missed the opportunity to thank those of you who read me daily.

And endure my run-on sentences.

Two years is a long time in Internet years, but I still feel like I'm just getting started doing this. Seems there's always something working in the back of my mind that never makes it on paper.

So maybe that's my anniversary resolution?

Or maybe I just hang on and keep writing whatever comes to me, and maybe you'll keep reading, and maybe one day my boys will read it.

Yikes.

Eight, eight, oh-eight!

The Home Team is pretty pumped about the Olympic Games starting; time to stay up late with Jim Lampley and Bob Costas and hear all those annoying and inspiring backstories about the Olympians and watch sports like trampoline and handball that are painfully neglected but for a few days every four years.

I know NBC has tons of online info, but if you're looking for a true fan who is customizing the Olympic Games experience for her homeschooled kiddos, visit my friend Stacey at Shootin Straight. The woman is freaking out over these games! So go get freaky with her...it's quite a spectacle.

U-S-A! U-S-A!

Everything's Hotter in Texas

You know, sometimes I wonder if anyone cares What We Did On Our Summer Vacation, but I promised a recap so I will try to make this as painless as possible for those of you who have better things to do:


The Agenda: Ride the Heartland Flyer from Oklahoma City to Fort Worth, Texas. Rent a car and drive to Pete's very sweet cousin's home just a few minutes from the station, and stay there for three nights. Go to Six Flags and a Texas Rangers vs. New York Yankees baseball game. Swim at my sister's house in Fort Worth while Pete golfs with business associates (whatever!).

The Train: None of us had ever ridden an Amtrak train. Ever. To say we didn't know what to expect...well, understatement of the year. For example, we took seven pieces of luggage. Monumental mistake, unless you also pack small UHaul. Seems the passenger is responsible for loading and unloading, not luggage handlers. And by "passenger" I mean Pete. He was not a happy man by the time he sat down in his seat.

But then the seats...oh, the seats were heavenly. Maybe they made up for the manual labor as we boarded. Can you imagine having this much legroom on an airplane?

I had packed a bazillion snacks and activities for the boys and they were happy most of the time. Then about two hours into our four-hour trip, Conducter Man informs us there will be a two hour delay. For freight train traffic.

That's when the wonderful seats weren't so wonderful anymore.

But we endured; the boys endured. And we had cell phone service so we notified Pete's cousin and I sent text messages to the family so they could have a laugh. It was all fine when we got to the station only six hours after shoving off. Then we had to contend with the luggage once again and wait in the train station while Pete took a cab a few blocks away for a rental car. Longest 30 minutes of my life.

So yes, we took the train. Yes, the boys got a big charge out of it.

(And yes, we forfeited our return tickets, rented another car, and drove home.)

Six Flags: A blast! HOT! Record setting temp that day for Arlington. I felt a little nuts for going but oh, my...Mickey was LOVING the rides. Alex, not so much. At one point I spent 20 minutes in an air conditioned gift shop while he rearranged necklaces on a rack. Maybe that attraction should be listed in their next brochure. Oh, he liked a couple of rides, but then there were these moments:

(Calm down, Grandma...it wasn't all bad!)

(What, you can't tell he's squealing with excitement?)







Mickey, on the other hand, was grinning the whole time.

Texas Rangers vs. New York Yankees: HOT again. But our seats were in the shade so all we had to contend with was the heat and not sunburn, too. We left Alex with my sister (who I love) and Mickey ate up all the kid-tivities there. We lasted through the sixth inning and missed the exciting finish in the bottom of the ninth with two outs. Grand salami by the Rangers to win the game. Nonetheless...

I'll let the pics speak for themselves:

And lastly, that would be Alex Rodriguez. (What's that saying about being married, not blind?)

Wordless Wednesday: paint pushed to its limits

Since I have so many pics from the vacation, I thought I'd participate in 5 Minutes for Mom's weekly carnival for photos.

Home Sweet...

...unpacking, sleeping-in-our-own-beds, playing-with-our-own-toys, what-am-I-gonna-fix-for-dinner...

home.

Pics and details to come. Just let me figure out where my camera is...

I love my sister

She just set me up with her laptop. And chocolate coffee. And she's watching the boys while I get my computer fix. And chocolate coffee.

And I just heard her say "...yes, we can play that!"

Details on the trip to come. Unless I melt from the record temps here.

All my bags are packed, I'm ready to go

...yeah, and ya'll know I'm lyin' cause it's only 9:30 and no way could anyone with kids be packed that early the night before a vacation.

So yeah, we're almost there and of course it'll all get done, just a matter of how much sleep we get.

Bottomline to this post, and there is one, is that it's looking doubtful I'll be taking the laptop. The load is increasing as I speak so I must start eliminating things. I may get online Monday or so but no promises. Try to live without me for two days.

Ya'll be good and I'll be checkin' in soon.

Photo contest at 5 Minutes for Mom

Update: 5 Minutes for Mom will select finalists and then the internets will vote. That means you. I will post the news here if my photo is selected for the voting round.

One of my favorite sites, 5 Minutes for Mom, is hosting a photo contest with a summertime theme.

I know, the photo below has made an appearance on this blog once before...so if you've seen it you can go about your business.


***************************************
If you haven't, this is my littlest son. In this picture he looks like he's about to kick back and relax in that (freshly watered and mowed) green grass, maybe have a leisurely conversation with his brother while lounging on a lawn chair and sipping some lemonade.

But you'd be wrong.

This would be the nanosecond he was standing still, since walking out the front door of our house is like flipping a switch to run-around-as-fast-as-I-can.

So I like this picture because it captures him standing still. But if you look really close at his eyes you can see he's got fleeing on his mind...