Home Grown Tomatoes

I always love home grown tomatoes but I don't have a green thumb. I forget to water my flowers and they dry out in the Oklahoma heat. But I have found the solution to my problem. The Topsy Turvey, an upside down plant grower. I saw an infomercial for it and now I just have to have it. Because not only do you get one of these fantastic items (its a tube that you put your plant in, turn upside down, fill with topsoil and then water, hang from the eaves) you get a second one free. Yes, they will double the offer just for me. Plus they add in a tomato holder that will allow you to slice your tomato evenly. And a recipe guide so I know how to use the 30 pounds of tomatoes that each of these tubes will produce.

For those of you interested, you can see it yourself at: http://www.hangingtomato.com/

Our new Wii

We have finally caved in and bought a gaming system, a brand new Wii. None of us have been good at games simply because we never had one. I insist that I can't think more than point and click. But we went ahead and bought one thinking it would be family entertainment. So we got the original sports game, Mario Kart and MLB 2009. The original sports has golf, tennis, baseball, boxing and bowling. So far Dan's got into the golf and even I can do that. We put in the MLB game and man is it complicated. We'll have to work up to that. But by far our favorite is Mario Kart. Whitney wanted that one since she had played it before. It is great. We have enough controllers for two people so we can have a real race. And it is really fun. I even came home at lunch today so Dan and I could play (that wasn't the main reason but it sure was a nice diversion from work). I'm sure as time goes on we'll get more gams and get much better at them. I think a Wii Fit is in the future too.

Old Video

Last night we decided to watch some old video we had taken of a vacation at Cape Cod. It was 2002 and the first trip I got to take for work so it was pretty exciting. Whitney missed the whole last week of school to go. Watching the old video, I realized several things.

1. Whitney was a great kid and really funny and talkative.
2. Both Dan and I look fabulous now compared to then. It's sort of hard to watch both of us with a lot moreweight but helps reinforce how far we've come.
3. I need new clothes. I have all the sweatshirts from that trip and still wear them (am wearing one now). I haven't bought a new sweatshirt for 3 years. I guess if you wear them around the house after work, they don't wear out. But still, it's shocking how many things I have to wear that are old.

Finally Success!!!!!

My first blogged video. Dan decided it would be cute to buy shamrock ears things and Adam wasn't quite sure about them.

Baseball in Phoenix

There are two places to see spring training. One is in Florida (Grapefruit League) and the other is Arizona (Cactus League). So many of the teams in Arizona play around Phoenix we had quite a choice on who to go to see. Our first day we went to Peoria and watched the San Diego Padres batting practice and stayed for the game. It was $2 hot dog day.

This is Whitney and Dan enjoying batting practice in the shade. It cost $5 to park but we were about 15 cars from the entrance to the park and then the volunteers drove golf carts to take you wherever you needed to go.

They had this big baseball outside so of course we had to take a picture. It was 90 degrees this day so we all got pink before we put on our sunscreen.

The Padres played the Texas Rangers and the players are super nice about pictures and autographs. You can't get this close at a major league park.

Whitney has decided her favorite player is Josh Hamilton for the Rangers. So everytime he came to bat she went down close to take pictures and video.

On the second day we went to Surprise and saw the Texas Rangers batting practice.

Whitney decided that she needed to get autographs so Dan gave her his copy of Baseball Prospectus to sign. Minor league players wore gray pants and were very eager to sign the book.

Whitney waited for 30 minutes to get Josh Hamilton's autograph. Our friend Teri helped her by blocking people pushing from behind. He was very generous with his time, signing everything long after all of the other players went to lunch before their game. Since she got his autograph, we didn't have to go to the game.

Oz Museum

Whitney went with her grandmother and cousins to the Oz Museum in Wamego, Kansas. She obviously had a good time with Miranda as they kept taking funny pictures of each other with the exhibits.

Home Alone face

Whitney already has a brain but was posing in sympathy with the scarecrow.

Ta da!

I want those shoes. I love shoes.

I'm melting.

And now a picture of a tshirt that I should have bought.

I believe this should be all of our mottos.

Toto's Tacoz!

Our trip to Wamego, Kansas (billed as the Land of Oz) had us eat dinner at Toto's Tacoz.

They had a saddle set up so Whitney decided she needed her picture on it. We weren't sure how sturdy it was but we got a lovely picture without crashing to the ground.

Every October Wamego has "Oztoberfest" where living munchkins from the film visit. This photo was from a group of them eating at Toto's Tacoz. Unfortunately there are no more living munchkins so we will not be attending the festival this year.