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.

Happy Dog

Abby was very happy to ride in the car to Phoenix. We made her bed in the back on the way back and she enjoyed this even more than sitting next to Whitney on the way to Phoenix.

Driving to and from Phoenix

We went to Phoenix for Spring break and decided to drive. For those of you not from Oklahoma, while we are in the middle of the United States, nothing is close. It is 15-16 hours to drive to Arizona. Luckily the drive there we gain two hours because Arizona does not recognize daylight savings time. So we left Norman at 5am and got to Phoenix at 8ish. Dan wasn't feeling well so I did a lot of driving. I drove most of New Mexico which is probably the most boring state to drive through. It is worse than Oklahoma and I didn't know that was possible. We took Abby with us so had to make sure and walk her and give her water at our rest stops. We are sort of commando drivers and eat while driving and just stop for gas/bathrooms.

This is the warning at Arizona rest stops. Makes you really want to stop.

To Weigh or Not To Weight...That is the Question

So today is the first day back after back to back trips. It is also weigh-in day. So the question is do I go weigh? We get two free passes and after two days of McDonald's drive through I'm thinking it really isn't a good choice. But I wanted to know where I was. So I made sure if I didn't like the weight I could use a pass. (I always look for the loophole). The scale went back and forth a little bit but I lost 1/2 pound. Frankly I am thrilled with that. Of course I now head out of town for 4 days in Washington DC. But I'll be back for a whole week before the next weigh in and the weather is getting nicer so maybe I can start walking in the evening.

Movie Time

I'm sure to blog more in the future but we just got back from Kansas and am about to leave for Phoenix in less than 8 hours. My new camera is great so wanted to post a video and photo just to show you I actually am technologically savvy.


A surfing Toto from the Land of Oz (otherwise known as Wamego, Kansas)

OK, loading video didn't work. Tried two different ones thinking maybe too long but still didn't work. I'll have to try another time when we get back.

Packing for Trips

I hate packing for trips. I always stress myself out and in turn stress my family. I am about to go on three trips in two weeks and they are all for different reasons. This is terrible because I only know how to pack for certain types of trips. Trip one is for a long weekend and attending a memorial service. The weather of course can't make up its mind so have to pack for that. Then we are back for two nights and off to Phoenix for spring break. It is supposed to be in the 80's there so that is totally different clothes. Then we are back for one day and I go to Washington DC for four days for a work meeting. Once again totally different weather and clothes. I hate living out of suitcases so I always unpack everything when we get to our hotel but I'm not sure this will make sense. I will just turn around and repack all the toiletries so we can unpack them, then pack them, then unpack and so on. This is the time I wish I had a separate container for travel toiletries so I wouldn't have to worry. But I normally don't travel enough to justify that. So I guess we will just live out of the ziploc bags that I pack the stuff in.

New Digital Camera

I finally found a new camera for the price I was willing to pay. So far it takes good pictures and I've tried the video part and that works well. I was having problems copying things to the computer but have figured out a way around that. So hopefully you'll be getting lots of photos/videos from me now to accompany the blog.

The pounds just keep falling

Weigh in number 3. Another 2 pounds gone. So now I'm 7.4% lighter than I was January 9 when we started. New clothes here I come. I'm still in second place.

Sunny Day in Oklahoma

It currently is 81 degrees here and it may go up to 88 degrees tomorrow. Just last weekend we were lucky to get to 40. I have always said living in Oklahoma is a weather adventure and I think this just proves my point.

Congratulations Whitney

Her Walt Disney presentation board got selected to go to Regionals at the end of March. She and her partner were one of six boards to get picked. They need to "pizzaz" it up some but the contest was good. She is super excited.

Helicopter Parent

I try very hard not to be a helicopter parent. You know the one that hovers over their child and tries to make everything go smoothly. But it is very hard. This weekend's example is Whitney's History Day project. She and her partner had to do an exhibit on Walt Disney. Whitney had written a big paper on him in the fall and now they had to put together a presentation board following very specific rules. The two of them got together over the course of several weekends to throw around ideas. The good thing is that they have known each other since about 3rd grade so they really get along well and they listen to each other. They did ask for advice a couple of times but I never offered it without asking. I did get a couple of things for them because I knew people who had Mickey Mouse punches from scrapbooking and another Disney fanatic. But this weekend was the big put the whole board together. This thing is huge. So with all my scrapbooking tools I knew I could be some help. I used the glue and cutting tools I had but the girls really decided what the whole content was. So the question I asked myself was "Am I helicoptering?" Did I step over some line in the assistance I gave? And I've decided that I didn't. I didn't make any choices on content or placement. All I did was cut and paste (kindergarten skilles that everyone should have). Whitney and Jaime deserve all the credit for how fantastic it works. So I think I can sleep easy with the knowledge that I didn't helicopter to the point of overbearing. The grade they get is their's that they earned.