Happy Father's Day!

Matt and I had a wonderful weekend. I had Keno on Friday night while he stayed home and did yard work. (That worked out really well for me!) I actually won three gifts so I came back a winner. We didn't have a theme this month so the gifts are mismatched but I got a $10 QT gift card, $10 Old Navy gift card and a box of cool office supply clip things!

Matt had to work on Saturday morning so he was up and out the door fairly early. I got up and headed to my parent's house with Dennise. I made breakfast burritos and then Dennise made enchiladas for Sunday's lunch. I decided that Sopapilla (sp?) Cheesecake would be in order since it was going to be a Mexican theme for Father's day so I ran up to the store and made two batches (one for Saturday and one for Sunday!) Once everything was prepared for Sunday's lunch to be thrown in the oven, Dennise and I headed out to shop for a few gifts.

I made it home by late afternoon and Matt and I decided to continue shopping and have dinner in Cedar Hill. We ate at a Chinese Buffet that has crab and sushi! It was fairly late by the time we got home but Wayne and Allison decided to come over and watch a movie. We watched Death Race which is one of our favorites! I think Allie and I ended up falling asleep-we are party animals!

Matt and I slept in on Sunday morning and slowly got ready to head to my parents' around 11:00. Since everything was already prepared and just needed to be heated in the oven, it was a nice and relaxing morning. Dennise, Mike and the kids arrived around 12:15 and we ate lunch, opened presents, had sopapilla cheesecake and relaxed for a bit. Matt and I got home in mid afternoon, Matt had a nap and then we ventured out to Walmart to get a few things for dinner. Wayne and Allison came over around 6 and we had Matt's lasagna-noodle-vodka sauce-yummy creation with cheesey garlic bread. Allie made this frozen, fresh strawberry, vanilla cookie, vanilla pudding, oreo crusted pie type thing. It was so good! While we were waiting for the dessert to thaw a bit we decided to get Allie's expertise to help us rearrange our living room. We decided to take the love seat and the black chair and turn them at an angel. I'll try to get a couple of pictures up soon so y'all can see. Matt and I are also thinking about rearranging the office and the spare room, getting rid stuff we don't use and de-cluttering! Some sort of garage sale may be in order.

I don't know Matt's official schedule this week but I know he is off on Saturday! YEA! I think he has a meeting on Tuesday so we wont have softball practice this week but we will have a game! I'll keep everyone posted!

I hope everyone has a great week! Have a great day...or not. The choice is yours!

Softball 6-17-10

Yesterday I stayed after summer school to plan with the other 8th grade science teachers. Our hope is that we will get the entire year planned so we wont have to do much planning during the year next year. I will be teaching 7th and 8th grade science and since I have never taught 7th grade science, I will need to plan with the 7th grade team. We got a lot done and are almost through with the first semester. We plan to meet again in mid-July to finalize the first semester and move into the second semester!

I drove home, changed, let Lucy out and relaxed for a few minutes before meeting Matt in Waxahachie for our softball game. The game was...interesting. We played a team that was 0-2 and let's just say we got them out of their slump! :) The final score was 16-0 and now we are 1-1. I did get some really good practice playing center and learning silly rules like not going past second base, not stepping on home plate when batting, not moving the bat even slightly when a ball is hurling toward my face or it will be a strike no matter what, it is only a foul ball if it goes past the foul line after it passes first base and we can actually request a specific umpire. Regardless, it was all for fun....however, Matt and I did go out for a beer after just to relax a bit.

I did not get to take pictures. I thought I'd get a picture of Matt batting but I was right after him so I was warming up. We only sat out one inning and we both sat out so any pictures would have just been of our team. I'll give it a shot next game and maybe even our practice. I think it would be much more fun if our beer was before the game instead of after. We'll work on that for next week!

Y'all have a great weekend!

Decorating and My Ring....

Matt and I have had a great summer so far! This past Friday my mom and I picked up my ring in Ft. Worth and then spent the day shopping after I got out of summer school. My dad and Matt met us in Burleson for BBQ at Roscoe's. They have wonderful margarita's there and Matt even tried their Beerita. YUM!

That's right, it is a Corona turned upside down in a margarita! YUM!

Matt didn't have to work so we spent Saturday shopping in Arlington and just relaxing. We made homemade nachos with our neighbors, Wayne and Allison. While Allison and I cooked, Wayne and Matt put up pictures and sconces in our bedroom! Then we watched Avatar. Matt and I had not seen it and we both really liked it!

It says, "May our home know happiness, each room hold laughter and every window open to possibilities."

We like these sconces but I think we will look for candles that are a different color.

The light makes it really hard to take a picture.

Sunday we spend the day relaxing, grocery shopping, swimming and then had Sunday night dinner with Wayne and Allison. We think we may try to make a tradition out of Sunday night dinner with the neighbors!

We had another softball practice this past Tuesday. It is really hot but softball has been really fun. We have another softball game tonight in Waxahachie at 7! I will be sure to take pictures!

So the week before school let out we had a 'fun day' at school. I was preparing for our fun day by moving coolers that were full of ice and drinks. As I was moving one cooler out of the concession stand I bumped my left hand on the side of the door jam. As always, I checked my engagement ring and it was not good. The diamond was pushed all the way down to the band and one prong was completely bent outward. I freaked out and immediately called Matt. After putting my ring in a zip lock bag, the diamond fell out. At least I didn't lose the diamond.

After searching for a place to get it fixed, we decided on Kube's Jewelry. We know the Kube's family from high school as well as a positive force in the Ft. Worth Police Department. Since the prong was bent and the diamond was set so high, they did not feel comfortable just fixing it unless they could set it closer to the band. They actually would rather put a 6 prong head on it instead of a 4 prong head. I'm against that for now. Anyway, they had it for a few days and Mom and I went to pick it up last Friday. Having the diamond set so low has been an adjustment but I am liking it. I think it makes the diamond look bigger!

From the top!

From the side...

From the top...again....

...and the side....

Well, I will be sure to update everyone on our game tonight! Y'all come on out and support us!

Softball

Matt and I attended Tony and Tracy's wedding reception last Saturday evening at the civic center in Midlothian. We looked at getting married in the room where they had the reception but opted for Waxahachie instead. They reception was all black and white and very beautiful. We had bbq and free alcohol!...what more could you want? (Oh yes...and cake!) We had a great time! Here is a picture of us on the way! I'll leave out some of the pictures of Matt on the dance floor!

Matt and I have joined a softball league with people he works with and their families. We had our first practice on Tuesday evening. Matt and I have a few minutes to kill so we went to Hibbit's (sp?) which sells sports paraphernalia. I ran to the restroom and when I returned, Matt was holding a pair of baseball pants. They were on sale for $.47 so of course he had to buy them! Here are some pictures!

He was so happy in his $.47 baseball pants and cute as a button! We had our first game on Thursday evening in Waxahachie. I should have brought my camera but I didn't know what to expect and how well our things would be guarded. I'll make sure to get pictures next time! We had a great game and won 13 to 11. Matt and I both got hits both times at bat. My first time I got out before getting to first which forced us back into the outfield but the second time Matt and I both scored! It was really fun!

My garden is doing really well. I think I may have saved my strawberries. I have picked a lot of onions and have cut back my spinach. We haven't eaten any spinach yet but I think the next time I cut it, which will be soon, it will be very tasty! I'm still watching my broccoli and my peppers to see if they are going to produce anything or not! CORN! My newest excitement is over my corn. You can see the corn start to form. (Yes, that rhymed!) ...and of course, I have pictures!

There isn't very much going on right now besides softball and gardening. I got out of school on June 4th and started teaching summer school on June 8th. I am teaching one science class that is combined with 6th and 7th graders and one 7th grade English class. I have a really good group of kids and I am enjoying teaching such small groups! Plus, our last day is June 28th so it wont last long!

I hope everyone is well and you all have a great weekend!

The Backyard and Other Stuff

Finally, I am back! Matt and I have been very busy lately. Matt has been working a lot and school is finally coming to an end for me! I was going to try to talk about Matt's trip to Iowa, my trip to gay bingo, my birthday, Mother's day, the TAKS test, and the parties we've had lately, but that is just too much to cover! So, I'll just talk about this past weekend.

Matt and I decided the flowers in the front were not exactly what we wanted. They were also not doing very well so we replaced them with Purple Queens. We really like them and they seem to go with our TCU purple theme!

Our Purple Queens

Our garden has been doing very well. My corn is super tall already and I am crossing my fingers that it will actually produce. The broccoli is huge but isn't producing anything. I am going to have to look up information about it. I cut my spinach back and harvested many of the really dark green leaves. My Grandpa says that I should be able to keep cutting and growing for a while. My peppers are growing and just started to produce flowers this week so I am hopeful that they will start producing peppers soon! My strawberries have been doing very well. They tend to lay on the ground and ripen too fast but I have been able to pull a few small strawberries off of it. My onions are probably doing the best. They have started popping out of the ground. I pulled three on Monday and cut 'em up for burgers with the family. Everyone says they tasted great.

I actually took this picture this morning. I think next year I'll plant cilantro and tomatoes so I can make salsa!

This picture a week or two old. I think my strawberries are starting to burn...or maybe I forgot to water them for a few days....now the leaves are brown. We shall see if I can bring them back to life!

On to the deck! The temperature is rising rapidly so Matt and I got a move on and finished the deck! As you know, we started digging a few weeks ago but we had a lot more to do before we could actually get started. For the small deck, we dug down, leveled the ground, put down cement blocks, leveled them and then use those to make a beam. We had to be super careful about the height because we wanted the deck boards to slide right under the sliding glass door. This was probably the least fun.

Once the beams were in, we poured concrete into the concrete blocks to secure them. Our friends, Tony and Tracy came over to help us level and pour concrete! The following picture is Tony helping secure the concrete as Matt pours it in.

Once the beams were in we added joists every 12 inches. These joists are what the deck boards will lay on. Doesn't it look nice and pretty? Then the deck boards were added. Screwing down deck boards is not as easy as one would think. Matt and I were very careful to keep them straight and make sure the spaces between them were even. I got pretty good at using the drill and I got a new toy called a jigsaw. :) Matt thought it was for him but I got to use it to carve out areas around the sliding door! Apparently, I have some talent with the jigsaw! As hard as we worked, we finished the small deck last night and there is an area that will still need to be addressed. We are probably going to have to pull up around 8 to 10 boards (at least the bottom part of them) and scoot them over. It is a learning process and we are pretty proud of our deck so far. Hopefully we will be working on the bigger deck soon!

You may be able to see a faint blue chalk line in these pictures. We almost cut off the ends of the deck to square them off but we will wait until we scoot them over before we straighten the ends.

Y'all have a great week!