recovery ward

My house has been nicknamed the "recovery ward" this week.

Dillon has had the flu for 5 days. Although he's getting better, he's still wiped out. 102 temperature & respiratory problems.

Jared had all 4 wisdom teeth pulled yesterday. OUCH!

Stony Point rugby vs. Houston West Side High

We were in Houston yesterday for a Rugby game with Houston's West Side High School. It was a long trip but worth it since we won 32 - 5. Yay!

Here is Dillon standing during a break in the game. Here is Jared in the huddle after the game.

This is an awesome tackle made by Jared. Jared is number 17 on top of the opponent on the ground.

This is the same picture as above but I blew it up because I wanted you to see the uncanny resemblance to a classic movie scene....
The opponent laying under Jared looks just like the legs of the Wicked Witch... the one that the house fell on... from the Wizard of Oz.... especially with the striped socks. Amazing. lol

This was a funny sign we encountered on the way to the game.

This video has Scott's voice yelling for Jared because he carries the ball for a score!

(only to be brought back by penalties, but nonetheless, very exciting!)

hanging out this week

Wednesday night was so nice here (temps in the 70's) that we decided to go have supper at a little grill/pub that has outside seating & live music. The boys, Scott & I enjoyed the evening.

Ohhh... so cool night-time effects on this picture!

goodbye coleman cooler

As you previously read, Scott & Dillon cleaned out our garage. It goes without saying that there were some casualties. Namely the Coleman Cooler. It suffered a chemical spill inside of it that leaked into an internal crack in the lining. Not good. Not useable anymore.

This cooler has been in my family since I was a little girl. We used to use it to go camping. It's been around a looooongg time. Our family inherited the cooler many years ago when my dad was cleaning out his own garage & probably got a newer Coleman Cooler.

I looked online to see what this little gem would be worth nowadays.
First of all a brand new 'steel belted' 54-quart Coleman Cooler is $219 on the Coleman website! Wow! Here's a picture of what that looks like:

Next I went to Ebay where I searched for a similar cooler to our 'throwaway' version. I finally found one under 'vintage' Coleman coolers. Bids starting at $9.99. Wow.

So sad.

random stuff from iowa

I took this picture to show our southern friends that soda is indeed called 'POP' up north. We didn't make it up. I tried to get a good picture of this college student but he was walking way too fast. The purpose was to illustrate how bundled up people have to be to get from point A to point B. I believe it was 5 degrees on this day.

Not only was it cold in Iowa but there was plenty o'snow. This is a snow shovel. Notice the 5-gallon bucket next to it? That one BIG shovel.

One of the things I truly do miss about Iowa winters is the way the sky & the ground can be seamless. The winter colors can seem like you're inside a painting -
Here is Scott enjoying (NOT!) his 29 hour stay in the University of Iowa hospital. He developed a bloot clot & had to stay for monitoring. Bummer. :(

p.s. He's doing much better now. The doctors tell us the clot is gone & he needs to be on blood thinners for only another 3 weeks.

pictures from our iowa trip

i forgot to tell ya

I forgot to share Scott's most recent fender-bender accident. Again, not his fault... I'm thinking he has 'wrong place / wrong time' syndrome. Anyways he was slowing down for road construction traffic on a busy highway in Austin and the guy behind him happen to look down at his map that same instant. BAM!
The suburban "takes a lickin' and keeps on tickin'.
Notice the bumpy-ish part to the left of the tailgate handle and the debris on the bumper? Now look at the other guy's vehicle.

Umm.... yeah.

The other guy got a ticket for unsafe following distance, therefore the other insurance paid for the repair, rental replacement and Scott's medical check-ups.

Scott felt like he'd been 'hit by a truck' (literally!) for a few days. We're still waiting for the doctor to review the x-rays.

We're enjoying a 3-day weekend!

Saturday we cleaned the garage & hosted a Valentine Supper (see earlier post).

Sunday we visited Gateway Church in Austin with our good friends and

then made the road trip to my cousin's house in Copperas Cove.

Today... we're doing nothing.

Well, normal stuff anyway.

Scott went to the dentist this morning (finally) to get his root canal done.

The boys are at Rugby practice.

Madison spent the night @ a friend's.

And I'm filling the bath tub, which reminds me, I gotta go.

Enjoy your day. :)

A day at the cuz's house

We spent yesterday afternoon with Steph & the kids. It's soooooo good to see them & get caught up with life. We had a lot to visit about since we haven't seen each other since Christmas. (sorry Steph, I meant to crop that top picture. heehee)

Saturday project

Scott & Dillon worked ALL day Saturday to clean out our garage. It looks AWESOME! Of course I should have done a 'before' picture so you could see how cluttered it was... just use your imagination.

I think the boys appreciate the clean garage the most... They had 4 friends over on Saturday night & they went to hang out in the garage, complete with lawn chairs. Must be a guy thing.

Happy Valentine's Day!

We had a great Valentine's Dinner at our house with some friends.

We grilled burgers & had a 'taste test' of all the newest chip flavors. (Chile Limon is nasty!)

We enjoyed singing some gospel music together &

ESPECIALLY enjoyed the chocolate fondue... yum!!

Hope you got to spend some time with your Valentine!

Madison's volunteer time

Madison has been through one round of volunteer training at the horse arena in Georgetown called "Ride On Center for Kids". She assists with kids who have disabilities and are doing theraputic horse riding. It's a huge outdoor area with about 20 horses. There are things for her to do

7 days a week, but she will volunteer 2 evenings & maybe a weekend day.

MAdison is training to do 'side walking' here.
She walks alongside the horse while making sure the child is
safe. She's been trained what to do if the horse
spooks or the child has a siezure.

homework

Scott & I have homework before our next small group meeting.

Which is tomorrow.

Chapters 1-3.

Uh oh.

quote of the day... from work

I jotted these down from last week, all are from customers who are filling out a form to obtain their birth certificate:

Place of Birth: "Is 'Round Rock Hospital' in Round Rock?"

Mother's Full Maiden Name: "Do I need to put my Mom's first and last name on here?"

Address (city/state/zip): (keep in mind that he is filling out a form & stopped to ask me this question)
customer: "Can you tell me the zip code?"
me: "Sure, it's 78626"
customer: "I don't think that's right"
me: "That is Georgetown's zip code"
customer: "Well that's not where I live"
me: "Where do you live?" (Sorry, my mind-reading skills aren't sharp today?!)
customer: "Jarrell, Texas" (Really?! Do I look like a walking zip code directory?!)

beautiful day in Austin

(first step: ignore the date stamp! changed the batteries & the date went wacko...)
Yes, everything is bigger in Texas... especially the trucks. Madison & I stopped by a creek/park on the way home from the boys' rugby game in Austin. What a pretty day to be outside! It's been in the 70's lately which is warm enough but I'm ready for some 'green'.

Rugby season has started!

These pictures are from the boys' first rugby game on Jan 10, 2009 (date of photo is

backwards-ish). Jared & his buddy, Blake, are pictured above.

The Tigers have been playing great this season!

They have had 4 games & a couple of tournaments.

My favorite is that we can sit

outside in January & enjoy the games....

in shorts.

Love it!

Lysol is our friend

Madison was diagnosed with Strep today & I was diagnosed with a urinary tract infection. I think we need to bomb the house. Bacteria. Yuck.

can you see me?

Madison & Scott discovered that you can see blinking eye lashes in the binoculars when you look at each other from a close range. Here is Dillon trying to reproduce the scene.


The things we do to entertain ourselves....

typical scene in iowa

This video is to show what a typical parking lot looks like in Iowa during the winter. I had the unfortunate opportunity to park next to a small snow bank.