Take me out to the ballgame(s)

By marrying Rick, I inherited FOUR little ballplayers. Three of them had tournaments this weekend. They played a total of 15 games, which all three played for the championships. This weekend they won two second places and one championship. I have to admit Rick and I are not Nanna and Jack. We do not make every game, nor do we get there atleast 30 minutes before the game starts. Yesterday, we did see a segment of 5 different games in two towns over a period of time.

Cali got bored with so much baseball. She found a sand pile to destroy during Cade's game.


Saturday we took the day off from grandkids ballgames and went to a ladies' football game. A lady in Rick's Houston office plays on a football team. When they come to the Fort Worth/ Dallas area, we try to make her games. This is entertaining to see women play REAL football. This is not lingerie football.

Happy Birthday - Earth Day

April 22, 2010 is the 40th annual Earth Day celebration. This morning we had a presentation about "going green" and recycling. For this old school teacher, it was very informative. I have to say I do not know a great deal about science. I was more into the the English and Math classes. Therefore, I thought I would share some facts with you that I copied from this site http://holidays.kaboose.com/earth-day/history/earthday-history.html:

In the Beginning...
In 1963, former Senator Gaylord Nelson began to worry about our planet.  Senator Nelson knew that our world was getting dirty and that many of our plants and animals were dying.

He wondered why more people weren't trying to solve these problems. He talked to other lawmakers and to the President. They decided that the President would go around the country and tell people about these concerns. He did, but still not enough people were working on the problem.

The Idea
Then, in 1969, Senator Nelson had another idea. He decided to have a special day to teach everyone about the things that needed changing in our environment. He wrote letters to all of the colleges and put a special article inScholastic Magazine to tell them about the special day he had planned. 

The Holiday
On April 22, 1970, the first Earth Day was held. People all over the country made promises to help the environment. Everyone got involved and since then, Earth Day has spread all over the planet. People all over the world know that there are problems we need to work on and this is our special day to look at the planet and see what needs changing. Isn't it great?

One person had an idea and kept working until everyone began working together to solve it. See what happens when people care about our world?

Some of the most important federal legislation was passed during the 1970's, thanks in large part, to Sen. Nelson and his grassroots environmental movement.

• The Environmental Protection Agency
• The Clean Air Act of 1970
• The Occupational Safety and Health Act
• Clean Water Act of 1972
• Safe Drinking Water Act
• The Endangered Species Act of 1973
• Toxic Substances Control Act
• The Resource Conservation and Recovery Act

What can we/I do to help!

• Use compact flourescent light bulb.
• Use fewer plastic bags at Walmart. Do not put the gallon jugs, the potatoes, the paper goods and other large things in plastic bags. If I really wanted to, I could use reusable bags.
• The running faucet -turn water off while brushing teeth or shaving.
• Don't idle your car for more than one minute.
• Wash full loads of clothes.
• Limit Styrofoam. It is not biodegradable. Use paper plates instead of Styrofoam plates.
• Use rags or towels for cleaning, instead of paper towels.
• Recycle, recycle, and recycle some more.
• Do not litter- our rule was that if the birds/animals would eat it, then it could be thrown out. 
• Plant a tree.
• Fight the concrete plant being proposed in our home town.

Now, the fight for a clean environment continues.I invite you to be a part of this history and a part of Earth Day. Decide what you can do to make a difference. 

Here is Rick and the grandchildren planting flowers and shrubs.

Leave a comment on other things that we can do to help the Earth or what you are willing to do to help the environment. Rick will love this; because I never cut off a light. I am going to try to cut off lights and do some recycling.

Dancing in the Rain

Life is not about waiting for the storm to pass,

But learning to dance in the rain.

NASCAR 2010 - This pretty much sums up our experience at Nascar this year. Thursday night and Friday were great. We saw one of the best Friday night races, the ARCA race, that we have seen in years. It was only 100 laps, but probably had 10 crashes. It was described as "crash derby". It never got long or boring.

Then the rains came, and came, and came......

Most of us made the best out of bad situation. Games were played, stories (lies) were told, and the food was delicious. (Rickie could not stand it, so he did come back home to grout the floor. However, he did return after the work was done.) I felt sorry for the kids, however, they were troupers. 

NASCAR 2010 - It was a good dance, just not the one we anticipated.

DC and the "Inferior Decorators"

WOW! Where has time gone since my last post. We had a great trip to DC with the kids. It was very historical and memorable. According to Greg, we did see our share of "marble and crown molding". However, you cannot see DC and Mount Vernon in four days. The Cherry Blossom festival was going on which was an added treat to the trip.

Make your own animation


WE are ready to finish the kitchen; the weather is calling us to be outside. Before I left town after much deliberation I did make a choice and design on my backsplashes. The night before I left I had it all laid out for Rick. He did this while I was in DC; and did a fabulous job. Then came the flooring. Between the backsplash and the flooring, he labeled us the "inferior decorators" because it takes me (us) so long to make any decision. Each choice takes several trips to all the stores in Sherman and several in Dallas to see all the samples/choices and then several trips to get the supplies.

Up to this point the flooring has been the hardest on the bodies. The old tile was a pain to chip up and get out. The floor was unlevel with bits of leftover mortor that had to be chipped up. Rick finished laying the tile Sunday night after I went back to Home Depot to get one more tile.  We were one tile short. The amazing fact is that I found one tile broken in the trash pile when I was cleaning up. So we actually had purchased the correct number of tiles.

The tile selection was a saga in itself. We chose travertine, which I knew was irregular in appearance, so I took extra ones home with me. I originally took 120 - 30 cases of 18 X 18 squares home with me. I laid them all over the yard choosing the ones that I liked. I kept 40 and took 80 back. The next trip, they let me choose the ones I liked in the store so that I did not have to take them home and back again. Rick asked the lady if this was a normal process. She was very nice and polite, but said NO. Most people who chose  travertine chooses it for the natural look. I like the natural look - I just wanted to choose the naturalism of it.

We are now to the grouting stage. This is smushing grout into a 1/16 inch space. If anyone reading this, has a suggestion on an easy way to do this let me know. We have a busy week with ballgames, town meetings, and our "redneck" weekend. So the kitchen will be put on hold for a week.

Phase 2 Continued and Random Highlights of Spring Break 2010

Since my last post several things have taken place.

• New lower cabinets installed.
• Countertop installed.
• Cooktop, range, microwave installed.
• Lights installed in bottom cabinets. Rick fixed them where they will come on when the door is opened. 
• Kitchen items returning to the kitchen.

The big decision for now is what to do with the blacksplashes. This weekend we made the weekly trips to the stores to make a decision on what to do with this areas. We did bring several different sizes and kinds of tiles home to create a pattern that we can live with. The kitchen is really coming together nicely. I really think that we are ahead of schedule. We still do not have a sink or water in the kitchen, but life is good.

Spring Break Highlights.

• A trip to Fredricksberg which included great food, browsing stores, a music show, a historic museum, and a flea market.
• A tour of LBJ's house and a working farm.
• An overnight trip to Shreveport.
• SNOW!

Phase 2

We have now moved into phase 2 this week. Chad, your last look at the yellow countertops! Accomplishments this week were:

• electrical wire for the oven and tv wire run
• bottom cabinets, stove and sink torn out
• new oven installed
• bottom cabinets stained and set in the kitchen (not mounted, yet)
• countertops chosen

It did take two more trips to Dallas to find the countertops. I took off a half a day of work to go look. Diana went with me. After making my selection, I got home only to find out that the size of granite I chose is not big enough for my kitchen. So Rick and I went back on Saturday. We did make another selection. Rick asked another couple if this was normal in the process. They assured him that it was very normal; they had been to seven slab yards that day. Rick and I only went to four in the last eight days; we just went to one of them three times. Each time we chose something different than the time before.

Update

The kitchen project has been moving slowly the last two weeks. The things that have taken place are: three of the four ceiling lights have been hung, the walls have been painted three times, glass installed in the doors of the upper cabinets, electrical plugs and outlets change out, and windows in dining area trimmed out. I confess that the reason the walls had to be painted three times was because of me. I wanted the walls to look like leather with a glaze, but I did not understand how to do it. I finally gave up and went back to a solid color. This weekend we had several lessons on how to buy granite countertops. We (I) still have not picked out one. Wow, what an experience. The bottom cabinets should be ready this week. I did see them Saturday, and they are almost finished. We were short on electrical wiring for the oven. Rick has to get some more before we can finish the electrical part of this. However, we are 28 days into the project. The only inconvenience other than the house looking like a bomb exploded is that we cannot find the dinner plates. So on the Walmart list for this week is paper plates.