Thursday, May 31, 2018

Last Work Day for Me

This morning I had to be at school at 9am for a teacher workday.  I asked the kids if they wanted to come with me.  Noah wanted to stay home since he said he was tired, but Evan came with me.

I had a little bit of work to do in my classroom, checking supplies and textbooks, entering final grades.  I got that done pretty early, but had to be back for an 11:30 meeting.   Evan and I walked around the trail and creek at the school.   Evan really enjoyed that. 

Then, we met Morry and Noah at Einstein's Bagels nearby for lunch.    Morry had made plans to pick up some of the baseball kids at noon in that same shopping center.

When we finished eating I went back to work.

Morry picked up 3 kids and brought them back to our house.

After my meeting, I got my hair highlighted.

I got home around 4:30 just as Morry was leaving with all of the kids to go to the Round Rock Express baseball game.

He just dropped off all of the kids and now they are on their way home.






Wednesday, May 30, 2018

Last Day of School 2018!

Today was the last day of the school year for all of us.

We walked Noah to school as usual.

I went to my school and gave my last final exam.  Then I took care of a few things at school and came home.  This was our last of school, though I have a teacher workday tomorrow morning.

We walked to get Noah from school.  He was in a really good mood, of course.

Evan got home about 30 minutes late.  His bus was late getting to school to pick up the kids.

We took it easy this afternoon and then ate dinner - pork tenderloin and baked potatoes.

After dinner, Morry and Evan went to baseball.

Rita, our neighbor across the street came over for a little bit for her puppy (7-month-old German Shepard) to play with Chewie.

After that, Noah and I took Chewie for a walk.  Noah wanted to walk Chewie and he did a good job.  The new leash and harness really make a difference with Chewie's yanking.

Morry and Evan got home a little while ago and now the boys are getting ready for bed.



Tuesday, May 29, 2018

The Final Week

Hello everyone, this is Morry.

We had a full weekend.  Evan played in five baseball games over Saturday and Sunday; we had dinner with Rachel's cousin, Evan, who is in town as an intern for Apple; Rachel and I celebrated our anniversary on Sunday night; Noah spent Sunday with his friend, Anelio; we saw the movie Solo on Monday morning; Rachel took Chewie to the dog park on Sunday and both of us took him on Monday afternoon.

Today, however, marked the second to last day of school.  The sixth grade went to the Alamo Drafthouse to watch a movie as part of a field trip.  Evan didn't even bring a backpack to school today.  Noah didn't do anything special today, but he has a fourth grade party - during school - for the last day of school. 

Rachel gave a final to some of her kids today.  Then, she took the kids to get donuts.  The school paid for this outing.

I went into the office and worked for a while.

Rachel tutored in the afternoon.  After that, she went to the school to see some presentations.  Finally, she met Grandma, Papa and Aunt Susan at Tarbouch. 

Noah and I took Evan to baseball practice.  It's his last practice of the season.  Noah and I went to a coffee shop during the practice.  On the way home, we stopped at HEB and picked up food for dinner.

The boys are now getting ready for bed.

Until next time...

Friday, May 25, 2018

15 years!


Today is our 15- year anniversary.  We didn't really do anything special today, but we will be taking a trip this summer to celebrate.

This morning we walked Noah to school and then keep walking Chewie a little bit more.

I went to my school.  In between classes, I ran some errands.  After shopping at HEB the car next to me parked so close to my car, I had to climb through the passenger side to get into the car.

After school, I stopped at ARA to get the results of my MRI on Wednesday.   I have a Type II SLAP tear of the superior labrum at the bicipital labral junction.  Now I just have to figure out what to do about it.   Everything else looked good, so that's a relief.

Shortly after Evan got home we left to take him to Jack's party, close to where I teach.  After we dropped Evan off, Morry, Noah, and I ate at Vivel, a crepe place.

After we got Evan, our plan was to get dessert at Sno Monster.  When we got there it was closed for the night because of high school graduation.  So, we had dessert at Frost instead.

Now the boys are getting ready for bed.




Wednesday, May 23, 2018

Davy Crockett

Hello everyone, this is Morry.

I did not go into the office today.  Noah's class had a "Wax Museum" presentation today.  Each child picked out some sort person and wrote a speech giving the biography as that person.  The speech was in the first person.  Each child was in costume and frozen in a position.  When you pressed a button on their desk, they came to life and recited the speech about their person.  When the speech was over they would return to their frozen position.

Noah chose to be Davy Crockett.  Honestly, I don't know how he chose that.  Some kids were sports figures. In fact, I'd say around half the class was some sort of sports figure.  From LeBron James to Michael Phelps and other Olympic athletes.  Noah's friend Grayson was Sam Houston so the teacher put them next to each other.

Rachel, Grandma, Papa and I all went to the show.  Noah seemed to really enjoy it.  We pressed Noah's button once and listened to him.  Later on, I went by and tried to mess with him but he never broke character.  I kept hitting his button while he was talking to see if he'd start over from the beginning.

Rachel went back to teaching and I stayed home.  I had a few conference calls today.

Rachel had an MRI on her shoulder and Grandma took her so Rachel didn't come with me to get Noah after school.

Cooper's mom stopped by and she was able to pick up Evan to take him to practice.  The team was rewarded with a half practice/half Fortnite practice where they got to play Fortnite.

I picked the boys up and got them food on the way home.

The boys are getting ready for bed now.

Until next time...





Monday, May 21, 2018

Busy Evening

We walked Noah to school and then went for a longer walk.

I went to my school and got home right before it was time to get Noah.

We walked to get Noah from school and then he went to Grandma and Papa's.

The plan was for Morry to take Evan to baseball shortly after he got home.  Right after Evan got out of school he texted that he had a guitar concert tonight.  I guess he had forgotten about it?

I had a food bloggers event for Lantana Hummus from 6 -8pm.

Morry and Evan went to the guitar concert and got Noah after they got home.

I got home around 8:30.

Now the boys are getting ready for bed.

Sunday, May 20, 2018

Rainy Sunday

Hello everyone, this is Morry.

I woke up with Chewie and the cats this morning around 6:30am.  Shortly after I got up, we had a very large thunderstorm.  We did need the rain.  Rachel and Evan were going to go for a bike ride, but the rain nixed that.  It also was wet enough that we decided not to take Chewie for the hike we had planned to take.

We did take Chewie for a walk around the neighborhood later in the morning.  The rain had stopped long enough for us to take a walk.  We did hear thunder in the distance as we were walking.

We made lunch when we got home.  Then Rachel and I took Chewie to PetSmart.  We needed to get more food for Chewie and we wanted to get him some more chew toys.  They were doing a big pet adoption drive there.  There were some very cute kittens there.

When we came home, Noah and I watched the Hunger Games.  He had been asking me to watch it with him for quite some time.  He's read the first two books in the series and wanted to see the movie. 

While we watched the movie, Evan had his friends Wade and Nathan come over.

For dinner, we went with Grandma and Papa to Lupe Tortilla.  It's very good but it's expensive.

Evan is doing some homework now.  Soon they will get ready for bed.

Until next time...




Saturday, May 19, 2018

Weekend Off

Hello everyone, this is Morry.

Evan's coaches decided that wanted Evan to have a break this weekend.  They were just worried about his health with the ball hitting him in the head last weekend.  He was not really happy about it, but it's nice to have a break.  He did have his hitting/throwing program that he's doing for the summer this morning.  They are working on their swing for half the time and their throwing including building up their velocity while throwing properly for the other half.  Everyone of Evan's pitches topped 60 mph and he had a crow hop throw hit 65mph.  I think his fastest pitch was 63.  Evan's goal is to get that up to 70mph by the end of the summer.

After that, we stopped at Smoothie King on the way home.

We all had lunch together and then we dropped Noah off at his friend's house.  Then Evan, Rachel and I took Chewie to his second training session.  Chewie did well.  He's quite smart.  And he has the right temperament.  He wants to do the right thing and he wants to learn.

We came home for a bit and the I went to pick Noah up.

We had dinner at home. Then we drove downtown to go to a new place for dessert.  It's called Baked Bear.  They sell ice cream sandwiches.  You pick your top and bottom.  You can mix and match from a bunch of different flavors of cookies as well as brownies and doughnuts.  Then you pick your ice cream and finally you pick a topping.  We brought Chewie with us.  It's in the old power plant area that they renovated.  This place is in a bit of a courtyard.  There were tons of people walking around and families.  A number of people had dogs.  Chewie got attention and he got to play with some dogs.  It worked out well for everyone.

We are home and the boys are getting ready for bed.

Until next time...

Wednesday, May 16, 2018

Back at Practice

Hello everyone, this Morry.

Rachel had a "teacher appreciation" event at school today so she had to leave for school almost immediately after returning from dropping Noah off at school. 

I stayed home for a bit but then went into the office. I'm training our new hire that started on Monday.  I want to make sure I'm available for when he has questions.

Noah brought a friend home from school today.  He walked with us home from school.  It was nice that Noah invited someone over.  They had a good time.

When Evan got home from school, I took him to Cooper's house.  He was catching a ride to practice with Cooper.  Today was his first team practice since his head/eye injury.  The swelling is mostly gone so we felt that he'd be fine trying to hit or catch.  He didn't have to catch any pitching today which gives him another two days until he has to try to play catcher which is good.

Rachel and Noah went to Wheatsville Co-op for a  Pink Ribbon Cowgirls dinner.  I waited at home for Evan and he and I just had some food here. Rachel and Noah should be home soon.

Until next time...


Tuesday, May 15, 2018

Monday and Tuesday Catch Up

Yesterday and today the boys had the state standardized testing at school.   They weren't too happy about that, but got through it.

We walked both mornings.  Yesterday afternoon I drove to pickup Noah from school.  Today Morry and I walked.

Yesterday after school Noah went over to Grandma and Papas and I left to tutor.

On my way home I stopped at the grand opening of the Torchy's and got a place in line for the free food and drinks.  Morry and Evan met me there, but they couldn't stand in line for very long and left for baseball.  I waited a little while longer and got my food.

I picked up Noah from Grandma and Papa's house and brought Chewie with me.

Today, Evan went over to Grandma and Papa's.  I dropped him off on my way to tutoring.

When I got home we made dinner and Grandma walked Evan back to our house.

Now the boys are playing and will get ready for bed soon.


Sunday, May 13, 2018

Hospital on Mother's Day Weekend

Hello everyone, this is Morry.

Evan was scheduled to play games at 3 and 4:45pm yesterday.  And of course, until those games are played we don't know Sunday's schedule.  Additionally, Noah had a flag football game at 1pm yesterday and if his team won, he'd play again at 2pm.  With all that uncertainty, we decided to do Mother's Day Brunch Saturday morning, rather than on Mother's Day.

Grandma and Papa joined us and we drove to a restaurant we had never been to called Sawyer and Co.  I was a bit unhappy with the hostess, but other than that it was a nice time and a good brunch.

We drove to Noah's game.  I was hoping to get to watch some of it but the previous game ran late.  By the time the game was starting, Evan and I had to go.

In Evan's first game, he pitched.  He pitched quite well.  He pitched into the 4th inning where he got tired.  In the first inning, Evan hit a ball that was a few feet shy of a home run.  It just kept going and going.  It was a double knocking in a run.  Unfortunately, they lost the game.

The second game went about as well as the first game.  Evan played third base, first base and catcher in the game.  With the score 9-3, time had expired, and Evan was batting with 2 outs.  He had a 2-2 count.  He swung at a curveball that was inside.  As he hit it, it skipped off the top of his bat and ricocheted into his temple, knocking him to the ground.  The coaches from both teams ran to him to check on him.  A father from the other team was a medic and came in as well as a mom from our team who is a nurse.  When he tried to stand up, he seemed a bit woozy.  So they sat him down again.  They suggested I take him to be seen by a doctor.

I called Rachel and we met over at Dell Children's Hospital.  Evan was in good spirits and felt find other than the massive lump on the side of his head.  You could see the stitches from the baseball in his head.  They performed multiple neurological tests over the course of his time there.  It seemed like every 30 minutes or so they were checking to see whether he had any cognitive problems.  They also checked his bones around his eye and felt that there was no break and no need to x-ray.  Evan wasn't complaining about pain.  We finally got out of the hospital close to 11pm.

This morning, Evan wanted to go be with his teammates for their game.  The swelling which had been in his temple, had moved to his eye causing it to be half-shut.  Rachel said he could go and I took him to the game.  He was very glad to see his teammates and they were happy to see him and have him in the dugout.  The coaches were happy to see him as well.  His team was able to win the first game.

Rachel and Noah went over to Grandma and Papa's for lunch. 

Then Rachel and I took Chewie to the Greenbelt where we walked around.  Evan stayed home.  Noah went out with Jude and his family.

For dinner, we went out with Grandma and Papa to a place called TLC Austin where you can get seafood.  Everyone (but me) ate crab and shrimp.  The boys really liked the food.

The boys are getting ready for bed now.

Until next time...

Wednesday, May 9, 2018

Three More Weeks

Hello everyone, this is Morry.

Rachel had a staff meeting today so we didn't walk after dropping Noah off at school.  I worked from home for a while before going into the office.

When we got home, we walked Chewie to get Noah.  Noah got out early - or perhaps he didn't fool around as much - so he was coming up the trail when we got there.  Chewie didn't get as much attention because we weren't waiting for Noah.

As soon as Evan got home, he and I left for his baseball practice.  I went to a cafe and worked while Evan practiced.

Rachel didn't tutor so she and Noah stayed at home.

For dinner, we grilled flank steak.

The boys are getting ready for bed.

Until next time...

Tuesday, May 8, 2018

Monday and Tuesday

Yesterday was a normal Monday.  We walked to school in the morning and afternoon with Chewie.  Evan went to Grandma and Papa's house for dinner.

Today, it was the same pretty much.  We walked to school for drop off and pickup.  Noah went to Grandma and Papa's after school.

I left to tutor.

Around the time Evan was supposed to get home, Morry got a text from him saying the bus returned to school and Morry needed to pick Evan up.  It sounds like the substitute bus driver felt the kids were out of control and returned to the school to drop off the "bad kids".  There was such an uproar that the bus did not go back out again and parents had to pick up kids.  From the kids, it sounds like the bus driver started out on a bad note and then was not able to handle the kids' chants of the old bus driver's name.  What a mess!

I got home around 7pm and we walked to pick up Noah.  He and Grandma made a lemon cake for dessert that was very good.

When we got home we had leftover Chinese food from the other night.

Now the kids are getting for bed.

Here's a funny video from today.


Saturday, May 5, 2018

No Baseball = Softball

All of the games were canceled today since we got a ton of rain yesterday.

We were able to sleep in a little and then we took Chewie to the dog park and for a walk around the lake.  He had a great time!

When we got home we left for my school's picnic/softball in the park.  Since there weren't any games today, Evan jumped at the mentioned of a softball game.

We had a nice time at the park.  We all played softball.  Of course, Evan played well, but Noah did very well too.

From there we went to PDQ.  I was invited to taste a new menu item and they paid for our dinner.  Good deal!

Now the kids are playing video games. There are no games tomorrow either.


Thursday, May 3, 2018

Another Houston Trip

This morning we left the house around 7am.  We dropped Noah off at Grandma and Papa's house and Evan went to the bus stop a little later.

We got to MD Anderson a little after 10am.  It was a long day of appointments and tests, but everything looks good so far.

After we were done we ate a late lunch at Katz's Deli and then drove back home.

We went straight to Grandma and Papa's house where the boys were. 

Morry went to a dinner meeting and Evan, Noah, and I had dinner at Grandma and Papa's.

Now the boys are getting ready for bed.

Tuesday, May 1, 2018

Coffee Shop

Hello everyone, this is Morry.

It looked like it might rain all day but, for the most part, it held off.  We were able to walk Noah to school and walk to get him.

Rachel went to teach and I went to the office.  Rachel was done around lunch time.  She came home and gave Chewie and extra short walk.

I took Chewie to pick Noah up.  Rachel stayed at home so she could get ready.  She was tutoring a student and then going to a food blogger event.

When Evan got home, we left to go to his practice in North Austin.  I kept thinking it might rain but it never did.  Noah and I left Evan at practice and went to a coffee shop called, It's a Grind while he was practicing.  I did some work and Noah played on his iPad.

We picked Evan up and then drove to Tucci's Southside Subs for dinner.  Rachel got home shortly after we did.

The boys are getting ready for bed now.

Until next time...