Back At It

Hello everyone, this is Morry.

Saturday, Evan had his first scrimmage with his new team.  It was an intrasquad scrimmage.  Evan caught for quite a while.  Then they put him in center field.  He has not played much outfield.  The second pitch after he got to center field was hit off the centerfield wall.  He fielded it off the wall, spun and threw a perfect strike to second base to throw out the runner at second.  The coach yelled "Great throw, Evan!".  Later he came in to pitch.  He did very well.  He induced a pop up that didn't come all the way to the mound, then he gave up a hit.  Then he got a fly out to right.  Each of the final two batters he face ended with a strikeout. Both strikeouts came on a 3-2 curveball and the ball really dropped.  They were good pitches.  At the plate, Evan was hit by a pitch and hit a double over the left fielders head.

For dinner Saturday night, we picked up Enchiladas Y Mas.

On Sunday, Evan played volleyball with some friends at the park while Rachel and I took Chewie for a walk around the lake. 

At night we watched the Super Bowl.  Rachel picked up pizza from Pizza Cave for us.

On Mondays, Rachel doesn't teach.  So she was able to relax in the morning and then go for a run.  I had a very busy meeting in meetings.

I took Evan and picked up his teammate, Ethan, to go to practice.  We stopped and got Hat Creek on the way to practice.  Rachel and Noah ate at home.

Evan is upstairs finishing some school work now.  Rachel and I will be sitting down.  Noah is playing on the Playstation.

Below are some pictures of Evan pitching.

Until next time...

Practices

Hello everyone, this is Morry.

This morning, Rachel went to a focus group for bras for mastectomy patients.  It was on campus.  She left before I woke up.

Noah and I were home by ourselves for a while since Evan was at a friends.  We had leftovers for lunch.

Rachel came home just before I left to meet Evan at his practice.  They moved Evan's baseball practice indoors due to the rain overnight and the field being wet.

When his practice was over, I drove home and dropped Evan off.  Noah was at his football practice.  Rachel had taken him.  I went over and watched the end of practice.  Noah seemed to do well.

For dinner, we went to Enchiladas y Mas.  They have the best fajitas there.  All four of us had fajitas.

We went to HEB and got food for the week on the way home.

The boys are getting ready for bed.

Until next time...

No School for Noah

Hello everyone, this is Morry.

Last night before bed,  Noah took his own temperature and told us he had a fever.  I checked it before I put him to bed and sure enough, he had a fever.  I gave him some ibuprofen and it seemed to help but the fever was back when he got up this morning so Noah stayed home from school.

Rachel and Evan rode bikes to school.  Then Rachel walked to Ms. Wenske's classroom and asked for the school work for Noah.  She told Rachel that she'd send the work to Evan's class for him to bring home.

I met Rachel's cousin, Jacob, for lunch at Enchiladas y Mas.  It was good.  It had been a while since I was there.

Noah seemed to look worse in the afternoon.  Rachel offered to take him to Starbucks or something like that where he could get a cold drink but he didn't want anything.

I rode the bike to get Evan.

Noah managed to do some school work but then fell asleep in bed until dinner time.  He didn't eat dinner with us.  Rachel made a Filipino chicken recipe for the crock pot that she had found on the internet.

We're about to put the boys to bed, though Noah is sleeping on the couch at the moment.

Until next time...

Jocks

Hello everyone, this is Morry.

Evan had a basketball game this morning so I got up early.  Evan was already up, though I think he had just gotten up.

I got him ready for basketball and we drove over there.  This was the playoffs.  Evan's team was in last place and they were playing the first place team.  Unfortunately, it definitely showed.  Evan's team got killed.  I felt the other coach did not show much sportsmanship as they were still running plays with under 2 minutes to go and a huge lead with picks and everything.  Evan didn't seem upset and Evan's coach had a little party for the kids after the game.

We came home and had lunch and then went to the baseball fields.  Noah had a scrimmage today against the Yankees.  I don't know why, but I just can't stand any team named the Yankees.  Noah's team played very well and won the scrimmage.  Noah ran really well and listened.  He also made a great stop in left field to whole a boy to a single.  Evan found some older kids and played football with them during the game.  These kids seemed much older but they asked Evan if he wanted to join.  He had a great time.

We came home and took quick showers and drove up to Barry and Lisa's for Lincoln's birthday party.  Evan and Noah went right out back and played more sports.

We had a good time at Barry and Lisa's.  Noah started to play with Lincoln right as we were about to leave.

For dinner we stopped at Enchiladas Y Mas.  They have my favorite fajitas.  They are really really spicy.  But we don't get there very often - maybe once a year.  The boys were good there.

On the way home, Noah informed us that he is a jock.  It was very funny.

We are about to put the kids to bed.

Until next time...

Inside Rainy Day

We have been getting a lot of rain. It rained most of the day.

We stayed at home until it was time to leave for Lincoln's birthday party (3:00).

Evan and Noah had fun at the birthday party. They enjoyed playing with Lincoln's toys.

After we left the party we went to dinner at Enchiladas Y Mas. We had to wait a while for a table. The boys were both tired and whiny. Evan was especially whiny. He said he wanted scrambled eggs, but when it came he made up excuses as to why he wouldn't eat them.

We just got home and now we are putting the boys to bed.

Water and Ice

Hello everyone, this is Morry.

Last night, for some reason, Evan got up around 12:30am. I'm really not sure why. He didn't seem scared, he wasn't upset. He just got up and told me he wasn't tired anymore. It took him a long time to go back to sleep. He came into our room several times.

Noah got up first this morning and was asking to be let out from his room. I think that woke Evan up and Evan got up. I think Evan let Noah out and Rachel turned on the tv in the gameroom for them.

Around 10am, the phone rang. It was the someone from the Office of the President from DirecTV. After our latest run-in with DirecTV on Thursday night, I found an email address for the some woman who was high up. I sent an email stating our unhappiness. The person today was very nice and the receiver we wanted has now been shipped.

After that, we went to the gym for swim lessons. I took Noah in and he did pretty well. He decided that he didn't want to go under the water so he didn't participate in everything, but overall he did really well. Evan also did well. His instructor said he really good at relaxing himself and floating. He needs to work on his kicking some but he's doing well.

When we left the gym, we had a couple errands to run. First we stopped by Newflower Market because they donated a bag of items to Rachel for her cousin's bridal shower. Then we stopped at McDonald's to pick up lunch for the boys. After that we met a lady because she was selling us another Leapster for Noah and nine games. She had been advertising on Craig's List. We really got a deal.

We came home and Noah and Rachel napped while Evan watched Scooby-Doo and played with the new Leapster and Leapster games.

Evan has been begging to go ice skating for a while now. So we decided we'd go ice skating tonight. First we went to dinner at Enchiladas y Mas which is by the ice skating rink. The boys were very well behaved. Then we went ice skating.

When we got to the rink, Evan kept complaining as we tried to get the skates on him. He said they hurt. We went through three different pairs. Both Rachel and I tried. Finally, Rachel got them on and Evan seemed fine. I put him on the ice and we started to go a little bit and then Evan just freaked out. He started screaming that he was scared and was crying. I tried to get him to go some more and then I picked him up and skated a bit while holding him and the wall. I got him somewhat calm and explained that he falls when he's not on ice all the time. Falling on ice is not a big deal. Some guy who works there came over to me and told me I wasn't allowed to carry Evan. I understood, but the moment I put Evan back down he started to freak out again. At this point we were about half way around. There was an opening where the bench is for the hockey team and so we got out there. But the guy came over and told me we couldn't walk all the way around that way. So I had to put Evan back on the ice. I finally just gave up and pushed him across the ice rather than staying on the wall. I can skate but I'm not a strong skater so that was tough. I'm just not sure why Evan was so scared. He rarely ever shows fear of athletic activity and he has already been skating before. Not only that but he wanted to go. Luckily they gave us our money back and we went home.

The boys are now in bed, each playing with their Leapsters.

Until next time...

Saturday errands

Hello everyone, this is Morry. Rachel asked me to write the blog tonight.

This morning, Evan and Noah got up early. I was completely out and didn't hear either boy so Rachel got up with them. I slept until about 9am. I'm feeling a lot better and was able to actually eat meals without feeling awful afterwards. I'm still not 100% but close to it.

When I got up and came downstairs, Rachel was making Rice Krispie Treats. Evan was supposed to be helping but he was just playing around.

After we all tried some of the Rice Krispie Treats, we went to a garden store here in Austin that we just heard about called The Natural Gardener. It's a huge place and they have animals on the premises. They actually use the animals to help farm the land. Rachel wanted to get vegetables to plant in our backyard. When we got there the place was a madhouse. Apparently a Saturday morning early in spring is a big time for people to shop. After some idiot stole my parking spot we found a place to park and went in. They had old red radio flyer wagons to pull around and put your plants in. Evan loved it. At first he sat in the wagon. Then he insisted on pulling it. We got some tomatoes, peppers and herbs - like parsley, sage, rosemary, and thyme (ok, start singing). We also got peppermint, some garlic thing and a few others. We'll see how it works out. We also bought some compost to add to the soil. The people working there were very nice, helpful and knowledgeable. I'd recommend the place.

We came home and made some lunch. Neither boy ate very much. Noah was very cranky, so we put him down for a nap right after lunch.

After naps, we went to a place called Precision Camera and Video. Last summer we got a new digital camera but we also said in the future we'd want a nice digital SLR camera. The regular digital camera takes some pretty good shots, but with the both boys having birthday parties coming up, we thought it'd be nice to get a really good camera. We knew which one we wanted and got it.

From there we went to Enchiladas Y Mas which is somewhat close to the camera store. That place has the best fajitas in Austin, if not anywhere I've tried fajitas, hands down. I figured I'd be taking a chance having just gotten over my sickness, but luckily I was able to handle it. It really is good. Evan was very well behaved and ate a bunch. Noah, on the other hand, was still cranky. I don't know if he's getting sick (hopefully not) or whether he's teething or whether he was tired or what. I had to hold him towards the end.

We came home, tried out the new camera (you can see some of the pictures below), and gave the boys bath.

They are now in bed and being quiet which is good.

Until next time...