Coach Pitch

Hello everyone, this is Morry.

Rachel and I slept in a bit today.  Even though it was a 4-day week, it seemed to be packed and we were both tired.  The boys were well behaved and let us sleep (or at least lay there)

When we did get up, we had some errands to run.  We need to get Noah cleats for tomorrow and we needed to return some things.  We went to Academy to get Noah cleats.  He whined a bunch.  He was upset because he wanted me to carry him into the place.  He was happy with his cleats.  Rachel then ran into Old Navy and Kohl's to return some things.

We came home and had lunch.  It seemed that there was not much time before I had to take Evan to his game.  They practice for an hour before the game.  The complex where Evan plays has several batting cages so they had batting practice and then fielding practice.  Noah insisted on coming.

Evan was so excited for the game to start.  He started out in Left Center Field and then moved to Second Base.  He struck out his first time up.  I was not happy with the umpire as one of the "swings" was a checked swing.  I was literally about 3 feet on the other side of the fence from the umpire but I managed to not say anything.  Then I went to talk to Evan and Evan very matter-of-factly said "The ump made a bad call."  He didn't seem upset by it at all.  The next time up, he took three pitches and didn't swing and then got a hit.  In the 4th inning while playing second, he got pop up that the shortstop had missed and touched second to get a kid out.  He was so excited he was jumping up and down holding the ball.  In his third at-bat, he also struck out, though with two really great swings.  It'll come.  His coach came up to me unsolicited to tell me what a "cool kid" Evan was.  He just loved Evan's enthusiasm and hustle.  He said he's a joy to have on the team.

From there, we went to Verde's where we met Jack's family.  It was a really nice night out and all four kids - Jack and Evan, Noah, and Jack's sister Audrey all played out on the field adjacent to the patio where we were seated.  It was really nice and we could talk with the adults.  The kids all enjoyed themselves.

We came home and the boys had showers and they are now in bed.

Until next time...

Some pictures from today's game:

Another Movie Night

Hello everyone, this is Morry.

This morning the boys played upstairs while I did some work.

Rachel was doing the laundry when she pulled the mattress pad off of our bed.  I guess it started to crack and break.  So we needed a new mattress pad.  We went over to Kohl's and found a mattress pad to get.  The boys were hiding on the bottom shelf of one of the racks for a while.  Two other little kids ran by.  One of them, a little boy that looked a bit younger than Noah, kept repeating over and over "I found boys, I found boys".  It was pretty funny.

When we got home, we had lunch, but Noah went upstairs for his nap time.  He's been staying up late recently and we can't get him to fall asleep.  So he was pretty tired.  I don't think he slept, though.

We told the boys again that if they cleaned up, we could have another movie night.  We picked up Dolphin Tale.  There wasn't a whole lot to clean up.  Noah wouldn't clean up his mess.  It's hard to punish him because he's ok if you take things away.  So I tried a new tactic.  I offered Evan a prize if he cleaned up Noah's mess.  Evan was excited and cleaned up his mess.  As I had hoped, this really made Noah upset.  He did not want that to happen.  Hopefully, next time he'll remember that.

The boys are supposed to be in bed now.  I hear them.  Hopefully they'll go to sleep soon.

Until next time...

Party Three of Three

Hello everyone, this is Morry.

This morning the boys were really good. They never came in our room and didn't fight with each other. They just played really well and let us sleep in. It was a nice surprise.

When we got up we decided to run over to Kohl's. We had a birthday party to go to today for Evan's twin friends, Jake and Cory. We've had birthday parties three weeks in a row. We had been unsure if we were going to go today since Evan has been sick, but he's doing much better and he shouldn't be contagious anymore given he's had 5 doses of the antibiotics.

The boys were really really hyper at Kohl's. Randomly we found a Steelers hat with 43 on the front and Polamalu on the back. Evan really wanted it so he wore it around the store. Eventually we found presents for Jake and Cory and then tried to figure out whether the hat came from to get one for Noah. We never did find it. When we asked the checkout girl where it came from, she didn't know and didn't seem interested in finding out for us. Then it rang up as $21.99. So we didn't get that hat.

We came back and had a small lunch and then left for the party.

The party was at a place called Pump It Up which is one of the inflatable places. This one was set up only for parties. There are two rooms that they rotate the parties in and out of. Only the kids at your party are in one of these rooms at a time. Evan and Noah had a great time. Noah did really well and didn't need our help at all with the physical stuff. He did this inflatable obstacle course over and over which looked really tough. I was impressed at how well he did. Evan played with his friends as well as with his friend Victoria. The boys really had a good time at the party.

We came home and had some dinner. Now the kids are in bed.

Until next time...

A Day About Nothing

Hello everyone, this is Morry.

Noah slept through the night last night. Early on in the night we heard him cough some, but he was able to get through the rest of the night and we didn't hear him. He got up a bit before 8am. I put him in the gameroom and turned on Mickey Mouse for him. Evan was up a short time later and the two boys proceeded to play throughout the house.

Later Rachel and I got up and brought the boys downstairs. Noah was very cranky. We decided to go out in the backyard but Noah wouldn't put his shoes on. Rachel finally got him to come outside for a bit.

For lunch, Rachel made blue eggs and ham for the boys. Evan ate all of his and Noah ate some of his.

While we were eating lunch, Rachel saw an ad at Kohl's for Woody boots from Toy Story. We had gotten some for Noah a while ago but they didn't have Evan's size at the time. So Rachel took Evan, after lunch, to Kohl's. Unfortunately, they were unsuccessful again. After that they went to Old Navy to return some stuff and then to the bookstore so Evan could play with trains. He saw his friend Marissa there who was also playing trains. Evan said he didn't say hi to her. He said he was too tired to say hi. He's already coming up with excuses at the age of 4.

I stayed home with Noah and I put him down for a nap. He slept pretty well.

Rachel called up DirecTV and argued and was able to get them to reduce our bill, as well as get them to come out and replace our dish with a dish that will enable us to get one show and tape another. We fought with DirecTV about a year and a half ago for the same reason but were unsuccessful. Rachel was persistent this time and was on the phone for well over an hour. Maybe something magical happens if you're able to put up with them for an hour. At one point they told her they couldn't give us the new customer deal because we'd lose all the perks we're getting as long-time customers. I'm still trying to figure out what those perks are, because it sure seems like a much better deal to be a new customer.

For dinner, I went and picked up Little Caesar's. The boys did not eat though.

We just put them down for bed.

Until next time...

Morry Takes Evan to School

This morning Morry worked from home so that he could take Evan to school. Morry offered to take Evan to get smoothies first, but he didn’t want that. Morry had no problems taking Evan to school. Evan was very excited that Daddy go to drop him off.

I dropped off Noah at Alena’s house and then went to my doctor’s appointment. I met with Dr. Patt, my oncologist for my 3 month check up. I had some blood drawn, but I don’t know the results yet. She seemed happy with my progress. Dr. Patt looked at my fingernails and said that was from the Taxotere and new nail growth looked good.

I went into Kohls to get some stuff for the boys. I bought some new juice and milk cups for the boys and pajamas, belts, and pants for Evan. I also found a little Toy Story handheld arcade game for $2.99, so I had to buy it.

On the way home I stopped at HEB to return some cups I had bought for the boys.

When I got home I laid the clothes and other items on Evan bed.

I picked up Noah first and then Evan. When we got home we went upstairs for naps. Evan was very excited by all the stuff I had bought for him. The pajamas were Batman and Robin Lego pajamas. He also really liked the belts I bought him. He has been wanting a belt for a while, but I wasn’t able to find any in his size.

Noah fell asleep right away. I went to lie down and Evan tucked himself in bed for a nap. I thought he would just play in the game room, but he must have been tired.

For dinner Morry and I ate left over cinnamon chicken that we had frozen a few weeks ago. It was good, but it took a long time to heat up. While we were waiting for it to thaw and heat up we gave the boys dinner. I made chicken nuggets, but neither one ate them. They did eat some veggies and bread and then fruit for dessert.

Evan and Noah are in bed now. Tomorrow we have their yearly check-up appointments. We’ll let you know how those go.

Pacifier in the Potty

This morning Gabby came to help with Noah. Jodie picked up Evan and brought him home from school. Blanca came over at 1:30.

At 12:00 Morry and I went to my oncologist appointment. This oncologist recommended a different treatment than the other one. She wants me to do Adriamycin and Cytoxan every 3 weeks for 4 cycles and then paclitaxel weekly for 12 weeks after that. We need to decide which regimen I will go with and see if this doctor in Austin would do either one. We were there for a while. I was scheduled for a bone scan, ovarian cancer screening, and heart scan for next week. They also drew some blood while I was there.

After the appointment I went to Kohls to get some shoes for Jonah’s wedding this weekend.

When I got home, I was on the phone the rest of the afternoon dealing with medical stuff.

Michael got here late afternoon. We all ate dinner together. We had crock pot corned beef, soup, and biscuits.

After dinner Morry, Evan, and Zayde went to the mall to pick up Evan’s tuxedo. Michael and I stayed at home with Noah.

Morry helped get the boys ready for bed and then he left to go to a concert.

Right after Morry left Evan told me he needed to go to the bathroom. After he had peed he was flushing the toilet. As the water started swirling, somehow his pacifier fell from his mouth and into the toilet. Both Evan and I quickly reached our hands in there and tried to fish out the pacifier before it went down the drain. Evan grabbed it and was cracking up. Yuck!

Both boys are still up laughing and playing.

75th post

Hello everyone, this is Morry. As I clicked to create a new post, I realized this is the 75th post. I'm suprised that we (mostly Rachel) have been doing this for so long.

This morning, I woke and then went to work at my normal time. Traffic has been lighter the last week or so as UT finished classes on the 2nd of December. Next week will be particularly light as the Austin school district has off as well.

Rachel and Noah, however, were awakened by the dog behind us. I know this seems like a broken record but it keeps happening. It's unbelievable that as soon as we got one dog to stop another one starts. Rachel did call and leave a message with the owner of the dog.

Rachel need to run a couple errands this morning. First she went to Wal-mart. They completely redid the Wal-mart near us and added a grocery store to it. So Rachel went there. The shopping carts were not big enough to hold both boys in the front part, so she bribed Evan to sit in the big part of the cart by giving him M&Ms. By the end of the trip through Wal-mart, he had chocolate all over his face. Also his nose has been running so the chocolate was a bit mixed with snot.

Next they went to Kohl's. When Rachel asked Evan if he had chocolate all over his face, he said no, he had boogers. She cleaned him up and they returned one of the things we bought this weekend.

The boys took decent naps and both boys were sleeping when I got home around 5:15 or 5:20. I made tacos and mexican rice. I fry the dried rice and mix it with chili powder, salt, garlic power and paprika. Then I steam the rice. It's pretty good.

We gave the boys baths tonight. Noah seems to be sleeping now but Evan is still up. He's been giving us a hard time going to bed recently. It may have started when we stayed in the same room as him in Dallas. I think he got used to us being around. Now he keeps asking to sleep in Mommy and Daddy's bed. He's not allowed to do that, so he throws a fit.

Until next time...