Booster Shots + Garage Cleanup

 Yesterday, both boys had their Covid booster shots. We had to get them at different CVSs because that was all that was available. 

Evan had baseball practice yesterday afternoon.

For dinner,
we ate at Lotus Hunan.

Today, Morry and I spent most of the day cleaning the garage.

Both boys weren't feeling so well from their boosters.  Noah felt worse than Evan and spent most of the day in bed.

For dinner, we picked up Salt Lick BBQ, and Grandma and Papa ate with us at our house.

Tonight, Morry and Evan were up late watching the Steelers game.

They have to get up early tomorrow.  Evan has a 6:30am MRI appointment for his wrist.

Here is a picture of the garage today.

Tucson, Christmas, Grandma's Birthday

 We went to Tucson from Saturday through Wednesday.   It was a bittersweet trip since Zayde was no longer there, but we had a good time being with family.   And, one day, we met my friend, Holly, for a hike.

This was our first Christmas home in many years.  Hardly any restaurants were open, so we made dinner at home.  Then, we watch the new Wonder Woman movie at home.

We spent the afternoon today doing some cleaning and organizing. We brought everything down from the attic.

Today was Grandma's birthday.  Papa picked up an early dinner for all of us from Troy and we ate outside in their backyard.  Chewie came with us and we all had a nice time.

Then, Morry and I went to H-E-B.

Here are some pictures from the last week.

Getting ready for school

This morning I took Noah's to his friend's birthday party at the pool.   I dropped him off and then got some stuff done around the house.

I made the kids' lunches, ate lunch, and then picked up Noah.  He said he had a good time.

This afternoon I did some cleaning and preparation for school.

For dinner, we went to Buffet Palace.

After dinner, we took Lizzy on a walk.

Now the boys will start getting ready for bed.

We have an early day tomorrow.

Group Bike Ride

This morning, at 7 am Evan and I met Papa at Dick Nichols park for the Mamma Jamma training ride.  You could choose the 20-mile or 37-mile bike ride.  We went with the 20-mile ride.  Evan did very well, but since we were going slower than most of the other people, we did one less loop and only went 16.5 miles, still a good distance.  It was a nice time.

We mostly took it easy at home today.  The kids knew they needed to clean up today, but still put up a big fight about it.

For dinner, we ordered pizza from Pizza Hut and watched the Sixth Sense.  The kids had not seen it before.  They said they liked it.

Now the boys are getting ready for bed.

Sunday Game

Hello everyone, this is Morry.

The third game in the tournament Evan is in was at 11:30am this morning.  We had to be there at 10:15 which meant we need to leave by 9:15.  We did stop at Donut Taco Palace in the morning.

Again, I was impressed with the way the team warms up.  It reminds me of what I see at Spring Training.

In these tournaments, you are allowed to play everyone on your team.  So for example, if you have 11 players, you can bat all 11 players.  In the field, 9 players play with two on the bench, but you can openly substitute.  If you pull someone out of the game, they are eligible to come in.  Or you can choose to play like real baseball with 9 people batting and playing and 2 people off the bench.  Any time someone comes out of the game, they can not return.  The team Evan is on played it that way today.  Evan started the game on the bench.  His coach told him that one of the reasons was he wanted Evan to be able to come in to pitch.  Sure enough, in the bottom of the second, I saw Evan out in the bullpen warming up.  He came in to pitch the bottom of the third.  He wasn't quite as accurate as yesterday but he was pitching well.  The umpire was definitely squeezing him.  But Evan maintained his composure and really did well, I thought.  It seemed to me the coaches were very impressed.

You can follow all of Evan's games live using GameChanger - http://www.gamechanger.io.  It's like ESPN GameCast.  If you are interested in following along to see how Evan and the rest of the team is doing, let me know and I'll email you think link to see it.

Evan got to bat in the top of the 4th.  He lined out to right when the right fielder made a great catch.  It was a good at-bat.  Unfortunately the team lost 5-3.

On the way home, we stopped at New York-style pizza place and got pizza for our long drive home.

We had to do our normal Sunday routine stuff when we got home.  Evan and Noah cleaned up.  Rachel made lunches for the week and I dealt with the litter.

For dinner, Grandma and Papa came over and we had hamburgers.

The boys are getting ready for bed.

Until next time...

Baseball Cancelled

Hello everyone, this is Morry.

Evan's second day of the baseball tournament was supposed to start with a 10am game.  The fields are about an hour south of us and we needed to be there by 9 for warmups so we were planning to leave around 8.   When I woke up around 7 it was raining.  But we hadn't gotten any word from the tournament organizers that it was cancelled.  So I got up and got dressed and Evan put on his uniform.  I made lunch for Evan and got his water ready.  At 7:50, we finally got word that baseball was cancelled.  Luckily it happened before we started the drive down.

I went back to sleep for a while.  Evan said that since we weren't playing baseball, he wanted to see Batman vs Superman.  Rachel had taken Noah a few weeks ago but Evan hadn't gotten to see it.  Noah wanted to come along.  Rachel left to go to HEB and after that she was tutoring a student.  After she went to HEB, we left for the movies.

After the movie, we came home and the boys cleaned up.  Because of all of our busy weekends, the boys hadn't cleaned up in a while so it was a big one.

For dinner, we ordered Papa John's and had a movie night.  Evan bought the movie Creed with some of his birthday money.  The boys and I had seen it in the movie theater but Rachel hadn't seen it.

The boys are in bed now.

Until next time...

Goosebumps

Hello everyone, this is Morry.

It wasn't raining in the morning when I got up.  But it was very overcast and in the 50s.  I told the boys we could go to the movies.  They chose to see Goosebumps.  Rachel stayed at home.

The boys were well behaved, as always, at the movie theater.  We all enjoyed the movie.  Evan really enjoyed it.  On the way home, we picked up our tickets for Star Wars.  Then we stopped for gas.

The boys had lunch when we got home.

Rachel cleaned for much of the day.

The boys also had to clean up the game room.

We had steak for dinner.  For dessert, we went to TCBY.  We stopped at Grandma and Papa's on the way home to return rags and pick up their mail.

The boys are showering.  Then they'll go to bed.

Until next time...

Costco

Hello everyone, this is Morry.

This morning the boys watched the end of Harry Potter.

After that, we decided to make a quick run to Costco.  Well as quick you can possibly go at Costco on a Sunday.  The boys and I split up from Rachel to make it go faster.  I think, all-in-all, we did well.  We bought the boys food for lunch there.  Evan had pizza and Noah had a 1/4 LB hot dog.  Noah ate the whole thing.

In the afternoon, I did some work and Rachel cleaned up.  She threw out a bunch of stuff in the game room and boxed up a bunch of stuff that we'll put in the attic.  We pulled out the big old 36" TV and we'll either give it away or for the next bulk trash pick up put it out on the curb.  We moved the TV from our bedroom into the game room and moved the Wii U up to the game room.  Now the boys don't have to fight over the TV.

The boys also had clean up day.  There wasn't too much fighting although the clean up took forever.

For dinner we had ham and rice.

The boys are ready for bed and in their room.

Until next time...

Flu Shots

This morning we drove to school.

During the day I did some things around the house.

We walked to get the boys from school.

After they finished homework, I had the boys finish cleaning up as well.

At 6:25 they had appointments to get flu shots.  I had made this appointment weeks ago.  It was the soonest time they had.

Morry dropped us off at the doctors office on Far West and then went to pick up Zayde.  After getting their flu shots we all went to dinner nearby at Austin Terrier.

We took Zayde home.

Morry is now reading to the boys.

Clean Up and More Baseball

Hello everyone, this is Morry.

Both boys woke up early this morning.  It's been a busy weekend so I thought they'd sleep in a bit more.  Evan poured cereal for both boys.  They played very well together this morning.

Rachel came down and cleaned a bit and then cut up fruit as part of the lunch for everyone.  I had gotten Rachel a new hard drive for her computer and I was getting it ready.

After lunch, Rachel trimmed Lizzy while the boys cleaned up.

Rachel went to tutor and then I took the boys to Evan's baseball games.

Evan's team was playing a team that was 3-9.  Unfortunately, they ended up in a tie.  Evan's team blew a 20-10 lead.  Evan played well.  He tagged a kid out who was trying to take third on a single.  He also fielded a ball cleanly at third and got the force there.  In his first at-bat he got under it and popped it up. In his second bat, he lined a ball just over the second baseman's head that went to the gap and Evan wound up with a triple.  In his third at bat, he really hit the ball hard, right at the shortstop who was able to throw him out.  Evan seemed ok with the tie.

We came home and had dinner.

The boys had showers (along with Lizzy) and they are now in bed.

Until next time...

Game 2

Hello everyone, this is Morry.

Rachel and I slept in this morning.  We had a busy week, followed by a busy Saturday.  It was nice to sleep in.

When we got up, we decided we needed to go to Sam's Club.  We needed litter, breakfast stuff and some other things.  The boys were good there so they got Icee's at the end.  We also got two soft pretzels to share between the 4 of us, though Noah ended up saying he didn't want any.

We got home with just enough time to unload the car when a woman came over to buy our old bed.  I spent a bit of time helping her get the frame onto the roof of her car, but I had to leave to take Evan to baseball.  The woman tied it down herself.  Rachel and Noah stayed home.

Evan warmed up with his team and did well.  His hitting is improving.  Evan singled in his first at bat.  He played catcher in the bottom of the first and made a nice play on a ball that went up the third base line, though it turned out to be foul.  In the 2nd, one of the boys on Evan's team shattered his aluminum bat.  It was crazy.  The top of the bat just went flying.  Evan got on base all three times and scored each time.   Again, Evan had some heads up base running.  A boy on the other team was a former teammate of Evan's in tee ball.  His mom remarked about Evan's baserunning.  When I think back to Evan's first game of baseball and he made it to second base and stopped paying attention, it's amazing to see where he is now.  Evan's team won the game which was great because this team, last spring, was 0-18. The kids were very excited.

We came home and some kids rang the doorbell to say they had a "rock museum" and wanted the boys to come over and see it.  We went over there and they played some.   Then the boys went out and played more baseball.

We had dinner and then the boys cleaned up their rooms and the game room.  They are showering now.

Until next time...

Family Valentines Dinner

This morning Noah and I stayed at home until it was time for his gym class.

Noah had fun at his class.

After that we went to the bank and HEB.

We came home and I had just enough time to put the groceries away and then it was time to pick up Evan from school.

Evan was in a really good mood.  He had his class Valentine's party today and had his box filled with goodies and cards.

At home I let Evan play for 15 minutes, like usual, and then it was homework time.   When he finished his homework I gave the boys 10 minutes to play and then it was clean-up time. 

Morry came home and took both boys to Evan's baseball lesson.  While they were gone I started getting dinner ready.

We decided to have a fondue dinner and dessert.

Once everyone got home we finished getting dinner ready, opened presents, and then ate.

The boys really had fun.  Noah ate steak.  Evan had a ton of shrimp.  For dessert Evan really loved the strawberries dipped in chocolate.  Noah ate a bunch of plain strawberries.

After dinner and dessert the boys wanted to play the treat game with Lizzy.  We hid treats around and then she sniffs around to find them.  The boys and Lizzy love that game.

Both boys are ready for bed, but for some reason Noah's in the game room now.  I need to get him back to bed.

Here are some pictures from tonight.

 

Getting Stuff Done

We were able to relax this morning and sleep in.  Evan slept until about 8am, which is late for him.  Noah got up a little while later.

Later in the morning we went to Home Depot.  There are a few things we have been needing, but we have been so busy the last few weeks, we didn't have time to go.

When we got home we had lunch. 

This afternoon Morry had work to do.  The boys played together and watched baseball movies while I did some cleaning.

For dinner we had pasta.

Morry and the boys just went over to the neighbor's house. She's selling cookie dough for a fundraiser and we said we'd buy some.

When they get back we'll get the boys ready for bed.

Evan does not have school tomorrow, but Noah does.

Friends

This morning Noah was up early again and went with Morry and Evan to Evan's school.

Later in the morning Noah, Lizzy, and I took a walk.

Cole came over around noon.  While he was here I got some cleaning done around the house.  Our little arrangement really works out well.  The boys love it and the moms love it.  :)

Noah came with me on the bike to get Evan at school.

We took it easy this afternoon.  My tutoring scheduled changed some this week and I didn't have any students today.

Tonight, Evan's baseball team had a party at Rudy's.  I stayed at home because I was feeling really tired.  I think the weekend was finally taking it toll on me.  Morry said the boys had a great time.  Evan really likes the kids on his team and they all had fun together.

Morry's helping the boys get ready for bed as I write the blog.  Hopefully, they'll go to sleep soon.

Family Movie Night

Hello everyone, this is Morry.

Early this morning, maybe around 5 something, I was awakened by the sound of thunder and the pouring rain.  After seeing how bad the fields looked because of the rain during Evan's game yesterday, I thought to myself that poor Noah's game was going to be cancelled.

When I got up in the morning it was sunny.  Evan and Noah were up playing with each other.  I held out a slim hope that maybe the fields would dry enough.  Unfortunately, around 11am, we got an email that the fields were closed and all games were cancelled.  Noah cried when Rachel told him though he refused to admit it was because of the game being cancelled.  I'm hoping that the game will be made up.

We decided we were going to go to Sam's Club.  It's been a while since we were there and we needed some things.  Evan and Noah were very well behaved there, so we got them an Icee and soft pretzel at the end.

We came home and had lunch.  After lunch, the boys went upstairs and started the massive cleanup in the game room and their rooms.

Around mid-afternoon, Rachel had to tutor a student so she left.  On her way home, she picked up pizza at zpizza and got the movie Big Miracle from Redbox.  We ate at the coffee table and watched the movie.  The boys ate well and they seemed to like the movie. Rachel also made meringue cookies.

We just put the boys to bed, but Evan decided to come down here and is watching me type.  He wanted to show me a baseball card.  If you need to get him something small for Hanukkah, baseball cards will do the trick.

Until next time...

In Search of Shaved Ice

This morning Noah threw a mini fit.  He didn't want to get dressed and didn't want to go to school.  Morry buckled him in the car for me.

Evan came with me to drop Noah off at school and then we went to Bed Bath and Beyond to exchanged the beverage dispenser.  I also picked up my new glasses from the eye doctor.

At home, Evan played Wii while I worked cleaning the panty.  I only got through the bottom/floor.  It took most of the morning until it was time to get Noah.

Morry came with us to pick up Noah.  Evan and Noah were excited to see each other.

We took it easy at home this afternoon.

For dinner we made fried rice.

After dinner Morry suggested we go to Blizzy's for shaved ice.  It was closed.  It closes at 7:30pm now.  So, we knew of another snow cone place near HEB and decided to try it out. I was good.  They had lots of chair for sitting outside, but I had to go in the car after a little while.  Even though I sprayed myself with bug spray I was still getting bit up.

The boys are ready for bed now, but not asleep.

Sports Class and Evan's Friend

Today was a typical Thursday for most part. Noah and I hung out at home in the morning. I wanted to walk or run but it was raining pretty much all morning.

I got some cleaning done around the house.

At 12:30 Morry, Noah, and I went to Sports Class. Noah had fun, like always.

We came home for just a little bit and then went to get Evan. We parked at the trail and walked even though it was misting. I knew the front of the school would be crowded.

After school Evan's friend Ben came over to play. At first the boys were pretty mellow. They watched TV and ate their snacks upstairs. Then, they got a second wind and were running around. They were good, but just really active. Ben's mom came around 5:30 to pick him up.

For dinner we had tortilla soup and pasta.

Tonight was clean up night. Noah cleaned up well, but Evan was crying a lot because I put his Legos away. I didn't take apart anything. I just put them all in the box. He was upset for some reason.

The boys have been put to bed, but I hear Noah talking upstairs to Morry.

Visiting the Hospital

This morning I went for a run.

When I got back Morry took the boys to the park for a little bit.

Once they got back we all went to the hospital to visit Jimmy, who had hernia surgery. Aunt Doris was there too and we took her out to lunch. We ate at Manny's Uptown Kitchen. We had a nice time and the boys were well behaved. We spend a little more time in the hospital room when we got back.

Then, we went home and tried to get Noah to nap.

For dinner we had leftovers. I had my leftovers from Buca Di Beppo. Morry had pizza. The boys had shrimp.

After dinner we did more cleaning up.

It seems quiet upstairs. I think the boys are asleep.

Gym, Sprinklers, Clean Up, and More

Today was another busy day.

This morning we went to the gym. I did a kickboxing class and the boys played in the child care.

After the gym we came home and had lunch and then played outside.

Then, the sprinkler guys came over to fix our sprinklers. It was a valve issue. $200 later they seem to be working well now.

I did a lot of cleaning in the house today. It really needed it.

For dinner we went to Kerbey Lane.

Tonight the boys cleaned their rooms and the game room. Morry gave them baths while I finished cleaning and vacuuming.

Evan and Noah are in bed now, but not asleep.

5 Miles

This morning we walked to the Starbucks, had some drinks and walked home. The whole walk was about 5 miles. It was hot out, but still a nice walk. Morry and the boys got smoothies and donuts. I got a frappaccino.

I made a smoothie when we got home. We were all so hot.

We tried to get Noah to nap, but he just played in his room. Evan watched School of Rock.

For dinner we made a noodle casserole.

After dinner we had the boys clean up their rooms and the game room, which really meant we did most of the cleaning.

Morry is reading to Evan and Noah now. Let's hope they go to sleep at a decent time tonight.