Backyard

Hello everyone, this is Morry.

It was quite warm this morning.  Last week, the morning temperatures were in the 30s.  Today it was 63 on the walk to school.  Who said it was supposed to get colder as we approach winter?

When we got home, the landscapers were here finishing up the work they were doing.  We've had drainage problems in our backyard so we were having rock put down on the side of the house to keep the water flowing properly and not washing dirt and leaves into the grass.  Hopefully that will help our grass to grow.

I went into Aaron's to work on the new Apple TV app for Your Trainer.

Rachel went to see a physical therapist about some of her neuropathy issues.

It was close to 80 when we picked the boys up from school.

Rachel tutored in the afternoon.

For dinner we had pot roast that Rachel cooked in the crock pot.

After dinner, we put up the Fathead Evan got for Hanukkah.  It is a Fathead of Roberto Clemente's locker in the Hall of Fame.

The boys are showering and getting ready for bed.

Until next time...

Maya Goes to School (Twice)

This morning we walked the boys to school even though it was 31 degrees.

When we got home I got dinner ready in the crockpot.

Around 10:15 I met Maya and Jen at Grandma and Papa's house and we walked to meet Noah at school for lunch.

Noah's lunch started at 10:49. We had a nice time sitting with Noah.  Then, we walked back to Grandma and Papa's house.

Evan's lunch starts at 12:30, so we walked back to school a little while later to meet Evan.  Evan was surprised and very happy to see us.  We had told him we might not be able to come depending on Maya's mood.  We ate lunch with Evan on the stage, where the visitor's table is.  We had a nice time with Evan too.

We walked back to Grandma and Papa's house and then I went home.

Morry and I walked to pick up the boys from school.

Around 6:30 everyone came to our house for dinner.  We had garlic chicken, asparagus, and baked potatoes.  They left a little while ago.

Soon, the boys will get ready for bed.

Here are some pictures from today.

Lots of Activities

Hello everyone, this is Morry.

We were able to submit the Your Trainer app last night around 11pm.  It was good to finish that.  I had another deadline with Hey Cupcake today that I was able to finish up.  Because of that I stayed home most of the day.

Around 9:30, Wade's mom came and picked up Evan and Noah.  Wade invited the boys plus Nathan to go to Wazoo's which is a jumpy place.  After Wazoo's, they all went back to Wade's for a while.

Rachel went to Whole Foods for Pink Ribbon Cowgirls lunch.  It sounded like she had a good time. On her way home, she picked up the boys from Wade's.

I went to Hey Cupcake for a meeting in the afternoon.

Evan had a coaching session with Coach Chris today.  It was just him so they worked on hitting for more than an hour.  It went well.  As always, Evan was in a great mood afterwards.

For dinner we had a pork tenderloin that Rachel made in the crock pot.

We went to for a walk and now the boys are getting ready for bed.

Until next time...

Busy Day

Hello everyone, this is Morry.

I had a busy day with Your Trainer.  We had a goal of submitting the latest version of the app to Apple today.  It started early and I left early to go into Aaron's to work on it.  Evan and Noah had just gotten up when I left the house.

Evan went for a run with Rachel today.  They started out walking fast and then they alternated running and walking.  Rachel said that Evan did well.

Rachel and Evan also worked on organizing his room.  There's still quite a bit of work to do but it looks much better.

Rachel used our new crock pot to make chicken meat for tacos.  That is what we had for dinner.  Both boys ate the chicken.  Noah ate it in the hard-shelled taco shell.  It was a good dinner for everyone.

We went for a walk after dinner.  We tried to do a little bit longer walk.  The boys rode their scooters.

The boys are getting ready for bed now.

Until next time...

New Bike

Hello everyone, this is Morry.

Much like yesterday, it was drizzling on the walk to school.  It wasn't sunny like it was yesterday.

We had someone come to look at out outside lights and get an estimate on repairing some of the fixtures that need to be replaced.

I went into Aaron's for a bit and Rachel cleaned.

We drove to pick up the boys.  It was dark and we could hear thunder in the distance.  We didn't know if it would start to rain or not.

I grilled ribs and corn and then put them in the crock pot to keep them warm.  Then we drove to Bicycle Sport Shop and got a new bike for Evan.  It was Evan's birthday gift from Grandma and Papa.  Now Noah will use Evan's old bike until he gets more comfortable starting and stopping and he'll get a new bike as his birthday gift.  They were very nice and Evan got a bike he liked.

We came home and ate.  Then we went outside and Evan rode the new bike while we worked more with Noah on starting and stopping.

The boys are getting ready for bed now.

Until next time...

Non-Stop Rain

Hello everyone, this is Morry.

The rain keeps coming.  And right now, it's not predicted to stop any time soon.  It was lightly raining in the morning so we drove to school and walked the path.  Poor Lizzy hasn't been able to walk to school in a while.

Later in the morning, Rachel went to get her hair done.  From there she went to Deborah's mom's house to help Deborah with the mess.  Deborah's mom passed away last week and Deborah needs a lot of help to get things in order so Rachel is helping.

I didn't go anywhere today.

In the late morning we had thunder and lightning here.  There was a tornado warning so they pulled all the kids out of the portables.  We had to go into the school to pick the boys up.  Evan thought everything that happened was the coolest thing.  He couldn't wait to tell us about how the thunder and lightning and the the lights flickered when he was in the cafeteria.  He said it was so loud that they wanted everyone in the building.  He was so animated as he was telling the story.

Rachel didn't have to tutor today so we all stayed home.

We had garlic chicken from the crock pot for dinner.

The boys will be getting ready for bed soon.

Until next time...

Symptom Free

Hello everyone, this is Morry.

Evan was symptom-free this morning. Actually, he was symptom free for most of yesterday.

We walked to school in the morning.  It was pretty cold on the walk to school.

I met the father of a boy on Evan's team for lunch.

In the afternoon, I had to drive up to a company that I'm going to be doing some contract work for to get VPN access.  So I was not able to get the boys from school.  Just Rachel went.  It also meant Lizzy was stuck at home.

Rachel left at 5pm to go to tutoring.  She stopped at HEB on her way home.

For dinner, we had chicken that Rachel made in the crock pot.

The boys are now sleeping.

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...

Costco

Hello everyone, this is Morry.

We walked to school today as usual.  Lizzy seemed particularly excited to walk today.

I had a meeting in the morning at a coffee shop.

In the afternoon, we drove to pick up the boys because Evan had golf.  Shortly after we got home, Rachel left to take Evan to golf.  Evan seemed to have fun at golf.

We had a dinner from the crock pot and ate outside.

After dinner we drove to Costco.  Rachel got a Living Social deal for a membership.  So we became members.  We had briefly been members eight years ago but they didn't have the stuff we wanted to buy.  Today's trip was more successful.

The boys are about to go to bed.

Until next time...

Golf today

Hello everyone, this is Morry.

Lizzy has begun to get very excited for school in the mornings.  Evan holds her leash as we walk to school.  Lizzy trots very proudly.

Noah still doesn't sound so good but he looks better and his cough does not seem as bad.  Rachel has gotten worse and she cancelled her tutoring.

I ran out to the bank at lunch.

After school I picked up the boys.  Evan said that there was some "game" that first the teacher asked questions and only the girls could answer and then she switched and only the boys could answer.  Evan said he was the only boy answering.  I guess people took note of that.

After school, I took Evan to golf lessons.  Noah and I sat in the clubhouse.  Noah did his homework while I did some work.  Evan seemed to enjoy it.  The instructor let him borrow two clubs to bring home.

After that, we went to Academy to get some things.

We had a dinner Rachel made in the crock pot.

Now the boys are in their rooms.

Until next time...

Redemption

Hello everyone, this is Morry.

This morning I had to get Evan ready for school.  He needed to wear his class t-shirt as his class was going on a field trip to see the symphony for a Halloween concert.  As usual, it was easy to get him up and easy to get him to school.  He rarely gives me problems in the morning.

Noah slept until after 9am.  When he woke up he snuck down the stairs and tried to scare Zayde.  He then promptly turned off what Zayde was watching on television and put on the Wii so he could play.  I could hear him talking non-stop to Zayde.

After lunch, Rachel and I took Noah to Cole's house and then went to meet with a client.

The meeting went a bit later than we had anticipated. We came home and then Rachel left to get Noah at Cole's and Evan from school.

Rachel got home, dropped the boys off and she and I left to fill out papers to start refinancing the house.

Rachel went to tutoring, while I came home and did some work.

Noah had his first playoff game tonight.  I put Noah in his uniform and got everything ready for the game and then Zayde, Noah, Evan and I drove to the fields.  It turned out that the coach of the team that Noah's team was playing was the coach whose team knocked Evan's team out of the playoffs last year.  The coach was very shady and essentially got the win on a technicality.  Noah's coach this year was also Evan's coach so I knew that he really wanted to beat this coach.  Noah's team played very well as did Noah.  Noah ran really hard and scored twice.  He singled in both at-bats and then moved to second on errors in both cases.  He listens so well to the coaches and really pays attention.  He seemed to be really happy that the won.  He wants to go to the championship game.

We came home from the game and Rachel was preparing dinner.  She had put chicken in the crock pot earlier that day which we had but she also was getting food ready for the boys.

The boys are now in their rooms.  I think that Evan is already asleep.

Until next time...

Noah's Turn

Hello everyone, this is Morry.

Last night, Evan was kind of cranky.  I think he was still tired from the long night of baseball the night before.  He went to sleep fairly easily.  When I got him up this morning, he was actually kind of hyper. We watched the MLB channel like normal and then we were getting on our bikes to go to school.  It seemed like it was misting.  I'm not actually sure if it was raining, but there was 95% humidity.  Either way, we decided not to ride the bikes so we drove.

Rachel went for a run this morning and then took Noah to school.  After dropping Noah off, Rachel had a massage that I had scheduled for her.  This week is "Spa Week" and a bunch of salons were having big deals.

Rachel came home, did a bit of work, laid down, and then got Noah.

Rachel's first tutoring session was cancelled so she was able to pick Evan up.

After I finished work, I got Noah ready.  One of the games that had been cancelled was made up tonight.  Noah was very excited about his game.  I was excited to get to see him play.  Noah started the game at third base.  Unfortunately no balls were hit to him.  He then played right field, left field and finished up at second base.  He dove for a ball hit to him when he was playing second.  He was very excited to talk to me about diving for the ball.  At the plate he hit the ball hard twice for singles and he scored two runs.  His team won and is currently undefeated.  He has his next game on Sunday.

After the game, there was a pinata since it was the birthday of one of the boys.  Noah didn't participate but Evan did.

We had corned beef that we'd cooked in the crock pot when we got home.  Right now Rachel is reading to the boys.

Until next time...

Can I sit down now?

It was a busy day today.

We had our cleaning lady come today, but I had a ton of stuff to do this morning before she got here.  Evan was supposed to have cleaned his room last night, but it was not clean this morning.  Morry said Evan did clean his room, but played in there last night.  I was rushing around trying to get stuff off the floor and put away.

Noah had an appointment with his therapist today.  That lasted a little over an hour.

After that I wanted to take Noah to the Little Gym for a make up class, but the class was full.

We came home for just a little bit.  I had to do a few things and make some phone calls.

Then, we went to HEB and had a lot of groceries to buy.

We got home and I quickly put the freezer/fridge food away.  Then, we rode the bike to get Evan.

We came home and I put the rest of the groceries away.  I got snacks for the boys, and then I was finally able to eat lunch.

I was able to rest a little once Morry got home.

I made crock pot chicken and then we had roasted garlic and bread and salad.  The therapist was coming over to our house around 6:30 to observe so we wanted to have dinner ready by then so she could see everything.

She stayed through the boys bedtime.  She's going to meet with us next and go over some ideas and the results from Noah's testing.

The boys are in bed now and I think they are asleep.

Normal Wednesday

Today I drove Noah to school, got some stuff done at home, and then went to Pilates.

I stopped at home, got the bike, and rode to pick up Noah.  Noah was happy to ride the bike home.  It's a good workout for me. It's tough on some of the hills.

At home, I ate lunch, made a business phone call and then rode to get Evan.

For dinner we had crockpot chicken and rice.

After dinner we took a walk.  Noah insisted on riding in the stroller.  Evan rode his scooter.

We gave the boys a shower and now they are in bed.

Noah the Cranky

This morning Noah was cranky. I had planned on maybe going to Evan's school for lunch. I wanted to see how Noah was doing. I thought if I suggested we meet Evan for lunch, that would cheer up Noah. He was very excited and we hurried to get out and get the lunches (for Noah and I) packed. Evan's class eats really early at 10:30am.

When we got to the cafeteria Evan's class had just sat down at their table. Sometimes there is extra room at the table for visitors, but today there were just 2 extra spots at the end of the table. We sat at the visitors table in the back of the cafeteria. That's when Noah's tantrum began. It lasted for most of the lunch. He was throwing a fit because we couldn't sit at the end of the table. I tried reasoning with him and explaining why. I offered to let him sit there with the class. Nothing worked. The lunch was miserable. I couldn't really talk to Evan. Noah was hitting me and trying to pinch me. He finally calmed down with about 5 minutes of lunch left. Evan and Noah didn't end up eating much of their lunch. That's the last time I take Noah to school for a while.

We needed to go to HEB, so we went there after lunch. Noah was pretty good at HEB. We ended up seeing a few people we knew while we were shopping there.

At home, Noah and I worked on reading. I have these reading/writing workbooks from when I helped in a kindergarten class while getting certified. Noah really liked doing those. It was mostly circling pictures that started with certain letters, and other alphabet activities.

Noah wanted to stay at home while I picked up Evan.

For the kids' snack I made shaved ice.

During naps I worked on some MB Squared stuff.

I tutored at 6:15.

Morry gave the kids dinner and got them ready for bed. We ate when I got home. I put a pork tenderloin in the crock pot and we had baked and sweet potatoes with it.

There were a lot of stars visible in the sky tonight. We tried taking the boys outside to look at them, but they got super hyper outside and didn't really seem interested in the stars.

The boys have been put to bed, but Evan just came downstairs to show me a Lego creation.

Another School Day

Morry took Evan to school and then went to some meetings.

After I took Noah to school I took Lizzy for a short walk. It was pretty cold out this morning. I got some things done around the house including getting dinner ready in the crockpot.

Noah had a good day at school.

We drove to pick Evan up from school since the path was probably muddy. It was misting at the time of pick up and there were a long line of cars waiting in the pick up line. I parked and Noah and I walked a little bit.

Blanca came over at 3:45 and I tutored.

For dinner we had Buffalo chicken and fries.

Morry is reading to the boys now and then they will hopefully go to sleep soon.

Back to School for Evan

Evan didn't have a fever last night and he seemed much better this morning so he went to school. His teacher said Evan was acting fine today.

Noah and I went to Wonders and Worries and then grocery shopping at Sprouts. Noah had a good time picking out snacks in the bulk section. We got different kids of nuts, dried peas, dried fruit, etc.

Noah ate a lot of that stuff for lunch when we got home.

Evan was happy when we picked him up and was acting normal. He didn't seem sick at all.

Morry took the boys to Evan's football practice and I tutored. Morry gave the boys dinner, but we still haven't eaten yet. There's chicken in the crockpot waiting for us.

The boys have been put the bed. Time to eat dinner.

Hot Errands

This morning I went for a run while pushing both boys in the stroller. I only did 2 miles. Combined the boys weigh 80 lbs.

Blanca came over and I ran some errands.

I went to Target and bought a lot of clothes for the boys. Evan especially needed some new clothes for school.

I also went to the pre-school to pick up Noah's bike.

Evan and Noah had a good time with Blanca. They played a lot of wii games.

This afternoon the boys and I went through their clothes and boxed up the clothes that no longer fit them. Noah got some of Evan's old clothes. Evan gets really sentimental. He didn't want me boxing up some of Noah's clothes. He got really upset over one shirt for some reason. I told him we weren't getting rid of it, just putting it in the attic. I went up in the attic to put the boxes up there and bring down some other clothes. Man, was it hot up there. Woah!

For dinner we had crock pot chicken.

Tonight was clean up night. The boys cleaned their rooms while I vacuumed.

Evan and Noah are supposed to be in bed, but I still hear them playing.

Hair Cuts and Shaved Ice

The kids had fun at school today, like always. Today was a pizza day at school, so it was nice not having to pack their lunches.

After school we came home and I gave the boys haircuts on the upstairs porch. After that they got baths and then it was nap time. Noah wouldn't nap.

For dinner we had chicken in the crock pot.

After dinner we told the boys that if they cleaned up their rooms and the game room we could go to Blizzy's.

Once they cleaned up we all went to get shaved ice.

When we got home Noah became very cranky. He started complaining in the car that he wanted dessert. He didn't consider shaved ice dessert. Then, when we pulled into the garage he threw a fit because we wouldn't physically carry him out of his car seat.

Now, he's been throwing a fit because I won't carry him upstairs. I told him I'd love to hold his hand and walk upstairs, but I wasn't going to carry him. He's been crying and saying that he is a baby and needs to be carried. I can't even concentrate writing the blog. He already broke the baby lock off the office door.

School and Art Project

I ran/pushed the stroller to school today. I ran the empty stroller back home. I always feel weird pushing the empty stroller. I wonder if people look at me funny and think maybe I forgot something. The kids were good at drop off. Evan brought his Evan Bot to school today. Evan bot is a robot Evan made out of paper.


While the kids were at school I got stuff done around the house and dropped off my art bra.

The boys were happy at pick up from school.

At home they were both very energetic and of course didn't take naps.

We decorated a tshirt with a photo of the boys. Evan and Noah picked out a picture and we edited it in Photoshop. Then, I printed out the picture on a special iron on sheet. The boys showed me where they wanted their pictures on their shirts and I ironed them on. Evan said he wants to sleep in his tonight.

For dinner we had pork tenderloin and vegetables that I made in the crock pot and quinoa to go with it.

Pretty soon we'll put the boys to bed.