Belated Flashback Friday: Ballpark

We headed out to see our local minor league baseball team Thursday night. It brought back memories of our last such outing. It was April 2007. Our boy twins were about 6 weeks old. We had moved to Texas two months earlier and were eager to take in the local sites.

Seth was all eyes. He just looked at all the patterns and took in all the sounds of the baseball park.
Look at those curls! They were enhanced by the humidity to be sure. Catherine has always been great about staying close in big crowds. Set her up with a treat and she's good to go.
Mark holding Sam. Look how little he was. Sam was our only baby who actually looked like a newborn.
We don't remember who won the game but I do remember having a good time stepping out into the community to enjoy what it had to offer.

We Love Summertime!

It's THAT time of year.
The time when school rules the family calendar.
The time when extracurriculars dictate the weekend schedule.
The time when I feel like I'm barely hanging on waiting for summer to start and this constant stream of demands to end.

Get ready, get set, GO!
Madelyn's class did a Stomp-esque performance on Monday. The kids alternated between chanting poems and playing homemade instruments. The kids did a great job and obviously had a lot of fun. It was nice to visit with all the families and just relax and play.
The teacher surprised the class with an impromptu completion ceremony. Each child was given an award with highest honors in something. Madelyn's was for math. The families also got 'Certificates of Survival'. More on that later.

Spring Harvest

The spring winds and cool temperatures are yielding a hearty selection of peas and lettuces here in the USDA's Hardiness Zone 7. Aren't they lovely? Those tidy rows of perfectly-spaced, delectable gems. Alas, they are not in my backyard. But they have provided me with some great ideas and inspiration for my next spring garden.
While our garden is not as pleasing to the eye, it has still managed to produce some succulent spinach and tasty romaine lettuce. We enjoyed our first home-grown salad last weekend and look forward to at least a handful more. Our snap peas and broccoli are also showing promise for a few rounds of nourishment.
Our summer seeds have been sown and little sprouts are popping up daily. Now, if only I can get a handle on all the elm seeds that also have seen fit to germinate, we might have a chance at another great summer garden.

Saturday Escape

We've been feeling trapped by house stuff lately. Between maintaining the yard, starting the garden and our drain woes, we haven't gotten out too much. It was so bad that we decided to head out to our local botanical gardens on Saturday.

I hate leaving the house on Saturday because that's when everyone else is out. Six small kids and crowds are not a good mix. But this weekend it was a matter of family sanity, or at least parental sanity.

We had a great time looking at all the different flowers and landscapes. We even took a few notes for our own evolving yard.
The irises were just beautiful.
Dad and two-thirds of the kiddos in the Japanese garden. Seth was asleep and Harrison was dangling joyfully from the front of me.
Such a beautiful setting. We haven't been to the gardens in over a year. It amazed us at how much the landscape has filled in since our last visit.
Sam had a great time climbing rocks along with his sisters.
Our gang...my current favorite family photo.
Catherine & Chloe took over the stroller so Sam had to hitch a ride on Dad's shoulders.
Can you see the bullfrog? We heard him before we saw him.
Last stop...the train. Unfortunately, it was on its last lap for the day. We'd love to add a train like this to our backyard but we decided that would be a better project for a pair of retirees and a flock of grandkids!
The only downside to our outing were the mosquitoes. The kids look like they have chicken pox on their legs now.

Mother's Day 2010

What a lucky mommy I am! I spent a quiet weekend at home gardening, reading, and enjoying my six little wonders. Thank you for all the treasures kiddos and thank you for all the support and showering of gifts Mark. I love you all so much!

A real drain

We were supposed to go camping last weekend.

Instead we decided to stay home and tackle a problem we've had for a while now. As I alluded to in my last post, we have a slow drain. It doesn't bother us most of the time. In fact, now that we have a high efficiency washer it bothers us less. But once every two weeks our water conditioner cycles and the flood that ensues in our utility/craft/cat room reminds us that indeed we have a problem.

Mark has been managing the situation by bailing water every two weeks. He sets the kitchen timer and every four to seven minutes checks the back-up level and just as the water is about to cascade over the edge of the utility sink the bailing begins.

We hired our friends at Roto Rooter to take a look at our system. That was painful, by the way. Two do-it-yourselfers hiring someone to fix a problem seems like a sell-out. Anyway, our Roto Rooter friend showed up Thursday morning and after listening to our tale of woe assured us he sees this all the time. So he snakes the line. The first time he pulls up a little hair and a few tree roots. The next time nothing. And the third time, nothing. He informs us this isn't good.

He calls in a troubleshooter who spends an hour more trying to determine why nothing is coming out. So for $150 we learned that indeed we do have a problem. The fellows speculated it was either a really big root or a collapsed pipe.

Mark decides that if we had better access to the drain line we might find something. So I agree to let him take up two tiles.
And cut a hole in the wall.
No obvious cause was revealed so our troubleshooter came back with his handy snake cam. He informed us we have back-to-back 90 degree turns in our plumbing. And our line does not connect to the septic tank like we thought. Rather it drains, or doesn't as the case may be, into what he guesses is a french drain in the backyard. He was even so kind as to locate said drain and approximate its depth at four to five feet underground.

Mark spent Saturday digging a hole in the backyard. He found part of the drain box but the weather turned sour and he was forced to stop his dig.

So now I have two missing tiles, a six foot hole in the wall of my cozy entry/library, a four foot hole in the backyard, a slow drain and an absent husband. He learned late Saturday that he'd be spending his work week in Arizona.
The silver lining...we've always planned to put a bathroom in using the existing plumbing in the laundry room. Thank goodness we had the drain looked into before we tackled that project. Yuck!

Next time we have a choice between home repair and camping, I think we'll go camping.

Good Times - April

April was the month of projects at Madelyn's school. She did a science presentation on weather and an inquiry into whether baking powder makes food taste better or worse. This picture is of her presenting her inquiry findings at the inquiry fair.
Silly brothers playing in their toy box.
It's only taken six months but I think Seth has finally warmed up to Harrison. Aren't they sweet?
Sleeping brothers. Daytime naps don't happen very often anymore so they must be documented.
Harrison is 6 months old. He sits up on his own. He is adorable as always and showing more personality each day.
I got a little carried away taking pictures this day but I love this one.
And this one too!
Seth spent a whole morning studying this GeoTrax brochure. Like father, like son!
Here's a sneak peek of the girls' recital costumes. There are more accessories not pictured. Can you guess what they are?
We had snow yesterday. The crazy weather we've had this spring makes it hard to know when to plant our vegetable garden.