The Big Ten, Part III

Remember how I told you here and here that I was going to try to mention as many TENs as I could in 2010? Well, it's time for the 3rd installment!

May 31, 2000. Ten years ago today. Two crazy cats gleefully showing off their newly engaged status:

(Okay, only I look dorky gleeful. The BG just looks like "Aw, yeah, I pulled it off!")

And pulled it off he did. I think I mentioned in this post (which was a TEN before its time!) that Chili's played a role not only in our first semi-romantic outing, but also in our engagement. Indeed, he came to town and picked me up after I finished a session as Summer Orientation Leader. We ate at Chili's and then he said he "felt a bit full" and wanted to walk around campus to try to walk it off (probably Chicken Crispers, but I can't be sure! In any case, it was a big fat lie.)

Little did I know, as we strolled around campus, that he was aiming to end up at the Student Involvement Board information booth in the Student Center. It was here that I used to volunteer an hour or two a week to help answer questions about campus...and here where I first got to know the dashing dark-haired guy. As a 5th year senior ("Victory Lap!") who had only student-teaching to fill his days, he spent many of those hours heckling my friends and me at the SIB booth. Ah, the allure of sarcastic wit...always been my downfall!

10 years ago today, we ended up climbing up and over the booth and there in the back, he proposed.

(Baylor had the nerve to change the space into Campus Programming, so here's what the booth looked like this past fall when I was on campus for Homecoming:)


It's funny-- I was SO shocked that the proposal was happening and I couldn't help but squeak out something about wondering what my parents would think. Imagine my surprise when the BG said, "Oh, they know. I drove to Dallas earlier today to talk with them." Wow.

(Funny story-- Sheils told me later that when she saw his truck pull up, she thought to herself, "well, I guess he's coming to help us unpack!" since they'd only recently moved to town! HA HA!)

Since it was during my junior year that my parents moved from Corning back to Texas, I never really lived in their Dallas house. Not surprisingly, however, they pretty much set up my Corning bedroom furniture in the Dallas house just like it had been-- even with all the junky pens and pencils, etc! More than 10 years later, it still looks exactly the same. I took this picture just this past October when I was there:

That Coke can with the star? Yeah, that's the Coke that the BG drank on May 31, 2000 when he drove to Dallas to ask permission to propose.

Seriously.

PS: Many thanks go out to Lindsay for all her counsel to the BG during the engagement-planning (and ring-shopping) experience. She even surprised me by driving down to Waco to be there to celebrate with us after it was all official! Love you, Linds!

How Do You Like Your Roads?

When I headed to A&A's house, I purposefully timed it so I could avoid rush hour and take interstates the entire way. Sure enough, I got there much quicker than I'd realized was possible. On the way home, however, I just wasn't feeling that same route. I've realized I am not an interstate kind of girl.

I mean, sure, they're great when you're in a hurry and just need to get somewhere. (I certainly never ambled along routes alternate to I-35 between Waco and Dallas--I just wanted to get wherever I was going.) But at this point in my life, I love taking the roads that go through towns. I enjoy scoping out the local sites and having the freedom to just perhaps pull off the road at an unexpected Big Lots...as I might have done on Wednesday!

So that's my question for today, friends. Tell me in the poll on the right-- how do you like your road travel?

Popping By

Since the BG has evening activities all 5 nights this week, I decided B and I might as well pop on down to visit A(u)nn(t)ie Kate and Uncle Adam! We arrived at 12:30 pm on Tuesday, and left at 12:30 pm on Wednesday-- nothing like a 24-hour visit o' fun!

The Brookster was absolutely off-the-wall excited to see Anne! He just couldn't stop running in circles!



So we moved the party to the backyard and he went to town with kicking the ball:


After Adam got home from work, we ventured out for some grub and caught this cute little snap:

Unfortunately, it used up all of the "looking at the camera" luck so our attempt to get proof of the first of the many bridges we crossed on our nature walk yesterday morning didn't quite pan out:

A&A, let us know when you're ready for the crazed maniac to come back and eat more "Coffee PanCake" and we'll be there!!

Heard Around the House

"Hugging Mommy's Robe!!"

I've even caught him carrying it down the stairs in a loving embrace, and occasionally hear "I love you, Mommy's robe!" as well.

As if Libraries weren't ALREADY the Coolest Places Ever!

We've been hearing for awhile now about a great (FREE!) kids area at a neighboring library system, but just hadn't made it there. Now I'm kinda glad we were slow to go since a second branch much closer to us added the Storyville wonderland! We hit it up yesterday with the Carlson ladies and had so much fun exploring what's basically a mini-children's museum....but did I mention it's free?!

The entrance into the Storyville area:

The two areas most to B's liking were definitely the grocery store...


...and the post office:

B loved getting a letter out of the box and seeing the address on it...

...and then finding the corresponding mailbox hanging on the wall "in town" to mail the letter:

Check out all the other fun activities!

How exactly does one POTS?

Seriously, though, I think I'm going to have to sue the makers of the House Construction Ahead! library video that B watched constantly. See below for his effort at building a (magnetic) house.

Pretty sure that's not up to code!!

Dough

Saturday morning, I embarked on an adventure: my first yard sale! (That's what they call 'em up here but I kept slipping and saying the more Texan "garage sale"!) The local MOMS Club chapter to which I belong sponsored a community yard sale in the parking lot of the church where we have our monthly meetings. The entrance fee was $10 for a parking space and it was split between the organization and the church, so I figured it was a worthy cause all the way around. (We kept all proceeds from what we sold.)

I had been gathering stuff to sell for a long time and then, once this specific sale date was set, I kicked the house-scouring into high gear to try to clear out other items we don't use. I borrowed tables from Kathy and Lindsey (thanks!!) and spent way too long fretting about whether they'd fit-- spatial relations have ALWAYS been one of my greatest challenges! Turns out I could've probably fit 6 tables comfortably in the space. (Don't ever ask me to envision anything three-dimensional!!!)

The morning flew by and I really had a great time visiting with people-- especially the two table-donors who each popped by the sale to say hello! I made $60 which thrilled me for a morning of hanging out, and since most things were priced in the $1-2 range, I got rid of quite a bit. And the unsold items went straight to the Salvation Army, so it was really a win all around!

C'mon-- the hat and apron make me look trustworthy, right?!

The boys stopped by and someone was super excited to get to play in red truck away from home!

This was the scene two spaces down from me. My neighbors and I just marveled at the bustling activity all morning. It was like they'd hijacked the inventory from Big Lots or Ollie's. The woman and man swore they "just liked to shop a lot" but they had boxes and boxes and boxes of new household items and food products. Still a mystery to us, but people were dropping $50-60 stocking up on goods.....I think they ran out of money to spend on all of our fabulous wares!! ;-)

After some rest and a shower, we headed south to meet Karen & Ian for a tasty Mexican dinner. (Ole!) We then followed them back to their house, making a quick stop at Cinnabon for some take-out dessert. Turns out they had some special candles ready for Mr. B to enjoy:

(Im)patiently waiting for Uncle Ian to give him his cinnamon roll!

His "blowing out a candle" face. If you look closely, you'll see the flame burned red to match the color of the candle! Didn't I say they were special?

Put on your glasses for this one!! Such a cute pic and I couldn't resist, but woo-wee is it blurry!

So we'll have to settle for this one as a runner-up. Karen, you always wanted to know what you'd look like without a forehead, right?!

What a day-- from rolling in the dough in the AM to eating rolled dough with some of our favorite people in the PM!! Gotta love weekends!

"Uncle Igan" Works Magic Again

Ian is clearly a smart guy: he did hire me for my first "real" job, after all! Combine that eye for perfection (hee!) with photographic know-how and top-notch camera equipment, and you get snaps like these--which were totally impromptu pics before B went upstairs to bed:


More to come tomorrow about our adventures with K&I, but just wanted to give a shout-out to our favorite local photographer friend! (And he's for hire for family/wedding/sports shots!!)

The Other Side of the Story

Lindsey took a whole bunch of photos of the kiddies while we were out to dinner the other night, and I can't flip through the album without dying of giggles. Oh, toddlers. Always so entertaining!

B totally digs C's fun new fire station. It's his kind of toy!

This one he looks less sure of...

Hope this check-up went okay. B's inner monologue is probably something like: Diagnosis? I'll give you diagnosis. GET YOUR HANDS OFF ME, WOMAN!

"Rescue me, Miss Lindsey! PLEASE!!"


Too bad he has no idea what's about to happen to him: HUG ATTACK!

He's more of a kissing man, apparently:

After all the fun and games, it was bath time. Apparently my child refused to be in a confined space such as a bathtub with Miss Cady. You'd think he'd learned modesty, but then you see this pic of him sitting on a wee potty and you change your mind:

And then you get distracted that he suddenly looks like some sort of pod person from one of those freaky movies for which I don't even like seeing the commercials. (Splice, anyone?)

Big props to Lindsey for trying to stage a cute twins-in-chair pic, although it's always hard to get both of them to look at the camera. The more I stare at this pic, though, the more I think their placement and expressions have a fun artistic vibe. Album cover, perhaps?


Or perhaps they'll choose this soulful, lounging one for their duo debut:

One final shot of the pacified twinsies:

We are already in mourning for when these (channeling Texas for a minute) precious friends move away at the end of this summer. Hope they know they need to have a guest suite waiting for us to come visit!

Us. (Oh, and Food, of course!)

An amazing thing happened last night: toddler-free dinner out on the town! The BG starts his final grad class next week and has football stuff every other evening, so we decided we should take advantage of this proverbial calm before the storm and get out! B loves "Miss Lindsey" (although the jury is still out on scary Cadence) so he was more than happy to go play and drift off to sleep over there.

ESCAPE!!!!


We went to an amazing restaurant that our dear friends K&J and H&G have raved about for awhile now. (Locals, it's in that city to the north. I can give you deets if you don't know about this place!!) The restaurant has a Farm to Table focus, meaning it serves what the local farms are producing right now!

We took the opportunity to splurge to our heart's content and not one bite was anything less than delightful. (I can't stop thinking about the deviled eggs! I almost took an order to go!) I considered pulling a Carrie K and photographing all the food as it got served, but the place had such a hip and cool vibe that I didn't want to get in the way of that! (I don't feel hip and cool very often! ;-) I did manage to capture a picture of our desserts, however-- heavy on the seasonal strawberries!

(Background: Strawberry shortcake--berries and cream with an orange biscuit and homemade strawberry sherbet. Foreground: Warm strawberry-rhubarb pie with homemade vanilla ice cream.)

HUGE thanks to Lindsey for watching the scamp and letting us enjoy a night of actual conversation!

Tricky Tyke

Um, I'm thinking that was MY (grande iced nonfat 2-pump chai) Starbucks drink!!

{Thirsty. So very thirsty. Sure wish I hadn't lost 1/2 of my drink.}

Wait, what's that??

Ah, I see how you're going to play it. A forgiveness flower?

Eh. I prefer diamonds. :-)

Those Crazy Kids

We went to Cady's house to play yesterday morning while Lindsey visited the dentist. Per our recent usual, B was scared to death of Cady and would run away as soon as she approached. Although it pains me, I can understand him having acquired a touch of "Loner" naturally. But freaking out and running off? Sigh.

It almost looks like B is lovingly gazing upon his friend:

But then she goes in for the pinch* and he scrambles away:

At which point they get as far apart as possible:

And then he pulls the trusty "I have a phone call" move on the (non-working) telephone!

Side note: how funny is it that his shirt is marked 5T? (For the non-parents, toddler sizes roughly line up with ages, so he currently wears a 2T.) I did buy it secondhand, so perhaps the previous owners washed it repeatedly in hot water or something crazy! I'm just kinda proud for recognizing on the rack that it would fit him now, marked size notwithstanding!

*Exaggerated for dramatic effect, Mama Lindsey! I promise!

Items Needed for Backyard Fun

1. Trucks.
2. Sand. (Tunnel an added bonus)
3. Any kind of water.
4. Bouncy objects.
5. Daddy.

And I Didn't Even Pick the Colors!!!

I brought a little Texas to town yesterday by helping host a "Sip & See" for Emily2's family and friends to come meet/see Baby Henry! These events seem to be unheard of up here so it was neat to introduce people to this fun post-baby tradition.

Susan took the lead with designing the invitation and you can imagine how excited I was when it turned out to be blue and green! Whoo-hoo! I know how to throw a blue and green party!!

The new mama-of-two-boys on the left with the 3 hostesses:

Here's the spread from the beverage end. Lindsey made 2 delightful iced teas from scratch! (Okay, there were tea bags involved but she boiled raspberries for one and grated fresh ginger among other yummies for the other one!)

The view from the "sweet" end:

(Lindsey also fished out all the blue and green M&Ms from a 42 oz bag, which pretty much makes her a hostessing rock star!!!)

I stepped up my game after Cake Ball Experience 1.0 and constructed a much more ideal cake/frosting ratio than the gooier first attempt. I enlisted the BG to do the dipping since he's way better at any cooking-related task that requires actual skill and dexterity! Close-up of the finished product:

I wish I'd gotten a picture of the dipping process-- it was quite intense! I bought blue confectionary wafers this time, but we colored white wafers to make the green. It was NOT looking like a very pleasant shade in the bowl but, thankfully, they ended up as perfect as...

...these cute brothers!!