Go Bears!

Tate wanted to join in the celebration of the kick-off of CAL’s football season today. He’s wishing for lots of touchdowns!

If you live near the Mid-Cities of North Texas or near the suburbs of the Bay Area and hear some crazy, loud yelling today, that would be my family. Don’t be scared. They all mean well, they are just some serious (and loud) fans.

Go Bears!

Tagged

I was tagged by my sister’s husband’s brother’s wife…or Jenn ...to keep it simple. I’ve done the “6 Randoms” tag before and am already a pretty open book, so I’ve had to think hard on this one.

1. I’ve had the exact same breakfast probably 90% of the time every single day for a good 8+ years. What is this breakfast that I can’t seem to live without? Two pieces of wheat bread, reduced fat crunchy peanut butter, and a Diet Coke (or 2) with a straw. The really weird part is that I fold each piece of bread in half. I have no idea why I do that. I’m pretty much addicted to this for breakfast and never get tired of it. I’ve even been know to bring my own bread and peanut butter with me when I travel. Embarrassing!

2. I’ve mentioned before my hobby/obsession with gift wrap, stationary, greeting cards, and cute paper napkins, but I’m not sure if I’ve ever shown the evidence. Let me first say that this little hobby was much easier when we were a two income family with no kiddo. My trips to Samplehouse and Swoozies are much less frequent these days, but I still stock up on Costco gift bags and when Target has their big clearances (see all of the red tags).

I had to find an armoire to house all of my goodies. And Wade even made my day once by giving me the book, “The Passion for Gift Wrapping.” It’s a sickness.

3. I can’t roll my Rs.

4. Typos really drive me crazy even though I’m not the best speller or grammar-er.

5. Although, I did make it to the final four in the 2nd grade Spelling Bee. I then misspelled giraffe. 2 Fs...not 2 Rs...what was I thinking?!

6. I absolutely hate being late but find myself late most of the time.

That's enough of my weirdness for now.

Happy Birthday Wade!

It seems like just yesterday that I dropped a Hershey’s chocolate bar and card off at the ACU University Park apartments to wish him a Happy Birthday for the first time. Things have changed some. Now 12 years later, Tate and I met him for a birthday lunch at Pei Wei and we’ll enjoy a nice brisket dinner at home as a little family of 3 (4...Macy). And of course, some ice cream for dessert.

I’ve written about all of the many things I love about Wade here. If you know him well, then you know that he is one of the most honest, caring, fun, funny, and hard-working people I know. My life is blessed to have him in it, and Tate is one fortunate guy to have Wade as his Dad.

More Cousin Time

We had a fun day with Tate’s older cousins, Trip & Mary Tish. I love so much watching these kids that I knew as babies play with and interact with my little baby. Tate loves being with them so much, and they seem to be pretty entertained and amused by him as well.

I do have to say that things have changed from the days of them coming over and playing with our little box of kid toys. Now that they are 8 and almost 11, we set up video games, watch movies, and bake cakes for fun.

During the movie-watching part, I learned a little lesson. The movie ratings system has changed a little since the ‘80s. Goonies (which is rated PG) caused a few uncomfortable moments for all of us. So my strategy was to just talk to them really loudly during those scenes. Not sure if it worked, but am sure it added to their questions about their crazy Aunt Kelly.

But any questions of my odd, loud talking were erased when we took them to the indoor pool (while it rained outside) and we competed with them in an Olympic-like who-can-go-the-furthest-water-slide contest. This was my first time to go on the big slide…and it was really fun. I actually found myself asking them to go ride it again. I guess all of the Olympic hype is really getting to me. :)

We ended the night with some yummy spice cake, another round of playing with Tate and his toys, and a sweet picture of 3 sweet kids.

Holy Toledo!

How in the world did he do that? He as in Michael Phelps. I thought for sure the gold medal streak was over, but no, the Wonderboy did it again. I'm curious if this will be a "Where were you when Michael Phelps..." moment.

Other random Olympic thoughts...

For many years, my Dad was on the swim team and was next door neighbors with Mark Spitz. Pretty cool, huh?

I think when we go to the pool this weekend, it would be really funny if Wade and I did a Phelps like warm-up....dried off the side of the pool, sipped the water, stretched our legs, and did 3 crazy arm thrusts. Then jumped into the kiddie pool to walk around with Tate.

Watching Bela Karolyi watch the girl's gymnastics was hilarious.

Now the insanely fast, inhuman track and field begins. Even though it took me 100 times longer to finish my marathon, I get to feel like me and the Kenyans are kindred spirits. Isn't that what those Visa commercials are all about...One World. Kelly and the Kenyans.

Happy Olympic Weekend!

I Heart the Olympics & Fun Cousin TIme

So with only four days into the Olympics, I’m already tired because I’ve been staying up way too late watching it all. But it has been worth it.

The strobe light drums in the Opening Ceremony:
So, so cool!

Michael Phelps:
Wow!

The 400-free relay:
Edge of the seat!

The guy’s gymnastics:
Happy for China, but wish USA would stop saying ‘That’s what I’m talking about.”

Synchronized Diving:
Crazy!

The 32-year-old German (former Russian) gymnast and Mom:
Pretty inspiring…maybe I should try out my vault again? :)

The commercials:
Love the J&J Mom ones and the 24-hr. Fitness ones

13 more days to go:
Woo-hoo!

*****************************************************

In addition to the Olympics starting, we had a really fun weekend hanging out with my family while my sister, Shannon, brother-in-law, Brad, and two cutie nieces, Mallory & Morgan, were in town. Shannon gives the play-by-play here.

Following are some fun cousin pictures from a trip to the zoo and our feeble attempt to get a picture of three children two and under to sit still, look at the camera, and smile. Good times.

And finally, a big shout out (why is that so fun to say?) and best wishes to Brad as he kicks off (ha!) his third season as soccer coach of the men’s team at the University of Mary-Hardin Baylor. Go Cru!

8-8-08

The DVR is set. The Olympics issue of Newsweek has been read. The normal evening activities will soon be put on hold. Bring on the Olympics.

I have always enjoyed the Olympics. And every two years Wade & I turn into TV junkies watching every minute we can of the competitions. Thank goodness the DVR will cut that time down a lot now.

I’m not sure what it is, because I’ve never played sports or am a very sporty person, but I love watching the athletes compete. You name it…swimming, diving, gymnastics, track & field, synchronized swimming (true talent), I love it all!

I love the drama. I love the music. I love the features of the rags-to-riches stories that make me cry. I love the medal ceremonies and hearing any national anthem, even if it isn’t ours. I love rooting for the underdog or watching the rock star prove why he’s that good (go Michael Phelps!). It is just fun.

Wade & I were talking about it this week and I had a funny childhood memory that I hadn’t thought about in years. Although her Olympic moment was before I was watching much TV, I LOVED the Nadia Comaneci story. I had the 1980’s made-for-TV-movie about her almost completely memorized. With the love of Nadia and the excitement of Mary Lou Retton’s gold medal in 1984, I decided I wanted to be a gymnast.

So to see if I had what it took, I set up an in-home vault. I would run down our long hallway that ended right at the back of the love seat. Then I would flip over the back and do a headstand on the cushions finishing it off with that trademark gymnast “ta-da!” I'm sure I did his at least 100 times (sorry about the couch Mom & Dad).

Even though my gymnastics classes the next couple of years did not prove to be my big discovery, the Olympics still got me to dream a little.

So to get you in the true spirit of the games, here’s one of my favorite Olympic moments of Eric Moussambani, who had only learned to swim eight months before his Olympic debut.

Kelly Green…Well Sort Of

I had been saying I should do it for awhile, but I finally gave in and bought some of Target’s reusable bags today. My oh-so-chic-and-green blog friends Jennifer and Lynley motivated me along.

So far, I’m impressed. This was a Super Target (groceries and the wonderfulness of regular Target items) kind of day, so what would normally be about 8 or 9 of the plastic Target bags fit perfectly into 3 of the reusable bags. And I loved how it was nice and compact in the back of the car…not flopping around everywhere and crushing the bread.

Now I do have to say that I will miss when all of my stashed-away plastic bags are gone. I’ve been reusing those to bag the really stinky diapers. If a true environmentalist is reading this, I’m sure they are protesting out of disgust…disposable diapers in a plastic bag! The landfills ache with the sound of those together. But hey, the Diaper Champ can only do so much.

Although today is one step forward in my greenness, I’m thinking the amount of wet wipes I’ve used to clean Tate and his love for yogurt has made a wash out of any progress I’ve made to better the planet. Just doing the best that I can!

Ralph said it best

"It is one of the blessings of old friends that you can afford to be stupid with them."
---Ralph Waldo Emerson

Well said, Ralph. Just recently, I had several days of being around many of my special old friends.

It started when the small group from our previous church invited us back for the annual weekend trip to Lake Brownwood. These are people that we shared close to 8 years with and all went through just about every life experience you can think of. I feel completely myself around these people. In fact, they got to see a real “stupid” moment of mine (as Ralph says), when I went into a mild panic attack at the sight of a tiny field mouse in the farmhouse we were staying. Despite a stray tear here or there (I'm a city girl!), we all survived.

I miss seeing all of them as regularly as we used to, but I’m also confident that the friendships are ones that will last many years.

And here’s a picture to really capture the friendship. Three of the guys (Wade, Jody, & Cody) cleaning up the Underwood’s dinner (YUH-MMMY!) for 17 adults and 13 kids (11 of which are 5 and under). It was quite a task. Thanks guys! And thanks to everyone for inviting the Strzinek traitors back. We love you!



Then just a few days later, we had the pleasure of having Bert, Paige, & Anna stay with us for a couple of nights. Paige & I met our freshman year when we lived on the same floor of Gardner Dorm. We became close friends quickly, and I can honestly say, I can’t imagine the last 14 years without her. There is an equal amount of transparency in our friendship that I will forever be thankful for. It’s comforting to have someone else out there know the good, bad, and ugly about you and still stick around for so long.

The neat thing about our friendship is that Wade & Bert have known each other practically their entire lives. So, there’s no chance anyone will be getting out of this friendship anytime soon.

Tate loved having Anna over at the house to play with. She is an adorable, sweet little girl, and I just wish we could all see each other more often. But we make the most of any time we get together and love every minute of it.

And then a few days after that, I made a solo trip down to San Antonio to help host a baby shower for my college roommate, Garyn. We also met my freshman year on the same floor in Gardner Dorm. We were then roommates for 3 ½ years (even sharing a room for 2 years), so you definitely get to know someone after that. She is a friend that I can go a month without talking to, but then when we do, it seems as if we talk every day.

My college experience was wonderful for many, many reasons, and I will always cherish the memories I had with my roommates. Oh wow, do we have some funny memories?

I feel like we understand each other really well. So well that we stayed up talking until after 1:00 a.m. each day I was there. Well that happens pretty much anytime that we see each other. She is a devoted friend, and I am convinced that she will be in my life forever. I wish that meant in the same city, but I’ll take whatever I can get.

Since her baby girl is due in September, this was probably one of our last typical girl’s weekends for awhile. We did a lot of fun baby shopping, two trips to my favorite, Alamo Café, and had a beautiful baby shower for a beautiful mommy-to-be. I can’t wait to watch her and Zach become parents.

So in a span of 10 days, I was able to spend time with many of my favorite people. I am a blessed soul to have so many special friends around me.

The Spoon

And I thought meal time was messy before? We've just entered the new phase of using the big boy spoon all by yourself.

Sure it took about 20 minutes for him to finish the yogurt. And sure it took about 20 wipes to clean up the mess. But the huge smile and giggle as he felt so big was worth it.

Just please tell me that it won't always be that messy. :)