Halloween!

Since I didn't get to take the munchkins trick-or-treating, I begged them to get into their costumes early. They didn't protest. They did however, tell me that they couldn't be in their costumes if they didn't have their light sabers. Trip was Darth Vader and apparently, Darth Vader can only use a red light saber. I received a lecture from both boys about Darth Vader ONLY using the redsight saber. Logan was Obi Wan Kenobi. Obi Wan's light saber color didn't receive the same attention as Darth Vader's.

They did not need to be told what to do with the light sabers. The sword fighting is intrinsic. I was just excited at this point because I didn't have to yell at them to watch out for the TV!!

World Series, Rangers v. Giants, Game 4

The crowd was amazing at Game 4 of the World Series! There were more than 50,000 people in attendance! The excitement of the crowd was palpable. The stadium hummed with the voices of so many people.


President George Bush Sr. and Pres. Bush Jr. threw out the first pitch.


We were ready to watch a great game. We didn't really see that. The Rangers barely showed up. Big Daddy Awesome and his Dad yelled until they were hoarse. It didn't help. The Rangers didn't take any of their advice.


I did get to see some of my favorite players though! Micheal Young, Josh Hamilton, Ian Kinsler, and Bengie Molina were all there. You've got to love a sport that can get a guy with a gut the size of Molina's to it's World Series!

Tailgating at the World Series game!

We went to game 4 of the World Series yesterday! We had an amazing time! We decided a little tailgating was in order before the game. Big Daddy Awesome and I took his parents to the game. We took our cooler and lawn chairs and found a nice and shady spot to relax in the most delicious Texas fall air for a couple of hours before the game started. And because it was the four of us, we laughed the whole time!



This is the handsome man I got to look at all night! Lucky me!





This was right behind my handsome husband. It's a portable potty. It's meant to be taken on a camping trip. It is NOT meant to be taken tailgating. This raises all kinds of questions for me. Do they just dig a hole underneath the chair inside the crapper tent? Or do they cart their crap around? Surely it's a hole. Why do they feel the need to have a port-a-crapper so near their tailgating site? I realize regular port-a-pottys are a bit on the disgusting side, but seriously, they can't hold it until they get in the game? Or is their behind too good to share a potty with the common man/woman? Is squatting really not an option? Why would they want their crap so near their food? Aren't they worried about cross contamination with their food? It's not like that port-a-crapper has room for a proper hand washing station!

We laughed quite a bit about the port-a-crapper, but if Big Daddy Awesome even thinks about taking me camping just so he can get a port-a-crapper, he is dead wrong! "Camping" for me includes a spa and five star service!

Some of these people were serious about their tailgating! We saw dozens of generators and DirecTV satellites and people watching other games and pregame shows from their cars. Pretty schnazzy!



Circling precariously overhead were at least six airplanes advertising beer, car insurance, and free admission to three different titty clubs. Because screaming and cheering for several hours in the elements is the perfect environment to enjoy before going to a strip club. I've never been to a strip club, but I'm thing Eau De Body Odor is probably not the best scent for attracting the strippers. And if your stench is bad enough, I'm willing to bet the strippers won't care how much money is in your pocket. A helicopter with no obvious purpose was in the mix for a while.

Just to make things more dangerous in the skies above the ballpark, in came the sideways flying blimp. The blimp looked like it was just a giant balloon being pushed along at the whim of the winds. (There were no blimp crashes in Arlington last night.)




We had a fantastic time tailgating! Beer is a beautiful thing and makes any sporting event infinitely more fun!

Halloween

The munchkins have, I think, finally reached an age where they will remember details about their childhood. With Halloween being tomorrow, I really think they'll remember trick-or-treating. They've had their costumes for almost a month. I decided this year that I would not spend the day before Halloween picking through the leftovers at Target trying to find a suitable costume. The costumes were not on sale, but my kids will be what they want to be for Halloween.

You might think with all that planning, I would be taking them trick-or-treating. I'm not. Big Daddy Awesome is not. Neither are any of their grandparents. (Wait a second. The Mom of the Year people are knocking on my door to give me an award.)

None of us planned on the Texas Rangers making it all the way to the World Series. Not even Big Daddy Awesome who is the biggest Ranger fan in the world. BDA is a 1/8 owner of some season tickets for the Rangers. Can you guess when our tickets are? Sunday. After all of my planning, I will not be home to take my kids trick-or-treating. BDA claims that the munchkins will one day understand why we left them on Halloween to watch the Texas Rangers play in the world series and I know they will one day. I just wonder if I'll still be alive when they do.

Stir Fried Beef

It's been forever since I posted a recipe and I thought I'd share one of my favorites. This recipe is very versatile and I usually chose the ingredients based on what looks good in the produce section. The most important tip I can share is that you DEFINITELY need to have everything chopped, sliced, and diced before you even think about turning on the stove. Ok, not diced. I never dice anything. You really want larger pieces in this dish.

And, thanks to the stats option of blogger, I just found out that someone from Russia has been visited my blog. How awesome is that?

Absolutely necessary ingredients:

2-3 Tbsp Olive oil
2 cloves garlic, minced (or a good spoonful from your jar of minced garlic)
1/2 lb steak or chicken, cut into 1 inch cubes
1 Tbsp garlic powder
2-4 Tbsp ginger powder (Yes, TABLESPOONS)
1/2 cup soy sauce, plus more to taste

Optional ingredients, but chose at least 3

1/2 head of cabbage, cut into 1 inch squares
1 bag of broccoli florets (Don't hate me. Buy the whole thing and chop it if you want.)
1-2 zucchini, cut in half longways and sliced (depending on size)
1-2 yellow squash, cut in half longways and sliced
1 pkg button mushrooms, sliced
1/2 lb green beans, trimmed


Heat your wok over medium heat. Get your wok hot before you ever put the olive oil in it. The instruction manual on your wok says to do this. Trust me. Pour in the olive oil. You want about 1/8 inch of olive oil in the bottom of the wok. Toss in the garlic and let it cook for about 30 seconds. Add in the steak or chicken. Add in the granulated garlic and the ginger powder. Stir the meat mixture to get it cooked on all sides, 3-5 minutes. Take the steak or chicken out of the wok and put it in a bowl. Add in the cabbage and/or broccoli. Stir to coat it with the spices still in the wok. Put the meat or chicken on top of the cabbage and/or broccoli. Pour in the soy sauce. If you're using cabbage, add in about 1/2 cup of water. Let this cook for about 10 minutes, stirring occasionlly. Once the cabbage and/or broccoli is softened, add in any of the other vegetables. Stir to combine. Add in more soy sauce, if needed. Let the whole mixture cook for another 10 minutes, stirring occasionally.

If you're using steak, you don't need to add in any other sauces.

If you're using chicken, the dish is better with some kind of sauce. My favorite is peanut sauce. We also like plum sauce.

Enjoy!

Tonight

Tonight, my brother J sent me a picture of a finger missing it's tip. It was a fuzzy picture of his finger. Turns out it was only the skin missing. Kind of disappointing. As my demons laughed at their uncle's wimpiness, I asked J if I could tell a story here about one of his finer moments of dating communication. Yes, he does suffer from the same foot-in-mouth disease which I endure. Suffer may be a strong term. J thoroughly enjoys his foot-in-mouth disease and retelling said encounters later for others.

But being a mom to demons, I had to do the mom thing before I could blog. There was what a funny story about the boys here, but Big Daddy Awesome thought the boys might not appreciate that story being told about them in the future, so it's gone. Now that I've had a chance to vent about my demons, it's time for J's story!

J was more popular than I was in high school, although I'm not sure he ever really knew it or that it mattered to him. There was never a shortage of obnoxiously giggly girls waiting for J to show them the slightest amount of attention. In his freshman year of high school, J started "going with" one of his classmates. "Going with someone" was the high school equivalent of dating.

The relationship had lasted for 3 or 4 weeks when this event occurred. Their "relationship" consisted of eating lunch together at school and phone calls. There may have been a chaperoned date to the movies. They were 15 years old. Not much else should be happening.

So one day, they are eating lunch together with a group of her friends. J has a package of chips on a plate covered in melted, processed cheese product. I'm not going to pretend that I was a food snob in high school, but who approved that for cafeteria provided lunches? Did a velveeta knock off brand send a school cafeteria buyer a bribe? How can that be remotely healthy for growing teenagers? Back to my story. J is eating the chips and processed cheese product. And the girlfriend whips out a can of cherry pie filling and a can opener. She then proceeds to open the can of PIE FILLING and eat the ENTIRE can!!! She is then not satisfied and asks J if she can have some of his chips and processed cheese product. J looks at her and says, with a straight face, "I think you've had enough to eat for today."

I don't know who left the table first, though I think it was probably her. The inevitable break up happened that day.

J was not remorseful in the least over what he said. He may have been bored with the girl already. He enjoyed telling me and our mother and anyone else who would listen about what he had said.

I'd consider enjoying my foot-in-mouth disease more, but I think I just come off as pretentious, while my brother comes of as hilarious and charming.

You want to know what which word means???

Bedtime has a special mother-son feel for us. It's a time for story book reading, cuddling, and conversations at the end of the day. That being said, we usually wrap up all of that mother-son time in about 20-30 minutes. I have a blog to write after all. Sometimes, the bed time ritual is sweet. Sometimes, there is cursing. Sometimes, there are tears, mine or theirs. It hurts to be tackled by a 52 lb munchkin. Trip often tells me that he wants to talk to me about his day. Logan occasionally wants a word defined, which was the case several weeks ago.

Mama, what does sex mean?

Me, coughing, sputtering, looking wildly around for the adult in the room to answer this kid's question. No such adult existed.

I slowly regained my composure.

Logan, I'm not ready to define that word for you yet.

But Mom!

Where did you hear that word?

And I found my inner adult! Did you see it?

I heard it on Family Guy.

OOOOOOHHHHHHHH!!!

So, we stopped watching Family Guy for a while. Which then turned into me and Big Daddy Awesome watching Family Guy after the boys had gone to bed. Then, Big Daddy Awesome started letting the boys watch the Family Guy Star Wars movie. Can you see where this leads? My kids need to be in bed by 6:30 every night so we can watch tv. Or not. Eventually, we lost the "No Family Guy" rule.

In all fairness to Family Guy, Logan did ask me occasionally over the next few weeks to define sex for him again without seeing Family Guy. I'd refuse to define it and that would end the discussion. Or so I thought. Apparantly, Logan's little mind was hard at work over this new and fascinating word that Mom wouldn't define. Little demon. I think he's possessed.

So a couple of nights ago, the boys and I are in their bedroom, doing our nightly routine. We've read 3 books. They're both cuddled up to me. And then Logan decides that the time is right to make his request of me.

Mom, I want you and Dad to have sex so I can have a little sister.

What in the hell has happened to my innocent little baby? Why would he say such a thing to me? A freaking sister? Is he crazy? Who filled his head with a freaking definition that I didn't want him to have yet?

So I choked again.

Logan, what do you think that word means?

It's something Moms and Dads do to make a baby. I want a sister.

Who told you what that word means?

My brain thought it up. My brain is smart.


Really kid? He doesn't even blink when he's telling me this. I think he may have really deduced this on his own. Why on earth does he want a sister? Is Big Daddy Awesome telling him to ask for a sister?

I told him that the conversation was over until he was 10 years old and there would be no baby sister.

I don't mind my children being the ones to enlighten their friends' vocabularies on the playground with 4 letter words, but I am not ready for that big talk yet.