Saturday, September 7, 2013

A clueless girl's rudimentary guide to football:






It's that time of year again, folks, when (grown) men, in stadiums throughout the USA, run around chasing an oval-shaped, brown ball, with cute stitching on top, around a field. The field has two yellow goal posts which look like a robotic-shaped letter 'Y' on each end of it (commonly referred to as an end- zone). The objective is to get the ball into the opposing team's end zone or something. 

But that is no easy feat. Or is it? It appears incredibly easy from high up, or even on tv, where we can see which end zone is whose. But from the ground? How is it possible? Both end zones look alike! Obviously I've never played tackle football before but I can guarantee you that I would be the oddball running the ball in the wrong direction, all disoriented from seeing so many different men dressed alike and nearly all running after me...

But back to the game: Then the unfortunate ball-carrier either trips over his shoelaces (a fumble?) or gets straight-up tackled (or -*gasp*- sacked!). The men then pile on top of each other, with said ball being hugged by the poor guy at the bottom, who I am sure is thankful summer is on its way out, being so close to the guys. 

Then they line up, scatter a few others around for good measure, throw the ball up in the air and do it all again. For two hours. But there are breaks in this cycle; occasionally a man will break through his invisible wall and somehow make it to the other end of the field, with the little oval still in his arms. That, my friends, is a touchdown. Said man then may spike the ball to the ground and throw his arms up in the air, shouting celebratory remarks (whilst the opposing team surely utter curse words under their helmets). But it's no shenanigan; that victorious runner just earned his team six points on the board. And if he kicks the little brown oval with the cute stitching on top through the top of the big Y, it's an extra point. Hey, every little bit helps.

Finally, the game narrows down to the last couple of minutes, probably the slowest part of the game (especially if you're watching on TV!). If the game happens to be tied, it could go either way as both teams scramble to get hold of that little brown oval with the cute stitching. Sometimes, unfortunately, the game is already won or lost, depending on who you root for.

Once it's over, though, one thing is for sure: we can't wait for the next game of men chasing the that little brown oval around the stadium, but then it all goes too fast- before we know it the Super Bowl is over and we are vacuuming confetti off of our living room rugs and savoring the last of the ranch dip with the chips of the potato chips.

Tuesday, September 3, 2013

The Honey-Do: A Re-Visit

A reminder for those who are new to this; this is not to be confused with honeydew. I actually don’t like honeydew very much (I prefer cantaloupe, if I might say so myself), but I like honeydo. Our new home has so much potential that it’s not even funny. And we have a Texas-sized to-do list to fit the bill, if I might say so myself.

We have knocked off several items, with several to go, and several others unmentioned as we have realized there is always more!
1. Paint Downstairs - eh, still working on this one. Have at least the hallway and kitchen. The kitchen... anyone wanna come tape with me?? I'm sure it will take just as long to tape as it will to paint...

2. Hang Ceiling Fans in the girls’ bedroom (which could prove tricky if a- the brackets that hold the fan to the ceiling aren’t already there and b- the fact that all 3 upstairs bedrooms’ lights, plus the bathroom up there, are on one circuit, puts a huge damper on things. I’ve done some Googling- it may be do-able… but that will have to be another post)
Done. Woohoo! All three upstairs bedrooms have ceiling fans now, and they all work, beautifully. Even though they are of the "5-minute" variety, they took about 20 minutes apiece, but still... easy. Does anyone actually get those done in 5 minutes?

3. Paint Upstairs

4. Maybe a little wallpaper in one of the bathrooms?-maybe. If I can find the right pattern cheap enough. Operative words: right pattern.

5. Master bedroom fan needs a remote. Found one that will work at Home Depot, now just to go grab it and program it so it will work with our fan.
Poor thing is paralyzed. One remote has failed us as it is incompatible (go figure :p). Off to get the correct one. Eventually.
We did it! I looked at a couple of web sites and found a similar-looking fan. Looked at the specs and manual and voila- we now have a working fan in master, for a total of six working fans in this house. Which is a beautiful thing in these TX summers. 

6. Hang more pictures! The walls are disturbingly blank. Disturbingly. Especially upstairs.

7. Erect a backyard shed for the hubby’s tools, so that we may once again have two cars in our two-car garage. However, since today’s sheds are packaged in approximately 2,395,746,108 pieces, we will need to set aside a year a fortnight 4 score and 7 years some extra help to get it all put together.-
 hmm... giving myself partial credit on this one. the shed was erected in approximately 1,832,352 parts, far fewer than the original estimate. Mostly those pesky little screws. and washers. uuuuuuuggghhh... Now the thing just needs to be moved; the original spot we planned for it isn't working out. Fortunately, trees hide it from the street. ;)

8. Soak in the huuuuuuuge bathtub. Yeah. It’s still not been christened yet. YES! Did this one too! Unfortunately only had time once thus far- will pencil in time for more times.

9. Patio Furniture. Front and Back. ‘Cause it’s needed. And that’s that. And no ugly stuff! What's good quality and good-looking on a shoestring budget? Walmart! Stay tuned... ;)

10. Granite Countertops. And stainless steel appliances. Find out if the kitchen is pre-plumbed for a gas range perhaps? Half-hoping there is a capped-off line hidden somewhere within that wall. A gas range would certainly be easier to clean than a coil-top, yet have the flexibility to allow for cast-iron cookware, right? Otherwise I think we’re gonna have to go flat-top. Hate the coils. Blech.

11. Wood Floors. Need I say more? Carpet+Toddlers+Clumsy Parents=NotAGoodThing.


Hmmm… this is getting mighty expensive. Anyone wanna tell the winning lottery numbersfor this weekend? I'm still open for this one...

~~CrazyMom

Monday, September 2, 2013

September and the Tongue-Cloud

How is that possible?! September already?? I can't believe I am typing that out already! Where has this year gone? It seems like just last week we were looking forward to 2013 and seeing what this lucky year was to bring us. Now here it is, nearly three-quarters over already. The girls' school cirriculum is already in full swing, even as the hot, unrelenting sun glares down at us. It is hard to believe that just a couple of months ago, we were eagerly anticipating and counting down to our first-ever family vacation to CO! I do plan to post more about that soon; I've been very busy!

The summer has been mild, but I'm already ready for it to take a hike! It was supposedly only 95*F for our afternoon walk around our neighborhood but it felt like another 200* day. Although, to our northeast, the sky was getting pretty interesting. It started with a few subtle but fluffy clouds, which by the time we were halfway through our walk had blown and bubbled up quite a bit. One little guy actually caught my attention enough to stop me in my tracks for a quick pic in the sun:


The Tongue-Cloud. I did a quick double-take on it and it still looked the same- like it was sticking its tongue out at us, as if to say, "Neener-neener-neee-ner you're not gonna get rain!" (Only to later realize that it may have been saying "Neener-neener-neee-ner you're gonna get some rain!")

After we wet our clothes some more just by walking in the sun and arrived back home, we chilled out cooled off and put tags on Miss Mollie (she's fully legal now! woohoo!). I looked out back and the clouds were bigger and darker, closer to us. I turned my head away and that's when DH announced it was raining. A beautiful sight!

Enjoying that gentle, unexpected rain was a very nice way to wind down and relax, while the minions went wild. Tongue-Cloud was too kind.

Hard to believe we were just using that barbecuer in yesterday's 200* weather.

I'm hoping that this rain indicates a cooler, wetter winter ahead. I certainly wouldn't mind another white Christmas!

So... how's the weather where you're at?

~~CrazyMom
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