Happy Birthday Matt!!

Today my handsome and wonderful husband is 25! In an attempt to shower him with birthday love both publicly and privately, I've decided to share some of my favorite things about my Matty here on the blog. In no particular order, the first things that come to mind include...

1. His quick wit
2. The fact that he laughs out loud when something is funny on television
3. The way he likes to show me the book he is reading to let me see how many pages he has read since the last time he showed me.
4. His professed fear of giraffes, which we can only assume stems from this early incident -

5. That after he has been surprised or scared by something unexpected, he gets a sour look on his face and says, "I didn't like that."
6. His abilities in the kitchen - namely omelettes (though he's great with all breakfast foods) and sliders.
7. His goodness and integrity. I mean by "integrity" more than just a moral soundness, but the notion of being in a consistent and genuine state - an integrity of self - being the same person all the time and in all situations. There is nothing false or misleading about him.
8. The fact that he LOVES the movie, A League of Their Own, and knows pretty much every line.
9. The heart he has for the kids on his baseball team
10. His super manly voice and facial hair

And on and on and on. Happy Birthday Matt!!

-Angie

WDLL Astros - Game 2

Opponent: West Dallas Red Sox

Score: 3-12 (Red Sox win in 4 innings)

It didn't turn out well today for our Astros. I sensed it was going to be a rocky afternoon when only 2 of our players showed up by the time our game was actually supposed to start. After a delay of 40 minutes, we finally had enough kids to field a team.

We were up first and loaded the bases pretty quickly. Things were looking up. Unfortunately, that's where they stayed and we were retired with 3 straight strikeouts. Oh well.

Fred Kirk (pictured below) started the game today, and it was disastrous. Coach Nathan and I used every cliche in the book - "just play catch" or "rock & fire" -but Fred just couldn't pull himself out of it. He only recorded one out in the first inning before the Red Sox scored the maximum amount of runs allowed - 5. Inning number 2 didn't go much better. Fred was pulled after giving up 4 more runs without recording an out.

Then the new guy, Raymundo (last name currently unknown), took the mound. 1,2,3. Jackpot. Raymundo pitched well the rest of the game, and we made some pretty nice plays in the field.

We made a late comeback by posting 3 quick runs in the 4th, which included one of the worst slides into home I've ever seen (DeAunte pictured after slide). We found ourselves with the bases loaded once again, but we failed to get any of them in.

We'll get 'em next time.

- Coach Matt

The Tour

My semester officially ended on Wednesday when I posted final grades! And though the last few days have been one kick in the pants after another with angry emails from disgruntled students, I have actually managed to get quite a bit accomplished on the house. So, as promised, I have some more pictures so that you can all watch in amazement how slowly we manage to get things in order around here.

The Backyard -

Matt gets every last bit of credit for this. It's still a work in progress, but parts of it are starting to look nice.

This picture does not show what an overwhelming undertaking that flower bed was. It was an entire afternoon of intensive labor for Matt - and four tiny shrubs to show for it - but they'll grow (we're told)!

And a really pretty flower that just bloomed this week. It's gorgeous - even Charlie likes to look at it.
The Nursery -

Here's the crib, and the painting that Mandy created for Barrett - we love it!

These curtains were my big project - I couldn't find matching ones so I made these, and I was pretty pleased with how well they coordinate with the bedding.

The Living Room

Front family room - believe it or not, this is tremendous progress. We FINALLY have the hardwood IN our house. It has yet to be installed of course, but we're told that will happen next Wednesday. Fingers crossed.

Downstairs guest bathroom

Upstairs guest bath - another huge undertaking. It took me a month to peel all the wallpaper down, and I finally got it painted and got some stuff in there. Ready for all the new grandparents, aunts, uncles, and friends to come stay!

And our bathroom

That's the tour for now. Hopefully my future posts will be more frequent and thought provoking now that I'm done with school for a while.

-Angie

WDLL Astros - Game 1

Opponent: Carrollton Little League Braves
Score: 5-12 (Braves win in 4 innings)

The most (in)famous franchise in West Dallas history kicked off its 2008 campaign this evening in Carrollton. Kendrick Evans (pictured above) got the opening day nod and delivered 3 solid innings of work. He started off a little wild in the first (walking at least 6 batters), but settled down and began to consistently find the strike zone. You might be wondering, how could I call his performance "solid" after giving up 12 runs? Well, take a look at the first and second basemen in the picture above. Is that what you would call ready positions? I stopped counting after the 10th error by our infield (5 by shortstop Sergio Facundo alone).

Our lackluster performance at the plate didn't really help much either. We only had 3 hits the whole night - Kendrick (RBI triple), Ernan Molina (infield single) and DeAunte Vickers (double).

Interesting side notes:

- DeAunte is 11 years old and at least 5'8", 160 lbs. I would like to see this kid's birth certificate.

- A portly fellow named Jose Castro for some reason felt the need to try and steal a base even though I explicitly told him not to. Normally I wouldn't mind too much, but you would probably need a calendar to clock this guy's speed.

Even though it sounds otherwise, I was proud of our team tonight. We played a tough team after only having 4 practices and hung in there. Things are looking positive for the Astros (especially since we are in the process of signing up a ringer).

Season Record: 0-1

-Coach Matt

Cash Rules Everything Around Me

Aside from God, money is arguably the most controlling force in the world. Most of our money is spoken for before we even touch it. In fact, I don’t even get to touch most of it since I rarely use cash. So actually, my life is dictated by bills, plastic cards and an account balance displayed on a website. The frustrating thing about money is that it’s necessary. This world does not work without some sort of monetary system, whether it be paper bills, coins or the tradable value of a good or service.

“How much does it cost?” Is there anyway to escape this burdensome question? Probably not. I could turn to sustenance farming, but then I’d have to come up with the cash to purchase land, farming equipment, crop seeds, some animals and a ton of “How To…” books. It even costs money to found a lifestyle based upon the principle of sustaining your own existence!

Even if we survived those immense start-up costs, realistically I’d only master the production of one or two crops. Who wants to live off the same two vegetables for the rest of their life? As it is, I get tired of eating turkey and roast beef sandwiches for lunch everyday. At least making money affords me variety.

It’s a gift and a curse I guess.

- Matt

ps. You can thank those insightful street prophets the Wu-Tang Clan for that great title.

Saturday Afternoon Stroll

We took advantage of the beautiful day on Saturday by taking a leisurely walk along the canal.

- Matt

I Hate Local Weathermen

This is not a very interesting post, but I need an outlet for my frustration, as I've already complained to Angie enough tonight. During days of "extreme weather", local weather forecasters really piss me off (or if you watch Family Guy - grind my gears). Why do they need to completely interrupt my Thursday night TV? It's not enough that they break in every now and again to give updates, now they monopolize the airwaves for continuous hours. Why can't I watch my 30 Rock while they run text updates at the bottom of the screen like they used to? No one needs continuous weather updates. At most they need updates every 20 minutes (and that's only during the most extreme of circumstances).

No one likes you weathermen. Stop interrupting my TV and find real jobs.