29 May 2009

Sitting at the Ranger Game (#2), I was reminded of a family sitting behind us at Saturday's game in Houston. The dad clearly didn't know much about baseball. One of the first things he said was "Baseball games are much better in person." Duh!

Anyway, the Rangers are now up 4-1 in the top of the 2nd. This is because they decided to intentionally walk Chris Davis (who leads the Rangers in strikeouts), load the bases, thinking the next batter, Taylor Teagarden (Hook em' Chelsea!!) would be an easy out. He then got a hit and scored two runs.

I told Jim that deciding to walk Davis cost the A's the game. He said it was too early to say that and he's right. Anything can happen- especially with the Rangers.

The family I spoke of early left that game on Saturday early saying that no one comes back from a 5-1 deficit. While the Astro's didn't come back, I turned around, not being able to take his stupidity anymore, to tell him that anything could happen with Rangers.

He clearly didn't go to many games.

28 May 2009

TxTag--I love you. (Jim)

You hate toll roads, I hate toll roads, Texas politicians hate toll roads, heck, EVERYBODY hates toll roads. Wait a second, are you kidding? I LOVE toll roads (sort of)! As a result, I wanted to share my love letter to TxTag with all of you.

Dear TxTag--

In a world full of traffic delays, congestion, and stop lights, you shine forth as a beacon upon the roadways, beckoning to all that there is, truly, another path. You say "Come to me, all ye who are weary and heavy-laden and let me show you a better way."

This past weekend, my wife (as dear to me as you are TxTag, she is first in my heart) and I were able to take advantage of your services on toll roads in Austin and Houston. Formerly, our travels would have been frustrations of sitting in traffic and stopping at the 9,473 traffic lights between Leander and Spicewood Springs (yes, Cedar Park, I'm talking to you). Even worse, the dreaded I-10 and I-45 stretches of Houston traffic nastiness would have made me a quivering wreck of a man. Before I met you, that stretch of completely stopped traffic on I-45 heading north out of Houston would have reduced me to an incoherent mess.

But, no, you rescued me from all that. You said, "let me take you on this luxurious bypass of Leander and CP and drop you off a mile from your destination. Here, I'll even put a mint on your pillow." As we prepared to go to battle on I-35 to get out of Austin, you swooped in and saved us, even letting us laugh at all those poor fools below us stuck on that miserable stretch of interstate highway. Oh, and after leaving that Sunday Rangers win over the Astros, you came to our rescue yet again, taking us on a scenic journey on a certain Hardy Toll Road and putting us back on our homeward course with nary a brake light in sight.

Oh, and TxTag, let me not forget to sing your praises in allowing us to do all of this without having to stop at those evil "Exact Change Only" toll booths. I was there, without a coin on my person, and you put your hand out and said, "Do not worry, follow me."

TxTag--my friend, my trusted companion, my help in time of trouble, I only have one more thing to say. I love you.

Fondly yours,
Jim

(Five days later, looking at his TxTag account balance)
"Wait a second, it costs HOW MUCH to use the toll roads? TxTag, I hate you.

Memorial Day Weekend

Sarah here. This past weekend was so wonderfully good. It began on Thursday before noon as we headed down 281 toward Austin, Tx. We had a table reserved at 7:30 at Kerbey Lane on Kerbey Lane for 11. While everyone wasn't able to make it (especially hope you are feeling better Mrs. Lam!), it was still a great time of catching up and good conversation. Jim even rubbed himself a blister on one of his elbows talking about things that just fired him up.

Friday, Jim had breakfast with James, and I went to Marshalls. We don't have Marshalls in Wichita Falls, only a Ross, and while Ross is great, Marshalls is SO much better. But, moving on...we left Austin for Houston around 4.

Houston was awesome. We stayed with the Hurst's who made it an awesome, relaxing weekend. They have a sweet pup named Rookie, an awesome house, and generally just made it a great, no-stress, relaxing weekend for us. We went to two (count em' TWO) Ranger games in Minute Maid Park (that has a roof- glad for it because it rained a lot, but never could get used to watching a baseball game INSIDE) and ate at this great restaurant called Boondoggles. We left Sunday, for the long drive home, and got to our house around 11.

Monday was going to be a day of rest and recuperation (I have no idea if that is how you spell that) but we ended up going to the lake, trying out a new tube, I got sunburned (yes, I did wear sunscreen), and then had two of my dear friends from high school over for dinner.

Then, I had to come back to work Tuesday. Bummer-- but I guess it pays the way for me to have such wonderful vacations! Thanks Hursts! We love you guys!

27 May 2009

Blogging on the Go

So, I've just set up posting abilities from my iPhone, and Im seeing how it works. All I did was type in a text message to BLOGGR and this is what happened.

19 May 2009

Farmer Jim Update (Jim)

A momentous event occurred over the weekend so I figured it was a good time to post an update about the garden. The momentous event? First signs of non-leaf or onion food!
Below you can see the first tomatoes of the season as well as the first head of broccoli to make an appearance. Also, some onions I pulled yesterday hanging up to harden for storage.


What else is growing? Pretty much everything has taken off at this point: beans, black-eyed peas, corn, cucumbers, carrots, potatoes, peppers, herbs (dill, lavender, rosemary, basil, sage), and artichokes. Oh, and GRAPES (see picture)!




Here's a picture of the herb garden (left) and a big picture of the raised bed section of the garden (right):





Exciting times for Farmer Jim! I'll post pictures of the rose bushes and flower gardens later...

13 May 2009

Bad Mornings and Fun Nights

Do you ever have mornings where you just wake up in a bad mood? And then, every little thing that happens just gets on your nerves even more, even things that on a regular day you would just normally let roll of your back? I'm totally having one of those mornings and I just want to go back home and get in my bed.

Last night was a really great night. Right after work, Jim and I headed to a 9th grade girls Bible Study. A woman I teach with in 5th and 6th grade LIFE groups (which is Sunday School at our church) also teaches a 9th grade girls Bible Study (she has two daughters in 9th grade). They were going through the book Lies Young Women Believe and the Truth that Will Set them Free and one chapter they were on suggested that they invite a couple to the group to share about their relationship in dating, and their thoughts on dating in high school, looking back; one of those what do you wish you would have known then what you know now, questions. It was such an honor to be asked to do that, and it was such a sweet time with those girls (who I used to be an intern for). They wanted to hear all the details of how we met, how the relationship progressed to dating, how Jim popped the question, and what advice we would give looking back. What would you have said?

After taking sweet Maddie home (who turns 16 on Friday! We've been meeting on a weekly basis since she was in 5th grade, so it just makes me feel really old....AH!) we went home and watched the Rangers WIN (and since the Angels LOST) and become 1.5 games ahead in the AL West! I did study a little for my final on Friday- but I've got about 100 pages left to go, so I probably should start on that tonight. I really hate school.

So now I'm at work, looking at my to do list for the day and not really motivated to do anything. Maybe I'll go get me a Dr. Pepper and that will help.

11 May 2009

"NOT ME MONDAY"

Welcome to Not Me! Monday! This blog carnival was created by MckMama. You can head over to her blog to read what she and everyone else have not been doing this week.I don't have much to confess because of being on my back for most of the weekend, but one thing from last week:
I work for the College and Junior High Ministers at First Baptist Church. The Junior High Minister is my cousin, and the College Minister and his wife are becoming great friends of mine and Jim's. Anyway, before we knew each other a little better, he did not tell me that I had sent him an email with my husband's phone number in it with an inappropriate subject line. After reading it, I did not put Jim's Johnson as the subject line. I would never do such an inappropriate thing.

Milestones and Movies

I did it. I reached my first marathon training milestone. I'll wait for your applause to die down before I continue...

There are about 7 different milestones on this training endeavor and it is extremely gratifying to check the first one off. Oh, what's the milestone? I ran for thirty minutes at my desired marathon pace without stopping to walk. For the runners in the crowd (or the athletic folks), that's not that big of a deal. However, I have never been able to do this before. Even when I was running 6 or 7 miles at a time last summer, I had to stop and walk every 5 minutes or so. Not anymore! VERY exciting!

My poor wife was confined to her bed for a lot of this weekend because of back spasms. As a result (and also due to poor weather outside), I watched THREE movies on Saturday. The best (by far) of the bunch was Slumdog Millionaire...it was a great movie. Great story, great casting, great music, and a happy ending (the last part is especially important to me...this is why Shawshank Redemption is my favorite movie of all time and Pride & Prejudice is my favorite book; I want a happy ending). I also went to see the new X-Men movie at the theater with some guys from my Junior High sunday school class I teach. It was surprisingly good (I was expecting to be bored out of my mind...I liked it a lot). And I finished the day with Adam Sandler in Bedtime Stories--not a life-changing experience but a good, fun story.

Oh, and may I share something ridiculous with you? Church's CHICKEN is offering a free corn dog with purchase of a large soft drink (and a complimentary triple bypass). Never mind the nutritional value of that last statement...a fast food fried chicken joint is now selling corn dogs. And people wonder why American culture is dead...

07 May 2009

Hi/Lo Thursday

Sarah here. This post is part of "Hi/Lo Thursday" on the Riggs Family Blog. Check out their blog to read everyone else's "Hi/Lo" posts and get your link on their site.

Lo's:
- Josie (our new little dog) woke up in the middle of the night again last night throwing up. Poor girl- but not a fun thing to do at 3 in the morning. Jim is such a good husband to clean it up.
-While being awake for Josie's sickness, we started smelling smoke. LO (no pun intended) and behold, dumpster fire number three (since we have lived in our house) was billowing. Awesome- after cleaning up throw up, Jim DEFINITELY wanted to call 9-1-1.
-I've constantly been struggling with some anxiety issues about some stuff and it is just making my tummy hurt. BOO!
-We had a big rain/hail storm last week, and a lot of Jim's plants were ruined because of it. BUMMER!

Hi's:
-We made homemade strawberry jam from scratch this past weekend and it is delicious!
-I only have one more final to go before I am finished with school this semester. After this semester, only 6 classes until I graduate. PRAISE THE LORD!
-I was able to put on a pair of jeans today that I haven't worn in probably a year. AWESOME!

04 May 2009

Welcome to Not Me! Monday! This blog carnival was created by MckMama. You can head over to her blog to read what she and everyone else have not been doing this week.

We got some curriculum in the mail that our College Minister looked at to see if he might want to use it. When he decided not to, he told me to send it back. So, I boxed it up, and took it to the mail area upstairs to be sent out. The next day, it was in my box. I thought maybe someone got confused about where they were going (that I was sending them out) and so I put them up in the mail area again on Friday.
Well, this morning, they were in my box again. I called Bill, the guy who knows EVERYTHING in our office, and asked what was wrong. He didn't know, so he told me to take them to the post office. So I did today and did NOT feel like an idiot when the postworker told me that I had not switched the return and "send to" addresses.

Weekend Happenings

Friday Night- As many of you know, Jim and I love baseball, and more specifically the Texas Rangers. In fact, in the Fall, we are going to be playing on a co-ed softball team. So, for a fun date night, we went to the Plex (a local putt-putt, go-kart, batting cages, arcade, and laser tag place in town) to the batting cages. The score was Sarah 7 Jim 4*, which means, I won. (The * denotes that Jim's machine ran out of balls and so for the last 4 pitches, there was nothing. I guess technically he could have beat me, but probably not!) Here are some pictures:




After the batting cages, we went to eat at United Marketstreet and then went to Academy to buy two gloves and a baseball. We bought the baseball because it was super cheap, but looking at the gloves was overwhelming, and expensive, so we didn't get gloves.
Saturday- We got up at 8:30 am to headed with my Mom and some of my brothers and sisters to Charlie to pick strawberries. Here is a picture:

It rained on us pretty much the whole time but it was so fun and peaceful, and made me want to buy some land somewhere and build a house on and have some chickens and strawberries.

Sunday- Jim (with my help towards the end) made strawberry jam from the strawberries we picked on Saturday. Here is the jars:

When my Mom made it for us last time, it was the best Jam we had ever had! Hopefully, ours is good too!