This is either creepy or cute

The hubs has been plagued with this horrible nagging sensation for the past few years. No, it hasn't been me, but instead he's been tossing around the idea of whether or not he should try to play baseball. He plays in two different softball leagues and it seems neither one of them is providing the hubs with the competitive nature that he craves.

Last month I made the gravest of comments and told the hubs he wasn't getting any younger and if he wanted to play he better do it sooner rather than later. What can I say, I provide just the right type of encouragement (90% logical + 10% brutal honesty). In the weeks since the hubs has worked to build up a bit of arm strength and find a team. I thought it would take him a bit longer to find a team, but he met with one coach and instantly found a team.

The timetable was much quicker than either of us expected, but last night the hubs went to his first game. He didn't pitch, but he threw a bullpen session after the game and was told he'll be pitching this weekend. Nice transition period, right?

Fortunately, the game last night was held at a field only a half of a mile from our house. I walked Jax down to the game and we hung out to watch a game of baseball. Honestly, I was worried because Jax tends to go crazy at sporting events because he wants to eat the ball. At least that's what he used to do at my brother's rugby games. Surprisingly enough, Jax was pretty well behaved. He jumped on a friend of mine, but overall he was pretty good.

All bets were off when he saw the hubs pick up a baseball and start long tossing with one of his new teammates. Seriously, Jax stared staring at the hubs. It was kind of creepy.


After the game, Jax practically tackled the hubs. That part wasn't creepy or cute, but I think the hubs was expecting it.

Happy Birthday Jewels!

Yes, our little girl turns four today. So of course we took her over to the pet store and let her pick out a new toy. I didn't realize that she would fall in love with a cow toy that has five different squeakers (this is by far the loudest toy the dogs have ever had).


It was love at first sight. Although, I don't think the toy is sharing the feeling.





I can't believe our baby Jewels is four already! Crazy how time flies. I wouldn't recommend watching Marley & Me for the first time two days before your dog's birthday. It leads to a lot of additional crying.

Cross that one off of the list

I have an unwritten list of things I would like to do in my lifetime. It's got the normal things: see the Great Pyramids of Egypt, ride out a hurricane (not the smartest idea), run a marathon, etc. Totally normal things.

There's one thing on my "list" that scares me more than anything else: anything that involves needles. You see, I'm absolutely terrified of needles. I'd have a tattoo, but the thought of a needle pounding down on my skin over and over again makes me want to vomit.

So while I may never muster up the strength to get a tattoo (I'm so afraid that I'll pass out and end up with a "tramp stamp"*), I really wanted to cross off "donate blood" from my list.

In order to have the strength to go through with this I needed a partner in crime. My favorite partner in crime, the hubs, just happens to be freaked out by blood. Freaked out doesn't quite cover it- his mom is a nurse and anytime he visits her at work, he has to cover his eyes and stare down at the floor. So yeah, for donating blood we make quite the pair.

Thankfully, the Orioles sponsored a blood drive and to entice people to donate, the O's offered up a free t-shirt and two free tickets to a future O's game. The hubs wasn't interested at first, but after a few gentle suggestions (cough- constant nagging) he was ready to donate.

I'm not going to lie, I had every urge to sprint away once the volunteers took the hubs to his donation bed. Thank goodness, the nurse who was overseeing my donation was incredibly kind, patient, and humorous. Although, he was a bit stern with me that I was pumping too fast. Apparently, it took me less than six minutes to fill up my bag and that's a bit fast. Whoops!!! At that point I just wanted to be done and proclaim that I actually went through with it and survived being impaled with a needle (okay, that's a bit over dramatic).

Unfortunately, the woman next to the hubs fainted (twice!) and that wasn't good for the hubs. Next thing I know I look over and the hubs is laying down and being attended to by a crowd of nurses. It seems he got a bit dizzy and the nurses weren't willing to take any chances after their last patient fainted on them. He was fine and as soon as he was given the okay to get off the bed he was ready to get the heck out of there.

My brother-in-law had the hubs and I over for a BBQ after we were done donating. Nothing makes us feel better than BBQ and cake.


Yeah, we're rocking out our arm bandages. I had the hubs picked to choose hot pink, but apparently his nurse didn't give him a choice.




It seems it isn't quite a BBQ with my brother-in-law unless something catches on fire!!!

*this is a How I Met Your Mother reference

What to do this weekend?

If you haven't made plans for this weekend, then I suggest you take a trip to one of our country's national parks. This weekend is the first of three free weekends that the U.S. National Park Service is offering this summer. You can read more about this special offer here.

Yes, we're definitely related

If you have siblings, then you know what I'm talking about. You and your siblings have those little quirks, mannerisms or traits that make it completely obvious that you are definitely related. Of course you're not mirror copies of each other, but there are certain similarities that can't be ignored.



My little brother now lives a whopping twelve miles away from me and I couldn't be happier. It may take the hubs some time to get accustomed to hanging out with two red heads (the smell of sunblock can be overbearing at times), but he likes my brother so it's all good. I can't wait for more baseball games, rounds of golf, tennis matches and random good times with my brother.

I should have seen that one coming

I saw a cute dog toy in Target's Dollar Spot during my last shopping trip. It was only a buck so I figured why not give it a try.

Less than 60 seconds with Jax and Jewels left the toy broken:


I keep telling myself it was only a buck, but I should have seen this one coming from a mile away.

Stuck in a blackout: by myself

Last night a line of serious storms came in and hammered the region. The power flickered once or twice and then went out for good right before 6pm. I was somewhat prepared: candles, flashlights, blanket, water jug, etc. After I called the utility company to report the outage I looked around and realized, "mmmm, the hubs is at the game and I'm here by myself." My first thought was what I should eat for dinner.

So then it came to me- the things you should do if you're caught in a blackout by yourself.

First, get your lighting situation under control. Thank goodness I happen to have a plethora of candles and two working flashlights (bonus tip, buy batteries the next time you go grocery shopping). I set up candles all over my living room and kept one flashlight handy just in case I had to leave my living room. I nice lantern would have been helpful, but not essential.

Two, eat whatever ice cream is in your freezer. Logically speaking, if the power is off for long enough, the ice cream will just go to waste. You're doing yourself a favor by enjoying it before it possibly spoils. With that in mind, I treated myself to a feast of brownie batter and cookies and cream ice cream for dinner. It was like I was a third-grader all over again. After you've had your fill of ice cream make sure you stay out of your fridge and freezer. You don't want to waste whatever cold air is stored up in there.

Then, if it happens to be summer time I recommend opening as many windows as you can. Central air is fantastic, but it doesn't exactly work when there's no juice running through the wires. Plus, you get an added bonus of listening to the storm and that's somewhat soothing considering you don't have any music available (unless of course you have a boom box).

Normally, I would play board games or cards during a blackout (at least that's what I did when I was a kid), but when you're by yourself that's kind of boring. To add injury to insult, the only deck of cards I could find was missing the Ace of hearts and the King of clubs. That's just not going to work for a game of solitaire.

Find some type of entertainment. Maybe you want to sit out on your front porch and watch the lighting. I tried that for five minutes, but Jewels started convulsing and I didn't want to get peed on, so I went back inside. I picked up a book, but couldn't get comfortable because my two dogs were freaking out due to the previously mentioned storm. Finally, I turned on my laptop and popped in a movie. I should have gone with a chick flick, since I was by myself, but The Dark Knight was calling me. 153 minutes of Christian Bale- sign me up! Unfortunately, my laptop battery only lasted for the first two hours of the movie, so after the movie I went back to my book.

If the weather is nice out, then get outside. It was really weird, the rain stopped and around 8:30pm it was brighter outside than it was inside my house. So I took Jax on a little walk around the neighborhood. Of course it was during our walk that I noticed that it was just my street that didn't have power (that sucked!!!). I had a strong temptation to hop in my car and drive over to the mall, but I resisted the temptation and stayed home. The funny thing was that almost my entire street was outside. Kids were playing in the street, adults were chatting on porches and I met the foreign college kids that moved in down the street.

Call someone. Thankfully, my cell phone was fully charged so I went ahead and called my best friend. I was home alone and there wasn't anything to distract me. Although, we were talking for so long that I may or may not have signed myself up for a girl's trip next year in Hawaii. I may have to figure that one out.

Of course I was making serious headway into my book at 9:30pm when the lights came back on. Unfortunately, the power was just teasing me and went off again and didn't come back on until after 10pm. Thank goodness it did come back on because I didn't want to think about the possibility of not being able to shower. That's gross!!!

Funny enough, the lights came on just before the hubs returned home. So he missed out on all the fun things to do during a power outage. I don't think he would have survived. Take away his video games and tv and that guy is going to crack.

Red!

I'm fairly certain that the question I get asked the most in life is, "are you a natural red head?" I really think this gets asked more than the normal, "what's your name?" question, because people tend to ask about my hair over and over again.

I present this photo of my siblings and me as evidence:



Any questions?