Let's Go Astros!

Bryan and I had a rare treat last night to go (alone) to an Astros game. Being this close to the All-Star Break we are now in inter-league play, so this weekend the 'Stros are hosting the World Series defending Boston Red Sox for the first time. I'm having a hard time remembering the last time we've been to an Astros game, but I'm pretty sure it was during the 2006 season. Seeing the Red Sox at Minute Maid Park would have been exciting - if they hadn't solidly beat our home team.

From our seats perched high above Minute Maid Park, we had a great view of the action below. Bryan said we were going to be "rocked", but for the first two innings Hernandez pitched well - ultimately earning 5 strikeouts. Unfortunately, when Bryan and I left our seats to grab some high-priced BBQ and Dr. Peppers, the Red Sox brought three runners in when JD Drew knocked a homer into right field in the top of the 3rd with two men on.

Bummer.

The Astros remained scoreless until a single homerun from pinch-hitter Reggie Abercrombie in the bottom of the 8th. We never stopped hoping.... but the Red Sox had the final runs in the 9th and it was all over.

Here's something really amazing - a city of about two million people, a sold-out ballpark with 42,327 fans, and I walk into one of a dozen ladies bathrooms on the upper-deck of Minute Maid Park and run into Libby, a friend from high school.

Blog List

I think Blogger may be having trouble with their new Blog List feature. You might have noticed I made a change on the left sidebar; my friends and family list now shows who has updated their blog and how long ago. The most recently updated blog is supposed to be at the top of the list.

My sister has updated her blog at least three times today and yet the Blog List feature shows her blog last updated 2 days ago. Methinks there might be a little bug in the blog or the RSS feed or however it works exactly.

So don't take the updates at face value, if you know those linked on the side, click them to be sure they weren't updated. And definitely check out my adorable neice and nephew on their Sharks summer swim team!

UPDATE: Now that I've posted this, it refreshed and updated the blog list! How odd.

UPDATE AGAIN: The AC is fixed and we're back at our comfortable 77-78F. Having it out makes you think of all the little comforts of life you take for granted: AC, running hot/cold water, the drain to the sewer, electricity.

Sweating it out

Last night Bryan and I were watching television when we both noticed a funny burning smell. We traced it fairly quickly to the air conditioning unit and could hear the fan making a funny rattle sound. After a trip up to the attic, Bryan confirmed that the AC fan was burning out and we shut it down. The house temp was 78F.

This morning it was 80F inside and out. The high today reached about 95F and when we came home the house was 86F. Thank goodness we had about thirty minutes of thunderstorms with a stiff cool breeze that blew through the open windows and lowered the temp a few degees.

We had someone over to repair it about 6:30 p.m. and he brought a new motor, but discovered that we need a band bracket and he didn't have one of those. He'll be out first thing tomorrow to bring it out and finish replacing it.

It's 85 in the house.

Our little Gymnast

As some faithful readers might remember, Brenna didn't want to take soccer this Spring, so I offered to let her take a mini-semester at newly opened The Little Gym. The end of season demonstration took place Tuesday and I am amazed at how much she improved in three short months. (The video is 3 minutes total and shows four routines.)

School Awards Ceremonies

I know I haven't blogged the last day of school, and to be perfectly honest..... I forgot to take a picture of the girls on the last day! I had the camera - I just forgot in the bustle of getting them to school that morning.


The school held their grade level award ceremonies on the day before the last day. Kindergarten and 1st grade were at 9 a.m. so I dropped them off and sat in car in the parking lot doing some work until it was time to go in. I'm glad Ms. G. told me to attend because Brenna received a Sunshine Smile Certificate and she was SO PROUD.



I went back to work until the 2rd and 3rd grade awards at 2 p.m. Cameron stood in recognition of all A's in the 3rd nine weeks and then stood again for all A's in the 4th nine weeks. Oops, this is how we found out she had straight A's in this last report card. Then she received a certificate for all A's all year, which is wrong - her first Social Studies grade was a B.


She also received an ARP trophy for having the highest ARP points in the entire third grade (147). ARP is the Accelerated Reading Program where students take computerized tests on books they have read to earn points. Even though the school library won't check out a Harry Potter book to a 3rd grader (5th grade only), the titles are heavy in points to the student who takes the ARP test for them, and she took the test for the first six books.


I feel confident saying that both girls had a very productive year in school and are looking forward to both some "time off" this summer, but a happy return in August.

Nice weekend

We had a really nice weekend and an especially busy Saturday. In the morning Bryan took the girls to get some donuts, then we ran some errands. In the afternoon Cameron had her "Dance Demonstration". Instead of a formal recital every year, they have put the students on stage at the local high school wearing their class leotards (ballet) or black jazz pants and the studio t-shirt to demonstrate barre work, center work, leaps, jazz moves, etc. Each class gets a little bit of stage time.

After the demonstration, we had a nice dinner with Nana & Papa (who drove all the way out to see Cameron) and then went home and got out the bicycles. Brenna has been begging to ride bicycles all Spring, but my bike had two flat tires and Bryan's broke a few months ago. Last weekend we bought Bryan a new bike and had mine into the shop for an overhaul, including new tubes.

Cameron took an early spill and needed first aid, but Brenna and I rode all across part of the old golf course and really enjoyed the evening.