Emerald Cup Champs

If you had asked me in January 2011 if I had any objections about my son's soccer team playing in an early Spring soccer tournament the last weekend in March, I would have said "no."

Four games, all with temperatures below 38 degrees and driving winds, two games played in blowing wet snow and one game played under the lights because it was at 7:00 in the morning!

Would I sign up again? Yes! Why? Because my son's soccer team, the Blue Valley Fury, are Emerald Cup Champs! Gotta love it!




Davis is in the front row, right hand side - blue KU hat. Yes, he still wore the hat even after that shocking KU defeat yesterday.

Pinky

Is the name of our shared family iPod. Bennett Schneider won this iPod in a sales contest last year, and I was the lucky recipient. It started out as Eden and Clara's. They named it and we loaded it full of Taylor Swift, Carrie Underwood and Miley Cyrus. Since then, Dave discovered that this "new" (read ... now obsolete) iPod has a radio feature, so he uses Pinky when he goes to the gym. I got tired of updating Pinky and my old iPod, so I also adopted it. And, last but not least, we lost the password to Davis' iPod "Hook Em" and so now he uses it - of course, only when his friends aren't around or he can hide it in his pocket.

Today, this iPod was a great friend. A few weeks ago a friend of mine asked me if I wanted to run the Rock the Parkway half-marathon with her. I told her I would love too. I signed up and then realized this race was just about two weeks away.

Now, since I graduated college I have been a runner. And it is said, "Once a runner, always a runner." But I have not run more than 7 miles in a probably 16 months. Partly because I have been focusing on Pilates and swimming and just more balance, but also because of that nagging Piriformis problem.

This morning, I new I needed to get 10 miles in. I had to know if I could even run for an hour and a half. I dropped the kids off at school, came home and grabbed my old friends, Pinky and Garmin.



It was amazing. Sunshine, crisp morning, easy pace and the Shuffle feature on Pinky. Usually I am very picky about what music is playing while I run - today I just let it go. Here is what I heard. Let's see if I can remember a few...

Taylor Swift - Back to December
Carrie Underwood - Songs Like This
Lady Gaga - Poker Face
Lyle Lovett - That's right (You're not from Texas)
??? - Cupid Shuffle
Jimmy Buffet - Cheeseburger in Paradise
Kenny Chesney - Down the Road
Lady Antebellum - I Run to You
Sugarland - Life in a Northern Town
Miley Cyrus - Party in the USA
Bruce Springsteen - Thunder Road
Kanye West - Amazing

There were many others. These the most memorable. So thanks Pinky. Nothing like finishing off ten miles with the famous Jimmy Buffet song, "Why Don't We Get Drunk."

What time is it in Bangalore?

I know that pool looked tempting, and I might be spending all my time in India in that pool, (especially given the pending weather in KC this weekend.) But, Dave actually goes to work.

This was good for me to see...Pramata actually exists.



Bangalore is 10 1/2 hours ahead of Kansas City. This is how they keep it straight over there.



Any guess?



It is the security wall around Dave's apartment complex. Yes, they use large shards of glass to keep birds off the wall and intruders out? I thought it was a bombed out something or other.

And this last photo for today ... I have finally agreed to go with Dave to Bangalore next time all because of this ... A Ritz Carlton

The Baxyard in Bangalore

So, I should clarify. I am not in India. Dave is in Bangalore. After 27 hours of flying, three planes, and a stop in Paris, he arrived and is working and enjoying the 90 degree temperatures. Here is where he stays, looks like a resort to me.





And, like a good catholic during Lent. He managed to sneak in Mass on Sunday.





I have a hard enough time dragging myself to confession in our church. Would you go here?



There was always this unwritten joke about Catholics and parking. How they always park as strategically as possible to exit as quickly as possible after mass. I can't imagine trying to get out of this mess.



Especially if this was my method of transportation.



Tomorrow ... Pramata offices.

Get your "Irish On"

One of my friends used this expression the other day and I loved it. So we did. We got our Irish on and went to the St. Patrick's Day parade in Lawrence, Kansas yesterday. We had a great time. Other than being almost blown away several times, the weather was great. How good it felt to stand outside, in the sun, in 80 degrees! Love it. Looking forward to more of these days soon.



This was our favorite entry - a wagon you can rent. You sit in the back and peddle while drinking! No, they don't allow any liquor at this time (though their website says they are working on it) how fun!



Hope you all had a safe and happy St. Patrick's Day.

P.S. The Baxyard is heading to Bangalore, India for the next 10 days - should have lots of fun interesting images from that far away land!

The Tortoise and the Hare

Some day, many years from now, my daughters may read this and be really mad.

Though my girls are twins, they are very different.

Clara has blonde hair (slowly turning light brown), brown eyes and has stick straight hair to match her stick skinny legs - she gets that from her dad. She is spunky and a bit clumsy when it comes to athletics. But she tries hard.

Eden has brown, curly hair and a dark complexion. She is not waif thin like Clara. She is muscular, athletic and very sweet. And she gives her older brother Davis a run for his money on the soccer field.



So, I found it very ironic that when they went to a paint your own pottery birthday party, Clara painted a turtle and Eden a rabbit. We are living version, every day of the Tortoise and the Hare.

We love March,

and it has everything to do with basketball. There are conference brackets all over the house and the NCAA tournament hasn't even started. It doesn't get any better. That's right Mr. Tiger, cover your eyes, because in this house it is all about the Jayhawks.



Davis and his buddies at the KU v. MU game in Columbia.

This is what happens...

when I allow Eden and Clara to play Cupcakes on my iPhone while I make dinner.




Cupcakes quickly turned into a photo shoot for Rudolph, Murphy, Pegasus, Clarice and the dalmation (I am not sure he has a name).

The Seven Year Itch

Lately, (and I will explain why later) I have been very curious as to the meaning and origin of the expression, "The Seven Year Itch." I have been wondering what it originally referred to and how it was used. The seven year itch was actually a contagious and irritating skin condition that didn't begin after seven years, but lasted seven years. Yikes. It soon became easily treated with an antibioitic and was virtually never heard from again.

The derivation we now know it as, "The inclination to become unfaithful after seven years," comes from the 1955 film starring Marilyn Monroe and Tom Ewell, The Seven Year Itch. In fact, that famous photo of Marilyn Monroe, you know the one, the skirt blowing up while standing over a subway grate, comes from this movie. The plot has Ewell's character working for a company that is about to publish a book suggesting that many men crave extra-marital affairs after seven years of marriage.



No, I am not having a seven year itch and I don't believe Dave is, but I do believe my house is. It all started two years ago. We had lived in the house exactly seven years when the downfall began. First, our refrigerator. It started with the ice maker and then the filter. After living without an ice maker for months, we finally called out the service company to repair it. An $80 service call later and we had a new $200 ice maker.

A few months later, our washing machine and dryer decided it was their turn. Our washing machine decided to stop spinning, or at least decide when it wanted to and when it didn't want to. After six months of ringing out clothes by hand, manually trying to get it to spin and then restarting the cycle, we finally decided it was time to invest in a new set or get it repaired. Another $50 service call later, we learned the replacement part would cost as much as we paid for the machine. So, we opted to invest in a new washing machine and dryer. The perfect pair. They are so pretty and after six months of ringing out clothes, on the day it arrived and was installed, I sat in the laundry room and watched it wash and dry clothes, no kidding. It sounded like an airplane and my clothes were so dry when they came out of the washing machine, I began questioning the need for the dryer.

For the next three days, I washed everything in our house, comforters, towels, slipcovers, etc., you name it. And I still get a little giddy when I go into the laundry room.





Needless to say, that is not the end of this story. Within weeks of our new washing machine and dryer being installed, our dishwasher started acting up. It was leaking water onto our hardwood floors during the cycle. We always run our dishwasher in the evening, so we were waking up every day to a puddle. And if you know anything about wood, standing water is not so good for it. I tested several theories on its malfunction. Maybe it was the disposal. So I ran the disposal religiously for a few minutes before starting the dishwasher. Maybe it was the espresso grounds. So I started emptying those into garbage. Maybe the egg shells. Nothing. So, we called the dishwasher repair man. Two hundred dollars on parts - it still was leaking. We got a second opinion. It was time for a new one. So for Christmas 2010, I got this ...





Not exactly the purse I wanted, but it sure looks good now.

I was really hoping that would be the end. But, not a day later, our built-in microwave stopped working. It runs, it just doesn't heat. What the @#$*%^&? I called Factory Direct Appliance, who we purchased the microwave from just three years ago, they wanted $80 just to send a guy out, plus some crazy amount for every 15 minutes he was here. No way. Finally, last week, Davis asked if I would please fix the microwave so he could make his own lunch (read ... reheat noodles). No mother could say no to that.

Brings me to today. Factory Direct repairman shows up. My microwave, which cost $300 dollars to buy and install three years ago, needs a $248 Magnatron, a $52 Drode and a $54 Cap, plus labor. And the kicker, they guarantee their work for a whopping 90 days. What! Needless to say, I am not fixing it. The cost is one thing, but my biggest fear is that I will fix it and then my oven will break or my gas cooktop. I need those! I am going to Lowe's today to buy a countertop microwave. Nothing wrong with having two, right? Which brings me to a very funny story.

When Dave and I were dating, we were sitting at this dad's house talking with his dad. We were either watching or listening to a Jeff Foxworthy show. You know, the "You Might Be a Redneck..." series. As we were watching TV we heard, "You might be a redneck if you have a working TV on top of a non-working TV." We all started cracking up. Not only were we watching a TV sitting on top of a 1970s non-working console TV, Dave and his dad knew that they had two sets of those in that house on Monrovia. So, I am okay with it. Call me a redneck if you will - but at least my oven works ... today.





... and if my oven goes - there goes my children's college education. Because the new range I want requires a kitchen remodel.

Charmed and Dangerous

In a recent Vanity Fair article titled, "Charmed and Dangerous," Leslie Bennetts wrote an article about Hollywood's femme fatals.

"They have just met, and they're downing shots on a steamy patio in Bogota as thunder rolls across the sky. She's wearing a white cotton skirt and lace-up top that might look virginal on someone else, but since this is Angelina Jolie, they seem brazenly, I-want-to-rip-them-off-me wanton.

"When she starts undulating to the music, inviting him to dance, she insinuates her voluptuous body around his so provocatively that it makes the viewer's jaw drop. As she slithers like a sly cat, rubbing herself up and down against him, Brad Pitt is mesmerized by lustful anticipation. At this moment he would do anything she told him, even flap his arms, jump off a cliff, and fly.

"Watching the seduction scene in Mr. and Mrs. Smith, a movie Jolie and Pitt filmed while he was still married to Jennifer Aniston, one can't help but think: There is no husband on the planet who could have resisted that woman under those circumstances.

"This is the very definition of a femme fatale. It doesn't matter if the man is married. It doesn't matter if his moral code or his religion or his politics or his job or his government or the last shreds of his common sense warn him not to succumb to her wiles. It doesn't matter if she's his best friends wife, or the crime boss's mistress, or the daughter of a vengeful king. In that moment of choice, he doesn't care what the consequences will be.

"The question is: Yes or no? And with a woman like that, the answer is always yes, even if that choice launches a thousand ships or destroys an empire. No matter what it will cost, the poor guy simply can't help himself."



So ... what do you think? Are you one of those people who would swear that your husband, boyfriend, etc. would be able to resist? Do you truly believe that in that situation, your spouse could really walk away? I wasn't sure what to think, so I read this article aloud to Dave. I wanted to know a man's opinion. After his initial reaction (typical male), in which he thought I was reading him porn and then wanted to promptly go rent the movie (for research purposes), he shockingly agreed it was true. Though he was quick to say it wouldn't be Angelina Jolie for him. He continued his explanation that it isn't the decision at that moment that is the real problem. The problem is letting yourself get into a situation where that scenario even exists - purely circumstantial.

I agreed. I asked around. What would your husband do? Not surprisingly, I got a lot of, "He would never do that." And then I thought to myself, what if I could conduct an experiment. What if I had a friend who would volunteer up her husband? Someone so sure of her relationship that she would allow me to put her husband in a questionable situation and see what happens.

I will be married fourteen years this August. I love Dave. I love our family. I love our life. And as challenging and crazy as it sounds and as much as I trust him - I am not willing to play with that kind of fire.

A woman like that is "the very personification of trouble, and when she fixes him with her hypnotic gaze, the man is toast. By the time it's over, he may lose everything: his reputation, his fortune, his freedom, even his life, all for this moment of glory with her incomparable self. And if he had it to do over again, he wouldn't change a thing."

And yes - I am putting that movie on our to watch list - I am intrigued.

Don't Fall Off

Since Friday, I have been at home with sick kids. It is okay. Though I hate when they are miserable, I find that our entire family takes a big, deep breath. We find ourselves coloring, resting and mostly, watching movies like crazy.

Several years ago when Davis was just five years old, a friend of ours recommended the movie Fly Away Home. It is such a great movie and family friendly, aside from the use of the "s--t" word once. It is based on the true story of Bill Lishman, a canadian, who with the help of Joe Duff and Dr. William Sladen, proved that wild fowl (geese) can be taught new, safer migration routes. He proves that "migration is not actually instinctive...it has been passed on from one generation to the next."

Now the movie, takes some liberties and creates a story around Mr. Lishman's experiment. The movie tells the story of Amy, a young girl, (played by Anna Paquin) who, after her mother dies, moves to Canada to live with her father. She comes across 16 goose eggs, displaced when the woodlands around her family home are bulldozed for a commercial development. Amy's story and the story of these geese is inspiring. We shared this movie with our daughters this weekend and I can say we watched it seven times from Friday afternoon until Sunday evening - and though I did not sit through each showing, I found myself stopping and then sitting down, again, often.

The only reason we would stop Fly Away Home and not start it again, was to watch Secretariat. I saw this for the first time on a snow day in January. My kids had seen it in the theater with their grandparents. If you have not seen this one, I highly recommend it. Again, a film based on a true story - Secretariat - the greatest race horse ever. We have watched it four times since Monday morning.

Tonight at dinner, we were discussing, of course, our favorite lines or parts of the movie. And though there are several great parts, my favorite line takes place during the running of the Belmont, the third race of the Triple Crown. As Secretariat makes his way down the final stretch, Lucian Lauren, the trainer, yells from the stands, "Ronny, Don't Fall Off!" My kids agreed, that part is great.

And as I sat here this evening thinking about work, home, etc. It really spoke to me. I have felt for the last few months as if I am approaching a ... crossroad (for lack of a better term). And as I was making a mental list of things I wanted to be thinking of or doing in the next few weeks/months, etc., all I could hear was Lucian Lauren yelling, "Don't Fall Off!"

That is the plan.