The 7th inning stretch

On a whim, Adam and I decided we'd try our luck with taking Elizabeth to a baseball game. There's a minor league team that plays not far from our house so we packed her up and went out to the ball park. The only seats left were out in the pavillion and that was just perfect for us. Lots of grass, plenty of room for her to roam around and a nice shady spot to escape (some of) the summer heat.

She particularly enjoyed perusing (read: eating) the program.

You can see behind us that it's a really pretty park. There were tons of other kids in the area we were sitting in so it made for a really relaxed, really fun evening.

Have I mentioned how I absolutely adore summer?

The world's best babysitters

No, not for Elizabeth. For me. Picture it. Adam is gone on high adventure. Teri's husband is also gone on high adventure. Elizabeth and I were going to go across the street to watch the coolest show ever with Teri and the kids on Wednesday night. I knew a storm was coming but I wasn't paying much attention to it. I saw something on the news that said there were tornadoes touching down outside of my immediate area and that the storm was headed our way but I've seen those warnings millions of times and nothing's happened.

I called my brothers and told them just to get out their candles and stuff so they could be ready in case the power went out and I got my candles out and ready but I didn't do much else to get ready. All the sudden the phone rang. It was Teri.

"Tamara, can you hear the tornado sirens?"

"Uh, no."

"Well, they're going off right now. So, I totally understand if you would rather stay home but you're welcome to ride out the storm at our house if you want some company."

Short pause. "Uh...I guess I'll come over. Why not." (You can see I'm not feeling very perturbed about the storm at this point.)

I start getting Elizabeth's stuff together to go across the street (e.g. pack up her food/ diapers/ etc.) and I have this feeling I should pack a flashligh. Who puts a flashlight in their diaper bag?!? So, I ran to the back of the house to get Elizabeth's blanket and from the back of the house, I hear Elizabeth crying. Not a regular cry. A very unusual cry. So I ran to the front of the house to see what was going on.

I will never, as long as I live, forget what I saw. There, in my entry way, was my little baby crawling toward the front door. Here's where it gets weird. The front door which was closed and locked when I went to get her blanket had blown open and when i looked beyond my baby and out the open door, I saw the sky which was the most erie shade of yellow (yes, the sky was yellow) I have ever seen. In one fell swoop, I looked at her, said "we're out of here", slung on my diaper bag, picked up the baby, closed and locked the door, and sprinted across the street to Teri's house.

By the time I got there, I was pretty well soaked and so was Elizabeth. I knocked on the door and poor Jenna screamed at the sound of the door knocking. Sam opened the door almost before I could finish knocking and before I knew it, Teri, Jenna, Sam, Elizabeth, Cupcake (Jenna's hamster) and I were all cozy in the laundry room which was lit (once the power went out) by the coolest candle I've ever seen. Sam and Jenna told us stories and kept us entertained until the storm passed.

The power was out so we got to hang out at Teri's until the rain, thunder and lightening subsided a bit and we could cross the street and, thanks to my trusty flashlight, see where I was going once I found my way back inside. I'm telling you, Sam and Jenna were the greatest entertainment during the storm. They played games with her, sang her songs, got out toys for her and generally just kept her happy. They even insisted on walking Elizabeth and I home after the fiasco. So thanks to Teri, Jenna and Sam for being such good baby sitters. I would have completely freaked out if it weren't for them. I'm so lucky to have such great neighbors and Elizabeth just adores them too. Our awesome home teacher, Brother Causey, promptly checked in on us as did my brothers so we were well taken care of, but it sure was nice to not have to sit by myself with Elizabeth in our own laundry room. How boring would that have been?

Thank goodness for good friends

And for indoor play places during Texas summers. So while Elizabeth and I were home alone while Adam was gone on high adventure, Sara had a great idea to go to the mall and let the kids roam around and the indoor playground. Since Elizabeth was crawling and pulling up much faster, I thought she'd have a great time. And she did!


Here she is with Camden. She's so excited to be bigger than somebody and Camden is such a good sport about her trying to poke and paw him to figure him out.

This picture just cracks me up. We were trying SO HARD to get a cute shot of the kids playing together and this one little girl (bless her heart) just kept insisting on being in the shot. We even tryied to distract her and she just would not budge. Anyway, after a million failed attempts, I was just so amused I kind of wanted her in the picture to remind me.

So thanks Blackers for busting us out of our solitary state. We had a blast!

June 10, 2009 will go down in history. It was Elizabeth's first time in the pool and boy did she love it. Nevermind that I could not get over how cute she looked in her swimsuit. She just loved the water! Here she is just hanging out with her good friend Chandler.

I love how he keeps her so entertained and how much she laughs whenever he's around.

Sara let her borrow this little raft and she just thinks it's the greatest thing ever.


Teri was kind enough to hold her so I could video the moment. I'll spare you all the video but I can promise you that it's pretty hilarious. You should she have seen how she pointed her toes and then ever so gingerly dipped her cute tippy toes in it. She looked skeptical at first but that was only momentary. The minute she got her bearings, she was splashing, giggling and doing her best to completely submerge herself in the water, including trying to wriggle out of my hands to get off the step where she was sitting. We know what this means. Despite the fact that there are no physical similarities of any kind between her and I, I now have proof that she is in fact my child. Woo hoo!

death by a million pecks

So this morning, I'm out for my morning run. I'm nearing the end and thinking to myself "hmm, I'm feeling better than usual. This is great!" And then I hear this sort of manic chirping from this bird overhead. I look up and see a face that all too closely resembled this:



In about 3 tenths of a second, I realized that face was headed directly for my head. No, I'm completely dead serious. This mad crazy bird was dive bombing me. Total Kamikaze. I practically hit the deck and took crash position. I completely panicked. I mean, in which of my college general eds was I prepared to defend myself from the attacks of a rabid bird. I had no idea what to do. Each time I got up and tried to carry on my way, the attack would resume.

Well, the long story short is after what seemed like an eternity (and in reality was probably 30 seconds or so) I had had enough of trying to outrun the crazy beast and the bird had made it clear that it was not concerned about my best efforts to whack him with my spastic arm waving. This thing was relentless in its pursuit to obliterate me (Yes, I'm aware that the bird was probably like 1 1/4 lbs in total body weight but that is beside point. Did I mention that I'm pretty sure it had rabies?)

I did the only thing I could think of. I threw my Ipod at it. And then my cell phone. Yep, that's right. Both of them, hurled at the maniacal freak. I was certain that that would put an end to the madness. I WAS WRONG!! The bird was just crazy before this move. Now the bird was crazy and mad as all get out. Well, my fight or flight reflex had used up its first option so flight was my only option. I tore out of the park and ran straight home and into my room where I woke Adam up and scared the bejabbers out of him before I could explain that the reason I was hysterical was because we needed to go to the park to reclaim my phone that I was too chicken (no pun intended) to retrieve in the middle of my bird throwdown. Fortunately, he was kind enough to not openly mock me and instead braved the bird (who incidentally did NOT dive bomb him) and reclaimed my phone.

Seriously? Who does this kind of ridiculosity happen to? I wish it had been videotaped. It would be hilarious to see again.

I'm bored.

What are you guys doing to entertain yourselves this summer during the week? And what about weekends? I keep thinking I can't wait till the weekend to do something super fun and then I realize I have absolutely no creative ideas! Sigh.

Happy Father's Day

To the Dads nearest and dearest to our hearts. We love you so very much.





And to the Dad at our house, Elizabeth is one lucky girl to have the Dad that she has. We love you.