Should I Be Worrying?

As you know, Marlena has never had to deal with Hurricanes or evacuations. We don't live in a designated evacuation zone as far as Houston goes. We live far enough northwest where Houston is concerned. However, Evan's football game has been cancelled for tomorrow which was a bummer because I love my weekly football game. Turns out Varsity will play tomorrow night away and the JV and Freshmen games will be rescheduled at another time. In the event of bad weather it was announced that we are to check the church website to see if there will be two or one service on Sunday. When I went to Wal-mart there I was buying socks and a movie for Evan and everyone else was buying gas cans, water jugs and everything else! Hmmmm I thought to myself, maybe I should be a little better prepared "just in case". So tomorrow I think I'll brave one of the stores with Eli and pick up a few things on the Hurricane Preparation Guide. When I see people boarding up their windows in our plan THEN I'll worry!

It's still hot in Texas

I noticed it's around the 70's in PA and it was very strange watching the Steelers game in Pittsburgh vs. the Houston Texans, knowing your thousands of miles away. Believe it or not I can't find any Steelers merchandise here, so I asked my friend Kelli to hunt down a flag for me if she can. Anyway, when I went to pick up Evan from football practice my car thermometer read 100! So yes, it's still hot here. I cracked up at the people in Green Bay dressed in long sleeves, hoodies and jackets for the game Sunday at Lambeau!

I'm not sure if Hurricane Ike is headed this way or not. From what I read, officials are looking to evacuate the Rio Grande Valley up to Corpus Christi. For those of you who don't know, McAllen where Jeff and I spent a week considering a move there a few years ago is right in the Valley! He also still talks about moving even further south and I'll remind him about Hurricane season every time! I've also told him we're not going anywhere until Maia graduates from high school!

This evening was parent orientation at Maia's school which I would chalk up to a 26 year old teacher talking to a roomful of parents like we're children about merit and demerit systems, the text books they are using for science and math (she teaches those subjects exclusively), blah, blah, blah. Or in my mind - a total waste of time! I suppose it was beneficial to someone in that room!

I did get to see a few of the boys Maia has mentioned from school. Luis (who supposedly likes Maia) and Michael (one of her classmates). Afterwards Jeff and Eli went home since Eli was acting a little wild for a restaurant, and Maia, Evan and I went for a late dinner at Red Robin.

Evan has an away game Thursday and I have my evening of bell choir and choir at church for a few hours tomorrow. I'm going to try to convince Eli to get a haircut tomorrow! Wish me luck! :)

Maia and Candy

Maia posed with this horse Candy at little J.T.'s birthday last weekend. Unfortunately Candy also stepped on Maia's big toe and made it bleed and brusied it a little. Next time she'll wear boots and not flip flops! :)

Eli

Eli loves to ride his bike up and down the road in our plan! :) He's been asking for a new bike since this one is getting a little small!

Football & Runny noses

Yesterday Evan's team won their first game of the season 21-0 so they are now 1-1. Evan played a decent amount in the second half and was even credited for a tackle. LOL When the announcer said his name I of course yelled a loud "woo hoo!" Hey if you have one fan in the crowd it's gonna me your mom! It was a good thing the team they played wasn't very good because once again their receivers couldn't catch, one punt return bounced off a players helmet and luckily into a teammate's hands and they had some pretty dumb penalties. Have I mentioned how excited I am football season has started? This Sunday NFL begins and how apropos that the Steelers are opening their season against the Houston Texans.

Unfortunately Eli has decided to come down with a runny nose. Hopefully we can curtail it with Dimetapp before it's get worse. Poor thing couldn't breathe at all last night and he finally fell asleep with my arm under his neck, which by the way was NOT comfortable!

My friend Kelli sent me a really simple recipe for Beef Stroganoff. I paired it with a French bread baguette and dipping oil like you get at John Harvard's (in Monroeville) and grape tomatoes for a pop in your mouth kind of veggie. It was SO good!

Not too much on the agenda this weekend. I'm going to look for a Steelers flag before Sunday's game. I think we'll hit Sam's Boat for a meal since I've been good about cooking all week and Jeff's been craving a fish sandwich from there. Sunday I'll be singing in choir. More on Monday! :)

The Joy of Cooking

Ok, so I'm a stay at home mom now. One of my many daily joys is cooking 90% of our meals (at least dinners) at home. There are our basic "Solomon family" meals such as Mac and Cheese, fish sticks and fries; some kind of pasta, garlic bread and homemade meatballs; roast, potatoes and carrots. But one gets tired of the same old so I subject my family to recipes that sound good to me but don't always work out.

I've been cooking quite a bit from a Taste of Home cookbook my mom gave me for Christmas last year. Yesterday was chicken Florentine "panini" sandwiches, and I really like a recipe for antipasto salad that I made for a church function before we left. I'm also a fan of the website allrecipes that I've been using a resource for years. Tonight it's sweet and sour pork and Friday it's either Italian beef sandwiches or beef stroganoff. Tomorrow before Evan's game I'm making some Wedding Soup that will be fashioned after my mother in laws soup which I will never be able to make the same!

Just call me Betty Crocker!

On another note, Jeff and I are pretty sure we are not interested in buying this house in June at the end of our lease although I know our landlady would like us to. In living here there are many things I would change and don't care for about the house. There are many plans within the school district including some older ones that are appealing because of the trees and "homey" feel to the neighborhood.

Oh, and if you have any easy and family friendly recipes you'd like me to try on my family - just send them my way! :)

Bugs

It seems that we are getting inundated by bugs outside and they're making their way inside. I heard some people call them "love bugs" because they're flying around mating although I've seen some single ones. They're hanging out by the door, are plastered to the front of my car and splattered on my windshield. I know we're not the only ones either. When we walked out of Chik Fil A today after lunch I took notice of the bugs smashed on the front of other cars. Occasionally they make it into our house which me being unsympathetic to bugs in my house I have a whole bunch of dead ones in my foyer which I'll have to sweep up after dinner.

They aren't the only bugs that we have visit us. There are these weird "pincher" bugs. We're not sure what they are but they look nasty. They can also swim (if you just drop them in the toilet) so you have to squish them before you flush them. There are also centipedes and have I mentioned the spiders? Ew and squish!

As you know Maia and Jeff are real nature lovers. Jeff is always catching something outside like toads, frogs, preying mantis and lizards to name a few. Did I mention he brings them in the house like show and tell too? Ugh!

Have I ever mentioned that we have garbage pick up twice a week here in Cypress? I imagine it keeps the critters down if garbage isn't sitting around in garbage cans and houses for more than a few days.

Gustav seems to have come and gone with it down to a category one and still over New Orleans, but Hannah now is currently over the Bahamas. We haven't had rain yet although the skies are cloudy today. We'll see how the weather pans out with the rest of the week's activities such as Maia's gymnastics tomorrow and Evan's first home game on Thursday.

Back to our schedules tomorrow. More then! :)