First Game

Gavin's first game was great... it was chaotic fun. The kids had fun play and we all had fun cheering. Kids were chasing the ball everywhere... one player from the opposing team chased the ball he hit and crashed into a dog pile with our team... too cute! Many players played in dirt, picked grass, talked or spun in circles (Gavin). The 2nd game was a little less chaotic but still fun. Below Gavin is cleaning off home plate when he made it home. Check out the T-ball album weekly for all the fun

March 4 Babies

It's that time of year when I help support the fight for babies being born healthy! Please support me in this. I’m also collecting cans to put towards our raising, give me a call to pick them up. Anything can help and is greatly appreciated.
Click on "support the fight" to be directed to my page and donate

Go Indians

Great day for opening ceremonies... but a long one. It started out with pictures at 8am and the coaches didn't receive the players shirts til last night... so we were scrambling to get them on all the kids. After pictures, we had to gather everything up for our booth. We bought 100 gold fish for our booth thinking 20/hour is sufficient and there's another goldfish booth going on... One hour in, fish were flying. I ran to the store and picked 100 more fish. By 4pm (the carnival ended at 5) we were completely out. It was crazy. Gav and A got a short nap and we were back at the field at 6pm to show off our team (the players help their banner proud and walked onto the field... soo cute). Not everyone made for our team or the other teams... it was a long day! I'm so proud of my little guy. He handled the day extremely well (he still takes naps) and I'm just proud of him period! My one complaint... and I must... is Gav refuses to wear his baseball pants at calf level. It drives me crazy when baseball wear the pants down to their ankles. But in fairness to Gav, that is what he sees at the games. His favorite Vladmir (now on the Rangers) wears it like that.
Gavin's first game is this coming Wednesday at 5:30pm. It is going to be a hoot!

Just Been Thinking

For starters... my throat is on fire! I've been gargling with salt water, drinking tea up the wazoo, tried a lozenge (they never do anything)... and now on to theraflu. Any ideas??? Please let me know

Because I'm too tired to do anything productive... I've been thinking about things I want to do in life. First off, finish my Master's. I'm supposed to be done next school year but my advisor received this grant money that will allow a couple grad students a paid internship in a stem cell lab. Incredible opportunity... if I receive it, I will be delaying things for a year but totally worth it. It is possible to placed at City of Hope (one of the schools I want to get my PhD at). Not only will I be furthering my knowledge in a hot topic of science but I will be networking. Networking is key! After PhD, teaching at the University level and my own research lab. If I want I can go into the field of Biotechnology.

Another goal of mine when Gavin is around 10ish... I want to home school him and Austen. Not sit at home and teach but go out on the road for some time (and I means months) teaching them the history of our nation. I've visited a quite a few states but there is so much to explore and learn. How many of us visited our state capitol or our nation's capitol? I've been blessed to have the opportunity to do both but many don't ever leave. This is a must do and visit some baseball parks =)
Also, spending some time visiting another country. My advisor received her PhD at Essex... you never know!

Next up, opening a Tapas (small meals... like appetizers for 1) Bar. I know the restaurant busy is crazy investment but in our area, there's a good amount of bars but no decent place to eat after. I would like to do it like the Spaniards and have a Tapas bar with wine and beer only. No hard liquor... I don't want it to become a drinking spot!
Cooking classes of course. William & Sonoma has some good ones every month.

Build a dream home! I think it would be so neat... and a headache to take on this task. I want to draw out the plans and be the head contractor. I would hire people individually to do specific jobs... and it has to be environmentally friendly as much as possible). To go with any house I live in. I want to start a green house... this gardening thing is awesome. I would like to produce enough food for our family... everyone must watch Food, Inc! I would never think composting takes more work than a vegetable garden but it does... at least for me. Best starter veggies... lettuce and peppers. Lettuce plants look pretty in any flower bed (I use a spring mix). Just a note if you grow any kind of pepper... DO NOT let the fruit ripen (turn red [mature])... that plant will never bear fruit again because it has succeeded its goal in life. I though it was so cute to let a jalapeno turn red (and its spicier)... then I was sad to learn that I will no longer have peppers from the plant. Thank goodness I'm picking the other one. Lesson learned, read up on what you are growing before hand--hello!

Right now, I need to step up on my volunteering. I've volunteered for various organizations for most of my life and I miss it. I still raise money and donate to various groups but I want to get back out there and use my hands. Going to try and help Marie cook at the City Mission once week... going to start out once a month or every other week to ease myself in.

This is the short list... there's so much I want our family to experience. I'm busting my butt now to get us where we want to be... hopefully
Hope didn't bore anyone with my ramblings

So Sweet

I always wondered when Gavin would have a friend on the block that he'd play with daily. Alina, 2 houses over, is that friend. When Gavin hears her outside playing he runs out to play with her and she does the same when he is outside playing. On Sunday, they were riding their bikes and all their other wheeled items. Alina ran inside to bring out her tea set and easy bake oven. It was so cute to watch the two of them have a tea party and bake a cake. After they were done with that Gavin asked if Alina could come over and play. After her mom said yes, they barged into the house and ran upstairs to Gavin's room and played with his bat cave and then the game "Sorry". Gavin has that friend that he looks forward to playing with.

I remember running across the street as a kid to play with my neighborhood friend. In today's society I just didn't know when it would happen and how I would feel about. I enjoy hanging outside with the other moms and watching our kids play. There's another family across the street with 2 boys and 1 girl. They don't come outside often but when they do, they all have a blast together.

Austen has been a nonstop ball of energy... She refuses to crawl! Also she's a blanket kid.... she doesn't drag a blanket around everywhere she goes or prefers one over another but A has to have a blanket in her crib when she sleeps. Austen takes her blanket, scrunches it up and plops down on top of it to sleep. Last week I didn't have a blanket in her crib when she went down for her nap. Checked in on her an hour later and she was laying on a pile of clothes. After I did A's laundry I left the basket up against her crib. A decided to pull clother from the basket, through the cribs rails and then sleep on top of them. It was cute. I make sure she always has something soft to lay on.

The chores from two weekends ago did get accomplished... minus the fish tanks. Now I have a whole new set of laundry to fold and wash the carpets. House chores are a vicious never ending cycle...

Did I mention that we are all sick right now too. We all have something different going on. Gav is coughing, A has a running nose, I have sore throat and headache and Boomer has an ear infection... no sleep the last two days

My intention for this post was to be all sweet... then I noticed it didn't end that way...

The RuffleBlog

The RuffleBlog

Getting things in order

We have so much to do that we seem to not be able to get caught up on anything... Besides 2 birthdays this weekend, we have many household things to do. I have tons of grading, homework and studying. Gavin and Boomer have baseball things to worry about... as team mom =/ I do too... not thinking about it til next week. The house is chaotic, yes I should be doing that instead of blogging but I'd rather complain than do it... he he. It was a holiday 2 Mondays ago and we didn't have to get up early so I cancelled the maid that Monday... so wish I got all our butts out of bed and let her clean. Now I need to get things in some order so when she comes this Monday, Rosa doesn't run out the house. Laundry is done but have tons of folding to do... I'd rather just live out of baskets... but it will be done this weekend.
Why do we have animals again??? Oh yes, Gavin loves them. Now I have fish tanks, frog tank, hamster cage and dog to clean... grrrr! Tonight I'll be up late doing personal work and laundry... maybe. I'd rather snuggle with Gavin... A is already asleep =( Tomorrow... dishes. Sunday after church... everything else. We shall see how things go. Oh yeah, I forgot to mention grocery shopping! I'm sure this will carry on to next week

Austen walking... she will be running soon

Here's the New Do

 
 

Update

Gavin and Austen both have wet cough still but its better. A still has her runny nose but thats decreasing too and she is now sleeping at night. Last week was rough... she only wanted to be held and couldn't sleep.
Went running yesterday... thought I was going to die going up the hill. I can't take a week off again.
I got a new hair cut... I have bangs. I haven't had bangs in FOREVER. I will post a picture later. I was called cleopatra in church today, so I guess it looks good???
Gavin starts practice next week. He got all his gear yesterday and is so excited.

Gavin starts baseball practice next week. We are all so excited, everyone has talked about this moment since he was born. We went to the parent's meeting last night to find out what team he was on and meet the coach... Well... he had a team but no name and no manager... and being the first ones to arrive (what were we thinking!) Boomer became manager and within 5 minutes parents were introducing themselves to Boomer. Once we got the run down for t-ball, we discovered it is a lot of work... oh yeah, I some how became team mom and Boomer gave everyone my email (which started coming in this morning at 7am) Gavin is sooo happy to have his daddy as coach, so it is working out well. I remember the days when my brother's baseball took over and I see that happening now... how many more years of this??? jp =)

Lately we have all been sick. Gavin had a crazy fever last Wed followed by a rash on Fri... it was fifth disease... now just a cough. Austen's fever came Sat night with her rash Tue... now a runny nose and cough. Gav had his 4yr check up and Austen her 9mo (crazy 9 months) today. Gav had to get booster shots (4 shots plus TB but no more for 6 yrs) and A received 2. They both took it very well... crying during the shots but both were all smiles when leaving the exam room. Boom and I are now feeling ill... and have no time to get sick.

Can't wait for this week to be over. My students had midterm lab practicals this week and it has been nonstop emails since last week. I graded a few papers and I'm very disappointed with the grades, overall not doing so well, but the ones I knew would do great didn't disappoint. One more lab tomorrow and it is all good til finals week... hopefully they understand how to study. I've slacked a little bit in my independent research, not by choice, just very busy. Going in early tomorrow to get back to work. Also, have slacked on running this week, but I can blame the rain... that will be back in effect tomorrow... ok Saturday for sure

Austen has started to take a step or two... she pivoted in a 3/4 circle the other day. Soon she will be walking

Added a new member to our zoo, Stella the hamster. We have non-experimental hamsters in lab which had 11 pups 3 weeks ago. We all took the pups home this week... I actually took 2, one for Mercedes. She named hers Bella. Her first night in her new home Stella escaped, still don't know how she did it, but she made a home behind the dryer. She is back in her home and now exploring it and hasn't tried to escape since. Very creepy watching her run behind the washer and dryer... made me feel like a mouse was roaming the house. I disinfected behind the machines to feels better

Have to go bake cupcakes for the Valentine's Day party at Gav's school