Happy Pi Day!

Today is 3/14, so those of us who are math nerds are celebrating Pi today by eating (what else?) pie!

The girls and I made an easy chocolate pie so we could celebrate (we finished it close to, but not exactly at, 1:59, so we missed the 3.14159, but we were close enough)

Since next week is St. Patrick's day, but also Spring Break (yea!!) we decided to go ahead and bake some potato bread today. Once a year the females in our family try to make bread completely from scratch in honor of our great-great - etc grandmothers. One of our favorites is potato bread made with an actual potato. Very Irish.

KC and Abby knead the bread. Abby thought it felt like pizza dough, so she was also honoring her Italian ancestry as well.

A few hours and sore arms later, we had potato bread!

I'm not sure how good it looks, but it's really tasty and filling (probably because of the potato).

Also this past week was a special spirit week at Brady and KC's middle school. A few samples:

Brady celebrates crazy hair day (picture courtesy of KC's cell phone)

I brought KC lunch for celebrate lunch with your kid day:

Bill brought lunch to Brady on the same day:

And Friday was Texan day:


Thankfully it is now Spring Break! Monday we are volunteering at a golf tournament fundraiser for Brady's baseball team (who won their first tournament last weekend!). Tuesday, we head to New Braunfels for the rest of the week. Hopefully this rain will let up and we'll have some nice weather to hang out in. Hope all of you are well! Take care and have a happy week!!

My first mobile blog post . . .

Howdy! Bill bought me a Blackberry, and this is my first attempt at a blog post using it so if it looks funny, apologies in advance. I also just realized it doesn't have spell check. Scary ...

This weekend, KC's dance company performed at a local elementary school carnival. They were great, especially considering they danced on concrete rather than a stage.



Brady has two baseball games this afternoon in Humble, and it looks like great weather, 80 degrees! He just got a new glove, so we predict some excellent defense today!

One week left until spring break! Take care, and updates later if I can figure out how. LOL

Update: The sliders won the tournament! Their first win with this new team! Congratulations, guys!

Pancake Tuesday!

It's Shrove Tuesday, the day before Ash Wednesday, also known as Mardi Gras around these parts.

Apparently there is quite a tradition associated with Shrove Tuesday . . . the following is from an interesting article I read:

Shrove Tuesday Pancakes!
by Bridget Haggerty

Throughout the British Isles the day before Ash Wednesday - Shrove Tuesday - is commonly known as Pancake Day. In Ireland, It’s called Pancake Tuesday. As the child of Irish parents living in London, I loved watching the Pancake Races. Usually, the contestants were housewives. Each of them carried a skillet which contained a large, very thin pancake. The idea was for the women to race to the finish line, tossing their pancakes as they ran. It was hilarious - especially when a stray pancake landed where it wasn't supposed to!

My other vivid memory of the day is my dad fixing our Shrove Tuesday supper - pancakes! As good as they were, we never had them at any other time of year. And, as good a cook as my mother was, she always let Dad take over the kitchen. Mum always claimed she was too heavy-handed to make good pancakes. I think it was a ploy on her part to let Dad have all the fun.

Mesmerized, we all watched as he mixed the ingredients, prepared the pan, and then poured the batter for the first cake. Then, we'd let out loud whoops of glee as he deftly tossed the cake high into the air. Everyone held their breath to see if he'd catch it back into the pan again. Rarely did he miss. As soon as the cake was done, he slid it on to a plate that had been warmed in the oven. Quickly, he sprinkled sugar all over it, squeezed on the lemon juice and then rolled it up like a crepe. In fact, that's really what it was. One after another, the cakes were piled on to the plate and kept warm in the oven until he'd made enough to feed us all.

The pancakes disappeared almost as quickly as my father did when supper was over. As the next day was the beginning of Lent, he'd be taking the pledge - i.e. abstaining from alcohol until Easter Sunday. So, he always went off to the local pub on Shrove Tuesday to enjoy a last night out. An exception was made for St. Patrick's Day - but that's another story.

In many countries, Shrove Tuesday was, and still is, a day of public revelry and carnivals. But, in Ireland long ago, it was usually a family celebration. For the faithful, Lent meant abstaining from eggs and all dairy products, so all of these had to be used up before Ash Wednesday.

Generally, the family, and sometimes friends and neighbors, gathered around the fire which was often fueled in part by the Christmas holly, saved just for the occasion. The pancakes were baked over the fire and the honor of tossing the first cake was always given to the eldest, unmarried daughter of the host. It was said that if she could toss it and receive it back into the pan successfully, she'd be married within the year; but, if it didn't turn or was dropped, she would remain single. Often, her mother would put her wedding ring into the batter for the first cake; if the daughter was successful in her toss, she would immediately divide the cake into enough servings as there were guests. The person receiving the piece that contained the wedding ring was doubly fortunate - they'd be married that year and their choice of a spouse would be a good one.

In addition to enjoying their pancakes, an Irish family in the old days would also have served generous portions of meat as the main course. I do recall that, while my father was making a great show of tossing our pancakes, my mother was at his side fixing his favorite pork chops. But, I don't remember my parents following the tradition observed in some parts of Ireland where a small scrap of meat from the Shrove Tuesday supper was pinned to the kitchen ceiling or inside the chimney. It remained there until Easter Sunday and was done so to bring good luck, prosperity and to ensure there was no shortage of meat.

It's hard to believe, but nearly half a century has passed since I first recall my dad making and tossing Shrove Tuesday pancakes. Since then, I've adopted many of the customs we follow in the United States. We'll don Mardi Gras beads and masks, play foot-stompin' jazz on the stereo and indulge in some great New Orleans-style cuisine. However, on the side, there'll also be a plate heaped high with Dad's Irish pancakes!
(end of article)

In honor of Shrove Tuesday, we are planning a big pancake supper at our house this evening! The kids have been excited since yesterday ("Hamburger Casserole Monday" isn't quite as big a deal, apparently).

Tomorrow is Ash Wednesday, the beginning of Lent. Since I've already given up most sweets and diet coke, I'm running out of things to give up that would be a meaningful sacrifice. This year, I'm going to try to give up an hour a day of TV (which is a big deal for me, since I generally only watch around 2 hours anyway at most). I want to give up the, let's just flip channels and see if anything is on while I fix dinner TV watching. My goal is to spend some extra time helping the kids with their activities and getting caught up on the household stuff during the week so we have more time on the weekends. I also want to be more proactive helping them get ahead on their homework and projects. We'll see how I do.

Welcome to the 21st century . . .

Even though we both work with computers, Bill and I had managed to completely avoid the whole text-messaging craze. We pretty much stuck to e-mail and phone calls. Our poor children surely suffered terribly, not being allowed to text 'sup to their friends 50 or 60 times a day.

Well, last weekend Brady played in a baseball tournament, and the Saturday evening game was stopped due to lightning. We were told we'd get a call if the game would be continued. I checked the website at 11pm and there were no updates. Went to bed. At 6am I woke up and checked our e-mail. The game was scheduled for 7am, boys needed to arrive at 6am to warm up. It was at that moment 6:05 am, and the fields were at least 30 minutes away. I woke Bill, we woke the kids (who probably thought the house was on fire with us yelling, "Get up! Hurry!). Brady got to the fields at 6:50am for a 7am game. It was not a fun morning. The boys held on to win that game, then lost their first playoff game at 9:30am.

Now, how did the rest of the boys get to the game on time? The team representative texted everyone's cell phone with the game time at 11:15pm. We don't text. Absolutely no idea about the game.

Monday evening, Bill went down to the Verizon store and bought us each a Blackberry Curve with unlimited texting. We passed our cell phones to Brady and KC, also with unlimited texting. Our lives will never be the same.

I'm still learning to use my new phone, but I did learn how to use the camera:




Updates and pictures from the game will follow, but we are finally in the 21st century. How about that?

Dancing in Baton Rouge!

We're in Baton Rouge, Louisiana for the weekend for KC's dance competition. Thankfully the hotel has Internet access! It also has an exercise center, and my knees are reminding me why I don't run very often. Ouch.

The girls have classes all morning and early afternoon until 2:30. The competition itself starts around 4:30 and won't end until 9:00 or so. We can take pictures without flash but no video cameras are allowed. Hopefully I can get a few pictures this afternoon before they dance.

Brady, Abby, Bill, and I are hanging out in the hotel room this morning. I'm wondering if Nickelodeon airs anything besides Spongebob. Ever.

Update: KC was so exhausted at lunchtime she ate quickly then took a nap.

Afternoon classes from 1-3pm, then the competition started at 4:30.

The girls danced to Boogie Oogie Oogie and did a great job.



The competition doesn't allow video cameras, so I used my regular camera to take a quicktime video. Unfortunately it doesn't have a zoom so it's pretty far away looking. KC is in the front center, with the long red ponytail. She's in front of the left hand side of the M on the backdrop for most of the dance:

The girls finished with a second place rating, which is really good!! They worked hard and I'm so proud of KC (and all the girls)!

Tomorrow is another full day of classes and then the final few awards. Hopefully we will be on the road headed home by 3pm!

Update: We managed to leave for home around 3:30 pm. KC hurt her foot on Saturday, but didn't even realize until after the competition was over (adrenaline is an amazing thing). She limped on Sunday, but insisted in attending every single class. Their group missed a first place rating by only a few points, so they really did do a great job!

Happy 2009!

Wow, it's January 15th already - halfway into the first month of 2009! Happy New Year!

We had a really nice Christmas break. After we cleaned up from Christmas, we decided to spend a couple of days at the Bandit, Bill's parents' vacation house in New Braunfels. We spent New Year's Eve playing board games and eating way too much popcorn. On New Year's Day itself, we decided to play 9 holes of golf.

This was Abby and KC's first time to actually play on a course and help drive a golf cart. I expected Abby to be bored and complaining within 15 minutes, but she hit it straight and really enjoyed herself! I let her drive the cart a few times. She only made one wrong turn, over a small hill but I got us going in the right direction (not before she screamed "We're going to die." Can't wait until she's old enough to drive - not).

Bill took the kids fishing too. They didn't catch anything, though. Too cold for the fish, I guess (or they were all recuperating from their New Year's Eve party).

We've been back at school since January 5th, and the big kids had finals this week. It was KC's first time to take finals, and so far she thinks she's done well. Brady has been studying hard, so hopefully his all went well, too. He has his hardest 2 tomorrow (Algebra and ELA) so I'll have my fingers crossed (hard to type that way, but I'll make that sacrifice). Today, Brady officially got his braces on. He has an appliance in the back that makes it impossible for him to close his back teeth, so he's chewing on the front ones. He was great and didn't complain at all (the technician and the orthodontist both came out to tell us how great he was). He won't let me take a picture yet, though. Hopefully soon.

Next weekend (on the 24th) KC has a dance competition in Baton Rouge. Her group is dancing to a disco number - it's really cute. It's about a 5 hour drive from here, so it'll be a hectic weekend. Brady has a tryout for a new baseball team that's forming in our area this Sunday, so hopefully he'll do well with that.

That's all the excitement in our world! Hope all our friends and family are well and warm. Take care, and all the best in 2009!

Merry Christmas 2008!

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to all!!

We had a very nice Christmas. Bill's parents came up for Christmas Eve and went to Mass with us. My parents and Jill and Sierra came up for Christmas day. We all received tons of wonderful gifts, and ate way too much!

I only finished two afghans for Christmas this year, but I did do a lap-afghan for my Grandfather earlier in the year and a couple of baby blankets for friends this summer (that's my excuse, anyway).

I made a Christmas afghan for my Mother-in-law, Sarah:

And an afghan for my niece Sierra in colors to remind her of the beach she loves:

But, truly the most gorgeous handmade gift this Christmas had to be the gorgeous quilt my mother made for me!!

It has A&M colors and fabric, with some butterflies for luck, and stone patterned fabric for a solid faith and foundation. It's absolutely beautiful! I have tried to quilt in the past, and the hardest thing for me is piecing everything together so the pieces are straight and the seams are even. I couldn't begin to approach the skill and precision of this one! It's just amazing!

The kids got some great gifts, too, but I'll have to write more about that later. We are headed to Troup, Texas today to attend a party for Bill's cousin Debbie's retirement. It's about a 4-hour trek there and another 4 hours home again, so I guess I need to get some yarn so I can get started on something for next Christmas!