and the verdict is...

Yesterday around 3:30, 4 tickets became available at work to the M's v Tigers in the Terrace Club. Seeing as I knew Emily and Jared were at the doctor's I knew they wouldn't be going to work last night. I got Jared coming out of the Doctor's office and told him he had 30 minutes to get to my house to carpool up for the game - and they made it! Emily asked me later if we were "last minute people"... Usually not, but it just happened to work :o)

We lost, opening pitcher gave up 7 in the 1st, and we didn't let them score anymore, but we couldn't quite recover. Tigers 7-4. There was a little boy in front of us who had his 'rally cap' on half way through the Tigers' first at bat!

Oh, and the color we're shopping for today:

PINK!

time flies... or has there just not been much of it yet?

Last August this was thier world:



Today they find out the sex of their baby! I'm excited for that, I've been so good staying away from the baby sections to avoid the yellow's... After today, it's on! Hopefully the baby cooperates!
We'll see them tomorrow, Ben's helping Jared hang some sheetrock and drywall... Remember how I said Ben never had anyone to watch or help do handy things? Enter Jared - the handiest bud a "handy-cap" could have! Hmmm, watch the boys or steal Emily away to go shopping...I think my weekend's shaping up nicely already! :o)



p.s. This isn't my picture, I stole it... from her sister's myspace :o)

my week/end:

quality time with my husband

great time with friends

yummy food

snuggling a sweet new baby boy &

playing at the park with his adorable sister

dulce de leche caramel cheesecake

cuddling on the couch

cleaning

disappointment with Baby Mama (I love Tina Fey, but it really stunk!)

on demand fitness channel workouts

really, really sore muscles

family BBQ

grocery shopping

back to work

late night, sorely needed, phone call with my best friend

sinus infection

Heartbreak

This morning my typically uplifting radio show, was not so upbeat. How to cope through tragedy was the topic today. Listeners called in and shared their stories of heartbeak and how by God's grace they overcame sorrow and despair. I love that I can listen and pray along with the DJ's for others - it really helps with the mind melting commute I have... This morning we were praying for well known, Christian artist, Steven Curtis Chapman and his family. They lost their little girl yesterday when she was hit in their driveway, by her older brother who didn't see her. How awful it must be for the family but also for that young man that now has this terrible burden to live with. So today, my thoughts and prayers are with them and, I'm reminded again of how precious and fragile life is.

Steven Curtis Chapman's site

Note: there's a link on the right that says 'meet Maria and express condolences' if you click there, posted is a very sweet YouTube video.

1 for 2???

Well, my pick for DWTS, hunk Jason Taylor took second last night to Kristi Yamaguchi. (I was a fan of her as a skater, but cutie football boy has been my favorite from day 1 of this show)

...On to AI, GO COOK!!!!
I like David Cook, I didn't until midway through the show. (Syesha was my #1 from the audition stage) David A has a great voice, don't get me wrong. It's just that his innocent, shy smiles and giggles anytime someone claps for him, are really getting annoying. Correction, have really been annoying. Own it boy! Act like you've gotten applause before - it's not new everytime! (And he's a little too Josh Grobin-esque for me! He has no versatility)

David Cook on the other hand, I think is an entertainer! It's kind of sad that he went to support his brother, who was trying out, and then made it alone (especially now that his brother's dying, hence some of Cook's more emotional moments on stage)...

Hmmm... I wonder if Archuleta's father will go out all 'Hockey Dad' style if he loses - that would make for great tv... not that FOX would show it, but we could always hope for a cell cam, youtube view :o)

Go Cook, GO!

(P.S. - Let it be known that I totally missed both DWTS and AI last night because Ben had to watch the season finale of NCIS - we love the show, it's entertaining, but man it's got some really bad acting!)

It's HOT!

It's 9:00 and still 80 degrees outside! I can't tell if it would have been a good thing or not to have had someone out today to look at the condo - probably a BIG waste of time. Once they found out how uncomfortable it was in here today - there's no way anyone would have offered to buy it!

Thursday morning I walked into the kitchen at work to find 2 tickets and a parking garage pass for last night's game. Ben was off so I snatched them right up! I think we have new favorite seats. These were the first row of the third deck, about 3 sections up the third base line. Foul ball territory! There were just killer seats and it was a beautiful night! We quickly became aware of the rather large man 6 rows back who was lovely enough to shout out every single thought that came into his mind. Hours of useless sports 'trivia', I use this term very loosely, as I'm certain that at least half of it was completely made up! Game started at 7:10 and if anyone noticed that unpleasant odor eminating from the downtown area - that was Batista stinking it up giving up 3 runs in the first inning! With almost every pitch in the first 4 innings I shot a look towards left-center field just hoping I'd see activity in the bull-pen! (Not that we have a pitching staff anyway.) We almost caught up several times but just couldn't pull it out. Still, a night out with my husband is pretty hard to ruin. However, it was almost tested a bit when we got to the car to find a note on the windshield saying "Sorry I bumped you car - here's my number, call me"... No dear, you didn't 'bump' my car - I need a new hood! It only took Ben to Mercer Island to cool down completely and be ready to chat about other stuff :o) I was able to get a hold of the woman today and she was VERY sweet and a Christian to boot, she doesn't seem to want to make this a difficult thing to get settled - which is such a relief!

This morning I got to sleep in until 7:45 - it was awesome! Ben left with his Dad to the gun show shortly after and for once I decided to stay behind. I took a long shower and bummed around the house for a bit, it was also awesome! Then we went and put the SOLD sign on our lot finally, we should have done it when we drew up the Purchase agreement but it was... ahem SNOWING at the time and we didn't want to be cold - instead we roasted in 95 degree heat. Mind you this was like 3 weeks ago! Ben came home to nap as tonight is his Monday and he needs to be able to stay alert! Awake he can do, alert is what he needs!
I went to Nick's game and saw 2 of my Grandma's, Dad, Chris, Nick, and a ton of very sweaty little boys try to battle out their best in the devil heat!

I picked up dinner on the way home and when Ben prayed he made mention of the heat and asked God to shelter us from the brimstone and fire that was descending upon the Earth at the moment ... I really pray God has a sense of humor, because Ben really likes to show his personality in his prayers!

Ben's off to work now, and I got online to notice Aubrey totally kick my rear in the posting department, so I thought it was time to maybe throw up an update.... Though I really love her updates - they always include pictures of my cute girls!

This was the view from our seats - We came back to the games just in time to see Richie off his suspension, from the game last week we went to :o)

...And this is with my wide angle. If only I could have captured some of the 'fabulous' commentary to share.

Ride the Ducks!

Friday was our office's "After Busy Season Event"... We got to wear JEANS to work!! The office closed at 12 and we piled into a bunch of cars then made our way downtown to Bucca Di Beppo's for the best Italian food I've ever had! The office sponsored the lunch and up to 2 drinks - which for a couple of my co-workers was much, much more than enough! (I had yummy Orange Cream Italian sodas!) We had a 'Duck' pick us up at the restaraunt and take us on a tour, because it was so nice we opted for the entire time to be spent on the water... It was great fun - except the office also paid for everyone to get a 'quacker'- And well, there's only so much quacking a girl can take!

(Click pic's for better view)

Best hit of the night!

Ben and I went to the M's games last night. The managing partner at my firm has season tickets: 4 seats in 2 seperate Terrace Club sections and then another set of 4, 10 rows back behind the plate. Ben prefers the home plate seats, and I think I do overall too. (You just feel so much cooler though in the Terrace Club! And the seats have a little bit of a cushion.) So I chose last night's game for our tickets this year, not because when I was looking at the schedule 7 weeks ago, I thought "We can't suck worse than the Rangers this year"... Okay well maybe that's what I was thinking. It was one of the few games that I knew we could make work with Ben's schedule and yeah, I thought we's had a better shot at beating Texas than the other options. Wrong! I had hope when we won earlier in the week, then the next night Texas slaughtered us 10-1, so I was brought back to reality and wasn't expecting a whole lot.
We got to Seattle, and made our way into a bar a few blocks from the field thinking we could grab a bite before the game. We ordered 2 sodas and 2 sandwiches. Sodas took a few minutes but it was a little busy being a sports bar on game night, no big deal. 20 minutes later the waitress (Whom I'm certain all the latest blond jokes were created after) came back and asked if we were ready to order... HUH? When informed her that she already took it, she giggled and walked away. 15 mintues later she did it again... and then again. After an hour and 4 visits to 'take our order' Ben was done and the game was about to start. He said something smart at her - which I'm certain she didn't understand, paid for our sodas and we left. After walking outside in the chilled wind Ben quickly remembered his coat was still on the bed. I insisted we find him something and thankfully at a little fan shop outside the field there was a 50% off sign - Jackpot! We found him the least 'FANatical' Mariner coat, got some kettlecorn and we were in business.
Inside the field we got our $14 (for what amounted to be 2 slices) Cheese pizza and then we joined my coworker and her fiance at our killer seats. Hernandez was our opener - he's younger than me, and in his first half of his first season he rocked - then his ego got HUGE and now he's a bit of a head case, 4 runs and 2 beaned batters later (we were all waiting for the Rangers to charge and beat the tar out of him - the first hit might have been an accident, but he certainly didn't mask the second hit well and got his warning from 'Blue') I actual was hoping Laird would charge and take him out of the game but no such luck... The next M's at bat, Richie comes up and well, this was the best part of the whole game!

So I had a video up but YouTube keeps pulling it - A pitch sailed right at eye level of Sexson (at 6'7'') - Which is a BIG NO NO! Richie charged the mound, bounced his batting helmet off the guys back and got one good blow into the cowering pitcher before Laird (catcher) tackled him from behind... Benches cleared and Ibanez and Lopez pulled Sexson out from under a pile of Rangers before he got hurt. We all cheered it on like a bunch of blood thirsty cannibals... It was great!

Kids say...

So little Brady was finally diagnosed with Asthma. The doctors have been saying that he's got pnemonia that he just couldn't get rid of (for almost 5 months!)... These doctor's finally got tired of Aubrey telling them that they were wrong all the time and her persistence paid off. She was finally able to get a specialist to look at him, and it's been established that the poor boy has been living in an asthma state of attack for months now.
Not to mention that little #5 of the White kids is the only one in the family that now has allergies to pets and foods (that can throw him into attacks with the asthma.) My dear friend now has to come up with a new diet for her little man that excludes ALL dairy, most fruits, and peanuts. Now let's think of all the things that you feed toddlers... Just about everything that comes to my mind is either made with dairy products or contains something listed above. Anyways, so she drilling it into the girls not to give Brady anything to eat unless Mommy approves it. Then in conversation explaining to family, friends, etc. about what's going on, the girls have picked up 2 very interesting words: "asthma" and "allergic"... Click HERE to see what they've done with it... It's adorable!
Hey, Carma - Brady's darn near Vegan now... Got any good little snacks you can think of that Aubrey can try with him when he gets teeth? :o)