Halloween '07

OK trying to get a little caught up! The kids had a blast for Halloween, which to me seems like a much bigger deal down here than it does up North. People go all out decorating their houses, putting up lights, decorations, etc. etc. much like the norm at Christmas. With the homes so close in our neighborhood, trick-or-treating takes on a carnival-like atmosphere with most of the adults getting involved too, either accompanying the kids or scaring them from home. It's not uncommon to have a couple hundred kids total hitting you up for candy by night's end! Daniel's costume went over huge this year as you can see, and Claire saw this Snow Princess costume in a catalogue and had to have it. We had a nice night with temps in the low 70's, making it ideal for the packs of ghouls, princesses, etc. to rake in a big haul.

Rookie of the Year

Queen Frostine

Candy Thief

Clowning Around

"This is GREAT!!"

Pumpkin Patch '07

All of these shots are from our annual trip to the Flower Mound Pumpkin patch just prior to Halloween. As the kids get bigger we have realized maybe going on a weekend isn't the greatest idea any longer! While it's still all great fun, the search for the perfect pumpkin has evolved into "Let's see how fast we can go in this wagon without: a)the pumpkin falling out; b) the kids falling out: and c) running over any toddlers or senior citizens in our path." I'm happy to report that both a) and b) were successful this year.

FINALLY!!!

Well after a solid month-plus, I can finally access my blog again! I'd like to say thank you to Time-Warner/Comcast for eliminating my comcast.net email address without saying anything, which just so happened to be my login name for this blog. After many an email, the good folks at Google, who sponsor blogspot, hooked me up and changed everything around so that I can access "Tales from the FM" again, which is nice considering I author the friggin page!! There are many pictures to post and many stories to tell, so let's get on with it shall we?

The Texas State Fair

Among the many things going on this weekend was our trip to the Texas State Fair in Dallas, which has become an annual tradition. Now, in the Northeast, your local town fair is a pretty common site come September and October. Not so much here in Texas, where they have one for the state, which would be like having one fair for all the states east of the Mississippi and north of say, Atlanta. Not unlike the Big E, it goes on for several weeks, with headline entertainment like Billy Ray Cyrus. So, you see, it's a big deal around here. This first shot of Claire & Daniel is below "Big Tex", the moving, talking mascot of the state fair. Not coincidentally, this will also be my Halloween costume this year if I can find the right shade of Dickies and Texas flag shirt. (Of further concern is that the real Big Tex is bilingual but I refuse to take it that far).




Here's a shot of Daniel and yours truly taking out one of the duck boats at the fair. These take a little work to pedal/paddle but once you get up to ramming speed you can do some real damage. Unfortunately Dawn did not get a picture of the massive snapping turtle that came up and tried to take off one of my fingers.



Here's a shot of our two little flowers mucking it up. I had to convince Daniel he did not look like a pansy in this photo, while Claire proves she's not a late bloomer after all.



And it wouldn't be a fair without a barnyard animal's ass in someone's face, now, would it?

A Weekend to Remember

This previous weekend was one to remember as we flew up to New York and Connecticut for the Petroske wedding. It was quite a whirlwind, but worth every moment. First and foremost, I want to thank Denise, Dean, Zoe and Beau for letting us invade your home yet again and turning everything upside down. We love your new house and still can't believe you're officially New Yorkers. Debbie, George ... it was a great wedding and I think I speak for everyone when I say how great a time we had. It's times like those when you think about how little time we really have. It was a joy to see everyone and share in the celebration.

I snapped a few candids of the ceremony that came out pretty well so I thought I'd share with all. I'll post a few more later in the week also. For those of you who missed crashing at the cottage after the reception, here's a good one of Daniel on the breakwall, and what would a montage be without Pee Wee mucking it up for the camera??

It was so nice seeing everyone again and sharing in the special moment. And then, when you think harder about it, all moments are special.

More pics to follow soon ... click on any above to expand.

What do these three pictures have in common?

The correct answer would be, what we did over the weekend.

Friday night, we took the kids out and had our first exposure to "Friday Night Lights" as we caught our first Flower Mound high school football game with some friends. An average crowd of about 12,000 was there to witness the Jaguars fall to the Grapevine Cowboys, 20-7. While the girls had enough by halftime, it took me everything I could muster to drag Daniel out of the stands. I had to basically bribe him that we'd come back another time ... which we will of course. Sitting next to some neighbors, we couldn't figure out why they kept throwing that flanker screen, so we drew up what was sure to be a better gameplan up in the stands. I will say this: high school football in Texas is big-time. Bands, majorettes, color guard, you name it ... and most of the community in full support.

Saturday morning I woke up and was feeling awfully mechanical. That doesn't happen very often, but after taking the boy to swim lessons, and a trip to the Home Depot, I had the tank off the toilet and there were parts everywhere. Our downstairs potty, not unlike myself, has had a chronic leak for a little while now. You name it, I replaced it, and had that little porcelain beauty working like brand new in no time. Two hours later, why was there a small pool of water there on the floor??? It was satisfying to find out today that NO! It was not my plumbing ineptitude after all, but a faulty valve on the supply line ...

The rest of the weekend Dawn and I took on the herculean task of cleaning up our landscaping, mulching and planting new flowers for the fall. Picking out flowers for us is a lot like picking out furniture: 5 minutes in, you're throwing haymakers. I just want to get in, get out, and get it done ... like most guys. I thought I'd come out strong with the old standby: "If you like it, then that's all that matters", but for whatever reason she was still asking my opinion. I got nervous and back-pedalled and suggested some mums again and the next thing I know it's an episode of WWE Smackdown. That's the hardest part really. The brute effort of pruning everything and cleaning all the clippings and the 16 bags of mulch are nothing compared to the actual picking of the flowers. I snagged a Gerber Daisy when she wasn't looking and went through picking off petals. "She'll kill me. I saved my balls. She'll kill me. I saved my balls ..." Wouldn't you know the damn daisy had 9 petals.

We'll see many of you this weekend for the wedding and we can't wait to see you! For everyone we miss ... I promise kid pictures with the next post.

First day of (Pre)School

This past Tuesday was Daniel's first day of preschool, the same one Claire attended before she entered kindergarten. Check out these "before" and "after" faces! Going in, Dan the Man was exuding confidence and machismo ... Matchbox in hand, ready to face any challenge. Now check out that terrified little boy in the right hand photo! (Click on the photo to get a closer look at the fear). "you're going to what? LEAVE me here all day?? Fortunately, the sky did not fall, and he survived the first day with great success. Yep, once he found out there were girls there, our little lady's man likes school just fine now, thank you.

Glamour Queen

This weekend, Claire was fortunate enough to go to a "Libby Lu" party. For those of you not in the know (like me), this is a birthday party for little girls, who go to this place and dress up, have their hair and makeup done ... all the stuff little girls like to do except they have trained professionals catering to their every whim. Think JonBenet Ramsey with a mall storefront. While Daniel and I stayed home and did what guys like to do on the weekend (hang out in our underwear and watch the good Sox crush the bad Sox), Daddy's little girl was being done up in nail polish, hairspray, and toppped off with the Audrey Hepburn scarf and sunglasses.

I don't know what this means, but I know one thing: I'm reporting Libby Lu to the INS.

Take Me Out to the Ballgame

This past Thursday, I was fortunate enough to score our company's seats to the Rangers game, which are just a few rows behind home plate. Granted, the Rangers are not the beloved Red Sox and are out of it by May every year, but it's still a fun family outing, especially when it's on the house. The kids, as you can see, were particularly fond of the ice cream sundaes, served in a mini-helmet.


It's fun sitting so close to the action, no matter how far out of the race the teams may be. It's still "the Bigs" after all, and baseball at this level is always good. But especially when you have good seats. Sure enough, though, whenever we go to a Rangers game, there is always some weather oddity taking place, whether it's freezing temperatures or the remnants of tropical storm Erin, as was the case that night. By the end of the rain delay, it was about time to get the kids to bed, even though Claire hadn't had enough ...

Preseason

Thank God it's August and real football is almost upon us!! Thursday marked Daniel's first football game. Don't let the photo fool you ... the man was jacked up the whole day getting ready for the game, and I couldn't coax him to leave Texas Stadium until there were only three minutes left in the game. I pondered that thought for it a bit, and couldn't have been more proud. Daniel truly is "mini-me". Years from now, I know he'll be talking about his first NFL game, seeing Peyton Manning and the Colts come into town fresh off their Super Bowl win. As we drove back to Flower Mound, I could hear him in the back seat, talking to himself about the touchdowns and the goalposts and everything else he witnessed in that holy shrine.

Each night, before we go to bed, he has to read his favorite book ... "NFL A-B-C" ...
Except these nights, Daniel follows up each image with " 'member, we saw dat!!" ... Now that's what the preseason is all about.

The Heat and Halloween

Greetings from the F.M., where you can really only think of one thing around this time of year: the heat. Extended forecast ...Thursday, 100; Friday, 100; Saturday, 101; Sunday, 102. I don't care if it's a "dry heat", 102 is damn hot!!

Funny story today: I get home from work and after dinner, we're sitting around on the couch with the kids, Dawnie and Claire on one couch and Daniel and I on the other. Daniel is trying to rough house, as per usual, and the girls are going through a mail order catalogue. All of a sudden, Claire looks up at Dawn and says, "But Mommy, I don't WANT to be the Statue of Liberty for Halloween!!" I look at Dawn with the "You've got to be kidding me" look, and she just busts out in full hysterics. I guess it's another princess costume this year. Don't worry Claire, I'll talk to your mother ...

Aqua kids

Not much going on in the F.M. today but we did manage to get over to the family pool at the Lifetime Gym today. During the dog days of summer, especially here in Texas, there's not much to do outdoors on the weekend after noon, unless you're in the water. Daniel, the madman, has been working on his belly-flop technique now going on most of the summer. Check out these action shots while we were on vacation in San Diego a few weeks ago (and yes that IS David Hasselhoff):

A Mickey Mouse Operation

Well I've been kicking around the idea of posting our family doings in a blog for some time now, and brother Dave's new blog has given me that extra push I guess. Come here whenever you feel like catching up with the Texan Homroks. Dawnie says this is one of those things that will last a few weeks ... well we'll see about that. It may or may not, but hopefully we'll be able to keep you up to date and entertained. Not in a "Christmas card letter" way, either -- I promise. And sooner or later, I hope to overcome Dawnie's fear of the internet and have her posting here too. In the meantime, kick back, relax, and check in on us. We'd love to hear from you, too.