Top 5 - Colors!

Yes, I am doing a top 5 and yes this top 5 has been inspired by my oldest daughter.  It is of no surprise to anyone that has been around her that her favorite color is purple.  She LOVES purple.  Well, recently she told me her 2nd favorite color is yellow.  I am pretty sure this is because of Belle from Beauty and the Beast. 

The combination of purple and yellow has causes for concern in our household from a sports standpoint.  Is she going to root for the Lakers?  the Vikings? and worse yet...what if she starts rooting for LSU!  She won't be allowed in her grandparents house if that happens!  We will definitely have to work this.

Here are Samantha's top 5 colors (I asked her)...

1. Purple
2. Yellow
3. Pink
4. Blue
5. Orange

I love Blue and orange so this was a pretty easy top 5 for me to come up with.

1. Orange
2. Blue
3. Red
Now, this is where is gets tough.  Those are clearly my top 3.
4. Yellow
5. Purple

What is your top 5?

Texas Ranger Stadium

A couple weeks ago, I had to travel to Arlington, TX for work.  I was going to be there a few days so I immediately check the Rangers schedule to see if they are playing at home.  Luckily, there were at home and they were playing Baltimore so tickets would be easy to get.  I looked on stubhub and tickets were going for $14 for 15 rows up in right field.  Awesome!

I ended up going to the game and meeting a co-worker (recently moved to Dallas office) and his family.  I was thoroughly impressed with the stadium but before I talk about my time inside, I need to talk about my time outside.  There is a giant spaceship/ enormous building in a parking lot not too far from the stadium.  People tell me that is new Cowboy stadium or Jerry World but I am not sure I believe them.  Texas Rangers stadium holds almost 50,000 and you can easily fit 2-3 ranger stadium inside that building.   I think inside that building a zoo, disney world, football stadium and 4 hotels.  In all honesty, I was blown away by the size of Jerry world.  I would love to see a football game there.

When I went inside the stadium, I was not disappointed.  I really enjoyed my time at Rangers Stadium.  I took a few pictures as you will see below.  A few highlights:

• They have a huge amount of food selections from sweet potato fries, Chicago style hot dogs, BBQ, to the usual.  A lot of choices.  I split a 'boomstick' with my co-worker's 14-year old son.  That is a 2 foot long chili cheese dog.  It was glorious!
• The stadium is a shout out to other stadiums.  RF where I was sitting is a tribute to old Tiger stadium.  Very cool.
• Center field area is a big outside bar area with 4 different bars you can choose from.  
• PBR tall boys!  Yes please.  Yes, not only was the food selection vast but the beer selection was vast.
• The Rangers won the game and Beltre hit 2 HRs in the same inning.  Yeah, they are good. 

I was excited outside to check out a new stadium!

It might have been dollar hotdog night but we decided to go after this dog.  It was glorious.

The bar area in center field.  It was a nice open area.

If they serve it, I will find it...

Do not leave your phone! Ever!

Sorry bro.  I am WAY late writing this up.

So, at the end of July, we decided to spend the afternoon/lunch in my brother's backyard celebrating a few birthdays (Cheryl, my dad, me).  The kids were playing, we were chilling, it was a great time.  Well, my parents decided to go home and it ended up being Cheryl, Craig, Michelle and I sitting outside.  Meredith was sleeping and Jackson, Jeremy, and Samantha were inside playing.

Well, we get a phone call about 15 minutes after my parents left, it was my dad.  My mom left her phone at my brothers house.  Sure enough we looked for about one min and found the phone.  Here is where the story gets interesting.

I throw out the idea of taking a picture of a full moon and making it my mom's background on her phone.  It was still daylight out so I hope you understand what I am talking about.  Well, everyone thought it was a great idea so the plan went into action (Partial nudity is below.  You have been warned!). 

After we successfully loaded the background, we put the phone away and were laughing really hard about it.  When they pulled up, Craig ran the phone out and the race was on.  We were wondering how long it would be before she would see it.  I thought days but within 20 minutes Craig's phone rang and a not too happy mother was on the other side of the phone!  I am pretty sure my dad probably had trouble keeping the car on the road when my mom told him what had happened.  I also found it funny that my mom knew it was Craig in the background!

Morale of the story - Never, ever leave your cell phone behind!

Nothing says "I love you mom!" like a full moon!

And here is the final product.

Why Vin Scully is great

Food Sensitivities

Well, this post (and my next one) are LOOOOONG over due.  A few months ago, I came to the conclusion on my own that I was lactose intolerant.  It was something that had been building for months and getting worse.  Just to be sure, I went to a doctor that specializes on the nutritional side of things.  I went to Essential Health Solutions.  After a talk with the doctor, he recommended I do some blood work to test for food sensitivities.  Honestly, I wanted a peace of mind and agreed.  They basically tested everything under the sun. Here were the results...

Sorry for the rotation issue.  I am not the best blogger...lets be honest.  So, cow dairy I already knew but that means everything including cheese.  Hellllllooooo goat cheese! 

Lets talk drinks for a minute.  Sodium Benzoate is in almost ALL diet drinks.  So that is out.  I can not drink tea.  So that is out.  I am left with water, if I am feeling crazy, water with a lime or lemon, coffee (black), and alcohol (thank goodness!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!). 

Now, lets talk garlic and butter (because that is cow dairy)- I have found out the hard way that when going out to eat, garlic is in A LOT of food and I have to be careful how things are cooked.  Garlic really kills me.  I love garlic.  Oh well...

Needless to say, I have been preparing most of my meals and truth be told, I have been eating a lot cleaner these days, steaming veggies, eating lean proteins, etc.  Well, over the last month or so, I am down about 20 lbs.   It really is amazing what impact this had and my choices of eating clean as well.

Now, a couple things the doctor told me.

1.  75% of all people become lactose intolerant at some point in their life.  I was shocked by this but it makes sense that drinking milk is not a natural thing to due for mammals as an adult. 
2.  I need to avoid all of these items for 3-6 months.   After 6 months, there is a chance my body's immune system will reset and I will be able to slowly bring back these foods.  So, in September, I will be retesting these items and seeing where I stand.

Oh yeah, cheese.  This becomes an issue with PIZZA!   Yep, any pizza I have now is make-your-own-pizza with goat cheese.  Where I feel really embarrassed is when I am with friends.  Oh - you are ordering pizza, yeah, can you order some wings or salad for me?  I feel like such a inconvenience.  This is my problem not anyone else's problem. 

Now, I know there is a pill out there called lactate that you can take if you want to eat dairy.  I have used it and it works but I prefer to just stay in the habit of avoiding these foods.

Well, that is where I stand and I apologize for any inconvenience in advance if you ever eating with me in the next few months.

Vacation is over

To say we had a good time in Florida would be an understatement. it was a great time both at Michelle's parents house and on the cruise. Below are a couple videos of Samantha taking pics with Minnie and Snow White or as we like to call just another random day on Mickey's boat...



She wanted to take her Minnie to meet Minnie...

Video of Samantha and Jeremy dancing

For some reason the sound did not come over. It is a small glimpse into what was going on.

Date night

Last Saturday, Jon and Erica had a wedding reception in the suburbs to celebrate their wedding that they had the week before in Mexico. Michelle and I were thinking of getting a babysitter and heading out to the party but we thought it might be fun for Samantha to go to the reception. Both of her cousins, Jackson and Jeremy, were going to be there along with a lot of other family. Michelle said she would stay back with Meredith and I could take Samantha to the wedding reception.

Here is a photo of my date and I before we headed out for the night. The reception stared at 6 pm. I was hoping Samantha would make it until 8 pm. You see, Samantha was not having a very good day. She didn't sleep well the night before and she was REFUSING to take a nap. After two hours of fighting it, many tears and meltdowns she finally went to sleep at 3 pm. Well, she woke up at 4:30. We left at 5:15 for the reception...



She also did not sleep in the car on the way out there. Consider me shocked! When we got there, my mom took her and walked her around the place. After a little mingling, we had to take a seat for introductions. Samantha really liked all the clapping as the wedding party was introduced.

At this point though, Samantha would not leave my side. When we sat down, she wanted to sit on my lap. They had hor d'oerurves but Samantha did not want to eating. This is when I started to get nervous. I thought the night was going to end quickly and I was going to have to take a cranky Samantha home.

Then the music started. Samantha didn't want to eat. She didn't want to sit down. She wanted to DANCE! And dance we did. Any time I sat down on the sidelines, she would grab my wrist and say "Let's go dance." We did however take a long enough break from the dance floor to make these pictures for Michelle in the photo booth that was there.

In the end, we had a great time. I got her to put her jacket on and leave around 9:15 or that is what I thought. She was pretty upset when we got to the car. She kept saying she wanted to go back to the party and not go home. I thought FOR SURE she would fall asleep in the car. Nope. We were talking, laughing, having a good time on the car ride home. 45 minute ride home - she was still awake.

When we got home, she was telling Michelle all about the party. She did not fall asleep until 11 pm!

A random thought on the night is the following. I did not have a drop of alcohol but danced and partied more than I would have if Michelle had gone and I did some drinking. Too funny!

I have a short video of her dancing but I am having trouble loading it into youtube. I will post it once I figure that out.

Pre-Game Rountine

I loved this piece from Jalen Rose. As I am getting older, I really appreciate it. It makes you look at someone like Steve Nash or Kobe and think "how the hell are they doing this day in and day out?"

Meredith's First Movie night

Samantha got Beauty and the Beast from Grammy last weekend as a gift and I think it took about 3.5 seconds for Samantha to request that we put the movie in the dvd player and watch it.

I took a quick few pics of Meredith's first movie night. We made popcorn. We grabbed a seat to watch. Samantha and I typically pull out our sleeping bags for movie night.

A few comments about the pictures below.

1. Please disregard the chaos of the living room. It is quite lived in.
2. If you notice Samantha has a princess sleeping bad and I have a black sleeping bag. Once they are laid out, it is customary for her to then take over my sleeping bag and I get hers. That is why she is laying on mine and her sleeping bad is empty.
3. I have gone from never seeing Beauty and Beast to having seen it three times now. I probably should stop counting.
4. Meredith's first movie night was a big success! I am sure there will be many more.

A comparison

So we already see so many differences between Samantha and Meredith. However it seems like Meredith does take after someone.... Here is one pic.



And here is another...

The black and white one is me.

So - does she look like me?

15

As I am sitting in my parents' living room, I am thinking about the broncos's season and what a crazy ride it has been. I am going to sum up my thoughts in bullet form.

1. Let's talk a few min about Mr. Tebow or '15'. It is crazy to me how definite some people think they are about a guy who has started now 16 games. He is only 24. I do love his humility, his work ethic and leadership. The man knows how to win. Only time will tell but I hope is qb of the broncos for the next decade.

2. Did josh mcdaniels have a better draft than we give him credit for? I knew we were a mess with him at head coach but demarius Thomas when healthy looks like a beast. Tebow is playing better and better. Ayers is solid on the d-line. I guess only time will tell.

3. I am really bummed that Brian Dawkins got a neck injury that looks like it might be career ending. The guy has been a great safety his whole career, slowing down with time but has meant a lot to our defense this year.

4. Elway had a pretty good first draft. I guess it helps that we had the number 2 draft pick. I love Von Miller. Too bad he has been slowed by injury too.

5. This team is young except for their secondary. It would not surprise me if champ moved to safety and we get some new corners.

6. We need running backs and a good te! McGahee can not carry the ball as much as he did this year. He won't last. Can we trade for Aaron Hernandez please???

7. I will be rooting hard for them tonight but I don't see them winning this game against new England. Too many injuries and new England is the better team but what they do I know? I am wrapped in a snuggie as I write this!

8. I have been torn on Fox all year but the players love him so I guess that is what matters most.

9. Won the division and won a playoff game so far. already exceeded my expectations....

10. This the first time in awhile I am excited about the future of the Broncos


This is my first blog from my iPhone. I like it!

Have a good weekend.

I love Tecmo Bowl...

and I love the Denver Broncos. This video is fantastic!