10 Countries I Would Like To Visit

This week's Ten on Tuesday has to do with one of my favorite things. Travel! There are way more than 10 countries I'd love to visit so I just shortened it to the 10 I'd like to visit first. I have been to a few countries: Mexico, Guam, Japan, & Canada. Not as many as Military Man Coastie Brother tho. Don't throw it in my face, Bro!

In no particular order, here's what I want stamped in my passport:

1. France


2. United Kingdom


3. Italy


4. Ireland ( I know Northern Ireland is part of the UK but I want to visit it independent of the UK)


5. Germany


6. Israel


7. Australia


8. Fiji


9. Greece


10. The Bahamas

Frustrating

That's what my summer has been, folks. From the rain nearly every dang day to losing the pictures and music (I know, Coastie Brother, you are sick of hearing about it but I have to explain why I'm so frustrated). Then, the kicker. I lost even more pictures. I stupidly deleted my google account. I reckon I didn't read the fine print carefully enough. It would appear that when you delete your google account, it also deletes your picasa web albums. And that, in turn, deletes your pictures from your blog. Now, to ordinary people, that is just an inconvenience. A hassle but nothing tragic. But, to me, it was adding salt to the wound. Some of the pictures that were deleted are also lost to me forever (luckily, I have children who humor me and we were able to recreate some of the pictures). We have run all sorts of data recovery programs and while we have gotten back more than I ever dreamed, we still haven't gotten ALL of them back.

AND! Big D finally wiped out the hard drive and re-added everything. He refused to re-add the AOL software as apparently it's bad for your hard drive. He added our aol & comcast addresses to Outlook. I was pleased about that, but, now, I can't send mail. I keep getting an error. ARGH!

Lest you think I am an unhappy bitter person, I'll tell you some bright spots. I have gotten A LOT of reading done, I have been able to spend time with my children, I have been able to watch my daughter do what she does best, I have gone to lunch & spent time with several friends, I have seen several movies, and I went on an awesome vacation to NYC.

Friday's Feast

Happy Friday!

Appetizer

Describe a toy you remember from your childhood.
a fisher price doll filled with 'beans' named Annie

Soup

On a scale of 1 to 10 (with 10 being highest) how observant are you?
5; it really depends on the situation

Salad

Where would you rather be at this very moment?
anywhere that is not here, I'm not picky

Main Course

When was the last time you learned something new?
Tuesday; I learned that my daughter isn't afraid to sing in front of people and she does a pretty darn good job of it

Dessert

Fill in the blank: I have ____been a certified scuba diver for 17 years________ but I haven’t ____ever gone scuba diving________.

Stupid

The word of the week is Stupid. Here is a pic of a stupid thing we did in Chicago. We walked to the Field Museum from our hotel knowing there was a chance of rain. What we didn't expect was a torrential downpour. A maintenance worker was kind enough to give us plastic bags for protection. Bear's response? Oh great, now we are bag people!
It was a loooonnnnng walk!

Ahhhhhhh

*no spoilers*

That is the sound of a contented Harry Potter fan. After Lamb & I fought back & forth for control of the book for the past 4 days, she & I both finished yesterday (well, me early early this morning). Sure, I still have questions and I'm hoping once all the movies are finished & once the theme park opens up, JKR gets bored and gives a tidbit more about her magical world. I do hear that she's planning on writing a Hogwart's Encyclopedia filled with stuff she didn't include in the books with the profits going to charity. That would be cool!

One generation ends the journey....what will we do without the anticipation of the next book? and the next begins.....what fun for him!
JKR didn't turn my kids into readers, they were already, but it has been fun to read them with Lamb and talk about them. I hope something else comes along for us to read as a family. Melissa, maybe I should finally start the Alex Rider books? He's only been begging for, what? A year?

Good-Bye Mr. Biggio

Craig Biggio announced that this will be his last season as a player. He will be missed. Biggio & Bagwell were the heroes of the Astros when we moved here. I can't imagine that next season, neither will be playing. I can't imagine being there before the game and not watching Biggio being the 1st one on the field to warm-up. He & Bagwell leave a great legacy for future ballplayers. Great role models, great players, Good Guys.

10 Nicest Things

This week's Ten on Tuesday is all about nice things people have done for you. It was a little hard for me because my memory isn't all that great. I know I'm going to leave out something significant and for that, I apologize beforehand. I have been blessed with a nice hubby & nice parents. There is no way I could recount all they have done for me. In no particular order, here are 10 nice things done for me.

1. When Bear played football, I got a parking ticket during one of the practices. I was DEVASTATED. Money wise, it was the wrong time for it to happen. Worst of all, I had paralleled parked in that spot and I was so pleased with myself. It was obvious how upset I was and the other parents were so kind to me. At the next practice, I was given an envelope. Inside the envelope was money to pay for the ticket. Several of the moms had chipped in. I didn't want to accept it, but I was told it was like a 'pay it forward' type thing.




2. Hubby knew how much I adored John Grisham books. When The Client was being released, hubby got wind that Mr. Grisham would be at a local bookstore he supported signing autographs. He (hubby, not J.G.) picked me up from work and surprised me by taking me to the bookstore. We got there around 5 p.m. and just made it before the cut-off time. We waited and waited and waited. Finally at 11p.m. we were told that he wouldn't be personalizing anymore, just his name and only one autograph per person. I could understand that but didn't find it fair for us poor people at the end of the line. By the way, by this time, I was the last person. At midnight, we finally made it to Mr. Grisham. Somehow, and this part is fuzzy, I said something about it being a birthday present for me. He looked up from the book he was signing (not mine) and asked if it was my birthday. When I answered 'yes', he told me that I was very sweet to spend my day waiting to see him. And he signed my book "Happy Birthday, D... John Grisham." I was so excited and thought him the nicest man ever. No camera though. Darn.




3. When I was 16 years old, we moved away from my Arkansas hometown to right outside of Boston, Massachusetts. It was devastating as you can imagine. My birthday fell around the time of my Arkansas high school's spring break. Unbeknownst to me, my mom arranged to fly my best friend up for the week to visit me. I was so happy to see her. And, to make it even more special, my mom allowed her, Coastie Brother, and me to take the train into Boston ALL BY OURSELVES. I still can't believe she did that. And, thank goodness Coastie Bro was with us as he's the one who figured out the subway map. There are many nice things I could say about this best friend. She was there for me and my crazy dysfunctional family. And she didn't run away.




4. Early in our marriage, Hubby's car (our only car) needed some major repairs, to the point that it just wasn't running. We couldn't afford to get it fixed so my dad let us borrow his car so we could save money to fix our car. He used one of my grandparent's old cars. Not quite sure why we didn't borrow THAT car, hmmm....Anyway, at least we had a car to drive.




5. Between Lamb & Bear there was another pregnancy. One that only lasted a few weeks. When I started losing the baby, my dr. was away on vacation. The on call dr. finally scheduled an ultrasound for a Thursday. That Wednesday night, my dr. called me and asked that I wait until he got back into town so that he could do the ultrasound. He even told me to come in before office hours. I knew then that he really thought it would be bad news and he wanted to protect me. Sure enough, it was bad news. I always appreciated the caring he showed me. Sadly, the person who I thought was my best friend, showed up right as I was leaving the office with her newborn twins. Her words? Well, at least you have Lamb. Now, I don't look back on that as the worst thing that ever happened to me. We were meant to have Bear in our lives and he wouldn't be if my prayers had been answered that time.




6. While I was newly pregnant with Bear, my mom & I were in a car accident. Nothing serious, no one was hurt, but the man who hit us was very belligerent. A beer truck in front of us had seen it happen. He ended up coming back to us and staying until the cops/ambulance showed up. We never got his name but we sure did appreciate his Good Samaritan attitude.




7. Bubba's Sis. There isn't just one thing I can name. Probably the nicest thing she's done is just be my friend. She loves me, she loves my family. She understands me, she believes in me, she supports me. Every day there is a nice thing I could tell you about her. I will tell you about the latest. Knowing that I hate to drive and that the playhouse is far from me, she volunteered to drive Lamb for me. It IS a big deal. I thank God for bringing her into my life.




8. My first stepmom strongly disliked me. STRONGLY. However, there are 3 things that I'll always be thankful to her for. This is my favorite (besides introducing us). Hubby & I dated before cell phones were common place. Although, I don't think that would have mattered for this story. I worked in the church nursery at our church. Usually, Big D would go with me to hang out. This particular Sunday, he told me to just give him a call when I got home. I'm not sure where my dad was but he wasn't with us. I wanted D to be there when church got out so I wouldn't have to spend too much time with the stepmother. He wasn't. When we got home, I immediately called. No answer. I called again. No answer. By late afternoon, I was in near panic. My stepmother could see that so she called work (they worked together). No one had seen him. I had visions of him on the side of the road in a car accident, dead. Seeing that I was getting myself worked up, my stepmother offered to drive me to D's apartment and to look on the sides of the road. When we pulled into his parking lot, I saw the car. Whew. I banged on the door and when he answered, I was just burst into tears. Seems he fell asleep and wondered why I never called him. Phone fell off the hook. Seeing that all was well, my stepmother reverted back to herself. "I'm going home now. Bring all of us some pizza back with you."




9. Coastie Brother did an amazing thing for me. I'm not comfortable writing about it on here. Let's just say it was the 1st of many times that he took my side and defended me. And, to be defended was always important to me.




10. Bear's 3rd grade teacher, who is also my dear friend, knows the struggles I have with one of his friends and mom. To save me grief, she took it upon herself to take measures (so I wouldn't have to) to ensure that next year will be different. That's not the only nice thing she's done for me by any means. I also have another close friend who, while I don't talk to daily, I know she'd do whatever she could for me and my family. And she lets me borrow her books! These ladies make my heart sing.

No Apple Pie For You!

I love apple pie. I especially love Cheddar's apple pie. The flaky crust, the scoop of vanilla ice cream on top of the warm pie, the caramel drizzle on the plate. YUM! So, imagine my delight when Bubba's Sis suggested Cheddar's after the Harry Potter movie we had just seen.

Bubba's Sis and I had it all worked out. We would only get soup (plus the croissants, HAVE to have the croissants too) to eat to save room for the apple pie we would share. That's what Bubba's Sis & I do. We share dessert. We recently had the chocolate molten cake at Chili's. Usually to die for, but it was lacking this past time. That just made us really geared up for the apple pie.

We ate our yummy soup and croissants. Our taste buds just anticipating the dessert. Unexpectedly, my sister calls me so while I'm talking to her, out of the corner of my eye, I see the waiter come up & say something to Bubba's Sis. I notice she's shocked & outraged about something. She catches my eye and says: It's not good. It's bad bad news. What???? What could be wrong? Immediately after hanging up, I found out. The chef DROPPED the LAST apple pie in the whole entire restaurant. THE LAST PIE!! How does THAT happen? We were told that we could pick any other dessert on the house. Nothing looked appetizing. We had to get our girlies to their bible study. We were not amused. Of course, in hindsight, we should have picked something and let the guys wait for it while we took the girls. But, that's hindsight. Vision is always clearer then. At the time, we were horribly disappointed.

Apple Pie. Denied.

Silly Song Lyrics

Whenever Avril Lavigne's song Don't Tell Me comes on the radio, it never fails to get a giggle out of Big D. There is a particular line that he finds so silly and he loves to sing it. That line is: Get out of my head. Get off my bed. Yeah, that's what I said.

He didn't think anything could top that line. But, Fergie did it in her song Big Girls Don't Cry. His new favorite silly song lyric is: I'm going to miss you like a child misses his blanket.

That's it for today's cheesy song lyrics. Feel free to add your own.

Tiny

The Photo Hunters word of the week is Tiny. I still don't have all my pics up & running. Sadly, quite a few important ones are lost forever. However, while assessing the damage, I ran across this picture. This is our cat, Cleo, when she was a tiny kitten. There is no more of hiding out in the dollhouse for her. I'm sure she wishes she could as her brother dog 'terrorizes' her.

Friday's Feast

Happy Friday!

Appetizer

On a scale of 1 to 10 (with 10 being highest) how much do enjoy watching sports on television?
3 - I blame it on my dad ALWAYS having sports on the t.v. growing up. It's just not fun for me to watch unless it's the Astros.


Soup

If you could completely memorize any one work of fiction, which one would you pick?
FICTION, hmmmm, let me think......this is hard!! I am an avid reader and there are so many good books out there. I am currently reading the Yada Yada Prayer Group series and they have some good truths in there that I'd like to remember. I'll pick that.




Salad

What is your favorite breakfast food?
French Toast


Main Course

Name something fun you can do for less than $10.00.
play cards, dominos, or board games with friends/family


Dessert

How long does it usually take you to fall asleep?
I usually stay up until I just can't stay up anymore so I fall asleep quickly. If I'm not asleep in 30 minutes, I turn on the light and read some more.

What Does This Say About Me?

The building where my water bill goes to is just up the road from me. I pass by it more than once a week. Because I'm cheap want to save a stamp, I always drop the payment off rather than mailing it. Sounds smart right? Uh huh. Then tell me why I can never get it there on time? It's usually always a day late. One day. So I have to tack on the $5 late fee. All to save myself the price of a stamp. I think I need to just throw it in the mail.

Broke

I was really afraid that I wouldn't be able to participate in this week's Foto Pherrets as all my pictures are a little out of sorts, ahem. However, I remembered that I still have my New York pictures on a website. I *really* don't want to use another NYC Vacation photo. We do what we can do though, and this is a pretty significant picture. My interpretation of Broke:

We had just gotten off the Ellis Island Ferry and walked through Battery Park when we came across this. It stopped us in our tracks. We didn't know it was there so we weren't expecting it. This is a sculpture from the World Trade Center plaza. What's left of it anyway. Now it's an icon of hope and the indestructible spirit of our country. The eternal flame was ignited on September 11, 2002. A very humbling experience.

Dear Lord, Remind Me That I Love My Husband....

That's the prayer I keep saying to myself as I sit here fuming mad. Last night, I thought I had a poltergeist in my house. Several freaky things happened one of which was the computer royally acting up. Hubby has been saying for awhile that he needs to 'clean up' the computer. In layman terms, that means delete everything from the hard drive and then readd it. Since it also acted up for him, he decided to tackle that task. We have 3 hard drives: our c drive with all our programs, d drive where I store all my pictures/music, and an external hard drive where I'm supposed to store all that stuff in case of hurricane or fire emergency. He knew that I hadn't moved everything over yet. To be honest, I forget it's there since you have to manually turn it on.

So, I am at Gringo's my absolute favorite Mexican restaurant eating lunch with a friend. My hubby NEVER calls me when I'm out. Ever. So, I'm sitting there enjoying the company and my yummy green sauce when I hear his ringtone. "Uh, hey, um, you copied all your pictures onto cds or into the external drive, right?" he immediately says. "No, you told me not to worry about copying everything over right now and I've got some of the pictures copied over," I anxiously respond. What follows isn't revelant, mainly a bunch of naughty words. For whatever reason, to fix the c drive, hubby DELETED the d drive thinking it was just JUNK sitting there. JUNK!! I just hope Gringo's isn't forever ruined for me.

Hubby immediately downloaded a recovery program. It looked like most of the pictures were recovered and most of the music. I had over 2000 songs so there is no telling what I'm missing and what I'm not. I *think* this year's cross country/track for Lamb and little league for Bear are recovered. However, from what I can tell, this year's Astros did not. That means Jeff Bagwell appreciation day, gone. Craig Biggio's day after 3,000 hit, gone. Photo Day? Yep, gone too. As we were copying the pictures over, we had a power surge. Yep, all gone again. Hubby was frustrated, I was frustrated and together that's not a good mix. We are leaving it alone until Hubby comes home from work.

sorta update: I was able to load my jukebox (can't listen to the songs as they are 'broken links' but I was able to print out my music library (49 pages!) so I'll at least know what songs I have and what songs I don't. I'm trying not to stress about the pictures.

I ♥ my husband...I ♥ my husband...I ♥ my husband...I ♥ my husband...I ♥ my husband

10 Movies From My Childhood

This week's Ten on Tuesday has to do with movies of my childhood. I love being taken away by a good movie. I was a child back in the day of the vhs & beta wars. The Brat Pack movies were during my teen years. Not a bad time to grow up with the movies!

1. Grease - I saw this movie when I was 8 years old. Oh, how I loved it! I owned the double album, books, posters, you name it. When it came out on vhs, a more excited girl there never was. And I was thrilled beyond belief when I introduced it to Lamb and she loved it as much as I did when I first saw it. 2. Gone With The Wind - Back in the day before vcrs, Gone with the Wind would come on t.v. once a year. I would anxiously await the time it would air. In my eyes, Vivien Leigh was the absolute most beautiful woman in the world and Clark Gable the most debonair man. I would wait all a twitter to hear: You, sir, are no gentlemen. And, you are no lady. 3. Wizard of Oz - another movie that came on t.v. about once a year. It would scare me to death. My Navy dad was stationed in Hawaii and I can remember him calling us one night and I excitedly told him that I finally watched the whole entire movie. I made it past the flying monkeys!
4. Blue Hawaii - The highlight of summers when I would visit my dad was to stay with my aunt and uncle. We would HAVE to watch Blue Hawaii with Elvis Presley. I insisted. To this day, that is still my favorite Elvis movie and he even sings my favorite Elvis song in it5. Footloose - I was about Lamb's age when this movie came out. It was such fun and had *the* best soundtrack at the time. It even caused me to crush on Kevin Bacon for a bit. And, for shame, they are REMAKING it!!! With Zac Efron as Ren!!! Now, I like Z.E. just fine. But, I don't think the movie needs to be remade. I'm still quite verklempt about it6. Star Wars (trilogy) - I can remember my mom debating about taking my brother & me to see this sci-fi movie that everyone was talking about. She finally decided that we could handle it. My brother & I loved it! My brother collected all the toys and that was one thing that we would/could play together. For Christmas, my mom would hunt down the specific hot toy Coastie Brother wanted (along with every other boy in America). Sadly, the toys were lost/damaged/something and didn't live long enough for youngest brother or even Bear to play. Like Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, the Star Wars movies have been loved by all the generations in my family7. Top Gun - I've already told ya'll how this movie changed my life. 8. Dirty Dancing - This is a movie from my teen years. As a matter of fact, I was a senior in high school when it came out. It charmed me! I saw it like 3 times in the movie theater. "Nobody puts Baby in the corner" was our mantra for a time.
9. Breakfast Club - Another teen movie. This is my favorite Brat Pack movie. I always wondered what happened Monday at school.
10. Gentlemen Prefer Blondes - This is the first Marilyn Monroe movie that I saw. She enchanted me. Absolutely beautiful and funny. And that pink dress!! I still covet that pink dress she wore when she sang Diamonds are a Girl's Best Friend.honorable mention: Indiana Jones trilogy - another movie Coastie Brother and I loved as kids. I remember I had to leave my seat when the huge spiders were all over his back. Made me ill. There was another lady out there with me who was skeeved as well. Now I can sit through the whole thing.

Sisterchicks

Before my dear friend, Melissa, moved away, she introduced me to the Christian Fiction book series, Sisterchicks. Basically, they are quick light reads about 2 friends (the friends are different in each book) who travel to some exotic location. They find some truths about themselves and God along the way.


Another dear friend of mine is planning a trip to Europe with her sister-in-law/BFF. A real life Sisterchick adventure! It got me to thinking that I have never been anywhere by myself. When I was a senior in high school, I did spend Spring Break at my best friend's home in Arkansas. I flew there all by myself (well, and about 100 other strangers). But that was really going from family to family. I have never left my family and gone somewhere for vacation where I was the only person from my family there.

I so want a Sisterchick adventure for myself. So, I'm going to add that to the Top 10 Things To Do Before I Die. Leave my family at home and go some place grand with another friend. I'll start saving now.

Shadow

The photo hunter word of the week is shadow. Last summer, we took a Rambling Road Trip that took us to Marion, Ar; Memphis, Tn; St. Louis, Mo; Kansas City, Mo; Oklahoma City, Ok; and Dallas, Tx. Along the way we saw some baseball games, state capitols, and interesting little tourist things. This picture came from the Oklahoma State Capitol. The statue is called The Guardian. He also sits atop the dome of the capitol building. I thought it appropriate that the way the light shone it cast a shadow in all directions. That way he is able to truly guard.

On the menu for this week:

Appetizer

What is your favorite fruit?

pineapple

Soup

Who is someone you consider as a great role model?

Miley Cyrus and Jeff Bagwell (ok so I picked 2 someones)

Salad

If you were to spend one night anywhere within an hour of your home, where would you choose?

can it be one hour by plane? I think Memphis is only an hour plane ride away. I'm probably wrong tho. If by actual time, I guess Galveston. It'll be night so I won't actually see the beach/ocean. Hearing it would be just lovely.

Main Course

Name something you do too often.

go out to eat

Dessert

Fill in the blank: I really like ____wedge shoes_______ because ___they make me taller_________.

A Star Is Born

Lamb and her BFF are attending a month long drama camp this summer. They (40 kids divided in 4 casts) are going to perform The Little Mermaid for daycares, libraries, etc. Neither girl particularly cared what part she got as long as it wasn't something like Woman #2 or Fish #5 or Flotsam/Jetsam (since they are BFFs and talk together they were really afraid of that one). All they wanted was to be a character. After 2 days of 'grueling' auditions, they finally found out their parts.

Guess which part Lamb got??????
That's right! She's 1 of the 4 Ariels, THE Little Mermaid!!! Head on over to Bubba's Sis a little later and I'm sure you'll see what role BFF got as well. We are sooo proud of both of them. They are shaping up to be quite the actresses and having to sing in a musical is going to make their confidence soar. They are just too awesome! Way to go girls!!!!! Love ya'll! :)

All About Me A-Z

Bubba's Sis tagged me. :)

A- Attached or Single? attached for the last 18 years
B- Best Friend: I have been well & truly blessed in this category
C- Cake or Pie: either or both!
D- Drink of Choice: caffeine free diet coke
E- Essential Item: my camera
F- Favourite Color: red
G- Gummi Bears or Worms? neither
H- Hometown: Pine Bluff, Arkansas because that's where I lived for most of my school years
I- Indulgence: highlighting my hair
J- January or February: February, because it's almost spring and in Texas it's pretty good weather
K- Kids: two: 13 yr old girl and 9 yr old boy; both are a little odd and a whole lot amazing
L- Life is incomplete without: Family and friends
M- Marriage Date: December 31, 1989 and then we 'eloped' to Vegas & renewed our vows May 15, 2005
N- Number of Siblings: 4: 2 brothers, 2 sisters. I only grew up with 1 brother. The others are way younger than me. I also have 4 stepsisters and 1 stepbrother. I didn't grow up with them either but I did grow up with a stepbrother who is no longer my stepbrother.
O- Oranges or Apples? Apples, especially if they are cooked in a pie or cobbler or something
P- Phobia: spiders (altho there are so many little ones around here I'm getting a tad used to them)
Q- Favourite Quote: "Life is so daily"
R- Reasons to smile: summer vacation, fun kids, great friends to hang with either in person, IM, email, or blogging, flowers for no reason, going out to lunch (dinner too)
S- Season: Spring
T- Tag Three: anyone who'd like to participate! If you blog, let me know and if you don't, put your's in my comments section.
U- Unknown Fact About Me: In the last 18 years, I have only filled up the gas tank 2x. And both have funny stories to go along with them.
V- Vegetarian or Oppressor of Animals? Both
W- Worst Habit: worrying
X- X-rays or Ultrasounds? I've had both; x-ray & 1 ultrasound had sad results and the other 2 ultrasounds had joyous results
Y- Your Favorite Foods: Mexican, Italian, and American
Z- Zodiac: Taurus

Power of Advertisement

Mama, I have a cut on my toe. See? I think I need a band-aid.

It's ok, just a little scratch. I do believe you'll live after all. No band-aid needed.

Mama! You saw the commercial with the little girl. Her mama thought she'd be ok too. And look what happened. It got infected. I seriously doubt you want that to happen to me.

You are right my darling little hypochondriac. Go put a band-aid on.

After several attempts and some coaxing for the toe & band-aid to Just.Act.Right.

Awww, look how cute. It's like my toe has a little t-shirt on. Now, aren't you happy you took good care of me?

Sing! Sing! Sing!

The foto pherrets word of the week is sing.
Bear (& his Poppy) loves the song Hips Don't Lie by Shakira. Bear's favorite part of the song is the "Shakira, Shakira, Shakira" line. Imagine our delight when we saw this window display at the Hard Rock Cafe. Being the family that we are, we had to pose Bear singing in front of it!

10 Favorite Things

In no particular order, here are ten of my favorite things.

My favorite:
1. number
2. picture of hubby & me (bad scan :( )
3. way to read 4. Military person 5. Christmas present

6. flowers

7. jewelry

8. beach

9. princess
10. memories
I'm assuming everyone knows that hubby & the kids are my favorite people. ;)

Smile, There's a Baseball Star Behind You!

The Houston Astros has this really neat promotion where you can go out on the warning track and have your picture taken with the players. There is a barricade that separates us and they walk down the fence. All you have to do is ask and they'll pose with you. Most of them are very friendly and some of them have their idiosyncrasies. For instance, Morgan Ensberg (3B) always wears his batting gloves (when Jeff Kent was on the team, he did too). Craig Biggio always stands a little ways back so the fans can't get too close. This is our 3rd time doing this and things worked a bit differently. The more famous players weren't allowed to do individual poses (they were taking way too much time at the first part of the line) so they had to do like Craig Biggio. Stand back, pose, smile. Hunter Pence (left) is Houston's newest Honey (watch him, he'll be Rookie of the Year). He & Brandon Backe (right) felt really silly doing that and wished they could come to us.


This is Lance Berkman who plays 1B or the outfield. I'm not sure what determines what position he plays. He's lost weight so I almost didn't recognize him!








Here is Craig Biggio who recently got his 3,000th career hit.

This is Orlando Palmeiro. He is a relief player but he is always so happy to be out there posing for pictures. He got really silly this go around. The boy in front of Bear got the Dr. Evil pose. In this one, he was being silly to get a good smile out of Bear.






Sigh, Brad Ausmus. Our catcher. Our dreamy ballplayer. He was the very last one and the one all the ladies were there to see. My mom is afraid this will be his last season (contracts up) and I hope she's wrong!