Category: Richard’s projects

A Good Night at the Ballpark

Daniel played a great baseball game the other night.  A few of the highlights:

  • His team won decisively (10-3 or something).
  • Daniel pitched the entire game (4 innings, 73 pitches!).
  • In the first inning he struck the first two batters out and the third batter was thrown out at first.
  • The second inning was a repeat of the first with two more strike outs and a quick out at first.
  • At bat, he hit a double and two singles 🙂 and struck out once 🙁

Would you like to see him in action?  See below for a video recap.

Austin Now

Yes, that’s Richard in a field of Texas wildflowers.

Richard was in Texas last week. Most of the time he was in Dallas, but he took a day and a half to visit our family and a few friends in Austin. He visited our old house and the trees we planted in our yard.  He ate a Freebirds burrito and went to Chuy’s (whoa, boy; lots of Tex-Mex!) and rehearsed the finer points of dry, sarcastic humor with his brother, Rob. He’s still serving out that brand of humor a week later.

Scout-o-Rama

Before you read on, here are some helpful definitions:

o-rama: a greater-than-usual number, volume, or variety of a specified thing: used to form commercial names and other words for events and displays. (Dictionary.com)

Dutch Oven Dump Cake: 3 ingredients. 45 minutes. Bliss. (7-up, cherry pie filling, chocolate cake mix)

Council: Boy Scouts are organized in geographic areas called Councils. There are 2 Councils in Arizona: Grand Canyon and Catalina; we are a part of Catalina Council.

Today we went to the Catalina Council Scout-o-Rama. Our Pack did a booth on cooking. We had 4 Dutch ovens going at one time and we cooked biscuits on sticks. The hit was the dump cake.

Daniel raced his District-winning car and won 3rd place in the Council. The trophy is 2 1/2 feet tall. New centerpiece? Coat stand?

The little boys had some good times, too.

There were rockets to launch…

Trees to climb…

and cars to race.

Paige was there and made it to the top of the rock climbing wall (seen behind the red car above).

I smell like a campfire, but it was worth it.

Dreams encapsulated

…in wood and psychedelic designs. No, Richard, I don’t need help with the camera. I want the photo to look like this.

We just need a coat of poly and the precious wheels with their polished surfaces and flawless axles. This car is poetry.

Speaking of poetry, Daniel wrote a Pinewood Derby Sonnet last spring. I share it with you now to bring you into our circle of anticipation:

Pinewood Derby Sonnet

The shining pinewood racing cars lined up,
In anxious silence racers waited there,
They were all thinking of the derby cup,
The happy talk and brownies they would share,
The wooden cars zoomed down the gleaming track,
The cars pulled close together then they tied,
The winning cars were hung up on the rack,
Results came in; with Joy the people cried,
With happy hearts the winners shook the hands
Of disappointed boys who lost the race,
With joy the people shouted in the stands,
There was a smile on everybody’s face,

In years to come our sportsmanship will keep;

In days to come, true happiness we’ll reap.

~Daniel Ross

I was a Hunting Widow this week

Run, Bambi, Run!

Today after church I stood outside the building, apparently looking listless. The boys were playing in the bushes and Paige was in a meeting. Someone yelled from their car window, “Are you a widow this week?”

And I shrugged my shoulders. I hadn’t told many that Richard was gone. But I’m no good at hiding things. I was anxious to get home to see if he had made it back safely.

He noticed my clean house and my new haircut (Love him!) right away.

I missed him. The above are the creatures he “shot”… with a camera.

More on the hunting trip later.

How My Man Spent His Weekend

cinnamon rolls 001

My man made these today.

I just enjoyed their sweet whole grain goodness. Yes, he even ground the wheat to make the flour.

He also took the boys swimming this weekend so I could help set up a pinewood derby track.

He bought the wood for the Pinewood Derby trophies and took Mark shopping so I could set up for art class.

He changed the oil in the car.

He watched Mark during our art class on Friday and saw that Mark was on time for his portrait.

He set up a mailing list and website for a local club.

He helped me work on Grandma Ruth’s family tree.

He brought us food when we were hungry at the art class.

He got take-out for me on Friday night because we couldn’t go on our usual date (Paige was baby-sitting elsewhere).

He drove Paige to her YW activity in the wee hours of Saturday morning. (Paige went rappelling!)

He rocked Mark to sleep at church.

He is at church meetings tonight while I get to sit and do things that I want to do. He never complains about that!

He’s amazing.