Take me out to the old ball game

James and I have been wanting to take in some baseball games for a while now and with a three day weekend happening, we did it. Saturday morning we headed off to Springfield Mo. to take in a Double A minor league team, the Springfield Cardinals. At first we didn't know if it would be a total wash out since we drove down in rain. Lucky for us the baseball gods were smiling and it stopped raining about 2 hours before the game started. It turned out to be a great night for a game, nice and cool with no humidity. First off, I must say the stadium was amazing, I don't think there was a bad spot in the whole stadium to watch the game.

The stadium is only 5 years old and the details were just amazing. You walk in and smell the ballpark food, hear the sounds and feel the pride this community has for their young hometown team. Don't get me wrong, Kauffman Stadium for the Kansas City Royals is a beautiful stadium but there is something about the minor teams stadiums that have a comfy cozy feel that you just can't get in the major league. I scored some great seats for the game, directly behind home plate 8 rows back. Here was our view:

Springfield Cardinals vs. Tulsa Drillers started about 30 minutes late due to the ground crew was still getting the field in shape but that was ok because we still needed to get food and drinks. After much resistance from James and myself NOT to blurt out the word "CHIEFS" at the end of the national anthem the game was under way. I was kind of torn, I didn't know who to cheer for, do I cheer for my home state or the town I once lived in for a while? I decided to play Switzerland and cheer for both. It was a great game including my first viewing of a grand slam, I never saw one of those when I was attending Royals games when James and I first started dating. 3 hours later the Cardinals won 11-3 and it was time to head back to the hotel for the night. I will end this blog entry with a photo of what I feel makes a great night out eating a bag of peanuts with my husband, talking, laughing and having a good time watching a game. Priceless.

Look at me... I'm turning 3!!

Well gentle followers... Jennifer and I have survived the "terrible two" stage of Bailey's existence. To be honest, she has been a joy and not terrible at all. This scares us both because we feel that she has been lulling us into a false sense of security and will come at us with both barrels blazing this coming year. It's a good thing I am taking 10 extra hours at college this summer and fall so I won't have to deal with it directly. I have full faith and confidence that my lovely wife, Jennifer, can take care of everything while I'm away. If not, then we will get her fitted for one of those lovely white jackets with the extra long sleeves that allows her to give herself a very tight, permanent *hug*.

Jen and I decided to have Bailey's birthday party at Cheese Mo's (for those unfamiliar with Bailey-ese, that is Chuck E. Cheese) on Sunday the 17th. Alex Hernandez, Bailey's best buddy's birthday is close to hers, so we (Monica, Jen and I) decided to have their parties together. As you can see from the pictures below, a good time was had by all.

In case you are wondering... Bailey got a goldfish, Dorothy (That is what Elmo's fish is called), from Jen and I. It has a black birthmark on its right side that looks like either a heart or Mickey Mouse head. But, as you can see from the pictures, she is a Daddy's girl and you don't hear him complaining one bit! Hope you enjoy the pictures of Bailey and Alex!

This is Alex (looking at the camera) and AJ, the neighbor boy to the kid's daycare provider.

Not so proud moment in Bailey's 1st

On Saturday, James washed and waxed the Jeep. The next morning as we were leaving, James discovered that the Jeep had been violated by a bird. Well if any of you know my husband, some of you can probably guess that James said a bad word. I'll give you a hint: it starts with "s" and ends with "t". I guess I should take the lesser of two evils here and be grateful Bailey only repeated the last word of the sentence he said. The first part was much worse and would have certainly earned both of them a time out.

Now in James' defense, his surgically repaired shoulder has been giving him problems and it looks like he will be seeing the doctor again. So he washed and waxed the car with a bad shoulder just to see it covered in bird poop the next day, I'm sure any of us would have cussed a little bit.

Bo Ling's, now that's true Kansas City chinese!

Friday night came and it was dinner out at our favorite Chinese restaurants in KC.

Here's a funny story (well it's funny to us anyway) about the title of this blog entry. Years ago, when James and I lived in a townhome, the basement flooded. 3 inches of standing water turned our once finished basement into an indoor pool with floating books, soaked furniture and water-logged computer equipment. It wasn't the best day we ever had and, naturally, neither one of us wanted to cook dinner that night after moving everything up to the first floor of the townhome. So, we decided to go out and eat at a local chinese buffet over by my work for dinner. We were seated in a booth and started enjoy the meal when we heard possibly the most idiotic statement we have ever heard in our lives. Behind me was a lady who shall we say, was just as large as the booth itself complaining about her meal. It seems she thought the buffet wasn't up to the level that it should be, this being Kansas City after all and it just wasn't true Kansas City chinese. "True Kansas City chinese" were her exact words and it was very hard not to just bust out laughing and make it worse for the waitress who was serving this lady her drink. The waitress, who happened to be of Asian ancestry was then asked by the customer if she was related to the chinese family who ran the buffet over in Lee's Summit because that restaurant was apparently true Kansas City chinese. Now let's be honest... When you think of cities known worldwide for Chinese food, Kansas City is NOT one of them. We felt so bad for the waitress we left a big tip for her and headed back to the disaster site called our home. We were laughing again and for once the day didn't seem as bad.

Bailey's green thumb

Over the weekend Bailey planted her own Sunny the sunflower from seeds her daddy gave her. It's now her job everyday after coming home to water all the plants in containers and of course her plant pot as well.
Bailey has her own Dora the Explorer gardening gloves to work in the yard with. She's cheap labor for hire, juice box and fruit snacks.

War of the Dandelions

Dandelions. I hate them. You mow them over, they come back with a vengeance. This simple well known weed was the reason for more yard work this weekend and I was not happy. I mowed last weekend and before the day was over those little annoying weeds were coming back. For every one dandelion that I mowed down, 15,000 of them took their place in the yard the next morning. Now I'm sure the 4 days of rain didn't hurt them but it's a fight I've been in with since we moved into this house and I decided to wage chemical war on the dandelions this weekend. The bottle said it treats a 5,000 square feet yard, now I don't know how big my yard is but it's not huge and I was able to do two passes with the stuff. The yard wasn't glowing but there was a strong smell that probably made the Vietnam vet across the street close his windows for the day. Now I wait and see if this stuff will work.

Since it was a nice day we decided to go outside on the back patio and let Bailey get in touch with her artist side with sidewalk chalk.