Our Ike-tastic Weekend

Due to evacuations from Hurricane Ike, our great friends the Lowries (Mark, Alayna - aka Laner, Evelyn, and Everett) came up to visit. They had evacuated before the hurricane since they have two little ones and Laner is due with Evan in December. They had been staying at Mark's parents' house outside of Austin and needed a break. We were so excited to see them since we always have such a great time together.
What follows is an account of the activities we enjoyed while they were here.

Saturday evening

Due to evacuations from Hurricane Ike, our great friends the Lowries (Mark, Alayna - aka Laner, Evelyn, and Everett) came up to visit. They had evacuated before the hurricane since they have two little ones and Laner is due with Evan in December. They had been staying at Mark's parents' house outside of Austin and needed a break. We were so excited to see them since we always have such a great time together. They arrived Saturday after lunch. We kinda sat around and chilled since the kids were all napping. When it got to be dinner time, we all headed up to our favorite Mexican dive, Don Juan's Romantic Mexican food. This place has bean (hehe) around for years and is a favorite. We were meeting lots of people there: Joyce, Charlie, David, and Steve Smith; Martha and Jordan Palmer; Momma, Daddy, and Grandnanny. Steve was in town before heading to NYC for the show he is currently working on. Don Juan's is not a huge place so we took up the entire back room. It was a great time. We squeezed into the booths and were all cozy. After the kids finished their food, we went ahead and let them run around since we were the only ones in the back. (NOTE: We never do this but since there was no one else, we figured it wouldn't be bad parent!) Everyone had a great time just watching the kids run around. Evelyn kept running over to my mom, whom she calls Nanny, and giggling. Then she'd run over to Steve and tickle him and then run back to my mom. She really enjoys my parents, especially since they bought a box of strawberries for her!!)

Sunday afternoon

After teaching Sunday School, I returned home to a house full of people ready to go to the zoo. We got there and got all of kid gear unloaded. We decided to make our way down to the Texas end since it was close to lunchtime and we were getting hungry. When we go to the zoo, we pack a cooler with lunch - saves so much money!! I don't think we have ever purchased any food items at the zoo (souvenirs are a different story!) . Our bunch looked so cool though! Evelyn rode in a stroller. Everett and K sat facing each other in our Radio Flyer wagon. If you haven't seen it, it is decked out!! We have the canopy plus the attachable trailer. There's not a time that we go that people don't ask us where we got it. We realized the first time we went that there wasn't enough room for all of our bags plus K in the wagon. We saw a family that had the trailer and decided we needed one. Luckily, we found one on Craiglist.

The boys really enjoyed being in the wagon. They would sit there and just talk to each other. Laner asked Evelyn what the boys were saying. She replied, "I don't know," with a tone that suggested she was above baby talk. We ate our lunch and then made our way over to the little farm area so that the kids could see the cow, chicken, pig, and goats. Everett loved all the animals, especially the goats. He would just walk up and start petting one.

K on the other hand, showed his fear of farm animals. He just cried whenever Chris would get close to the animal. Such a big boy!! We left the farm experience and went into the reptile building. I stayed outside with the stuff since that building gets crowded. K and Chris came out and we sat on a rock and marveled at our "little" boy as he ran around. Out next stop was in the new penguins exhibit. It is in its own building. They have a glass window from floor to ceiling that goes the entire length of the exhibit. The smart zoo people even built a little ledge that kids can stand on. Since Mark go stuff duty, the rest of us took the kids in. We waited a bit for a space to clear and then set the kids up on the ledge. The penguins were swimming around. Everett got scared whenever one swam towards him. He took a step back and almost fell off the ledge. I caught him but my quick movement scared K so he started crying. After that, the penguins were no fun. We quickly left and took the Lowries to the really cool bird dome. It is filled with parakeets, cockatoos, and cocktails. You pay $1 for a Popsicle stick covered with birdseed. You walk into the dome and wait for a bird to land on your stick. We usually go to the zoo in the mornings so the birds are hungry. They will zoom to your stick. You can even have two at one time on it! By the afternoon, though, they have had their fill and it was tough getting a bird to eat on the stick. We did manage to get some though. I held Everett while Laner stayed outside with the stuff. Everett was so funny! He seriously was like that Looney Tunes character - he wanted to touch them and hold them and squeeze them and called the George!! So cute!! After the cool bird experience, we headed up the mountain to check out the big cats. It was awesome!! Before we even got there, we could hear the lion. He must have been feeling pretty frisky because he was calling out to any available females very loudly!! I personally have never heard a lion at the zoo. This one is usually sleeping whenever we have been there previously (again, get there early, not much action). He would yawn and show his teeth and tongue - HUGE!! The kids were really impressed by his calls. I was happy that K didn't start crying!! Next to the lion is the tiger exhibit. They recently put the new tiger cubs in the exhibit with their momma. I could see the momma up on a ledge sleeping but no babies. It took a while to realize that they were curled up with her!! I got our super cool camera and got a few close up shots of the babies - so cute!!

Next, we headed to the elephants - K's favorite. They were so active!! They were kicking balls around, kicking the barrel around, and swaying. And they were really close to the fence so the kids could see how big they really are.We really learned that the later in the day, the more we see and hear!!

I mean even the hippos were active. They were having a great time playing with the water spray.

We stopped by and saw the giraffes and then headed to our last stop - apes!! They were all pretty active except for the big gorilla in the center. He was sitting up at the top next to a window. We went up to check him out. He looked so sad in his eyes, like he was bored. K started crying when we tried to get him close to see the gorilla so that didn't last long. Needless to say, we had some tired kiddos and parents!! We went home and put the kids down for naps.

Sunday evening

While at the zoo, we smelled the delicious odor of hamburgers on the grill. It was then and there that we decided to have a cookout for dinner. When we got home, the kids went down for naps. Chris and Mark went to the store to get stuff for dinner. I had invited my parents and grandmother over. I also invited our friends the Priests over. They have season tickets for the seats behind us at the Airhogs. Chris took charge of the grilling and did an excellent job. When we sat down to eat, we said our prayer. We have been holding K's hands or shoulders since he was a baby when it was prayer time. This time, he held our hands the whole time. After was said amen and did our hand squeezing, we let go of his hands. He then grabbed our hands and said "Amen!" It was a total thrill of my soul to see that he understands!! The burgers were great. Though we were reminded that K doesn't like burgers yet. I ended up making him some mac and cheese with veggies. He did eat that but was totally shoving the baked beans into his mouth as fast as he could. There was a whole lot of visiting and laughing and cheering (Cowboy game was on). It really felt good to know that we have people in our lives who enjoy being in our home and sharing a meal together. The best part of the the evening was when Everett and Evelyn started singing "Ring around the Rosie". Everett is hilarious at this. When it comes to "all fall down", he throws himself on the floor and just giggles!! And Chris and I lost it when K joined in. While the Lowrie kids are spinning in circles, our pride and joy stands there and twists his body so that his arms flail around. For "all fall down", he bends over and smacks the floor. The rest of the night, he was running around saying "Ashes, ashes, ashes, ashes." But it didn't come out as ashes. Sounds like he was calling for a donkey!!

Monday afternoon

Chris and I had talked during the day about going to Don Juan's to eat dinner since Mark and Laner had enjoyed it so much. When I walked into our house this afternoon, the funniest sight greeted me. Laner was sitting in the green chair and Mark was sitting on the couch. Both had the "hand caught in the cookie jar" expression on their faces. Why?? Because they were snacking on Don Juan's!! We were kinda worried they didn't like it but I guess our fears were totally wrong!! Their kiddos were taking naps. They had a good day checking out the state park in Cedar Hill. They really enjoyed the beautiful nature the park offers but the playgrounds (a total must for all parents with little ones) were a complete bust!! Metal slide??? In the sun???? Crazy!! When Evelyn woke up, she went with me to go get K from Miss Becky's. She enjoyed seeing all the kids. Though she was a bit flabbergasted that it seemed like we walk everywhere! After Everett woke up, we watched the kids play for a while. We then went to Mike Lewis park which is close to our house. I made sure to grab the leftover hot dog buns we had since there are ducks at this park. We got there and unloaded the kiddos. This is a new playground and the equipment is not your typical equipment. There really aren't separate playgrounds for toddlers and older children. It is mostly for older children with lots of climbing things. Evelyn hopped up on the big wheel. You are supposed to ride it laying down and holding on for dear life. She wanted to ride it sitting up. So, I gave her a spin and she fell off. No cries though!! From then on, she laid down on it. They did have this little red cup that spins. I put K in it and spun him slowly. He wasn't too happy about it. He enjoyed walking on the stuff they put for ground cover. It is shredded tires and quite bouncing! We then ventured to the other side of the pond and waited for the ducks to come over to us. I will say that this moment was the highlight of my day. Each child truly showed their unique personalities. K was walking around saying "Mack! Makck! Mack!" - his immitation of a duck. Then he would go "Meow!"Meow!" Evelyn kept handing the bread to the ducks saying, "This if for you, your majesty." We tried to tell her that she needed to throw the bread but she didn't. Then one of the ducks got her fingers when he or she was trying to get the bread. She started throwing after that. Everett, was sitting there eating his bread. He would pretend to give it to the ducks but would quickly put it in his mouth. K also showed that he still cannot throw. He kept "throwing" the bread but it landed right by my feet. I was afraid that the ducks would mistake my white little piggies for pieces of bread! While feeding the ducks, Chris came to the park on his way home. He just laughed at our little boy quacking and meowing at the ducks. After the ducks, we went back to the playground for a few more minutes of fun. Mark put Everett in the little red cup. He really liked it. So much so that when Mark took him out, he cried. So, Mark put him back in and spun him some more. After a few minutes, it was time to go. Mark got him out of the red cup and walked over to the big wheel to give Evelyn a few more spins on the big wheel. While we were standing there watching the fun, Everett's tummy realized that it didn't like the spinning and he threw up a bit. But it didn't phase him at all!! He was ready for more fun. Before we got to go have more fun, we would have to stop by the house and change Everett's shirt.

Monday Night Dinner

After some suggestions, it was decided that we would eat at the Oasis on Joe Pool Lake. Since the Lowrie's had explored that state park side of the lake, we thought they would enjoy seeing the other side that is managed by the city. The Oasis is a nice place since it is on the water. We decided to sit outside since it was a nice night. We got a table away from the smokers. the table looked so dirty that I had to pull out my trusty anti-bacterial wipes. Both Laner and I used a wipe but we were astonished to find that the table wasn't dirty at all!! The dark spots looked more like cigarette burns than anything. We ordered our food and just enjoyed talking to each other. Mark stated that this would be a pretty romantic place....if we didn't have the kiddos with us. And it really was with the sun setting, the splashing of the waves, and the cool breeze. Granted, you had to ignore the slightly fishy smell!! We really had a great time just sitting there talking and watching the kids. K kept looking over all the glasses to make sure that Everrett was still there. At the end of the meal, I put a napkin over K's head and asked "Where's Keegan?" He pulled it off and all the kids just laughed and laughed. So we had to go around the table letting each child "hide". So much fun!
I really did enjoy yesterday afternoon. It made me realize that we really are depriving ourselves of some great fun when we just sit inside during the evenings. I had a total paradigm shift about this. I always felt like the evening was half over when I got home from work. This day made me realize that there are so many things that I can go do with K outside. Looking forward to our next grand adventure - Wednesday afternoon at the library!!

Why we are nominated for Parent's of the Year

Whenever I think I've got things under control, God reminds me that he is in charge. Last night, he did just that. And at church of all places!! We have a very full Wednesday night. Our church provides dinner on Wednesday nights for the low price of $3 a person - SWEET!! And it was spaghetti night - a Teubner family fav! I mean who needs desserts when there is garlic bread!!! Anyways, K tore into his spag and made a fantastic mess of it. It was time to clean him up so I open his diaper bag and come to the strange realization that THERE ARE NO WIPES!!! WHAT??#?$?#!?!?#!? But I put a bib and cup in there and didn't even notice!!! And of all meals not to have wipes! So Chris goes and gets wet towels (lovely, industrial strength ones that absorb no water and are horribly coarse). We get him "cleaned" up and Chris takes him to the class where he is setting up for the FPU class he teaches. I use the time to clean the high chair we used. Totally grossed me out but it will be the one that we use from now on since I KNOW it is clean. Ok, got that done and collect K to take upstairs. As I pick him up, an order hits me and it is not pleasant. Great!! I hated it when parents would drop off kids with dirty diapers when I worked in the nursery. And then I am floored with another realization. Not only do we not have wipes, we also have no diapers!! Great!!! Luckily, the gals in the nursery have a sense of humor and laugh off my lame apologizes for the situation. YEAH! After bell practice, I go to pick him up from the nursery. They are not smiling. The first words out of their mouths were "He had two poopy diapers." Great!! Thank you!! No, no autographs, please.

Why Rhonda rocks

I have this good friend that I truly have known for a long time (And I've know her hubby FOREVER). Her name is Rhonda and I am so blessed to have her in my life. Not only is she doing what I would L-O-V-E to do (homemaking diva), she is active in her faith, community, and life PERIOD! She and her hubby are raising two beautiful girls. She has a fantastic laugh that she's not afraid to use. And she inspires me to write my blog even though she's the only person who does. I love that she shares freely things that she cooks for her family. She mentioned tilapia fillets at Costco and we picked some up. I am always looking for great ways to get more fish into our menus. Boy was she right on target with those. We all enjoyed them - even K! He ate a few bites and started going "Mmmmmm". He ate all but a few bites of a whole fillet. We were impressed!
So, in the spirit of sharing, here is one of our recent (and easy) recipes: Bubble Up Pizza

1 can spaghetti sauce (any flavor but not plain)
1 can refrigerated biscuits
toppings you like on your pizza (onions, bell peppers, mushrooms, etc)
mozzarella (2 cups)

NOTE: I like hamburger on my pizza so I brown a lb of ground meat (can be beef or turkey). Preheat oven to 350. Mix in other toppings in and get them warmed up. Add in can of spaghetti sauce. Quarter the biscuits and mix in with sauce and toppings. Mix in 1 cup of mozzarella cheese. Put in a 13x9. baked for 25-30 min or until biscuits are golden. Put the other cup of mozzarella and baked for 5 more minutes.

Makes 6 servings.

Our adventurous boy

Well, Sunday was not a good day for Keegan. His absolutely loves climbing. He'll climb up anything - coffee table, kitchen chairs, the bricks in front of our fireplace, ANYTHING!! This weekend though was a rough one for our fearless wonder. On Sunday, he was playing in the kitchen and ran into the kitchen table and got a nice shiner under his left eye. Of course, this was BEFORE we went to church so he looked so beat!!
He also has about 6 mosquito bites on his face so he looks like he also is recovering from chicken pox.
The scariest thing, though, happened Sunday evening when we were preparing dinner. My parents and grandmother were coming over for enchiladas. K decided that he would crawl into one of the kitchen chairs. We try to prevent this by pushing the chairs in but he is strong enough to pull the back out. Anyways, he was standing up talk and then he lost his balance and fell. Face first. Onto the tile floor. We were both scared that he had chipped a tooth since the was blood in his mouth. And, being the 2 year old he thinks he is, he immediately clamped his mouth shut when we tried to examine him mouth. If you have never seen a toddler wail with their mouth clamped shut and tears running down their face, you are missing a sight! In the end, we finally got a peek and started wiping away the blood from his mouth. His teeth were still in place and no chips. I know that his mouth hurt so I gave him a Popsicle which totally cheered him up and stopped the tears.
My biggest fear was how his face would look the next morning. Due to the fact that I have to be AT school by 7, I do not get to see my little boy in the mornings. I called Chris and he said that K looked fine. YEAH!! Now we are looking for toys he can climb on.....in the living room!!!

All the little children

For those of you who may now know, Chris and I teach the 3 and 4 year old Sunday School class in our church. We usually switch off months with another teacher but she delivered her first child in July so we taught the summer lessons. I have taught the class for the last two years and have enjoyed it so much more since Chris joined in to help teach it. Last Sunday was our last class until October. The lessons that our children's director purchased are super easy to use but a majority of the stuff we just can't do with our little ones (lots of cutting things out!!). Most of the time, I pick about 3 things to do along with our video lesson and song of the month. I did not get a chance to copy anything off so I just looked through the lesson. It was about offering - what it is used for and why we give it. I decided that this was a great chance for our kids to go on a field trip! We walked over to the sanctuary where there were setting things up for the 11 o'clock service. We were on a hunt for the offering plates. It took a few minutes but they were located and each child held one. We talked about if they were heavy or light, what they were made of, etc. Our pastor took a few minutes to talk with the children about the plates and why there was a cushion in the bottom of the plates (I didn't know why it was there - learn something new every day!). We also talked about what things offering was used for and how it helps people. So, we then venture back to our room to make our own offering containers. I had gone out on errands with my mom the previous day. At Hobby Lobby, I found boxes like the ones that Chinese takeout comes in. They were plain white and had a handle that were perfect for what we needed them for. So I get out the boxes and the kids get to coloring (crayons only since they were kinda slick). They kids had a great time coloring. One adventurous tyke (was supposed to be in the kinder class but didn't feel like going) colored the outside and inside of his gold. He took special care to paint the bottom of the inside red - just like the offering plates!!! We admired each other's boxes and then I told them that we had a problem with all the boxes - they were empty!!! We can't help people when our offering boxes are empty!! What did that call for? Another field trip! We went to the Adult building and visited the class that Chris and I belong to. It was really neat since some of our kids' parents were in there. We explained what we were learning and about our problem - we had no offering for children's church. They all immediately started digging out change and bills. The kids went around the room and ended up with "noisy" boxes. It was so fun to see them smile at everyone and hold out their boxes! We thanked everyone and headed out. We realized that we had extra time and room left in our boxes so we headed to the class next door, the Pacesetters. It is lovingly referred to as the "old people" class since the members of the class are super seniors. We knocked on the door and went in. Again, we explained our lesson and before we could explain why we were there, they were all ready getting out change!! The adults had a great time giving. It was so funny to see them making sure that they gave offering to each child!! We apologized for interrupting their class and they invited to come back anytime. We then headed back to the Children's building to show our children's director, Miss Julie, our offering and put it in the offering plate they use for children's church. She got out the plate which is a smaller version of the offering plates we saw in big church. I truly cannot describe how soul-warming it was so see the kids line up and pour the contents of their boxes into the collection plate. They totally lit up the room!! And they got really excited when the plate started to flow over and coins dropped on the floor. Miss Julie said that she had never seen the offering plate that full before. We headed back to our class and got ready for parents to pick them up. We told the kids that they were to bring their boxes every Sunday with their offering from the week in it. I doubt it will happen but at least the kids got a chance to experience what offering is. I am a firm believer in kids knowing why we do what we do in church, not just because it's tradition. Chris declared that it was the best class he'd ever been to!

Wonder of wonders, miracles of miracles!!

I totally forgot to mention we had a complete breakthrough at the Airhogs game Monday night. I have mentioned earlier that K is totally enthralled with the mascot, Ace Bacon (hehehe). It has taken all season, with Ace dutifully coming to see us every game, for Keegan to not cry when he gets close. Well, Monday, it all came together. K let Ace hold him!! Yippee!! Ace was so excited that he has warmed up to him. I hope to post pics this weekend but no promises.

Air Hogs win!!!

We were really ticked that they moved yesterdays home game from 7 pm to noon in order to have the game before any chance of storms rolled in. Luckily, Momma was able to go and keep us updated on the score. Our hogs pulled off a great victory. The Canaries thrashed us when we played them earlier in the season. So far, we are 1-1 in this final series. The winner is best out of 5. Here's hoping the Hogs can keep us the winning spirit that got them to the finals. Please keep the players and their families in your prayers as they travel up to Sioux Falls today. They play tonight at 7 pm. If you want to hear a fabulous play-by-play, they broadcast the game through their website. GO HOGS!!

Happy Anniversary, LOML!!

Today marks 8 years of wedded bliss. It is sad to say but it truly has been bliss. Chris and I rarely argue (unless we are fake arguing in the car so that panhandlers will just walk by our car and not stop). To celebrate our anniversary, we went to Ruth Chris's Steakhouse in Downtown Fort Worth. It was fantastic!! It was expensive but we had a gift card so that helped. When Chris made reservations, he mentioned that it was our anniversary. When we got to our table, they had spread heart shaped confetti around the table. It was a little gesture that meant a lot to us. Right now, they have a summer special that is a three course meal for two for $89. It was fantastic! We cleaned our plates!!! Of course, if you pay that much for a meal, you either eat it all or take it home. There were people who were leaving food on the plates - what???? During dinner, we played a question game. We've always loved to do this to get conversations going and it really got us reflecting on the past year and looking forward to the next year. We took forever to eat our meals due to our conversation. It was lovely to just sit there and relax. It was funny that we were sat before the people around us and they left before we did!! The only low point of the meal was the couple next to us. They were silent for the majority of the meal. They were older but were hardly speaking to each other, only commenting one a few things, like the fact that her steak was bigger than his. I made Chris promise me that we would never be THAT couple.

While I freely admit that we had a great time, we did miss K. He stayed at my parents' house that night (Thanks Nanny and Pop!) When we got home, I missed him so much. I think it had a lot to do with our conversations at dinner. So, we called them and then walked over to their house to peek in on our little man. He was having a great time sharing a snack with Nanny. It was so funny to see him watch his Pop's every move and just smile.

So, in honor of our 8 years together, I have made a list for my beloved:
Reasons why my love for you grows
10. You make me see things from a different perspective (both intellectually and height).
9. You make me tell you how I really feel about something.
8. You make me laugh.
7. You are still a kid at heart.
6. You miss your family when you are gone.
5. You can and will cook.
4. You like doing little surprises for me.
3. You take me places all over the world.
2.You put up with me and my moods.
1. You take an enthusiastic approach to raising our family.

Those are just a few of the MANY things that I love about you, Babe. Here's to an eternity of anniversaries!!

Hogs keep on Truckin'!

Our beloved Airhogs beat the Fort Worth Cats in a fantastic game Friday night. We had a great time as always. Even K joined in when we were clapping and chearing the team as the celebrated on the field. One great thing about winning Friday night - no game on Saturday!! That means our guys had 2 days of rest before playing the first game of the finals against the Sioux Fall Canaries. Go Hogs go!!