Opening Day

Ahh, whatta day!
BEAUTIFUL weather, and a fun time. Each team for Greensburg Recreation baseball was introduced, and got to met the Pittsburgh Parrot (Pirate Mascot).

Instead of hi-fiving the Parrot, Brayden ran right by him

So, the Parrot chased him down to hit him in the head :)

And Rylan's turn (they are both on Pirate teams, both # 18)

Awwwww

The Bad News Bears :) Best baseball buds, all on the Pirates, but ranging over 3 different teams

Brayden's team, most of us skipped the official photos, because they were much later in an already busy day. Photo compliments of Bryan ;)

Rylan's first game: He got to play first base. This was the narration by Rylan to each runner to stop by him, "Hi! This is my first game, it my brother's first game too. But he's on a different team, but its still the Pirates. He is at a differnent field. Look (turning around) I am nubmer 18, and so is my brother. His name says Patton too, but he's Brayden Patton, I am Rylan Patton"....as the runner is supposed to be advancing to second ;)

Happy to meet the Parrot

In Ry's spare time he took up bleacher jumping :)

Brayden's hit Rylan's hit

Toll Booth Funny

Some of you are fortunate enough to live in states which do not require you to PAY to drive on their roads. Now, I can understand why toll booths can confuse some folks- especially the new ones that do not have attendants, and the whole EZ Pass confusion. Well here's my public service announcement for the day:

These toll booths no longer exist. Real, live people to help you are probly not going to be found.

You have to READ the signs to figure out what to do.

If you are confused, the person (or long line of angry people) BEHIND you can likely help you figure out this contraption. PLEASE LOOK behind you at the people waving out their windows or stepping out of their vehicles. They aren't trying to rob you of your Turnipke change, they are simply trying to assist you with your trouble so we can ALL move along.

This is the closest image to what our modern toll booths look like
Do you see the basket? YES, this is where you throw your money.
All forms of cash?? Nooooo! Coins only. Normally, you will see a LARGE sign that reads, 'Bills Accepted Here ------>' Have you used a vending machine? With a dollar bill? There is a small SLOT to INSERT your dollar into .

Again, this is wat we see behind you. A basket. Even if you have NO athletic experience, you can still throw CHANGE into the basket. You don't even need to do math! The nifty new toll booths calculate everything for you. Its truly magical. If your toll due is $1.25 (which sucks, I know) and you throw a DOLLAR BILL into the basket with a quarter, the basket cannot sort your one dollar bill. The screen will still say you owe $1.00, and the big red stop light will remian red.
Please don't just sit there, wondering when it will turn green. Putting your car into reverse and opening the door to see if your dollar bill fell out of the COIN basket does no good to get you on with your journey. Yes, your dollar bill will still be there. The coin basket is not some vacuum trash contraption you may see at amusement parks. Your dollar bill will remain in the basket until either a whispy Pennsylvania wind carries it off or you FINALLY figure out to use the dollar bill slot. NO?? Oh, ok. You want to wait for the light to turn green, since you DID try to pay the $1.25. Go ahead, ignore all of us behind you. Still red? OK, you have every right to put your car into reverse and try to back out of this "broken" toll booth. The problem is- I can't back out because of the 5 cars behind me. Great plan, dig through your purse and find more coins to throw into the basket, while blissfully ignoring the nice citizen behind you who is trying to help. GREAT! Your light just turned green, everyone, even people who throw dollars into coin baskets know green means go! Yipee. Hey, one more thing. Before gunning it out of there, after holding us up for several minutes, please be sure you put your car back in DRIVE and out of reverse. You are lucky I was able to inch back a bit before you slammed your car into my van.

P.S. Of course I kept the dollar bill that she left in the basket.

My Big Fat Greek

PIZZA!!!! Mmmmmmm.
Yes, this is on a regular old baking sheet. Most of you know I have been bragging about my pizza stone. I made another (regular) pizza for Bryan and his work buddy.
This is home made dough topped with a garlic cream sauce, a little mozzarella, feta, and romano. Red onion and black olives of course. YUM! Oh, and the great news? I found a deep pie baking stone today at Goodwill that will be PERFECT for pan pizza! (I am not a fan, but its Bryan's favorite. A hint- you have to let 1/4 CUP of oil soak into the dough overnight in the fridge to get it all nice and greasy like Pizza Hut's....yuck)

Borat

I have never seen the movie, but I am sure some of you have an idea what I am talking about :)

7 Years

Today is our 7 year wedding anniversary. It sure doesn't feel like 7 years. SEVEN years sounds like a long time to me. (I sure hope the saying that tastes change every 7 years isn't true!)

We met in May of 2001, a week before Memorial Day. I was living near Tucson, Arizona. I moved out there from Pennsylvania to try something new, and planned to stay with an ex-boyfriend of mine. Bryan had moved out there from California to also seek some new adventures and peruse a relationship with his girlfriend at the time. We both spent a few years exploring and learning life lessons on separate journeys until our paths finally crossed.

The night we met, I went alone to my little local cow boy bar The Lariat. It was free pool night and I was confident some of my friends would be there to keep me company. As I was sitting at a table with friends, sipping my bottle of Heineken, I heard the door open behind me. Suddenly, an overwhelming feeling hit me. People speak of 'love at first sight', but I didn't even need to look. I already just knew. I turned around and saw my handsome husband for the first time. To my surprise, my friends who were at the table waved and said "Hello Bryan!" to this beautiful mystery man who just took my breath away. How did they know him? I was a frequent flier to this saloon, and I already knew the crowd, and all the acquaintances who were friends with them. Of course I had to know more about him. Everything about him. I asked my friends who he was. They looked at me like I had two heads. "You know Bryan, don't you?, He's here a lot, he comes a lot of Thursdays for pool, and weekends too. He's friends with Josh." Nope, I was SURE I had never seen him before. Apparently, over the past year, we had JUST missed each other, but had a wide group of mutual friends.

We were introduced, and started talking. And never stopped. We sat outside on an outdoor patio surrounded by a beautiful Sonoran desert garden. We talked about ourselves, or goals, our hopes and dreams. We sat alone, in the warm desert night on white plastic chairs, with my feet propped up in his lap. I spilled out everything I needed him to know- that same night we met. I told him I was in a relationship. That I had thyroid cancer. That I planned on moving back to Pennsylvania, and soon. I needed to lay everything out right then and there. I was sure he was the one, and I wanted to get everything out in the air and taken care of. Later that night, I broke off a two year relationship. We have spent every day together ever since.

He has been able to make me laugh ever since. I feel loved, protected, respected. Not only is he a great companion and lover, but also a very best friend and Dad. I always hear married couples talk about "rough patches". I can honestly say we have had very few. The "rough times" we did experience I can attribute to long work hours, two high needs babies and severe sleep deprivation. Those factors are tough on any couple.

We still continue to grow and learn. I am appreciative we grow and learn on the same path in life, together. Now that the kids are a bit older, our goal is to spend more time alone together. We have put almost all of our passion and energy into parenting. Our hard work has paid off, and we have some great kids. Now we can focus on us a bit more, too. We are really excited about this.

Art Museum

We took a day off "school" and went to the Westmoreland Museum of American Art along with our fellow homeschooling friends, the McQueen's. There was very limited areas where photography was permitted, and I was not able to use a flash. Still, I think the shots turned out nice without flash, and hand held.

There are scavenger hunt back packs for the kids to use and learn about portraits, still life, and landscape.

Finding George Washington was one of their first tasks

Then reading about the artist and the painting

and answer questions

such as the artist, title...

one of the more thought provoking questions was "What do you think happens next?" This was the painting in question. Its hard to see in the photo, but the angel? has a cupid type arrow, and there are men in armour to the right

Rylan's drawing of what happened next portrays an angel, who has a magic wand to save the man

Brayden thinks there is a dagger, and a bloody sword fight

Next they used a mirror included in their backpacks to create a self portrait

All done!

Its Brayden!

At this point, the boys needed a break. What better way to take a break than a game of Rock, Paper, Scissors?

We saved the Kid's area for last, and it was fun. The current theme was Circus in Art

The kids got right to work making mom Valentines :)

It was a fun trip! While visiting, I applied for an Art Camp scholarship for Brayden. It takes place this June, and the theme week for which we applied is "Eco Art"- nature art, and recycled material art with a field trip to the local Nature Reserve. I think Brayden would love it.