We made it into the game early to get our replica bullpen cars (yay!) and grab some lunch before the game started. It was HOT and HUMID today but we had seats up in the Club Level and were able to go back and forth into the air conditioning to stay cool. 

We had snacks, filled up on water, visited Bumbles the balloon animal clown (twice) AND got baseball and puppy watches painted on their wrists at the face painter. Due to the unfortunate incident of John's red light saber balloon popping we had to make the second trip for John's heart balloon - and a green flower that bit the dust when I was clapping too close to it during an exciting play!

We made it thru the 6th inning, watched the World Famous Sausage Race and then headed out of the game to finish listening to it from the car.

 Will & John were troopers through the game but they were exhausted by the time we left. While walking to the car they both begged to be carried. We compromised on a quick rest in the shade. 

 We settled into the a/c in the car and John promptly fell asleep. We took the opportunity to run a quick errand and then stopped by Panera for carryout dinner on the way home.

All in all it was a great day!

Happy Father's Day, Erik! We love you and hope you felt celebrated and loved. You deserve it for everything you do for our family 😍

Four years ago today, I met a boy. In a bar.

 We flirted.

I made fun of him.

I stole his hat.

We ate pizza.

He kissed me.

And the rest is history.

I love you, Erik. You're my best friend and the one I love sharing my life with.

Can't wait to see what the next 4 years hold.

This is probably something only I will find amusing. But I don't care. I'm going to share it anyway.

It has to do with 2 things. Grocery shopping. And being married to an engineer.

As of late, Erik and I will go grocery shopping together. I'm not really sure why this has turned into one of our 'couple' tasks. But it has. Probably because we are both too lazy and unmotivated to go and we figure if we at least do this together we are both being punished by having to leave the comfort of the couch.

On one of our recent shopping trips we bought some of our usual staple items. Milk. Bread. Yogurt. Granola Bars. These were probably the only 4 things on our list. And this trip probably took us a good 45 minutes to an hour to complete. Because when we grocery shop together I will send my darling husband to pick out a box of crackers and he will stare at them for a few minutes before he decides which ones he wants to buy. My name is Kristin. And I married an engineer...

Now, Erik will tell you that I am anal retentive when it comes to my grocery shopping. This is a result of growing up in the grocery business and spending the early part of my adult years working in said grocery business.

The following is why he thinks I'm crazy...

You see, there is a certain way you put your groceries on the belt. All the produce goes together. Then the remainder of the perishable items. Then canned goods and boxes. And then anything breakable or smush-able, like eggs or bread or those yummy waxy chocolate donuts.

There is also a certain way you bag your groceries. I prefer paper (or reusable shopping bags if I actually remember to bring them). And I prefer not to have some snot nosed teenager mess up my bagging system after I've taken the time to place the items on the belt the way I'd like them bagged. If I wanted the peanut butter placed on top of the cherries I would have put them on the belt that way.

There is also a certain way you put your groceries away once you get home. Lunch meats and cheeses go together. Produce goes together. Certain non-perishable items have their place on each pantry shelf located next to similar items.

And yes. I am crazy. And I fully realize this as I type type type away about my unusual methods for grocery shopping....

One lovely summer evening upon returning home from the local P&S, I was putting away the groceries and Erik, the engineer, decided to help me. He thought he would be helpful and put all of the granola bars in a tupperware container so that they were all out in the open for our snacking pleasure.

The only problem with this idea was that the tupperware container was a little bit too small for the 25 or so granola bars he wanted to place them in.

I was putting something else away and turned around and saw this (and yes, I decided it was so funny to me at the time that I had to take pictures of it).

I, of course, made some smart butt comment about how all of the granola bars were never going to fit into that tiny little tupperware bowl. I'm sure I also made some smart butt comment about how the granola bars would have been perfectly fine staying in their respective boxes and being placed on the pantry shelf by their friends the cereal and oatmeal.

See the smirk? This is the point where the engineer's brain started processing what I had to say. It's the "challenge accepted" (a la Barney Stinson) face. This is the point at which he knew he would prove that he could do it and that I was wrong.

So, out came the granola bars.

And back in they went.

Vertically.

Until not a granola bar was out of place.

And then back in the pantry they went. Next to the cereal, oatmeal and other breakfast goodies.

We inherited a pretty large brush pile that separated our ginormous front yard from our equally ginormous back yard. And when I say pretty large brush pile, I mean huge. Like 20 ft wide by 30 ft long.

Over the past month we have been doing some landscaping, brush trimming and stick picking up. So we have slowly been adding to our already large brush pile. And this past weekend my dad brought over his chainsaw and we he did some major cutting of low hanging branches. And we continued to add to said brush pile.

So on Saturday afternoon, with burn permit procured, we decided it was time to have a bonfire.

Before we lit a match we thought it might be a good idea to run 2 hoses to the pile and spray down the grass around it as well as the tree line that the brush pile abuts to. We also thought it would be a good idea to fill an old trash can with a lot of water that we could dump over in case things got a little out of control.

It's a good thing we were so smart and prepared for this. Because we each lit a piece of newspaper and threw it into the pile.

And then I ran up to my car to get the camera to document our bonfire. And when I came back, the 2 little pieces of newspaper had created this.

And in less than 5 minutes time the enormous pile of brush burned down to this.

And within about 10 minutes time there was pretty much nothing left.

Except me in a lawn chair. With a beer. And a garden hose to spray down the embers.

And this is what happened to the trash can I told you about before.

Can you tell where the water line was on this?

I know this looks pretty cool and like it was a lot of fun. But it wasn't. And we will never burn anything of this scale again. Ever.

I was sure the neighbors were going to call 911. Erik almost called it himself. I would've called but I was busy just about crapping my pants when I got back with the camera and saw the monster we had created.

Thank goodness we were prepared with hoses and a bucket of water. Erik used the bucket to hide behind so that he could keep spraying down the grass around the pile so that it didn't spread to the rest of our lawn. And I used another hose on the other side to do the same thing once the fire died down a little. Because that mother was hot.

So, kids, always be prepared if you are going to start a fire in your yard. Have hoses turned on and cell phones handy. And care less about taking pictures and more about being there with a hose to control it (lesson learned).

And if your burn permit tells you not to burn any piles over 10 ft in size, be sure to listen.

Next time we have a fire I want to be able to roast marshmallows over it. I would've needed a really long stick for this one (that's what she said).

Tonight, while perusing my awesome blog, my husband asked me how I can tell how many followers/readers I have. I kindly explained that I have one follower, but a few commenters and over 300 page views already. Pretty exciting stuff.

I asked him why he was curious. Specifically I asked him if he was considering being a "guest" blogger. I told him he could write about how much he loves me and Stella.

He scrolled down and looked at some of the pictures and seemed to ponder the idea for a few seconds. And then simply said "I don't think I could fill a page that big... with lies" :)

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Last night, while in bed, my husband gave me a very stimulating presentation.

On haul studies.

This is what we do now that we're married.

He showed me a PowerPoint he made for work. It had pictures sort of like this. Only not as cute.

Then practiced the presentation for me.

I proofread it and helped make some grammatical and style changes. I should mention that I am a weirdo who loves to proofread. So if you see any major spelling errors and such on here, please call me out on them. I can't proofread my own stuff. I only see the errors in others. :)

Anyway, during my smart ass comments about the word "dump" over and over again, I kept getting a look similar to this one:

Anyway, he finished the run through at midnight. So, I didn't go to bed last night until after midnight because I was learning about something called haul studies. Wow. I know. You're jealous.

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I hate laundry. I hate washing it. I hate putting it away. Strangely, I have no problem folding it.

But I absolutely despise putting away laundry. I have no idea why.

One time, to prove this point after much frustration at my husband for leaving his laundry sit for me to put away, I did something sort of mean. But really funny.

I mismatched all of his work socks.

I knowingly and deliberately paired socks that did not match, folded them and placed them in his drawer.

The next morning he was getting ready for work. He put on his clothes and was getting ready to put on his socks. And I was in the bathroom smirking. Because I knew it was coming. It wasn't long until I heard confusion and frustration begin to come out of his mouth.

I don't recall exactly what he said. But I know it was something like this:

"Girl?" (he calls me that as a petname)

"These socks don't match."

"And neither do these."

"What the hell?"

As soon as I came back into the bedroom smiling he knew exactly what I had done.

I reminded him that I hate putting away laundry.

And I probably gave him a look something like this:

And I can't even imagine how many times he has thoroughly checked whether or not his socks match before putting them on.