Sandlot.

Sandlot Football that is. I signed Isaac up a few weeks ago and the he had camp this past week. He was apprehensive about it at first, but he didn’t respond with his usual upsets so I was curious to see just how well it would go.  He was nervous, I could tell and he told me he was. I was nervous and excited for him. He was in gymnastics for a year but this would be his first team sport ever.

There were 35 boys there. Name tags were stuck on, all weighed in and camp began. They split into groups and were taught 3 point stance.

Then the boys had a few different timed relay type things to do, like running left and right to each cone.

Seeing how fast you could cross the line.

Then everyone was assigned the positions they were going to play for the games. Isaac, weighing in at 80lbs, was immediately signed to Lineman. Linemen moved to were the dummies were and set to work again.
More work on the 3 point stance. (He learned it pretty quickly)
 
Then some hitting and pushing around the dummies.

His coaches are nice and so patient. After the 2nd day of camp Isaac was totally in love. Teams are picked sometime next week, and he has to have a physical and pad fitting on his birthday. He’s asked about it everyday and wants to know how loud I’m going to cheer for him when he plays his first game (Oh and if Boy Toy can come and watch him so he can cheer too!)
Isaac + football = Love (for now)
Oh, what did Evan Grace do while all this practice was going on? Well, what she always does, pose for pictures.


Life just got busier for us Odd Ducks but with all the excitement surrounding football I’m looking forward to it.

~Jess

White goodness!

If you live in Virginia long enough you'll have to be eventually eat (and possibly fall in love with) white gravy. I grew up on the stuff and decided to make it from scratch awhile. It was a piece of cake.

Melt 4TBS of butter in a sauce pan.
Then add 4TBS flour to the melted butter and stir. Heat over medium heat until smooth and bubbly. (If it clumps up instead of staying a bit runny don't worry, just let it heat up a bit)
Whisk in 2 1/2 cups of milk and as much salt & pepper as you like then stir over medium heat until it boils. Let it boil for 1 minute or a little longer if you like it thicker then serve over anything you like. My kids like it over biscuits.

This was so easy I regret not finding this recipe sooner. No more powder mixes from the market for me. :)

Firepower instead of Fireworks.

There were no fireworks for us this 4th of July, but there were still things firing.

My dad has wanted to teach Isaac how to shoot a BB gun for awhile now. Anyone that’s met Isaac could quickly understand why I was a little apprehensive about the whole thing. We went over ground rules, do’s and don’ts and I let my son pick up his first gun. (I was excited for him, which surprised me! He was out of his mind excited at the entire idea).

I think the lack of shirt and camouflage shorts kinda adds to the whole experience doesn’t it. There’s no avoiding the country look today!

His first two shoots were pretty impressive for his first time ever. (By this point I was quite the proud momma)

Mackenzie wanted to try her hand at it.

Evan Grace’s fingers could barely reach the trigger but she had to try a few times right? As long as Pawpaw was there to help her that is.

Every shot had to be examined. Plus I really look pictures of people walking away.

While I too my turn behind the sights (you didn’t think I wasn’t going to shoot off a few did you? Silly!) Vanessa stole my camera and started snapping.

Thanks sis, what would I have ever done without those pictures?

By the end of the day I was really happy and impressed with how well Isaac (and everyone else) handled the BB gun. I’m not sure now why I was so nervous. Isaac listened and followed every rule, he even went as far as reminding me and Auntie Vanessa how to load and to put the safety on after you fire and before you move.  Now I’m a little worried with what my dad may have started.

~Jess

My Tribute to Dave Matthews.

My kitchen table has been through a lot. So much so that I roped Boy Toy into helping me redo the surface of it. If you want to do something like this to a table, night stand really anything that can be sanded and stained here’s a short list of what you’ll need:

• Tape measure
• Ruler
• Pencil
• Frog tape or Blue Painter’s Tape.
• Stain (color of your choice)
• Sponge paintbrushes.
• Polyurethane
• a Boy Toy (don’t have one? I guess you could do this without one )

Start by sanding down your surface until you’ve taken off the layers of polyurethane.

Wipe off all the sandy bits with a wet cloth and let dry a few minutes.

Now comes a little bit of math. I wanted words on my table. Yes words. Subway art is becoming way popular and though I’m not a fun of that style I do like the idea of having words, quotes, sayings on things.

Measure your table.

Decide how big you want your letters to be and decide how much space you want between each letter and the lines.

My letters were 6 1/2’’ tall x 3’’ wide. Boy Toy and I spaced the lines two inches apart and left 1/2’’ between each letter.

Take a piece of paper, write out the words/quote you want to have on your table on your paper exactly HOW you want them to be. Count your lines and multiply that by the height of your letters. (Man do I hate math)

My equation was 6 1/2’’ x 5’’ =32 1/2’’. So 32 1/2’’ is the total height of all words.

Count the spaces between your lines and multiply that by the size of your spaces.  We had 4 lines and wanted 2’’ spaces between each line. So our equation was 4x2=8. (I still really hate math!)

Add these numbers together and subtract it from the length of our surface. 46-40 1/2 = 5 1/2’’.

Divide that by 2 to finally get how far you need to space your letters from the top of your surface.5 1/2 /2= 2 3/4’’.

NOW, measure the width of your surface, divide that by 2 and draw a line down the center of your surface.

The picture above shows all the measurements I just went over with you drawn out. The line to the right of the picture is the top line where my first row of words will start with a line drawn beneath it for where the bottom of the words will end. 

The line down the middle is where you'll do the following: You’re finally ready to center your words by finding the middle of each word. Start with that letter on the center line and work out from there.

Boy Toy drew in the letters while I followed behind with Frog Tape and taped it off. (I hate math but LOVE frog tape)

First word finished!

ALL the words are written in and taped off, ready for stain. It doesn’t hurt to really press and rub down over the edges of the Frog Tape to make sure you have a good seal.

I applied 3 coats of stain over the next day just to make sure everything was covered and had a good edge to the words. (Make sure you follow the direction on the stain you pick up, if it says to sand in between layers make sure you do for a better look overall)

Once the last coat is on BUT NOT completely dry gently and slowly pull off the Frog Tape. There are bound to be a few bleeds just take a Q-tip wet or dry and rub the bleeds away gently.
Before:

After:

Erase all of your pencil marks and bleeds.

Now,the final step…Polyurethane. I put on 5 coats but it’s really up to you how many coasts you feel comfortable with or how much shine you want your table to have.

Here’s a picture of my table with only one coat. It covered well but not enough.

This is the first type of project I’ve done like this so if my directions aren’t clear (which I bet they aren’t) email me (jessicamg@gmail.com) and I can, hopefully, help clarify or explain your specific question.
~Jess

        

We made it!

To the beach that is.  After dropping the two little kids off with their dad yesterday Mackenzie, Boy Toy and I headed to South Carolina for a few days of sand and sun.

Our condo is fantastic! Mackenzie and Solomon (the bear) have more room than they know what to do with.

I kinda prefer the hot tub in the master bedroom though. I can feel the water jets and bubbles already.

The rest of the condo is just as great and I know I’m going to hate leaving here in a few days.  I fit in so well at the beach. (And the pool and hot tubs below!)

On a serious note I hope to get a little more blogging done while we’re here. Keep your fingers crossed!

~Jess