Chocolate Tasting

Had a chocolate tasting night with Josh Friday night after putting Justace down. I had no idea there were so many kinds of chocolate and the differences between them before. We tried extra dark, dark, sea salt, black current and milk chocolate flavors. We started out tasting the 85 percent chocolate and moved on with less cocoa and more sugar. Basically, the higher the cocoa percentage the lower the sugar and vice versa. The 85 percent was pretty bitter tasting and not as sweet. Makes me wonder what baking chocolate, which is 100 percent cocoa, tastes like. I also learned you should always keep chocolate at room temperature because if it gets too hot it will go soft but if you put it in the fridge and it gets cold it won't melt in your mouth and release the full flavor. I loved the sea salt and black current the best. Sea salt was delicious with a mixture of sweet and a touch of salt. Black current was both nutty and a touch fruit flavored. Milk chocolate, when compared to the others, was so incredibly sweet...almost too sweet really.

46 weeks

Eating chilli. Why use a spoon mom? This is way easier.

Hi mom.

Yum. Chilli.

He's been trying to escape with the cats ever since it got warm enough to keep the screen door open. My little boy loves the outdoors.

The look. He's been making this face for weeks now. No idea what it is or why.

He's loving games like peek a boo. He still can't walk but he is trying. He cruises and he bear walks sometimes but his crawling has gotten very speedy. He crawls all over the house. I feel like his language development isn't great. He "talks" a lot sometimes, just making noises really and he does say mamama and dadada a lot but I haven't noticed that any of his noises really seem to mean anything specific to him. We will start planning his first birthday party soon. I've bookmarked ideas online and we've picked out a cake design at our local store already so I just need to buckle down and get to it. We are planning to prolly invite a few firends to the local park so the kiddies can play and run around.

Baseball

Well this week Astros are down to #29 in the rankings of all 30 teams. We started the season ok but now we are losing almost every game again. Our only good hitter is Altuve. We are awesome at striking out. And pitching isn't good either. We basically just suck all the way around.

Mom's Tigers are #11 in the rankings. And Ashlie's Rangers are #4.

Baseball

Well...on the plus side we aren't last last place right now...the only two teams worse than us at the moment are the Padres and the Marlins. I mean honestly everyone expected us to be last place again this season so even though we are one of the worst teams in baseball at least we aren't the absolute worst. I think honestly we are going to do better this season. We certainly can't do any worse. We've got Bud Norris and We've got Jose Altuve...so that's a big help.

My sister's Rangers are #7.  I think they aren't hitting as awesome as they were last season but their pitching seems to better this season. And of course they have former Astros Lance Berkman on their team lucky ducks.

And my mom's team, the Tigers, is #3. It's still the beginning of the season but they are one of the best teams in baseball right now. They kicked Oakland's butts. They just keep getting better.

Week 44

I can't believe Justace is almost a year old already! He's so so so different now from when he was just a few days old when we brought him home from the hospital. He crawls around all over the place, loves to be down on the floor more than he likes to be in his activity center or even in my arms sometimes. He's still not walking yet but he's crawling around great and he tries to stand on his own without holding on to things...he can only do that for a few seconds usually. He doesn't have any teeth still but wow with all crawling all over and everything he is so clumsy. He falls down and hurts himself like once every 5 minutes. I'm scared one of these times it's going to be more serious. So far he hasn't done anything beyond bruise himself. He pretty much eats little bits of whatever Mom or Dad are eating now. He can eat almost anything if given enough time to gum it to death. The only thing we won't feed him yet is honey or milk. He loves everything we give him right now. Of course his main meals still are formula bottles but I'm wondering after he turns a year old when and how to go about weaning him from formula...? I have no clue... All I know is formula or breast milk needs to be their main source of food for the first year. But what about after the first year?

I'm not sure if he's at or near the age yet where they get mean and stingy to other babies but we were at church this past Sunday in the nursery and there was another little girl in there about 18 months old. Her grandmother said she can be a pill but those two got along great. They were sharing blocks and other toys. Neither one of them was not wanting to share or play nicely together. I'm really crossing my fingers and hoping that means maybe I won't have to worry about him going through the stage of everything is his and he doesn't want to play nice with others but he's still a bit young so we will see. I really need to work on socializing him more since he has no siblings. I do know he loves sharing his food with the dogs...something I keep trying to get him to stop doing but he will hold out his hand to them and when they take the food from him he laughs so hard.

Also...he doesn't have teeth yet but I also worry about how to handle the biting phase I've heard about. I'm not sure how I will get him to stop biting if he starts that once they come in.

Baseball

So apparently my Mom, my sister and myself are somewhat competing with each other this season with baseball team. My team, of course, as always, is the Houston Astros. My Mom will be following the Detroit Tigers and my sister the Dallas Rangers. I pretty much have accepted that my Astros will be the bottom team again this year. We had a great opening day game against the Rangers but every game since then has been pretty awful for the Astros. I just hope we don't keep trading all our good players like we did last season. Altuve, for one, is probably one of our best players and I'm praying they don't decide to trade him.

Gun Violence

I just got my concealed carry permit for Idaho and I'm working on picking out a nice holster to carry my gun with me at all times. I'm thinking either an under the belt holster for when I wear jeans or if I'm wearing a long skirt to church perhaps an ankle holster. Will it be kind of uncomfortable at first? Probably. But just till I get used to it and I was just thinking about how naive I am and have been and how naive I secretly think I, and many others want to be. Yes there are bad evil people in the world. And there are also sick people in the world who do bad things and Satan is very prevalent around us. Things like Sandy Hook are rare, thankfully, which is why they shock people as much as they do...if they happened as often as politicians would like you to think then we wouldn't all be as shocked by them anymore. But that doesn't mean they don't or won't happen more frequently in the future and if someone brings a gun somewhere I am and starts shooting or threatening to shoot I refuse to be helpless and stand by and watch as innocent lives are taken or as my own is taken. I refuse to stand by idly as a robber enters my home and perhaps goes after my son or husband. I am choosing to not be innocent and naive anymore. I am choosing to be prepared just in case. Besides carrying at all times I am also trying to get back into shape again and thinking about taking some kind of karate or self-defense class so I can learn how to fight someone off if need be. I believe, especially working where I do now, that civilians shouldn't necessarily use violence to defend themselves against bad people. I believe this can and often does lead to injuries and death in many cases. I believe if possible we should allow the police to handle situations like these. However, I also know, sometimes police can't get there in time...and in that case...I'd rather lose my own life and save someone else then stand by and watch as lives are taken in front of me. So...that's my say on why I'm going to be carrying a gun from now on. I look at the police I work with as heroes and I want to be more like that. I don't want to be an innocent naive civilian...I want to be a protector and defender of the innocents from the evil and bad in the world. Isn't that really what Jesus wanted for us? Not just to stand by and be all lovey dovey but to fight with all we have against the evil until we get to heaven and finally receive eternal rest.

Grandparents

One of my biggest regrets regarding my son is that he won't be growing up around his grandparents or great-grandparents either. I wish I'd gotten more of a chance to know mine growing up and I have many great memories of the set of grandparents I did get to spend time with when I was very young before they died in Houston. Luckily he will get to see his grandparents Mary and Barkley and his grandmother Kym, Josh's parents, since we live near them but I feel guilty about my parents and my grandparents not getting the chance to be around him growing up. I would love to go visit everyone once a year but honestly, financially speaking and also vacation from work speaking, that's just not feasible realistically. However, I have a plan for those long distance relationships. It's not as good as spending time together in person but it'll do I think.

1. Skype - something I just recently started doing with my Mom a couple of weeks ago. It seems to work pretty well and I've set up a plan to do it once a week if possible and definitely at the very least on all holidays for sure.
2. Phone calls - this is something I suck at. I am not a huge phone person and don't really like talking at all and really don't like doing it on the phone for some reason BUT if we can't talk in person it needs to happen.
3. Snail Mail - stamps are so expensive we probably won't be using this very often but for holidays and other special occasions I want to send little homemade gifts that he helps make. For easter I made 2 little cards for Grandma Kym and for Grandma Joey which involved getting his fingerprinting on a piece of paper and turning it into a little chick.
4. Blog - Mom reads this blog I know and she says my grandparents, his great-grandparents, also read it. This way I can share photos and stories and just regular updates to let them know how things are going and see how he's growing.

And it's not just grandparents either I need to focus on. I think being around or knowing his great-grandparents on both sides will do him good as well. Two different generations with different things to teach him as he grows. I need to be better about calling and keeping in touch with my own grandparents and I realized the other day it's good for him to be around Mary and Barkley - Josh's parents/grandparents. They have no TV or electronics at their house, only playthings for him and besides the normal grandparently spoiling they do I watched with a smile as Barkley set Justace on his lap and helped him play a hymn on the old organ in their house. It was so sweet and something I think he will need as he grows up.

Opening Day

I got to watch the opening day of baseball Sunday evening...Astros vs Rangers. It was interesting from the get go because JJ Watt, a Texans player and fave of mine, threw out the first pitch. Plus the first baseball game I ever saw live was Astros vs Rangers but this time it was different because now for the first time the two teams are playing in the same division. Astros did amazing! Nobody, including myself, was expecting that but the first game played at home actually raised my hopes a little for the coming season. I know we aren't going to make the playoffs this season with a whole new team but maybe just maybe we can make it out of last place? Here's hoping. Also...I wore my Astros jersey...could it be good luck? Should I wear it from now on when they are playing if I'm not at work? I think I'll give it a shot and see.