Weekend in Frisco

This past weekend we spent a lot of time in Frisco, TX for Emi's basketball tournament. The weekend started off with us having dinner at La Hacienda Ranch with both of my brothers and their families. It was a big, crazy crowd of us (as always) but it was cool to see the cousins hanging together.

The only picture I got at La Hacienda Ranch

What's Up?

Lots of things....

Digging in the yard (it's not just for the dog and chickens...)

Preparing the garden beds

Things are growing in the yard already and I'm trying to get the gardens and beds ready to plant things OTHER than the things that have accidentally grown in the yard over the years - quite a few mulberry trees have quietly grown in the beds and they are being excavated.

Pretty Maple Blooms

Although it may not look like much, we've been digging around in this bed surrounding the pond. We only have 1 Mulberry Tree left to extract (it's a big one) and a few mounds of monkey grass entwined with Johnson Grass. I keep thinking back to the past 2 summers when it was so hot that I gave up caring what grew in my yard. We are trying to be aggressive and proactive (or maybe just keep up this year) so we can enjoy the fruits of our labor when it gets unbearably hot...

Daffodils, Tulips and Irises

I am not sure about what to plant, but I'm thinking a bunch of strawberries on the side of the waterfall. We're also going to stock the pond (once cleaned) with fish we can actually eat (and our pretty goldfish too). Look for big transformations soon but don't be too disappointed if I peter out on this. I will have a mulberry tree-free yard for sure, but I am not guaranteeing that we will be able to survive off of what we produce in the yard this year. We can only get so many eggs, pecans and figs, right?

And we've been infused with basketball lately...

These girls dominated the court yesterday and won their tournament. We are SO proud of them!



And the other night some friends gave us their tickets to the OU women's basketball game. The little ones hadn't been before and Aubri had just asked if we could go some time. A couple of days later we were given tickets. Presto! At halftime the kids got to go out on to the court and meet with the OU Rowing Team and Baseball players to learn how to be fit.



Things have been nice and busy. We got 3 estimates on replaster of/repairs to the pool and we'll start that project soon. I am looking forward to finally getting that done.  With the hot tub gone and other little projects attended to in the yard, it will be like having a new pool.

And we finally replaced the ceiling fan in the pantry (formerly known as the "breakfast nook") and replaced the light fixture in the kitchen. We are in maintenance mode right now and it feels good to cross things off the list.

Morgan Adventures

The last few days have been crazy busy with Christmas parties and programs.

Thursday night we went to a friend's church to watch a cool Christmas program.

And Friday night we went to Emi's basktetball team's Christmas party.



Saturday we spent a fair amount of time on the road, at a family reunion, at basketball games and back home. We made our rounds and it was nice to see everyone.



Today we slowed things down a bit and tried to get ready for the colder weather. Brrr

Who Needs Pie?

When you've got fritters?

Today we spent most of the day in Ripley, OK - believe it or not.  Heh! Emi had a basketball tournament there.

I don't get to watch most of the games....can you guess why?



Sure, they are cute with their curly hair and brown eyes, but sometimes I'd like to watch Big Sis for just a moment.

After we got home and I loved on my sweet little Gracie for a bit, I got busy with a Mexican themed dinner  -  chicken taquitos from the store, white beans with rotel and cilantro and home made guacamole.  I used the jalapeno I found in the garden along with a few home grown grape tomatoes and it was yummy. Even David ate some and he claims he does not like avocado.

So after last week when I fell in love with lemon sage fritters, I got the urge to make apple fritters for the family. I googled for a recipe and of course, Pioneer Woman had a recipe and so I had to try hers. Ree has never steered me wrong. We deviated from the recipe right off the bat with the omission of the 3 tbsp sugar (listed under the 1/2 C of sugar (?)) and also, we used Sunrise Apples instead of Granny Smith because that's what we had on hand.



Oh, and instead of glazing the finished fritters or dusting them heavily with powdered sugar, we used a drizzle of caramel. Oh my!



I sure had some happy campers in the house tonight!

Savoring the Weekend

Well, it was a marathon weekend for the Morgans! Actually, tournament weekend is more appropos.

Emi's basketball team had a tournament in Edmond starting Friday night (when they had their butts handed to them late Friday night by an awesome team that must have been out of their league....) and went on through today.

Friday night was brutal for Emi's team and for those of us on the sidelines with easily bored children distracting us from watching the game every 17 seconds. But we got through it.  It was great to see Emi playing with a team of this caliber. So proud of that girlie!

Saturday morning we were up early taking care of some yard work (trimming/weeding/watering) while Emi was getting a new hairdo. There were some surprises involved here (in the yard, not Emi's hair). I found that my asparagus is still producing so I don't have to wait until next year to harvest some. And I found that my oregano planted YEARS ago in my trying to be Moosewood Kitchen garden has survived all these years.



I think we are going to plow through much of this bed again (carefully avoiding the asparagus beds) and start anew. As you can see, it's a bit overgrown.

FYI, I have a Cardinal family nesting in that Rose of Sharon up against the house. Love it!

I also spent a good deal of time clipping branches from the neighbor's trees as they are growing into the power lines and my DSL line. I don't want a repeat of the 2007 Ice Storm damage. I obviously have more work to do, but Phase I is complete.

Look at that sweet Gracie girl hanging out with me in the yard...

Extreme Pride

I can't extol enough my little girl's recent accomplishments. She is not a shy little wallflower, that child, but at times, she can be really obstinate. I mean, strong willed. Have known that from the get go, and love that she doesn't take things at face value. But I can't lie...things go much better for us when she is BEHIND the thing that we want her to do. i.e. often time she whines about practicing the piano (she's been in piano for 3 years), but when we ask her if she'd like to stop piano lessons, she most certainly does not. She LOVES music and singing and playing the piano.

So last weekend her studio had their recital at the University. On STAGE with all of the other student's families and friends eyeballing her! Whereas I, her fraidy cat 40 year old mom would be unconscious, absent or projectile vomiting, she acknowledges that she's nervous and still wants to get on stage to entertain the crowd. When she started playing her song, she enthusiastically played (forte, right?) the first few notes from the wrong song. Instead of packing up her book and fleeing the stage, she laughed at herself, focused and began playing the right song...really well. So proud of her!

Earlier that day her basketball team had their first game of the season. They got skunked by this team (who I'm told has been together for 4 years!), 36-0. It was one of those hard to watch games with the grandparents yelling at the ref to give the kids a break while the parents are consoling each other and speculating on whether the taller 3 girls are over the age limit, etc, etc, etc. Emi didn't let that bum her out, she had fun and yes, it sucks to lose, but she and her team played well. This is the 2nd season they'd played together and the 2 star seasoned players they had last season, moved up (as I suspect those 3 girls on the opposing team should have) so they are just learning to be a team.

Fast forward 6 days to the 2nd basketball game. Sitting there in the stands (I know, that sounds weird to me too!) before the game Scott commented that he should have worked with Emi more on shooting. We worry that the girls will have their butts handed to them again and secretly size up the opponents. This is a new team and their male coaches are in suits and carrying clipboards. What is this the WNBA? Our lady coach leads our team by herself...she signed up last season to help and ended up becoming the coach. She gives the girls their pep talk after they warm up and the game begins. This new team isn't as skilled but they are hungry and they are the first to score a point. We get a little nervous but then our sweet little girl ("Baby Shaq" one player's daddy has dubbed her) gets the ball and tries to score: she shoots, she misses, she rebounds 4 more times until she finally scores! The crowd goes wild (ok so we were already a little wild). When my little girl looked up at us in the stands we definitely saw the eye of the tiger. This sort of behavior happened several more times and Scott told me that she got a "double-double" (double digit points and assists). Wow!

And to top it off, she scored the last point at the buzzer! My daughter rawks! On the way home from the game she talked about getting a scholarship in basketball. Now you're talking!

Winners!

Favorite Things So Far This Month

• U2 360° Tour with the Black Eyed Peas was a great concert. We couldn't find a sitter (in town) because everyone in Norman was going to the concert, so we took Emi with us. We walked to the concert and stayed until almost 11pm, left while U2 was playing Sunday, Bloody Sunday. We listened to the rest of the concert from our house. U2 hadn't been to Norman in 26 years and we felt privileged to be a part of the history...and the "Claw" was a very cool stage...
• Chocomole!!! While we didn't have all of the ingredients to make Jason Mraz's Chocomole, we made up something very deliciously close! Emi and I put 3 ripe avocados, raw cacao powder, cream of coconut and vanilla extract into the food processor and processed it with a little bit of water to thin. The resultant chocolate "mousse" was so rich, creamy and healthy. Next time we will try it out with dates...and take some pics. This comfort food is definitely a keeper!
• Basketball!
• Sleepover with Emi's sisters and seeing them being sisters!
• More time with my family...

Happiness is a Warm Seat

I got my Disco back from the shop in record time yesterday (Thanks, Charlie!) so today was a Good Day. I was having some important work done (rear axle replaced) and some other Very Important Work done (replacing the driver seat) so this winter I can once again enjoy a heated seat. Last year I was rather distraught when the driver seat heater stopped working. So we're back in business now...
Tonight was really great. After school Emi's birth mom and sisters came over for dinner, some play time at the park and to witness Emi's first basketball game. It was so much fun to watch. Emi's played soccer for 3 years and already with just 1 game we are inlove with basketball over soccer.
Some things b-ball has over soccer:

• Indoors
• Four 6 minute quarters
• Short season (like 5-6 games in toto)

Why soccer is better than b-ball:

• Fresh Air
• ??

I love that our daughter is into team sports so soccer is great for that, but I do not like that the soccer fields are situated just so that we get all the inclement weather that occurs in Normantown. Cold and wet seem to converge onto whatever field we are currently on and there is no windbreak (currently). Guess it's good for building character? Doesn't help MY spirit, but it's not about me. Besides, I have a functioning seat heater again! (Yea, me!)
I tried to capture video while still watching the game (as is very obvs in this here video) so this is the best of the batch. Enjoy!