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Tommy Alverson

Read about our night at Tommy Alverson's Family Gathering.

Ryan's trip to the Cowboy Game

Read about Ryan's trip to The New Cowboy Stadium.

Another Reminder

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We're Moving

Having a husband that is a wizard at this kind of stuff also helps to put you in new places...our blog is moving from here to ryananddayna.wordpress.com

Hope to see you there!

Our House Guests

So a couple nights ago I was in the bath. When I saw a little anole...or gecko...anywho a little house lizard hide behind the shampoo next to me. I yelled to Ryan and he came to look. He was about two inches long including his tail. I joked he wanted to go swimming with me. I picked up the shampoo and the lizard flew through the air into the tub! I squealed and squealed while Ryan couldn't quit laughing. He helped me up (I didn't want to step on the little guy) and we sorted through the bubbles to find him. I found him, got him into my hands and he flipped out jumping right back into the water. The next time I think he realized we were saving him...he stayed still long enough for me to put him on the ledge by the window. He stayed completely still. I bent back down and finished my bath as quickly as I could. When I stood up again...he was gone. Whoosh. So we have one freshly bathed anole...or gecko...or little house lizard running around the house smelling of coconut lime verbena.

A couple days later, it was almost bedtime and Ryan went out back to turn off the sprinkler. As he reached back to shut the sliding glass door he felt something latch onto his hand in three places. Panicked, he said he made a verbal (eeeaghyaaaaa) sound (think karate chop sound) and threw whatever had landed on him across the yard. Heart racing, he turned off the water and came back inside white as a ghost. You see, Squirt, the generic name for the almost dozen larger lizards (about six to eight inches including tails) we have seen out back, many nights will sit on the kitchen window or on the back sliding glass door and eat bugs (light from inside attracts them to the window creating a tiny feast for our little friends). This particular night, he just so happened had decided he wanted Ryan to give him a, uh...lift. To where...somewhere unknown in the yard. Have no fear...I've seen several back eating in the past couple of nights. So we have house guests. At least during the summer. And so long as they keep eating the spiders, that's okay by me.

On a side note, we had a trumpet vine volunteer itself on the trelis...it's been blooming this week. What a pleasant surprise!

NYLO and boys

We had a nice weekend. Last Friday night we went to the NYLO in Plano for my friend Melanie’s birthday. Ryan and I just about destroyed the surprise too. But, we ended up keeping her tricked until her husband Justin surprised her. The NYLO was really neat. Had a fantastic outdoor patio/lounging area. Big egg shaped chairs you could sit in, lots of benches, a really cool fireplace…just a neat place to hang out. We had a great time! Saturday morning we got a few things done around the house then went to lunch at Saltgrass. We had every intention of coming back home, dropping off our food and head back out to the grocery store, but instead got sucked into Man on Fire. What a good movie. I usually do not like violent films…but when it comes to hurting or endangering children…I guess it is easier for me to handle. As soon as it was over Ryan headed to Fort Worth to meet some friends to see G.I. Joe. I cleaned the bathrooms, dusted, vacuumed, did laundry, and headed to the grocery store. We were keeping the boys on Saturday night and I know they are allergic to stuff so I wanted to be sure I got the house somewhat cleared of anything that would bother them. I was just about finished filling my cart when Trisha called and said they were on their way. I bought the Gogurt, chocolate pudding, strawberry jello, strawberries, blueberries and a few other goodies then loaded the car. I bought some bottled waters and a packet of those crystal light singles. Wild strawberry. It just sounded good. I got home, got things put away and the laundry put up. One of the ladies in our office made a fruit dip the other day with light sour cream and powdered sugar and I gave it a try. Just whisk your powdered sugar into your sour cream until it is as sweet as you like it. I even added a little almond extract for flavor. I was impressed. Extremely easy and quick. I had just finished when the boys and Trisha arrived. She’d driven through and gotten us Subways for dinner. We ate and I made all the boys strawberry drinks with the Crystal Light. I thought I had been so smart to get them something sugar free…until after dinner when Trisha started looking at the box. “Huh? Crystal Light energy? Dayna do they put vitamins in it?” I was like I don’t know…until she saw it. “Contains Caffeine.” Oh no. I immediately let the guys know I would put the last of their drinks in the refrigerator and they could have the rest tomorrow. Trisha just giggled. The boys had brought a few of their Wii games and their Wii remotes. So after dinner, I connected their remotes to our Wii and let them start playing. They were having all sorts of fun. And everyone was really good at taking turns too. Ryan got home just as Trisha and Wesley were about to leave. We waved goodbye and started the slumber party. Mario Cart, some Smash Brothers Game, and a few Wii Sports games later, we turned off the Wii and got ready for bed. I made popcorn and turned on Ben 10 (which I think I was the only one who watched). All the boys are quite interested in everything Uncle Ryan does right now, so they were huddled around the computer with him looking up rides at Six Flags and Hurricane Harbor. I was asleep on the couch when all the guys came back into the living room. I woke up a bit and laid on the futon mattress with Quinton and Mathis (we’d pulled it into the living room for the slumber party). Harold still wasn’t in the mood to lay down so he kept hanging out with Uncle Ryan in the computer room. He finally came into lay down about ten till midnight. I had turned off the video and put in onto the Fox Soccer Channel. It was showing a game and I turned the volume almost completely off. He had been quiet for about thirty minutes when he quietly asked me, “Aunt Dayna, where is Uncle Ryan?.” I replied “Asleep in our bed Harold.” He said okay, then fell asleep :o) I woke up the next morning to the door closing. Uncle Ryan was going to get doughnuts! Mathis woke up too so he and I sat awake chatting and watching cartoons. Quinton wasn’t far behind us. We all laid there until Uncle Ryan got back. He had driven all the way up to the doughnut shop by our old apartment only to find it had closed. So he went to Krispy Kreme…but it had closed! So he ended up at the shop literally a quarter mile from the house after driving all over north Irving. He did notice that Las Colinas also has a NYLO on MacArthur though! We both were excited about that. We ate our doughnuts and finally got Harold up. After we got the futon/bed picked up, we started to play the Wii again. We played for about an hour then started packing up to head back to Arlington. We left our house a little after twelve. We asked the boys what they wanted for lunch. Mathis and Quinton wanted lunchables and Harold wanted a hot dog. So Ryan dropped the rest of us off at Matt and Trisha’s and headed to the grocery store. Trisha was at work and Matt was on his way home from a wedding in Louisiana. Mom had Wesley at her house taking a nap. All the boys and I were hanging out at the house. We played outside, played inside, watched a bit of Ranger baseball, and a couple of the guys even got some rest in. We had just a good time with all of them. Mom came over with Wesley around five and Ryan went and picked up some pizza. We all ate then were visiting when Trisha got home. It was about eight when we got back home. I vacuumed, Ryan swept, went over the bathrooms and mopped (I accidentally spilled strawberry milk on the kitchen floor while heating it up for Quinton the night before). Afterwards we sat in the living room and watched a couple episodes of Burn Notice…which we are about caught up on…which is quite unfortunate. All our tv shows are in transition right now…what are we going to watch! We had such a great weekend. Only wish it could’ve lasted a couple more days :o) Have a great week everyone! I think Ryan and I are planning on going to the Elephant Parade in Sundance Square tomorrow night at 7:30 if anyone is interested in joining us. Of course it will depend on what time we can leave work and such, but we both really want to watch the elephants snack on some watermelon!