Trotting with the Turkeys

This Thanksgiving the mil10s participated in the largest Thanksgiving Day event of its kind in the country.  The 44th Annual Dallas YMCA Turkey Trot draws nearly 40,000 participants each year.  mr. mil10, mrs.  mil10, and EK were among the many that participated in the turkey day tradition.  Unfortunately Modie took ill and couldn't join us in the day's festivities. 

Lots of port-a-potties for lots of racers!

When we left Home Town, Texas, the visibility was 0.  

It wasn't much better in Dallas when we arrived.

 The pre-race activities took place in front of Dallas City Hall.

Many people got ready...

...by donning a turkey costume...

...in order to set a new Guinness World Record 

for the most people dressed as turkeys at an organized event. 

 

 Ready to race!

There were many unusual hats!  It was hard to take their picture without being obvious.

On you mark, get set, go! 

 As you can see, the fog didn't burn off as much as they expected.  

The unusual weather did provide many unique views of downtown Dallas.

Looking up into the fog.

After the race EK and mr. mil10 fought through the crowds of people 

to pick up a few post-race snacks.

Our next stop after the race was Highland Park Cafeteria for Thanksgiving lunch.  We were greeted by an employee serving their popular zucchini muffins to patrons as they waited in a line that extended out of the building and around the corner.  Although mr. mil10 jokingly (and somewhat seriously) expected to be dining with a bunch of sad and lonely people, the restaurant was filled to near-capacity with families of all types.  The couple waiting behind us in line drove from Tyler, Texas to eat their annual Thanksgiving meal at HPC. Compared to everyone else, the mil10s were considerably underdressed as we were still wearing our race apparel.  However, we were not alone as we spotted at least three other Turkey Trotters dining at HPC as well.

We had a great Thanksgiving!  We will probably trot again.  We will probably eat at Highland Park Cafeteria again.  We will definitely continue to be thankful for all of the blessings God has given to us!

CHARACTER: mr. and mrs. mil10 & the mouse

Walt Disney World - 2009

CHARACTER: Mrs. Mil10 and Mulan

2010 - Disneyland

Snow in 2011

I am pretty sure that I can only remember a few really good snowfalls from my childhood.  Living in this part of Texas we are usually blessed with ice or "wintry mix" during our winter weather.  However, now that EK has been around it seems like we are enjoying a nice snowfall almost every year!  I guess some would blame it on global warming.  Oh well.  At least we get to enjoy the beauty of a blanket of snow for a while before it all melts and makes everything a muddy mess.  The occasional school closing is nice, too (although a late start is really the ideal choice).  The best part of all might just have to be having snow ice cream!

Too bad our first batch of snow ice cream wasn't very good.  There was more sleet than snow collected in our bowl and the ice cream was really too icy.  Go figure!  It came out like a slushy.

mrs. mil10 had a hair appointment today.  She tried to make it to the salon, but the first road she tried was blocked by a fire truck helping someone get their truck out of a ditch.  On her second road, she started to spin.  It was time to come back home.  All in all, she looks pretty positive after the excitement of driving on snow and slush and a cancelled hair appointment.

It was almost a white out!

EK is taking aim and is ready with a snowball!

The second batch of snow ice cream was perfect -- just like a cloud!

The Jiggle Butt Run

Yesterday was a big day for the mil10s.  Grams, Aunt K, mrs. mil10, and Auntie M signed up for their first 5K.  Inspired by Denyse, Elizabeth, and Paige, the mil10 girls thought signing up for a 5K would be a fun motivator for exercising.  The Jiggle Butt Run is a 5K run /walk for women and girls.  No men allowed.  The money raised benefited Safe Haven Women's Shelter.

Team Huffin' and Puffin' is now complete

Getting ready to start

mrs. mil10 picked up the team sign that was posted along the route and carried it through the remainder of the race

Cooling down after the race

mrs. mil10s race number

This race number is hopefully the first in a collection of race numbers.  since mr. mil10 was only there to drive and cheer, he is looking forward to a future 5K event as well.  Who knows where it could go from here!

Happy Birthday

EK decided he needed to make something for mrs. mil10's birthday, but he felt like he needed a little help. Together he and mr. mil10 built a Lego Mickey Mouse.

You know we love Legos and all things Disney at our house, so this seemed like a perfect fit for mrs. mil10.

Happy birthday, mrs. mil10!

We Saw it at Atwoods

Yesterday we found ourselves out and about in Hometown with a little time to kill.  mrs. mil10 suggested going to Atwoods.  Really?  Their motto is "If you enjoy the country lifestyle, you're going to love Atwoods."  They may not be looking at the mil10s as their target demographic group.  However, since we are not really in touch with our country side, going to Atwoods exposes us to many of the things that we may not know about or can fully appreciate.  We always manage to have a good time there and it had been several months since our last visit so we gave it a try.

I don't know if it was a special day or just a regular thing on Saturdays, but we were greeted with free bags of popcorn as soon as we walked into the store.  EK was more excited about the flavored popcorn salt.  Sitting next to the bags of popcorn were no less than ten different flavors of popcorn salt.  Come one, come all!  Step right up and have it your way.  Atwoods definitely has the local movie theater beat out when it comes to varieties of popcorn salt.

We saw a heated pet bowl.  Hmmm.  How do you go about plugging this in, filling it with water, and not having a dog electrocute itself since it plugs into an electrical outlet?  I see one of two things happening.  Either we would have a hot dog when it manages to get a charge of electricity or the water bowl would manage to trip our electrical breaker.  It seems like when we use our Christmas lights when there is the smallest amount of moisture in the air I am always having to go flip a thrown breaker.  Am I the only one that sees the potential disaster that is bound to happen when you plug in a bowl of water?  Surely we are not the only pet owners without a heated pet bowl.

It didn't photograph well, but right next to a metal tub filled with duct tape sat a container full of yardsticks.  They were labeled as "four sided."  As I looked at them I noticed that the yardsticks indeed had an unusual shape, but only two of the sides were printed with the numbered increments that make a yardstick so helpful.  The remaining two sides reminded you that Atwoods is "America's favorite ranch home outfitters" and the "home of Ranch Pro feeds and Real Ranch work wear."  Why then, I must ask, are these yardsticks billed as being four sided?  Technically, it didn't have any more functional sides than a traditional yardstick.

Next to the orange soda, cream soda, and root beer, sat bottles of sarsaparilla.  That was unexpected.  Who knew they even made sarsaparilla anymore?  If you didn't read the label pictured above, go ahead and read it now. 

It really is good to know that there is nothing better than an ice cold sarsaparilla, regardless of which end of the horse I am working with.  Maybe you knew this already, but that was definitely new information to me.  I think I will take their word for it, but I will keep it in mind just in case I find myself working with some end of a horse in the future. 

I didn't take a picture of it, but there was a meat band saw on sale for only $199.  I am not an informed consumer when it comes to meat band saws, but that seemed like a reasonable price to me.  Kill the meat.  Then slice the meat on your own personal band saw.  That sounds like a perfectly normal thing to me.  We mil10s must be really missing out!

Finally, next to the check out area we found these little packages of Lil' Dude meat that caught my eye (I must have been thinking about that meat band saw).  I held two in my hand so you could gauge the size of the meat snacks.  There were about four or five different flavors to select from but I can only remember summer sausage and pepperoni now.  For only ninety-nine cents you could have one of these packaged meats.  When I did a little googling I did find a Flickr photo that shows them priced at only eighty-nine cents.  I wonder if Atwoods would honor the price shown there?  I also discovered that the Lil' Dude Summer Sausages have their own Facebook page. 

The mil10s did not purchase any of the things pictured above, but we did not leave empty handed.  EK found a package of root beer flavored jelly beans (which spilled across the back seat as we left church this morning).  mrs. mil10 bought a bag of peanuts which turned out to be a great snack at the park.  mr. mil10 left with a peanut patty, which EK wouldn't even taste.  We also bought a jar of dilly corn.  Growing up, mr. mil10 thought they were fun to eat because they look like ears of corn, but closer to the size of pickles.  EK probably won't taste those either.

On the Hunt

It is almost like treasure hunting.  A quest to find a desired item.  The subject of our hunt is a piece of molded plastic that is only worth a couple of dollars. 

A Lego Spartan warrior. 

This past Friday night the mil10s made a run to Target.  If Target is good for something, it is having something that you really didn't intend to buy, but once you see it on the shelf, you just can't think of leaving it there. It must come home with you.  That is what happened to us.  Unbeknownst to us, Lego is now selling mystery minifigures.  We found the small packages almost by mistake.  The thought of buying one of these mystery figures appealed to us, so we thought we would give it a try.

When EK opened the bag, he found an explorer complete with a magnifying glass and binoculars.  There was also a check off list that pictured each of the sixteen figures in the series.  Each of the pictured figures was very interesting and not one that you would typically find in a normal boxed Lego set.  You could see the gears in EK's head start to turn, but in fact we had all caught the fever.  We knew we would be doing this again.  But when?

The next day we found ourselves at hometown's Walmart.   Low and behold, they also had the mystery minifigures.  This time we were not content with simply picking a random package off the rack.  Instead we carefully held the packages and would try to feel the peices inside in order to hopefully identify a unique piece.  EK was hoping for the Spartan pictured above.  We handled each and every package to hopefully make out a spear or shield.  No such luck.  EK left that morning with a man with a serape, sombrero and maracas.  mrs. mil10 found the witch.  After all, it looks too much like Wicked's Elphaba to pass up.

"Are people born wicked, or do they have wickedness thrust upon them?"

It was later that mr. mil10 read online that the minifigure packages actually have a bar code unique to each figure.  Also, by using the cell phone's bar code scanner app, one could easily tell the contents of the package without having to guess or try to blindly feel the contents.  Oh, this was interesting!  What was a mil10 to do?  Go right back to Walmart!  The only difference is that this time we would know ahead of time exactly what we would be buying.  On our second trip of the day we left with a vampire and a karate kid, but no Spartan.

That same night mr. and mrs. mil10 had the pleasure of seeing Matt Maher, Addison Road, and Tenth Avenue North in concert.  Since we arrived early and had time to kill, we found ourselves at Target once more.  Thanks to the bar code scanner app, we were able to use the few minutes we had to scan several packaged figures, but once again we came up empty handed in our quest for a Spartan.

Sunday found a cool front blowing in.  We thought it was perfect weather for Taco Stew, but we didn't have all of the ingredients.  A quick run to the store was needed.  Sure, we could have quickly gone into hometown's grocery stores.  But since we had already been to Walmart twice the day before, we decided to go to another Walmart.  A fifteen minute drive south and we were in a new Walmart.  Unfortunately, they didn't carry the mystery minifigures.  Bust!  At least we had Taco Stew to look forward to when we returned home.

So if you need the mil10s anytime soon, we might just be making trips to random stores so we can pop in and use a cell phone bar code scanner to find out the item inside the mystery package.  We may have found a way to work around Lego's intended mystery, but for us there is still plenty of fun in the hunt!  We will find you, Spartan.  We will find you.

Nerf Wars

Who doesn't love a round of Nerf wars after dinner? It doesn't matter what kind of day you may have had because you are going to have a great time and feel better after a little friendly fire!

A Lesson Learned, Again

Now that I am at a point in life where I have been driving longer than I haven't, you would think accidental near-misses with family members in the driveway with the front or back end of a vehicle wouldn't be happening.  You would think.

Earlier this weekend we decided to make a quick Friday night run to the mall that I won't mention by name (but I will let you know that we affectionately call it "the gangster mall") to purchase a gift and eat at El Chico.  Excited to be home, I suppose, mrs. mil10 went to the back of the car to get the package.  Surprisingly the back door would not open.  EK was getting out of the vehicle.  He, too, realized something wasn't quite right.  Where was mr. mil10?  Standing in the grass.  mrs. mil10 quickly realized the car was actually rolling towards her and not just settling into place like a car sometimes will when it is put into park.  mr. mil10's quick reflexes enabled him to jump back into the driver's seat and properly put it in park.  mrs. mil10 was now out of harm's way.  Modie, who had been sitting in the back, was now saying, "Just turn it off.  Just turn it off."  All was safe and thankfully no one was hurt in the mil10 driveway.  Yes, you should always put the car in park before getting out of the car.

Although the event only lasted a few seconds, it kept us laughing for a significantly longer period of time.  Probably because we should already know the importance of first putting the car in park before getting out of the car. You see, this is not the first time such an incident has occurred.

Several years ago, when EK was just a small baby, the mil10s were in the truck and needed to quickly run into the house to get something. It should have been a simple task.  However, as mr. mil10 walked in front of the truck, he realized that it was actually coming towards him.  I could say that it narrowly missed crushing him between the the other car that was parked in the garage, but that would be a little dramatic.  I could say that mr. mil10 lunged towards the oncoming truck and stopped it in its tracks with a hearty body block, but that would also be a little dramatic.  I could say that mrs. mil10, being alert as she sat in the backseat with the small babe, quickly leaned over the driver's seat and threw the truck into park.  I could say that because it was true! 

That is twice that mr. mil10 has gotten out of the vehicle without putting it in park.  Thankfully, no one was hurt either time.  However, you should still learn from the bad examples and make sure you put your car in the correct gear! 

NOW: Vampire Bites

It seemed like an easy task.  Make cookie dough using red food coloring.  Add sprinkles.  Bake.  Add Snickers candy and icing.

However, it was just a little bit more difficult.  After making on batch of dough from scratch, we decided that one batch would simply not be enough.  We opted to do a second batch using the "quick" version of using a pre-made package of sugar cookie dough.  Let's just say that using the pre-made sugar cookie dough just didn't give the desired result.  Those cookies looked more like a red gremlin ears than pairs of lips.  We gave EK one of the cookies from this batch, but he politely excused himself from finishing the entire thing.

The cookies made from scratch cooked like real cookies and even smelled good coming out of the oven.  We'll find out how they taste tomorrow.

 

The finished product.

We made a cookie snake with the last portion of homemade cookie dough.  EK said it tasted strange when he ate it.  I told him it tasted like a gingerbread cookie.  I don't know if it was supposed to, but I am going to blame that on the cinnamon.

mrs. mil10 will have a fun time watching the new Twilight movie with her friends tomorrow night.  Let's just hope the cookies add a nice element to the evening instead of leaving a bad taste in everyone's mouth!  Of course we could always make our other vampire cookies again!

NOW: Ready or Not, Here We Come!

At least we were ready to see the movie.

We had free passes to see a movie at Studio Movie Grill. We thought today would be a great day to go see Toy Story 3. The person at the ticket counter said our passes were not good on opening weekend. We would have to wait until Monday to use them if we were going to see TS3. Instead of opting to see another movie with our free passes, we decided to go ahead and pay for our tickets so we could see the final chapter in the Toy Story trilogy on opening day.

Since we were watching the movie at Studio Movie Grill, we had to order food and drinks. Sometime after the drinks arrived, but before the food was served the previews started. However, there was one small problem. There was no sound. Well, there was some sound. Put an index finger in each ear to plug the sound. Now momentarily remove your fingers, only to immediately reinsert the fingers into your ears. Hold it. Hold it. Again, momentarily remove your fingers, but then immediately reinsert your fingers. That is what is sounded like while the previews played. Soon our food arrived, but not the sound. The short (cartoon before the movie) started and played in its entirety without sound. The technicians continued working the the booth above us, but were unable to resolve the problem. When the actual movie started playing without sound, we really knew we were headed for trouble. Eventually the movie was paused as they continued to work on the sound. Now at this point we should have been about 30 minutes into the movie. The manager said that they would be unable to show Toy Story 3 due to the technical difficulties. Bummer. But, he said the food was on them and they would be refunding the cost of the tickets. As a bonus surprise, we were given movie passes to come back to another movie at no cost. Thank you, Studio Movie Grill!

So let's review: We didn't use our passes. The tickets we bought were refunded. The food we ate was given to us at no cost. We also received another set of free passes to come again. Not a bad deal. In fact, despite the hassle of it all, it seemed like we still came out winners.  What were we to do now?  Easy.  Drive to another theater and see the movie!

After a short drive down the road, we were now ready to see Toy Story 3.  Sure our passes didn't work here, but we already had a free lunch!  Now, on with the show!