The Last Bat at Rosenblatt

Sadly I missed the team’s charter flight to Omaha due to a little thing called MY JOB! I had about 850 kids arriving to team camp and was committed to making sure they all got checked in and paid up.

So the kiddos and I got some bonding time with a little road trip to Omaha, NE. I was just sadden that daddy had to miss all the fun!

We jammed to hits from the ’80’s on XM radio. I am proud to say that my children now know Bon Jovi, Cyndi Lauper and all of M.J.’s famous hits. I am sure they have been scarred for life with my sing-along’s. I did manage to get them to listen to a few books on CD. All they wanted was Red Box movies.

Ryan has shown me many times how to use my GPS. I still like to go “Old School” with maps. It helps give the kids a visual of where we are going. And teach them how to read a map! I wished I had a dime for every time they asked me “mom are we lost?” Then I would just toss them a snack form our snack box to shut ‘em up!

One thing that we all understand now is why the call Nebraska the Huskers.

Did you know that between Topeka, KS and Omaha

Along a two lane HWY called 75 North there is exactly 48.2 MILES of nothing but corn?


Yep, no corn shortage here folks.

We spent 7 days in Omaha with 4 of them at Rosenblatt.

I took the kids over to look at a very full Missouri river.

They had this fabulous pedestrian bridge that we started to walk just as the sun was setting.

It was a gorgeous night so we walked all the way to Iowa and back {smile}!

Arriving for our 1:00 game the next day, at 10:30 in the morning, was lots of fun. The atmosphere around the College World Series reminds me a lot of Yankee stadium mixed with a bit of Mardi Gras on crack.

Lunch was at Zesto’s.

Zesto’s is to the CWS what the Empire State building is to NYC.

You have not experienced the CWS without a burger and shake from here.

And maybe a short cat nap in the sun.

Excited we made our way to the stadium.

Took in the view.

Watched the team line up.

And then they called the 1st rain delay.

We spent the next 4 hours on the team charter bus in the parking lot.

No T.V., radio, AC and just 10 kids all under the age of 10! No words can describe what went on inside.

Lucky me I had a bag of sunflower seeds.

The boys took turns having a spitting contest off the steps of the bus. Our poor bus driver was about to throw the towel in.

When they called the game back on.

We took our seats

Downed our $10 smoothies.

And decided it was time to take a nap on mommy’s lap.

And then it happened again. I have been to my fair share of baseball games with rain delays and extra innings, but this was insane.


Yet another 2 hour rain delay.

Finally we decided to take all the kids back to the hotel and watch the final innings of the game on T.V. So, after spending 11 hours at the stadium and mortgaging my home to feed the kids "healthy" ball park food, we WON!

Sadly the rain delays and extra innings ,over the next few games, was not enough to keep us playing and we had to make the trip back home.

We will be back... next year!

Homemade Cracker Jack's

I will use any excuse to make a batch of my favorite caramel corn. And yesterday I decided to turn it into Homemade Cracker Jack’s for the Fourth.

I started with my basic caramel corn recipe.


12 Cups air popped popcorn {NO microwave}
1 stick butter
1 Cup Light brown sugar
½ Cup Karo
½ tsp. salt
¼ tsp vanilla
¼ tsp baking soda
1 ½ cups beer peanuts


Preheat oven to 225.


Pop popcorn.

I love my A- bomb stove top popper. I have had it over16 years and it works like a charm every time. I use ½ cup kernels to ¼ cup oil and pop over med-high till popped.

I dump my popped corn into a deep baking roaster.

In a small stove top pot and melt butter, karo, brown sugar, salt on med heat stirring continually until it comes to a boil. Then I leave it be and let in boil for 5 minutes. Remove from heat and gently add vanilla and baking soda.

Pour over popped corn and stir till well coated. Place roaster in oven and bake for one hour stirring every 15 minutes. I added the nuts the last 30 minutes. Cool and package as need be.

I will be linking up today at these great sites Tempt My Tummy - Tuesday at The Table - Tasty Tuesday - Get Your Craft On - Make It Yours Day -

Our Journey to Omaha

Our journey began two weeks ago after my husband’s baseball team won their regional. We were all on our way to Charlottesville, VA to play in a Super Regional for Div1 College Baseball.

I had less than 24 hours to get us all packed up and get loose ends tied up at my office. Talk about good times!

It was a short flight that Gabe enjoyed jamming out too.

Charlottesville’s was rich in all kinds of history. Eight of our very first Presidents came from this 13 original colony.

One of our first stops was to The Monticello, home to our third President and author of The Declaration of Independence, Thomas Jefferson.


His home was like traveling back in time. Sadly I was unable to take any pictures inside. They won’t even allow you to touch a door or the wall. As everything is original to when he lived there.

We did get to run around underneath.


This was a corridor used by his slaves to access different areas of the home. I can only imagine Sally Heming’s walking this very path.

Little did I know that he was a tad OCD at keeping records and journals of his time. Thus, allowing us a glimpse into his everyday life. He would often stand out here and overlook his farm.

Thomas Jefferson had a love for agriculture. And I had a love for his two acre garden that is still maintained to this day. He would test out new plants, some that Lewis and Clark would send back from their journey into the America’s. I am sure mine is lookin' just like this back home {smile}!

My kiddos were eating this stuff up. I am happy to say, at this age, they would rather watch the History channel than Disney. They like it so much they asked to go back the next day…scary!

We visited his grave, and the graves of his family members buried at Monticello.  Yep, that's little man trying to get in.

Gabe loved the little pool they had out behind the house. It was used to store fish the slaves had caught until dinnertime.

Just two miles over lived James Monroe.

His home was not as grand but Hannah had to see it. Her elementary school is named after him.

I was in love with this 250 year old tree. I am sure people wondered why I wanted so many pictures of it. Let’s face it, I am from Oklahoma and trees like this just don’t exist in my world.

We worked up an appetite for lunch and headed over to Five Guys and Fries. I had to learn the hard way, they really mean LARGE fry!

Nana and Papa made the trip with us and drove us a few miles along the Blue Ridge Mountains.

Breathtaking!

We planned to have a nice picnic along the way. But the massive jumbo nat's had a differnet idea. So we had to resort to a car-nic!Along the drive we found a cabin from the 1880’s with park rangers playing the parts.

Hannah and Gabe enjoyed gathering eggs.

And making Nana read every marker there was.

I think Gabe was ready to move right in!

Oh, yah …. We did play a few games {smile} !

After lots of heat, frozen Minute Maid’s, sunflower seeds and hotdogs!

Gabe got to view his second dog pile.

And we were on our way to Omaha!!!!!