The Search for Miss Direction: Hail to the Birthday Dog!

Well it's taken the entire month, but apparently Mother Nature finally took me seriously and decided to ease up her death grip on Winter a bit and our day here was bright and sunny. Still a bit chilly but thank you God for the sunshine! We even all trooped out this afternoon for a family walk just to soak up a few rays (and burn off some extra energy). Rumor has it that we might be near 60 tomorrow. Just in time for one of my favorite events of the whole year - Opening Day of the Major League baseball season. That's right, my boys of summer will be back rockin' the D and I couldn't be more excited. New manager, a few new faces - go get 'em Tigers! And so I don't hae any more embarrassing gaffes (I tried to convince my Dad on Friday that they opened on the road, not at Comerica tomorrow and that they weren't home 'til Friday. Um, that'd be last seasons schedule Kristi...) I spent part of my morning getting the season schedule put together to hang up for us for a quick reference. You'll have to see what I came up with below. But that's tomorrow, back to today...

We started our morning with a Idaho Potato Breakfast Scramble so squeeze out the last day of our Idaho celebration. Noah especially really loved this (enough to forgive me for not making these Potato Cinnamon rolls as I had said I was going to make earlier in the week) and it was an easy breakfast to throw together and get us going this busy morning.

At breakfast Grant reminded the kiddos that it was a special day at the Gatchel's - it's Bella's 8th birthday! A very happy puppy birthday to my 'oldest child'. The kiddos helped me make some of her favorite dog biscuits this morning before they headed off with Grant to do some shopping while I finished organizing things to kick off Illinois week tomorrow, worked on my Tigers board and a few other odds and ends.

I gave the kids their Idaho pop quiz when we were out on our walk and I was so proud of them. Noah remembered that the flower was a 'syringa' - I mean come on! They totally earned their prize this week which they wasted no time trying out when we got home. Check it out in the pictures!

Then it was time to cheer on our favorite guys in Maize and Blue! We're of course all decked out in our gear today. What a game! Not sure which of the four of us did the most yelling. We didn't pull it out this time, bummer. But my crew bleeds maize and blue all the time - win or lose. We're not fair weather fans nor do we jump on the band wagon when it's convenient. We're proud of our guys and will be ready to cheer them on next year. Hail to the Victors!

With the game I gave Idaho one last culinary go with a Western Shepherd's Pie. I picked this recipe specifically for Grant who loves shepherd's pie. This was a little different as it had chicken and lots of southwest flavors, but I'm glad we tried it. It has made my house smell so enticing all day as it cooked away in the crock pot.

So lots to look forward to this week with baseball starting (bummed we won't be cheering on a Final Four team on Saturday) and starting our Illinois celebrations. Grant and I both have quite a few ties to the Prairie State - he spent nearly his whole life there and I kinda technically work there :) So hang with us this week as we check it all out. Until then...