Tonight's Word: Impulsive

So tonight started out like basically any night at the Dillard household... Daddy comes home, we play for a bit and then have dinner together. But tonight, I was feeling like shopping and Matt agreed to come along with the kids and make it a family outing. I've been wanting a new rug for the living room to cover up the dirty carpet and help disguise some of the messes my kids make on our very light-colored carpet. I had found a rug I liked on the IKEA website during nap time today so we made plans to head up to Frisco. As we were turning into the parking lot of IKEA, we notice all of the cars filing in to the Dr. Pepper Ballpark right next door - home of the Frisco Rough Riders, the Texas Rangers AA team. So Matt looks at me and says "let's go!" I think for a second and decide, sure, why not! The weather today has been BEAUTIFUL after a few storms blew through this afternoon... a quick glance at the temperature gauge in our car shows me it is 72 degrees outside... PERFECT! We were so excited about the prospect of being impulsive. Some things that went through my head however:

• Do we have enough diapers?
• What are we going to sit on?
• What about bedtimes?
• It's a little cool when the wind is blowing and we are all in shorts...

BUT HECK! We were being impulsive, so I let it all go.

Now all of you parents of young children out there know that the word impulsive is not a commonly used word anymore. Gone are the days of last minute anything. But it doesn't always have to be that way as we proved to ourselves tonight.

So we still trek through IKEA, a little more quickly than we otherwise would have, picking up not only the rug, but a blanket to lay out on the grass at the game too :) We told Oliver about the game a little earlier than we should have because he was chanting "baseball game" for the last 5 minutes we were in the store. But we finally made it out... only to realize as we loaded the car that since we were being impulsive we did not have any cash for parking. So I drive across the street to where the parking attendant is standing to ask him how much it was for parking and if he knew where there was an ATM. He looks at me and smiles and says, "That's alright - just go ahead on in." Wow - this impulsive stuff really pays off! Matt said he was glad I was driving because it didn't hurt our case at all that I was a girl and I was hot. What a sweet husband I have!

So we load up the double stroller and make our way to the box office, talking the whole time about how proud we are for being impulsive. As the ticket agent is swiping my credit card to pay for the tickets, two guys in business clothes walk by saying "Four free tickets." Grrr! Our whole evening could have been free... but oh well, lawn seats aren't that expensive anyway. But we were so close to having our whole impulsive night for free.

So off we go into the park, two very proud parents and two very happy children. We find a great seat in the outfield sitting on our blanket from IKEA. I head off to the gift shop to buy some t-shirts for the family to commemorate the night because we didn't even have our camera because we were so impulsive, hence why there are no pictures to go along with this post.
But for those of my neighbors reading this post, we will all be wearing our new shirts at neighbor dinner tomorrow night to show them off! So we all change into our new shirts, and enjoy sitting out in the nice weather with the kids. Oliver was a little scared at first of the huge Jumbo-Tron right behind where we were sitting. He spent the first 15 minutes of the game burying his head into Matt or my shoulder whenever he noticed the huge screen. Pretty sweet. He eventually got over it though and throughly enjoyed running around with another 3 year old sitting in the lawn. There were not many of us out there this evening, so our family got to be up on the Jumbo-Tron 3 times tonight. So fun! Oliver was really excited to be on TV... one time with Matt during the "Silly Face" shoot. Matt was sticking out his tongue and making a noise and Oliver kept reliving that throughout the evening. Gabby and I got to be on too although I couldn't figure out which way to face to be on the camera quick enough to show much except the back of my head as I stared at myself on the Jumbo-Tron :)

The Rough Riders were playing the Midland Rockhounds and Oliver thought the picture of the Rockhound up on the screen looked like Scooby-Doo so he got excited every time they put up a player's bio from the other team. He enjoyed clapping and yelling - copying everything the man next to us on the grass was yelling. Fortunately, he was not drunk and yelling obscenities or anything! Gabriella really enjoyed just being outside, rolling around on the blanket and watching all of the kids running around. Matt enjoyed the baseball and seeing the Texas Rangers prospects out on the field. I enjoyed shopping in the gift shop! And we all enjoyed a fun night together as a family! What a perfect, impulsive evening.

We ended up leaving in the 4th inning as the kids were both getting tired. They transitioned easily to bed and here's hoping that the later bedtime means they'll sleep in later in the morning. They won't, but here's hoping!