Crisp, Beautiful, Monday. . .

Watched two wild baseball games yesterday after a beautiful Baptism and Confirmation at our Church.  Our youth group is growing and that is so wonderful to see.  Our youth choir, the Grateful Choir sang the National Anthem at a minor league baseball game yesterday.  They do an awesome job, we did not get to see them though because Sprat had a double header at the same time.  Sprat's team is off to a rough start this year but they came on strong yesterday and pulled two amazing wins. We had some unusual plays, to end the first game we had a triple play that began and ended at home plate.  Yes, it was a legit triple play.  Blooper fell right in front of the plate and a force out at home to start.  Catcher throws to first and gets the batter out, then for some reason the kid that was on third came on home, so first baseman throws to get that kid out at home.  Triple play!  Awesome!!  Wish I had it on video because it was crazy!    Sprat made two great plays, one at first base and another at third.  He did a  super stretch and a pirouette to tag the kid out at first.  They had a kid in a run down between home and third and Sprat stretched and got the kid out but the umpire called him safe and while Sprat was still laying on the ground at third the umpire looked back at him and smiled and said, "I know he was out and I missed it."  I do not think many umpires would admit that one but this guy has been an umpire where our kids play for many years and he has watched our kids grow up and I guess he felt a little guilty.   The very next batter the kid tried it again and this time Sprat got him out.  Sprat played first, third and he pitched three innings in the first game.  He loves playing ball.
I know that was a lot of play by play but these were two really exciting games.  
It was a wonderful day.

School is Almost Out. . .

One final down and one to go, I am really excited and relieved to see this semester come to an end.   I will have about a month to decompress and prepare for a wild Summer full of College tours, football workouts, and Lacrosse camps.  I hope we can work in a visit to the beach too.  
Big T is almost done with his season of Lacrosse, he got to play attacker this weekend.  The attackers are the ones that get to shoot and score.  Big T was very nervous and they threw him the ball and caught it clean and turned to shoot but unfortunately the goalie caught it.  The goalie and Big T were both pretty surprised.   They won both games and they were so far ahead in the last game and that is why Big T got to be an attacker.  They were letting the boys play what ever position they wanted.   Their record right now is 13-1-1.
Baseball game was cancelled due to the weather.  My niece has moved into her new apartment up here to start her clinical rotations for her final year of Pharmacy school.  I am so proud of my nieces they are smart, talented, beautiful and are not afraid to step out of their comfort zone to achieve their goals.   I wonder if my sister would mind if I claim her as mine while she is here?  
Back on the books for that final, final exam and then I can cheer my boys through their finals and EOC exams.

Warning, Proud Mama

So proud of my family.  Big T completed Confirmation and took his first Communion yesterday.   My mom, dad, sister, and niece came to share in this special time.  I am so thankful and blessed to have such a supportive family.  After Church we went to see Sprat in his double header.  Great way to spend a gorgeous Sunday afternoon.   Sprat's team won both games and he had some pretty  impressive plays. 
My hubby is improving every day and we are hopeful his surgeon will release him to go back to work in the coming weeks.  He still has to wear his brace when he is out of the house and on uneven ground.  He is able to drive now and that is a huge step in a positive direction. 
This Memorial weekend we are thankful for many things:  family,  blessings,  and all of those that gave their lives for our freedom.    My dad, Mark's dad and several uncles all proudly served  in the military.  Today we honor them and all of those that did not make it home.

Freezing at Baseball. . .

Baseball games have started and the weather is not cooperating.  We have had three games cancelled due to rain and have almost frozen during two games.  
Another crazy week ahead but, I am going to try and stay ahead of everything. 
Classes are winding down for me, this has been a tough semester.    Last of homework is due and exams this week.  Thank goodness all of mine will be over before the kids exams and EOG's start.  
We are gearing up and getting ready to go so hang on for this crazy week.  Here are a couple of shots from the freezing baseball games.

Happy Fourth of July. . .

Ok, so today is the 5th, yesterday was crazy.  We had an All Star game for Sprat that lasted for 6 hours, not a good night in baseball for our clan.  We lost in a crazy game.  Kinda glad it is over now we will move on to football.  Sprat has already been attending summer workouts for the middle school and is getting geared up for that.
As a child I used to love the Fourth of July.  We enjoyed cookouts and fireworks and celebrated the Independence of our Country.  Now that I am older I do not like the Fourth as much.  I think people have lost sight of what it means and why we celebrate.  Today it is just a reason for loud, obnoxious people to be more loud and obnoxious using dangerous fire works.  Oh, and let's not forget the alcohol consumption that goes along with the fireworks, because those two go so well together.  My dear hubby heard on the news this morning all the accidents that happened last night because of fireworks.  These were professional fireworks you can only imagine how bombarded the hospital ER was last night by all the "non-professionals" out there.  Hubby said, 28 spectators were injured when fireworks flew into the audience in California, and a 7 year old boy shot in the head walking through a parking lot in Virginia to go to the fireworks display.    The little boy in Virginia is still in the hospital they don't think the shot was intentional.  They think someone was "celebrating" by shooting a gun randomly near the parking lot.
So I am glad to see the Fourth go away.   Unfortunately the fireworks in my area will probably last well into the next two weeks.  They start at 10:30 am with random firecrackers and this will continue until dark when they can start with the bing, bam, boom.    Is it August yet?

The family all back together. . .

We picked Sprat up at camp yesterday morning and then had to jet to an All Star baseball game.   They got beat but, it was a good game and a tough loss.  We are still in though, it is double elimination so we play again next week sometime.  We had great weather, it was overcast and breezy.  It was not supposed to be that way but I was so glad it was.  Dear hubby, Big T and I sat under the trees on a hill and watched the game.  I felt bad for the boys though because it was hot on them down on the field.  They played well out in the field but we could not buy a run to save our lives.  I think they can beat the team we play next, I hope so anyway.  You just hate to see these kids practice all this time and then not be able to pull one out.  Sprat is getting to play with one of his friends this time and they are having fun.

Big Night in Baseball. . .

In the Minors (boys 9-10yrs old) the team Big T plays for won the regular season 14-1.  So proud of these boys.  Now comes the tournament, it is double elimination.  The one team that beat us is stacked which means they took the best kids out of their league and put them on one team.  We don't have but one team.   I am against the "stacking" of teams.  It is not fair to the kids.  You have one team that dominates and then one team that is ok and one team that may not win a game.  What is that teaching your kids?  We have one team and a couple of our kids have not played ball since t-ball.  All of our kids play and have equal time in the field.   Our coaches are very good with our kids too.  They don't yell and act ugly, they don't fuss and berate the kids.  They do coach and fuss if they are not paying attention but they also encourage and love these kids.  There are only 3 or 4 kids that would make the "stacked" team in this league and Big T is not one of them.  The thing is, our kids work together and encourage each other, they hug each other when they make a big play or big hit.  It is really funny to watch.

So on to our Big night of baseball.  Our tournament was double elimination and the "stacked" team beat us so we had to play them two more times.  We won the first game after they tried to take our kids out at the plate and at second base by playing dirty at their coaches direction.  I am all for trying hard to win but I don't like playing dirty.  Trying to knock kids down and hitting them in the face.  This coach is not a good sport at all and he is teaching his players this too.  That is so sad.  We had to play them again the next night for the championship.  They come out right off the bat and say that we are going to play a 2 1/2 hour time limit.  Our  regular time is 1 1/2 hour.  Our kids will not go to 2 1/2 hours till they move to Jr. on the big field.   This coach is trying everything possible to beat us.  We have seen him tell his kids to step in so they get hit by the pitch just to get on base.  He had his kids chanting at our pitcher that he could not pitch and chanting ugly things at out kids.  Well, we won!!!!  Their kids were very ugly going through the line to shake our kids hands and some did not even shake hands.  That is a t-ball kids response to losing.  I am sorry I am big on sportsmanship and this guys and his kids have been everything but sportsman like.  Our kids have always behaved with class and win or lose they always go through and say good game and they mean it.  We beat this team 3 times in the regular season and the first time we beat them the one kid went through the line and said, "you suck" to each one of our kids.  That is a poor sport!  Last night when we won he did not even shake our kids hand or clap for our kids when they got their pin for winning.  If our kids would have lost, it would have been sad but I don' t think our kids would have acted that way.  I know if mine had I would have snatched him up.

I have used this as a teaching moment for my kids.  I have talked to them about sportsmanship and how it is easy to win but it is hard to be a "good" winner.  We have talked about being a gracious person and a gracious winner.  I hope and pray that my kids will not ever behave the way these kids have.  I don't think they will because dear hubby and I try to set good examples but, so much of how our kids act is what they see other kids doing.  

Crazy wonderful day, yesterday. . .

So, my parents came to see the kids yesterday.  They came to Church with us and I was late.  I had to leave early to follow the choir to the baseball field.  Dear hubby made sure my Mom and Dad got to the fellowship building to have lunch and then drove them over to the ball field.  Big T got to participate in the pre-game parade around the field for his minors baseball team.  They are celebrating  a win for the regular season with a 14-1 record.  So proud of those boys, they have worked so hard this season.  After the parade around the field Big T had to race around to the other side of the field and change shirts so he could join Sprat to sing the National Anthem with the Grateful Choir.  I was one proud Mom yesterday.  Our choir rocked the National Anthem.  This group of young people have beautiful voices, I got to listen to them warm up before they went out for the sound check.  This is an amazing group of kids.
I did finally get to sit down and talk with my folks during the ball game.  We had a little rain and a little delay but we had great seats and did not get wet at all.  A wonderful day for our house.  So thankful for the day.

Spring Fling. . .

We had Spring Fling  today at Church for the youth.  We had games outside, bingo, bake sale, breakfast, and lunch.  We had a lot of goodies for the bake sale.  I picked up my sister-in-laws blackberry wine cake.    She makes the best cakes, and this one is by far the very best.  We had cupcakes, brownies, pound cakes, cookies, and pies.  We had all the carnival games for the kids to play and win little prizes.
After the fling we went to the ball field.  Big T had a game and so did Sprat.  Hubby took Sprat and I took Big T.  I had missed Big T's game last Saturday because I had to take Sprat to his out of town.  Big T's team is undefeated.  We won today too.  They had a rough game today.  I am so proud of our team, they have improved so much.

Baseball, baseball, baseball. . .

I do like watching my kids play baseball.  I like watching them play all sports, who am I kidding.  I do get excited and if you know me personally  you know what I mean.  I yell and holler and jump up and down.  I yell for every kid on our team.  That is what I like about our club.  Every parent is yelling for every child.  How cool is that, that each child has twenty people yelling their name and cheering them on.   When you come to our games you can never tell which parent belongs to which child because we are all yelling.
 Every child deserves the right to play whatever sport  they desire regardless of their talent level.  Imagine going to sign your child up to play baseball and the person signing them up said, "has your child ever played baseball before?"  If you answer, no.  That person might say oh, well your child will be on the "B" team.  That is what some idiot that has recently joined our booster club is trying to do.  We barely have enough kids to have a team much less an A or B team.   I do not like this A or B team mess.  Each team should be set up equally, so that each team has it's own chance to win or lose.  We have played other clubs before and you could tell that they had A and B teams.  One team rarely if ever won a game and one of the teams was undefeated.
We have a wide range of talent on our team.  We have kids that have been playing ball since t-ball and kids that have never played before.  All of our kids get equal time on the field and one of our parents has a problem with this.  By the way, we are 5-0, and this guy is not happy because we have a kid that has never played ball before and has not learned the finer points of the game.  This child is learning every game and practice and he is so positive and excited about playing.  He has improved every game.  All of the parents except one yells for him and gives him encouragement every time he gets up to the plate.  All of the kids on the team yell and encourage this child because they want him to do well and not to feel bad about himself.  Why is it that this guy is so pig headed and mean?  Yes, he is my cloven hoofed friend from my previous post.  Our club is set up to teach and encourage not to diminish someone else because they have never had the opportunity to try.

Another Crazy week in baseball. . . .

Another crazy week of baseball under our belts.  What a great week though.  The weather was wonderful this weekend the boys played ball and I got to watch.  Big T's team is still undefeated and I am so proud of all the boys on the team.  Sprat has not had his first game yet.  He has had a few practice games but nothing that counts toward the record.  I did my first turn in the concession stand.  I don't mind concession stand duty, my first job as a teenager was at Wendys.  I guess you could say I am a burger flipper from way back. I do not like the smell though, I came home and stunk like a french fry.  My hair even smelled like french fries.  Oh well, the trials and tribulations of a field Mom.  Of course, I would not have it any other way.  This week is going to be just as crazy.  Both boys have games this week and practice.   According to the weather it is going to gorgeous!!!  Play Ball!!!

Day one Summer Vacation. . .

My kids slept till 9am.  Yahoooooo!!!  I didn't of course.  For some reason I could not sleep today.   Normally I could have and would have pleaded to have slept that long.  Today we have been lazy bones, staying in our jammies till two.  I did make the boys help me with laundry and do some reading.  I have decided I am tired of the huffing and puffing when I ask  them to do something so, I have been making them do push ups when they start.  I can't really tell if it has helped just yet.  They are getting very good at their push ups though.  Jack can knock out 20 in a snap with perfect form.  Thomas takes a little longer.  I figure they will either be the best mannered boys in town or they will have arms like "the Rock."    I am just so tired of the sassy mouth they have at times.   I figure the push ups will help them get ready for football this fall too.
We are officailly done with baseball and on the last game of the season Thomas hit a home run.  A legitimate home run, out to right center.  He brought in 2 runs with that hit.   He was so excited and so was everyone else.  He had been in a bit of a hitting slump.  What a way to come out of it?   I was trying to video tape it.  I got the hit and him running to first base then all you see is the chain link fence and you hear me screaming run!  I then pick him back up again running from third base home.  I did get him crossing home plate with his hands over his head jumping up and down.  It was pretty funny.  I am glad I have that though.  I have one of Jack when he played t-ball and he is floating around the bases like a butterfly, flapping his arms.  That one I think I will show when he is in High School.