The boys are putting together Andrew’s new platform bed. I am keeping my distance.
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Candi
Chase and I hardly ever do anything just the two of us. Today just him and I went to buy him a new pair of shoes before we leave for vaca tomorrow. He also talked me into buying him a pair of Nike reversible shorts. How can u say no to this face?
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4th of July was pretty low key. Andrew was in a tournament so we were at a baseball game for part of the day. Later in the evening Andrew’s buddy that now lives 2 hours away was back to visit. They had a great time letting off fireworks with Ken. No, I don’t approve of firework or teenagers letting off fireworks. Heck, I don’t even like sparklers for that matter. I prefer those little paper snappers that you throw on the concrete and they pop! Most importantly I totally HATE spending money on any sort of fireworks, especially when you can go see fireworks that are 10 times better for free. Pick your battles though right?
These pictures sort of stink, but oh well…
One day last week we went to the Jamie Farr LPGA. My dad got free tickets through work. These gals make golfiing look so easy. Well except for putting. Is that how you spell putting? PUTT – ING. You know what I mean. They suck at putting. I can’t believe how many of them miss close shots. They drive the ball an insane amount of yards, but putting 5 feet away and they miss. So apparently these girls are IT in women’s golf. The first picture is Michele Wie. I forgot the other’s gal’s name. Everyone was following these two girls though. I have more pictures, which you weren’t suppose to be taking pictures, but oh well. I thought it was cool that the golfers would toss their balls to nearby people, mainly kids. We didn’t stay very long, but it was something new to do with just Blake and Andrew. Personally, I had the most fun checking out their outfits and wishing I was that darn skinny.
Funny for the day….
Andrew is constantly telling jokes about Chuck Norris. Today he was telling some to Blake and Chase and Chase said….”I thought Chuck Norris was the President a long time ago?”. oh lord.
Two of our three sons are done with baseball for the season. PTL! (Praise the Lord)
Blake is in the front on the far left of your screen. Chase is in the front, the second in from the right side – the smallest one :p
Their team did an excellent job this year. This will be the only year that Blake and Chase play on the same team. It was 6, 7, and 8 year olds. Ken was the head coach and he had some great assistant coaches. It was a lot of fun watching their double headers every Saturday, despite the 9am game time. They had two weeks where the games weren’t until 12:30, those were the best.
Next year Blake will move up to Pee Wee and Chase will stay in the Farm Division. Ken will end up coaching both teams again. he did the same thing when Andrew and Blake were both playing. It was nuts, but you know when you work from home, it’s not so bad having to coach/play baseball 4 – 5 days a week. He looks forward to leaving for practice and games and honestly so do I. We need some sort of separation from one another after all.
Andrew probably will not be playing travel ball next year and will return to the community league with his brothers instead. This was his first year playing travel baseball and it was a huge expense, we had to travel all over the place and now have basically a forced family vacation to Myrtle Beach for a tournament. Don’t get me wrong, we knew these things going into it and if the team would have performed better, we would easily overlook them. My biggest beef is the coach is nuts. I joke and said he is either high or drunk or something else that impairs his judgment. I have watched my sons play baseball for 8 years now and I tell you I could have coached this team better than him. By coaching, I mostly mean deciding where to put what players for the games. He also sends kids to steal bases way more than he should and our players get out all of the time because of it. There are games where only 30% of our players are making contact with the ball and when they finally get on base he is giving the runs away by trying to steal bases every time. Another big issue I have is Andrew took over as catcher for all the games for a 6 week period because their normal catcher got injured. Now that the other catcher is back Andrew either catches or sits the bench. Every so often he gets to pitch or play in the outfield. It’s disappointing because up until this year Andrew was always a short stop, 2nd basemen or pitcher. Now next year his skills will be diminished on his favorite positions because of this coach not giving him the chance. Even other parents on the team will comment on how they can’t believe coach isn’t using Andrew on the bases more. Andrew is one of the few kids that can consistently throw the ball from 3rd to 1st or vice versa. Guess what though, the coaches son plays in every game and always pitches or plays short stop. Imagine that. The politics of sports. Gotta love it.
Finally Andrew agreed to get his hair cut. It was driving me crazy always hanging in his eyes.
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Our yearly zoo membership expires tomorrow so I thought it would be smart of me to take the kids to the zoo today and then I won’t have to renew our membership until 2010. It’s cost about the same for our family of 6 to buy a yearly membership rather than paying the entrance fee for a one time visit. We always buy the membership and then never came back to visit the zoo more than once a year.
The zoo is getting a bit boring. Our zoo is really nice, one of the best in the country, but the kids are getting old enough now that they remember the zoo all to well and it is getting a bit repetitive for them also. At any rate, we made our yearly visit so we are good to go until next summer.
This is from today…
This one is from 2005. They really do grow up too fast don’t they?
I can’t believe it is July tomorrow. Where has the month gone? Between sports and parties and housework and whatnot, I am really behind on work. I keep pulling Ken away from work also, which really makes our production low. We are happy though, spending all this extra time together and doing fun things with the kids. Unfortunately happiness doesn’t pay the bills. Next weekend we leave for Myrtle Beach. When we get back we need to kick it in gear!
Some more zoo trip pictures here.
Sunday was Blake’s 9th Birthday and we celebrated with his friends and family last Friday. He had begged to invite a bunch of friends, many whom I had never met. He took a bunch of invitations to school and since school has been out since the beginning of June we weren’t really sure how many kids would show up. Luckily only half of the kids he invited came to the party. We had plenty of food and candy just in case! I was nervous about having that many boys to keep track of especially around the pool. We had one minor injury. One of the boys was on the diving board and he fell to his knees before he jumped and the diving board scrapped up his knees pretty badly. He was a trooper and he didn’t mind having a Hello Kitty bandaid either.
It’s hard to believe that Blake is 9 years old. He has grown up the fastest of all my kids. I think that sort of happens automatically when you start popping out kids every other year. He is still a sweetie though and he is the shy one when it comes to showing emotion. He seeks approval in all that he does and he gives 110% at most everything. He became an awesome reader this year in school and I am so proud of him. He struggled there for awhile, but I knew it was only a matter of time for it to “click” for him. His favorite books right now are the Diary of a Wimpy Kid. He was one of the best players on his baseball team this year. He hit a Grand Slam and was very very proud of himself. He tells everyone…believe me! He is the middle son and I know that isn’t always easy. He is the only one of our kids that looks exactly like Ken. His dimples and bright green eyes are going to get him out of trouble for many more years I am sure.
Pictures can also be viewed larger at my Flickr account here.
I downloaded this book for my Kindle the other day called Serial by Jack Kilborn and Blake Crouch. It is the most disgusting book I have ever read. It is about hitchhikers and in one chapter the hitchhiker is crazy and the other chapter the driver that is picking up the hitchhiker is crazy. Then in the last Chapter (it’s really short, just a few chapters), the two characters meet. The first chapter was the best, or should I say most disgusting. I was sitting in the car waiting for Andrew’s baseball game to start and I started to feel sick, it was that bad. If you like descriptive gore, check it out on Amazon. I think there are some sites where you can download it and read it online too. It only takes about an hour to read.
The download includes the first chapters of new books that each of the authors have out. Afraid by Jack Kilborn sounds really good. In the first chapter it is late at night and this woman is alone and a stranger comes into her house and makes microwave popcorn. He then comes into her room, in complete darkness, and starts taunting her by throwing popcorn at her. What a wacko!