It's been a pretty laid back week since the big ER thing on Monday. Mike went back to work on Wednesday, even though he probably should have stayed home another day. We decided to skip TKD on Tuesday but the weather turned nice so the kids finally got to go outside to play for an extended period of time. Jacob and I have been out playing catch in the afternoons, trying to get him ready to go for baseball season. He's so excited.
After his last season, two years ago, we never thought he'd want to play again. His coach was mean and was very hard on the boys. He also only played the best kids on the team (which is completely against the rules...each boy may not sit more than one inning and Jacob was sitting two to three innings at a time) and the coach didn't seem to care about actually teaching the kids the fundamentals. I recently found out that most of the kids on that team jumped ship after that season and after another bad season last summer, that team no longer exists.
It's shocking how competitive how these teams are...and they're only in the 5th grade. Many teams cherry pick their teams so it makes it hard for the kids that like to play but aren't very good to get on a team with their classmates. When I signed Jacob up this year, I specifically said I wanted him on a low to mid level team (there are three levels) and preferably with his friend, Jett, who goes to a different school. I'm still not sure what team Jett landed on but the team Jacob did seems wonderful.
First of all, you have to love a team that starts the year off with a pizza party. That was tonight. There are three other boys from Jacob's school on this team, one from Jett's school, two from another school in our district and the rest are from a local parochial school. It seems that all have had really bad experiences in the past with coaches so they are very sensitive to that. Jacob also really likes his teammates (they all sat together and were talking and laughing during dinner) so I think this is going to be great for him. I just wasn't ready for the season to start so early. Formal practices don't start until the end of the month but batting practice starts on Sunday. Jacob can't wait. Since the season ends at the beginning of July, it's going to be a long season.
Hannah starts soccer in three weeks. *Sigh*
Showing posts with label Baseball. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Baseball. Show all posts
Thursday, March 04, 2010
Thursday, July 03, 2008
It's Been A While (800th Post!)
Sorry about the lack of new posts...we've been continuing to recover from camp. Well, there's that and the fact that there really hasn't been anything of note happening around here.
Jacob only has one more baseball game left and he couldn't be happier. This team has really sucked all of the fun out of playing for him. It didn't help when he ran into a bunch of his friends that are all on another team last night. Like Jacob told me yesterday, the boys on his team are all too worried about being "cool." Wow. I don't remember that starting until at least 5th or 6th grade.
We're trying our hand at making root beer. Daniel doesn't get that you have to let it sit for a few days for it to come together. It should be ready Saturday. I'm pretty scared. LOL!
Yesterday, we got the invite to the neighborhood block party that will be in August. Amy and Dave (neighbors that set this up every year) have booked a Jimmy Buffet cover band to play this year. It should be a lot of fun. Anyway, Amy knocked on my door this morning asking if we support the block party. I told her that we absolutely do, why? She told me that she went down to the city offices this morning to get our permits and someone on our street has already lodged a complaint trying to block it from happening. The "on our street" part surprised me. I know that a couple of people from the street behind us called the police but they're not the ones with the complaint (yet). Amy suspects it's a family up the street that doesn't allow their kids to play with any of the other kids (which is a shame because they have 6 kids, 5 of which are boys around Jacob and Daniel's age). That family also didn't' participate in the party last year. Amy told me that the lady with the city told her that if she could get the majority of the residents on our street to sign a petition in favor of the party, she'd issue the permits. I can't imagine it'll be a problem but she really wants to get more than just the simple majority and several families are out of town this week.
It's a shame that one family can suck the fun out of having a block party. I'm pretty sure it'll happen as scheduled, though.
Jacob only has one more baseball game left and he couldn't be happier. This team has really sucked all of the fun out of playing for him. It didn't help when he ran into a bunch of his friends that are all on another team last night. Like Jacob told me yesterday, the boys on his team are all too worried about being "cool." Wow. I don't remember that starting until at least 5th or 6th grade.
We're trying our hand at making root beer. Daniel doesn't get that you have to let it sit for a few days for it to come together. It should be ready Saturday. I'm pretty scared. LOL!
Yesterday, we got the invite to the neighborhood block party that will be in August. Amy and Dave (neighbors that set this up every year) have booked a Jimmy Buffet cover band to play this year. It should be a lot of fun. Anyway, Amy knocked on my door this morning asking if we support the block party. I told her that we absolutely do, why? She told me that she went down to the city offices this morning to get our permits and someone on our street has already lodged a complaint trying to block it from happening. The "on our street" part surprised me. I know that a couple of people from the street behind us called the police but they're not the ones with the complaint (yet). Amy suspects it's a family up the street that doesn't allow their kids to play with any of the other kids (which is a shame because they have 6 kids, 5 of which are boys around Jacob and Daniel's age). That family also didn't' participate in the party last year. Amy told me that the lady with the city told her that if she could get the majority of the residents on our street to sign a petition in favor of the party, she'd issue the permits. I can't imagine it'll be a problem but she really wants to get more than just the simple majority and several families are out of town this week.
It's a shame that one family can suck the fun out of having a block party. I'm pretty sure it'll happen as scheduled, though.
Sunday, May 11, 2008
Happy Mother's Day
Even though it is pretty much over by now. I hope everyone enjoyed theirs.
I don't know what the weather's been like where you all are, but it's been cold and windy here for much too long. It's getting really old. And, our longest dry streak has been 3 days. I'm not all that upset about the rain since it means I don't have to do any watering but ugh. It's enough already.
Jacob had baseball pictures Saturday afternoon. We weren't sure if they were going to happen because it would try to rain every 20 minutes or so. Luckily, the rain held out until after the photos were over so we didn't have to reschedule. He has his first game tomorrow and the rescheduled rain out game from last week will be on Friday. With TKD testing quickly approaching, we're not sure if he's going to go to baseball practice on Thursday. There's another "ugh." Baseball practice. Every Thursday until the end of the season is baseball practice. We were sent at least 5 e-mails telling us that they'd be in Leawood (almost to the Missouri border and and around 119th Street). Not really that big a deal except for the fact that they start at 5:15 and go to 6:45. TKD is from 5:30-6:30 (it takes 20 or so minutes to get from TKD on 151st St. to Leawood). There is no way I could get all three kids to and from their activities on time. Luckily, we had it all figured out but it was still stressful. So, last Thursday, everyone met up at Leawood and we were all complaining about the distance. Then, we realized our coach wasn't there. Someone called and it turned out that he had told us the wrong field. Five times. Fortunately, the correct field is about 3 minutes from TKD so it won't be an issue. Phew.
Daniel had his first grade sing on Friday. Katie (Gwen's mom) took Hannah home with her so that I wouldn't have to pull her out early and I met Mike there at the school. It was quite a long program. Daniel was very nervous since he had a line or two that he had to do by himself. He did great, though. At one point, all of the kids stood up and he fell over. I don't think that anyone really noticed except for me and Mike but he was embarrassed. After, we went back to the classsrooms to pick up stuff and there were so many cute books, made by the kids, for us to take home. It's just now hitting me that the school year's almost over. This is Hannah's last week of preschool and the boys are out the Wednesday after Memorial Day. Where has this year gone?
We took the kids to see Speed Racer on Friday night. What a horrible movie. Of course, I was the only one that hated it. The kids and Mike thought it was awesome. The only good parts were the ones with Matthew Fox in it. My goodness he's good looking. Anyway, the kids have been asking to see it again (no). We're looking forward to the Indiana Jones movie. At least I am.
This morning, I was woken up by Daniel holding a Mother's Day poem for me. He was so cute and so excited with what he made. Each one of them made me some great cards. Unfortunately, I was so crabby and irritable this morning that it was hard to enjoy anything. I blame it on the diet. Freaking diet. I decided it's Mother's Day and diet rules don't apply today. This evening we went to Chili's for dinner and all I wanted to eat was their Southwestern Eggrolls. So, I got that and some spinach and artichoke dip for dinner. And I ate Jacob's cinnamon apples. I felt guilty for about 2 minutes. I've been so good on this darn thing that I deserved a day to eat whatever I wanted to. I even wrote it all in my food diary. Those eggrolls will keep me going for the next month or so.
I don't know what the weather's been like where you all are, but it's been cold and windy here for much too long. It's getting really old. And, our longest dry streak has been 3 days. I'm not all that upset about the rain since it means I don't have to do any watering but ugh. It's enough already.
Jacob had baseball pictures Saturday afternoon. We weren't sure if they were going to happen because it would try to rain every 20 minutes or so. Luckily, the rain held out until after the photos were over so we didn't have to reschedule. He has his first game tomorrow and the rescheduled rain out game from last week will be on Friday. With TKD testing quickly approaching, we're not sure if he's going to go to baseball practice on Thursday. There's another "ugh." Baseball practice. Every Thursday until the end of the season is baseball practice. We were sent at least 5 e-mails telling us that they'd be in Leawood (almost to the Missouri border and and around 119th Street). Not really that big a deal except for the fact that they start at 5:15 and go to 6:45. TKD is from 5:30-6:30 (it takes 20 or so minutes to get from TKD on 151st St. to Leawood). There is no way I could get all three kids to and from their activities on time. Luckily, we had it all figured out but it was still stressful. So, last Thursday, everyone met up at Leawood and we were all complaining about the distance. Then, we realized our coach wasn't there. Someone called and it turned out that he had told us the wrong field. Five times. Fortunately, the correct field is about 3 minutes from TKD so it won't be an issue. Phew.
Daniel had his first grade sing on Friday. Katie (Gwen's mom) took Hannah home with her so that I wouldn't have to pull her out early and I met Mike there at the school. It was quite a long program. Daniel was very nervous since he had a line or two that he had to do by himself. He did great, though. At one point, all of the kids stood up and he fell over. I don't think that anyone really noticed except for me and Mike but he was embarrassed. After, we went back to the classsrooms to pick up stuff and there were so many cute books, made by the kids, for us to take home. It's just now hitting me that the school year's almost over. This is Hannah's last week of preschool and the boys are out the Wednesday after Memorial Day. Where has this year gone?
We took the kids to see Speed Racer on Friday night. What a horrible movie. Of course, I was the only one that hated it. The kids and Mike thought it was awesome. The only good parts were the ones with Matthew Fox in it. My goodness he's good looking. Anyway, the kids have been asking to see it again (no). We're looking forward to the Indiana Jones movie. At least I am.
This morning, I was woken up by Daniel holding a Mother's Day poem for me. He was so cute and so excited with what he made. Each one of them made me some great cards. Unfortunately, I was so crabby and irritable this morning that it was hard to enjoy anything. I blame it on the diet. Freaking diet. I decided it's Mother's Day and diet rules don't apply today. This evening we went to Chili's for dinner and all I wanted to eat was their Southwestern Eggrolls. So, I got that and some spinach and artichoke dip for dinner. And I ate Jacob's cinnamon apples. I felt guilty for about 2 minutes. I've been so good on this darn thing that I deserved a day to eat whatever I wanted to. I even wrote it all in my food diary. Those eggrolls will keep me going for the next month or so.
Tuesday, April 29, 2008
Wednesday, April 02, 2008
Cell Phones and Baseball and Bunnies...OH MY!
Mike was able to upgrade his phone last week. It arrived via UPS on Thursday afternoon. In true passive-aggressive form, I decided to make sure Mike got it...in front of everyone at TKD ("Hey Mike, your new phone arrived today...here it is"). Everyone at TKD knows how unhappy I had been with my 99 cent phone (it worked but was very annoying because it was so large). Well, the next day, Mike came home with a brand new cell for me. He had intended to get me the same model as his but they were out. The next one up was out as well. Soooo...I'm now stylin' with my new Motorola i880 camera phone (my previous phone was an i205, so this is quite a step up). Sweet. It's also the first time ever that my phone is better than Mike's. I love it!
Jacob started baseball practice last Saturday. We didn't play at all last year, so I wasn't sure how he'd do, but he was excited so I didn't think twice about just dropping him off and heading home. When I came back 1 1/2 hours later, I was pulled aside by one of the coaches and told that he cried through the whole practice. I then witnessed him throw his glove on the field and stomp off crying and saying that he wanted to quit (for that reason alone, we don't quit. Sorry but no). In the car, I asked him what had happened. Well, he has a new glove that's not broken in at all and, at one point, it fell off his hand. That led to the other kids laughing. Had it happened to Daniel, he (Daniel) would have been the first to laugh. Jacob felt that everyone was laughing at him and the practice went downhill from there. He said that everyone could do everything "perfect" and that he couldn't do anything right. I asked him if he got to bat. He told me, "yes, but I only hit the ball, like, 4 times." I certainly don't think that's not doing anything right. Fortunately, I know, from experience, that Jacob usually has a meltdown at the first practice and is fine after that. That knowledge didn't make me feel any better when I dropped Jacob off at practice last night.
When I pulled up to the field near the end of practice, I saw that they were fielding ground balls near third base. They had to get the ball and throw it to first. The first thing I noticed was that the other boys were far from "perfect" (I already knew that but it was nice to see it confirmed). I smiled when I saw Jacob, through at least three rotations, run right up to that ball and throw it to the coach at first. No tears, no problems. I was pretty proud of my little guy. I did get a little nervous when I heard the coach tell his son, "if you let the ball get past you this time, you're running 4 laps around the field!" This guy is very serious about baseball (he seems okay with the other kids but is nuts with his own), whereas the rest of us see it as a fun way to kill a summer. I hope we don't have problems.
Ruby got to be a first-grader yesterday. Monday, Daniel took a photo of him and Ruby to school to show everyone. His teacher hunted me down after school to tell me that Tuesday was going to be Rabbit Day and could Ruby come spend the afternoon with the kids? So, after Bible Study, Hannah, Ruby and I headed over to the school. Daniel was so proud as he held Ruby and I told his class about rabbits and how to care for them. What was cool was that even though we just got her on Sunday, I was able to talk about rabbits like a pro. The kids were shocked to hear that fruit (and carrots), to a bunny, is like candy to kids. They had lots of good questions and I had a lot of fun doing it. I had printed up a bunch of bunny facts, some specific to Ruby, and left them, and Ruby, with Mrs. H.
I got to the school a little earlier than normal to avoid the crowd while picking up Ruby. Mrs. H had printed up some pictures she took and showed me a flier she made of Ruby to send home with all of the first graders. Hannah and I then headed back to the front of the school to wait for the boys. I can see the first graders heading down the hallway and immediately look for Daniel, forgetting Ruby's sitting on my lap. Before I know it, I'm surrounded by about 30 6 and 7 year olds wanting to say goodbye to Ruby. Daniel's still beaming. After some prodding by Miss K, they all head outside. I see Jacob and some friends heading down the hallway and now I'm surrounded by a bunch of third graders wanted to see Jacob's new bunny. "Awww...is this Ruby?" I hear more than one kid ask Jacob. Jacob beams. They are all shuffled out the door and we begin to make our way out as well.
Had I remembered that I had to walk past the third and first graders outside, I would have chosen another way out of the building.
We are, again, overrun with children. It took us a good 15 minutes just to get out of there. It was fun, though. Granted, Ruby was not happy with me and hid in her igloo for about 45 minutes after coming home, but she seems okay now. She's such a sweet bunny.
Jacob started baseball practice last Saturday. We didn't play at all last year, so I wasn't sure how he'd do, but he was excited so I didn't think twice about just dropping him off and heading home. When I came back 1 1/2 hours later, I was pulled aside by one of the coaches and told that he cried through the whole practice. I then witnessed him throw his glove on the field and stomp off crying and saying that he wanted to quit (for that reason alone, we don't quit. Sorry but no). In the car, I asked him what had happened. Well, he has a new glove that's not broken in at all and, at one point, it fell off his hand. That led to the other kids laughing. Had it happened to Daniel, he (Daniel) would have been the first to laugh. Jacob felt that everyone was laughing at him and the practice went downhill from there. He said that everyone could do everything "perfect" and that he couldn't do anything right. I asked him if he got to bat. He told me, "yes, but I only hit the ball, like, 4 times." I certainly don't think that's not doing anything right. Fortunately, I know, from experience, that Jacob usually has a meltdown at the first practice and is fine after that. That knowledge didn't make me feel any better when I dropped Jacob off at practice last night.
When I pulled up to the field near the end of practice, I saw that they were fielding ground balls near third base. They had to get the ball and throw it to first. The first thing I noticed was that the other boys were far from "perfect" (I already knew that but it was nice to see it confirmed). I smiled when I saw Jacob, through at least three rotations, run right up to that ball and throw it to the coach at first. No tears, no problems. I was pretty proud of my little guy. I did get a little nervous when I heard the coach tell his son, "if you let the ball get past you this time, you're running 4 laps around the field!" This guy is very serious about baseball (he seems okay with the other kids but is nuts with his own), whereas the rest of us see it as a fun way to kill a summer. I hope we don't have problems.
Ruby got to be a first-grader yesterday. Monday, Daniel took a photo of him and Ruby to school to show everyone. His teacher hunted me down after school to tell me that Tuesday was going to be Rabbit Day and could Ruby come spend the afternoon with the kids? So, after Bible Study, Hannah, Ruby and I headed over to the school. Daniel was so proud as he held Ruby and I told his class about rabbits and how to care for them. What was cool was that even though we just got her on Sunday, I was able to talk about rabbits like a pro. The kids were shocked to hear that fruit (and carrots), to a bunny, is like candy to kids. They had lots of good questions and I had a lot of fun doing it. I had printed up a bunch of bunny facts, some specific to Ruby, and left them, and Ruby, with Mrs. H.
I got to the school a little earlier than normal to avoid the crowd while picking up Ruby. Mrs. H had printed up some pictures she took and showed me a flier she made of Ruby to send home with all of the first graders. Hannah and I then headed back to the front of the school to wait for the boys. I can see the first graders heading down the hallway and immediately look for Daniel, forgetting Ruby's sitting on my lap. Before I know it, I'm surrounded by about 30 6 and 7 year olds wanting to say goodbye to Ruby. Daniel's still beaming. After some prodding by Miss K, they all head outside. I see Jacob and some friends heading down the hallway and now I'm surrounded by a bunch of third graders wanted to see Jacob's new bunny. "Awww...is this Ruby?" I hear more than one kid ask Jacob. Jacob beams. They are all shuffled out the door and we begin to make our way out as well.
Had I remembered that I had to walk past the third and first graders outside, I would have chosen another way out of the building.
We are, again, overrun with children. It took us a good 15 minutes just to get out of there. It was fun, though. Granted, Ruby was not happy with me and hid in her igloo for about 45 minutes after coming home, but she seems okay now. She's such a sweet bunny.
Friday, March 07, 2008
The Weekend's Here!
And, we're only three school days from Spring Break. Ahhh...a glorious 1 1/2 weeks of nothing (except TKD). Awesome.
Back in December, Jacob bought a tadpole habitat with his holiday money. He was so excited and we ordered two little tadpoles almost immediately. Well, they finally came last week. They are only guaranteed to arrive alive, so I was happy to see that they were, indeed, alive. We plopped them in their little habitat and sat in awe as they got a little bigger everyday. Okay, for three days. Then, they died. Poof. Just like that. I surprised Jacob, yesterday, by going to Petsmart and getting him a fire-bellied toad for the habitat. They only get to be about 3 inches long and he has the sweetest face. The guy there was awesome. He gave me 20 crickets (the only sucky part of the toad) for the price of 14 and also gave me some of the water crystals to put in with them. Getting the crickets from their container and into the habitat has been somewhat interesting, but that little toad just loves them. So cool to watch. Jacob's named the toad Volcano because of how his tummy looks. I wonder how fast we can kill this thing off. At least he came with a 14 day guarantee! LOL!
I set up Hannah's birthday party this week. My goodness that girl has a lot of friends. Luckily, we don't pay by the person because we invited 14 kids (not including Jacob, Daniel and Hannah) and she wanted to invite about 7 more but I had to cut her off somewhere. We only invited one little boy from MOPS and she was not happy about that because she wanted more. I'm so going to be in trouble once she actually starts school. LOL! I think I'm going to do cupcakes instead of a cake but I'm not sure. Cupcakes are so much easier.
I got an e-mail from Jacob's baseball coach this afternoon. I was a little disappointed to see that he is not on Jett's team, but it's okay because he is on his school's third grade team, so he knows everyone. I had to send our contact info to the coach since he didn't have it and, surprisingly, I got a phone call about 15 minutes later. Nice guy...wanted to know if Jacob's a pitcher, or is interested in pitching. No, Jacob's not a pitcher, yes, he desperately wants to try to pitch. Awesome! He says, because it's kid-pitch this year. Ugh. I thought we had more time with the machine, but okay.
We had Boy's/Girl's Night Out this evening. Hannah and I went to Applebee's and then to bowling and the boys met Jim and Peter for pizza and the Spiderwick Chronicles. Hannah and I had a blast bowling and I hear that the movie was great. I love doing these nights because it makes the kids feel so special. They just love it.
Back in December, Jacob bought a tadpole habitat with his holiday money. He was so excited and we ordered two little tadpoles almost immediately. Well, they finally came last week. They are only guaranteed to arrive alive, so I was happy to see that they were, indeed, alive. We plopped them in their little habitat and sat in awe as they got a little bigger everyday. Okay, for three days. Then, they died. Poof. Just like that. I surprised Jacob, yesterday, by going to Petsmart and getting him a fire-bellied toad for the habitat. They only get to be about 3 inches long and he has the sweetest face. The guy there was awesome. He gave me 20 crickets (the only sucky part of the toad) for the price of 14 and also gave me some of the water crystals to put in with them. Getting the crickets from their container and into the habitat has been somewhat interesting, but that little toad just loves them. So cool to watch. Jacob's named the toad Volcano because of how his tummy looks. I wonder how fast we can kill this thing off. At least he came with a 14 day guarantee! LOL!
I set up Hannah's birthday party this week. My goodness that girl has a lot of friends. Luckily, we don't pay by the person because we invited 14 kids (not including Jacob, Daniel and Hannah) and she wanted to invite about 7 more but I had to cut her off somewhere. We only invited one little boy from MOPS and she was not happy about that because she wanted more. I'm so going to be in trouble once she actually starts school. LOL! I think I'm going to do cupcakes instead of a cake but I'm not sure. Cupcakes are so much easier.
I got an e-mail from Jacob's baseball coach this afternoon. I was a little disappointed to see that he is not on Jett's team, but it's okay because he is on his school's third grade team, so he knows everyone. I had to send our contact info to the coach since he didn't have it and, surprisingly, I got a phone call about 15 minutes later. Nice guy...wanted to know if Jacob's a pitcher, or is interested in pitching. No, Jacob's not a pitcher, yes, he desperately wants to try to pitch. Awesome! He says, because it's kid-pitch this year. Ugh. I thought we had more time with the machine, but okay.
We had Boy's/Girl's Night Out this evening. Hannah and I went to Applebee's and then to bowling and the boys met Jim and Peter for pizza and the Spiderwick Chronicles. Hannah and I had a blast bowling and I hear that the movie was great. I love doing these nights because it makes the kids feel so special. They just love it.
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