Max plays too!

I talk so much about Abby and Nolan playing that I may have forgotten that Max plays too! He is in tball and seems to really like it. When I ask him what he likes about it, he says he likes that he can hit it far. And he really can! He's not always the most attentive in the field, but at this age, none of them are. And he's certainly not the worst at it. Dave is the head coach, but twice now, he and the head coach have been gone. Leaving me to head coach. Ugh. I'm not really such a fan of that. I'd much rather just be an athletic supporter! :)

You can put it on the board, it's... OUTTA HERE!

We really do run to a lot of softball and baseball games. Some are great... nice weather, good game, kids played well. Others are awful... it's rainy and cold, we either beat or get beaten by way too many runs, kids play poorly. Last night ended up being a great game. Abby was playing on her rec ball team, which isn't as exciting usually as her select team. The girls took a fairly big lead, but then in the top of the 6th (they only play 6) they let the other team score 6 runs... which tied up the game. Ugh! We all wanted to be done. Two girls were crying because one dropped a ball and one struggled pitching (they are both great players... they all expect too much of themselves). But we were at the top of the order... Abby, Maddie, Sidney. We should be able to get one run between the three of them.

As Abby walked up to the plate, someone shouted, "If you get a home run, I'll buy you ice cream!" Abby got up, watched a few pitches, fowled a pitch, and then, slam... It's a home run!

I think I was more excited than Abby was. The girls were all screaming and yelling. We all went to Dairy Queen and the coaches bought ice cream. And Abby just acted like I've done it a million times. That girl just cracks me up!

The day AFTER Memorial Day

What do you do the day after Memorial day when it's raining? We hang out in our bed and watch a movie! In case you can't count them all, that's 1, 2, 3, 4 children, 1, 2 adults, and 1 dog. What fun!!

Memorial Day

I think that one of the hard parts about blogging, and maybe part of why I've slowed down on it, is because you talk about the same things year over year. Each September I feel melancholy when the kids start back to school, and then again it sets in at the start of summer vacation. Birthdays, anniversaries, new sports, you name it, I continually marvel at the passage of time. Each 4th of July is represented by pictures of the kids in the pool, and Max celebrating another birthday. Even the Dominican trips start to feel... over done.

Memorial Day is no different. I've talked about it here. And here. Oh yeah, and over here too. And I briefly mentioned it here too, in a post I thought was particularly clever. I didn't re-read all of those posts, but I'm guessing that at least most of them say something like, "We drank with the neighbors." And lo and behold, this year, we drank with the neighbors! We started out with Dave's new BBB tradition... Burgers for Breakfast with Beer. It takes place at 10:00 AM. Apparently it's mandated. Then we hung out in the backyard and drank. Then we moved to the front yard. But then, in a new twist we moved to Mayur and Brenda's back yard. No big deal, except... they weren't exactly home. So, when they got home, they were a little surprised to see us there, but certainly didn't take long to join in the action.

The one picture I took of Memorial Day was this... Dave with his knee up and icing it. Buca and Lexi were playing with a chocolate lab in the back yard and Dave, who really needs to be more aware of what's going on around him, was hit square on by all three of them, right below the knee. He went down immediately, first laughing but then in big pain. Fortunately, after a few days, he was better, but it took him awhile to walk normal again!

And so, one more time, here's to Memorial Day and three day weekends!

Fair Warning...

My posts for the foreseeable future may not make chronological sense. I'm working my way back through what I should have been posting all along. Consider yourself warned!

Coming to you from Chicago

I don't think I've ever traveled this much in this short of period of time. Bahamas in February, Dominican in April, California in May, Chicago in June. Right now I'm at the Society for Human Resources Management (SHRM) Conference. Exciting, right? I got to see Hillary Clinton speak (she was ok, but felt like she was campaigning), will get to see Kelly Clarkson sing, got to go to West Side Story tonight, thanks to a surprise by my boss. Not bad! Quick story about West Side Story... there was a group next to us, and the woman clearly had too much to drink. She got up before intermission and started making her way out. I thought she was going to puke on the row in front of us. Intermission came and went, but she didn't come back. But, one by one, the group next to us started getting up and leaving. First one person, then her husband (who didn't seem to care), and then someone came back for the final two people, saying they had to leave. I would be so mad!! Oh well... it was good entertainment during the entertainment.

It was hard to leave today, but I was happy it was by train rather than airplane. Much more low key! But, I missed most of Father's Day, I missed a baseball tournament for Nolan (their tournaments are very exciting!), I'm missing games all week. I feel a little bad leaving Dave home to hold down the fort, and I hope there's a fort left when I get home! But, it is nice just to hang out for awhile, learn some new things, and the Chicago weather today can't be beat!

Another year down

In three hours, they will be in middle school, 4th grade, 1st grade and K4. That's just crazy. Their mom must be old.