2 Cents Tuesday and Baseball

Everyone wants to win and I understand that winning is fun. But winning is not fun when you don't get to play. My boys are on a 3rd grade team and the coaches are so obsessed with winning that anyone who doesn't play like Babe Ruth doesn't get to play. My son asked to play a base tonight and he was given one inning to try it out, which is all I wanted or expected. The bad part was that because he didn't do well he was told if he couldn't do it right he wouldn't be doing it at all. It was his first time to ever be on base. Where is the learning curve? Practices are held in a batting cage and only focus on batting. Where is he supposed to get these super skills they are looking for? Not everyone has a dad who wants to get out there and throw a ball and not everyone lives in a neighborhood with access to other children they can practice with. What happens to the kids who fall to the wayside with no way to gain a better skill set? They should just not play childhood sports or learn to be happy stuck in the outfield scoping out the grass? What a failure of our country. They always say things are as American as "baseball" and "apple pie", what is American about only letting the BEST players have a chance to build up their self esteem. This seems to be a long way from where the sport started out when it was played for children to HAVE FUN. I am very disappointed in the reaction of the coach. The sport shouldn't be a jockeying contest with him and his cronies, it should be to take pride in TEACHING children the sport and HELPING them excel.

As for me- it was 49 and raining so while my children froze their little bodies off standing in the outfield not being the BEST, I sat in the car with baby boo watching out the window. He's a cutie. We ended up with me and 4 kids in the car who turned it into a jungle gym. I might have been smarter to stand out in the rain myself. ;0) hehe

Brothers play baseball, Logi plays peek a boo!

Happy Sunday

Today was rainy and cold. It was actually an incredibly boring day. All I accomplished was working on a birthday invite for my friend's daughter who will be turning one. It isn't much to accomplish in a whole day, but it turned out beautifully and just how I wanted it, so I am going to count it as a successful days work.

Caleb stayed the whole weekend with his friend, Braxton, and he got home this afternoon so it was nice to see his little face. I miss them when they are gone.

Dean and Aaron spent the day working on my "new" car to get it finished. I have not had a car since Christmas. I cannot wait to get it on the road. It is two different colors because this one was totalled and we had to use pieces off my car to fix it. I am not so keen on that aspect, but just having a car of my own again will be heaven even if it was 6 different colors. I appreciate them so much for doing it. It's nice to know that they care enough to spend the whole day working in the rain to do something nice for me. When I count my blessing I am thankful for both of them.


My 2 Dads

I am feeling better finally from being sick. If I wasn't nursing I would probably be well by now, but when you are nursing there are not many medications that you are allowed to take which gives you a much longer suffering period, but that's what being a mom is about - right?! I had to go out in the cold rain to clean out the car so it can go to the junkyard. Brrr my hands were freezing off. Where is summer hiding anyway?

I hope everyone else had a great or at least uneventful Sunday like I did. Hope Monday treats us all nice too! *smile*

When it rains it pours.

Today didn't start off too bad. I woke up early to go watch my oldest play soccer. I love that kid and everything to do with him.



After soccer is when it started to go wrong. We came home to play on the swingset and since it was a nice day I decided to go get food so we could have a family cookout with my mom, aunt, little cousin Eddie, and my grandparents. When I came out of the grocery store I saw my jawbone bluetooth headset beside my car. I was so happy and I said to Ian "I am so blessed that I didn't loose my headset." After I said that I started looking at it and I realized I wasn't so lucky. Apparently it had fallen out when I went in the store not when I came out and someone had ran over it. It was cracked in about 4 places.

So, I tried to keep on with my day and I came home to have fun with my family. As soon as we pulled in the driveway it started to pour down rain. We sat in the car waiting for the rain to stop, but it just kept coming and coming. I finally decided to go home and at least plug in my cellphone because it was going dead. When I started to pull forward I felt the tires hit something. I asked Ian if they had left a bike in the grass, but his reply was that I had hit our dog. I could see that the dog wasn't fatally injured but he was limping. I brought him home and dried him off and I couldn't see anything wrong, but clearly not a good deal.

By this time I was done trying to have a good day. The baby got his new shoes I ordered in the mail today and he wanted to put them on, but once I put them on and he started walking around I noticed one the squeakers wasn't working. Really, was I surprised, I have to say no.

This day boiled down to "sometimes you are the windshield, sometimes you are the bug". I think I have more bug days than windshield days really.

I guess this day is one of those days that you have to look at and wonder is the glass half full or half empty:

My headset got ran over by a car, it looks like crap but still somehow functions.
My picnic got rained out after I bought all that food, but hopefully there will be a nice day next week and I can try again- or have like 6 cookouts with my kids if everyone else can't make it. ;)
My dog got hit by a car, but he only seems to have superficial injuries.
The baby's shoes are defective, but they are real leather and look really cute on him even though only one squeaker works.

I want to try to find the good, but I keep wondering why do I have to find the good in the BAD. Why can't I just have something good happen all by itself.

The only thing that really bothered me long term about my crappy day was I snapped at my son when he was trying to tell me the bright side of my headset getting crunched by a car. No matter how bad my day is I love my boys with all my heart and I felt like a real jerk and apologized no less than 10 times to him for being a horrible mommy to not try to be thankful for his silver lining. I always try to teach my kids to be happy and positive. It's just so hard sometimes when you are completely frustrated to switch gears into mom mode and try to put on a smiling face for your little ones.



What did manage to make me laugh today though was that Jake came up to Logan and said "I am so sorry you had surgery Joe Bunny. I wish I could have come, but it would have been too painful for me to watch." That boy can make me laugh no matter how bad my day is going. What a funny kid. He was totally serious too.

Baseball, boys and girls.

Tonight we went to Jakey's baseball game. He is the cutest baseball player I have ever seen. Just an adorable kid all the way around really.

I walked up to the concession stand to get something real quick and when I came back down Ian and Logan were waiting for me with a surprise. I love my boys. Always so thoughtful and amazing. There are so many moments with them that my heart just swells with love and pride at what great little men I have.




While we were there we ran into JAZZY. Jazzy is obsessed with Logan and the love is quite unrequited. He hates Jazzy to touch him. His little skin crawls at the thought of her kisses. He just had oral surgery yesterday, so brother Ian was trying to protect Logan and keep... oh what is that cartoon character, she says "I wanna squeeze them and love them and squish them.... I will have to think of her name, but that is Jazzy with Logan. It ended in Jazzy wrestling Ian to the ground and then when they got up she full fist punched him in the face and bloodied his nose. I learned to things from this 1. I think Jazzy will be a woman who can defend hersef. 2. My son can take a punch like a man! But wow is it hard to have to say "you can't hit girls" when you end up in a scenerio like this.




My gma bought them a fabulous new swingset today. They were very excited and having a great time playing on it until Jake coined the phrase that Ian was a "flying asshole". oyyyy. 4 boys- no peace! ;)

Theater Thursday

I have been wanting to see My Sister's Keeper since it came out in the theater and I finally got the chance last night. What an amazing and heartbreaking movie. I think Cameron Diaz did a phenomenal job in her role as a mother trying to save her daughter and do right by her other kids in a horrible situation. Has anyone else seen it? Did you have a favorite part? I loved the part at the beach when the family came together and you could just feel the love between them. I am definitely going to watch it again.

I have done a lot of work with families who have lost children and it made me think of all of them. So many mother's going through this today. I encourage everyone to check out St. Jude Children's Hospital and think about becoming a partner in hope, every penny counts. Something else that is really important is organ donation. I am sure moms with healthy children don't think much about it, but when your child is hanging on to their life waiting for a life saving organ it becomes a very different story. Hug your children an extra time today. They are so precious and I know sometimes I take that for granted when we should always treasure every single day.

Two Cents Tuesday

I know it is a hot button right now, but my Two Cents Tuesday is about Bin Laden. I have no sympathy or sorrow that Bin Laden is gone. I truly believe he got what he had coming, where my pet peeve comes in is the general 'celebration' of the American people. I am sure many people are glad he is dead and they have a right to be glad. I don't want to take that away from them. What bothers me is I remember how they looked celebrating the loss of our citizens. I felt like they were little better than savages to be happy innocent people had lost their lives. Bin Laden was /NOT/ innocent, but it felt the same to me to see people celebrating his death. I am not a big church goer, but I do try to be a christian and it didn't feel like God was smiling on the attitudes I saw being displayed on facebook. It seems to me some things should be kept private within your circle of friends and family. I am not GLAD Bin Laden is dead. I am sad that he did something so horrible that he deserved to be put to death. What would have made me GLAD is if Bin Laden had taken a different road and 3,000 of our people were still here today hugging their moms, dads, kids, and spouses. Their God may tell them to kill us, but that is not what my God tells me.