Sunday, May 31, 2009

Memorial Week Recap/ Blake's first T-ball games

This past week was a whirlwind! Sunday we had planned on having an anniversary date ... my MIL offered to babysit, so we jumped at the offer. Then, on Saturday night Blake started complaining that his ear hurt. He had a really rough night, and on Sunday morning I took him to Urgent Care to get him meds. His ear drum had ruptured sometime between that night and the next morning ... how on earth the infection got so bad without him complaining before I will never know! He felt awful on Sunday - had a temp of 100, and he was just exhausted. Tyler still wanted to go, and so did I but I could see the date slipping away and accepted it more readily than he did. Blake ended up getting sick - either from an upset stomach due to the meds, or from stress because he freaked out when I went to put the antibiotic ear drops in. He was sure they were going to hurt. I'm not sure, maybe they did. Anyway, we canceled our date and stayed home.

Monday was Memorial Day and our actual anniversary. Tyler wanted to drive around. He didn't really say where to, but I went with it. He had Blake in his car and I had Julia and Chase in mine (can't fit all in one vehicle, you know). We ended up in Chetek, and ate at a little diner there. The food was nothing special. Nothing like seeing a processed cheese slice on the top of your omelette ... yum. After finishing brunch there we headed back toward home and stopped at Klinger's for a while. We didn't buy anything. My mom was shocked. My mom goes there and comes out with flats of flowers, lol. I saw a hanging basket that I wanted, but it was $40 and I wasn't willing to spend that right now.


The sell benches and everything and I snapped this one early on into our visit. I LOVE IT!








Made with Crazy Daisy - a collab by Dana Frantz & Kathryn Estry.
(Everything I used was by Kathryn Estry)

After Klinger's we headed to Blake's scrimmage at the ball fields. Blake's coach and another coach decided to have a scrimmage for one last practice before the games start. It was a beautiful day, and I was glad because Tyler usually has to work during the games. Tyler picked up Pizza Hut to round out the night with supper. It ended up being a really nice anniversary.

Blake's first T-ball game was on Tuesday. Tyler got out of work to come see it. It was raining, but thankfully it was light, and because I got there a little early (wow!) I was able to park next to the fence so that we didn't have to get out for me to watch the game. I had the coloring book along and used that to entertain Julia and Chase. Julia snuck out of the car to stand by me with my umbrella as I snapped pictures by the outfield fence. Blake was put on first base and he did really well! He got two of the outs for that inning.


Blake's first time at bat (he struck out - apparently you can do that in boy's t-ball)


Playing 1st base

I missed the shot of him hitting the ball ... here he is running toward 2nd base


He JUST hit the ball in this picture.


Again, running to second base. :)

Wednesday was supposed to be Julia's next game, but it was rained out. Mom was sad for Julia, but also glad for the break. We came home and had a home-cooked meal for a change, and we picked up the upstairs which was a disaster area.

Thursday was Blake's second T-ball game. My mom and dad came and saw this one. The weather was beautiful, and we sat in the bleachers. My dad stayed by the fence where I was for Blake's first game to take pictures. Blake got to play short-stop, pitcher, and first base. Unfortunately, while he was playing first base he got hurt twice. The person in the pitcher's position threw pretty hard, and Blake got caught in the gut when he was trying to catch the ball, and then later (probably thankfully I didn't see this) he got hit in the mouth when someone threw the ball to him from second base and he wasn't paying attention. I looked back from watching Chase climb around on the bleachers when I heard everyone clapping and saw the coach walking Blake back with the rest of the team. One of the other moms filled me in on what had happened. Poor Blake! He's been afraid of trying to catch the ball ever since.

Nothing special to report about Friday. Yesterday we drove to Eau Claire to Menards and had lunch at Culver's. Then Tyler set up a cheap hammock he'd bought on the clothes line posts. Surprisingly it was able to hold each of us. I got some fun pictures from that too. Oh, and Julia had gone inside to get a (small) blanket because she was chilly in the shade, and Chase copied her to go get a blanket. Except that he brought the big, brown blanket ... got some fun pictures with that too. :)










not color corrected yet, but I love this one. :)

Thanks for reading my week's recap! :)

Tuesday, May 19, 2009

A Sunny Sunday ...

I took some rather good pictures on Sunday, if I do say so myself. :) I'm trying to get better at taking pictures. I'm no longer satisfied if the person is in the frame and in focus. I want the person to be in a good place in the frame, and the lighting to be good, and the subject to be interesting. It's a blessing and a curse ... I guess it's because I've been looking at MckMama's photos for so long and I wanna be like her, lol. Man, her photos always look fabulous. (I love photography ... MckMama's are just the ones I have seen a lot of lately.)

Anyway, here are my contributions in the "Wanna be like MckMama" contest (that doesn't exist) Notice all of the NATURALLY occurring blurred backgrounds! I was so psyched!

CHASE:

There they go again without me ...


They better not run me over!


I'm gonna catch up!


Who needs pedals?


(Awakening by mgl scraps (Studio MGL), template by Lena Brandenburg)



BLAKE:

The motion ones of Blake aren't the greatest, but they are still cool:

Completing a fancy slide maneuver in the driveway.


Posing for a picture.


I just ADORE these two bubble photos!



And just in case you're wondering (my mom was), Julia was not home when all of this was taking place. She was with her Daddy running errands. :)

Thanks for looking,
Melinda

Tuesday, May 12, 2009

Prayers for Angel Kayleigh's family

Kayleigh grew her angel wings last night at just shy of 11 months old. Please say a prayer for her family as they walk through these difficult times, facing their new reality.

A link to Kayleigh's blog is to the right, above the Prayers for Stellan button.

Thank you,
Melinda

Monday, May 11, 2009

T-ball game photos - from my dad!

My mom shared these pictures over Yahoo tonight ... so they are not full size if clicked, but they are so awesome SOOC (straight out of camera). Thanks, Dad!!!


Bored already with this outfield stuff ...


Up to bat ... I notice the coach is smiling ... now that is a good coach. :) Look at Julia's concentration!


Great running, Julia!


Think the helmet is a little too big?


On base! YAY!


Getting instructions to watch the batter & get ready to run! (Can she see??)


Getting a run! Yay, Julia!


Papa!!! I didn't know you were here!


Back to being bored ... why would I need to wear this thing anyway?


Julia loves this bat ... she was so happy she got to use it. :)


Gotta love that karate chop action, rofl.


Yep ... DEFINITELY too big, rofl!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! (You KNOW this is going to get scrapped. Title: Safety first! ROFL!!!)


Why do I need to stand on base? I don't get it? (we love you, Julia)


Run, Julia, RUN!!!

Julia's 2nd Tball game



Never fear, Blake's games are coming. His first game is on May 26th. I bet it will be a lot different than Julia's first game was. I have a feeling Blake will be paying better attention, hee hee.

Julia had a pretty lucky night tonight. She was able to get on base each time she was at bat, and only was tagged out on her last at-bat, because she was too slow getting to home base. She was the 3rd out for that inning. Not bad for such a beginner!

Julia is still really spacey when she's on defense. They put her in the out field to minimize the damage. Hopefully she will start to get the hang of things so that she can play an infield position some day yet this season. I do understand ... the outfield IS boring, but I hope she will start paying attention to how the game works so that she can be more involved.

My mom and dad came to watch today. My dad took some pictures too. I can't wait to see them. Dad hung out by the right field fence, so his pictures are fence-free! :) I think he got some of Julia batting. It was a funny game. Lots of typical T-ball mistakes. I think that if the score were kept that our team would have won this game. They really did great. It wasn't until nearly the end of the game that they switched the first baseman and we started letting more runs in, but then the pitcher, "A" did awesome at running in to home base to get runners out that way, and it was in the bag rather quickly.

It seems like Julia is being included more by her teammates. Today the invited her to cheer with them, and a couple of the girls spun around the post in the dug-out with her, lol. At least she's having fun. :)

Waiting anxiously for the video to finish loading,
Melinda

Sunday, May 3, 2009

Out-fielder Tips

Did you know that when you're in the outfield for your very first T-ball game, that you are supposed to take your socks off (and throw and play with them)and turn your shirt around backwards? while the game is going? and everyone is watching? LOL!!!!!

YES! If you guessed that the child who did this was JULIA, you are right!!!

She also picked the grass, spun around in circles, and just generally spaced out, lol.

getting last minute pointers before her first time at bat!


spinning around in the out-field ... with socks in hand. *sigh* lol.

I posted this same opening question on Facebook, and an old friend of mine said she wondered if we'd have had more fun back when we were playing softball if we'd followed Julia's lead. I think Julia may have something! ROFL!

~Melinda