Swimming Hole . . .

We had to skip Take Off Tuesday this week as we had a painter coming on Wednesday and i needed to shop for groceries and go buy paint and a few other things instead. So, we shopped on Tuesday and did "Wild Away from Home Wednesday!" The Brauns joined us for a day trip to a park at Lake Lanier. We picnic'd and swam and had a wonderful time with friends. Camden LOVES playing at the water's edge, never once fussing, but did later enjoy the water once i was hot enough to take him in.

The gaggle of geese that wanted to share Molly's picnic until Christian was kind enough to scare them away for her . . .

A boy and his bucket . . . and notice the cherry juice from the picnic dripping down his chin . . .

Is it funny to anyone else, or just me, that the "big" boys are doing the SAME thing as the LITTLE boy??? Some things we just don't outgrow. . .

I always wanted a big sister and this is why . . . she would have been just as sweet as Molly and sat at the water's edge and kept me and my bucket company. . .

Nothing like sharing a noodle and tube with a friend!

More beach/sand fun . . .

Thanks to the Brauns for a great day with friends. We decided that we had so much fun with the Brauns, we went back on Thursday night for a family picnic!

Anniversary Celebration!

If you know us really well, you know that Jeff and i are quite simple. We don't need fancy dinners to enjoy our anniversary, and we sure don't need long trips (at least not yet). So, instead of fancy-ness, we spent a day at the mall, seeing movies. We went to see The Proposal - with Sandra Bullock. A GREAT movie! I would recommend it highly!! And speaking of fancy trips, since seeing the movie and the scenery there, we'll be planning a trip to Alaska before. . . okay, honestly, once we retire, but i'd love to think it would happen sooner.
We also went to see The Hangover. Totally different theme from the first movie, but hilarious. I was asked before we went, if we liked "crude humor." You definitely have to like crude humor to enjoy this movie, but it was hilarious . . . and disgusting wrapped up into one!
After a day at the theater, we went to Third Coast Grille; Enjoyed some crab legs and fish! Then, we headed to Chateau Elan for the night! And, can i say here? If Chateau Elan ever decides to sell the beds they have in their hotel rooms, i will line up the night before to make sure i get one! That was the BEST night's sleep!! What a relaxing night! Thanks to Jeff for planning the whole thing!

Where Has the Time Gone?

I can't believe it's Friday! It's been a week and a half since i posted and we've done SO much!

With baseball ending, we had so much free time. . . and so many crazy ideas. The kids have been to the free movie, Jeff and i celebrated our anniversary, taught sunday school, been to the lake with friends, been to the lake with family, been to the lake for a picnic, had spend the nights, had friends over to play, done a little work, cleaned out a PTA room, organized a TON of PTA stuff that had been sitting in the corner piling up for a year, filled a pool out back and played, and are going bowling tonight! Shew! WHAT FUN!! OH YEA, and most importantly, we had the house painted!! The inside!! How exciting. I will leave several posts, each individually, so this is not a run-on post!!

Hope summer is treating you all as well as it's treating us!

Take Me Out to the Ballgame!

Last night was our :-( last all-star game. Our boys fought and fought! But they just couldn't pull it out in the end! We were down 6-1 in the 2nd inning and we, positive thinking parents, thought for sure, we were done. But in the middle of the 5th inning we were down 9-3. Somehow our boys rallied and came back to tie it up. Background info for peewee ball . . . we are only supposed to play 5 innings. However, you cannot have a tie ballgame when you are in tournament play. We fought and fought and held them off in the 6th inning, but the 7th inning got us. They scored 4 runs, and we just couldn't catch them. It was 8:30pm and our ballgame had started at 6pm. I think that is long enough for 8 year old boys to have to focus on a single activity, huh?
Who here, feels bad for the team that had to play AFTER our game? We should have been done around 7:45. At 8:45 we came off the field and the umpires still are required to take a 15 minute break between games! Poor kids were lucky to get out of the ballfield at 11pm last night!
We had a great time playing allstars. Griffin is finally "there" with his enjoyment and understanding of the game. I would have never told you when we started Griffin playing this game that it could possibly be so serious at the age of 8! But, really, it is. . . serious!
Great job, Griffin, for just making the team! We are so proud of you!!! And thanks for some very fun nights (and nail biter nights) of watching you play!

A Creative Gift

Because Jeff is always as creative as he can be . . .

THIS was my anniversary gift! (Along with a night away from everyone in a week or so, for a lake-night getaway). Do you know why he gave me this book for our anniversary???

11th anniversary is the "steel" anniversary. Much better to get a book by Danielle Steel than to get a steel statue or something :-) And with my memory, i can read this over and over (because i never remember what books are about), so it will be the gift that will keep on giving!

I love you too, Jeff! Thanks for always being creative and fun and a great husband! I love you MORE!

All Star Update!

The state officials ruled that WE WON!!! We play game 2 Sunday at 3:30.

Qualifying Games. . . to be continued. . .

All Star Game one of the state qualifying tournament took place this morning at 11:45. Our team (Mill Creek Southern) against Auburn. At the beginning of game time, the umpires specified game time would be one hour forty-five minutes. First inning closed out 1-2, Auburn. Second inning . . . Griffin batted, hit a nice RBI, scored a run, and the whole team looked great. Score was 6-5 to close the 2nd inning. 3rd inning was a wash for both teams - no runs. 4th inning, Grif up again, scored another run, we were up 11-5 at the mid-way point. Let me give a little background info here - Peewee rules have always held a 5 run limit in innings 1-4. SO, no matter what, Auburn could only get to 10 runs. They had scored three, and had 2 guys on base, batter up - hit an over the fence homerun. The 2 runners on the bases scored the 4th and 5th runs of that inning - to bring it up to 11-10 Mill Creek. SIDENOTE: Jeff saw that the 2nd runner never touched the bag, but before he could notify our coaches, the umpires called the game for time. The boy that hit the homer, his run didn't count because they had scored their 5 runs for the inning. We won 11-10.

JUST KIDDING!!!

The Auburn coaches questioned the umpire saying- if the last batter hits a homerun, his run DOES score. In all the years Griffin has been playing ball, we've NEVER heard this. It has ALWAYS been a 5 run limit in innings 1 through 4. BUT, because this is a STATE QUALIFYING TOURNAMENT, the umpire checked with the officials at the park. They said game time was 1:45 and the game was over with the homerun batter NOT scoring. Mill Creek wins 11-10. Our coaches did not call attention to the fact that their 2nd runner never tagged the bag.

As we were sitting at lunch, Jeff got an email and it said, long story short, that the other team has escalated their questioning of the game really being over, to the STATE level.

IF the state says we should have played the 5th inning, there is NO time limit, we have to go to the ballpark at 1:30 tomorrow to play that inning. Who would think that 8 YEAR OLD BASEBALL could be so intense??? Our game ended at 1:35 and it is now 4:25 and we are still waiting to hear the ruling. We are wondering what this will mean for the OTHER games that occured today. If ALL the umpires were calling games at an hour forty-five, shouldn't ALL those games have to be finished out?

Either way, win or lose, we are suppose to have game 2 of the tournament tomorrow. Based on our current status of winning, we play at 3:30. IF we have to play the 5th inning at 1:30 and lose, our "losers bracket" game will begin as soon as the 5th inning from today's game is over. And let me say . . . it is HOT out there.

We don't often ask for prayer for baseball, but it sure would be nice if they could call this game our way . . . the way we've ALWAYS played . . . time limit on the game. There's no reason for us to play a 5th inning tomorrow. . . we played for an hour forty-five today and won fair and square! Go Hawks!

June 13, 2009

June 13, 1998

Oh, the things i was doing this time 11 years ago! Hairdo's, fingernails, NOT talking to Jeff. I remember the excitement so clearly! It was a HOT June day. But beautiful! I'm still not sure why i planned a wedding for the month of June?? Ummm, maybe it was because i was such a conscientious employee (teacher at the time) and i wanted to not miss work...I think i vaguely remember that.

I do remember that i was sooooo excited to be marrying Jeff! And to this day, i am STILL excited that i DID marry him! What a wonderful gift to have him as a husband!

I love you, Jeff! HAPPY 11th ANNIVERSARY!

PS - Sure wish we had a trip to Grand Cayman planned, flying out tomorrow. You haven't planned any surprises have you?

A McCreary First. . .

Following in the footsteps of our friends, we have taken our inaugural "Take-Off Tuesday!" Each Tuesday that we are not in school, the goal is to go somewhere. . . do something fun - field trip style. Now, we still have a one year old toddler in our house, so take-off Tuesday might have to be Field Trip Friday every now and then . . . or Way Cool Wednesday. . . but we plan to go and do more. . . regardless of if it's always Tuesday.

Our first Take-Off Tuesday was to the Georgia Aquarium. We visited with friends over Memorial Day weekend and bought a membership. . . so we decided to make the first Take-Off a very fun one, even for Camden. Our Memorial Day visit was a debaucle (oh, did i say that?. . . i meant -so much fun), because we spent it with approximately 9 billion of our closest friends! What a riot. Take-Off Tuesday was MUCH different. We saw and did IT ALL - with no one in the way!

Our visit was brief because the kids had been at VBS all morning, so we grabbed lunch on the road and headed downtown, with a goal of leaving downtown before 3:55 so we wouldn't get stuck in too much traffic.

Here's a recap of our day!

Camden's enjoyment. . .

All 3 upon entering. Camden loves this because he is truly obsessed with fish. . .

The big rock . . . amazing!

Everyone enjoying the beluga whales. . .

Molly LOVED just watching. . .

Griffin loved the touch tanks
And the touch tanks. . .
And more touch tank time . . .
I really think Griffin would have spent the entire trip at the touch tanks. Molly wouldn't touch a thing. Admittedly, i was a little frustrated. I wanted her to TRY it. She finally confessed under pressure - "I don't like the SMELL of the tanks!!"

So she just watched some more! That's my little observer. She's a LOT like i was at that age . . .

With the HAMMERHEAD overhead!

And. . . the whale shark that "the aquarium" makes such a big ta-do about. . . We had a great visit and a terrific first adventure for Take-Off Tuesday! Thanks to the Braun's for always sharing their great ideas. We plan to steal a few take-off Tuesday ideas from them to keep us busy this summer!

Games 2 and 3 - Not so good!

Well, Grif's team played games 2 and 3 of our tournament on Sunday. Not so pretty. We found out AFTER we played the game 2 team, that they were a travel ball team that had been playing together for 3 years. Kind of an unfair advantage. They won 15 - 2. We were impressed that it wasn't a shut out.
Game 3 was not quite so bad, but our team had a hard time holding on to the ball. I give Griffin credit, the innings he played catcher, he caught and did great! The rest of the infielders had about 200000 errors. . . okay slight exageration. . . but close enough. We lost 7-3 I think was the score.
I have a few pictures . . .
On to the qualifier tournament . . . games start Saturday at 11:45. Lots of practices between now and then.

All Stars - Game One!

UPDATE @ 10:10pm: We won the first game. 7-5. 1 win, 0 loses. No good pictures. Will take some tomorrow.
From 5pm:
Off to the ball field for the "official" game one of the all star season. We've had practice after practice after practice. Griffin has been looking GREAT! He's hitting like a champ and playing catcher to his fullest potential! Say a little prayer that he can hold it together "under the pressure!" We think "he's there!" He's in competition mode. I'll post pictures later.

Camden Loves the Game!

For anyone who believes 16 month olds don't take in their surroundings more than anyone else . . .get this. . . these pictures were taken at 10:15 last night. Thankfully, Camden had taken a good nap. The bigs were spending the night with Khaki and Papa and Camden sat down to "play ball" at approximately 10:04. OR, at least that's when Jeff asked me "Hey, how long do you think we've been doing this? About 3 minutes?" I said, "Oh yea, at least 3 or 4 minutes." So, we all 3 played and played for the longest time. Amazingly, Camden has a pretty good arm. We joke with Griffin all the time that after watching all these hundreds of ballgames that Griffin plays, Camden will be the one to go to the major leagues because he's learned so much from Grif. And sure 'nuff. . . his arm is that of a 3 year old. Pretty precise throws, right to us. Jeff was thrilled. And you ask, how long did this go on? We timed it at about 24 minutes!! Yep, i'd say the boy can "attend to a task." Check that one off the developmental checklist. He would shag the balls he overthrew and sit right back down at "his place" and start throwing again. It was so much fun, and the only reason we quit, was because he was spending as much time rubbing his sleepy eyes as he was throwing the ball by about 10:22!

NOT FOR KIDS . . .

A while back, we were on the other side of Hwy 316 from our house and we were driving behind a minivan. I noticed a bumper sticker that was actually on the back window of the car. I was in such disbelief, i made jeff drive up real close to the car and i whipped the camera out of my purse and took this picture . . .i can honestly say, i didn't know people put such rude and ugly things on their cars these days! Call me naive, but really?????

From the Principal . . .

Few people get to know the principal at their elementary school as well as the PTA president. We, at Duncan Creek, are very lucky that our principal is very gracious to us and a lot of fun (although she tries to persuade people into thinking she is "an old school marme"). She is alot of fun!

Here's the proof. . .

I had a meeting with her this morning to plan the fall fundraiser promotions. She whipped out a "thingy" from the "Boosterthon guy" sack of prizes from 2 years ago when the school did this same fundraiser. She made several funny comments, that i won't share here, because i would totally blow her cover as a serious old school marme. But, when the meeting was over, she very graciously told me to bring this home to Griffin . . . she OBVIOUSLY knows what the kid enjoys!!

Note please . . .this thing is STRETCHY. Looks like a little squishy ball when it's not over a child's head. NOTE: ALL 3 of my children have heads that measure in the 90th percentile for size . . . that means they are HUGE and Molly has approximately 10 pounds of hair on that head too!!! NOTE: It is a pain in the butt to get this thing stretched over their big noggins!! But tons of fun to see them running around with it on! :-)