Dawg Days

We have been busy this week. Z. was competing in the Little League World Series tournament this week. Seven games in six days in hot Tx. weather makes for a long week. But it was fun and our boys ended up in third place for thier division. So we are proud of the effort.

Just to finish the day off, we went to the water park for a few hours this evening. And it was fun. It's the first time in years where I haven't been afraid the entire time that one of my children was on the verge of drowning at a moments notice. The boys are old enough and swim well enough that I didn't see to much of them. They took off and enjoyed the park and periodically came back to spray water on me. The girls and I hung out in the shallow play area and the lazy river. It was fun. Fun to know that we are finally getting to the point with our kids that we can do things like this and not have to worry about every little thing. They are getting bigger and older and are easier (at times).

So while I realize that time is fleeting and they are growing way to fast. It's fun to be able to do some of the "big kid" stuff with all the kids.

S-P-A-N-K-E-D

We spent this past weekend in the lovely town of Ardmore,OK. Where the sun shines brightly and winds, well they blow...and they blow big time. No really, it was so darn windy. Why were we there? An out of town baseball tournament for Z. We decided that since we had a game Friday night, two on Saturday and one on Sunday to make it a weekend with the whole family.

We and the other players families all rented cabins and planned on a long and busy weekend. We get there Friday night ready for our first game. We went into this tournament knowing our team stinks compared to a lot of the teams that would be there. But we also had the bad luck of the draw. Our first team to play against was in what is called a major classification. It's the best there is when it comes to little league and in fact just returned from Florida where they competed and placed 5th in the nation. We did not realize this until we got to the game. Just to share our pain with you we only played about 45 minutes of the 90 minutes allowed. They called the game when we reached the mercy rule of being ahead of a team at any time by 20. Not only that, we only batted the first 6 players in our lineup, yep, that's right, 3 up 3 down each inning. We were glad to provide them with some batting practice. It stunk! But the other team was amazing.

Saturday we were hopeful for a better game. Z. was having a good game with his pitching when his worst fear was realized. He threw a ball and it ended up hitting the batter in the head. The batter ran to first to take his base and said he was okay. But then the first base coach noticed all the blood dripping down from his helmet. So they stopped the game to check him out. Turns out he was bleeding from his ear and at first they thought if was from inside the inner ear. Instead it turns out he had a defective helmet which cut int the cartilage of his ear. He was deemed okay by everyone and continued to finish his turn around the bases. ( I saw him the next day where he proudly showed me his war wound) We played better but still lost.

Second game was pretty similar but without the blood. So we finished up early and went back to the cabins to enjoy our down time. We had a cookout with everyone where pretty much everything had to be bolted down or it would blow away. Lots of playing around with lots of 10 year old boys and siblings was going on. And us parents, well we were busy supervising...well okay I admit it not much supervising going on. But we did get lots of talking done, and a little bit of cow tipping. Just kidding! No talking involved, it would have alerted the cows we were there. Then we all went back to sleep in our cabins with some of the biggest spiders ever seen.

Sunday's game was good, we had them and our boys were playing well. But a few bad calls by refs and some good hits by the other team and well we were packing it up and heading home.

All in all, we were S-P-A-N-K-E-D this weekend in baseball. But the boys enjoyed themselves and the parents enjoyed themselves. And now I'm home and trying to wash out half the state of OK. out of my laundry. There is sand everywhere but at least I'm not out in it anymore.

Fun in the Sun

It was very hot last week and the kids were begging for relief. I wasn't quite ready to get in the cold pool water again so soon so decided instead to let the kids just run through the sprinkler toy that I had bought. I got it primarily for the little ones but I must say even the big boys had fun with it.

It all started out innocently enough. They would take turns running back and forth between the spraying noodles. Then Hoss decided that he needed to spray water into his mouth. So they all had to start spraying water into their mouths. Again, nothing to bad about all that, is there?


But you add in a few more boys and next thing you know the girls are left standing on the sidelines while the boys and their friends pretend to be firemen and put out the fire with the various "hoses". Again really not to bad. But these are boys you know, and next thing I know the girls are standing right next to the boys and their friends as they all have a peeing contest to see who's water will go the furthest or who can put out the most fires. My girls will not be left out of any peeing contest if they can help it. (Did I really just say that?)


I'm all about equality, my girls will always be told they can do anything boys can do. Especially if it means that all the kids get to play at the same time without whining and crying to mom about one thing or another.

Photo Hunters

This weeks theme is old fashioned. And there is nothing more fun to do as a child than swing. So here is a picture of my kids having some old fashioned fun. Big brother Z. is winding up little sister K. so she can spin around is circles until she is dizzy.



So there's my take on this weeks theme. For other views on this week's theme visit TNCHICK.com or PhotoHunt

Are you a Peeker?

It's that time of year when our houses are brimming with presents for our families and ourselves. Which brings me to my question, Do you peek into your presents? Now I must tell you right off the bat that I am a reformed peeker. I come from a very distinguished family of peekers (all extended though...see how I distance myself from them now).

Growing up I could find the presents that my parents hid within days of it being brought into the house. I would pillage through the closet, crawl through the attic and even unlock the camping trailer all to get to the unknown presents calling my name. Naturally my mom soon became aware of my little problem and decided that she would start to wrap the presents. Little did she know that it only slowed me down that first year.

I became so good at unwrapping and rewrapping presents that no one ever really believed that I had peeked. They would tape entire edges of the wrapping paper and then look for evidence of my peeking. They never could see it though. Yet whenever they quizzed me about what was in the present, I could always tell them. Right down to the size and color.

I had such a problem peeking that when I finally did finish peeking at all my presents I was sad that I couldn't peek anymore. So I did what any little sister would do. I started peeking in my brothers presents and then rewrapping them. And again my family didn't really believe me when I claimed to know what was in his presents as well. But one Christmas morning as I handed out presents to everyone I proved it once and for all. I was able to tell them not just what was in my presents but what was in everyone's presents under the tree. Yes as you can most definitely tell, I had a serious peeking problem. So I decided to peek no more.

And I didn't for a very long time. But when Hubs and I were dating I told him about my peeking problem. And of course he didn't believe me. So naturally he had to test me. Once again I had to brush off my old rusty peeking skills (which really weren't that rusty)and I proved to him how great I was at peeking. He had double wrapped my present thinking he was sneaky but even he was impressed that I had peeked and re double wrapped the present without a trace.

So here I am today, years after my last peeking challenge by Hubs and I can completely and honestly say that I am not a peeker. I guess I have gotten old and the challenges just weren't enough for me. Now I actually look forward to being surprised Christmas morning because that really happens all to seldom. But I guess that since technically I still wrap most of the presents I do know the majority of the gifts under the tree.

Photo Hunters

This weeks theme is small. And so I decided to show a picture of my oldest daughter when she was a bit smaller than she is now on a trip down to South Padre Island. She is also covered in a lot of small grains of beach sand. It took a while to get her clean.



Then of course we have another picture of two of my children when they were smaller. Here, my son's small head is the only thing sticking out of the sand. And my small daughter at the time was very proud of her work.


So there's my take on this weeks theme. For other views on this week's theme visit TNCHICK.com or PhotoHunt

42 inches

Did you know that 42 inches is the most important measurement that can be found for my children today. This is because yesterday we took our four children to Six Flags with some friends. And the height requirement for a lot of the scary roller coasters that I refuse to get on, is 42 inches. Now just because Hoss and K. were tall enough to go on the loop de loop Shockwave didn't mean that I wanted them to. But they soon realized that dad was the complete opposite and would let them go on any scary ride with him (and our friends). So for them it was run as fast as you can to the measuring sign, line up and then whoop for joy when they passed the height requirement. K. wasn't always tall enough to get onto all the rides but she was a good sport and stayed with me and Baby A. until everyone else was done.

The lines weren't even that bad but after we had a small thunderstorm move through it improved even more. By the time the park was back at full operation there weren't any people left. You could get on a ride and not even exit it to go again, you just sat there and waited to see if anyone else would come and if not away you went again. So by the end of our very long day I think there were only two big rides which my oldest son Z. wasn't able to ride. Which in a park that big is pretty cool. As for me, the sole person of the day who truly doesn't like roller coaster rides, I had a blast as well. I was able take the kids on some of the smaller rides and even Baby A. got to get on a few rides.

The extra bonus of this very long day, all my children were so worn out they slept past 9am. Something completely unheard of in our house.

Our Red Wagon

I was reminded of something the other day. Do you remember growing up having a wagon? Well I remember playing with ours, pulling it up the big hill and then racing down it with my brother and our next door neighbor, Joe. Sometimes we stopped and sometimes we flipped over or crashed. But we always had a blast doing it.

Our kids have a wagon very similar to the one I had growing up. It has been pulled around by everyone and attached to Big Wheels and bikes alike to make a trailer. Since they don't have a hill to drag it up and race down they have had to come up with their own ways to make it race around at break neck speed risking bodily injury. The other day the little kids actually talked some of the big kids into giving them a little taste of a speeding wagon. The big kids would just run as hard as they could and then when the wagon would finally outpace their running they would let it go and crash into someones yard. No one was injured and from the looks of it, everyone had a blast.




I had completely forgotten about some of the dangerous things we did with our wagon growing up until I saw the kids out playing. I can only imagine what they will come up with next and I can only hope to have a camera and first aid kit close by.

Tornados

Living in Texas you become familiar with tornado's at a very young age. Well at least most Texans. I grew up in El Paso, the furthest part of west Texas you can be, yet still be a Texan. In El Paso we were surrounded by mountains and lived in the desert so never really had the threat of tornado's. So as a child I never worried about them until I went to visit my family in the Panhandle. I vividly recall the time at my grandparents farm when my grandmother woke me up and said we had to go the cellar because the sirens were going off. I was in a panic. I remember being so scared and putting my jeans on backwards and being upset that I couldn't get them to snap. Once my grandmama helped me to get them on correctly she told me that the rest of the family was already in the truck waiting for us to drive to the next farm where the tornado cellar was. It was pouring down rain and super windy and of course it was the middle of the night. Once we got to the neighbors farm I continued to panic. Instead of getting out of the truck and following my grandmama and my uncle to the cellar like any child with half a brain would do I took off running in the complete opposite direction. Trying to hide from the tornado, I guess. My poor uncle was sent out to chase me down and get me back with the rest of the family. He finally succeeded and I remember climbing down into the ground and seeing all these faces that I didn't know. I just crawled into grandmama's lap and waited to be swept away by the tornado. The tornado passed us by that night and didn't damage any of the homes of the people who were in the cellar that night. But that night has stayed in my memory.

Now as an adult I wonder what the heck was I thinking? And I pity my poor grandmother who had my brother and me for a week of vacation that included the tornado. Granted my brother didn't cause a scene during the storm but still she was responsible for us. And naturally I cringe every time I think of my poor Uncle Bobby having to chase his runaway niece in the rain. He put up with so much from me that I'm sure he would have loved to have me swept away, but his patience with me was unbelievable.

Lately our area seems to be having it's fair share of tornado's. This time it's my children who are asking me tons of questions about what to do in if a tornado hits our house. My youngest son is extremely concerned about the weather and ask me on a daily basis if there will be tornado's today. And while I try to reassure him it will be okay I know how scary it is to him. All I can hope for is that if we do have to seek shelter some day that my kids will be more prepared to deal with it then I was. And if they are scared senseless like their mom was as a child then I hope I have half the patience that my grandmother and Uncle showed me that night.