Heaven is....

..when the sun comes through the window just right and warms you in your bed while you nap...

Brandon the Yankee

Brandon was drafted to the 8AAA Yankees for the spring 2009 little league season. His coach wants the team to practice in uniform so they must wear navy blue t-shirts and white baseball pants. Here is a picture of Brandon before a scrimmage yesterday.

I emailed this picture to my friend David who replied: "Typical yankee. You got him on roids yet?"

I told him the 8 year old equivalent of roids is Mountain Dew and Whoppers, so we absolutely have Brandon roided up already!

Girls Only

Lindsay had her friend McKenzie over for a play date this afternoon. The girls immediately locked themselves in their room and posted this sign on the door. Too cute! Here is a close up view:

Quote of the Day

On the way to school this morning, I looked in the backseat and noticed Lindsay messing with her hands. I asked her what she was doing and she replied,

"I'm pushing back my tenticles."

She meant cuticles.

Halloween 2008

Yes, it has been almost 2 months since my last post. Let's just pick up at current events...maybe I'll get around to filling in the gaps someday. Just not today. I'm having a hard time typing (more on that in the next paragraph).

Friday night was Halloween. Brandon dressed up as Indiana Jones and Lindsay was a cheerleader. The scariest part of the night was when I cut off the tip of my finger. While attempting to poke a hole in Brandon's belt, the scissors slipped and cut off the tip of my left pointer finger. Moral of the story: margaritas + sharp instruments = trouble.

Here are some pictures of the trick-or-treaters:

Brandon (Indiana Jones) and Lindsay (cheerleader)

Sam (ninja), Lindsay, Brandon, Thomas (burglar) and Charlie (football player)

Saturday Brandon's baseball team won their baseball game. They are currently in 2nd place in their division and on quite a winning streak. Brandon went 2 for 3 at the plate and caught a pop fly at 2nd base. I have been taking a lot of pictures of his team to make an album for the coach as an end of the season gift. Here are some pictures from Saturday's game:

Jeff goes to Orlando today for a week long conference and is leaving me here to deal with election day on my own. Why do I have such a bad feeling about Tuesday???

Fall Ball

We are in full-swing sports mode around here again as both kids are playing fall ball this year.

Jeff is coaching Lindsay's softball team! Their color is green and their name is the Shamrocks. They have already had two practices and the girls look great for this early in the season. No one is scared of the ball and most girls can catch, throw and hit off the tee. So, already we are very impressed!

Brandon had his try-out for little league yesterday morning and did a great job. The draft is this week, so we should find out soon what team he is on. During the try-outs, Jeff was busy with Lindsay's team so Mommy had to watch Brandon try out. How nerve-wracking! But Brandon performed and caught all three pop flies, all three grounders, made all three throws to first, fielded all the balls at first and hit 1-3 on the pitching machine. I'm very proud of him.

Jeff and I thought of some motivational tools for Lindsay's team to keep them interested and having fun. After every practice, he is giving them shamrock stickers or hand stamps. And I made these two awards to be given at each game. One is the Big Bat award and one is the Golden Glove award. We will rotate the awards and make sure each girl receives both trophies at least once during the season. I made them super sparkly and blinged out so the girls would like them.

Roots and Wings

On September 16, 2002 we were given the gift of a sweet baby girl.Six short years later, our baby girl started her first day of kindergarten. Today she packed up a pink leopard backpack and walked hand-in-hand with her brother into elementary school.

I hope that in those six short years we have loved her enough, taught her enough and savored every moment. I hope that we have given her roots. And now as I sit here in an empty house, I hope that we have given her wings and she will have a great first year of "real school".