they won the championship today.....

today was austen's last baseball game for the summer.  

they played 4 games in a tournament this weekend and won them all.  austen is a very good athlete but like many kids his age, he struggles with confidence sometimes when he plays.  

he can go a few games without a hit or will strike out 2 or 3 times in one game. 

yesterday he had one of those games.  struck out, grounded out, flew out and walked.   

so on the way to today's game, he was very quiet on the car ride there.  don tried to give him a pep talk but i think that made him more nervous.  

as the lead off batter, things didn't get much better for him when he got up to bat...

 his coach tried to boost his confidence

but by the look on austen's face, he didn't have any more luck than daddy did...

with the determination that he pulled from the deepest depths of his being, 

he got up to bat,

planted himself in front of that plate...

got that awesome look of determination that i love to see on his face...

and smacked the living crap out of the ball!!!

all the way down the left field line.

and as luck would have it, a hit like that is a sure confidence booster and ice breaker.

especially when it is a double.  

and you steal third base....

and then slide into home plate head first under the throw on a well placed bunt...

and are called safe.

head first sliding into home is never without its consequences, however, 

and he came up with a face full of dirt.

that ended up mostly in his eyes and mouth...

his teammates and coach were very excited for him...

and a little water helped clean him off.  

the rest of the game was very exciting and the entire team played their hearts out.

dad keeps score. 

they won 5-0.

and they got the big trophy this time...

it was half his size!!!

that one however, was the team trophy...

his was a little more manageable.

after the game we went here

 the coaches treated the boys to ice cream.

and they made sure to let passing cars know that they had won the championship...

and everyone honked!!!

i will miss every one of those boys on his team.  i have never met a greater group of kids. 

and i'll miss their parents as well.   

well done bobcats, 

well done!!!!

a few favorite quotes.......

“Piglet sidled up to Pooh from behind. "Pooh," he whispered. 
"Yes, Piglet?" 

"Nothing," said Piglet, taking Pooh's paw, "I just wanted to be sure of you.
                                                                                    a.a. milne

"You miss 100% of the shots you never take."

                                                                Wayne Gretzky

We must teach our children to dream with their eyes open.
                                                                                                Harry Edwards

When children are doing nothing, they are doing mischief.
                                                                                                  Henry Fielding

“The child must know that he is a miracle, that since the beginning of the world there hasn't been, and until the end of the world there will not be, another child like him.”

                                                                                                                           Pablo Casals

"To become a real boy, you must prove yourself brave, truthful, and unselfish."                                                                                                  — Pinocchio Serenity Now!!!!                              George Costanza

"Life is not measured by the breaths you take 

but by the moments that take your breath away"

                                                                                                       Anonymous

i hope you are having a great weekend....

so now that he's back to work.......

do you think i can get a new patio table umbrella???

when we bought this patio table set about 5 or 6 years ago, it had a really nice matching umbrella.  

somebody, ahem, 

and i'm not naming names....

left the umbrella open when we had a heavy rainstorm 

and it flew away like mary poppins.  

we searched the neighborhood (because the neighbor's son watched it fly away) high and low but think it may have flown into the large woods behind our house 

or the neighboring county.

anyhoo....

we never found it.  

our neighbor (same neighbor with said son who watched it fly away) had a garage sale and some of her friends from church brought some of their things to sell.  one of the items was a patio umbrella. 

that sort of matched our set, for 5 dollars.  

so we bought it.  

it was a real piece of crap.  

but unnamed dude was determined that it was going to work.  so he 

sewed what needed to be sewed when the rivets popped out of the spines and the rest

he duct taped....see that shiny spot above???  look closer

don't all men think that duct tape fixes anything/everything??

yesterday we opened the umbrella and 

this

was the result.  

lovely, isn't it??

well, now i'm on a quest for a new umbrella.  hopefully i can find one in gray or black or turquoise (ooh, turquoise) 

and cheap...if you can direct me to a great deal, 

i would appreciate an email or comment.  :D

unemployment, the finale....

well, i've been afraid to say anything, especially after the first disaster with don's job situation....

but...

he has a job.  a JOB!!

for real this time..

he starts his third week tomorrow.  

so i am hoping that the precautionary waiting period is over with. and that it's for real this time.  

he is working for the state of michigan in lansing.

it's an hour away........which sucks.....

but it is a job.  with fantabulous benefits!!!
and a three year jump on being vested.  because he is a veteran of the military
he is vested after 3 years instead of waiting 6 years.

the drive is long but i have him set up with harry potter books on cd and this has made a huge difference there and back.  it really makes the time go by faster.

so for now, all is good!!

i want to thank everyone for all of your thoughts and prayers for us.
you rock!!!

have you ever seen clouds like this????

last night it was very hot and humid.

probably about 83 degrees and 100% humidity at 9:00. 

i don't think i have ever seen clouds like this 

these came up pretty fast although they didn't produce any rain or storms.  

just 9 minutes later it looked like this in the east......

then this....

 the southern side of the yard looked like this...

the color was remarkable...

back to the east it all looked very omnious...

but to the west where the sun was setting, we had this....

pretty cool, huh..

and since there was no rain, my little neighbor, evan 

and i picked some flowers for her mama...

:)

another busy couple of weeks.....

lots and lots of this

which was played on the west side of the state in grand haven, michigan.  what a gorgeous town.  

there was a beautiful beach where austen and i walked the boardwalk, 

and got ice cream 

after his games on saturday...

we left friday and got home today.  

wow, since july 6th, austen has played in two baseball tournaments and had two regular season games for a total of 12 games in 12 days.

i am about baseballed out!!  

but we had fun. but we also had a very scary day too. 

 on the way back to the hotel after first game yesterday, one of austen's coaches and his son were involved in an auto accident.  the coach had 5 broken ribs and  a concussion and austen's teammate had a slight concussion.  he was t-boned while turning onto a main road.  thank goodness for side crash airbags.  his injuries would probably have been much worse.  

we are all praying for a speedy recovery and i hope you will say a few prayers for them too!!  

i also was lucky enough to take pictures of two beautiful baby girls...

this one, baby j

who was just 5 days old...

isn't she darling?? she was close to nine pounds!!

and this one, baby s

who was two weeks old but just over 5 pounds.

and so very precious...

needless to say, there really hasn't been too much time to blog.  

but baseball will be over in a week since austen's last tournament is next weekend.  

hopefully i will be back to regular posting by then....please be patient.