Possibly the best thing ever found in the Take Home folder...

There are no words for how much I love this... I can't decide what I love most.  The imagination one with him holding a sword and a gun on a pirate ship?? Acting like a cat??  The smile on his face in the tball and video game squares?! I might need a frame...

Collecting All the Badges

So this week has been keeping us on our toes. Tuesday, in particular, was special as we managed to have a tball game and the final Cub Scouts ceremony at the exact same time. Typically tball trumps scouts since it's a team sport and what not, but on this one I was torn. Henry had worked hard to catch up on all of his badges (belt loops?) so that he could earn the all important Tiger badge. It's the badge that basically says you completed 1st grade scouts, and having him at the ceremony to receive it seems sorta important.  So I contacted the Cub Scouts leaders and asked exactly what TIME do these awards get handed out?  Turns out it's the last event of the meeting, so if we sprinted from the game as soon as it was over we would likely make it in time to hear his name called. 

So we sprinted!  And we made it! Notice how the Cub Scouts uniform is just hastily thrown on top of the Cardinals uniform.  I buttoned two buttons before Nick and Henry started yelling "GOOD ENOUGH! LET'S GOOOOOO"

A very proud Henry earning his Bobcat badge, his Tiger badge, and like eight other badges because getting caught up is hard and his parents are good at procrastination. (We were gluing a bird house together an hour past bedtime the night before this event... but HE MADE IT!)

A very proud scout!

And another very proud scout earned his Tiger Badge as well.  Love these boys!

Game Ball!

 The Cardinals played on Tuesday night and Henry had a heck of a game.  He hit his first ever double, bringing in two runners, and he had two awesome plays in the outfield to help keep the Cardinals in the game.  In the end, they ended up losing to the White Sox but it was a great game for our boy.
 

You can see the GoPro video of the game below.  I was about to write that I wonder if other parents think I am insane, what with the pictures and videos and over the top passion for everything surrounding my kid, but I am pretty sure they DO think I am insane, and I am equally as sure that I don't care.  I absolutely love that we have this game on video. They are only little once, right?

Some people (all people) might find it hard (impossible) to tell who is Henry, so I will provide a little commentary to the video :)

1st epic outfield play at 7:38: A ball was hit to center field, all the way at the fence. Henry got it in and held the runner at first.

First ever double at 9:09

2nd epic outfield play at 11:57: You can see they got an out at 2nd on that play and then you can see the outfield coach pick him up in celebration :)

Definitely worth a game ball
 

Video Explosion

So this past weekend we had Matt and Blair in town from South Carolina, Candice and Lucas' couples shower, and two tball games.  Unsurprisingly, I have a ton of pictures from those events. But before I share those, I wanted to share some videos I managed to get edited yesterday.  So, if you like videos over pictures, this post is for you!

First up, a video of Henry's tball game on Saturday. I can't remember if I shared any of the team games last year, but I like to record them on the GoPro them edit them down to just the action. It's sorta funny to think that in the hour long game there is only 10-15 minutes of actual baseball! I know it's hard (impossible) to tell who is who, but Henry's team is the red team (GO CARDINALS!) and when he bats he wears a bright blue helmet :)

Next up, I posted two new videos to the kids YouTube channel. One is brief  (40 seconds) and loud.


The boys are extremely distraught that Cici was home sick that day. The second is around 15 minutes, but from a parent prospective the first  minute and final two minutes are by far the best :)

This and That

I feel like maybe I should address the fact that I have not posted here in a week... or my overall reduction in posts for the year, but I am not sure there's much to say. I can't promise it will get better, because I don't know if it will, but I am also not ready to say I am done with blogging so.... it leaves us here.  With me posting when I think of it and have the time.  Which... is not as often as it used to be.  Times, they are a changin' and all that.  But for now, hello! Thanks for dropping by!  Onward with the post of rambling pointlessness...

We are still at tball all the time. Like, ALL. THE. TIME. Today, tomorrow, Sunday, Tuesday...  It's good, just a lot. But as always, we are loving it.  Maybe me most of all. But Henry too, I promise!

We are also still working in Cub Scouts because, why not?

And, because it seemed important, we are regrading the back yard so that it is a nice, smooth, perfectly angled surface. Do you all know how hard it is to regrade a yard?! IT IS HARD.

Also, we have a giant dead tree we need removed from the back yard, which... died a long long time ago. but it was really windy the other day and we were a little worried it was going to fall so we decided it was time to address the issue. I called the tree service people and he came back and said something along the lines of "That tree is a death trap."

Oooookay! How much to take it down, good sir?

It's not going to be cheap, but, as he explained, the tree is like, worst case scenario of tree removals. He actually said "I can't send one of my  guys up there... he will die".   So we have that going on.

In other news, I am transitioning into some new responsibilities at work. It is all really exciting, and I am loving it, but it's also exhausting. I feel like there aren't enough hours in the day. Someday it will get better, but that day is a little ways off. 

Also, I am officially rolling on planning Henry's birthday party because he is LESS THAN A MONTH FROM BEING SEVEN. HOW?!  And on top of that Nicole and I are co-hosting a bridal shower for Candice that same weekend. It's going to be a busy weekend, and a busy month, and a busy life.

But it's good.  It's all really really good.
 

All Ball, All the Time

So I realize my posting has dropped to a new low around these parts. And, I mean, I have a pretty good reason.

So just bear with me...

because tball season has officially begun!

Two games in and the Cardinals are 1-1. Excited to see what the rest of the season brings with this awesome group of kids.

Safety First: A Story of Me Falling Down (again)

So yesterday Nick and I were doing some spring yard work (I am really proud of us) when Henry asked if he could practice some tball in the back yard. Never one to pass up an opportunity when the child WANTS to practice (or a reason to stop pulling weeds), I said sure!

I started moving gardening tools out of the way because, obviously we don't want the precious child to step on a rake or whatever. SAFETY FIRST and all that.  So I move some basic tools, some dangerous looking piles of weeds (TRIPPING HAZARD) and then I notice the yard waste dumpster was right in the path that would be first base. Can't have that!

I walk over to move the dumpster, which is one of those two wheel, tilt and role type deals pictured below:

I am sure you know what a dumpster looks like, but I wanted to be sure you could visualize because, well, it's important to the story. 

Similar to the one above, ours was full of yard waste including sticks and what not. It was so full, in fact, that the lid would not close. I mean, I could have probably tried to close it, but it seemed unnecessary. It roles just fine with the lid open, right?

Why yes, I DID make pictures in Paint for this blog post? What? Every now and then I still put some effort into a story around here.

So I start pushing it across the yard, when I feel my foot slip.  It's a worrisome feeling, but let's be honest, I am used to falling down. I clutch on to the dumpster handle so I can regain my footing, but you see, the issue is, the dumpster has wheels.  Soo...

The dumpster rolled. And I kept holding on, like, DON'T LET ME DOWN, DUMPSTER! But it did. It did let me down.  Hard. But because of like, physics or whatever, I didn't fall on the grass. There wasn't room for both me AND the dumpster. So, you know, I fell INTO the dumpster. Knocking my head insanely hard on either the edge of the dumpster, or more likely, on one of the giant sticks aimed directly at my face.

Nick kept working because, like I said, I am not new to falling down. So I had to yell "Something happened and I'M HURT!!" to which he did run over to check on me. When I moved my hand away from my head he said "You have bark embedded in your head..."

And I did. I literally had bark embedded in my forehead.  Also, I had (and still have) a hell of a headache.  Feel free to feel sorry for me. I do... I mean, it's not every day a grown adult manages to fall into a dumpster.

I tried to get a decent picture of the terrible wound, but this was the best I could do. My face is cropped out because it looked downright awful in this picture.