A formidable opponent

Tonight's game had to be the most exciting game in the season. The Bees played the River Cats and both teams came to win. Both teams were hitting and fielding tonight. The Bees ended up running away with it in the end with a 6 run rally in the 4th inning. Final (unofficial) score was Bees 16, River Cats 10. Brantley had 4 singles and a double. Only one game left in the season!!

Finally a Game!

Saturday's game was cold again, but the Bee's were there to play. This time, they were actually playing a team that could play. Brantley was a defensive demon on the field. I lost count of his fielded outs. The other team still managed to put 9 on the board. The Bees went into the bottom of the fifth up by one. All they needed was 3 up 3 down. The first kid up struck out. The second kid was out at first with a throw from Brantley to first base. And then the third kid hit a high pop fly out to our short stop who was ready for it and made an amazing catch to end the game. It was really exciting. Brantley ended up with 3 singles. He hit a deep pop fly to center field which was caught. None of the other teams we've played would have made that catch. Brantley didn't even think it was caught as he stood on first base. He handled it well though. I have to say he has done much better with handling getting out.

A Beautiful Night for Baseball

The rain is coming again, but it was beautiful tonight. The weather could not have been better. It was another thrashing by the bees - 19 to 1. Brantley was disappointed with his offense tonight. He had 4 at bats for 4 singles. Real disappointing! (sarcasm) The play of the game was when Brantley was playing first. The hit was maybe 10 feet in front of the plate. The catcher came up and grabbed it and threw it hard in to Brantley. He caught it for an awesome out. Next game is Saturday if the fields aren't flooded!

Happy Halloween!

It's almost time for Halloween. This time last year I was having surgery and recovering so I didn't carve any pumpkins last year. Brantley helped (a little) with the gutting part. It was a big pumpkin so I carved 2 patterns on it. If I can find pictures of past pumpkins, I'll put them in a slide show. This one turned out okay, but maybe I'll get one more and try again.

45 degrees never felt so cold!

It was a cold day for baseball. It was in the 40s, but the wind made it feel like we were freezing. I had to make Brantley wear a long sleeve shirt under his jersey and he didn't want his jacket. When we got to the game, he wore his jacket the whole game! I didn't keep an official unofficial score, but I'm pretty sure the Bees won. According to the boys, I think it was 9 to 6. Brantley had 4 singles and a double.

Classroom Fun

No, it's not Easter, but those are baby chicks you see. One of the exciting things they get to do in third grade is to take care of chicken eggs until they hatch. Brantley was so excited about this project. There were 12 eggs, but only 5 hatched. I sent my older camera with Brantley so he could take pictures. Most of them are pretty blurry because he doesn't realize he's moving the camera when he pushes the button. They named the yellow chick Tweetie Bird. The black one is Ian Jr. He was the first to hatch and it was on Ian's birthday. The black one with the white stripe is Moe. The black and yellow one is Ice Cream. And, there is a fifth one somewhere that's just Junior. Brantley is very sad they the baby chicks went home to the farm today.

Baseball Photos

Baseball update

I'm not sure who our opponent was on Saturday. Since they are using minor league teams, we don't recognize a lot of the logos. The bees won the game, but I was chit chatting so I'm not sure if they won by 1 or 4. They definitely won the game though, despite some terrible fielding. The game started out pretty normal with Brantley at second throwing an out to Carson at first. They did that once in the first inning and again in the second. In the fifth inning, Carson was at pitcher at threw an out to Brantley at first. He had some awesome hitting and came so close to hitting the scoreboard. He had 4 at bats for a triple, 2 doubles and a single. He also got 2 RBIs.

Bees Vs. Thunder

Tonight's game was a bit boring. It's pretty bad when the assistant coach of the other team tells the coach of the other team that he's doing a great job pitching a no hitter. They got one kid on base all night, and that was only because of an error of the kid playing pitcher. Brantley had a great game, despite choking on the chance for a grand slam. He actually had 2 chances for a grand slam. The first one he had what looked like an awesome hit but it didn't stay fair. If it had, it would have been a grand slam. That of course broke his rhythm and he struck out. The second chance, he had a great hit and got 2 RBIs but only got to first base because the kid on first wasn't running. He should have at least gotten to second. He ended the game with 3 hits for 5 bases (a triple and 2 base hits). He also got 3 RBIs and fielded 3 outs.

Gum....Hair....you see where I'm going here?

A couple weeks ago Brantley wanted some gum at bed time. I told him no. My exact words were,"If you go to bed chewing gum, you will either choke on it or wake up with it in your hair."

Fast forward to the past few days.....Picture day is this Wednesday. I had noticed that Brantley's hair was looking pretty shabby in the front. Not unusual because he's hair can be quite unruly. I knew he needed to get a haircut before picture day. So, today after I picked him up we went to Sport Clips, Brantley's hair salon of choice. We usually get the same girl to cut his hair except for the time that Lawson took him. He ended up with a bad haircut that time, but I digress.

The girl was cutting away at his hair and she got to the front and looked perplexed. She asked, "Has he cut his hair?" Hmmm....I got up and looked. It was the section that I had noticed was looking real shabby, but when she pulled up the top it looked pretty obvious that it had been cut. I asked him several times if he cut it and he kept saying no. I even asked if any of the little girls at school had been trying to give him a haircut which embarrassed him and he said very loudly NO! That made both the stylists laugh. She continued on and said she would try to blend it in.

Then, she started combing the back and said what is this. I looked and we decided it was a little bit of gum. I asked Brantley again, this time very specifically, "Did you get gum in your hair and cut it out?" He finally admitted to it and we all started laughing. He was embarrassed and thought I was going to be mad. The stylist told him, next time to let me know. Peanut butter really does get gum out of hair! I'm guessing there won't be a next time though. I asked if he remembered what I had told him and he said he did. Mom was right, huh?

Music

Just so you all know, Lawson says that I have ruined Brantley's taste in music. Can I help it if he knows what he likes? Anyway, can anyone guess which one of the songs on the player is his favorite?

Enjoy the music!

I added a playlist to the side. Hopefully it works for everyone. I just picked a couple of his current favorites to put on it. It's funny when we are in the car and I start flipping stations. Brantley is always asking me to go back because he likes a song.

School Progress Reports

Brantley's progress report came home today. So far, he has all As and one B. Surprisingly, even to Brantley, the B is in Math. He grabbed the report from my hand and said, "What?!?!? I'm good in Math!" Then he threw himself on the couch. So dramatic. I think he's probably a lot like me when it comes to school work. I was bad to make careless mistakes. When things are easy, you tend to just speed through them and not double check anything. He still has time to get that B up to an A. Go Brantley! Let's get straight As on your first real report card!

Bees Vs. Bats

It would be hard for Brantley to have a repeat game like Thursday, be he still had a great game. Unofficially, they won 16 to 6. Brantley had 5 at bats - 1 triple and 4 base hits. He fielded 3 outs playing first base. He lost his confidence to bat left at the last practice before the season started. He couldn't hit anything off the coach, including batting right. We tried to get him to bat left his last at bat but during this game, but he wouldn't do it. Maybe we'll get him to try at some point this season. We're still practicing both when we do soft toss in the driveway and he does just fine. Today, he decided to get out the wooden bat and use it for practice. He actually did a good job swinging it. I'm not sure how heavy it is in comparison to his little league bat, but I'm sure it's a lot heavier.

It's time for Fall Baseball!

This season Brantley's team is the Burlington Bees. This is the first Fall season where they have actually had team names instead of just team numbers. I like the uniforms. They have yellow (gold) shirts with very dark blue numbers. The hats are dark blue with yellow bills and bees on them. I'll take a picture Saturday to post.

Tonight was the first game of the season and Brantley started it off right. I was a little worried because he seemed to be struggling with batting in practice. It must be the pitching because another dad pitched tonight and he did just fine. We practiced for about an hour last night and his fielding was impressive. Another dad was there last night and he pitched to Brantley and his batting still seemed a little off last night.

Brantley was second in the batting order, after Carson. In the first inning, Brantley hit a nice ground ball between 1st and 2nd base getting him to first base. He played 2nd base in the bottom of the first. Brantley connected with Carson for the 4-3 out.

The batting order didn't come back around for Brantley to bat in the second inning. He played 2nd base again and again connected with Carson for the 4-3 out.

Top of the third, Brantley hit another base hit, this time with an RBI. Bottom of the third and fourth innings he played in the pitcher position. Once in both innings, he connected with Alex for the 1-3 out. He did get to bat in the fourth, but hit a fly out to the Short Stop.

Top of the fifth, another base hit with an RBI. He played 3rd base and got a ground out at third.

I'm starting to sound like a broken record. Top of the sixth, base hit with an RBI. He played first base and got a ground out. The other 2 outs for the inning were strike outs.

The unofficial score was Bees 18, Muckdogs 3. Brantley had 4 at bats, 3 hits, 3 bases, 3 RBIs, and 6 fielded outs. What a game! Oh, and he got the first game ball of the season. Very deserving I think!

Sox Weekend

I guess Labor Day weekend marks the end of summer. I'm actually kinda ready for it to be Fall. Brantley celebrated the end of summer by going to Chicago with Lawson to take in not one, but two baseball games. They went to see the Red Sox at the White Sox. The weekend was actually Adrian's parents idea. They are big Red Sox fans. Since Brantley's baseball team was the Red Sox a while back, he actually had a Red Sox hat to wear, however I think that looks like a new White Sox jersey he's wearing. Hmmm. (Sorry about the picture quality. Lawson sent these to me with his phone.)

Don't worry about me though. I actually did plenty of fun stuff this weekend. Of course, had it not been for my good friend Roger, I'd probably just sat on the couch all weekend watching movies and eating popcorn. I went to see the movie Inglorious Basterds (not sure of the significance of spelling it with an e instead of an a). It was surprisingly good and I'd recommend seeing it. Definitely not a kid friendly movie though. I also got to go see Wicked at TPAC. Also very good and recommendable. And of course, I had to get some shopping in. Today, I'm trying to get the house cleaned up a little. I've made some progress, but it's really hard to get motivated.

School is back in session.

Brantley was so happy when I picked him up today. I asked how his first day went and he said "AWESOME!" He started rattling off all of the things that they are going to be doing this year like hatching chickens and keeping an aquarium of fish. He was also extremely glad that he will have no homework until next week. It made him even happier that the only homework was mine: all of the beginning of school year paperwork!

Introducing Camo!

A few months ago our crab Hermie died. I think we finally decided that we got him in 2003. While on our vacation to the Alabama coast, we went to Calypso Joe's, the place were we got Hermie. They still do the crab races for the kids, but they don't sell the crabs anymore. Bummer. So, we ended up going to souvenir city to get our new crab. Brantley picked one that looks just like Hermie, except I think this one is a little bigger. Brantley always said that Hermie's shell looked like camouflage, hence the new crabs name. Camo! So far, he doesn't seem to be very social.

Caricature

This past week was the annual summer party at my work. The past couple of years they have blocked off the drive in front of the building and had sort of a carnival. It was really hot and humid this time. The lines were long, and Brantley didn't really have a good time. We did wait in line to get a caricature drawn. And, he sat at my desk and pretended to work. He told me my desk was messy. I like my mess...Wow! Is my mouth really that big? Don't answer that!

Summertime slacking

Okay, I know I've been slacking. It seems I do that in the summertime. So let's get updated.

A couple weekends ago we went up to Cookeville to celebrate birthdays. July is a big birthday month for us. We have Brantley, my dad, my niece, and then me close behind in August. This year we decided just to celebrate them all together. The weather here has been unseasonably cold and it was freezing that weekend. It was too cold to get in the pool, although Brantley and his cousins did anyway.

Earlier this year, our dog Salty died. My sister thought it would be a good idea to get my dad a pup for his birthday. He had mentioned he wanted a Blue Heeler. He didn't want a dog that was real big, and he wanted one with short hair. He also wanted one that would bark at the deer and the raccoons to scare them away. They like to eat the strawberries, corn, etc. My sister managed to find a Red Heeler, Blue Heeler mix. We all made suggestions on the name but my dad settled on Bandit. He's very rambunctious. He's now about 10 weeks old. Here is a video (and a picture of the horses) of him barking as some horses in the field behind my parent's house this past weekend.I would think he would be afraid of the horses because they are so big. But he isn't....


Brantley also got his first fishing pole so we went down to the pond to practice casting. We can only practice because there are no fish in the pond. We wanted to go to Aunt Artie's, but they were not home. When we moved (almost 30 years ago) to where my parent's live, the pond was much bigger. The years of drought have shrunk it down to nothing. I believe it has even gone dry a couple of years. Can't have fish in a pond that goes dry. It's been wet enough this year though that the pond has quite a bit of water in it. Enough that we could practice casting. Brantley did pretty good, except that he cast it into some brush on one side of the pond and got his hook stuck. We had to tug on it until the line broke. Brantley was upset about loosing his bobber so we got a really long stick and tried to get it. Brantley ended up slipping in the mud into the pond. I wish I had my camera with me for that. It was all fun and we got the bobber back.