Fishing

We went fishing in Papa's pond this weekend. When I was growing up, the pond never really had much in it other than a few snapping turtles. My dad put a few bass in it a couple years ago and it looks like they have grown! We saw several baby fish also so it seems they are thriving. Brantley caught two fish, while the only one that I got broke my line. The bigger one that he caught is in the picture. He said it was too heavy for him to hold up so his cousin is holding it for him.

We brought someone new home from the beach...

Meet Melkey, or Mel for short. We brought a new crab home last summer since Hermie had died and it didn't last very long. Brantley really wanted a new one and he paid for it with his own money. We picked him out and on the way back to the condo we were discussing what to name him. I said his shell looked milky and I think Brantley heard Melkey. Anyway, he came up with the name Melkey.

We got him home today and all settled into the aquarium, and he's already done something that Hermie never did even once in the 4 or 5 years that we had him. Melkey decided to change shells. Brantley came and got me and said he thought he was going to do it. I got in the living room and we watched him as he was checking out one of the empty shells. Once he decided to change, he did it really fast. The picture above is after he changed shells. I don't think the one he changed into was any bigger so I wouldn't be surprised if he changes again.

Happy Birthday!

Happy birthday to Brantley! He is now 9 years old which means that he's officially out of his booster seat. I also checked the law and it states that ages 9-12 are recommended to sit in the back seat, but not required. Brantley SO wants to sit in the front seat. I let him some this weekend but I told him not to get used to it.

We've been so busy with baseball every weekend, including July 4th weekend. Luckily, the team had this weekend off so Brantley got to celebrate his birthday. He has wanted to have a sleepover for so long, so that's what he did for his birthday. It was a small sleepover and worked out okay. They stayed up late and got up early. :)

For his birthday lunch with Grandma and Pop, Brantley wanted to go to I55. I was pretty surprised at his choice, and we were even more surprised when we got there and they only had Sunday brunch. Brantley wanted the gator basket which was not on the brunch menu. I thought for sure they would make it for him anyway but they wouldn't and we left for another restaurant for the birthday boy.

Well, it's back to baseball. Practice on Tuesday and 2 more tournaments to go. Overall, it's been a good experience for Brantley. He has learned a lot and finally hit his first home run which was so awesome. I wish I had my camera ready to get that photo op, but I haven't been taking any pictures because it seems to make him nervous. The whole team went out to congratulate him after he crossed home plate. His face was beaming, and I think he was standing taller in the dugout. He was so proud of himself. Here he is after a long day of baseball.

The Flood

I'm sure you are tired of seeing all of my flood posts, but it's all we have seen or talked about the past couple days. When you hear about floods you always think, well they shouldn't have built in the floodplain. Let's face it. The majority of the major floods in this country are devastating because homes and businesses were built in the floodplain. If your house is in a floodplain, make sure you have flood insurance. You can check this website to see if you are in a floodplain. Or, use it before you buy a house so you avoid being in a floodplain all together. But, the thing that is so devastating here is that many of the areas affected are not in a floodplain. Water is in areas that no one could have ever imagined it could have gotten there.

I read an interesting article commenting on how the national media has largely ignored the flood.

"A large part of the reason that we are being ignored is because of who we are. Think about that for just a second. Did you hear about looting? Did you hear about crime sprees? No…you didn’t. You heard about people pulling their neighbors off of rooftops. You saw a group of people trying to move two horses to higher ground. No…we didn’t loot. Our biggest warning was, “Don’t play in the floodwater.” When you think about it…that speaks a lot for our city. A large portion of why we were being ignored was that we weren’t doing anything to draw attention to ourselves. We were handling it on our own."

As the water subsides, it will be months before many people can get back to their normal lives. Many organizations are accepting volunteers and donations. Every little bit helps.

The Nashville Red Cross

The Tennessee Emergency Management Agency
(TEMA) has activated the Tennessee Emergency Donations Hotline to
accept contributions to support state flood victims. Volunteers
will begin answering calls at 8 a.m. on Wed., May 5. The toll free
number is (866) 586-4483, and the hotline will be staffed from 8
a.m. to 8 p.m. CDT daily.

Text 'REDCROSS' to 90999 to donate $10 to disaster relief.

More about the Flood

“This isn’t just a hundred-year flood. People are now saying it could be a five-hundred or one-thousand year flood. To look at the damage from the air, it’s devastating. This is a multibillion-dollar disaster. It’s terrifying to see great institutions like Opryland and Opry Mills under water.” - Rep. Jim Cooper

And yet the national media has barely talked about it.

Flooding Update

We ended up with some water in our basement and garage, but have very little damage. I wanted to share some photos that I have collected from friends to show the widespread devastation. No one could have ever imagined any of this could happen. Rivers are beyond the 100 year flood levels.

The Nashville Flood. May 2, 2010.

I have no idea where this is, or if it's recent, but it shows how powerful flooding can be.

Flooding

Our area has been hit really hard by extremely heavy rainfall. Areas that aren't really even close to creeks and rivers have been engulfed with water. We are really lucky in that our house does sit up slightly higher than most of our neighborhood. The water is draining away very well. We do have some leaks around our chimney, but our basement is still dry.

Marathon

Brantley's school puts a group together each year to participate in the kids marathon. Last school year I didn't even look at the paper when it came home. I just thought, he can't run a marathon. But, they had 90 kids running last year. So, this past fall when the paper came home I actually looked at it. It's modified so the kids are supposed to accumulate 25 miles prior to running the last mile at the marathon. They run the same last mile as the real marathon. So, I signed him up and he started tracking his miles with track club last fall. The weather this spring wasn't really good for track club so he missed a few weeks and came in short on the 25 miles. Here is the group of 3rd grade boys. There were 2 more that showed up after I took this picture. I have no idea what his time was and I'm not really sure they tracked it for the kids like they do for the real marathon. Thank goodness the weather turned out okay and I think it was a good experience for him.Here are Brantley and Hunter after the finish.
And, a video of him finishing the race.

More Baseball

Yesterday's game was the most exciting game. The first inning did not go as planned with 3 up 3 down for the Rays and the other team scored 5. Down by 5, the next inning was 3 up 3 down for the Yankees and the Rays scored 5. The Rays took the lead by 3 in the 3rd inning. The Yankees answered in the 4th with 3 runs but the Rays got one in to lead by 1. It was a disappointing 5th inning for both teams with no runs. Top of the 6th, the Yankees scored 5. It didn't look good with the Rays up to bat down by 4. By some amazing feat, the Rays loaded up the bases. Four runs in to tie the game. Bases loaded, 2 outs, no pressure. They did it! 5 runs in. You've never seen a more excited bunch of boys. The Rays won 14 to 13.

Brantley had 3 at bats yielding a triple and 2 singles. It really should have been 2 doubles and a single. His triple was really on errors and one of the singles should have been a double. Brantley was almost to second base but the other runner had stopped so Brantley had to high tail it back to first. He also got 4 RBIs. The other coach actually came over to check to see if Brantley's bat was legal. Our coach told him, sure you can check it. He's our best player. The other coach said, "You just don't see a ball come off a bat like that." To which our coach replied, "Yeah, we've been working on his bat speed." We all had a good laugh about it, but it truly was a great compliment to Brantley.

Baseball Season just got a little longer.

Well, last weekend we decided to let Brantley try out for a travel ball team. I made him promise me that he would be okay with it if he didn't make the team. As I expected, he didn't try out as well as he is capable of playing. He did do a good job fielding and did a great job at first base, but he couldn't hit. Actually, none of the kids at his tryout were hitting except for one. I didn't see any of the next session so I don't know what those kids looked like. Brantley did have one advantage though. The coach for this team saw him play in the championship game last season because he was the coach of the other team. And, he was the coach that saw him play in the scrimmage...the one the dad was referring to when he said there as a coach scouting my boy. Anyway, we got the call tonight and Brantley made the team. He is so excited about it. I hope he can handle it.

Finally...a WIN!

Finally, a big win for Brantley's baseball team. They won 17 to 4 tonight. Not sure how, but they all seemed to hit well tonight. They only fielded 3 outs (the rest of the other teams outs were strike outs) and Brantley was in on all 3. He got 2 at first base and the 3rd was when he was playing second base. He should have been 3 for 3 at batting, but he hit a single on his third at bat and the runner from 2nd to 3rd got out at third base. It was the third out so the run he batted in didn't count and he didn't get credited with his single. He still had 3 RBIs tonight, 2 of them with a huge triple in the first inning. And, he got the game ball tonight!

Spring Break

Today was the last day of Spring Break. Since Brantley's after school program didn't have anything really fun planned for Thursday and Friday, I decided to take a couple days off and do some fun things with him. Yesterday we went to the IMAX to see How to Train Your Dragon. We had tried to take him to the IMAX in Chattanooga when he was about 4 (I think) and it didn't go well. This was the first time I thought to try it again and he loved it. I think I even saw him try to reach out and touch something once. I found myself continuously looking over at him every time something cool happened in 3D and his mouth was open pretty much the whole time. The movie was really good also. I'd definitely go see it again. Afterward we went to Dave and Busters. I found that it is pretty much just a more expensive Chuck E. Cheese. We did see a guy hit the jackpot on Skee Ball. He must have been some kind of professional or something because he did 2 lanes at once and got both of them over 700,000 at the same time so I think he got the 500 tickets twice. I think he went around some more because I saw him later redeeming his tickets for a Wii. Something seemed fishy about that guy. Anyway....Today we went on a zip tour. I didn't know we had anything like this around us so it was a cool find. I was afraid Brantley would be too scared to do it, but he was all over it. I think he was a little apprehensive at first, but after the first zip line, he wanted to go before me each time. (pics/vids below) After the zip tour, we had our gourmet lunch at McDs and then headed to the movie theater to see Clash of the Titans. I didn't like it as much as the Dragon movie, but it was good. And now, Spring Break is over. Boo.

This is the only video I got of him landing since after this he always went before me. :)

The longest and highest zip. I kind of lost him in the trees.