Quotable Quotes

Been a while since I've had one of these...

"Mom! I think I grew today!"

And another...

(from a conversation about his Santa list)
"It's not like you have to pay for them."

Happy Thanksgiving!

Well, I'm pretty sure I've gained about 5 pounds. That, in addition to the 10 I had already gained back means it's back to the diet on Monday. Thursday we headed up to Cookeville to celebrate (I mean EAT) with my family. We took Coco with us so she could run around in the country. Bandit was in his pen and barked like crazy at Coco. I wasn't sure if he wanted to play or attack so he got to stay in his pen for the day. Coco had a blast running around and she passed out in the car on the way home. She remained passed out the rest of the evening. I didn't get any pictures, but we did take some pictures at our house on Saturday. I think I might have cooked my best turkey ever. And, I found a new recipe for cornbread stuffing that I think was awesome. Not sure if anyone else liked it. I also made a green bean salad, ginger maple glazed carrots and pumpkin bread pudding. Dibby made spinach and artichoke dip, cheese dip (just for Brantley), squash casserole and cranberry salad. Melissa brought spinach dip, her famous potato casserole, and chocolate cake for the kiddos. I think I gained another pound just talking about all the food.

I love LA

I was in LA for a whole day! Yippee. Actually, had I known that the music awards were going on. I might have planned differently so I could go star hunting. Yeah right. Anyway, here is a picture from the rooftop pool of the hotel where I stayed. I'm pretty sure the pool was used in the new movie that Brantley has been watching on Nick. The other picture is from the 29th floor of the building where my meeting was.

How do you (or would you for those without kids) punish?

I'm taking a poll. What is your, I don't want to say favorite so let's just say most effective, punishment? I rarely ever spank Brantley, because to be honest he just laughs at me when I do. I am not against spanking, but it's just not effective for me. Taking things away has always been the most effective thing for me. The problem is that you have to be careful with what you take away and you have to make sure that you follow up. Generally, it's TV privileges. But, taking away TV also means that I have to be the entertainer a lot more than usual. This is probably where a sibling would come in handy. Anyway, last night was a bad night at our house. Brantley wasn't listening and was misbehaving. So, I made a bad decision on what to take away. I put him to bed and he wanted me to lay down with him. I told him that he didn't get the things he wanted when he misbehaved the way he did. In hindsight, it was a bad choice on my part but it seemed like a good idea at the time. Thus ensued the 'tantrum' of a life time. Since I already said I wouldn't lay down with him I couldn't go back on it. All he wanted was for me to lay down for a minute, but if I gave in that would compromise my authority (have to follow through with what you say). He got up multiple times after that, each time with a struggle back to bed. Tonight was a much better night, but he gets to watch no TV until Friday and the TV is gone from his room. I'm not sure when that will go back. And, in the absence of TV I taught Brantley to multiple 2 and 3 digit numbers. They are just now working on the tables in class, but it seemed like a good time to teach him. He was receptive and even thought it was cool, especially when I showed him some long division and the relationship between the two.

It's official!

Well, there are 3 things that are official tonight. Since the rain out makeup game that was scheduled for last Saturday was rained out, it was rescheduled for tonight. It was freezing out there but fall baseball is officially over tonight (first official thing!). The Bees won tonight, 13 to 4. So, official thing number 2 is the Bees went undefeated! And, official thing number 3 is Brantley is a switch hitter! He finally decided to try to bat left again tonight. He hasn't tried to hit left since the last practice before games started when he couldn't hit anything, right or left. Tonight, he struck out his first at bat, then had the bad luck of a foul ball caught by the catcher with his second at bat. His fourth at bat went to deep left field. It even bounced up and hit a metal sign on the fence with a nice little bang. For some reason, his last at bat he decided to try hitting left. I'm not sure what got into him, but I'm so glad he tried. He had a great base hit! Another dad commented that his swing is better left than it is right. It's a nice level swing which we always try to tell him to do. To end the season, the team went to have pizza together. I wish we could have this team back together for the Spring, but that won't happen. Not sure what lies ahead for Spring, but I have a feeling Brantley will finally have to get used to losing in the Spring.

Happy Halloween!

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.