Well, for better or worse, I'm going to restart blogging.  I just hit a point this spring where I had so much to do that nothing was seeming like fun, so I decided some things needed to go on the back burner, and my journal was one of them.  And as things slow down, I'm picking some of the dropped activities back up, and some are staying dropped for good.

Let's see, what's been going on since my last entry...

Once Upon A Mattress

Chris was a hit in the role of The Silent King in the 5th-8th grade production of Once Upon A Mattress.  He got lots of accolades from the audience members.  In addition to people telling me that they thought he did great (and were impressed that he managed to stay speechless!), I overheard several conversations of people I didn't even know who were commenting on how good he was.  You can learn a lot while you are helping to clean up.

Katie was busy throughout the spring and early summer with her softball teams.  Her St. John team finished second in the league which is great for them, they are traditionally not a very competetive team.  She pitched (slow pitch) and played first for them.  So many of the other Catholic schools have consolidated and draw players from what used to be 2 or 3 schools, and we are still a lone little school.  Even if they wanted to consolidate us, there really isn't another Catholic school close enough to us to merge with.

She had lots of fun with her Harrison softball team, too.  She played first and right field for them and did some catching, too.  They only lost 3 games, I think, but I'm not sure where that put them in the league standings. 

Hers softball tournament team is the only one still practicing and playing at the moment.  They did well early in the season, but lately have been having trouble playing as a team.  I'm not sure what the problem is, but they need to get it figured out if they want to win anything higher than second place.  Katie will actually miss the tournament this weekend due to an injury, more about that a little later.

The Tourney team after their 2nd place win. Katie is the one on the left in the first row.

Chris' regular season team lost three games this year, which doesn't sound bad until you know they only lost 1 game in the previous 2 years.  They moved up this year, and had some better competition, but the main problem is several of the better players have lots of attitude this year and think they know it all--and this attitude is coming directly from their parents, who think 'little Johnny' is God's gift to Harrison Jr. Baseball.  I'm hearing a couple of them won't be back next year, and all I can say is 'good riddance'.  If I have to hear once more about how so and so is the best catcher in the whole complex and that sitting out an inning might damage his ego and self confidence, I think I'll puke.  Jon and Ken (hubby and his other coach) have already said they'd rather have a team that wants to play together and learn, and maybe doesn't have such a good record, than deal with this team again.

However, Chris did get to pitch this year, and he is very impressed with his 0.00 era over 2/3 of an inning.  Honestly, he came in after Brady (who pitches very fast, but has some control issues) and Chris basically just lobs it in, and no one could figure out the change in speed.    But he doesn't care, he's got a 0.00 era!  Normally he plays second and back-up catcher.

They also got these neon 'highway worker' green/yellow uniforms this year.  At least you could see what field they were on...from 1/2 mile away.  Ken and Jon wanted a color that would get noticed...they got it.

Kaiser's Hardware 2008

Chris' travel team has finished third twice, but no higher.  However, they are having a great time.  They got really cool black and white uniforms--black socks, black pants, black t-shirts, with an white with black stripes sleeveless jersey to go over them.  They really look good in them.  They have a tournament coming up this weekend, too.

Chris in part of the travel team uniform.  I love this pic...all the black makes the blue of his eyes really 'pop'!

We've been doing quite a bit of weekend camping out at our new campsite and having a great time.  It's so nice having someplace to get away to, even for just one day.  And it's so much easier now that we don't have to pack everything we need everytime!  I love being able to leave things there.

Chris had a mild pneumonia earlier this summer...who they heck gets pneumonia in the summer?!?  I took him in because he'd been coughing for a couple weeks and it was getting worse instead of better.  We had a 4:30 appointment and they told us they were running a little late when we got there.  Well, at 5:45 we were walking out when the doctor (we were seeing one we've not seen before) stopped us and asked where we were going.  I said "Unless you're the doctor and coming to see us right now, we're leaving, we've got better things to do than sit around here for hours."  I was glad we stayed though, after they said he had crackles all over his right lung, and he ended up doing a course of antibiotics that cleared it up nicely. 

It's just not been Chris' summer, health-wise.  He also just got over a case of swimmer's ear in both ears.  No one in our family has ever had swimmer's ear before, and I was stunned by how much pain he was in.  He mentioned his ear hurt on Sunday, and again on Monday, but only once each day.  I told him I'd take him in the next afternoon and get it checked before he went to scout camp the next week and then I went to work.  He called me 3 times between midnight and 3 am, crying so hard I could barely understand him.  He's almost 12, he just doesn't do that!  He couldn't even lay down, his ears hurt so bad, and the pain radiated into his jaw and up into his temples.  I ended up leaving work about 3 am and one of the docs called in a Rx for me for numbing drops that got us to morning, and then we got into the doctor.  I hope we never have to go through that again.

Chris went to scout camp this week--2 hours away, for the whole week.  His dad went along as one of the adults.  Chris has so far earned his swimming badge (see why we wanted that swimmer's ear cleared up?), first aid badge, and painting badge, and is working on 2 or 3 more.  Jon says he's doing really well, although I guess for about 5 minutes every night he comes into Jon's tent and complains about being homesick.  I'm not sure how he can be homesick with half his family with him, but I guess he can.  Personally, I don't think he'd complain about it to one of the other adults, I think it's only happening because it's Jon there.

Katie had all kinds of wonderful plans for the week Chris was gone, but they've sort of fallen through. Unfortunately for me, the day of Mall Hell was early in the week.  I got roped into taking Katie and 2 of her friends to the mall for 6 hours.  Then the same two friends, Natalie and Liz, came over to spend the night.  The girls were outside playing and their volleyball went down the hill in the side yard, and they were chasing it towards the woods.  Supposedly the ball hit a bush and a rabbit shot out of the bush, and as they were watching the rabbit and running, Katie stepped in an old hornet nest and then tripped and rolled the rest of the way down the hill.  Nat came in and said she was crying.  My reply "Tell her to walk it off."  Then 5 minutes later Liz came in.  My reply "Tell her if she wants to see me she can come in."  (Aren't I sympathetic?)  When Nat came back again, I decided I'd better go see her. Turns out that between the hole and the tumbling, she hurt her knee.  We had ice on it for several hours, and when she still wouldn't put weight on it, we headed to the ER.  So, not only did I get to do Mall Hell with the three of them, I also got to do ER Hell.  Anyway, the final diagnosis is a sprain, nothing is broken.  She's wearing a brace and using my crutches.  3 days later most of the swelling is gone, but it's still tender and painful to put weight on, so she'll be missing her softball tournament this weekend.

We've also been to several of our 'Mega Ticket' concerts already, and had a few lovely conversations when it's just me and the kids.

Tim McGraw was great.  I never did explain to the kids why after he stripped down to his tank top, the binoculars were MINE.

Brooks and Dunn was very good, too.  I knew I'd like them, but I wasn't sure about the kids, but they really enjoyed them too.  Katie spied a woman walking around with pants that were ripped just about all the way across the top of the thighs in back.  "If she's that hot, mom, why doesn't she just wear shorts?"

Brad Paisley was the latest one we went to.  He put on a wonderful show.   Here's the conversation from that concert:

Chris: "Mom, what's that smell?"

Mom: "That would be weed."

C:  "But Mom, that's illegal."

M: "Yes, it is."

C: "Why would someone do something that's illegal?  And how do you know what it smells like?"

M:  "Um, I used to ride to school sometimes with your Uncle Herb.  He didn't always follow the rules."

Sorry for the long post, the next one will be shorter (as long as it doesn't cover several months).