Happy Birthday Mom!!

We hope you have a wonderful birthday. I wish I could be there with you to take you out for the day. Tell Cole to do something really nice for you.

It's Over

Well, tomorrow we go back to school. I don't know how a week flies by so fast. Yesterday I went and got a pedicure, manicure, eyebrow wax, and a haircut. It is weird how much time we have on our hands when we don't have any sports on a weekend. We went to Mason's coach's house for a crawfish boil last night. It was really fun. I don't like crawfish, because when I was little my brother and I would catch them in the ditch in front of our house. We called them crawdeads. We went out to dinner before we went to the party.

The boys asked if we could do something fun today, so we planned a trip to Stephen F. Austin state park. We took the fishing poles, bikes, and a picnic. It was a lot of fun and reminded me of when Brad and I first got married. We used to go bike riding all over the place. It ended up being a costly trip. I dropped my camera and ran over it with my bike. One of our fishing poles got hung up on something and when Brad was trying to get the line out of the water the pole broke in half. We are planning on going back this weekend and camp. We rented a cabin for Saturday night. We might not get to go. Brad just got a call from his stepsister. His dad, Charlie, just cut his finger off with a table saw. They were taking him to Temple and going to try and put his finger back on. Pray for him. We might end up going to see him this weekend. I guess it depends on how everything goes with him this week. Poor guy. Brad's sister told me that Charlie's dad cut off a finger at about the same age. That is pretty weird. I guess I need to remember this and keep Brad away from table saws when he is in his 70's.

I did get a few pictures before I broke my camera. We stopped at a little museum before we got to the park. This little old lady runs the place. She talked our ear off. Brad was in hog heaven, having someone to talk to about the history of Texas. The boys got a little bored. She was very knowledgeable and her skin reminded me of my Grandma Broderhausen.

Our Spring Break

We survived playing at Big League Dreams this weekend. It was so cold and rainy. The boys ended up in third place.
Our first official day of Spring Break we were lounging around the house and Brad called. He was in Huntsville working for the day. He left his wallet at home and needed it so he could get gas. We had to drive to Huntsville to bring it to him. We decided to make a day out of it. We went to see Sam Houston's grave. Mason has a weird curiosity about prisons. Well, Huntsville is the perfect place for that. We drove around and looked at the building where death row is and we went to the prison museum. It was interesting. They had an electric chair. I tease Mason about why he is so interested in prisons. I ask him if he is researching his future home.



Last night Mason had baseball practice. He wasn't really excited about going. During the whole practice he was moving slow. His whole team acted like they were on Spring Break or something. Right at the end of practice he was covering third base where a runner was leading off. The catcher threw the ball to Mason. He wasn't paying attention and the ball hit him in the eye. Our coach yelled at our catcher telling him he had told him not to throw the ball. The poor catcher felt terrible. Mason should have been paying attention though. His eyebrow began swelling right away. It was huge. Mason's pediatrician knows us really well because of all of Mason's issues. He gave me his cell number a while back. I texted him this morning and he said to get to the office right away. He checked him out, but couldn't get his eye open. He sent us to an eye doctor. It looks like everything is going to be okay. We have to put drops in his eye and keep it dilated for the next week. I am not really sure why, but whatever works. I hope the last couple of days are a little more fun.

Spring Break!!

Spring Break started today. After this weekend I am looking forward to not doing too much. Everyone keeps asking me what I have planned. I have nothing planned. We are going to live in the moment.

Basketball season ended last week. Mason's team didn't end
up placing in the season or the tournament. Tanner's team
ended up with first in the tournament. In their first tournament
game they came back from being down 12 points at the half.
They were so excited.

I thought with basketball season over things would slow down. Unfortunately, I had two late days at school and Mason got sick. He had some stomach bug. I win the Mother of the Year award. When he got up Wednesday morning he told me his stomach hurt and was laying around moaning. I guess I should have taken this as a clue. I kept encouraging him to go to school and kept reminding him we only had 3 more days to go. I dropped the boys off at school at 7:30 and my phone rang at 8:30. It was the nurse telling me Mason had been throwing up.

This weekend both Mason and Tanner were suppose to have baseball tournaments. Mason's was in College Station. It got cancelled because of the wet and cold weather. Tanner is playing at Big League Dreams. This is the stadium were they have the famous MLB parks like Yankee stadium. The fields are turf, so they don't cancel games. We had to be in League City at 7:00 this morning. I am hoping we don't have to be there too early tomorrow. We won one and lost one. I am waiting for them to post the rest of the results, so we know what time we play. Pray for at least 10:00. And while you are at it, pray for it to be dry and warm. Today was miserable. I don't think the temperature got out of the low 40's and it rained all of our second game.

Sax

Once again we had a busy weekend. Between both boys we 7 games. It started Friday night. Mason's team played at 8:15. We played a team we have played before and has beat us. Not on Friday. Our boys played great ball and we won 8-3. Saturday Mason had a basketball game at 11:00. Unfortunately they lost. He wasn't really on his game. Then we rushed over to Tanner's game which had just started. They won that game and then played again right after the first game and won that one too. Mason played their second baseball game right after Tanner's game and we won that game too. Tanner had to miss his basketball game because it was at the same time as his baseball games.

Sunday Tanner had a game and they lost 4-3. That ended the tournament for him. Mason played right after that and it was a very exciting game. We played the same team we had played on Friday. That team was out for blood. At one point we were behind 12-4. One inning we really looked like the bad news bears, with one error after another. Finally, in the 5th inning they started playing baseball and got a few runs. When it was 12-9 we had the bases loaded and one of our really good hitters got up to bat. I said, "It sure would be nice for him to hit a homerun." He didn't get a homerun, but he did hit a triple. This tied the game. The next batter walked. We had one out. Mason got up to bat and his coach told him to hit it up and in the outfield. Mason did just what he said and slammed that ball way out between left and centerfield. This brought in the winning run and the game was over. It was very exciting. We played again later that night for the championship. We won 6-1. This is the first time the boys have placed first place in a tournament. It was a very long weekend, but it was really fun.

Monday after school I took Mason to try out the instruments. He decided on the sax. They gave me a list of everything we will need to purchase before school starts in August. I am a little nervous at the price. I wasn't in band, so I have no idea what is in store for us.

This is the last week of basketball. They start their end of season tournament. Tanner plays tonight. If they win they play Saturday for the championship. If they lose their season is over. Mason plays Thursday night and it works the same way.

Kyle called me today and asked if he could come home. I was so mad at him when he left last time, I told Brad he wasn't welcome back. He left crap all over upstairs and he knew he wasn't coming back for a month. I had asked him to clean up before he left. He asked if he could come home and said he was sorry about leaving things out when he left, but he really didn't think it was that bad. He would take my word for it. He leaves Monday for two years. Maybe he will grow up some while he is gone.

Gearing up for Jr. High

A couple of weeks ago Mason brought home the course selection for Jr. high. Jr. High, how did that happen? We had to decide whether to take the pre AP classes or academic classes, and what elective to pick. When we initially talked about it Mason decided he would do choir, then they took a field trip to the high school and all the elective teachers talked to them. He came home and told me he would be joining band. He said he would like to play either the sax or the clarinet. Even more surprising was learning that Brad was in the band when he was in Jr. High. He played the trumpet. Mason has to go to the Jr. High on Monday after school and let the band director meet him. He looks at the kids and lets them try several instruments and then directs them into the instrument that looks like the best fit for each kid. Who knows what we will end up with.

The pre AP classes we decided on were reading, language, and social studies. We decided to do academic math and science. After talking to several other parents I might be changing that to all pre AP. I really don't want him to be overwhelmed, but I was told it is better to start them in these classes. If it gets to be too much we can always go back to academic. The Jr. High we are going to has a pretty diverse group of kids. I was told the majority of behavior problems are in the academic classes. I guess it will all work out.