Go All-Stars!

Austin's team has advanced to the championship! They play tomorrow night for the district title! The team has run-ruled every team so far. They are 4-0 in this tournament. So far, Austin has hit 2 home runs, 1 of those was over the fence! He's having a blast playing with this team. So hopefully they can pull the win tomorrow night. If so, then it's off to Abilene TX for sectionals July 15-20, then after that it's Waco for state and then Williamsport PN. Wow, wouldn't that be fun! I'll keep posting on the progress!

Well, it's my last day as a thirtysomething. I used to think that those actors on that show thirtysomething were OLD! Now, not so much! But, I'm looking forward to my fabulous fourties! (sort of) I hear only good things from my friends who have already jumped over into the forty decade. So we'll see!

New look

Well, the project for out front is almost complete! I couldn't find my pre picture, but it's on this blog somewhere in the pictures of the wall out front. It is now gone and new additions have been made! Check out the photos.

Austin is recovering from a bad sunburn that took an ER visit to tell us that aspirin, benadryl, aloe, and keeping it covered is the best cure. Can't wait for that bill! Seems that a pool party after ball practice turned into an expensive event. He didn't listen to his mother to apply sunscreen often and therefore had a bad reaction 2 days later which caused him tons of itching, pain and discomfort with huge tears, groaning/yelling and jerking movements that looked similar to convulsions! I thought something else was wrong with him!

Cameron on the other hand, is doing great with swimming! He can now swim by himself without any life preservers! He goes under, kicks, and swims about 6 feet unassisted, but close to the wall so that he can grab it if needed. He now loves the water! Initially, tears and fears were all around even getting near the water, now tears are there for not wanting to get out! We decided to take another 2 weeks of lessons since he is doing so good! He's also getting into photography, likes to take random pics with my phone. Check out the self portraits. That's all for now, gotta go to another swim lesson!

Williamsport anyone?

Yes, Austin made the Williamsport All-Star team! That means if his team keeps advancing, we may be going to Pennsylvania for a championship! You can watch us on ESPN! Well, we can always dream big anyway! He was very excited to make the team this year. Also Austin got an award for "best attitude" from the coaches. Each teams' coaches in the league picks 1 player to receive the award/medal. Austin got it for the Tigers. Pretty cool. He also got MVP and best slug average award from his coach. His slug average was the best in the whole LEAGUE. We had our closing ceremonies last Saturday so regular baseball season is over. His team got 2nd place for his division. I don't think I've mentioned 6th grade graduation and his awards he received. He got all A average for the year award, best boy writer of 6th grade, and awards for getting "commended" (which means getting an A on the test) on both reading and math TAKS test, which is the state assessment taken each year. He made a 100 on the math and only missed 1 on the reading. So he's getting to be a pretty fart smeller, I mean smart feller! His schedule now is going to pre AP math prep class every morning from 8-11:45 and then all-star practice every night from 8-10.

Cameron is still playing t-ball and doing pretty well. He is in his 2nd week of swim lessons. At first I thought I had spent $ for nothing because the 1st 2 days, he wouldn't even get near the water. Finally an instructor took him and made him get in and asked me to leave the area so he can gain confidence that he will be OK and can build trust, which was fine with me. So day 3 and I go into the gym to work out. I come out and he's in the water with a noodle wrapped around him swimming around and kicking like crazy. I'm not sure how they convinced him, but it worked! He is not afraid to get in as long as he has someone to hold on to or is wearing his noodle. Way to go YMCA! My friend Sean from college came to town and he does voice recordings for the cartoon Dragon Ball-Z. His friend owns a studio and I got to take the boys to let them see what a recording studio looks like. Cameron hopped right up in the chair and took off! He wore headphones so he could hear himself. They morphed his voice to sound like a munchkin and it made him laugh so hard. It was pretty funny hearing him laugh in the morphed voice! Then they morphed his voice very low and he imitated the guy saying "I'm a scary monster" It was really cool. Cameron was a real ham and started doing his own things like singing songs, playing air guitar and singing tunes, saying funny phrases, etc. They recorded it all and will send me a copy soon, I hope. I told them if they ever needed a kid to record, give me a call!

I'm staying busy trying to find cheap labor to help me re-design my front yard area. We've cut trees down, took out bushes and knocked down the huge brick wall that was blocking my dining room windows. I can see outside now! Next comes making a little patio/sitting area and planting new plants. Jose is going to help me. He's good, pretty cheap, but does not know much "Engleis" and my "Espaniol" is not that great. But we should be OK, hopefully. I'll take pics and post later of my updates. We have also switched rooms with Austin and the spare. We've painted and moved all the stuff. His former room was at least 10 degrees hotter than the rest of the house. Maybe because he has a 37" flat screen TV and XBox 360 running almost non-stop???? I have a window a/c unit in the garage that we can use, but his old windows slide left to right and the windows in the new room are normal, which will allow the window unit if needed. So, he's busy making it "teen" like.

Here's the latest weight update Cameron: 55lbs. Austin: 130 lbs 5'9" Josie: never mind!

It's getting hot down here! Leave me comments sometime, let me know what you're up to!!!

Summer's here!

We're finally out of school! Austin is officially a junior high student! UGH! He's very happy about having nothing to do for 2 1/2 months. Oh is he in for a surprise! I have many summer projects that he gets to help with! Right now we are working on strengthening his R shoulder. It seems he has a muscle tear and can't pitch for 6 weeks. He had a game last Thursday and played 1st base, since he doesn't need to throw hard and therefore catching was out. This was about the best game I have ever seen. We were ahead almost the whole game and then the other team got ahead, so the score was 9-8. We were up to bat - last inning of the game, of course. First 2 batters struck out. Austin was up to bat. No pressure. The count became full so it was so intense. On the last pitch Austin took a huge swing and............................................................................................................................................................................HIT IT OVER THE FENCE to tie the game. The crowd went wild. It was like one of those "best of game" clips that they show on ESPN or something! I think I climbed half way up the fence! Then the next 2 batters hit and we ended up winning 10-9. Hearts were definitely pumping that night. Austin told me after the game that he couldn't feel anything or hear anything as he was rounded the bases. When he got to home plate, he looked up to the sky and pushed his helmet upwards, thanking Him for the ability to make that play. Now he has to rest his shoulder. I'm not sure if that will affect his all-star nomination or not. We'll see. They had another game this past Sat and won 27-12. So their record is now 15-1. Go Tigers!

I was able to get away this weekend to Austin with my friend Norma. We stayed with my sister 1 night and then a hotel the next. We had a good time and ate some good food. A much needed break for me!

Cameron starts swim lessons today and I need to get ready to take him. So, that's all for now!

Update on goings-on

School days are getting closer to the end!!! Austin can't wait until school's out. I feel about the same myself. Cameron is just glad to be going back to school for a while. He's been sick with walking pheumonia. He has had oral steroids and antibiotics, along with breathing treatments. Now he has continued breathing treatments along with steroids through the nebulizer once a day for about a month. We then go back to see if it's all cleared up and if we need to continue with the asthma meds or not. We have to clear up the pheumonia before knowing if it's true asthma. He's feeling much better now. We went to Dave and Busters this weekend and won a huge Spiderman for his room - he hasn't stopped playing with it yet. We did hang it up so it looks like he is suspended in the corner of his room - pretty cool - it's twice the size of Cameron - note the picture.

Austin is ready to play baseball on Thursday, the next game, as he found out that sitting out a game is no fun. You see, during the game on May 18, our team was down 2-0. The opposing team had a really good pitcher and no one could hit off him. So, in the bottom of the 5th inning, they had to put in a new pitcher. We started hitting. Austin was 2nd up to bat. He had a huge hit to the fence, rounded the bases, thought he saw his coach twirling his finger to go home and went. Seems the catcher didn't want Austin to score so he stood just in front of the plate, some say he was standing on the plate, but as he bobbled the ball, it fell to the ground, Austin was more than half way home, then as catcher was picking up the ball, the collision occurred. Austin didn't slide under, but tried to jump over to avoid the head to head collision, but ended up knocking the catcher to the ground, hitting his head as he had already taken his helmet off. The umpire called Austin out (but he did get a runner in) and the catcher laid on the ground for a few minutes. After about 5 min of taking care of a busted lip and sore head, the field umpire told our coach that Austin was ejected from the rest of the game plus the next game. It appeared that Austin was "trying to cause malicious harm to another player" because he didn't slide. Although not true, Austin learned to always slide no matter what in this league. Our coach did protest the ejection from the next game sighting it wasn't malicious intent, but to no avail. According to the board, this was not protestable and was denied. We did end up winning 6-4 that night. We had our next game the very next night. We just so happened to play the 1 team who is even with us in standings except we had beaten them once (or the #2 team I gues I could have said). We are no longer undefeated. Our record is now 10-1. Austin was a good cheerleader though!

He last adventure was a competition this past weekend for lego robotics. He wasn't sure if he was even going to enter since he had missed a few afternoon sessions. He had 3 days to build his robot and ended up coming in 15th out of 31 in the competition. The only other team from his school came in 29th, and he was pretty proud since that team had 3 weeks to work on their robots. There were 4 different things his robot had to do: put darts on a board, put ping pongs in a cone, push a hockey puck into a goal, and pick up a bone and drop it off at another location. The picture shows his creation and the accessories. He programmed it to do the moving things from a computer. Now the only thing left is a band concert, a 6th grade party and 6th grade "graduation" from elementary school. Then, I paid for him to go to summer school to help him prepare for pre-AP math next year. He is taking all pre-AP classes (which are essentially 8th grade classes) and this course is designed to cover all the 7th grade math he will miss in about 3 1/2 weeks for 3 hrs a day. I KNOW he is SO looking forward to that, especially the part about starting at 8am!

Cameron will again take swimming lessons for 2 weeks in June. I don't know what has happened between last summer and now, but he is DEATHLY afraid to get in the water, even with someone holding him. He has a new bathing suit (body suit) that has built-in floatation things, but he won't get out far enough for him to see that he will float. So, lessons without mom in the water will be fun!

Mother's Day

I am so lucky to be a mother. Although it's challenging, and the older I get the less patience I have, I wouldn't change it for the world. I also am very fortunate to still have my mother. I know so many who have lost their mothers and had them in my thoughts yesterday. When you lose a mother, or even a mother figure, Mother's day can be difficult. I miss my 'other' mother dearly and wish I could tell her just once more how much she meant to me. I wish she could see all her grandchildren and how proud I am of all of them and how smart they are. I think she might agree!

My boys gave me a gift certificate to get a 1 hour massage and a gift certificate to Bath and Body Works. Austin told me I needed the massage! He was soooo right! We went out for a Mother's day brunch at Nana's Grill at the top of the Anatole Hotel. It was VERY nice. The view was spectacular. Cameron didn't quite know how to act and was just himself, the whole time, burping outloud and everything. At least he did say excuse me. He learned how to burp with his mouth closed that day. Jessica came in from Austin and we had a great 2 hour long meal with great food, but very expensive! Glad I wasn't paying! The hotel was very nice in the lobby and the pictures show just a little snapshot of the glamour. Cameron didn't mind posing, but Austin just "chilled" since he was a bit tired from playing video games with his buddies on Xbox live into the wee hours of the morning!

Cameron "graduated" from preschool last Friday night. It was a cute ceremony complete with dinner! He is ready for Kindergarten, if he could only keep his mouth shut! I think I might have to work on his social skills this summer. Last week at Austin's baseball game, another parent told Cameron he could ride this scooter and a few minutes later when the scooter's owner told Cameron to get off (unaware that his parents had told Cameron he could ride it) and was trying to lift the scooter so Cameron would get off, Cameron reared back, made a fist and punched the kid right in the face by his left cheek bone/eye area! I couldn't believe it. My 4 year old punching a 7 year old and making him cry. I was so embarrassed and upset that he would do such a thing! I have never seen him act like that. Most of the time he justs cries and screams. I may need to watch a few of these shows he is watching on cartoon network and see what kind of violence is going on before I let him watch that channel again!

Well, that's about it for now - so far we haven't contacted the Swine flu. I know I won't be kissin' on any pigs anytime soon!

Can't think of a good title so this is it!

Well, we already have 1 elementary school within our district close down Monday afternoon due to Swine flu. 1 student tested positive and 2 other possible. Just so happens that a co-worker of mine has a child that attends that school, plus his little brother goes to Cameron's preschool! They have been quarantined to their house. UGH! Wash those hands!

We have had state testing this week and since I'm a certified 'teacher' I get to watch small groups of students. I can't do anything while I give the test. No computer, no phone, no book, no NOTHING! Some groups get accommodations that allow reading of questions and answers so at least I get to do that! Otherwise, it's like watching paint dry! I didn't realize how exhausting it is to sit there and do absolutely nothing!

Austin's soccer team came in 2nd place this past weekend during a tournament. He has another soccer tournament AND a baseball tournament this coming weekend.

Cameron decided he needed another hair cut so he cut his bangs again. I had to really try hard not to lose it or laugh at him! Needeless to say, the scissors in this house have been hidden! So, both boys got haircuts last night by me! Cameron had his first t-ball game last Sat and did pretty good, once he realized what the pitcher was supposed to do! I forgot how funny it is to watch beginning t-ball! He has 11 more games to go! His team is the Indians. I will post some of those pics when I get them loaded off my phone.

These latest pictures are from Easter that I didn't load yet. Only 5 more weeks of school!!!!