Summer days...

I'm still around - I've been reading your posts everyday and commenting infrequently, but I'm still here. I just haven't had much to say lately. We've been really busy with baseball. Both boys went to their state tournaments and both teams took third. Colby's was great, as always. He hit a homerun over the fence, but this was really DJ's year to shine. He has always really gotten the shaft with baseball. He's good, but he's in with a mix of boys that are really good too and for some reason he's never really hit it off with the coach, but every three years, that coach moves up with his son and DJ gets the chance to have a really good year. This was it. During the season, he was an awesome catcher and then for the all-stars, his dad got to coach him.

There was a little bit of "coach's son" attitude a few times, but this tournament was outstanding. We took boys from 4 different communities and raised money to help with travel expenses. The boys all really "gelled" together and I think they've all made some lifelong friends. They all got to play, Darrell was really, really fair. He felt they all deserved a spot on the team and did a great job getting everybody in. The victories they achieved were done so as a team and everyone felt like they'd made a contribution.

DJ did an exemplary job behind the plate. He got beat all to heck (I even had to take him to the chiropractor when we returned), but he has had the season of his life. In two of the "important" wins, he was the winning run over the plate in a bang, bang play at home - and he's one of the slowest runners on the team. His short little legs were just running like no get out! It was wonderful to see that as a mom and I know Darrell was beaming with pride as well!

All the kids have had a good summer with sports and now Colby starts football. Sonya is excited to go into the 4th grade and Heather is ready to move to Mizzou. I'm ready for her to go, but a little sad to lose her. She has been seeing this boy and I sure hope it doesn't interfere when the time comes to go. I'm sure it won't but we visited the campus again this weekend, just to make sure the excitement was still brewing. This is the first "boyfriend" she's had and the timing couldn't be worse in my eyes, but I think she's got her head on straight. She's looking forward to the next phase of life.

Everyone is good in my neck of the woods and here's a few pics of summer for you.

Heather and Sonya making silly faces...



DJ resting after a hard game...



Colby watching a baseball game on Mizzou's field. He doesn't care who's playing, he just loves being at the field...

Happy Birthday America!!!!!

To celebrate, we are going to watch America's favorite pastime - yep, you guessed it BASEBALL!!!!!

Now you all know I love me some baseball, but I'm getting a little burnt out myself. Last weekend was wonderful. Colby's team won every game, but the last one. They lost the championship, but it was fun, nonetheless and Colby was really on his game last weekend and proved that he definitely deserved a spot on that team. He was batting over .800 and made two really great catches in the outfield and nice throws for plays at the plate. The catcher didn't get the guys out, but it wasn't because of Colby's throws. Normally, he's an infielder, so I was shocked at how well he did in the outfield and he really enjoyed himself. So that was the all-star team.

This weekend, he's playing in a tournament with my nephew in St. Louis - about 75 miles from us. It's really just a fun tourney, but he played last year and the coach requested he play again this year. He's excited.

Sunday - his district play starts for the all-star and DJ's starts on Thursday. Then it's weekends in Cape Girardeau, Jackson, MO and maybe even Nebraska for Colby and Minnesota for DJ next month, whew! I'm tired already.

We're not really doing much for the 4th, we're playing it by ear to see what happens after these games today.

Oh, and I'm not really losing weight very quickly anymore, I've had a very bad week at work - I'll blog about it later. But, I was surprised to see this morning that I finally hit the 20 pound mark and I'm going to get back on track this week, I promise:)

Happy 4th of July everyone!