Time Flies

And it's already been two months since I posted.

In that time, I don't think I've done much that's really noteworthy. I took the week of Thanksgiving off, and during that time (well, it ended up bleeding into the next week) managed to finish the bookshelves. I'm really still hoping to get the mantel done for Christmas (I know, that doesn't give me much time...), and then we'll just have the tiling around the fireplace, and we've finally finished the project. Well, there will also still be one other little bit, a picture frame box for the DVD player to sit on, and to hide all the cords from the DVD player, Wii, and such.

I spent a lot of October busy with preparing for and then participating in webcasting our stake conference at the end of the month. Overall, it was successful, although one building had a very slow connection speed that day. At work, my desktop computer that was barely able to run anything was replaced with a MacBook. And yet somehow, using a Mac has failed to transform my life. On the whole, I'd say it's just as annoying and pig-headed as Windows, just in different areas.

Just after I last posted (and I actually knew about this at the time I posted...), Dee was called to once again be the Primary President. That has, of course, kept her busy(er). At her school, one entertaining bit is that one of the two-year-olds is Jewish, which requires adjustments (so yes, there is a Mormon teaching a Jewish child at a Presbyterian school... :) ), especially around this time of year. One of the crafts they do every year is they make reindeer pictures by putting paint on the kids' hands and making two prints for antlers, and then doing the same with their foot for the face, and then the teachers put Merry Christmas and the kid's name on it. For the Jewish boy (whose older brother has been on Brennan's baseball team a couple of years, so we know the family), Dee switched it to Happy Holidays. Of course, reindeer aren't really a part of Hanukkah. Dee told him facetiously that it was the Hanukkah moose, and got the reply, "There's no Hanukkah moose!" And we really thought that was going to catch on...

Brennan finished his soccer season, and enjoyed it a lot. His favorite accomplishment, I think, was in one game when he scored a goal direct from a corner kick. He improved a lot through the season, and is looking forward to playing again. We'll have to see if we can do that in the spring, because at least in the past most of the games were on Sundays. His team did well, overall.

Brennan is also enjoying his "Makers" class. This is an enrichment class at the school once a week where they are learning about how to build things and use tools. The teacher is his best friend's dad (and a fellow ward member), which I think makes it more enjoyable for him. They are working together as a class to build a trebuchet, and he went over Saturday to help on that. In bowling, he has continued to improve.

Fourth grade one of the big focuses is on writing, and we have really enjoyed seeing his progress in his writing skills.

Nothing important has happened in Jessie's life... Oh, wait, maybe that's not quite true... Actually, she has had the most eventful couple of months of all of us, as two weeks ago was her twelfth birthday. She is very excited to be out of primary, and is enjoying Young Women's very much. She was particularly happy that her birthday was on Wednesday this year, so she got to go to her first mutual on her birthday.

Also relating to Jessie is that the school board recently voted to "replicate" the WAVE program that she is in. Unfortunately, a lot of the friends Jessie has made this year will be going to the other campus starting next year. Aside from that, we have concerns about how this change will affect the program, and are disappointed that the decision was made so quickly, and without (in our opinion) truly evaluating other options. But we will do our best to help make up for any adverse impacts and make it as successful as possible.

I think that's the major events in our lives over the past little while. We hope that everyone has a great Christmas.

Gasp!

OK, so it's been ten months or so... But don't worry, this is not going to be a detailed, blow-by-blow account of our lives, but at least cover some highlights... Most of you probably know a lot of this anyway, from various sources.

Anyway, at the end of last October, we found out that Auto-Trol (my employer, for those who may have forgotten) was being bought by a company called Versata. A week or so later, we found out that Versata buys companies, lays everybody off (more or less), and sends the development work to contractors in India. So this added a lot of stress and pressure. On the plus side, as I'd already been putting some effort into finding a different job, I had a head start.

To make a somewhat long story short, I ended up getting offered a job just before Thanksgiving at Baylor College of Medicine. I work specifically for the Dan L. Duncan Cancer Center Bioinformatics Group. I started on December 13, and spent the couple of weeks in the meantime working on the cabinet project, and I was able to finish the base cabinets, except for sanding and painting (unfortunately, that part is still not finished, although it is in progress). My current project for the foreseeable future is that I am the sole programmer for the Texas Cancer Research Biobank. This is a project to collect at least 2,000 high-quality cancer samples that can then be gene sequenced to learn more about the causes of cancer. I am writing a variety of applications to help track and manage these samples. So far, it's been a nice change, except for the problem of being in the Texas Medical Center, instead of just down the street. It's been an adjustment to not be so close to home, and able to get to the school, etc.

On the other hand, they are pretty open to working from home from time to time, and that has helped ease the transition. At first this wasn't much of an option, because our computer at home wasn't up to running the necessary software, so as a result towards the beginning of the year we took the plunge and upgraded our computer. I think that has also been nice for everyone.

One particularly interesting bit of my work is that one of these applications needs to be usable in hospitals and similar field locations, and so I am working on an Android version of the application. As a result of this, I have custody of a Motorola Xoom.

Also, in the spring I was approached by a member of the high council in our stake, who I met coordinating some translations stuff for meetings. He told me that his neighbor had a company and was looking for someone to write some software to help manage his company. After a couple of meeting to learn more about the project, we decided that it was a good opportunity. I have been working on that throughout the summer, and am hoping to finish it up soon. This project led to another purchase, as I needed a way to demonstrate my work so far to the customers, and therefore we ended up buying a laptop. Jessie in particular is very fond of it, and usually uses it in preference to the desktop. I have also found in additionally useful in being able to work on the project on the bus to and from work, as well as at other times when I had to be away from home.

In late December, Dee was called to be the first counselor in the Primary Presidency. That has kept her rather busy, along with her usual activities. The president was expecting in the middle of June (as well as the secretary, a couple days apart from each other), so that added to her responsibilities for a little bit, although they did call a third counselor to help. Then, just as the president was coming back after the baby, she had some serious health concerns come up, and that kept her away a bit more. She also spent a few weeks last spring helping to teach a mini-course at the elementary school. Brennan was in her class. She is once again the second VP at the elementary PTA, and now is ending up co-chairing a position on the board for the intermediate PTA as well. Adding all that to the usual efforts to keep the rest of us functioning and on the ball, and she is very busy.

Jessie has had an eventful time. She mentioned the "So You Think You Can Sing" competition, and I know many of you were able to watch that. It was a good experience, and we were very proud of her and her performance. Also at the beginning of the year, Jessie had to decide where she was going to school next year for Intermediate school. She had three options. Space Center is the local school that she would normally go to. At Seabrook Intermediate they have a Science Magnet, but she didn't really consider that very much. She likes science, but not that much... The third option was the GT Magnet (referred to as WAVE) at Westbrook Intermediate. The classes she would take there would be more integrated, and designed specifically for GT students. In addition, they have a wide selection of minicourses that the students get to choose from--everything from Chocolate to Scuba Diving, to Computers, etc. She had a hard time deciding, knowing that a lot of her friends would be at Space Center, but in the end she felt like the WAVE program was too good of an opportunity to pass up.

Also, she was again able to qualify for the school's Reading Rumble team. This is a competition where a team of six from each school compete to identify quotes from a list of 20 books or so. Last year was the first year Armand Bayou participated, and they didn't do well. This year, they knew better how to prepare, and so were more confident. Jessie was the top qualifier, and so was chosen as the team captain. At the elementary level, they have three preliminary groups, with the top three in each group going to the finals. There were five rounds of five questions, so a total of 25 questions. Jessie's team got 22 of the 25 correct, for first place in their "zone." This was a big turnaround from last year. One of the other teams in the final was Ward Elementary, the school that won the first two years of the competition. Armand Bayou were neck and neck with them, and towards the end were tied, but again they got 22 of 25 correct, while Ward got 23 correct. So, they were unable to dethrone the champions, but finished in second place. Jessie also participated in a Living History Museum the fifth grade does every year (she was Laura Ingalls Wilder), and in the school talent show, where she sang "Sleep Gently Sleep" in German.

Over the summer, Jessie kept herself busy with reading, bowling, and various activities with some of her friends. This summer she actually participated in two bowling leagues--her usual one, and a Monday night scholarship league. In one of the Monday night games, she set a new high score, 184. She was also able to babysit for someone in our ward a couple of times (she did it at our house, with oversight from Mom), and also completed a Red Cross babysitting class.

Now she is adjusting to intermediate school. She has definitely had more homework, and has been very diligent in working on it all. She's made some new friends, and is enjoying the type of homework, and school work, that is very different from what she has done in the past. Some examples include a creative compass (on castles in Germany, and involved drawing four German castles from pictures); a visor representing aspects of a book, such as theme, character, etc.; a language arts test that included writing new dialog for a Peanuts comic strip using spelling words, and a paper comparing herself to a piece of scientific equipment. I might try to see if she is OK with me posting that last one on here. She is also very anxious for her birthday, especially to leave Primary, and is very happy that her birthday is on Wednesday this year, so she'll get to go to her first Mutual on her birthday. She was very happy recently to put her last Primary program behind her--although now she's disappointed because there is going to be a Stake talent show in November, and you have to be at least twelve to participate...

Brennan has been very busy as well, although not quite the variety. Just before Christmas we learned that he had also qualified for the GT program. He has enjoyed that. In February, baseball started. This was Brennan's first spring in kid pitch. It was a difficult transition, but overall he played well. The team (the Red Sox) had some really good games, and a couple that weren't so good. Brennan had some pretty eventful moments over the season. In one game he was stealing third, and the catcher's throw hit him right in the center of his chest. The next game, he was coming home on a wild pitch, and the pitcher stepped on his leg. Last Saturday, he was hit by a pitch, and has a nice bruise on his leg. In hitting, he had some bad luck, with a couple of balls hit directly at fielders on the other team. He worked hard, though, and learned a lot. The last week of the season was interesting, though. On that Tuesday, he came home from school and his pinky finger on his right hand was swelling and purple. He told us that he had collided with another boy (a former baseball teammate) at PE. It kept getting worse, and after a lot of debate (going into the next morning) we decided to take him in to the doctor to get it checked. Dee got an appointment for a little before school got out (he had a game that afternoon, so we didn't want to be too late). When she got to the school to pick him up, just after she entered the building she got a phone call from the school nurse--Brennan was in to see her; he had collided with the same boy again, and this time had a gash on his forehead from his friend's tooth...

Anyway, it turned out that his finger wasn't broken. Still, he didn't play in the game that afternoon (the last regular season game). Saturday was the first game of the tournament, and though his finger was still very sore, he went ahead and played. It was a very close game, but in the end they lost.

Brennan also bowled this summer and is also bowling this fall, and has three times increased his high score, up to 135. He also read a lot, and played a lot with friends. He's now in fourth grade, and seems to be doing well. He is also playing soccer. In his first game he played goalie for most of the game, and did well, although his team ended up losing 3 - 2. In the games since then he has played goalie part of each game, but also plays a lot at forward and full back. They've won the other three games they've played. The second one I got lost trying to get there, so we missed the beginning, but he was still able to play a lot and made some good plays. The third game he scored two goals, and also impressed the other parents with his speed. There were a couple of times when he was playing fullback when he got to a ball with the whole field open ahead of him and took off down the side with the ball, but neither time was he able to score. Then, in the fourth game Brennan had several shots just go wide of the goal, and one hard shot that hit the post. Last Saturday was a bye, and we'll be out of town this weekend, so it will be a little bit before he gets to play in a game again.

I'm sure that I've missed a lot of things I should mention, but this will have to do.

Primary Program

Sunday was the Primary Program. As always, it was a great meeting. Jessie and Brennan both did their parts well. They also had solos in "Follow the Prophet." They each sang half of the last verse. There were also 2 songs, one just the older boys and the other just the older girls, so of course they participated in that, as well.

When Jessie and Brennan were at the front to do their solos, we heard from the back of the chapel a very excited, "I see Jessie!" from Lucy, Jessie's most devoted disciple. The same thing happened last year...

Aside from the Primary Program, we've been almost all dealing with being sick, but are starting to get better. Brennan so far as avoided anything. Jessie has been enjoying her Knights and Castles class. There's something from that she wants to post on her about, so I'll leave that for now. We learned that Brennan's teacher is LDS--interestingly enough, she has three of the four LDS third graders in her class... We're not sure how they missed the fourth. We also realized at the beginning of the year that there is at least one LDS kid in each grade of the school except for fourth. 1 5th grader (Jessie), the four 3rd graders, 2 2nd graders, 2 1st graders and at least one Kindergartner.

On Saturday Brennan got to pitch. Actually, the week before he was supposed to be the starting pitcher, but a batter and a half into the game it started pouring rain, so the game was canceled. This time he was pitching at the very end, so while he didn't go a whole inning, he did pitch most of one. He started out a little rough, but towards the end started pitching a lot of strikes. He also walked twice, scored, and stole a base.

Last night we made up the rained-out game. Brennan threw out a runner from shortstop in the first inning. Later he got a hit, moved to third on a double, and then was thrown out at home trying to score on a passed ball--but Dee thinks that he was safe. She had a good view from where she was sitting, I was coaching first base and so my view wasn't as good. I'll try to get some pictures to post soon.

Mr Wilson came up for the weekend to help with some siding repairs. We greatly appreciate his help. That's about all for now.

It's been a long time

I'm not going to begin to try to cover everything since I last posted. Just some of the more interesting and latest news.

Jessie is now in 5th grade, her last year at the elementary school. She is once again a class representative on the Student Council. For the first nine weeks, she is a member of ABE's Brigade (the safety patrol). She was selected to be a part of the district 5th Grade Honor Choir that will perform at an arts exhibit in October. In the GT program, the first half of the year they go to a miniclass at UH Clear Lake. The class she is taking is Knights and Castles. She has also started another season of bowling, and her average is about a 93 currently. Jessie recently got a new Primary teacher. Her teacher is also a school teacher, and she was one of Dee's counselors in the Young Woman presidency. Sunday after Sacrament Meeting she came to Dee and asked, "Has Jessie been identified as GT yet?"

Brennan is now in 3rd grade. He is also doing well in school so far. He just started fall baseball, which means he is now in kid pitch. His first game was Saturday. There is no official score kept in the fall, but his team didn't do so well. The innings are longer, and the games are timed, so we didn't play as many innings as we had hoped. If the game had gone another inning, Brennan would have pitched. I imagine that he will get a chance to pitch this weekend. In practice, he has been fairly consistent with his control. In his first at-bat, he grounded to the pitcher (one of the rare times the ball was put into play...), and in his second at-bat he walked.

The biggest news for Brennan is that just before school started we learned that he has astigmatism in his right eye, bad enough that at some point his brain stopped using that eye. Which leads to the question, "How does he hit and catch so well with only one eye?" Anyway, he now has glasses. Here's a picture:


Dee's school has started again as well, so she has a new group of 2-year-olds. One interesting experience from Friday was helping to calm a very distraught 2-year-old who only speaks Turkish--which oddly enough, doesn't happen to be a language the Dee speaks... But apparently she was the only one he wanted to deal with for the first couple of hours. Dee is also busy with PTA and recruiting members.

I spent far too much time a few weeks ago trying to fix plumbing, and not enough time working on several other house-related projects. I have also kept working on sorting Legos for sale, although again, not as quickly as we would hope. I was just called to be the Stake Technology Specialist.

Don't be surprised if I post again soon to add in all the stuff Dee reminds me of that I forgot.

A Sad Day

Just a quick note.

It turns out they had the Student Council Election yesterday, and Jessie did not win. She felt that her speech went well, though, and we're happy with how well she handled her defeat, and proud of her for entering the campaign in the first place.

Our baseball season is now also over. The Phillies struggled in the first inning, scoring no runs and giving up four. After that, it was actually an even game, as in the end we lost, 8 - 4. Brennan did get a hit and scored one of the runs, and he was able to make a few good plays--including another force out at second and a running catch on a foul pop. He also nearly threw out one of the fastest players in the league, and had another throw to first go off of the batter's helmet. The game did have a bit of a scary ending, as one of our players hit an extremely hard grounder that went off the pitcher's shin (actually, either the pitcher or his twin brother is the one Brennan almost threw out) before being fielded and the out made at first, and the pitcher was down for several minutes, but in the end he was fine. Brennan also handled the disappointing end to the season well, and we're very proud of how hard he has worked to improve and be a team leader.

The End is Nigh

For many things. I'm sure I'm going to leave out some things here, but hopefully I'll get at least the major updates covered.

I'll start with Jessie. The fifteenth was her Reading Rumble competition. I guess this is the second year they've done this competition in the district, and this was the first time for our school. The way it worked was they had split the elementary schools into three groups, based on size. The top three schools from each group went to the finals. Armand Bayou did well, but was not able to make the finals. Still, we're proud of all the work and time Jessie put into the competition. We have the lists of books for next year--and third graders are allowed to try out for the team as well, so next year Brennan's going to try to make it as well. Our current goal is to get started this summer (and Dee and I will read at least some of the books as well) and be as ready as possible next year. It will also help that the school will have a better idea of the way the competition works. The most exciting part of the day, though, was getting books signed by Margaret Peterson Haddix and listening to her talk.

That Saturday was also the last week of competition for this season's bowling league. Because of the Reading Rumble, Jessie bowled ahead of time, and had a great day. Her first game wasn't actually up to her usual level, but in the second game she got her first ever Turkey in a league game (for those who might not know, a turkey is three strikes in a row) and ended up with a 147 (Her high before this was 143 or 145). Her third game was over 100 as well. This Saturday was the party, and Jessie's team, despite being the youngest team in the division (and it was their first year in the higher division) came in 2nd place. So we're proud of them for all the hard work and improvements.

Jessie is also running for Student Council President. All last week we were working on posters, or things to hand out, or flyers, etc. She came up with some clever ideas. I think it has been a good learning experience for her. Today she is giving her campaign speech and presenting a slideshow that she made, and I believe tomorrow is the actual election.

The Story of the Meatballs

Jessie's class is working on fractions. They were given an assignment to find a recipe with at least 3 fractions, and either half it, double it, or triple it. For extra credit they could make the recipe and bring it in to give people samples. Jessie decided on meatballs. She had enough for everyone in the class to have seconds (and, apparently, a few more). The meatballs were a hit. Several people wanted more than the 2. One boy got two extras from other students. That afternoon he and Jessie were going to the park (along with Brennan and his friend Tyler), and he asked her to bring the leftovers, and he ate six more. Eventually kids started coming in from other fourth grade classes to try out the meatballs. When Dee went to pick the kids up from school, she went to help Jessie with the crockpot. As she walked down the halls she felt like a celebrity, as all the fourth graders were calling out to her about how good the meatballs were--including, to her surprise, some of those from other classes who had gotten tastes...

Then, the next day, the fourth grade had a picnic. Dee went in to Jessie's class to help out for a few minutes after, and the whole class was sad when she hadn't brought any more meatballs. Unfortunately, they weren't allowed to hand out food as part of the student council campaigns...

Brennan has still been very busy with baseball. The next week (after the last post), we were supposed to have a game on Thursday. But then the game that got rained out was rescheduled for that Tuesday. And then Thursday's game was rescheduled for Wednesday. Anyway, Tuesday's game was interesting because the scoreboard wasn't working. This game was probably the best hitting our team has done all season. Unfortunately, the other team hit even better, and so, despite two home runs, we lost, 15 - 12. The next day the Phillies again hit well, but something went wrong every single inning, and we ended up getting shut out, 9 - 0. Although, considering that the team we were playing averaged scoring 12 runs a game, our defense really did pretty well. As an example of the luck we had, in one of the late innings our power hitter (who hit one of the home runs the day before) hit a high fly ball back to the fence. The left fielder (who, I was later told, had never caught a fly ball before) moved back and to his left against the fence and made the catch.

The next Wednesday was the last game of the season. We were playing the Nationals, who had the worst record in the West. Like us, they had one win and one tie, and they had also just been shut out. It was a 5:45 game, which often aren't the best for our team, and we got off to a sluggish start. Brennan did field two grounders, but both times his throw was just beat out by the runner. Late in the game (after we had made something of a comeback), he hit a fly ball into the outfield, but it was caught (and it was fairly clear by the fielder's reaction he probably hadn't ever caught a ball before, either...). The Phillies lost, 14 - 10, cementing the worst record in either the East or the West.

Thursday I was umpiring a game. It didn't matter in the standings, and it was a fairly low-key game until the last inning, when the other umpire made a call that very greatly upset one of the managers (whose son was on our team last fall, and in coach pitch), and he ran out and started yelling and ended up getting thrown out of the game. At about the time that game was ending, the Wilsons were arriving to visit on their way back to Louisiana from Tucson.

Friday was our first playoff game, against the Tigers (Brennan's old team--although only the coach's son is a holdover from the past). For the playoffs, there's no time limit, so we play a full six innings unless the run rules come into effect (10 run lead after four, or 6 run lead after the fifth), or it's tied after six (no ties in the playoffs, of course). Brennan led off the game with an infield single, and later scored, as part of a five-run first. After two innings, it was 8 - 0. Somewhere in the early part of the game, Brennan fielded a grounder and threw to first. His throw was a little off-line, but the first baseman caught it and got his foot back on the bag in time for the out. Later, with a runner on second looking like he was going to steal, the catcher threw down to third. Brennan had to reach out to make the catch, but did so, keeping the runner at second. After three innings, it was 8 - 1. After four it was 10 - 4. By now Brennan had three hits. We didn't score in the fifth, and in the bottom of the inning the Tigers had some hard hits, and scored five runs, making it 10 - 9. Last inning. Brennan led off the inning, but this time they were able to throw him out. The next batter struck out. Our third hitter got a single, and then our big hitter came up. He hit a fly ball into left field. And that same left fielder who made the catch against the fence in the other game, while sitting on the ground, stuck out his glove and had the ball fall into it for the third out.

Bottom of the sixth. If the Tigers don't score, we win. If they score one, it's extra innings. If they score two, we lose and the season is over. The bottom two in the Tiger's order are up. They both hit line drives into the gaps in the outfield. Now we face the Tiger's big three. Their leadoff hitter gets a hit, scoring the tying run and leaving runners on second and third with no one out. We bring the infield in. The next batter strikes out. Now it's their power hitter. He pops up, and all the coaches have heart attacks as the left fielder, center fielder, and shortstop all start converging on the same place--but the shortstop makes the catch without getting run over by either of the others. Now there's two outs, and the infield can move back. The next batter grounds to the pitcher, who makes the throw to first for the third out. We're going into extra innings.

In the top of the seventh, we only score one run. So now it's kind of the same situation as before, except not the top of their order. The leadoff hitter gets a single. I believe the next batter popped out to the shortstop. The next batter hits a grounder towards third. Brennan takes a couple steps to the side, fields the ball, and throws to the shortstop at second for the force on the lead runner--and while that might be the normal play, I think it's about the first time this season, for any team I've seen, that play has been made rather than the throw to first. Now there's two outs, runner on first. The next batter again hits a grounder to third. Brennan calmly scoops it up, and once again turns and makes the easy throw to second for the third out, and the Phillies have won! Brennan was then awarded the game ball for making the last two outs (although to be fair, there were many other great plays from almost all of our players, such as the time with two outs and runners on first and third the catcher threw to short on the steal, the throw was off-line, but as the runner on third tried to come home the shortstop made the throw back to home and the catcher tagged out the runner). In fact, I heard more than one person there comment that it might have been the best game they'd ever seen at this level.

Saturday, we had batting practice (since we're still in the tournament). One of the assistant coaches was commenting to the manager about all the times we've seen the throw from third to first, and all of a sudden, when it's most important, Brennan makes the throw to second. I told them that Brennan had told us after the game that he had told the shortstop before the play he was going to do that. The assistant coach said, "I really got the feeling last night they boys were, 'OK, you've coached us to a 1 - 13 -1 record. We've got it from here.'"

Tonight is game two of the playoffs. Hopefully we can play at least as well as on Friday, and then we'll see what happens.

Another week (or so)

First, I'd like to announce that Jessie was selected for the Reading Rumble team at school. This is a competition where they have a list of books they had to read, and then they will answer questions about the books. I don't know a lot of the details, yet. But Jessie has really enjoyed most (if not all) of the books on the list, including some she didn't think that she would. She has worked hard to make the team, going back and re-reading books where she found herself forgetting parts of it. The first competition is next Saturday, and if they do well there, apparently there's a later one as well, but we don't have any details on that.

Brennan and Jessie both had field days this week. One of Jessie's events was a mini-marathon, and she came in fourth among the girls. Brennan (among other things) was on a relay team, and ran the anchor leg. When he took the baton, his team was behind, but he made up the difference and they won their race. His class also won the tug-of-war.

In baseball news, we had a game last Wednesday. It was the early game, which I've noticed often seems hard to get as energized for. We were playing the Diamondbacks, who had the best record in the league. Our first game against them was one of our better games, but we lost. I wish that I could say the same this time, but it was easily our worst game. For example, considering the fact that Brennan is the leadoff hitter, the fact that he only had two at-bats tells you a lot... Not a lot of hitting (although Brennan did get at least one hit--I think he was thrown out on the other), not a lot of defense, and the whole team just never really seemed to be in the game. The final score ended up 13 - 3.

We were supposed to have a game Friday night, and Dee was scheduled to work in the concession stand before that. Our plan was to go to the library (right across the street from the fields), then Jessie, Brennan and I would eat a picnic lunch while watching the early game while Dee was at the concession stand, and then we'd have our game. It was a rainy day, but not too hard. We got ready and headed toward the library, and on the way got a phone call that "all the games were canceled" So we figured we'd go to the library, then go home and eat a picnic lunch in the living room while watching a movie. But, when we emerged from the library, the concession stand looked rather open, and there appeared to be a game starting on the big field--it turns out it was only all the machine pitch games that were canceled. (And the general opinion was that our field was in good enough condition and that we could have played). So Dee ran over to the stand, the rest of us ate our dinner (in the car, because it was so wet) and then went to watch the big kids play. It was an 11 - 12 year-old game. It was interesting to see the differences. Somehow, Brennan managed to get dirtier watching a game than playing in one... And after the game, we were amused when he went over to "listen in" to the winning team's post-game meeting. Picking up pointers, I guess...

I'll also digress here to mention that starting on Monday at batting practice, our coach introduced a new game. The players are divided in to three groups that come at different times, so that they don't all have to stand around. Now, at the end of each group's turn, we play a two-strike game. Each batter gets a turn. If he gets a hit, it's the next player's turn. If he fouls, he gets another pitch. If he misses, he has to put down a fair bunt, or he's out--and each player only gets one bunt in the game. The second missed pitch, and you're out.

Brennan's group is him and the two All-Stars from last year, and our biggest hitters. One of them has gotten out relatively quickly all three times we've done the game now, but with Brennan and the coach's son it has turned into a marathon. Usually, the coach has ended up adding to the rules by giving them specific locations they have to hit, because neither one of them shows any signs of ever missing the ball. The first two times, Brennan ended up losing, but the last time he emerged victorious.

OK, back to the real games. Last night was our next game, against the Braves. The last time our family saw the Braves was in last year's city championship game. Now, we're still trying to win our first game. I was umpiring the early game--which happened to involve the Diamondbacks, who beat us so easily last week. This week they played like we did last week, with the same end result--they lost, 13 - 3. I couldn't help wishing they'd played that way the week before...

We had really stressed the importance of effort and intensity after that last week, and it payed off. Brennan led off the game with a single, and later scored. We ended up scoring 4, despite our power hitter striking out. In the bottom of the inning we had several good plays, and held them to one run. The next inning we didn't score (I think). Brennan was narrowly thrown out on a ball he hit to the pitcher. I don't remember everything in the second and third innings, but we still had the lead--better hitting, and a lot better fielding. Brennan had a few balls just out of his reach, but was hustling. He had another good hit, but the pitcher made a great play and again, just threw him out. In the fourth inning, with a runner on third, our shortstop tried to throw a runner out going back to first. The ball got by the first baseman, then his throw made it past the second baseman, and his throw was over Brennan's head at third as the runner kept advancing. Brennan grabbed the ball and quickly threw home, but just behind the runner. (Or maybe all that was in the third...) After that they settled down again. The Braves did get a towering home run, but in the top of the fifth we had three balls hit to the fence, giving us a 13 - 5 (or maybe 6) lead--and when time expired in the bottom of the inning, with a 6+ run lead, the Phillies had their first win of the season.

Next game is Friday.

The latest news

We'll start off with the big news, and then move on to the baseball update.

Thursday Jessie had an appointment with the eye doctor. The results, rather expected, are that Jessie needs glasses. She found some frames she really liked at Wal-Mart, for only $10. Of course, the lenses are rather more than that... They should be ready by Friday. I believe Jessie is looking forward to seeing how different things look when they're not all blurry.

We had Stake Conference yesterday. Jessie and Brennan sang in the Primary choir. They both did very well, and we were very proud of how well they sat there on the stand for two hours.

As far as baseball goes, we had two games last week. The first one was on Tuesday, at the Webster fields. Brennan played first base the entire game. Overall he did well, but he's working hard on getting better. In the first inning, there was a throw he missed, but he ran and got the ball and made a perfect throw to second to get the runner out trying to advance on the error. He almost made that same play again, later. He also got a hit his first time up, stole second, stole third, and then scored. Later in the game he got another hit, and scored again. I think he might have had a third hit, as well. He also fielded a grounder and ran the ball to first, as well as some other plays. Still, in the end our hitting wasn't there, and the other team was hitting very well, and the Phillies lost.

Friday was another late game, against the White Sox. In most of their games recently they were bunting a lot, so we had decided to play Brennan at third again, as he was the most aggressive at charging the bunts. That plan almost changed when our other first base man came and said he couldn't play because he'd hurt his leg, but we decided to play our regular catcher at first instead. Brennan led off the game with a hit, and later scored. The White Sox completely failed to bunt, although they did have one hit that amounted to a bunt...

Anyway, the game was back-and-forth. Brennan's second time up, coach gave him the signal for a drag bunt (one where he squares around as late as possible). Brennan still squared a bit sooner than we wanted, and his bunt ended up going just in front of the plate (he told me later that it actually bounced up and hit him on the chest, so it probably should have been called foul, but the umpires didn't see that), and the catcher was able to throw him out. The Phillies had two innings in a row where they held the White Sox without scoring--but in the middle had one like that ourselves as well. Brennan made two key outs in this period--one a hard grounder from their best hitter that he fielded and made a great throw to first, and the other a high pop up in the infield that he caught. I think in the fourth inning, we had two one with two outs. Our batter hit a hard grounder to second. The White Sox second baseman dove and stopped the ball. Even so, several of our players (like Brennan) would have beat the throw, because it took awhile for the second base man to get up and make the throw, but it was our slowest runner.

It came down to the top of the sixth inning, the Phillies down 12 - 10. Our first two hitters hit it hard, but were thrown out. This brought Brennan up to bat. He hit a hard grounder past the second base man (a different player than in the other inning) and to the fence, and Brennan was able to make it into a triple. The next batter got a hit, and Brennan scored to make it 12 - 11. Two more hits followed, although we weren't able to get a run in, leaving the bases loaded, two outs, one run down. (and I think more went on in this inning before Brennan came up, because I think five runs would have made it 13 - 12, so that we would have needed to hold them on defense, but I forget now). And once again, our slowest runner at the plate. But he can hit it hard, so we had a lot of hope. Unfortunately, he hit a soft grounder that started out foul, but then went fair right to the first base man. So, once again, we lost.

Two more games this week. I want to mention that Jessie has done a great job cheering and supporting Brennan and all his teammates, and Dee has really gone the extra mile in trying to get things going as well, including making pennants for all of the siblings to use in cheering for Friday's game.

Another week

Yes, I realize pictures are a lot more interesting than what I say. I hope to get some up at some point, but I don't have the pictures where I can upload them at the moment. At least this one will be shorter, because less has happened since it isn't so long since I last posted.

Saturday Jessie and Brennan had the practice for the Children's Choir for Stake Conference. Because that practice was at the same time as Jessie usually bowls, Dee arranged for her team to meet with her on Thursday after school to do their bowling for the week.

Dee and I spent a lot of the week, when not otherwise busy, preparing talks for Sunday. Aside from us, the program was provided by the San Jacinto College Chamber Choir. The director is a member of our ward, and he arranged for them to come and sing several songs for us. They were very good. I feel both talks went well, and we both received several very nice comments afterward.

As far as baseball goes, when I last wrote we were preparing for another game. This one was at the Webster field, which is very different. Our usual field is small, with 12' fences, and just a short distance between the plate and the back stop. This means it's hard to get more than a single, because even the youngest kids can usually quickly get to a ball hit to the fence and throw it in, and it makes it hard to score on balls the catcher doesn't get, because the ball will usually stay close to the plate unless it rolls down the baselines. But at Webster they use the same field for the machine pitch and the kid pitch games, so it has a much bigger area behind the plate, and the outfield fences, although only four feet high or so, are 250 feet away. This creates a huge outfield, so balls hit out there can make a huge difference. The team we were playing is the one we lost to the Monday before, when we played probably our worst game.

Tuesday's game was similar. Brennan led off with a grounder between short and second for a triple. The second batter did about the same, and Brennan scored. We ended up with three runs that inning. The game went back and forth a bit. Brennan had several chances to make plays, but mostly on bunts and short grounders, and he was struggling to pick up the ball cleanly. His second at-bat he popped up to the pitcher, and his third at bat was his first strike out. Like I said, I don't remember all the details, but I believe we were down a run or so in the top of the last inning. With one out, we got a solid line drive down the third baseline and into the outfield for another triple (it might have been a home run, but it was one of our slower runners), and at that point we were leading by a run. The next batter popped up foul, and the catcher (who was on our team last year) made a diving catch. We tried to send the runner from third, but he was called out at home on a close play. In the bottom of the inning, the other team ended up winning on another close play at the plate, but this time the runner was called safe, and we lost again, 8 - 7.

Friday was another game. We started out with some good defense, and held the Red Sox to 1 run in the first. Brennan hit a hard grounder to third, but sadly their third base man was very good, and he was able to just throw out Brennan. From there things went downhill, and going into the bottom of the fourth it was I think 12 - 0. Brennan's second at bat he again hit it hard, but the pitcher was able to get it and again throw him out. Anyway, our team finally started getting some hits in the fourth and I think we scored four runs. Again, I'm not sure of the exact scores at most points, but we avoided losing on the 10 - run rule (if a team is winning by 10 or more after four innings, the game is over. After the fifth inning, if a team is winning by six or more it is over, because the other team can't catch up (since you can score a maximum of five runs in an inning). But we couldn't afford to give up many more runs. We had only nine players that day, so everyone had pretty much been playing the same positions. So I was a little surprised when the coach asked me if I thought we should change things a little. But, I said sure. So the coach moved his son from shortstop to first (he played first on All-Stars last year), the first baseman to third, and Brennan to shortstop. The first couple of batters hit it into the outfield, and so it was runners at second and third, with no one out, and if the runner scored the game was over. Coach called time out, and brought the infield in tight with instructions to throw home no matter what to try to get the runner. The next batter hit a pop fly into center, however. Our center fielder made the catch. Both runners had left when the ball was hit, and Brennan very alertly ran to second and started calling for the ball. The center fielder heard him and made the throw to Brennan to complete the double play, and Brennan then moved to make sure the runner on third didn't try to tag and score. The next batter hit a grounder to third, and the third base man made the throw for the third out.

Now it was up to the offense. We scored five. Brennan had another hard hit, but this time it was a line drive to the first baseman. Once again we ended up with a runner on third, and if he scored the game was over. This time, though, the batter grounded to the pitcher, and the catcher wasn't able to quite make the tag to prevent the run. So we're still left looking for our first win.

We're now considering if we want to adjust our infield at all. In our last practice, the regular first base man was late (along with several other players). I was heading over to play first for some infield drills, but apparently meanwhile Brennan was volunteering to play first. Coach asked me and I said to let him try. He ended up playing a lot of practice there, and was doing pretty good, although I'll have to try to go over some details with him, as he has never played first before. But it might happen in a game.

We have two games this week, tomorrow and Friday.

That's it for now.

More Bowling and Baseball

This sums up most of our activities.

I don't believe I ever mentioned that back before Christmas Dee and I had started getting some Harry Potter Legos, as part of presents for Jessie and Brennan, in part by our frequent procedure of finding larger lots, keeping the parts we most want, and then trying to resell the rest to make back the money. This led to our discovery of a site called Bricklink, that is a Lego selling/buying site. Anyway, we ended up buying about 60 pounds worth of Legos from one person. After a lot of time sorting out pieces--and along the way selling some we put together sooner--we had reached the point of having five sets more or less ready to sell, and are planning to just sell the rest as a large lot. Meanwhile, just after Christmas Dee found a person who was selling several Harry Potter sets, and she came up with the idea of a new variation on the Christmas Village. So we bought those sets as the foundation of our Harry Potter Christmas Village...

Anyway, as we were finishing up that first lot, she found another person selling a lot of Legos. And by a lot, I mean a 50-gallon trash can full of Legos, plus three large tupperwares, plus a few smaller boxes and tupperwares. So now there's a lot of sorting out again. But we do think in the end we will make back our money, and even come out a bit ahead. And we now have a store on the aforementioned Bricklink site.

This Sunday I was released as a Ward Missionary. I am still Cubmaster, though the next pack meeting is at the same time as a baseball game, so Brennan and I will miss that one. One of Brennan's den leaders just had her tonsils removed, so Dee was asked to fill in for a couple of weeks. Otherwise, she is still enjoying doing Achievement Days with Jessie.

I also think that I failed to mention that Dee ended up as chairman of the nominating committee for the PTA board for next year. Dee spent a fair amount of time fulfilling those responsibilities. She also ended up accepting the nomination as 2nd VP for next year, and so that will keep her busier next year.

Jessie is still doing well with her bowling. She is now consistently getting over 100 in her games. And although her team are all fairly new and in their first season at this level, the last we checked I believe they are in 2nd place overall.

Jessie and Brennan both volunteered to be in a children's choir for our Stake Conference in two weeks. Sunday they had a practice for that, and there will be another one on Saturday morning.

Oh, and they both got all As for their third term. So we're proud of them for their hard work.

Baseball has been going well for Brennan personally, though the team has struggled. Last Monday they had a very off game. Their fielding was not as good as it should have been, and at the beginning of the game they were really struggling with their hitting. Through most of the first three games, aside from Brennan (who is our leadoff hitter) and the second hitter, no one had hit as well as hoped for. Towards the end of Monday that started to change, highlighted by a two-run homer by our number four hitter that left a large dent in his bat (and made it unusable). But it was too little, too late, and the Phillies lost, 10 - 8. That night and the next there was a lot of discussion among the coaches (and between Dee and myself) about things to do to help them improve. One result of that was Brennan being more fully established as the main third baseman. Since that game, he has only played third, although there is still one inning each game where he sits out and someone else plays third.

Tuesday was another game. This time I was umpiring the game before, and since our team was responsible for running the concession stand at the same time, Dee wanted to make sure that the people supposed to be doing that were there, so we all headed down early. The umpiring was fairly uneventful, although I kept getting hit by foul balls that would hit the fence behind me and ricochet back at me--once in the back, and once on my hand. When it was time for Brennan's game, they played much, much better. Brennan made a couple of good plays at third, and he continued to hit well. The improvement from the end of the Monday game continued in the hitting, including a second home run from the same player (Damien). Unfortunately, the team we were playing (who haven't lost yet) were all hitting the ball hard, and usually away from our fielders. So in the end we lost again, 15 - 10. But it was encouraging that we played a lot better.

Last night was our next game, against the Tigers. Brennan was really excited for this game, because of being on the Tigers the past two years, and the coach of the Tigers was the assistant coach the two springs and Brennan's coach in the fall. Plus the head-to-head matchup, as the coache's son, Cade, plays third base for the Tigers this season. Brennan started off the game with a hit, stole second (he was at first called out, but we all knew he was safe, and the field umpire asked the homeplate umpire, who agreed that he was safe), and then came around to score. In the bottom of the first, the first batter hit a hard grounder that Brennan just missed. The second batter hit a grounder in between third and short that Brennan just couldn't get to (and neither could the shortstop). The third batter hit a grounder to short. The throw came to Brennan, but over his head. He got the ball quickly and touched the bag for a close play for the out. The next batter (who is their hardest hitter) hit a grounder to Brennan. He played it well, and went to the bag for the second out (and was ready to throw to second for the double play, but there was no one there to cover (and I don't know if he would have had time, anyway)). The next batter or two got hits, but then Brennan caught a shallow fly ball to his left for the third out. He was thrilled to have made all three outs.

Through the rest of the game, the Tigers hit a lot of balls to third. Brennan continued to play well, although I think all the others were "almost" plays, where either the coaches moved him a little, only for the ball to go where he had been, or soft grounders that by the time he could get them the runner was already almost at first, etc. His second at-bat he was out on a grounder to the pitcher, who made a good play to get him. His last at bat he hit a very hard grounder right down the first base line which deflected off the first baseman's glove and into the outfield. Again, he came around to score. Damien just missed this third home run (it went slightly foul). Just like the last game, the Tigers were all hitting the ball, and so going into the bottom of the fifth it was 13 - 10 Tigers. In our league, if you have a six run lead after five, the game is over, because there's a rule that you can only score five runs in one inning. So the Phillies needed to hold the Tigers to have a chance to come back in the sixth. They had some good plays, but gave up two runs, and then with two one the Tiger's big hitter came up and hit a home run to end the game, 18 - 10.

Tonight we play again, still hoping for our first win.

Long Overdue Update

Of course, since it's been four months, this will only be an overview, and pretty much just cover the most recent important things.

Jessie: She has continued with her bowling, and is still doing well. Recently she's had a string of games where she has regularly been over 100. We are happy to see her learning and having fun. The 13th of March she qualified for a tournament in Austin. We left Friday afternoon for Austin. After taking well over an hour to make it through Houston (it's never a good sign when just after seeing warnings saying "Freeway closed ahead, major accident" you see helicopters circling the area), the rest of the trip was uneventful, though it was still late when we got to Curtis' house, and even later when everyone went to bed. Jessie struggled a bit the first two games in the tournament, but when Julia, David, Jonathan and Andrew arrived to watch that helped her get encouraged and she finished much better the last two games. We enjoyed the tournament and the chance to visit with Curtis and family.

Fourth grade went on a field trip to the San Jacinto monument and Battleship Texas, and she had a lot of fun and learned a lot. The field trip was on Dee's birthday, and Dee got to go as a chaperon, so that was great for them to be together.

Jessie's other big news is that the school GT Teacher, Mrs. Pulse, got special permission to test Jessie a few weeks ago (normally they only test in the fall). She easily passed the test. Although it was funny because it was just before the tournament in Austin started that she told Dee, "Oh, I forgot. Mrs. Pulse game me a letter for you yesterday. I think it's the test results." Of course, at this point the letter was sitting in her backpack in Houston... So we were very anxious to see the results the rest of that day.

Anyway, this is a great opportunity for her. In the fall she will get to go one day a week to the University of Houston-Clear Lake to take a miniclass. She's very excited about this, although it will be hard to decide which subject to take. Then, in sixth grade we have a few options we have to choose from, including a GT Magnet school that is supposed to be very good or a special combined program at the regular intermediate school. So we're excited for the opportunities this gives us. Brennan will be tested in the fall, as well.

Brennan: Baseball, Birthday, Baptism: Brennan had a great tryout for baseball this season. He is now on the Phillies. It's a little different, because this is the first year he hasn't been one of the youngest in the league. It's been exciting to see how much he has improved over last season. It's been a struggle because over half the practices have been rained out. I am one of the assistant coaches, and Dee is the Team Mom. So she has been very busy as well. Brennan's first game was supposed to be Wednesday (right after Pack meeting...), but it was raining all that day--not too bad. In fact, the early game that night was played, but by the end of it the balls were curving too much coming out of the machine, and they decided it wasn't safe to play the next game. That meant the first game became Saturday's game--our only Saturday game scheduled this season, which happened to be Brennan's birthday. He was very happy with all his presents, and excited to finally get to play a game.

In the game, Brennan played third and second. I think he's going to play a lot of third. He made some good plays when he was at second. He was also the lead-off hitter for the Phillies (a big change from last year, when he usually hit as one of the last couple of batters). In the first inning he got a hard hit, but unfortunately it went straight to the second baseman. Still, it was a close play. His next time up, he was asked to bunt, and put a beautiful bunt right down the third baseline, and beat out the throw without too much difficulty. He later came around and scored. Going into the bottom of the last inning, it was 9 - 6 for the other team. Brennan was again leading off. He fouled off several pitches, and then hit a ball over the first baseman's head into right field for an easy base hit. He then stole second, and when the throw went into the outfield he was able to score. The next batter got a hit and made it to second, but then was stealing when the third batter popped to the first baseman, so that became a double play. They weren't able to score again, and lost, 9 - 7.

Yesterday was the biggest day of all, as Brennan was baptized. We were very happy that Curtis and his family were able to come. Brennan asked David to give the talk on the Holy Ghost, and Craig Reeves (Weldon's son) to give the talk on baptism. Both talks were very well done. Dee and Jessie said the prayers. We were also happy that Sam was ordained that day as an Elder, so that he was able to participate (along with Curtis and Chris) in the confirmation. And we had another good visit with Curtis' family after. We're very proud of Brennan and his decision to be baptized.

Update

Time gets away... I know I still have pictures I wanted to get up here, but I had problems when I tried. I still need to find some before pictures of our wall, and upload those and the "middle" ones. I'm nearing the end of construction of the first cabinet, and then we'll start on the second before finishing with the bookshelves and the mantel. Also, we'll still have tiling to do. And then we have to see if we can afford to do the floor of the living room now, which we'd really like to do... So we'll see where it all ends up.

Jessie had a minor bout of the flu week before last. I don't know if I ever mentioned that she decided to run for Student Council--Elementary here is only through 5th grade. The student council officers are fifth graders, but the fourth grade classes each have two representatives. Jessie won the election for girl representative for her class. Sadly, the day of the first meeting was the day she got sick. That turned out to be the only day that she missed, however.

Jessie's also back in bowling. For a few reasons, we ended up not doing the scholarship league this time, though we'll evaluate that again in January. She's still doing well with that and enjoying it. She's been busy with some medium-sized geography assignments, and also trying to complete several book reports.

I was somewhat surprised when she brought home the book, "Someone Named Eva," a story based on history about a Czech girl who was taken by the Nazis and trained to be a perfect Aryan. We weren't really anticipating such subjects coming up, and were somewhat concerned about her readiness for such serious material. So I skimmed through it so that we could make a more informed decision. In the end, I think it was a good experience for her. And I realized that some of what happens wouldn't have nearly the impact on her that it does on me. Anything touching on the Holocaust or the racial policies of the Nazis brings up all those feelings and memories of walking through Buchenwald, and living for seven months in its shadow.

Brennan had his first big assignment, a "Dinorama." He decided to do his on Triceratops. It was somewhat painful to get him to work on it, but he really did a good job. We planned on making his triceratops out of clay, but it turned out our clay was dried out. So he ended up making it out of salt dough, and that actually worked very well.

Brennan has had two baseball games now (with another rained out). The first game he hit the ball all three times he came up. His first time he made it to first easily. The second time, the bases were loaded and he hit it right up the middle. The second base man made a good play to get the ball, and landed on 2nd base, forcing out the runner. But two runs scored, and Brennan was safe. His third hit was again more or less up the middle, and by the time the shortstop got the ball, he realized Brennan was already almost at first and didn't make a throw.

In the second game, Brennan was able to make a play at 2nd on a ball hit to him. He struck out his first and fourth times up. His second time up, he hit a good fly ball into the outfield, but it went pretty much straight to an outfielder, who was able to catch it. But two runs scored on the play. The third time he came up, he hit a line drive into the outfield for an easy single. He's really hitting it much harder than last spring, and even though his bunting in practice is still at the level it was before, he hasn't been asked to bunt in a game yet because the coach expects him to be able to hit it swinging away.

Sunday was the primary program. As always, that means it was a very memorable and special meeting. Both Jessie and Brennan had memorized their parts and scriptures and presented them well, speaking clearly and confidently. They both also knew all the songs, and once again Jessie carried the rest of the primary in the singing. Our new primary president teaches singing, and has asked us to have Jessie take some piano lessons to prepare to take voice lessons, because she really wants to teach her. We're trying to figure out the best way to do this.

Another entertaining part of the program is that there's a 2-year-old girl in the ward who adores Jessie. When Jessie came up to do her part, she was beside herself: "Hi Jessie! Hi Jessie!"

A month or so ago I was released as the Finance Clerk, and called to be a ward missionary. Dee, as always, is busy with Young Womens. She's also adjusting to teaching without her co-teacher from the past three years (and friend), whose husband got a job in California, and organizing the school workroom that she's in charge of with the PTA. I've also ended up with a PTA position, putting together the PTA newsletter. Which then turned into putting together a combined PTA/school newsletter at the last moment... I'm also trying to write some web applications for the little league to use to manage practice fields and batting cages, and this year I'm the first base coach for Brennan's team.

Well, that's probably all I can think of right now.

Brief Update

Last week we went to Louisiana. I'm going to cover that in more detail, but I was waiting until I got my pictures to a place where I can upload them first. Also, I do have some "middle" pictures of the living room project, and I'm sure I can find some to serve as a before.

Next week Jessie and Brennan start school. We think there will be a lot of changes this year, because 2/3 of the way through last year the school got a new principal, and now she's had a chance to make more changes. Plus, a lot of the teachers went to the new school that the old principal is now in charge of.

Anyway, expect more fairly soon.

Take Me Out to the Ballgame

Friday we went to the Astros vs. the Mets at Minute Maid Park. It was the first time in a couple of years we'd all gone together. A few weeks ago Dee went as a mutual activity, and Brennan and I went last year with his baseball team, but this was Jessie's first game in a long time.

I was a little nervous when the Astros kindly emailed me the following scouting report before the game : "Mets: Santana extended his streak of scoreless innings to 15 Saturday afternoon when he beat the Braves. He allowed only five hits and two walks in his seven innings and then sweated out a Braves rally in their eighth. The victory was his 59th in 76 career decisions after the All-Star break. His career .776 winning percentage after the break is the highest in big league history among pitchers with at least 75 starts after the break. Now he faces the Astros, a team he has dominated -- 0.98 ERA -- in three career appearances, two last season after the break."--I think it was kind of cool that because I had bought tickets to the game they sent the report, but that wasn't exactly encouraging news about the game...

Our seats this time were in the top level, but more or less just above the first base dugout. In the end, the game had a little bit of everything: a 2-run home run from the Astros pitcher, a stolen base, the Astros throwing a runner out at the plate, a near-diving catch, a bunt for a base hit (that probably should have been an error), the lead runner getting thrown out at second on an attempted sacrifice bunt, and several double plays. One thing, sadly, that was missing, was Lance Berkman, who had just been put on the DL. Brennan was disappointed since, in his words, "I'm crazy for Berkman." Best of all, in the end the Astros won, 5 - 4. And, as it was a Friday night, we stuck around after for the fireworks show. According to Jessie and Brennan, it was much better than the Fourth of July fireworks because we were closer, and it lasted longer.

We got home very late and very tired, but it was worth it.

What Everyone is Up To

It's been a busy summer. Here's a short review.

Dee and I have spent a fair amount of time working on a remodeling project, with lots of help from others. The story goes like this:

The back wall of the living room, containing the fireplace, is entirely brick, with a brick hearth and brick mantel. We've never really been fond of it. The color wasn't our favorite, and the bricks weren't, either. Plus, it made it hard to do anything decorative with that wall. Dee, in particular, has never liked the hearth, viewing it as some nice sharp edges just waiting for a child's head to crack open. (Although, in it's defense, it was not responsible for either time Brennan cut his head open...).

Then, about a year and a half ago, a new family moved into the neighborhood and our ward. Their son is Brennan's age, and they became friends. Their house has the same original floor plan as our house. They didn't like the bricks, either. They decided to do something about it. So they pulled out the bricks, patched up the sheetrock behind the bricks, and fixed up the fireplace chimney that wasn't in too good of condition. They told us it wasn't too hard of a project, and offered to help us do ours, along with the missionaries (he's the Ward Mission Leader). We decided to take them up on the offer.

The planned day came, and the helpers arrived. We set out to demolish the breaks, and quickly discovered that in our case, there was no sheet rock behind the bricks. Just studs and insulation, and then the outside wall. So I set out to find someone willing to help us get to the store and get some sheet rock (the sheets are too big to fit in our van). Meanwhile, our friend was feeling sick, so he went home. One of the missionaries was an electrician, and helped us add an outlet over the fireplace (the plan being to get an LCD TV and hang it on the wall), before he and his companion left for appointments. One of the other elders had done a lot of sheet rock work, so he stayed to help us get that all installed.

So, by the end of the first day, the sheet rock was up and the bricks were gone. Dee spent several hours working on adding mortar around the fireplace to try and bring it out to the level of the sheet rock. Oh, and the plan is to NOT replace the hearth, and put tile around the fireplace and on the floor. We're also adding in built-in bookshelves/cabinets all along the wall. Oh, and this was all happening in the middle of fixing the ceiling that sagged after Ike.

To make a long story somewhat shorter, after Dee finished the first layer of mortar someone had a better idea on how to do it nicely, and another member of the ward (who we didn't even really know) came over and spent several hours on the 4th of July finishing up the mortar, which looks quite nice. We've now finally picked out the tile we want to use, and some paint colors, and are working on getting the ceiling and walls primed, and finding new light fixtures.

Unfortunately, the suddenness of the sheet rock project didn't allow us to think things through all the way, so we're still ending up cutting some holes so that we can connect up the TV and DVD player and Wii through the walls, rather than stringing cables across the wall. But we're happy that we're finally getting this project done, and looking forward to more plans for the future.

Aside from that, Jessie has joined a summer bowling league. She's learned a lot, and improved a lot, and I believe is planning to continue working on it in the future. As a result of this, both Jessie and Brennan now own their own bowling shoes. Jessie was also actually given a bowling ball, although I think she's already graduated to a heavier one. Brennan has been doing a lot of bowling as well, and enjoying that.

Jessie just finished reading Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, and Brennan was finally allowed to read Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone. So there's a lot of Harry Potter going on around our house.

During June we all spent a week at Cub Scout Twilight Camp. Around here, you go into Cub Scouts the summer when you're seven and going into second grade, so this was Brennan's first Cub Scout experience. I was one of his den leaders. They have a group for the sisters of Cub Scouts, so Jessie did that, and Dee was one of the leaders for that group. It was very hot, but both Jessie and Brennan had a lot of fun.

We did go to see one of the local fireworks shows on the 4th. It wasn't very long, but was fun. The weekend of the 11th of July we went to Lafayette for Heather's birthday party, and then Beth, Heather and Jessica more or less followed us home, coming Tuesday through Thursday for a visit.

We Are the Champions!!!!!

Tigers win! Tigers win! Tigers win! Tigers win!

Final score 13 - 11, in a back-and-forth game. More details (if I remember) later...

More Baseball

It's the week of the baseball tournament, so our lives still revolve around that... But maybe they'll settle down a little after this.

Monday was the first game of the tournament. We had a bye for the first round, so we had to wait to find out who we played. It turned out to be the White Sox again. Once again, it was a close, tough game, although not quite as nerve-wracking as the last game of the season. I think it was tied going into the bottom of the sixth this time. Any way, the Tigers won in the end.

Tuesday was scheduled to be a short practice. Brennan woke up that morning with a very stuffy nose. Then, after the practice he had a 99 degree temperature. In the morning he still was about the same, so we kept him home from school. Most of the day he seemed to feel OK and be doing fine, so we thought everything was good. But then around dinner time he started feeling not good, and his temperature started going up. He ended up getting up to 101+. He was also obviously exhausted. One of our home teachers and the missionaries came over and helped me give him a blessing. Just after they left, he ended up throwing up. After that his temperature started coming back down (with medicine), and he slept pretty good through the night.

By yesterday morning his temperature was near normal, but with the medicine. He stayed home from school again (missing field day, unfortunately), and went to the doctor. The doctor said it was just a respiratory bug and there really wasn't anything she could do. Although somewhat hesitant, she didn't say he couldn't play in the game. Brennan was still feeling pretty good. After a lot of discussion, we decided to go ahead and at least go to the warm ups for the game and see how he was doing at that point (of course, being Houston, it was 87 degrees and humid). This game was the East division championship, against the Diamondbacks (the team that was leading the whole season until we won that last game).

Brennan was still feeling OK after warm ups, and one of the other players was delayed and wasn't there yet. That meant if Brennan hadn't been there, the Tigers would have forfeited the game. So it was a good thing he was there.

The first inning started out well. The Diamondbacks didn't score, and the Tigers scored three. Brennan came up with runners on and two outs. He hit the ball hard, but unfortunately it went straight to the second baseman, who threw him out.

The second inning the Tigers again held them scoreless. In the bottom of the inning the Tigers scored four. Once again Brennan came up with runners on and two outs. They had him bunt, but the Diamondback's best player was at pitcher, and he was able to throw out Brennan on a close play.

In the third, the Diamondbacks scored a run. Now the Tiger's bats went silent, and they weren't able to score, leaving it at 7 - 1.

In the fourth, it started to get tense. The Diamondbacks started hitting, and in the midst of a lot of close plays and near-great defensive efforts, they were able to score the maximum five runs, making it 7 - 6. Once again, the Tigers weren't able to score.

The held the Diamondbacks in the fifth. In the bottom of the inning, Brennan came up with a runner on third and one out. He had another hard hit, this time right down the first base line. The first baseman fielded it while standing on first base. Meanwhile, however, the runner on third scored to make it 8 - 6. That was the only run scored that inning.

The last inning had some more near-plays, and some very good plays. But in the end, the Diamondbacks scored 3 to take the lead, 9 - 8. In the bottom of the inning, our 10th batter (the late player, who made it in the third) got a solid single. He stole second. The next batter was out. Then another hit and a stolen base got us to runners on second and third with one out, and our best hitter up. He hit a looping hit over the shortstop--but that was where their best player was playing that inning, and he made a very good play to catch the ball for the out.

Now it was all on the line. Runners on second and third, one run down, two outs, bottom of the last inning. The coach's son was up. On the first pitch he drove the ball up the middle and to the fence. Both runs scored, and the Tigers won the East championship.

After the game, Brennan was given one of two game balls for, as the coach put it, "Coming out to play when the night before he had a 101 degree fever and was yakking it up at home." The other game ball went to the championship-winning hit.

Tonight is the City Championship against the winner of the West. Brennan's very tired this morning, but went to school for at least the first part of the day. We're planning on trying to get him to rest as much as possible before the game.

Baseball update

So, last year the Tigers heading toward the end of the season were 1 game out of first. Their next-to-last game was against the first place team, and their last game was against the last place team, who they had already easily beaten. So it seemed that if they could beat the first place team (which would put them in a tie and give them the tiebreaker), they would win the regular season. Then, the week before the "big game", the Tigers lost to the third place team, seemingly ending the hopes of a title. Still, second place was on the line. The Tigers played a great game and beat the first-place team (giving them their first loss of the season). Then, a few days later, the first place team lost again. That put us in a tie for first place. All that remained was that last game against the last-place team.

The game didn't start out well. I don't remember all the details, but the Tigers weren't hitting and scoring runs and fell behind. But towards the end they began to inch closer. In the end, in the bottom of the last inning, with two outs and still down one run, with a runner on first, Brennan came up to bat. Needless to say, this was very nerve-wracking for Dee and I (although I don't know that it was to Brennan...). He got one of his trademark short hits in the infield that he beat out with his hustle. The next batter then hit a hard line drive to the fence in center field, the lead run scored easily and Brennan scored from first with the game-and-title winning run. Final score, 12 - 11.

Fast forward to this year. The Tigers started out slow, then had a 9-game winning streak to move into second place, 1 game behind the first place team, with three games left--the next-to-last game against the 1st place team, and the last game against the next-to-last place team. The Tigers had won 2 out of 3 against the next-to-last place team, and 1 out of 2 against the first place team. So, a win against the first place team would give us the tiebreaker. If the Tigers win the last three games, they will be the regular season champions. The third-to-last game is against the third place team, who we had beat twice already.

That game was last Saturday, and it just wasn't a good game. The defense was really quite good (including a catch on a fly ball in right field by Brennan), but the offense never really clicked. In the end they made it close, but still lost, seemingly ending the hopes of the regular season title. But in the next game, the first place team lost! The race is back on.

Tuesday night was the big game. This time the Tigers got off to a hot start, scoring five runs in the first inning (as I believe I've mentioned, there's a limit of five runs per inning). They didn't do quite that well the whole game, but did enough that the game was really never super close, and their defense was superb. The final score was 7 - 4 Tigers.

That brings us to last night, the last game of the season. Tigers win, and they're the regular season champions. This seems oddly familiar... And it got to feel even more familiar. The Tigers were the home team. The White Sox easily scored five runs the first inning (highlighted by a 2-run home run from one of last year's Tigers...). The Tigers did OK, and scored three (although Brennan struck out with the bases loaded for the third out). The Tiger defense started to look better, but the bats weren't. Going into the bottom of the fourth, it was 11 - 3. With only three more turns to bat, and a maximum of five runs each time, it was looking tough. Bottom three hitters are coming up. The first batter gets a single. Brennan is now up. He puts down a perfect bunt about 1/4 the way down the third base line and beats the throw--which got past the first baseman anyway and into the outfield. Brennan heads towards second, but soon realizes that the runner on second isn't going anywhere. So he turned around and went back, sliding into first just ahead of the first base man, coming back with the ball (and yes, I nearly had a heart attack when I saw that last part happening...). The next batter hit a pop out in the infield, and the runner on second ran to third anyway, leading to a double play.

But now it's the top of the order, and they come through enough to score Brennan and one other run. Now it's 11 - 5. Top of the fifth, the defense holds tough and the White Sox fail to score. I wish I remembered the details of the bottom of the fifth better. Brennan came up again with at least one out, and at least one runner on. Once again, he was asked to bunt. This time it was more to the center of the infield, but Brennan (as always) hustled down the base line, and the throw was low and went under the first baseman's glove, allowing at least one run to score. Next thing I know (after the head coach talking all game about how good the White Sox catcher is and how hard it will be to steal) they're giving Brennan the steal sign. Despite my nerves, he was easily safe at second. From there the details again escape me, but Brennan scored the fourth of the Tigers' five runs that inning. The score is now 10 - 11. If the White Sox score five, the game is over. Every run they score makes it that much harder for us. A couple of quick outs, a couple of near-plays, and the White Sox have the bases loaded with two outs. But our third baseman makes the play on a grounder and throws out the runner to keep it 10 - 11.

Bottom of the sixth. Hitters 3 - 4 - 5 coming up. First batter singles. Second batter singles. Or maybe there was a double in there. Anyway, we end up with runners on second and third. The batter smashes a single up the middle to the fence. Both runners score, and the Tigers win the game and the regular season championship. Final score, 12 - 11.

Now it's just the tournament left. But already an impressive accomplishment as the Tigers go from a 1 - 3 record to end the season at 12 - 4.

We're very proud of how hard Brennan has worked, and the improvements he has made. I believe I can say without bias that he is likely one of the top six outfielders in the league, and one of the (if not the) best bunters in the league.

I also want to mention that Jessie has been phenomenally supportive and done her part in cheering on the team. For example, apparently last night she was playing with some of the other siblings, but when she saw that the team was struggling she got the other siblings to come watch and cheer to help the team in their comeback.

Baseball and rain

Baseball season continues, and everything else seems to revolve around it. Last week we were supposed to have games Monday, Wednesday and Friday. This week there was a game on Wednesday, and a game on Saturday.

Monday's game was rescheduled from a rainout earlier, and the end result was that Monday and Wednesday were both against the same team. Going into Monday's game, the Tigers were a game behind the A's (the opponent) for second place. Behind some somewhat streaky but overall good hitting and some stellar defense, the Tigers won both games with identical scores of 12 - 6 to move into second place. In the second game, Brennan got one of those "only in Little League" 2-RBI bunts.

Friday was very gloomy, and it kept not raining although it kept being supposed to. But finally, at around 5, the rain started coming down, and the game was canceled.

Saturday it was still very gloomy and a bit rainy. I went out early to get some sheet rock to repair the ceiling from the post-hurricane leak. Shortly after I got back, it really started to rain. And rain, and rain and rain. I've heard at one point we got nine inches of rain in one hour. And it rained for more than an hour. We had planned on doing a few things that afternoon, but we ended up putting them off because we didn't think going out in the storm was such a good idea.

Finally, it started to let up, so we decided to head out. We planned on going to a few places and then getting something to eat. We soon started passing a few cars in the middle of the road with blinkers on. Then we saw a long line at the intersection ahead. At this point Dee and I decided that we wouldn't try to go anywhere except to get something to eat. So we turned around. Then we turned to go toward where the places we were considering were. That was something of a mistake. Pretty soon we came to some rather flooded intersections. We gingerly made our way through them, and began trying to decide the best/shortest way to get back home, while still hopefully finding a place to get food. About an hour later, after nervously going through many more flooded intersections and passing numerous stranded cars, we had made it to Space Center Blvd (about 2 miles at most from where we had started). Here it seemed less flooded, and we took it towards home. Luckily there was a KFC near our house, so we did get to eat. And we learned to not go out so quickly after that kind of a storm.

Anyway, needless to say, none of the baseball games scheduled for Saturday happened, either. This led to a mad scurry of rescheduling games. Before Friday, actually, our Wednesday game this week had been rescheduled to Thursday. This was nice, because Wednesday Dee had a carnival planned for Young Women's, Jessie had Achievement Night, and I had a pack meeting. The Friday game got rescheduled to Tuesday. Then it got moved to Sunday. Then it ended up on Wednesday. Oh, and I had been scheduled to umpire the first game on that Friday, so I still had to umpire the first game on Wednesday. This led to a lot of complicated scheduling changes and adaptations to get Young Womens and Pack Meeting taken care of and Jessie to Achievement Night and then to the game.

Umpiring on Wednesday went well. I had to make two close calls at the end of the game at home plate, but I don't think they really changed the game, and both teams seemed OK with things. Brennan's game went well, and the Tigers won 12 - 5. Thursday it was obvious that the team was very tired. Neither team was hitting well, and the Tigers still had most of the usual defense, so it was a low-scoring game for quite a while. Brennan's first at-bat he got a hit, but then was out at second on a very close play on the next hit. His second at-bat he put down another of his trademark bunts, but was just thrown out at first (although Brennan insists that he was safe on both of these plays--and he may be right. But the umpire didn't see it that way). His third at-bat came with the Tigers up 8 - 2 (and with three runs in that inning), two outs and the bases loaded. Brennan proceeded to get his hardest hit this season, a hard grounder up the middle. The shortstop was able to get it, but not in time to make a play at any base. This time, there was no chance for Brennan, as the next batter hit a grounder that the shortstop got to one step away from second, forcing Brennan out. The defense struggled the next inning, but then closed out the game and the Tigers won 10 - 7 (or maybe 9 - 7).

The Tigers have now one 8 games in a row, and are 1/2 game out of first place. The game Saturday was with the first place team, but now it is being rescheduled because one of our players will be out of town and another has strep throat, leaving us with not enough players for the game. No doubt that will lead to further adjustments in the next week or so.

Spring Break, Part 5 (The Journey Home)

I suppose it's about time I finally finished this report of our trip...

Friday morning we got a fairly early start on our trip back to Slidell. One interesting part was as we drove past the Atlanta airport we had a plane come right over our heads just before it landed. It looked almost like it was going to land on top of our car.

Other than that, the trip was uneventful until somewhere between Montgomery and Mobile. Suddenly we found ourselves coming to a halt in a long line of traffic. After slowly inching along for some time, and having already decided we would take the first exit off the freeway, we discovered we didn't have a choice. The freeway was closed (in both directions). We don't know exactly why, although about the time we stopped we could see what appeared to be a large cloud of black smoke ahead.

It turns out that the roads they had us detouring on were not designed for freeway-volume traffic. All we could do was follow the line of slowly moving (sometimes) cars that wound through some small village in Alabama. Eventually, the Garmin showed that we were very nearly into Florida--but we didn't quite cross the border. Finally, after about two hours, we made it back onto the freeway, I think about 10 miles further along than when we left it.

We had hoped to eat dinner in Slidell, but with the long delay that was no longer an option. We ended up following the Garmin in search of a Taco Bell, which took us into Ocean Springs, Mississippi. We weren't impressed. I have to say, as a Lousiana semi-native, Dee hasn't exactly given me the best impression of Mississippi ever, and this stop did nothing to change that image...

Oh, and one more note on the detour. One of Erik's friends who lives in Birmingham turned out to be heading to Slidell as well, a little behind us. At least, they were behind us at first. Apparently by the time they reached the place where we detoured, there was no traffic to speak of and they ended up reaching Slidell quite a bit before us. But we did eventually make it and settled in for the night.

The next day we finally began the last leg of the journey. Other than the usual brief stop in Lafayette, there wasn't much to note on this part of the trip.

But the adventure was not quite over, since just after we reached home Jessie discovered water dripping from the ceiling outside her room. Once again, there was a leak in the water pipe. This time, I was eventually able to stop it on my own.

Well, that's it for that trip.