What a Week

I know that's what you are all thinking. It's been almost two weeks since my last post and a lot has gone on since then. Saturday was absolutely PERFECT baseball weather. Scattered clouds, Sunny and 65 degrees. The only thing that could have made it better is if we had been competative. Once everyone was greased with sun screen, we took the field. Finally we were playing the Mariners and the boys were stoked. REPEAT after me "we are an instructional division, it's not about winning or loosing right now, it's about having fun and learning the fundamentals of baseball" In other words they handed us our butts. That being said, like I mentioned before it was Sunny and 65 so that makes it better. They started to rally at towards the end of the game and given some more time, I think we could've gotten a few more runs.
In the game on 04/19, Matthew got a hold of one for a solid double, all though in his excitement, he was a little slow getting back to 2nd base and was nearly tagged out. The way he was hoping around, you woulda thought he hit a homerun. It was awsome, as a Coach I expected it, as a Dad, I was very Proud of him.

Gotta love pictures

Great Times

So this last week was spring break for Auburn. They plan it right because it is the break before the storm. This week is WASL testing, although no one pictures here will have to take this year.

Ok, so if you couldn't tell, this is Dylan, Me, Matthew and Jacob all getting ready to head down to the water park after dinner. We joined up with the Kludy Family at the Great Wolf Lodge, it's an indoor waterpark resort they opened here in Washington. It's really a great place for creating fun memories. Besides the indoor waterpark, they also have a huge arcade, a teen club, a bar for the grown-ups a spa and a couple of different giftshops. Really a fun place. So needless to say it was a great time. They have this ride called the Howlin Tornato that accomodates four people (Kinda like Zooma Falls at Wild Waves) Anyway you wind around the tubes a bit before in sends you down a 25-30 foot drop into this huge funnel thing that sends you up one side and then back and forth until it finally spits you out. Tons of fun, a little freaky but lots of fun. This is what it looks like on the outside, picture is taken from the window in our room. Note the semi trailer in the bottom right, kinda gives you a scale for how big this thing really is.

Hope all is well with you and yours, take care everyone, more to come later.

My Beautiful Wife

As most of you know I have been married to this wonderful woman for the last year and almost a half. Loving me isn't an easy thing to do, she seems to do it day in and day out. For those of you that don't know the story: My sister called me up one day and said "I have a friend who has a sister that you just have to meet, so you have to come to Brendan's Pinewood Derby race" "Well" I said, "What is she like?" "Just come and see for yourself"

Ok, so I get there and am there for just a little bit when I notice this blonde looking at me and smiling, continuing to smile she starts walking over to me, and I'm thinking this is Sharlene, she approaches me, sticks out her hand and says "Hi, I'm Jenel, I'm Sharlene's sister" Ooopps wrong girl. I introduce myself and am told that Sharlene will be there shortly. Well, Sharlene show's up and when I see her, instantly, there is a warmth and spirit about this woman that I had never felt before, and I'm an old guy. I knew that there was something very special about this one. So Jenel introduces us, we talk for only a second and then take our seats for the race, me in the front row and her sitting behind and off to the side. (OK, so there is some discrepancies as to how and when we actually exchanged phone numbers) Wait, Wait, Wait, I think I remember. Not long after the derby, our nephews had their Blue and Gold Banquet at Round Table Pizza. Penny called me and asked me if I was coming. I was SICK, I mean really really sick. I had a tempurature, my body ached, I hadn't gone to work that day and I just wanted to stay home in bed. Penny said "Sharlene will be there" I thought for a second, because I really wanted to see her again, but I WAS SICK. Fine, I went and met my future brother-in-law for the first time. Yea, didn't know who he was, but he knew who I was cause when I got to the door he stuck his hand out and introduced himself and invited me in. First impression of Jay...........GREAT GUY!! So I find a seat in the corner and am miserable, although my eyes are darting around the room looking for this angel that I had previously met. She showed up at the resturaunt ordered a mini pizza and sat at a table outside of the room everyone else was in. Jay went and got her and brought her in and she sat at the same table as me, my sister was between us but we still managed to actually talk a little. Well, despite the fact I was on my death bed I still enjoyed her company. So after that I was talking to my sister and asked if she could get me Sharlene's number or at least pass mine on to her so that I could explain that I was pretty sick and apologize if I didn't seem very sociable. So after getting her number I tried to call and got voicemail, so I left a message. She didn't call me back so I called again and left another voicemail, then she left me a message and I left her another one, then FINALLY, we connected. After a dinner date at Taco Del Mar, we talked all the time, hours and hours and hours at night. One night we talked so long that we drained the batteries on three phones, we were up until about 3:30am I think. Actually we did that quite frequently, the one thing she neglected to tell me and I didn't stop long enough to figure it out was that she had to get up at like 4:30 in the morning to get ready and go to work. ;-)

We met Oct (I think) 2005 were engaged in Oct of 2006 and married Nov of the same year. I'm the luckiest man in the world.

More Later

1 Game = 1 Win

Finally, our first game and we walk away with a win, well, kinda. We played the girls Pee-Wee softball team and got 1 run and the win. What do I say though, "A Win is a Win". I was proud of all my boys, they did a great job and despite a few comments about playing girls in the beginning, they did great. Matthew caught the whole game (all 3 innings of it) and was phenomenal. Still gotta work on him staying squatted down until the batter completes the swing though, he's going to catch one in the back of the head one of these times and that won't be fun. He'll get there though, just gotta keep telling my self that he's only 7 and has never played catcher like this before. We had to end the game early because the Pink Panthers were starting to loose their focus. SERIOUSLY PEOPLE!!!!!!!! IT'S BASEBALL, THERE'S NO PICKING DAISIES.

Have to admit, the girls were pretty cute with their pink uniforms, batting helmets and bats. Ok, so the girl in this picture didn't have an all pink bat, but it did have pink in it. Just look at that little stud catcher. Not only were our players great, our parents and family were awesome, I mean we are a well polished machine all the way around. We had at least 40 family / friends come out to support our Sharks. Every single one of the cheering, clapping and encouraging both teams. It's going to be a great season, especially when the rains go away. Looking outside, I would say our game tomorrow is HIGHLY doubtful. :-(

My stint as Divisional Director for Auburn Little League has gotten off to a great start. Ok, so as

Divisional Director I'm basically in charge of how the Single A division runs, tracking and reporting scores, standings, rules clarification, coaching or parental complaints and pitch counts. Little League international is very tuned into player safety and making sure these kids don't blow out their arms before they really have a chance to experience this lovely gift of a game we know as baseball. So pitch counts are very VERY important. Let me just say that if the first to games of pitch counts is indicative of what the rest of the season is going to be, then AAAGGGHHH!!!!!!!!

Ok, so enough about baseball, I've been told this is more of a baseball blog than a family blog, even though this time of year seems to revolve soley around baseball. Well, contrary to popular belief our lives don't revolve around baseball, so let me tell you what else has been happening in our family...............Oh, the other day while I was cleaning my baseball.......wait, that was about baseball. Um........On Monday after practice................oh yea, that was baseball too. Ok, so maybe the majority is baseball. And you know, Sharlene is so wonderful and supportive this time of year. Thank you SWEETHEART

I promise, my next post won't have anything to do with baseball! ;-)