Thursday Thought

"Success usually comes to those who are too busy to be looking for it."

~ Henry David Thoreau

Wordless Wednesday ~ More Rain!

Flooded Flowerbed

Flooded Backyard

For more Wordless Wedneday go to 5 Minutes For Mom.

A Break From the Rain

After many days of rain, we were given a little bit a break this morning. This Magnolia flower made it through all of the driving wind and rain. It looked so pretty in our front yard against the bright blue sky, that I just had to take a picture of it. I may need to look at this picture later today to remind myself of how bright and sunny it was outside this morning. We have a 70% chance of rain and thunderstorms this afternoon. That's the thing with Florida, the more water there is sitting around, the greater the chance that we will have thunderstorms in the afternoon. Uggghhhh...is it October yet?

Friday Funnies ~ The Wife Song

I saw this on another blog this week and thought it was really funny.

Plus I love the Green Day song that it is based on.

Have a Funny Friday, and great weekend!

For more Friday Funnies go here.

Thursday Thought

For everone who is having a dreary, rainy Thursday like we are in Central Florida.

"Life is like a rainbow. You need both the sun and the rain to make its colors appear."

We Miss You Sun!

It has been not-so-sunny Florida this week. We went from sunny, 90+ degrees and the threat of drought, to 9+ inches of rain(16+ on the coast). And it is still raining. Ughh...I'm hoping we will see the sun soon!

This is what our backyard has looked like all week. It doesn't even look like Florida.

Wordless Wednesday - Crazy Kids!

For more Wordless Wednesday go to 5 Minutes for Mom!

Farwell to a Great Baseball Season

As the saying goes, "all good things must come to an end," and that is exactly what happened to CJ's first Little League season. We had a great ride. The WGLL Royals ended the regular season in 2nd place with a record of 11 - 4 - 1.

Our record in the post-season wasn't quite as good. The team lost their first playoff game putting them in a must win situation for game two. In game two they came out strong with great pitching and lots of hitting. They won game two without a problem.

Game three was a real heart breaker. The team got off to a great start. They went up by 3 runs in the first inning. From there it was a back and forth battle. In the end, time was not on our side. The umpire called the game at the end of the 5th inning. The final score Royals 7, Rays 8. If only we could have had one more inning to score some more runs!




Here is CJ in one of his first at-bats for the season. He really improved a lot this season. He started off with very little confidence at the plate. By the end of the season he was excited to get at-bats and had a lot more confidence. He actually got upset when he knew he was only going to get to bat once in a game. What a huge change.


Here is CJ in one of his last at-bats for the season. Wow, it almost looks like a different kid! He has a much more aggressive stance and looks like he knows what he is doing. I can't wait for fall baseball to start up!

Last Wednesday we had a team party at one of the local pizza restaurants. All of the players signed baseballs for each other, they signed each others jerseys, and the coach gave each of them a certificate. The players had a great time eating and playing video games together. We sure will miss spending time with the team!

GO ROYALS!!!

Happy Anniversary

Happy 45th Anniversary

Mom & Dad!

Love,
Chris, Julie, CJ, Caitlyn & Caley

Thursday Thought

"Forgiveness does not change the past, but it does enlarge the future."

~ Paul Boese

Wordless Wednesday - Let's Try These Out!

For more Wordless Wednesday go to 5 Minutes for Mom!

Mother's Day Recap

Mother's Day. It was two days ago and I am just getting around to writing about it. I wish I had a magic wand that would let me make time stand still every once-in-a-while. But, of course that will never happen. The days and the activities just keep marching on. So, we make the most of them and have as much enjoyment as we can.
Mother's Day was somewhat low key for us. We didn't have any big plans. All of the family is back up north, so it was just the 5 of us.
After much discussion and a few tears, we decided on going to Downtown Disney.
We decided to have lunch/dinner at T-Rex, which none of us had been to yet. T-Rex was nice, a little bit scary for the girls. They do not like loud noises, so when the thundering and noises started, they got a little freaked-out, but not bad. The food was good, but way too expensive. It will probably be quite some time before we go back again. I am glad we did it once, but we won't be hurrying back.

After lunch the kids wanted to wander around the restaurant to see the different Dino's. This was a little woolly mammoth that was close to our table.

Next, we wandered into some of the shops. Here are the boys trying on the pirate stuff in the World of Disney. I guess they never grow up!

All three of the "little" kids tried on the Peter Pan hats. The "big" kid sat this one out. ;-0

After a little bit of browsing, we took the kids out to run and play in the fountains. It was a really hot day. They were happy to spend a little bit of time in the water. We have learned to bring swim suits with us to Downtown Disney, so they can enjoy the water. Hey...it is cheap entertainment!

After running through the water, we went to browse a few more shops and then...off to the real treat of the day! Ghirardelli, for some ICE CREAM! It was sooooo good and the perfect ending to Mother's Day.

Happy Mother's Day!!

WE LOVE YOU!!

Chris, CJ, Caley and Caitlyn

Happy Mother's Day!!!

Enjoy Your Day!

Thursday Thought - Friday Edition

Ok, I am a day late. It has been another one of "those" weeks.

"Keep away from people who try to belittle your ambitions. Small people always do that, but the really great make you feel that you, too, can become great."

~ Mark Twain

Still In It!

Last night the WGLL Royals faced the Reds in their second post-season game. It was an important game for both teams because it meant advancing on to a third game for one team and the end of the season for the other.

Luckily our guys came out to play. They started the game off great with good pitching and hitting. The Royals moved ahead in the first inning by scoring 5 runs.

By the end of the third inning the score was 8 - 0 in favor of the Royals.

The fourth inning was an uneventful one with no runs scored by either team.

Then, as is usually the case, the umpire made the determination that the fifth inning would be the last one. Little League rules dictate that the minor league teams can play for no longer than two hours. The rules also state that only five runs are allowed in any inning except for the sixth, which has unlimited runs allowed. So, because there is a five run rule, the Reds could not win. Both coaches agreed to play the inning anyway. This gave the Reds had a chance to play a little bit longer, and end their season on a good note. Our coach put in an inexperienced pitcher and away we went. The Reds got a bunch of hits and scored 5 runs. Game Over! But, at least their players got to go out with some runs on the board and a little excitement at the end of the game.

As for the Royals, they will advance to a third post-season game this Saturday!

Final Score - Royals 8, Reds 5

Wordless Wednesday

How did they grow up so fast?

For more WW go here.

We have sprouts!

9 days ago my girls planted a Butterfly garden. Last Friday I went out to check on it and we had sprouts! This is what it looks like today.
Let's hope that the rabbits don't decide to eat these too. For the record, they have now eaten the bean plants down to the ground. I am not sure if they will grow back or not. I'm hoping they do. So far, we are looking good for future flowers. STAY AWAY RABBITS!

Where Did the Weekend Go?

Look out Idol...here we come!!!

It's Tuesday already. What happened to the weekend? And Monday? Did we take Monday out of the week?

It was another event filled weekend for us. Saturday morning it was up early (earlier than a school day), and off to our annual Cub Scout Family Fest. Well, 3 of us went to Family Fest. And the funny thing was, it was me, and the girls, not my Cub Scout. Yes, the girls were scouts for the day.

Family Fest is an event in which each district within our council gathers at a central location to show the public what scouting is all about. Each Pack, Troop and Crew from the Sand Lake district sets up a tent/booth to show or demonstrate something about scouting. There were lots of cool things to do. The girls made bird feeders out of plastic bottles, ice cream in a plastic bag, a Cub Scout weather rock, and got their picture taken with Ronald McDonald. And that was just a small segment of the booths.


While the girls were scouting the boys were playing baseball. CJ's Little League team had their first playoff game on Saturday morning. I wanted to go so badly and hated missing the game, but in the end, I guess I didn't miss too much. The Royals ended up loosing. It was not a pretty game, from what I was told. The good news is, there is another game on Wednesday night. Here's hoping they play a better game!


Saturday night we were invited to a bar-b-que, but opted to spend some time with grandma and grandpa instead. Grandma invited us over for some pulled-pork and corn-on-the-cob. We needed a quiet night, and that seemed like the best solution for us.


Sunday the kids and I went to the Disney Hollywood Studios with grandma. We had this trip planned for about the last month. We wanted to go one last time before grandma leaves for the summer. We had all been looking forward to going on "Toy Story Mania," and "The American Idol Experience." We got to do both attractions plus many more. When all was said and done, it was a good day. We got to do all of the things that we had planned on and it was just a nice fun day!

Will next weekend be just as busy? I hope not!

Friday Funnies!

I was in need of a few laughs this morning!

How about you?

For more Funnies go here.