We finished swim lessons. Both boys improved a lot. They could really use another session, but that isn’t going to happen this year.
Two more tournaments to go…tonight I worked at the snack shack. Erik couldn’t have been happier to make a purchase from me. Harvey has to be at the field at 6:30 tomorrow morning. I get a break and don’t have to show up until 8am! Ryan’s first game is at 9:00.
Yes, you read that right! We were hoping that our paperwork would be through the government by next week, but preparing for it to take a little longer. I got a call early this morning that we have our approval. We now wait for a passport and some other stuff. It is supposed to take 2-4 weeks. I am trying to prepare myself for it to take a little longer since there are going to be a lot of kids needing interviews etc. but hoping it is on the quick side. Travel call is next!
I definitely hit my limit yesterday. Ryan left at 10:40 for the game. They had 12pm and 3 pm games. By the time we got home it was after 5. We relaxed for less than an hour and then went to watch a friend’s travel team. He coaches 12 year olds. They were amazing. After about an hour, I was so done for the day. I left Harvey with the boys and came home. Harvey finally came home around 8…without Ryan. A friend brought him home after 8:30. Then we had dinner, I did Ryan’s laundry, and we got up for another game this morning. Two more tournaments to go!
Wanting, wanting, wanting…to join in.
Yesterday, Ryan told me, “I don’t care about the score, I just want to play baseball.” Mommy has a lot to learn from this little guy! : )
I gave the camera a few days off! I just finished putting all of the pictures into Ryan’s kindergarten book. Now I have to do the writing. I may get this done before he starts second grade! September has about 20 pages and April and May each have 2! I must have given the camera some vacation days then too.
I bought presents for Kimmy’s foster mom and social worker. I have also gotten a few things for the trip. I need to write a note to her foster mom so my friend’s mom can translate it for me. I have to start on that soon. Even though we have several more weeks, I don’t want to be all frenzied in the last few days.
Harvey started working on the bathroom again. Those darn shingles set us back big time. Kimmy may have to wait a couple of months for a real bath, but we might have a floor!
Tomorrow starts another tournament. One of our players quit in the middle of the last one. Another kid had a fever yesterday…It’s going to be interesting!
So, there are some random happenings around here. Camera is back on duty tomorrow!
We started lessons again this morning. Nothing feels quite like summer like swimming.
Last night’s game was more brutal. The boys looked the best I had ever seen any of them play all season. We were ahead 17-12 in the fourth and then…the worst umpire ever…made three bad calls and the boys just couldn’t recover from them. I have never seen an umpire stand 15 feet from the home plate before. He actually stood by the dugout. He missed a tagged out at homeplate that 30 parents witnessed. We lost 17-18. There were tears…but not Ryan’s. He sat in the dugout by himself eating sunflower seeds as parents were consoling their kids. I think he thought he was actually a major league player at that moment. He’s asked several times today if I will buy him sunflower seeds. All you want Buster!
Last night was brutal. We played another travel team and they were amazing. Their level of play was…higher than ours.They used the ‘mercy’ rule when they went ahead by 12. Tonight we play a team that only lost to this great team by one. I feel a little more mercy coming our way! The highlight of last night for me was Ryan high-fiving everyone with a big smile. He couldn’t have cared less, and he woke up to hear about Matt Cain and watch the replays all morning. To celebrate Matt Cain’s perfect game I found this Giant’s suit for Kimmy this afternoon. She’s all set!
Our little girl is 20 months old! We’re getting close…only one more update before we get to see her in person! (and I can take a clear picture!)
What a game! The fields are the nicest I’ve seen. We had a rough start. OUR coach struck out two of OUR players in the first inning and again in the second. By the third inning we were down 4-1. In the fifth inning we were at 6-4. In the sixth, and last inning, we held them to 6 and then brought in three runs to win. It was about as much excitement as I could handle!
Tonight is Ryan’s first tournament game. This will give us an idea of the other league’s levels.
What can I say about an appointment in which you fail in the first 15 minutes, but you stay there for a total of 2 1/2 HOURS?
Today was Ryan’s milk challenge. They told us to be ready to stay three hours. I was thinking that was if you passed! They were late…Once we started it was already almost 1:30. They just put a little milk on Ryan’s lips and then we waited. He did fine with that, so the next test was drinking a very small amount of milk. After a few minutes I started to see some spots by his mouth. When the nurse came back at 2:00 he looked at the spots and then talked to the doctor. They stopped the challenge. He asked us to wait for the doctor…at 3:15 he finally came in. He told us to come back for another challenge in a year. I’m not surprised, but disappointed. I was so looking forward to sitting down with Ryan and a REAL bowl of ice cream this summer.
Believe it or not, this is a picture from another day! How can I say no when he comes in and asks for me to take his picture?
Ryan had another practice today to get ready for the tournament. Apparently, the other leagues are pretty big and competitive. It’s going to be interesting! He plays T,W,Th this week. If they win they play on Sat. too. I’m not sure at what point you start hoping they don’t win…am I allowed to say that out loud? : )
I normally don’t like early morning phone calls. They’re especially bothersome when one of your kids walks into the bathroom door and starts crying (SOBBING) as soon as you pick it up. The worst is when you finish explaining what is going on in the background, at least to the best of your knowledge, and the battery dies and cuts the person off, so now you have to go find their number and call them back. And yet it turned out to be a glorious phone call! Kimmy’s paperwork has been submitted to the government!!!!!!
A few days ago I blogged that the next group had been submitted in early June. We were told that got our agency caught up through March. That was not good. On Monday we got an email that several more from our agency were submitted to the government and that we were now caught up until mid-June. As good of news as that was, I didn’t take it well. We are ‘mid-June’. That meant that we had just missed this group. I needed a few days to be able to write something…nice. Short story long…we were also included. Hopefully, Kimmy’s EP will be approved early July and then we wait for a travel call. That should be 2-4 weeks. I would guess on the long side of that since there are so many this time. I don’t know a lot about the class B waivers, but I think we might get one and that will add time.
But we finally made it to the government! It’s been a long two years since we started this process. Even though we have a couple more months, it is finally feeling like it’s near. I better get on that ‘to-do’ list!
Tonight was the last game of the regular season. It was a fun one. Ryan got to pitch in the third inning. He struck out the first guy. The second guy made it to first, and then he struck out the next two. The whole team played great. The other team had beat us twice, so it was fun to win their last match-up. Closing ceremonies are on Saturday. Post-season games start next week. He plays Tues., Wed., and Thurs. nights and Sat. if they win.
Erik came into the house and asked me to take his picture:
The helmet is a little heavy!
Fits like a glove.
A very, very large glove.
Our agency let three families know that their paperwork went into the government. That will take a month. Even though I knew it wouldn’t be us, I still get so disappointed. At this rate we will miss Kimmy’s second birthday as well. It’s so wrong I can’t think about it.
It’s been a busy few days. Ryan had a game on Saturday morning and then we hosted the team’s end of the season party. Everybody came and they all had a great time together. It has been a really fun season. We had another game Sunday afternoon as well. Our last game is on Thursday, and then we have closing ceremonies on Saturday. Whew! After that, no more baseball for a whole…week.
