Images - I can't believe he missed it!

I took this at Mad's game last week too. The ball looks like it is just about to hit the bat, but somehow it he missed it. He ended up getting walked both times up to bat and scored one of those times. His team still lost that game, but won today's game. The team they beat had been unbeaten so far this season, but now they have a 5-1 record. Mad hit one this week, but it popped up and the pitcher caught it.

Family Photos - Cool Mad

Mads thinks that it is pretty cool that he can wear sunglasses now that he has contacts. (taken 04/06/07).

Two Wins

Today was another game day and both boys won. Sul's team shut out the opposing team with a final score of two goals to zero. He made one good save in goal where he had to dive on the ball to gain control of it. Afterwards he punted the ball all the way to the other end of the field. He also had an assist on one of his teams goals, so he had a productive game.

Mads' team won by a score of 3 to 2. They were leading 3 to 0 for most of the game but their last pitcher hasn't had much experience and he let a couple runs in before he could stop them. The final play of the game was a big pop fly to right field. It was actually going foul but the boy out there caught it. He looked in his glove and realized that the ball was in it and then got really excited. The whole team ran together into a big pile. A much better day than last week. Each team now has a 1 win and 1 loss record.

Can has started walking on his cast. He and Mom are counting down the hours until his visit to the "broken-leg fix-it doctor" on Tuesday. Hopefully the cast will come off and stay off so that he can go back to running instead of hobbling.

Family Photos - Riding the Bent Tree

We found this funny bent tree on our hike through Umstead State Park. It looked like a good place to have the boys line up for a picture (taken 04/06/07).

My ignoble debut as an assistant soccer coach

Saturday morning marked the start of baseball and soccer games for Mad and Sul, respectively. We were supposed to be at the baseball field at 8:15 for an 9:00 game. The coach is a pretty zealous and wanted plenty of time to warm up and go over strategy. I was on my own with all four boys for this game because Nae was busy running the Cary Road Race 10K, which she completed in just over 50 minutes (I told you that she is a wonder woman). I brought gameboys for the non-baseball playing boys, which seemed like a good way to keep them entertained except that they spent most of the time fighting over who got to play which games. The only toilets available at this field were porta-johns, so I had to force Dec, kicking and screaming, to stand in one long enough to complete his task. After I got to the field I realized that Can hadn't gone yet that morning, so I tried to get him to go in and he wouldn't release the death grip from my neck long enough for me to get his pants down past his cast. I tried to talk him into peeing on a tree but he didn't want to do that either. Fortunately, he has an iron bladder when he wants to hold it, so we didn't have any problems there. Oh, the baseball game. It wasn't a very good start to their season. Mads' team lost 4 to 1. There wasn't much action on the field for most of the game. Nobody could get a hit on either team because the pitchers were throwing too fast. They've instituted a new rule where each boy can only pitch 2 innings, so after four innings we had to resort to our third string pitchers and they walked a number of runs in before we could get out of the fifth inning. We managed to get one run in the sixth, but that just wasn't enough. We all survived, despite the fact that I was on my own.

In the afternoon we went to Sul's soccer game. I sort of wandered into being appointed as an assistant coach, since no other parents stepped up to help the only coach. I'm not sure that you can blame me for the 4-1 loss of this game, but I probably didn't help much either. Sul played two quarters in goal. He was scored on twice in the first one, but he had no help from the rest of his team and the goal is at least twice as big as the ones he was defending last year. He made several really good saves and even stopped one with his chin. After the game the ref said that the other team was the best he had seen all day. They had better ball handling skills than our team and they definitely out hustled our team in getting to the ball.

Dec doesn't start his T-ball games for a few weeks, but he had his first practice on Friday night. Although he is catches and throws the baseball right-handed, he has always swung the bat left handed. Nae said that when the coaches put him up by the T to hit the ball, they lined him up right handed and so he had a hard time swinging the bat correctly. We'll get them straightened out at the next practice.

Family Photo - Our Little Troll

I apologize that I've not been very good at posting for the last couple of weeks. We did have a couple of noteworthy heppenings.

Dec really is a cute kid even if this picture makes him look a little troll-like. He needs a haircut and notice the gap in his teeth. He lost his first tooth on Monday. (taken 04/06/07 in Umstead State Park, NC)

Mad's appearance was altered on Monday too. With his new contacts he isn't wearing glasses anymore. I'll post a picture of his new look tomorrow.

I'm married to Wonder Woman

My wife is amazing. Yesterday morning she got up an ran eight miles. That is an amazing feat in and of itself, but then she came home and helped me with shoveling mulch up onto the hill. If there was any chance that I could somehow complete eight miles of running (which there isn't) I would spend the next week sitting on the couch until I could move my legs again. As it is, I ran/walked about 2 miles on the treadmill. I've been doing this beginner training course that involves running for some period of time and then walking for some period of time. The running periods gradually get longer and the walking gets shorter. I'm up to 4 minutes running with 1 minute walking, repeated five times. I still have pains in my left shin and right foot when I do it, but I think that starting slowly with this training course is minimizing this. I don't ever expect to be able to run eight miles without stopping, or with stopping for that matter, but maybe I can avoid adding my standard 15 pounds as I go through my fourth decade.

A few months ago we had some other Latter-day Saints move in right next door. It has been nice to have them. Last night, after the Priesthood session of General Conference, I came home to find Can in bed and the big boys watching "Pete and Pete" on the TV. Mom had gone next door to help get a room taped for painting, and I went over there for ice cream. At about 11:30, Mads rang the door bell and asked when we were coming home. In talking, we didn't realize that it had gotten so late. I decided to see if they could get themselves into bed without direct parental supervision, so I told him that we would be home later and I informed him that he was welcome to go to bed. We stayed for another hour and were wagering with one another one whether they would be in bed or up playing video games. They were all in bed but Dec still had on his clothes. I guess that we still have some more training to do before we can leave Mads in charge all on his own.

I have noticed that ever since Can broke his leg he has been demanding things. I'm trying to teach him to say please, but he is digging in his heels. We bought some grapefruits the other day (first time in years) and Mom was eating one this morning. Can started ordering her to get him one, so I said that he needed to say please. It took a lot of persuading to get him to mumble a please but once he did then he got a grapefruit half. He didn't want to eat the segments with a spoon, but instead, turned it over and tried to take a bite of the skin. After a very screwed up face and a loud "blech," I think he has now decided that he doesn't like grapefruits.

Family Photos - Mads

at the lake (taken 03/25/07)

Baseball is starting again

Tonight was Mad's first baseball practice of the spring season. He is excited because coach Jim is his coach again and he has some teamates from his previous two seasons. His throwing and catching skill were a bit rusty but he demonstrated that he remembers some of the things he is supposed to be doing out there in the field. It was good to see him giving advice to some of the new kids.

Mom went to the middle school open house, so I took all four boys with me. This was a little tricky because I had to keep Can entertained, since he can't get around very well with his broken leg. Also, I had to leave in the middle to take Sul over to the cub scout pack meeting and then I had to come back and pick up Mad.

Sul's soccer coach called tonight to let us know that his team name is the Flames. His first practice is Thurs. We're headed for a busy time. Fortunately it is fun to watch them play.

Mad's autobiography

Mad had to write an autobiography for a school project. He wanted to print out some pictures of himself to illustrate his chapters but had a hard time finding any where he wasn't making a funny face.

For years now we have been telling him that he shouldn't make faces every time we take his picture but he just took that as encouragement to look goofier. Now that he has to show his classmates pictures of himself, he is concerned that he looks silly. Oh well. We managed to get a few pictures that I took when he wasn't looking.

Aha, Crash Team Racing works on the PS2

Crash Team Racing (CTR) used to work on our original playstation, but quit working some time ago. I'm sure this may have something to do with all of the scratches all over the optical surface of the disc. Since it quit working, I've had to suffer through my boys wiping the floor with my carcass every time they challenge me at Crash Bash. Can does a great impression of the opening segment of the game, by the way. I'll have to record and post it sometime. It used to be that I could school the boys at any game we owned, for some reason, I just can't seem to compete at this game. It is really sad when Dec, who is only five, trounces me like I wasn't even trying, and believe me, I was trying hard on Saturday afternoon. So I had this brain flash, "hey, maybe CTR works on the playstation2." Hooray, it worked. Now it was my turn to do the trash talking. I blew past him like he was standing still. I even beat Sul (8), who is the best in the neighborhood at Crash Bash. It must have only been a bad day for him, because we had a tournament tonight for family home evening and both Mads (10) and Sul beat me. But I still kicked Dec's little behind. Take that you kindergartner.

Baseball to the face

This morning we got up and went to the Museum of Nature and Science. There was an exhibit on space that the Mom and the boys wanted to see. It was kind of fun, except the parents spent a lot of time trying to keep track of the two littles who had a tendency to wander off through the crowd. Can love all of the fish and turtles in the NC wildlife exhibits. Dec loved the huge replica long-neck dinosaur.

When we got home I decided that I should go out and play with the boys. Dec and I played some catch with his new Christmas mit. He is doing really well at throwing and catching. Skills that will serve him well when he starts T-ball in a few weeks. Ok, it probably will not make much difference, since they do not keep score. Sul beat me in three straight times around the world. The sad part was that I was really trying to get the basketball through the hoop and he still beat me three times in a row. The trauma of the day was when Mads and I were playing catch and he did not quite get his mit up in time to stop the ball from careening off of his face. I felt really bad but I think that he felt worse. If you look really close you can see the marks from the laces on the ball and I think that there is a faint imprint of the word "Diamond" from the brand name label. I told him that he needs to come up with a really good story to tell everyone at school, because this will probably look pretty ugly tomorrow.

Puke and concussions

Yesterday was a sick day at our house. Poor Dec spent the night curled up at the head of his bed with no covers after he was sick in the middle of his bed. We keep our house pretty cold at night so the poor boy must have been miserable.

While I was at work, I got a phone call from the school. I'm not sure why they always call me instead of calling Mom at home. The said that Mad was complaining of a headache and a stomach ache, and he had a low-grade fever of 99 degrees. This is the third time I've received one of these calls this year so I wasn't very pleased, or convinced. I asked to speak to him and he pretty much failed to convince me that he was sick, but I called Mom to let her know. When I arrived home I found out that she had picked him up. I was informed that he made a few attempts to look puny before settling into his normal home demeanor. When I got home I told him that from now on there had better not be any more phone calls unless chunks had been blown.

When I was a boy the hard and fast rule was that unless you threw up or had a pretty bad fever, you were going to school. Once when I called home after getting my head banged on the ice during recess my Mom said that I knew that Dad would not allow me to come home. I told her that I had barfed, which isn't necessarily a good sign after getting hit on the head, so she picked me up and took me to the hospital. They said that I had a concussion so I guess it was a good thing she came and got me.

When I got home, Can toddled over to me and then started crying. I couldn't see anything wrong, but he just didn't seem right. I was a little worried about holding him as he was drinking red juice and I had experienced the surprise puke of a two year old before, but he seemed to settle down. I got out the barf bowl anyway and we sat down to eat. Sure enough a few minutes into the meal, he started making some strange noises and we just got the bucket placed in time to save everybody's dinner from a shower. Of course, this kind of thing doesn't help the old appetite much.

Fortunately, today everybody seems better. Hopefully we're done with that adventure.

My kids do listen to me

Mad is doing a school project on the tundra. His teacher told him that he should make sure to talk about global warming and the effects it is having on the tundra. He told his Mom that he wasn't sure to write about this because Dad says that global warming is a bunch of crap. I guess he only listens to me when I'm talking about something important. I noticed this morning that he had put down that global warming is making the polar ice caps melt and thawing the tundra, so we need to make less pollution because it warms everything up. I asked him why he decided to put global warming on the project and he said that it was because he could not think of anything else to write. So he took the lazy way out and went with the rest of the gullible world.

While I certainly hold to the opinion that he global warming is a bunch of crap, I should do a better job of expressing on my views in a more thoughtful and comprehensive way. Mad's last project was on Sweden and I told him that one good thing about living in Sweden is that everybody gets "free" healthcare and one bad thing about living in Sweden is that everybody gets the same crappy healthcare. I was just ranting but he put it in the report anyway. I think that he could not think of anything else to say. He ended up getting a good grade, so I guess my rant did not hurt him.

Pinewood Derby Night

Tonight was the big pinewood derby. Both boys lost more than they won, but they still came away smiling.

Sul's car won the prize for the most patriotic colors.


Mad's Car won the judges favorite award.

When the two cars raced against each other Sul won by a hair. I guess that if we build slow cars, at least they are both pretty equally slow. It may not be obvious, but Sul is putting his car on backwards because he found that it went faster that way. This may because we were trying an experiment. We made his car so that only three wheels touched the track to try and reduce friction. I think that putting the two wheels towards the front instead of the back helped it move faster.

Images - Mad and Mom on Hike

Mad and Mom on our hike at Harris Lake. (Taken 01/15/07)

Images - Four Ducks in a Row

We went on a hike at Harris Lake during our MLK break. (Taken 01/15/07 at Harris Lake, NC)

Eat the food I give you or starve

I don't understand why my children won't eat the food I give them. Last night, before heading off to a women's book group, my wife made turkey sandwiches with pita bread and pepper-jack cheese. In the context of the sandwich, the cheese wasn't spicy, but Dec and Sul wouldn't touch the sandwiches on the chance that it might be disgusting. Mad's encouragement that it wasn't so bad, didn't even phase them. Of course, Can didn't eat the waffle and syrup that was offered him either. He got waffle because he eats little else, when he does eat, and we have no way to coerce him into eating anyway. With the bigs, at least we can threaten the loss of video games or no dessert. I tried the "nothing else to eat for the rest of the night" line and they jumped at the chance to avoid the pita, perhaps thinking that I would forget before the night was through. Without Mom's support for battle and given the rapidity with which they accepted my initial terms, I could see that there was no way I would prevail in getting the food down their throats, so I ended up throwing away the pita sandwiches (and the waffle). I briefly considered giving them a "we'll put them in the fridge and you can have them for breakfast" but I knew that I would not be around when they were pouring big bowls of sugar coated cereal and mocking me for my tyranical statements, so I just let the food go to waste. Later, as we were doing the dishes for the meal that we didn't really eat, I came across Mad's lunch box and realized that it still had food in it. Upon opening it I found an untouched ham sandwich, on regular bread, and a container of fruit. As expected, there were no cookies, donuts, granola bars or pretzels left. Unfortunately, the ham sandwich had been sitting around all day and so I didn't feel it was safe to save it for tomorrow's lunch. Another meal in the trash. By this time I was pretty fed up, so I left it on the counter for Mom to discover and I decreed that he would get only a sandwich and fruit tomorrow for lunch. I just don't understand why it is so hard to get kids to eat. I bet that if they went a week without food, they would love a little pita and pepper jack. Of course, then they would be living with foster parents when the state took my kids away for trying to teach them not to waste food.

Sleepover, PS2 and wheelies

Well we managed to get rid of Mad for the night. The problem is that it was an exchange sleepover, and we got the loud end of that deal. So far we've managed to survive through dinner time and chased them up into the bonus room for a fun filled evening of PS2 and movies.

Sul's little friend got heelies for Christmas (you know, the shoes with wheels in the heels). Of course Sul wanted them for Christmas and we made him pitch in to buy a PS2. Certainly Couldn't afford a PS3. Funny little side story about the PS3. While I was taking back the first PS2 we bought (we originally got a used one and then decided that it was worth $30 more to feel comfortable that it would last for a little while), a guy was in with his daughter asking about game systems and the kid at the counter (maybe 20) was trying to convince him to get the PS3. He says, "Its only $647," to which the guy responds, "I didn't pay that much for my first three cars." The kid at the counter makes some smart alec comment back that I can't remember, and I wanted to say, "You probably still live at home. If all you have to spend your money on is video games and fast food, $647 doesn't sound like much." I settled for a chuckle. As the guy left the store his daughter (~9) said, "See dad, that's why I need to get allowance." I laughed out loud and said, "it would take a long time to save $647 in allowance." As I'm checking out with the new PS2 the counter-kid says, "we really need to get you into a PS3." More loud laughing. Pay the guy with tears in my eyes. Anyway, back to my original story. So, we conviced Sul that he might get wheelies for his birthday and he should help pitch in to get the PS2 since he would play it anyway. Now whenever he is around his friends who have wheelies, he somehow convinces them to let him borrow them. So, he ends up rolling around and bumping into people and things, while his friends get to wear his stinky-old flat-soled footwear.