Baseball and birthdays

It was a great opening day yesterday, despite the iffy weather. The sun played hide-and-seek for most of the day, but thankfully the rain held off until our last game was ending. Noah's team won its first game of the season 12-4; he played 3rd base and made some good catches, including one in which he made a throw to 1st to get someone out. His next game is this Thursday.

This picture is of Noah on 2nd base. The one I took just before this was of him rubbing his upper right arm, where he had taken a hit from a pitch a few moments before.




Joel's team had fun with their first game. This being our first time with coach-pitch, we are pretty new to how they do things.... it appears that there is no score-keeping with it. At any rate, Joel had a great time, especially since he was playing 1st base and caught several throws to tag kids out. Joel has to wait until Saturday for his next game.




This is Joel, just seconds before he caught a throw and tagged a player out.



Today was Brian's birthday... we celebrated by driving up to Sacramento to eat at California Pizza Kitchen, doing a little shopping at the mall there, and then grabbing some cheesecake to go from The Cheesecake Factory. Emily and I went grocery shopping after we got home, and then we all settled down for some homework. I helped Brian edit and proof some recommendation letters he needed done for tomorrow and Emily finished up her schoolwork for tomorrow.

This week is the last week of school before Spring Break.... and Emily will have her first driving lesson on Friday. I forgot to mention earlier that she passed her driver's test on Friday. Now we are 6 months away from having 3 drivers in the family!

Playing catchup

So last Sunday I was ready for the weekend to be over, and tonight I am actually ready for it to start. (Although I dare say this weekend will be full of all kinds of work around the house again...)

It's been a jam-packed week of activities, none of which included moving furniture. Of course there was the usual running to and from Emily's school, with occasional stops for Starbuck's on the way. I don't think I ever told about the morning I drove through Starbuck's after dropping Emily off. Rory was in the front passenger's seat and wanted to share my hot chocolate with me. The barista volunteered a cup of whipped cream to entertain her. She *loved* it. And I was able to drink my hot chocolate in peace.

On Wednesday, the kids and I attended KUDOS (Kids Understanding Deployment OperationS) with our neighbors. The kids got were issued "uniforms" (desert-colored t-shirts with the KUDOS logo on them), got some camo face paint, and went through "out-processing", where they received dog tags, "passports," and some other gear (including a pocket Bible). They got to see chem gear, satellite equipment, and walk through a C-5 airplane (these are huge cargo planes that are large enough to carry 6 Greyhound buses, plus passengers upstairs). They learned a little bit about some military customs (coin checks), saw examples of ordnance (land mines, mortars, etc.), tried on protective gear, and manned a fire hose. All that, then they received a "homecoming" complete with flag-waving and music. Our neighbor and her children were decked out in some of her husband's flight suits, so they definitely looked the part. They were actually interviewed by an NBC station (one that we don't get here, for some reason).... I am waiting to see if there is ever anything put up at the website to see from that. One of the local papers also interviewed my friend and published a picture of our group walking across the tarmac after deplaning the C-5; one of her kids and Halle are very easy to see in it. Unfortunately, this newspaper only allows subscribers online access, so I couldn't even see the article online.

Today the kids were treated to some fire safety lessons. They got to go through the base fire department's "fire trailer," which offers a simulation of the kind of smoke you could have if your house were on fire. The kids were able to see (or not see, as the case may be) how difficult it was to see anything through the smoke (the fireman explained that "real" smoke would be even harder to see through) and practice getting down under the smoke and evacuating the trailer by exiting a window and using a fire escape ladder. In addition, the older kids were able to operate some simple liquid fire extinguishers.

And while we're on the subject of fire safety: A friend sent an article to our homeschool list about a news story about the usefulness of smoke alarms. It appears so many children sleep through them, that they really don't do the job they are intended for. If you or someone you love has children, please read this news story.

I wound up not attending our homeschool group meeting last night... I opted for praise choir rehearsal instead. This weekend, the church is celebrating its 20th anniversary with a large outdoor service and I will be helping out by adding my voice to the praise choir. We'll have to take 2 cars on Sunday, because I will need to be there at 8:30 (service starts at 10).

I was able to serve at Celebrate Recovery tonight by being part of the 3-person worship team for it. I really love using my voice like this... a few people were talking to me afterwards tonight about it and I said that I felt about singing the way Eric Liddell (the Christian runner in Chariots of Fire) felt about running. He said, "I believe God made me for a purpose, but he also made me fast. And when I run I feel His pleasure." When I sing, I feel God's pleasure. Is there anything you do that causes you to feel His pleasure?

I guess I've gone on long enough... you know this week will be more of the same, plus getting ready for a birthday sleepover next Friday night for Halle's 9th birthday. Hopefully we will get a lot done as far as cleaning and rearranging furniture before then!

Mac mama

I know... where have I been? It has been crazier than usual around here. The end of last week was fairly busy, what with Emily gone to her school retreat from Wednesday till Friday. Then Brian and I had the Celebrate Recovery kickoff at church on Friday night. We got there early to help set up, so we were basically there about 4 1/2- 5 hours.

Saturday was Joel's 7th birthday. We had a great time at the base bowling alley with a few of the neighbor kids, a couple of friends from church, and a couple of kids from our "backyard neighbor" family from the first house we lived in out here. Joel said it was the "best birthday ever." He even rated it higher than the one he spent at Disney World!

In news almost as big as Joel's birthday.... my IMac arrived yesterday! It is up and running with no trouble at all and I've managed to get my bookmarks and email addresses all transferred quite easily (thank goodness for Plaxo). I kinda miss my "right-click," but have begun learning the Mac way of doing things. I have so much more space on my desk now. Hopefully I can keep it uncluttered.

Monday night, Halle and I both went up to the church for rehearsals for the Christmas program for church. She is going to be part of the kids' musical and I will be singing in the adult Christmas choir. I missed the first rehearsal last week, but it won't be difficult to catch up. Thankfully, I don't have to learn it all by ear; we all have songbooks with musical notation. That certainly makes it easier for me, especially since I sing alto.

Tonight, Halle attended her first AWANA meeting while Brian and I attended a "growth group" from church. Our group is made up of about 6 couples... not too big and not too small. I'm looking forward to getting to know people better. Halle had a blast at AWANA and is busy working on learning her memory verses so she can get her first book and t-shirt. She has several "checkpoints" to complete, each with 2 verses to learn.

Tomorrow is hump day and means we will be on the downswing.... Brian has a meeting tomorrow night, though. Thursday will be Emily's early-out day at school (1:45), I may be attending worship team rehearsal that night, and then it will be Friday and time for Celebrate Recovery again. Oh yeah... no shortage of things to do here. Hopefully I won't put off blogging for another week!

Oh, I just remembered more news... Emily was chosen for Daybreak, the select choir at her school! Yay, Emily!

Birthday recap and weekend plans

Thank you to all who sent birthday wishes. I think I received more greetings this year than ever before. I had several e-cards in addition to the comments, plus a few of those old-fashioned cards that come in the mail. *G* One of those even came with a Starbucks card... Thanks, Grace!

We had a very nice time last night... It was great catching up with Rick and Virginia and hearing about things over in Antioch. We were a little late to the Won By One concert, as Friday night traffic on the interstate was backed up a bit. Thankfully it was only by about 5 minutes or so. The Won By One kids did a great job, especially considering they were short one person. They had less than a month to rework their songs written for 6 voices and modify them for 5. Not an easy task! It was good to see the familiar faces and meet some new ones. That's the thing with the college groups: the faces keep changing. Afterwards we were able to chat a bit and then the group surprised me with a beautiful chorus of "Happy Birthday." Matt chatted with me and Emily about Harry Potter and the upcoming book and movie. Noah really enjoyed hanging out with Darnell afterwards; they found out they share a common interest in playing NCAA Baseball on PlayStation and have decided they are going to use the "Create-a-player" feature to make each other on their games and see how many homeruns they can hit with each other.... using the Pepperdine team, of course!

We were able to get the keys to the base house yesterday afternoon, so this weekend we'll be seeing what we want to take over ourselves before the packers come on Monday. We'll probably do some shopping as well. We need a washer/dryer, as the base house doesn't come with one. And we also need a new microwave. Brian took our old one to work to use in his office when the one there died, and this house has a built-in.

Hope everyone is having a good weekend!

One day closer

We've been doing a little bit each day to get ready for this move. Dusting the bookcases, taking unwanted items to Goodwill, getting rid of the bleach spot... Yes, you heard me right. That bleach spot I mentioned this past weekend, the one that used to be a yellowish color, is now gone, thanks to this. I wish I had taken pictures so you could see the difference. I am one happy camper now.

We've had time to visit the base swimming pool a couple of times this week as well. Just $75 got us a family pass for the summer. Sure beats what they are asking for the community pools! ($280!!) I am sure the pass will come in handy once we are actually living on base and the weather begins heating up a bit more.

Tomorrow night, we are going to dinner at Olive Garden with friends from Antioch, then taking in a Won By One concert. Sounds like a nice way to celebrate being another year older, doesn't it?

Once we get settled into the new place, I plan on having a book giveaway like some of my other blogfriends have done. I have a group of books I put aside just for this purpose, most of them fairly new. So if you're a reader, be prepared to put your name in the hat for one!

And while I'm talking about future things... keep your eyes out for an announcement of something new here. (Mom and Pam, you already know... and Larry, if Mom hasn't told you already, just ask her.)

Everyone's Hero

Joel had a great day today. He was the first one up and ran to me saying, "Today's my birthday!" I tried to convince him that today was Saturday and that he slept through his birthday, but he wouldn't buy it. It was good for a few minutes of laughter and teasing, though. Mornings with him are usually full of teasing, like when he asks for breakfast and I tell him, "Nope, today's an odd-numbered day; you only get breakfast on even-numbered days." So of course, he wasn't buying my "slept-through-your-birthday" scam.

Joel opened his presents after Brian got home from work. He was quite thrilled with everything. I played another sneaky trick by hiding the GameCube game inside one of his PoTC toys. He got quite a kick out of that. He and Noah have spent quite a bit of time playing it tonight.

We did go to Godfather's for pizza and then off to see Everyone's Hero. I can't say enough good things about this movie. It was a true G-rated film, with a message of "keep swinging" to encourage kids to never give up. My kids thought it was great.

Everyone was too full from dinner and movie snacks to eat cake tonight. However, we did sing Happy Birthday, light the candles, and have Joel blow them out; we'll eat some tomorrow.

Tomorrow looks to be busy. We plan on going to a Kidfest in downtown Vacaville, plus Halle is invited to a birthday sleepover over in Antioch tomorrow. Brian and I were hoping to finally go out to dinner to celebrate our 20th anniversary (we'd only be a month late if we do it tomorrow). We'll have to see if we can fit it in.

Twas the night before a birthday

Joel has been keeping the countdown for over 2 months now, keeping track of the days till his birthday. Tonight, he said he was in a hurry for bedtime to come, because then his birthday would be here when he woke up. Smart thinking! Needless to say, when bedtime rolled around, we heard no whining or complaining. (Actually, we rarely hear any from him... he's usually fairly ready for bed by then.)

In a little while, we'll pull out the gifts from hiding and get them wrapped. He's having a Pirates of the Caribbean kind of birthday, with the majority of his gifts being related to that movie (some PoTC jigsaw puzzles and Jack Sparrow dress-up clothes/sword). He's also getting a Star Wars LEGO game for the GameCube. Brian also went to Raley's earlier this afternoon to order a PoTC cake for tomorrow. I think Joel will be pretty happy with his birthday.

Tomorrow is also the day Emily returns from her 2-night retreat with her school. I'm looking forward to hearing how it was. I'm sure she will have plenty of stories to tell!