4A Baseball State Semi-Finals

HD's high school team won their region championship last Friday and yesterday they played in the state semi-finals for the 4A schools in the state of Maryland. They played at the University of Maryland. It was so cool! Before the game they introduced each player over the loud speaker, then they played the National Anthem. HD was the captain of the JV team this year. They had a great record and he started every game playing short stop. A few players from the JV team got "called up" to varsity for the playoff's HD was one of them. He didn't play yesterday but it was still very cool to be on the field and to have his name announced over the loudspeaker. They played the best team in the state, Westminster they are undefeated. They lost 11-2 but made some great plays and had a good attitude about how far they went. One of the top four schools in the state!!!

Waiting in the dugout to be introduced

The team after introductions -I took a video of this so I don't have any closer pics of when D came out

The coaches shaking hands and exchanging rosters

Getting ready for the National Anthem

In the huddle- "DEFENSE!"

Watching the action

Out of the dugout for fist bumping and encouragement

uh same picture...I couldn't get it to delete sorry :)

Sitting in the dugout

Shaking hands after the game

So cool to have played on a University field!!!

Haylee-isms

Two more Haylee funnies:

We were doing school and she got frustrated and the conversation went like this

Haylee: That's it! I quit!

Me: You can't quit it's against the rules of school, the #1 rule is no quitting

Haylee: Well since I just quit the rules don't apply to me any more!

Me: Touche'

I mean can you argue with that logic?

The second one we were at Joe's work for his promotion ceremony. Joe's big boss was there, the head honcho, the guy in charge of everyone....he is a Colonel -after the ceremony Haylee asked me if she could go over and talk to him. I said sure thinking she just wanted to shake his hand since she had seen him on TV.

About the time she got over to him I realized I better get my hiney over there because with Haylee, as you well know, you never know what will come out of her mouth. I see the Col. bending down and laughing a bit when I get there I hear this part of the conversation..

Col.: Popcorn? (laughing)

Haylee: Yeah, when you rank up are you going to be popcorn? (laughing a bit as she says this)

Col: (quizzical look)

Haylee: ya, know cause now you are a "kernel" so when you rank up you'll be popcorn.

Col.: (cracks up) and tells her he is going to use that joke.

Me: (really wants to say, uh sorry about that crazy kid Sir. I'll go find her mother) but what can I do? I laugh too. That kid is funny!!! Glad he thought so!

Sweet Sister

For those of you who don't know, for the last three years or so Sierra has been suffering from joint pain. It started in her right shoulder and remained just there for the first three years. In the last 8 months or so she has also been having pain in her right wrist, sometimes her right elbow, and more and more often her right hip. Just yesterday she had pain in her left shoulder for the first time. We have had lots of blood work and lots of x-rays, done a few rounds of physical therapy, one MRI on her wrist which revealed a ganglion cyst and we are having an MRI on her shoulder tomorrow... insert BIG SIGH here... It has been a avery long three years with the pain coming and going often as of late it is more here than gone. Another big sigh.... anyway, I had to give you that backstory so I could tell you that Sierra is in a great deal of pain tonight and I was trying to comfort her any way I could (we do have the option to go to the ER and if she can't sleep that is exactly what we will be doing but I am trying to get her through the night so we can just see the regular doc in the morning-there isn't much the ER docs can do for her) So I was rubbing her back and just talking to her when Haylee came in and saw how much Sierra was hurting. First Haylee ran to get the medicine I asked for, then she got all of her most favorite stuffed animals and brought them to Sierra. When that didn't help as much as she was hoping she came in with a top hat and a cardboard tube (that she was wielding like a cane) and started to sing and dance. I was cracking up, Sierra not so much because it hurt to laugh but she told Haylee she was doing great. After the song and dance Haylee decided to perform a magic show, after that she gave Sierra a craft that she had made which Haylee said she was "saving for Sierra's birthday" but decided to give her now to cheer her up. At that point Sierra was in so much pain I was sure we were headed to the ER -Haylee was already in her pajamas and when she heard me talking to Joe she ran upstairs and was dressed in 2.5 seconds. I told her if I took Sierra to the ER she would need ot stay home her response "I AM NOT LEAVING MY SISTER!!!" We ended up deciding to try to make Sierra as comfortable as possible and try to get through until morning when I can take her in to see our regular doctor. When I took Sierra up to bed to get her settled I got some lavender lotion and was massaging Sierra's hands and arms to try to relax her. Haylee got the lotion and massaged her feet and legs. I was going to sleep on the floor in Sierra's room in case she needed me in the night, with pain in her shoulders it is hard for her to push herself up out of bed or reach for her pone, Haylee asked if she could please sleep in there because she knew if she didn't she would just be worried about her sister.

I am so grateful for the relationship my kids have with one another. Sure they fight sometimes but it is never mean spirited or physical. And so much when one of them is in need I see the other two so caring and compassionate. It is then that I know I am doing a good job as a mom. At one point tonight Sierra was propped up in her bed and Haylee was making her bed on the floor, I was sitting on the floor by her bed, and HD was sitting on the chair in Sierra's room and Sierra was so happy to have so much attention and care.

Love my kids. Love being a mom. Don't love being frustrated and sad with Sierra's pain. I am her advocate. We WILL get answers. I am praying they come sooner than later!

PICTURES!

I have posted so many times without any pictures lately... So here they are, in random order of course, pictures from the last couple of months....

This is the youngest member of the Ray family, his name is Corbin (The Ray's were in our ward in California). The Ray's were here for a few months from Utah -we are sad we only got together with them at the end of their time here but we enjoyed seeing them for a couple of days. Corbin looks happy in this picture but he was actually hiding under the table because he didn't want to leave our house.

Haylee getting ready to dye eggs, she insisted I have the camera so that I would not miss a moment.

While we were dying eggs Sierra had homework to do.

Our very lovely eggs, some fabulous person even wrote "Mom is super cool" on one of our eggs.

Haylee wanted to put on her Easter dress before she began hunting so that she would look fab. :)

HD got promoted to MAJOR in JROTC -for you non military people that translates to HD is AWESOME! He can only make Lt. Colonel and Colonel before he has reached the highest rank in JROTC. He also became the Vice Commander of MD-JROTC unit 20071. SECOND in Command! Very cool!

See the yellow ropes on his shoulder? Only the Commander and Vice Commander get fancy things like that. :)

With his minions -I mean sisters.

My mom was here for the day -just 30 hours but it worked out perfectly for her to be here for his ceremony.

I actually made Haylee the dress she is wearing in these pictures. She is such a poser!

Cute.

Love this sassy pants girl.

this is from about 2 months ago when she was not feeling so sassy, she was SO sick. Haylee is my healthiest kid by a mile and this virus got her good. I have never seen anyone barf that much in my entire life -no kidding like 18 times in 6 hours. And she was so good about it. I was a crazy bleacher sanitizer every 2 seconds mom and it worked none of the rest of us got it! woo hoo -its the small victories that make me happy. :)

My friend adopted a baby girl and I made her this! It was my first tutu and it turned out so cute! If you can't tell the once has beads painted on it so it looks like a necklace. It was so fun to make.

This is Daisy about three weeks after her accident. Poor dog looks like we tried to saw her in half but she is doing GREAT!

We have been doing LOTS of this- I love being out in the sun and watching D get better and better.

Poor Daisy had to wear a shirt for a while because she was scratching her incision to much.

She was none to happy about wearing clothes.

This is Sierra on the red carpet after performing at our church's night of the arts. She sang a song from a Disney movie. It was AWESOME!!!

Here she is posing in the same dress, I got that dress for FIVE dollars and ninety nine cents! I KNOW!! It was originally 60 bucks!!!

This is the first day Joe wore his Master Sargent stripes. We are very proud of him!

He was not cooperating with me for the photos or they would've been better!

More baseball

A good leadoff at third

And that's it! For now anyway!

If I don't write it down...

I'll forget all the funny things Haylee says. We are at the store today and she is making motions with her hands as we walk around like she is tossing something from hand to hand but her hands are empty. So I finally ask her:

Me: What are you doing sis?

Haylee: Throwing my invisible ball back and forth

Me: Gotcha. Make sure you don't drop it (I say jokingly)

Haylee: (totally serious but with a smirk on her face) I already dropped it once but don't worry I found it.

Me: (laughing) that's good

Haylee: Yeah! Do you know how hard it is to find an invisible ball?

Oh goodness I will miss all these funny things when she grows up. :)