It's Official, I Have Lost My Mind!

Okay, so I haven't exactly fallen off the face of the earth, although at this point I might like to! I have been so busy here lately I can hardly see straight! Why? Well like a fool I have decided that starting a business would be a good idea - as if I don't have enough on my plate already! It all started so innocently with me being on a quest for a cute bow holder to hang Maisie's bows on and also looking for some cute bows that weren't going to bankrupt us! Which has now turned into me creating a really cute bow holder and some mighty cute hair bows. Hence I have been busy busy making several different things to get pictures of so that my sister-in-law can get my website up and running and my e-commerce venture can officially begin! Maisie is going to have a matching bow for every outfit she owns when this is all said and done! I may possibly do the last 3 shows for the year in Canton as well so I am headed up there this weekend to check it out - I am really a glutton for punishment! Did I mention that I am Team Mom again too for fall ball? I guess my new motto is going to be "sleep is for the weak"! Fortunately we have 2 games left in our softball season and then that is over - one less thing I have to do - although there is going to be a winter league, but I have already told them to count me out, I will not be participating in that one other than as a spectator!

It's a What?????

One year ago I was 20 weeks pregnant and this is the day we found out Maisie was a girl - it's a what I asked? Tell me what exactly do you do with one of those? I had my suspicions that I was harboring a little girl in there because I had felt soooo bad during the first trimester - nothing like I did with Hunter. I kept telling myself though that it was a boy - I guess I thought maybe I could will it into being a boy - obviously that really didn't work out! After we left the doctors office that day we called my parents to tell them - all they both could do was laugh! My dad just thought it was hysterical that I was going to get a "little me" - ummmm hello? have you met my son? I already have "me" in a little male body - and just let me say for the record that it is no cuter on a boy than it is on a girl! My mom has always sworn that "god doesn't do it to you twice", so she said maybe I would be spared. After we hung up the phone with them there was not another word spoken of the little creature within being of the girly origin - I think for an entire week! After that I guess it had sunken in and we had come to terms with what our future held - as the pregnancy drew on I was becoming more and more excited about the thought of having my very own little girl - especially when the closet started to fill up with those cute little clothes! I guess the biggest fear I had was the fear of the unknown - I had already done a boy, I knew what to expect, a girl is a whole new ball game - and I don't do Barbie well - or so I thought! Scott says I have never been so in to pink until now - he attributes that to my Maisie. When she joined us (10 days early just like her brother) I was INSTANTLY head over heels in love! She was just like a little angel, so peaceful and prefect! I think back and feel ABSOLUTELY terrible for having ever thought that I wasn't real excited about the notion of a girl - Maisie was not easy to come by and I should have been so very thankful to be getting one, regardless of what it was. I am a firm believer that everything happens for a reason - I know why god gave me my Maisie and I thank him everyday for her - I could not have asked for a more perfect, beautiful little girl.

My perfect baby girl

I love this shot - it's almost like she was doing

the "Home Alone" scream!

Hunter has loved her from day 1 - thank god!

He is the perfect big brother - we'll see if that lasts!

Little girls are so much fun - you can't put a

bow on a boy!

Death & Destruction There Was Not!

We have managed to survive the fury of Mother Nature - that fury (and I use this term loosely) goes by the name Edouard. To hear the media jabber on and on about the impending Tropical Storm you would have seriously thought the world could possibly be coming to an end! There was no Good Morning America due to local coverage of Edouard (that just starts my day off wrong) - they had reporters in every location that there could possibly be water - and there really wasn't much to talk about - they weren't even being blown around by high winds (half the fun is watching those yahoos out in the middle of these things)! I'm not kidding about this - at one point they were showing the rain hitting the concrete - there wasn't even a puddle! And for this there was no GMA? It was obviously a slow news day and they were all geared up to cover nothing but Edouard - turns out there wasn't that much to cover! We never even lost power, didn't even flicker, and for out here that is nothing short of a miracle - Scott says "a bird could fart on the power line and the lights would go out" - sadly it's not far from the truth! I did go and acquire a few essentials just in case - figured as soon as I did nothing in preparation it was going to nail us. So you know I loaded up on the most important things - bottled water, wheat free snacks to keep the boy at bay (Hunter is allergic to wheat for those of you who are not in the know), and a fresh case of beer - hey, we do have priorities here! When we got up this morning I foolishly thought that I was going to go about my typical weekday routine - have my coffee, feed Maisie, and watch GMA before getting the boy off to school - the only thing that was normal today was having my coffee and feeding Maisie. The office as well as Hunter's school were both closed today which meant I had a house full of little apes to contend with - and contend with them on a rainy yucky day - what did I do to deserve this? Not only were there the 2 legged little apes, but the 4 legged as well - they couldn't go out to play either so they were playing all of their outdoor chase games through the house - and let me tell you there is nothing quiet about dog claws on tile and wood flooring! Fortunately Scott and Hunter packed up and headed off for a delicious lunch at Chuck E. Cheese followed by a screening of Space Chimps - kept them out of my hair on this rainy day which I am quite thankful for! So for the afternoon hours at least, Maisie and I were able to go about our daily routine in peace. My parent's house sits on Galveston Bay and when I talked to my mom earlier she said they lost more limbs in a storm on Sunday then they did today - go figure she moved all of the furniture off the front porch for nothing - Murphy's Law strikes again! We didn't get any wind at all - just a steady rain all day long - and I'm sure that it is not enough to cancel our softball game tomorrow night - we couldn't be so lucky! I guess Maisie can say that she has survived her first tropical storm - Hunter on the other hand is already a seasoned veteran.

Take Me Out to the Ball Game

Hunter and Junction Jack before

the start of the season last year

We ventured out to Minute Maid Park as a family Saturday night - this was Maisie's first professional sporting event. We had gone to the pool earlier in the day so fortunately she took a late nap and was ready to stay up past her usual 7:00 bedtime! She definitely seemed to enjoy herself - being as though she is such a people watcher how could she not? Every time Scott has the game on TV she sits there and watches it him - does she know how to butter up a man or what? When we got there she was looking around like "hey I know this place". All of the noise didn't even phase her - just gave her more reason to look around and check it all out. She was beyond cute in her little pink Astros outfit - thank you Grangy! As soon as we got there (we were actually early which is unheard of) Junction Jack was riding around on his Segway and tossed Hunter a soft Astros ball - Hunter was so excited that he had caught a ball for Maisie - he gave it right to her without anyone asking him to and she was very happy to get it; he is such a good big brother! I'm sure it's just a matter of time until he is inflicting pain on her until she screams "mercy" though - that's what my brother used to do to me. I guess we had better enjoy the "niceness" while we still can!

The Kerri Strug Award

So the good news is that Scott's foot is not broken - he just sprained or strained it pretty good. He is a little bummed about the diagnosis though as this means he does not get out of mowing the yard for the rest of the summer - he was really looking forward to the return of the yard crew! There are two newsletters that we get for this league - one is the "official" newsletter that is sent by the recreation coordinators and the other is our team newsletter that our manager sends out - obviously our manager has way too much time on his hands! I had to share this with everyone - Scott and I laughed until tears were rolling down our faces!


Recap and Game Ball


Well, you win some and you lose some. After dominating the Maniacs in the first game of our double-header, we came up a little short in the second. Looking at the positive, KELLY'S play lead the way in game 1, which is why she gets the game ball for game 1 this week:



Given the injuries we all seemed to suffer and the perseverance we displayed after a very tiring late night double-dip of games, I am awarding the game ball for game 2 to THE WHOLE TEAM!



Special mention to STAN for playing through a very ugly-looking raspberry and for LEN sacrificing his quad on the alter of hard play. However, we found out today that SCOTT played much of the second game on a severely sprained foot (x-rays proved negative for broken bones). In the spirit of the upcoming summer Olympics, we award the Kerri Strug award to Scott.



Shannon gets special mention for the loving support we are sure she is to provide in the coming weeks.