The Ball Team: 2018

11 July 2018

Kent County All Stars

Baseball, so far, has been quite a ride. Loyal readers may notice that JMichael is now wearing a different uniform - he was selected for the Kent County All Star Team. As an All Star, he represents the whole of Kent County. About seven of the Galena Lions are also now all-stars, so JMichael is in good company. He is the all-star first base man.

One double elimination round robin tournament later, the Kent County All Stars are the District 6 Champions! Maryland is divided into 8 Districts and District 6 is comprised of Kent, Queen Anne's, Caroline, Talbot and Dorchester Counties. Winning that tournament was great, but, even greater than that? The team is STILL undefeated. Crazy. JMichael is pictured here, second from the left, standing.

He is pictured here in the Kent County News. Front page of the sports section, too.

JMichael said, Mom, our story went on the front page, and the World Cup was on the third page! He was pretty impressed by the fact that his team's win was considered more newsworthy that the World Cup, but, one day we will talk about this and he will realize that soccer just doesn't hold water with everyone as much as it does with him. For now, though, we will give him his victory.

Baseball is continuing now, with the Maryland State Tournament - which will be in Baltimore. If the boys can win the State, we move on to a tournament in Rhode Island. So far Kent County has been very generous and proud of the boys - the County has bought all the uniforms and gives the team manager a budget for trophies and water for the games. If we have to travel to Rhode Island, let's hope the State can help out with travel vouchers. Go get 'em boys!

James is loving this adventure with JMichael and his team. He's reliving his younger days as a boy of summer, plus, he's getting to help out with coaching. Don't they look happy? On to State!!!

30 June 2018

IN to KS to MD, 2018

School was out on June 15 this year, but, we got permission for the little ladies and JMichael to miss the last day so we could leave town. We covered ten sates in just over a week. Here we go:

ladies in the hotel mirror - getting ready for a day of fun.

the day of fun - it was hot and muddy. they drove these four wheelers all day. all. day. Thank you Uncle Sam! Sam told me he had new helmets for everyone, the path cut and the gas tanks full, all ready for the ladies and JMichael. Charlotte is driving the green four wheeler with JMichael holding on tight. Samantha drove the red one with Josephine holding on.

Beautiful scenery - this barn lives in Indiana.

Father's Day, while James stayed home in Maryland, I went with Mom and Uncle Kenneth/Aunt Donna to the branch in Tell City, IN. I had no less than five people introduce themselves to me and ask if my beautiful family was moving in to the area. Sorry, no, but, yes, they are beautiful.

After three days with Mom's family at Aunt Tammy's, we traveled to Kansas. This is Josephine's arm out the window playing with the wind.

Rachel beat us p to David and Dawn's; this is the back of her ear. She brought henna and gave everyone tattoos.

Chess games.....

Charlotte did Abby's makeup and this is Eric and Abby's duck face - I told her just say Abu!

Mom had homework to do, so she was working during some down time. In the pen is Penny - Adam's new puppy. We wore that dog out.

Me in the middle of my ladies.

Samantha in the pen with Penny.

Charlotte playing with Arya.

Laying out at the community center. front to back we have: Charlotte, Josephine, Abby, Eric, Rachel and Samantha, upside down.... See those green tubes at the very back on the building? Those are the water slides inside - you slide outside the building and come back in again inside. The boys said the slides are kinda bumpy, but, they were on there at least a dozen times. There was also a hot tub that was divine, and a "lazy" river with a pretty swift current.

Inside, Arya and David.

Adam and Dawn

Mom and me

Gavin

JMichael

On our way out we stopped for pictures. Cousins:

Gavin, 18, Adam, 4, Rachel, 20, JMichael, 10, Arya, 2, Charlotte, 15, Samantha, 18, Josephine, 13

Adam, enjoying his fries.

Daddy daughter hair styles.

Samantha - yes, balancing a chair on her head in a kitchen.

games of Uno.

Samantha and Rachel left on Thursday for Arkansas. Samantha will stay with her part of the summer and work at Tasty Freeze again and then Rachel will come back with her for a visit maybe in late July. When they left, Samantha forgot her bear and blanket - she would have made Rachel come back from AR just to get it.

JMichael had my phone in the car a lot while I was driving. Of the tons of pictures he took, he got some good ones - this round building is a hotel in Louisville, KY.

And this is Bengal's stadium in Cincinnati.

We saw all of Mom's sister and brothers and some of their families. We sat and talked and talked and talked. We made WalMart runs and Gavin fixed our air conditioning and windows! Sam fixed my headlight. Everyone was wonderful and we had a great trip. We left James home, since he didn't think he could travel - we had four days of ten hours drives - and we missed him. It's good to get out and see family, but, it's great to come home, too.

29 June 2018

Splash - June 2018

The June splash was taken during our picnic for Memorial Day Weekend. We went up to an equestrian center right on the Pennsylvania line. The ladies and JMichael were excited to see all the horses then disappointed to learn you can't just ride - you have to bring your own horse. Still, we found a great picnic area and a stream and a bridge and well, you can see in the pictures.

I started out simple - a pretty bridge in the background and a babbling brook. But, that wasn't enough for this bunch - let's go, Mom - what's down there?

Before long they were kicking off their shoes and heading out into the water - which was deceptively deep in spots. Only Charlotte had the sense to stay on land with me.

Samantha - queen of the rock. And Zenmantha.

These three - success in reaching the biggest rock in the stream. This picture is a close up - they were actually out in the steam about twenty feet. It wasn't moving very quickly and no BallTeam members were hurt in the production of these photos, but, they did slip on the smooth rocks a few times.

A more interesting pose. It looks like Samantha has boots on, but, her pants are just wet from the water.

I like this one, but, you can't see their beautiful faces.

Memorial Day, 2018

13 June 2018

Josephine, Seventh Grade? Piece of Cake!

You want your kids to be bright. You want them to ask questions and solve problems. Not Josephine. She takes it to a whole other level. Always investigating, always reorganizing, always pondering. She's amazing and so hard to keep up with. I hope she always uses her brain powers for good. At the seventh grade academic assembly, she got an award. All A's. Every class, every term. Mind you, she's on the academic track - all accelerated classes. Her comment was that they aren't harder, Mom, they just move faster. We finish a chapter in a day and the regular class finishes the chapter in a week. We get more done and so we have time to do sidebars, and projects and field trips. She loves school. That's my girl!

12 June 2018

Galena Lions - Kent County Youth Baseball

Galena Lions

Coach Chris, Coach Kevin and Coach Tate

Noah, Braydon, Taymir, RJ, Teeter, JMichael, Jonathan

Ben, Aiden, Jordan and Bjorn

Kent County Maryland Youth Baseball Champions - U12

This is a great group of boys. Eleven of them. Nine are in the same class at school. From the first day of practice until today - the championship game - I never heard a negative word from any of them. They worked hard, played hard and became a tighter group of boys. The coaches were always ready with a tip or an "atta boy". Each player got to be the pitcher, if only for a few batters.

JMichael played first base every game. He improved tons. He didn't like pitching, but he didn't do too badly at it. This was his very season of baseball and he made the All-Star Team for Kent County. The Lions had an undefeated season. Not only did they never lose, but, most of the games were called because of the slaughter rule - I think the closest score was 12-5. The boys came together and worked the plays, won the games and were good sports about it all.

11 June 2018

Charlie's Trash

This one. Oh am I ever pushed and pushed. Sweet and helpful, then defiant and brash. She always speaks her mind and she fiercely defends those she loves. I am proud to be her Mother and I love that she let me take this picture with a dumpster. Go conquer the world, Charlie.