What happened today?

'Joyeux Le Quatorze Juillet'  Celebrating the French revolution is almost as American as celebrating our own Independence day, right?  I mean, America DID lead the way and show those Parisian peasants how to take back their government, didn't they?  Vive-le revolution!  We may call it Bastille Day, but, don't say that to a Frenchmen.  He'd be lost.  It would be like a Frenchmen telling an American, "Happy Sign the Declaration Day".  Just say Happy July 14!

Allergies ...

Jay Michael was borm with asthma and allergies.  He's been medicated, treated and hospitalized.  Do you think any of this could slow him down?  Nope.  He had a check up with his pediatric allergist last week and he got 34 pricks in his back, to test 34 allergens.  The bad news is that he is still allergic to all nuts.  This is serious allergy, but, his numbers have improved.  He also still reacts strongly to grass.  The good news is that he is no longer reacting to two of his old triggers - eggs and dogs.  So, NO NUTS for JayMichael, but, he's getting better.  On the asthma side, he is still wheezey when he's outside for long (uhm, soccer....but that doesn't stop him) and he breathes heavily at night while he sleeps.  He's medicated for the asthma, and he is very good about his breathers - his beaving teetmint - as he calls it.

Girls' Camp

The ladies go to Girls' Camp after they turn 12. It's almost a week long and they have classes, do outdoorsy stuff and it's all based on the curriculum at church. This year the ladies went three hours north of home to Mena, and suffered through 100+ temperatures. They will probably tell you it isn't their favorite summer activity, but, look at these smiles.  They are having fun! They came back singing silly camp songs and made some friends with the other girls from all over Arkansas.

This is a cabin, (not bad accommodations for their week), and the last picture is from Bishop's night - the one night that the girls get a visitor from home, Bishop and Sister King, sitting to his left.  Rachel is in the background, behind Sister King and Samantha seems to be telling us all to be quiet.  Who knows what they were up to...

Two Years Later

I came across this picture today - the ladies and JayMichael posing for the monthly snapshot.  This one was taken in July 2010 - just two short years ago.  They look so little to me.  We've had a few changes in the past two years, but, they are still the same sweet happy kids two years later.  I just love my BallTeam.

Piranha In The Water

Charlotte is back in the swing of swim - She is a Piranha!  This year she is competing on a different level, since she is now in the 9-12 age division.  Last year she was at the top of the 7-8 year olds, and now she's at the bottom of the 9-12 year olds.  But she's only at the bottom if you count by age.  If you go by speed - she's at the top of her division!  Scoring in swimming is not cut and dry (pun intended...).  The most important time to beat is your own time, but, secondly, the USSA produces guidelines for each age and stroke.  Basically, you take Charlotte's time, apply it to a chart, and you see how she stands up with national averages.  These times are gold, silver and bronze.  Ideally, you want to always beat your last time and swim gold in each stroke.  With already three meets under belt for the 2012 season, Charlotte is: gold in freestyle; silver in backstroke; gold in butterfly; silver in breaststroke; and silver in IM (individual medley, one lap of each stoke, all done in one race).  In short, we are pretty proud of Charlotte - and so are her coaches!  She's on fire in the water!

In this video, Charlotte is in lane two, second from the top.  Green cap.

She was so excited that they called out her name at the end!

Beach Balls

Go 'Stros

On our last full day in Texas, we played on the beach by day and in the afternoon, we headed to the big city of Houston.  Houston really is big.  I was surprised at the size of the buildings and the amount of traffic.  Of course, it was late Friday afternoon and the Houstonites were all on the move.  In the downtown area, there were shadows, but no trees.  The buildings were all so tall they made canyons for the streets.  I wouldn't want to live in a big city, but, it was fun to visit.

Once we found our parking space, we made out way into Minute Maid Park.  The ballpark is pretty new, and I was impressed with how airy and spacious it was.  We found our seats, got some ballpark food for supper and we settled in to watch the game.  The Astros played the Cincinnati Reds.  I think I actually sat and watched about three at-bats.  Most of the game I spent walking around with Charlotte and Josephine.  Rachel and Samantha weren't interested in the game at all, so after they ate, they walked around and checked out all the decks.  They actually sat and watched about half of the game, asking questions and getting into the music and filler stuff that live baseball games use to keep everyone entertained between batters.  The "Kiss Cam" showed a guy asking a girl to marry him and she said yes.  Rachel and Samantha decided that's cool if you're a baseball fan, but, it's not how they imagine being proposed to!  Jay Michael was entranced by live baseball and was great company for James, who really wanted to see the game itself.  While I was exploring with Charlotte and Josephine, we found the play area - amazing.  It was a huge indoor playground with a baseball theme, of course.  It was about four stories high, full of slides and bridges.  It closed during the seven-inning stretch, so we headed back to watch the last play of the game.  Reds over Astros - 4-0.  Oh well. 

This is our view from behind the right-field pitcher's warm up area.

The whole ballpark is air conditioned, but, the roof is retractable.  At the end of the game, the next show began - fireworks!  In this picture it's hard to tell, but, those lights are on the top layer of the stadium seating and the roof rolled along the very top until it disappeared into itself like a collapsed telescope.  I went up to the higest level to take this picture and it doesn't do it justice.  This place is huge!