Splash - February 2017

Yes, this was late January, 2017.  Rachel and Josephine are in short sleeves.  Rachel is even in shorts.  It was 70 degrees just after dark at Tasty Freeze.  Samantha was out with her friends and they had a flat tire, so we waited on her.  Rachel was at work and I was running out of time to get their picture taken for the February splash.  Charlotte cut these hearts out of red construction paper and Josephine taped them all to the red ribbon.  They are sitting on the picnic table at Tasty Freeze, with our car's high beams lighting their torsos.  Seriously last minute.  When you have five busy kids, plenty of life, a full time job, busy church callings, laundry, flat tires: sometimes you just throw it together and hope for the best, right?

This photo is still fantastic.  I hope they each realize I love them.  I would show my heart proudly like they are each doing here.  In this picture I see my sweet Ball Team showing love.  Hold your heart high; share it with your sisters and brother.  Smile; pose for mom - even if the customers in the parking lot laugh at us.

Cute Kid Quote -Charlie

Our cute kid quote this time comes from Charlotte, age 14.  As she was getting dressed this morning, she opened the front door to test the air.  Mom, she says, it's February, right?  Cause outside it feels like May.  I guess Mother Nature is bi-polar.

North pole, south pole....warm and sunny, cold and breezy.  Mother Nature IS bi-polar, Charlotte.  Well said.

JMichael is Nine!

Nine years old.  Nine.  JMichael was born on a cold winter day in 2008.  He was hospitalized for the first 15 days of his life in the NICU of Arkansas Children's Hospital.  I learned a lot in the NICU and I have an immense amount of respect for those angels that work there with those little souls.  Not a place for the faint of heart.

JMichael was born with "whimpy white boy" syndrome - basically his lungs were heavy with fluid and he could not breathe on his own.  He was on a breathing machine and intubated for weeks before he could breathe independently.  We couldn't hold him, and he didn't wear anything but a diaper under his own personal heat lamp.  James and I just sat and watched his numbers on the monitors.  It was hard, but, you would never know it now.  Just try to make him sit under a heat lamp in a diaper.

The obligatory fingers pose - nine years old.  Look at those freckles and curls.  Sweet!

 

These are light up shoes.  They can change colors and speeds in flashing.  This is ALL he wanted.  Funny story - I ordered these for Christmas, because they are also all he wanted for Christmas, but, they didn't come in.  They arrived just in time for his birthday, but, not after I had already ordered a second pair, thinking that the first pair would never arrive.  Shhh, I have two pairs of these!

 

We also went grass sledding at the Clinton Memorial Library in Little Rock.  The first picture is Samantha and JMichael sitting on a piece of cardboard.  The second picture is about ten seconds later - Samantha and JMichael at the bottom of the hill.  So much fun.

JMichael had the day off of school for his birthday; thank you Presidents of the US.  It was seventy degrees.  Amazing weather.

At nine, JMichael is the outdoorsy, always busy boy of the BallTeam.  He loves every sport that has a ball and now cardboard.  He loves math, but, his reading is taking some work.  His head of auburn curls catches all the girls' eyes and he is never at a loss for friends.  He is sweet, follows directions and loves mayonaise sandwiches.  And hot dogs.  This boy can eat some hot dogs.

One of JMichael's famous sayings at our house is, What if....  He is constantly questioning things around him.  Mom, what if fences were made out of spaghetti?  Mom, what if all the sand on the beach just turned into big rocks?  Mom, what if I eat this whole package of hot dogs without cooking them?

Oh, son, what if you could stay little forever?  Happy Birthday.

Splash - January 2017

HAPPY NEW YEAR!  January's splash was a result of a confetti bomb from WalMart.  Evan, Rachel's boyfriend, shot it at them and took the picture.  This is one of the few splashes that I did not capture myself.  They got together and they did it.  I love the closeup blue confetti piece in front of JMichael to add perspective.  We had confetti in our front yard, on our roof and all down our walk for days - til it rained again.  This image is also the ONLY snow we have gotten to date this year.  It's just a dusting, but, they were out of school.  Go figure, Arkansas.  Here's to a fantastic year, BallTeam.

James Elmer Ball

This young sailor is James Elmer Ball, James' dad.  He joined the Navy at 17 and never graduated high school.  He was a welder, a truck driver and the man who taught James to fish and drive a boat.  Lately we see him on birthdays and this January he is turning 73.  James looks so much like him that the first time I met James' dad he was sitting in a restaurant with his wife, Jean.  I walked straight over to the table and introduced myself because as soon as I saw him, I knew he had to be James' dad.  Happy Birthday, Poppop Jim! 

The Last Dance

Samantha made the Junior High Dance team the first time she tried out and she has made every team since then.  It's been a big part of her life - lots of dances, lots of traveling, lots of lipstick.  In the picture above, she is just right of center, with two hands on the middle trophy, with a big white bow in her hair.  The girls in the middle made the elite team and a spot on the crew for the halftime show at the Liberty Bowl in Tennessee. 

In this team picture, Samantha is on the bottom right, leaning in, the first one in the middle row.  She enjoyed the games, the dancing, the exercise.  What she did not enjoy was the drama.  She said you can't just get together and learn dances.  Why do they have to be mean, and petty and rude?  So, after six years, she just told her coach she was finished and she walked out.

All she really missed was the end of basketball season her senior year.  She already competed with the team at States, and she was in the front of all three dances.  She really can dance.  What she really can't do, is tolerate drama.

Part of me is sad.  I enjoyed watching her out there.  I know she's pretty, and I know the camera loves her, but, she really, really was smiling and enjoying herself.  That was all genuine and I loved watching her shine.  Part of me was very selfish about her whole departure, because while she warned me that she was fed up and she would walk out, I didn't know I was missing her last performance.  I didn't go to a game, and I don't remember why I stayed home that Friday night, but, I did.  And when she got home after that game she said, well, my dance career is over.  I had a good run.  She's right.  She sure did.

She never wanted to be a professional dancer or cheerleader.  She just enjoyed it and when she didn't enjoy it anymore, she stopped.  That's the lesson, I suppose.  Enjoy it while it lasts and know when to fold.  She will find something else, most likely something very different, to occupy her attention.  Right now it's Tasty Freeze and making money, and getting into college and deciding what to do with her life.  Yeah, she's right.  No time for drama - there are more important things to worry over.

Go Panthers!

Floating Heads

At the BallTeam House, we call this our "floating heads" picture.  It was taken in the fall of 2012.  It is hands down one of my favorite pictures of us all.  Maybe that's because I'm in the middle.