Little Alexandra

 Alexandra is 4 years old now. She has recently started her sports "career". She seems to love soccer and basketball and softball. Little League will start for her in a month or so at Northwest Forsyth American Little League in  Lewisville NC (NWFALL)I cannot wait to see her play.  I am going tot ry to keep up with how they do. Alex is hittingpretty good already. I think she does well for a girl that turned 4 a couple of months ago. Here is a video of her hitting:

No too bad eh??

Anyway she is starting, Bubbles will be playing Little League baseball and travel softball with the Dazzle again and Mahala will be playing volleyball again. Hopefully I will get to see most of their games. I will miss some of Bubbles' games thoughf or the first time when Alex starts since they both will be playing on Saturday. I have no idea how we are going to deal with 3 of them doing sports at the same time. It is going to be a challenge!!

Fastpitch Softball Tryouts Part 3

The coach for the Denver Dazzle (formerly GBC Crushers) called us a couple of days before their last tryout and offered her a great spot on their team. They were going to wait until Saturday but changed their mind I guess. Anyway,  they offered her a regular spot in the pitching rotation and a spot as a full time utility player and she decided to go with them. She loves the idea of playing different positions. Very excited to see how it goes. There is a possibility of a few of her friends from other teams joining also. So I guess our search is over for the time being. I guess it's time to start a Denver Dazzle 12u blog... maybe someone will read that one...


To be continued......

Fastpitch Sfotball Tryouts part 2

We found out that the team our Peaches were supposed to combine with (Carolina Xtreme), was a pipe dream. It didn't happen so we are definitely looking for another team.


Lady Razorbacks :

My daughter played with a couple of other ex-Peaches for the Lady Razorbacks in a NSA tournament. This was also a kind of tryout for their team, which is out of Salisbury, NC. All the girls played extremely well. My daughter hit better than she has this year with a 2b, HR (inside the park), 1b, and got on base 3 times with bunts. Her best hit was a line shot that the 2b caught by making a very good play. She pitched 1 inning for them and did well. I think she did really well. We just got an offer from them to play full time.

We also went to a Denver Dazzle private tryout this week. I like their coaches a lot. They seem to have a real plan for the team. It was a very good tryout. She did everything they asked her to do with no problems. Every throw to 1b was on target and she caught everything in the OF that was hit. She did better than even I thought she would. Her pitching was good as she even hit her spots! I am almost sure we will hear from them this weekend.

She has also been playing with Chatham Elite. The coach there is a really nice guy and she loves him and the girls a whole lot. It is a long way to drive for practice for us but they have already offered her a spot on the team. She has played well for them and pitched well also.

We also have a tryout with the Blue Angels schedule for next week. Don't know a lot about them but we will see.

I guess the final decision will be up to her but I am going to try to make sure she finds a team that will let her pitch at least some every tournament and will let her play most of the time. She has been playing too long now to be sitting the bench. I really don't think that is going to be a problem though.

Who remembers the Tornado that destroyed Wal-MArt

How many of you remember the tornado that hit Wal-Mart in 1993. It got Petersburg, Colonial Heights and Hopewell among others. I lived about a mile and a half from that Wal-Mart and did not hear a thing. It never stormed or anything at my house. My sister let me know about it (she saw it out of her window) and we went out like stupid kids (after dropping my girlfriend off at one of the malls - she was on the Emergency Crew) and took a bunch of video of the aftermath. Anyway here it is in case anyone wants to see it -----

Fastpitch Softball Team Tryouts!

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My daughter is 11 years old. She has played travel fastpitch softball for 4 North Carolina teams.   Recently we have found out that her main team was combining with another organization and that just having a 12u team is up in the air. So we are searching for another team and I thought I would write about her experience going to tryouts and such. We are looking for a team that will let her pitch. She got no pitching time at all this spring with her main team. So we played little league so she could pitch. Now, though, she is filling in for a few tournaments and the way she pitch
ed last weekend I think she will get a LOT of time on the mound (yay!). She is very happy about this.

We had to decide which tryouts to go to on which days because the Fever and Xtreme have them on the exact same days (Monday and Wednesday).


We started out going to a tryout for Fatpitch Fever 12u team. There were about 20 or so girls there. She is trying out for pitching, 2B and OF. I understand they have 2 already so I am not sure how much time she will get in the circle. However, she really liked the coaches and the girls that showed up. She pitched well and hit the ball very well. She only got to field 1 fly ball though because her pitching time cut into her OF time. No worries though. I think she did really good and 2 of her old teammates also showed up to tryout. The fielding went really fast and that was nice. Not much downtime at all for the girls.

Next is Carolina Xtreme....


The Xtreme is supposed to be a mix between her old team and the old Carolina Xtreme. We were told that there would be a 14u team and a 12u team. At the first tryout 1 12u player showed up. At the second there were 3 and that includes my daughter and a friend of hers that I brought. At the 3rd tryout yesterday there were more at least. I think witht he old Peaches and the girls that have showed up we almost have enough for a team. The problem is it really seems like the 14u team is the priority and the 12u team is just an afterthought. IT may not be true but it seems that way. I cannot blame the coach though, that team is going to be really good and he is all about winning. So although it appears we could have a team if they really wanted to I am not counting on it. It sucks too becuase the girl we brought lives close tot here and she has no other way tot get to the practices and games except if I bring her. So if there is no team she gets left out as that is the only area I can pick her up and take her to practice. Also NONE of the old Xtreme girls showed up for any tryout.  Oh well. I heard one of the coaches really want the 12u team so I hope he takes charge and gets a few more players and we go on like we have been.

At the third tryout they took fielding and hit off a team. Then they were divided up and one team took the field. While coach hit the ball the other team ran to simulate real situations. It was cool. At the end they did base running speed. I was amazed. The girl I took actually had the fastest time from 2b to home - and there were some fast girls there. I knew she was fast but I had no idea she was that fast. I KNOW that caught their eye. I hope it turns into something.

On to the next tryout which will be : GBC Crushers. (recently changed to Denver Dazzle 12u)


The Crushers coach has actually been out to 2 tournaments to watch another girl and my daughter so I got to meet him. He seems very cool and I like what he was saying.  More later.

So you want your daughter to play travel fastpitch softball huh...

This is for the parents of girls that want to play softball... or maybe she already plays rec or little league and you are thinking of taking the next step - travel fastpitch softball - and you have never done anything like this before. I just wanted to share my experience. I am sure yours will be different, but it will give you an idea of what to expect I hope. For the record none of my kids ever played any kind of travel sports before this so everything I experienced was as a first timer.

Finding a Team

The best way to find a team for your kid is to visit the local fastpitch softball oraganizations' message boards at the end of the summer or the beginning of fall. Around here the organizations are Top Gun, NSA, and IFA. Coaches are always posting about needing players. Also they post a lot of tryout dates and locations. Most of those you can just show up to - some you have to let them know you are coming. Most posts will give all the details you need. Also if your daughter has a private hitting or pitching coach, make sure you let them know to keep and ear out for a team that needs a player - especially if you missed the fall tryout season. Something will always happen on somebody's team where they need another player or 2. Maybe they had someone quit for another team, who knows. Coaches hear about that stuff a lot. You may have to take her to a lot of tryouts to try to schedule as many as you can. My daughter's pitching coach actually found her a team when she was 9. That was the start of all this.

Getting Her Ready

Now let me give you some advice. If you practice with your daughter like I do, you do not want to neglect any part of her game. Travel ball players practice almost all year long. My daughter wanted to pitch so bad and we were so focused on that - we didn't practice her hitting and fielding. She was a good hitter and decent fielder but after a winter of only pitching her hitting and fielding suffered greatly and that almost blew the deal. She worked extra hard on her hitting and fielding and I really believe by the last few tournaments of the summer she was one of the best hitters and fielders on the team. Make sure you work on everything before you try out. These girls are good and coaches can tell when a player hasn't picked up a bat since the fall season. It took my daughter more than half the spring and summer season to get her swing and fielding back up to par. Some girls are probably good enough to get away with this more than others. My kid has to keep practicing but she loves it. That's the other thing about practicing. Does your kid want to practice? We go out all the time and have a net in the backyard for soft toss and a pitching lane. At first she was pitching every day - now it's more like 4 times a week (she's 12). She swings her bat 4 or 5 times a week too. Not all kids will want to do that and not all will need to.


Are You Willing to Travel to Practice?

The team Keri started travel with was a startup team called Team TFS out of Burlington NC. This was their first 10u team in the area. Now because we were so late to the party we pretty much had to play for them or not play - luckily the coaches were great. Now it was an hour drive to practice 2 or 3 times a week... that is something you have to think about. Are you willling to drive that far? Maybe you will get lucky and get on a closer team... We drove 2 hours round trip for practice and it was worth it for her (she loved the coaches and players)  so it was worth it for me. We did find a closer team the next year because of the drive and because my kid needed to move up a level age wise and that team did not. Start early in the Fall if you can when looking for a team. The earlier you start looking in the fall the better chance you have of finding the right team. Take her to as many tryouts as you can, even if you think you probably won't play for that team. The tryout experience will be great for her.

Do you Care if They Lose?

Keri's team was a startup team. That means there were a lot of players that were just starting travel ball, and that means tough times. They didn't win a whole lot, but they did get better. They never got a trophy until the last tournament they were in. We were fine with this. Maybe you won't be. That team is a really good team this year so if you have a good coaching staff and patience, you will be rewarded. The team she is with now is really great too. The coach doesn't care about winning trophies just for the sake of getting one. He wants the team to play great competition and win there - and he will not settle for less. I love that.

Playing Time

How much do you expect you daughter to play? Every parent wants playing time for their kid. We ran into this on our first team. Keri first joined the team as a part time player. The coach made it clear that she wouldn't play much and that she could play little league and just come to the games she could make which I was fine with - but that's a very unusual situation. Then some players quit and he asked us to join full time. The problem with this was she still did not play much when she wasn't pitching. One tournament she played an inning and a half even with her pitching. That would be fine if she hadn't given up little league where she would play every inning of every game. Luckily for us, she got a lot better during the season (from her hard work and extra practicing) , started hitting and earned plenty of playing time the last few tournaments. My feeling is that if you want someone on the team, you should want them to play, not just to take up space on the bench. Not all coaches feel this way though. You should definately make sure this is clear before you join the team. We learned the hard way. .On her current team the coach made sure he told us that he doesn't keep players unless he wants them to play and he has kept his word and she has played very well for them so far.

(On a side note I hope you do NOT have the experience my oldest daughter had in club / travel volleyball. She joined the Triad Spikers Volleyball Club in High Point NC when the director told us they really needed players and she would get "plenty of playing time". So $500 later we found out they just wanted her to ride the bench 80% of the time (sometimes more). This was a team that never won and was in the lowest bracket and most of the players were no better than my daughter - sorry had to vent). Point is you need to try to make sure the team fits what you are looking for before you drop your money on them.

Are You Ready to give Up Your Weekends?

I love being at the ball field. I can't get enough. The fact that my daughter plays makes me very happy. Do you like being there? I hope so because on average you will be there every other weekend (or more) from early Saturday morning to 8pm or later (we have been there as late as 11pm) and then again early Sunday til whenever you lose out or win your bracket. You will be there a lot. Most of these tournaments will most likely not be in your area (unless you are very lucky) so you may have to drive an hour or more to get to these places. You could stay for the night if you have the money I suppose (see the next section).

Get Ready to Pay Up

Do you have a deep wallet? Some teams are very expensive but if you make it to one of these teams you already know that. The teams we have been on are pretty reasonable. Between $250 and $400 for the spring season. this year we have 9 tournaments scheduled and will most likely play more - then you have to do it again for the Fall season. Doesn't sound too bad. Don't forget to factor in gas, meals, travel chairs, sunscreen, hotels, softball equipment, water .or sports drinks (which I hate), water  and snacks. There are many ways to save money though. Last year was our learning year. We ate out a lot. We found out we could not keep doing that. This year we started packing all our food. We bought a travel propane grill for $45. The propane tanks are 2 for $5. Now we have a family of 5 and sometimes take friends so buying hot dogs or hamburgers to grill will saved us a ton of money when you figure how much feeding 5 or 6 people eating out would be. We pack sandwiches for lunch and snacks like chips, crackers, fruit, plenty of drinks, nuts and other assorted stuff. Still it is a lot cheaper. We also do not get hotel rooms. Most of our tournaments are about an hour and 20 minutes away. When we factor in the gas vs. a hotel room we come out much cheaper driving. Now if the tournament goes really late we have decided this year to try to find a room just so we can get some sleep.

You also have to factor in the costs for the parents equipment. Things that you wouldn't think of normally like a canopy for hot sunny days  (it helps in the rain also), a wagon to carry all your stuff around, travel chairs for everybody (you do not want to sit on the bleachers all day and night), a cooler (which you probably have already), and in some places blankets and a propane heater (believe me, after your first couple of tournaments with temps in the 30's you just might want one too). These things really make the weekend better. But not everyone uses all this stuff and you might not need it. Lots of people just use our canopy. I don't mind at all but I would rather have one for myself than rely on someone else to bring one. I am also looking for sides for the canopy so we can have a heated "room" on the really cold days. One parent on our team has a wagon that has been modified to have 3 levels. that is pretty cool. We are also getting a trailer hitch for our mini-van so we can just put the wagon on there instead of inside the van.

Get Ready To Be Proud Of Your Kid!!

These kids are worn out after a tournament. They play more in a weekend than they play in weeks of little league or rec league ball. They will all do something to make you proud during any tournament whether it is getting a big hit or just hustling to keep someone from scoring. It is a very rewarding experience for your child. I can see the love of the game my daughter has and it really makes me a proud father to watch her give 100% effort to help her team win. The players become a family and would do almost anything for one another. The coach is one of the most important people in their lives. It really is a wonderful thing to behold if you find the right team. Sometimes you tryout for a team and it just seems right. They want your kid and she loves the coach and players from the start.  Sometimes it is different. Her first team she didn't get along with many of the other players at first. I think they viewed her as some kind of outsider. These same girs became her best friends after just a few weeks once they got know one another. Travel softball isn't for everyone. But hopefully if you are thinking of giving it a try I have given you some idea of what it could be like.  I hope you try it and it becomes as great an experiance as it has for me and my daughter because it will provide her with many wonderful memories she will keep for the rest of her life!

r

Fastpitch Softball Pitching - Control Problems

I have a daughter that is very big into fastpitch softball. She started playing when she was 8 in little league fall ball. The next year she played little league in the spring ,all stars in the summer and then decided she wanted to start pitching. She started in august and pitched for fall ball little league. She worked really hard the next few months, got a whole lot better and we ended up finding her a 10u travel ball team the next spring for her play for and pitch. She played for 3 travel teams last year, 2 10u teams and a 12u team. She is 11 now and playing 12u ball for the Peaches in Yadkin, NC. She is one of the youngest on the team. Some of the girls are 7th graders and my daughter is in 5th. She is also one of the smallest. She is mainly an outfielder for this team and does really well. The coach wants her to pitch but she has had control problems. I think we have probably solved that and I wanted to share our experience.

We started going to a pitching coach when she first started to pitch. Honestly I figured she would try it and not like pitching or the work she would have to put in to become a real pitcher. I was wrong. She loves it. We go out most days and pitch and during the winter we go indoors and practice pitching, hitting and bunting. The first pitching coach we tried was at a hitting center. This woman was a great pitcher for a local college but we only went to one lesson. She seemed pretty good but we found one we liked better. This guy is one the nicest people I have ever met in my life. He actually works with my father in law, which is how we found him. He is very genuine and my daughter loves him to death and he has been coaching and teaching pitching for many years. They both teach pitching like so many others. Push off, open your hips and close them very fast. The faster you close your hips the better. She did that and actually pitched very well in 10u, especially last fall for the 10u Cardinals. They got a second place gold bracket finish with her pitching. She also got her first no hitter that tournament. Problem is, they pitch from 35 ft. Now she is pitching from 40ft. Her control left and never came back until recently.

Her travel ball coach eventually suggested something and she tried it. He said they teach this at the University of Arizona and after I researched it I found a lot more people teach this way now than I thought and it makes total sense. When you close you hips fast as she was taught, they start getting the way of your arm. Her pitches were tailing off bad to her right very often. She was worried about hitting her hip with the ball. A pitchers hips have absolutely nothing to do with how fast or accurate she throws the ball (at least not in a good way). What he suggested was don't close your hips at all. It is a huge adjustment but as she gets used to it I think her accuracy is coming back fast and her speed might actually be improving. While she is still getting used to it, when she does it right (which is more than half of the time now) she is very accurate. Also her delivery is much smoother than it was. She can relax her arm better because she doesn't have to think about hitting her hip as she releases. Now she does close up after the ball is gone but this is only for fielding purposes and has nothing to do with her pitching. It really does work. I would love to see what you guys think. This is just my personal experience. I am sure different things work for different people. Now I just have to figure out how to tell her pitching coach....

Watch Cat Osterman during her no hitter in the olympics. Notice how she never closes until well after the ball is gone.

UPDATE: My kid decided she could NOT do this... haha. Well know she does kind of a hybrid between both. She doesn't close her hips fast like she used to but she still does a little. It is what is comfortable for her. Her control is a lot better but we will find out tomorrow as she is pitching her first game of the spring.

Entertaiment Center

Cooling You Entertainment Center

We recently purchased a new entertainment center (really a big TV stand with a lot of storage). It is really nice, though. A problem I ran into is that even though it does have ventilation holes in the back, my PS3, cable boxes, and PC (yes I have a computer hooked to my TV) get very hot in there. I started leaving the door open but the PS3 still got hot and it is a pain to remember to open the door every time. My 3 year old likes to close the doors also and she makes sure she waits until I am not looking... I notice exactly 5 seconds after my PS3 freezes up.

I started looking into solutions and figured out that I wasn't the only one having that problem. There are many products made just for such reasons. There are also some do it yourself remedies to be found rather easily by just looking. Let me tell you about them then I will tell you how I took care of the problem.

First I bought a fan for the back of the PS3. $20 off Amazon. It works well but still there is a lot of heat in there. I needed something more to push the heat out of the entertainment center instead of it just hanging around in there cooking my electronics. I searched google and found these :

1) Cabcool Cooling Kit for Entertainment Center

This one is on Amazon for $39 plus shipping. I would need at least 2 and maybe more of these which takes the price up to $100+. Says it is easy to install. You have to mount these to your center. I really didn't want to put screw holes in my nice new entertainment center... This kit gets really good reviews though and most people say it works really well. I just wasn't crazy about putting it together. Also this plugs into the wall (or anything else with an outlet) so it will run all the time or when you turn on a particular component.

2) Thermaltake Mobile Fan II USB Cooling fan

I like this one, although not made especially for this purpose. It has a stand and I can hook it up to my PS3 via USB so that it only comes on when the PS3 or my computer does. It costs less than $12 plus shipping (or free if you buy 3 or more). It has lots of reviews and most are good although I am not sure how many people use it for cooling their entertainment centers. Looks like a good use for it though.

3) Cabinet Cooler Fan System

This one also gets good reviews. It comes on automatically when the temperature gets above 87 degrees and cuts off at 85 degrees so it doesn't run all the time. It is really quiet apparently and cools pretty well. The problem for me would be I would want 3 or 4 and the price is a whopping $100 EACH... whoa! I read some reviews that said it was worth it... I am not sure if I agree. I guess I should see it work before I dismiss it but at that price I would want it to cool the whole living room. Next...

4) Antec AV Component Cooler

Ok, this one looks pretty cool. It has 2 fan speeds. Most reviewers say you never need the high speed. Your component sits on top of this much like laptops sit on top of laptop coolers. The difference is the airflow comes out the back end and not the bottom (an idea I think would work well for laptop coolers also). This one also uses an AC outlet to power the unit. The drawbacks of this is that you would need one for each component that runs hot and they are $50 each on Amazon. Most reviewers say it works well but more than a few say it is made cheaper than they anticipated. The plastic, they say, is just cheap like a lot of laptop coolers. So maybe they took one and put AC power instead of USB?? Still if it works you may not care... I did.

5) Do it Yourself

I also found (and you can too) a few sites by searching the net that explain how to build your own cooling fans. Some even have thermal fan controllers to automate the system. The best I can find is about $60 for 2 fans, cases, thermal controller and power cables. That's not bad in the scheme of things. I decided against that too.

6) My solution

I looked at all these choices. I had to decide what was important. My main concerns were my PS3, my PC, and my DVR. All run pretty hot. Now I had to decide what features were important. Did I want automation? Did I want USB power or AC? did I even care? How much did I want to pay. Did I care if the fans ran all the time and what if I could hear them run. How do I want them mounted if at all?

I decided I did not care about any of it except cooling and the price. I went to Walmart - just to look at what small fans they had and whether I could use them. I expected to pay $6 to $10 for a small fan which would have probably made me choose another option. I found small fans for $1 a piece. I scanned them just to make sure. Sure enough, $1. They were small enough to fit in my entertainment center but not too small so I bought 6. I put one at my DVR, 1 behind my PC and 2 on my PS3 (on intake and one out). I am keeping the other 2 just for backups. I expected them to not give out much air or to be loud. Actually they put out enough air to keep all my components cool and I cannot even hear them. I plugged them all into a power strip so I can turn them off if I want. My stuff stays cool now and I don't even have to open the doors any longer. The total price was $6 plus tax and I have 2 extra fans. the fan casing is metal and also very well made. Maybe I got lucky finding these fans (I am thinking of going to get the rest of the $1 fans just in case I wear them out) but I am very happy with my solution. Maybe it's not for you but it works very well for me. I hope you find a solution you are happy with.

You've got to be kidding me...

Is it really only a month til Christmas? Really? This one is going to be like Christmas lite around here. There is no way we can do the things we have been doing in the years past. I have a feeling we will all be ok despite that. I mean, the holidays isn't really about presents right? As long as we are all together having a good time sitting in the living room around a nice fire listening to Christmas music and talking it should be a great one!! Right?!?! Try telling that to my spoiled ass kid... Bubbles will be fine. She is the most polite kid I have ever seen. Alex won't care because she's at the age where tearing the ornaments off the tree and running around the house screaming "we will rock you" will make her day.


BUT 'Hala on the other hand will be on the BOOK OF FACE that afternoon talking to her friends about how cheap "santa" was this year (on the laptop we bought her) and

why her family can't afford to buy her food even... (while she will probably be eating turkey, ham and other assorted goodies that must have just fallen out of the sky) and drinking some of the 6 gallons of milk we buy every week or so to FEED HER &%&$&.... Then she will text her friends that she can't reach on facebook on that wonderful necessity that is her cell phone (her 3rd phone by the way... she wears them out texting). Then I am sure she will settle down and play some games on either her PS2, or Wii or maybe even her DS. She might even go outside if it's nice and use some of the tons of softball or volleyball equipment that just appeared in the garage (because we couldn't afford that, after all)... All the while complaining that she has nothing and everyone else has everything... It's fun raising a teenager...

happy holidays

2010 A Haunted House! A Killer!! Superheroes! You'll never guess who th...

My Girls and their songs...

I know every girl is different (I should since I have 3). My 13 year old and 9 year old are different. Both are different from my 1 year old of course. But it's funny what makes them tick.

The 13 year old loved to dance and sing Hot in Here when she was little. It was

wonderful having my little baby girl running around in public singing "It's getting

hot in here - so take off all your clothes!"




Never have I been prouder as a parent. Well at least not until the 9

year old (a few years ago) decided her favorite thing to sing was " I

kissed a girl and I liked it". That was nice too.







The one year old cannot sing of course. At least not yet. Her favorite song of choice, however, is much better. "Cotton Eye Joe" by Rednex. Every time she hears it starting she RUNS into the den and starts doing her foot stompin redneck dance. It's great. And it's something for me to remember when she starts singing something worse than stripping or lesbianism. I can't wait for that.

(If you want to see the dance just search for IKERI on youtube and it is episode 6)

Well it's a Friday night and here I am sitting here at the computer watching (what else) Scrubs and trying to keep a fire going in the fireplace. My wife and mother-in-law are in the kitchen doing holiday cooking with Mahala. Keri is upstairs whining because we apparently have a mouse somewhere in the house and she doesn't want a mousetrap in her room. I am also running a new program that recovers deleted files because I got some kind of virus on the computer and could not get rid of it myself so I restored the computer and forgot to copy Alex's first Birthday pictures... which sucks... hopefully I can recover some of them. I worked last night and haven't been to sleep. It's now 6PM so I am getting just a little tired.


I have decided that I love it when my sister mentions me or my family in her blog... Not sure exactly why. Speaking of her family I attended my niece Sarah's birthday party this week via webcam. It was super awesome to get to see her open up her presents and watch her eat cake that I couldn't get my diabetic hands on. Anyway it was a great time.


Keri has 5 webshows now. If you want to see one just search for IKERI on youtube. It's nothing really... just some stuff she has taken videos of I put together for her.

In the Ebay world I bought a book for a Christmas present. Brand New!! When I got it it had ripped pages and no cover. Nice, huh. Of course the seller wouldn;t return my emails so I had to file an Ebay claim. After Ebay contacted them they told me that the person THEY got it from said it was new so that was why they sold it as new. What?!?! That makes no sense on like a hundred different levels. Anyway eventually after filing a claim I got my money back... no thanks to the seller.

ok 10pm now. I gotta get some sleep....



Ok next day.. I actually found some of her birthday pictures!! yay!! The red icing may not have been the best choice because it looks like she is a zombie feating on human flesh.... gross.... here look :





Ok gotta go. Trying to get last minute Ebay stuff up to get a little bit more Christmas money....

So here is what's been happening. I am so happy that my mostest favorite niece in the world is home from the hospital. Hopefully everyone will be healthy enough so that we can visit all The Jeffreys when we come down this time.

We bought Keri a set of youth drums. Well they are too small for her but guess who likes them? That's right... my little 11 month old baby girl is as happy as I have ever seen her when she is beating the crap out of them. It's great. See for yourself!




She also enjoys scooting on her butt across the room. Those 2 things seem to be her favorite no-mommy related activities right now. We have a den full of toys.... but she just butt scoots and she's happy.

Mahala is all about the computer and cell phone. She just talks to her friends on the computer and texts them on the phone. She texts like 4,000 times a month. Probably more than that now. That is waaaaaay over 100 a day. I don't think she even knows how to make a freaking call on that thing anymore. How do her fingers NOT FALL OFF!?!?!?!?!?

Keri likes her computer too but she is all about TALKING. Talk talk talk talk talk. I am sure she will text too when she gets old enough to have a cell phone but something tells me she likes to talk way too much to text that many times. She would talk on the phone 24 hours a day if we let her. She talks while she's playing, she talks while she's on the computer and she talks while she's watching TV and tries to when she ALREADY has friends over to the house.

The ebay experiment is still going on. I had a phone returned to me. Verizon had just sent me this phone and it didn't work right. I didn’t even think to try it out since it was a NEW PHONE... geeze... Then I had to go get a prepaid card to put money onto Paypal so I could refund his money... fun!! Why did I want to do this ebay stuff again?

Is there anyone that knows how to get an 8 year old girl to CLEAN HER ROOM?!?!?! She stays up there all freaking day and does nothing! It doesn’t matter that she can’t come down and watch TV or use the computer or the phone. She doesn’t care.

We had a thrift store sale here. Half off everything. I tried my best to outdo my sister from her sale binge at the Goodwill store. I don’t think I quite did it although we did get a lot of stuff. We did finda lot of good stufffor the girls and a good amount of Ebay stuff so I call it a success. Actually there are 2 of those stores here and we hit one in the mroning when I got off work and one that night when I got up. This is from the first store...



Now all I have to do is find time to actually put this stuff up in my store...


Ok that's it.... I am working on a little webshow for Keri (she wants to do one so bad). Maybe I can get that up next time...

First I want my favorite niece to know that Alex can't wait to see her in about 3 weeks! you hear me Sarah?!?!?!?! I just love reading about you kicking your parents out of the hospital room... makes me not feel so bad when Mahala (my 12 year old) acts like she does!! :) which is to say... when she doesn't want us around either....

My sister's blog is amazing... you have to read it : http://letsbecrystalclear.blogspot.com/



Wow. It took the whole weekend but I got the Ebay room done. We still need some improvements but we will get them one at a time. At least now we don't have crap thrown all over the house and we have our stuff halfway organized. And now we know we have 10 full tubs of clothes that we need to put up in our store. That will only take a couple of years probably!


We have been selling for a long time, but it was only once in a while before this. When my sister started selling she would ask me for advice on how to do things. She quickly passed me by and now she gets the messages asking how to do this or that or where to buy supplies. Thanks for all the help sis!

I was reading my sister's blog just a few minutes ago and there is where I found out I forgot my parents wedding anniversary. Their 48th anniversary. Needless to say I feel like crap. I guess since we are going to visit next weekend I could just say we were waiting til we saw them in person. Yeah, that'll work... until they read this...

Ok imagine being an assistant coach for a softball team... your daughter's of course. Now this is a minors team which mean the girls pitch for themselves (as opposed to the coach pitching). Now exactly ZERO of these girls have played in the minors before. Not only that but most of them are too young really to play this level. The only reason they do is because the little league association wants them to play up a level in the fall, so now we have a team full of 8 and 9 year olds playing against 10 and 11 year olds. At one game, I am not kidding, the smallest girl on the opposing team was bigger than our biggest girl. It really was funny looking. They were literally the giants playing aginst the midgets. It would be like if I played basketball against Bridget and was serious about winning. (or Tennis or any sport... haha) The girls played well but were just overmatched - those girls pitch way too fast for our little girls. The league says it is suppose to be good for them in the future because they will get used to it but at this level they don't really get to do anything. they watch the pitches go by and then in the outfield they just rin for the balls and hardly ever get anyone out. I really don't think that is the case. I think we will do coach pitch next year.



It's Halloween! We just got finished watching SCREAM (remember that movie?). I am sure the kids won't have nightmares (sure they won't). It was a nasty rainy Halloween but we went anyway and the kids cleaned up.
Even Alex got in on the act.

Keri (my 8 year old) told Bridget that she wasn't old - and that she wouldn't be until she hit 40. Well thanks a lot Keri. So I have about 6 months left...

Today was everyone's last fall game. Mahala's last soccer game and Keri's last Soccer and softball games were today. Her soccer team went undefeated and her softball team didn't win a game (Mahala's team won once). It all balances out I guess. Here are all the Halloween pics.

When I was 16 I had all the time in the world and nothing to do (well, I thought I had stuff to do but now I know – I didn’t have crap to do). Now I have too much to do and much less time to do it (at least it seems that way). Just why exactly does life work out that way? Sometimes I wonder why the hell we had another kid. Then of course there are times that the youngest is the easiest to deal with out of all of them. I want to take Keri and Mahala out and play softball and soccer but we can’t do it on the weekends cuz of the other kid. Just when I start feeling that way Mahala will come up with one of her “you don’t trust me” rants because I won’t let her hang out at the mall with her another 12 year old girl by themselves with 15 year old boys. Then, of course, I thank God I had another kid because I just know I am gonna have to put Mahala out of my misery one day. And then at least we have a backup kid I guess. Really though it’s not that bad and Mahala is making all A’s so far this year so I really have nothing to complain about. Keri has decided that even though she takes and hour or two to do her homework every night, she doesn’t need to turn that homework in to her teacher. Now go figure. What is that all about. I mean you do all the work but then don’t turn it in? I don’t get it at all. I’d call her lazy except that she gets it all done every day. I guess we need to figure out exactly how to get her to remember to turn it in. Well I finally followed in my sister’s footsteps (again) and opened a store in Ebay. Now that I have a blog like her and a store like her I am seriously going to think about trying to get along better with my spouse - which apparently she did. The store been doing pretty good. It’s just a ton of work to keep listing the items to keep stuff in it. We have plenty to list, though. Now all we have to do is convert our dining room into our Ebay room like we have been wanting to. I hope to get most of that done this weekend but I know better. Plus I have to ask my sis how she manages to go to yard sales without spending a ton of money every week. Between gas and lunch we spend way too much. If you want to check out the store go HERE. Then buy something!! Keri is playing softball for Northwest Forsyth County. It’s funny, she played the first few games and I didn’t really think she was enjoying herself. Then the same thing that happened to her in soccer seemed to happen in softball. It’s like one day a light came on in her head and she figured out what to do. The last game she fielded all the balls hit to her (she played Shortstop) and she even hit the ball her one time at bat. She was the only one to hit the opposing pitcher – she did get out though. And she also seemed to have a great time. Anyway, I hope it sticks because I love to see them play softball. Both of them are playing Fall soccer also so we got a busy Fall schedule going on right now. That's not a bad thing tho. We went to the Dizie Classic Fair yesterday. That was fun... for the kids at least. I really don't like it that much. We picked one of the only days they don;t sell unlimited ride bands so we used up all our tickets in about 2 1/2 hours. That was fine though cause I was ready to leave anyway. As I am now. Bye.

Update :

Here’s what we’ve been doing lately on ebay :

Sold 14 Nintendo DS games for $180 (paid more for them but the kids used them for a long time)

Bought a box of adapters for $4 and so far have sold one for $17.99

Sold 76 Piece clothes lot for $79 – paid about $25

Bought a Scene It Jr game for $1 and sold it for .99 (they can’t all be winners)

Found one yard sale that was giving stuff away for free and sold one flashlight for $30 and a spring compressor for $12 from that yard sale.

Bought a wireless dog fence and collars for $10 and sold them all for over $130

Bought a laptop for $5 (Celeron 2.2 Ghz) and it’s currently up to $60

There are plenty that didn’t sell that well or at all… but those are no fun to put on here.

Keri’s first softball practice is Labor Day weekend. Not sure what kind of sense that makes. Every other sport has no practice this weekend because of the holiday. I doubt there will be too many kids there.

Alex has this excited baby face she makes that makes me roll in the floor every time I see it. Here is a video of it

(if it works)

:

Mahala might be able to still eat off the 12 and under kids menu but her attitude is in FULL TEENAGER MODE. AAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHGGGGGGGG!

Someone might need to pray for me that I don’t KILL HER before she actually becomes a teenager. Go ahead mom and dad, laugh your ass off. What comes around right? And I got 2 more to go after her…. I might not make it. And mom, the praying comment doesn’t mean I am going to church or start listening to boring religious music anytime soon… ok?

Keri is in the whine about everything phase. PLEASE let it be a phase. And now it’s the tattling on her big sister, which I think she might actually need to do sometimes with the way Mahala treats her. What do you do? We don’t want to encourage tattling but then again I don’t want Mahala to think she can get away with anything. I sure as hell don’t know.

Haven’t smoked for over 2 weeks. It’s a start. Cya.

Doctor, softball, soccer and (of course) yard sales.

We went to the doctor today.

Alex is in the 64^th percentile for height but only 4^th for weight yet she still has rolls of fat on her leg. Weird. She got her last hepatitis b shot (until she’s a year old anyway).

Mahala has a soccer game this weekend. Her coach is kinda strange. He wants them to memorize a playbook (like that will ever happen). And he talks… a LOT. I don’t think having homework at school AND soccer is going to fly with me. I mean it’s Optimist it’s not like it’s a serious we gotta win at all cost league. You know Penn and Teller? He reminds me of Penn a lot.

Looks and sounds like him.

Now it’s the next week. Mahala had their soccer game and they lost 3-1. Mahala played well. I got to meet their coach and he is fine. The “plays” he wanted them to memorize aren’t really plays. It's not as big a deal as I thought when MAHALA told me about it. I can;t imagine a 12 year old making something sound harder than it is to make you feel sorry for her. That would never happen right?

Keri tried out for softball this weekend also and did well. She has picked it up pretty fast. I, of course, got her a new bat and glove and a batting helmet. Had to order a face guard because they need them at this age (8 and under). I also have been picking up softbals at yard sales whenever I can. They are usually .25 as opposed to $4 or more at Target. I had no idea they had fast pitch softball for girls this young. It’s great! Do they do this everywhere or is it mostly slow pitch at 8 years old? Anyway I’m glad it’s fast pitch. Keri likes the faster pitching better anyway.Can’t wait for her first game. She finds out what team she’s on and schedule and all that this week.

Since most of our Saturday was taken up with sports (we did get a few yard sales in) we decided to try to go to a few yard sales Sunday. We found 2 and they were pretty good. Bridget found a bunch of clothes for .25 each and get this, I found a laptop computer for 5 bucks…. Seriously. Not a 20 year old crappy one either. It’s a DELL Intel Celeron Mobile 1.6 GHz with 512MB RAM And a DVD/ CD Writable drive. I think they sold it because it they couldn’t get it to start up but it seems to only need an operating system which is easy enough to do. 5 bucks…. Crazy…. Can you tell I like yard sales a little bit?

Sorry I didn’t call you back Mom. The baby was crazy tired and wouldn’t go to sleep .. and when she went to sleep so did I.

We got good yard sales this weekend cuz it’s a holiday and there will be no practices or games. Might be the last time we get to go this year all day. We better find some good stuff!

10 days and counting. Chantix seems to be working. I wonder how much of it is mental and how much is the pills actually doing something?

Drinking so much you can't see straight

I like that title. I haven't done it in about 15 years but I like it anyway. Time for school again. Bridget is busy getting school supplies and clothes for the kids of course. Dad (or Paw Paw - he answers to both when he's not watching tv) bought the kids new backpacks yesterday. He is visiting but leaving this morning. We all love that he comes down to visit so much. And of course the kids love it.

fast forward a week or so.....

Soccer is starting up also. Mahala is playing in the Optimist league and Keri is playing for the YMCA so it'll be another year of going to 2 different fields for games on Saturday. I was kinda hoping they would both do one or the other but they didn't want to.

Yesterday was our 15th Anniversary. Who woulda thunk it. We might even start sleeping in the same room again to celebrate! Nah...

I really need to call my mother.

We went to Myrtle Beach a couple weeks ago. Fun fun fun. Roller Coasters, swimming and a

really cool magic show. Never seen a big time magic show before. Keri now wants to be a magician. Imagine that.

School starts today. Keri has Mahala's 3rd grade teacher. We were hoping that would happen. She's really good. Her name is Mrs. Schneider.

It has not been a good technology couple of weeks for me. First I accidentally shut my van door on my Blackberry Pearl and screwed up the screen. So I bought a Blackberry Curve off ebay. Awesome phone. Not so awesome when you accidentally drop it outside immediately following a 30 minute downpour BECAUSE, let me tell you, the chances are good that it will land in a PUDDLE OF WATER. Now phones hate water apparently cause it decided to stop working also. Sunday I turned on my Playstation 3 and it will not read any discs at all. I read on the internet that a LOT of people have this problem but since it is out of warranty I am out of luck. So that is almost $600 worth of electronics down the tubes. How nice....

One the plus I let the Curve dry out for a few days and it seems to be working. Yipee....

Mahala got mad and hung up on me the other day.... that was the wrong thing to do... she's stuck in the house until this weekend. I should have taken her phone too...

I love the show True Blood. Don't you?

I have my computer hooked to my LCD TV and every episode of Scrubs is loaded on it so I have my own 24 hour Scrubs network. Isn't that interesting?

Bridget is thinking about doing this Navy Seal training workout. Better her than me. It looks like suicide to me.

Baby Alex can stand up on just about anything. I found that out in the garage when she was in the wagon. It took her about a millisecond to stand up and do a flip onto the cold hard ground below. Well, I had a towel bunched up right where she landed so she's ok and everything. But she is a mess. Oh and as you can see she can't decide if she likes to eat sand or not.

Keri is now wanting to play softball so we are practicing so she can play next spring.

Yard sale finds the last few weeks :

We got a couch for our library (it's really a living rom but Bridget calls it a library... so I guess it's a library). It cost $25. Not bad.

From the same yard sale we bought all the clothes for $35.00. There are at least 8 or 10 huge lots of clothes to sell on Ebay.

A Videonow player with 20 video discs for $3.00 and it sold for $52.

2 Arcade Dance Platforms for the kids dance games. They were $5 a piece. They sell for like $75 or more new so I thought that was a good deal.

We found a lot of little toys for Alex (play cell phones, keyboards ect...). a lot of them were a quarter a piece. Her favorite thing is a stand up toy that is supposed to make noise. It doesn't work but she just loves standing up and pushing it around the room.

I found a bunch of regular and softer practice softballs for me and Keri to practice with for .25 each. I didn't realize how much those damn things cost in the store.

That's all for now ... cya..