Our week in San Antonio

We're back home from a week in San Antonio. We did everything from the Riverwalk to Sea World to Schlitterbahn Water Park. It was quite a drive, but we had a great time.

One of my favorite things we did was visit a cave in nearby Boerne, Texas. I had in my mind a Blanchard Springs Caverns like day. I pictured an elevator lowering you down into the cave and then a paved walkway throughout the cave with impressive lighting, an informative tour guide, and a nice gift shop at the end with picture postcards and the like.

We didn't know exactly where it was, so we stopped by the local H.E.B grocery store to ask for directions. I simply asked the cashier, "Do you know where the caves are located?" She says, "The caves...I've never heard of that. Is it like a hang out or bar or something?"
That should have been my first clue.

We pulled into the gravel driveway and saw one of those picture taking stations where they have funny bodies with big circles in the top for you to stick your head and snap a pic. We paid our 30 or so dollars and then met our 16 1/2 year old tour guide who all but text his girlfriend throughout the tour. I usually ask questions throughout tours like these, but I figured he really didn't know or otherwise care, so I kept my big mouth shut.

So this cave obviously didn't have an elevator or paved walkway, but they did have a few lights. I must admit that I kept thinking that Scooby-Doo, Shaggy and the gang were going to jump out and solve the mystery of the lost spelunker or something, but it was a fun tour.

We got home on Saturday afternoon, unpacked, and I couldn't wait to give Ken his Father's Day present. We got a Wii for Christmas, so I got him the infamous Guitar Hero that is supposed to be so much fun. We played it most of the day yesterday. It has great rock songs on it from the last few decades. It's just too bad that Levi has been going around singing Talk Dirty to Me by Poison ever since we got it out. Ooops.

Day One

It's day one of summer break, and I've already dug out the rocket sprinkler, filled up the water guns, and created some water balloon masterpieces that feel like boulders when they hit you and don't explode immediately. We may be in for a long summer.

Baseball is OVER, and I think we're all excited about that. It's pretty safe to say that we won't see Levi in another baseball uniform for quite some time, if ever again.

Mom and Dad came up this weekend for Benjamin's 4th birthday party at the gymnastics center. Dad walked on the balance beam, Mom tried to stand on her head, and they both jumped on the trampolines. As I was picking myself up off the bouncy, gymnastic floor from utter amazement, I began wondering if they were smoking the "sweet weed" as one of my friends calls it. I probably should have patted them down before they left because it was the strangest thing I've seen from them in quite some time.

The kids have their 6-month dental appointments on Wednesday. This will be the first time for Benjamin to go to the dentist, so I'm praying he doesn't pull a Cujo and make the hygienist run away crying while soaking up her own blood in one of those scary little masks they have to wear now. It's a pediatric dentist so surely they've seen kids with sensory issues before. If not, then they will have by this Wednesday afternoon :)

I've Become One of THOSE People

It's no secret to anyone who has known me longer than 30 seconds that I'm loud. I admittedly talk way too much, everyone always knows my opinions whether they want to or not, and I can whistle like a 400-pound man. When you put all of those things together, it's a recipe for disaster at the baseball fields.

I'm been SO PROUD of Levi lately with his baseball. He's much more of a willing participant these days, and here lately he's really been trying his best. He got a couple of singles, a double and got to run home several times this morning at his games. And even though I complain incessantly about his practices, they are really helping him. He has improved so much since we started back in March. So, kudos to the super serious coaches for that.

That said, today he got a good hit down the 3rd base line, ran to first, touched the plate and ran right past it like you can do on first base. I'm still in the process of jumping up and down and screaming when I look over to see the ump make the out sign with his arm. I, of course, wasn't using my self-editor at this point, so in the middle of everything, I stop cheering and scream out in my loud, carrying voice, "WHAT? He was clearly safe!"

Oh, no. I've done it. I've become one of those people. The kind of people that get all caught up in a kids game and scream at the one helpless ump making $7.50 an hour. What has become of me? Even I was embarrassed that I had succumb to the pressures of competitive play, but before I crawled under the bleachers to hide until the humiliation blew over, I pulled myself together and went to congratulate Levi on his great hit. I've got to get ahold of myself before our next game.

Also today we learned about the "competitive tournament" that will be in late June. Any player from the league can sign up to play in this extra $30, 4-day tournament. There don't promise any playing time, which in Heather language translates to the best players will play and the others, well they won't. I dare someone to ask me if we'll be signing up for that one :)

Our Weekend

OK, so, I'm 32, and I'm a hair-coloring virgin. I've never colored my hair, so on Friday I have this big idea to get highlights. Wow. That was interesting. It turned out a bit blonder than I anticipated, but it was fun. I like it, but it is taking some getting used to.

I must admit that I had one of the nicest Mother's Day in a while. Levi picked me some flowers on the way home from the bus on Friday. I got the roots and everything. Too cute.

Levi made me a jewelry box at school, and Benjamin made me a bowl in OT. I don't know how much longer I will get little handmade gifts or handpicked "flowers" from our neighbors yards, so they meant a lot to me.

I told Levi that I always wanted him to make me things and when he was old like Daddy he just mail them to me. He said, "Why would I have to mail them when I'll be living here?" I just about cried. Then he said that when he grew up that he didn't want to get a job; he just wanted to play video games all day long. But I guess that's a entirely different blog in and of itself. I hope that idea fades quickly, as I don't see that being very appealing to the ladies when he's 30 or so.

On Saturday afternoon, Benjamin had his Jitterbugs performance. Jitterbugs is a dance or "creative movement" class he takes at school once a week. He loves music so much, so I thought he would like taking it. Every semester they have a performance which involves wearing costumes and dancing to different songs. OK, wait. I thought initially there was NO WAY Benjamin would let anyone put costumes on him, let alone get him to stand on a stage in front of everyone and dance. That is why we skipped the January performance; I just didn't think he could handle it.

I decided to go ahead and give it a whirl for the May performance, and to our amazement, he did great. He wore costumes, including hats, and got on stage and kinda danced. Every once and a while he would throw his hands up or do a high kick like the Dallas Cowboy Cheerleaders. I was just happy he wasn't screaming. OK, who am I kidding? I was thrilled.

The kids made me pancakes for breakfast on Sunday morning, and then it was off to church. I was fortunate enough to find and sing a song for both services about the unconditional love of Mothers. It was so sad, and I would have cried like a baby if my Mom would have been there.

That afternoon, Ken and Levi went to pick up his fish from the taxidermist. It quite a bit bigger than we remembered it. Levi wanted to take it to school today, but Ken quickly shot down that idea.

Oh, and Ken got me a new digital camera. Can you tell? Hope everyone had a great Mother's Day!

To Quit or Not to Quit...

That seems to be the $100,00 question at our house this week. Should we let Levi quit baseball or will that make him a "quitter?"

I say call it quits. Throw in the towel. Be done with it already. Who cares anyway?

Ken says letting him quit will "make him a quitter, and he's not teaching him to be that way."

So, we are at odds about it. This week we only have 1 practice and 1 game. Not too busy this week, but Levi is already complaining about it. Did I mention that he erased all the scheduled games and times from my dry erase calender on the fridge. Is that a cry for help or what?

Ken is apparently winning because we're still going. And I'm sure his team will make the play-offs so we will probably be playing well into June.

His coaches are as serious as sin about this game. One of the coaches gave a speech before the last game about how "we needed to win this game because winning is what it's all about...that's what we're here for." I wanted to raise my hand and say, "Umm, excuse me, but I thought we were here to have fun?" I totally should have, but I was fearful that the guy would have literally tackled me to the ground and pulled my fingers backwards until I screamed uncle or something. He doesn't have time to mess around with slackers like me :)

Our Week

I feel like screaming it from the mountaintops, so excuse me while I climb up on my dining room chair, cup my hands around my big mouth, and yell out in my loudest Heather voice, "BENJAMIN HAS TESTED OUT OF OT! WOO HOO!" Our initial goal was to get him at age level by May of 2009, and here we are an entire year early.

That said, we have decided to keep sending him for now. I know some of you may think that's asinine, but we feel it is important. He is right now at the oldest level for his age group (42-47 months). He'll be 4 on June 9, then he'll have to fall into an entirely different age level (48-59 months) with a whole new set of objectives. The main reason we want him to keep going is that he LOVES it. When I ask him where he wants to go, he always says, "to A-Wissa's" (Melissa's). Now we just have to pay the difference of what our insurance doesn't pay. Even Ken was on board with that (shocking, I know), so we will continue to go for a while longer.

Levi had another baseball game last night and did really well. He got a good base hit and stole 2 bases. He and 3 or 4 other kids take turns sitting on the bench, so after the game I asked him if he liked doing that. He replied, "I really do because I get to sit and talk to everyone. I mean there's no T.V. in there or anything, but I like it." So apparently he'd rather sit and socialize than play any position on the field. Wonder where he gets that from?

At the end of the game, the coach hands out awards to the kid who makes the best play or works the hardest, and Levi got one of the awards (a little bag of M&Ms) for "making his play." We're sure it didn't have anything to do with the fact that Ken called the coach the day before to ask him for advice because Levi has been wanting to quit. I'm sure that's purely coincidental :)

We, of course, didn't tell Levi that, and it really did seem to boost his eagerness. I was really proud of the coach because I'm sure he wanted to give the M&M's to one of those kids that can bolt the ball from 3rd to 1st like he's not even trying or on of those kids that can stretch out like Elasti-girl to catch a ball and still stay on base for the out. I hate it when 7-year-olds are better at sports than I am.

The Not-So-Great Outdoors

"I survived Cub Scout Camp, 2008." That's what the t-shirt would read if I was asked to design one.

It started off really well. Ken and Levi went down on Friday night, and Benjamin and I joined them the following morning at 10:00. We were the first ones to get there out of our den, so I was feeling really proud of myself. The weather was beautiful, and everything was great...so far.

We did some games with the other dens and then broke for lunch. After lunch, we all decided to go on a hike. It was only 1 1/2 miles, so Benjamin and I decided to give it a try. That was fun. I had done that hike once in college, so it had been a while for me. This trail had caves and waterfalls. Ken had to carry Benjamin a few times so he wouldn't plummet to his untimely death.

Levi and his Cub Scout friends on the hike.

Ken and Benjamin on the trail. How cute is this?

After the hike, we started preparing for dinner. They were having a dutch oven dessert contest between the dens, and for some strange reason I volunteered to make something. We came up with ice cream...in a dutch oven...except in a bucket of ice...lots and lots of ice and lots and lots of stirring. The flavor was great, but it was about the consistency of soup or a milkshake at best. We didn't win, and everyone made fun of it. Lots of fun.

Now we're off to the campfire and it's about 40 degrees by now. Apparently at every Cub Scout campfire they always retire a US flag. Maybe I'm just an uninformed American, but I had no idea that you had to cut each stripe of the flag individually and then throw it into the fire and bury it later. Guess that's what I get for quitting Girl Scouts too soon. I had never seen that done, so it was cool. Frigidly cold, but still neat.

At last, it's time for bed. Everyone was exhausted, so we retire to our bed of gravel and hunker down for a cold, cold night. Ken did give me the below freezing sleeping bag, which I was entirely grateful for. My electric blanket would have been great, but under the circumstances, I guess it could have been much worse.

So, I'm done. I survived. And, this may shock you, but I didn't complain the whole time I was there. I really wanted Levi to have a good time, so I kept my big mouth shut and went along with everything.

Oh, yes, and the SPF 15 that was on my face didn't apparently hold up very well for me. I now look like a cross between Raggedy Ann and Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer.

Can't wait 'til the fall camp out.