Shannon Roberts' Unruly Kid

Though it is a little hard to tell from this picture, Robert had a black eye for a few days thanks to Shannon Roberts' Unruly Kid. Ok, Robert was as much to blame as Austin, but still... After Bible Bowl Camp, there was some unsanctioned football in the church yard and then a head on collision which resulted in a black eye. I guess it beats the broken church window from last year's Bible Bowl Camp...

Now I am done for the week. We have a baseball scrimmage tonight, Mock Bible Bowl in the morning, and then who know where the wind will blow us for the Labor Day weekend - Rock Island maybe???

What a Waste

Last weekend we wanted to get out of the house and go do something that wouldn't break the bank or take all day -- batting cages!!

And, of course, Rob had to get in on the action...

Here's a picture of the kids on the rocks of the miniature golf course.

And Marina by herself...

We did spend a few bucks in the arcade b/c Marina begged and pleaded for vampire teeth which you need tickets to buy. I told her we could get several of them at WalMart for $0.97. "No! We HAVE to get them HERE!"

I didn't edit out the red eye b/c I think it adds to the overall effect...

Now to the "What a Waste" part - This go cart / mini golf / arcade is in Bellevue right at the Interstate. It once was a big deal. The mini golf place has a big giraffe that you can see from the Interstate. There is a big elephant, rocks, fountains, etc. But the "lakes" aren't filled with water, just this greenish line where the water used to be. The fountains are barely flowing. The astro turf is worn and taped down with duct tape. The pavilion is over grown with Virginia Creeper. The batting cages and go cart areas are fine b/c they are just concrete. The arcade is run down and it kind of smells in there. The bathrooms have broken faucets and broken paper towel holders. There is a duct tape theme here b/c there is duct tape being used to repair the rips in the carpet. Except for the skee ball (isn't that what you call the game where you roll the balls up the ramp?) and the air hockey table, everything else is worn out and out dated. But there is a sign that encourages you to have your birthday party there...

Every time I see something like that I want to find a way to buy it and make it what it could be. I don't even follow through with the fantasy and then sell it for big money. I just know that I could do it better, that guy could do it better.

When I see little store fronts that would be just perfect as a bakery or a gas station that could be a really neat store (Coakley's for example), I start planning about how I would do the build out, what the logo would look like, etc. -- even though that is nowhere in my long term goals for my family. If I ever get any money, I could be dangerous...

ps. Kym, I am still planning on opening a boutique in PV for you and Shannon to run, so that you, my mom, and I can have a place to show case our Martha Stewart sides... And we need to sell specialty desserts (for Delaney)...

The Wild Kingdom

What follows are 9 photos of spiders - and not very good photos at that b/c I was so creeped out that I was in a hurry. These are 9 different spiders, but all of the same species. They are those garden spiders that make huge orb webs with the white stuff in the middle.

This first one is hanging in front of our window.

This is a little tiny baby one.

This one was bouncing on her web and when I stopped to watch and take a picture, she ran down the web and took off. I don't know what the deal was...

Oh, man, am I creeped out just looking at them. I looked them up online and everything says that it is no big deal to have a congregation of them. It is because we didn't weed eat next to the house the last time we mowed. Also our garden hose slowly leaks, but enough that there are probably more insects there than anywhere else. But still... I told Rob not to knock down the webs b/c at least I know where these dudes are when they are on their webs. And I am trying to keep an open mind... Anyway, they'll be dead soon enough. By the way, here is your garden spider trivia for the day. These are females. The males cruise around looking for female webs and tap on the web letting the female know they are coming up so that the female doesn't just instinctively charge them and kill them. Then they come up, do their business, and stumble off the web and die. When they are looking for a girl's crib, they don't eat or drink. So after the deed is done, they die. Crazy...

Pageants and Being a Bad Mother

Here is a photo of the top three in the Fair pageant. Are they cute or what?? When we got home that night, Marina said, "I need to put this dress away. It is very important to me." She has carried her trophy (1st place) around with her from room to room since Monday. Her game ball from the game where she hit a double is who knows where, but her trophy - that's another story. I guess she has found what makes her happy... I am too incompetent to figure out how to put the video on here, so these pictures will have to do. If I figure out the video portion, I'll add it later. But it's not very good anyway. This is a picture of Marina and her friend Lilly. The only two ladies brave enough to wear color...

Man, I am on a roll... Here are some pictures from Marina's other endeavor - dance.

By the way, I do have another child. Robert is my 10 year old son.

Let me tell you a little story about why I am somewhat of a bad mom. Robert had been invited to join a tournament baseball team. That is a big deal to people in Ashland City baseball. You only get on a tournament team if you are good. And Ashland City had never had a tournament team come out of its park. So we thought this was pretty cool. Let me tell you the reality of tournament ball. It is hot, expensive, cut throat, and basically no fun. A baseball mom that I go to church with said we just got on the wrong team, but I don't know...

So, we had invested this time and money in this venture to have my child and another child sit the bench for most of the season. I know that I am biased, but I am telling you the truth when I say that as far as skill, Robert and Peyton are just as good as any other player on the team. None of them had ever played tournament ball, so it was new to everyone. I have mulled this over and over - why did Robert and Peyton (and the two West Cheatham players) sit the bench more than any of the others - when other players with no more talent, but much worse attitudes, get to play the infield and stay on the field for all of every game? By the way, these were not close games, we were losing each by 20 runs or more.

I have concluded that Robert and Peyton were the quietest players on the team. They don't back talk, don't throw fits when they are in the dug outs, etc. Also, we as parents, didn't call the coach or loud talk the coach for them being in the dug out. Also, Robert is 2 grades ahead of the other players on the team. He's just different. So I think it was just easier to bench Robert and Peyton. Needless to say, we are done with travel ball...

But below is one of the few pictures that I managed to capture. During this game two players were out with injuries, so Robert finally got to play the infield. And I had the camera. Well, he proceeded to play in the dirt, kick rocks, not move for the ball. I know that at this point we were so over the whole thing that he probably had no drive to do better. But I thought, I can't believe that he is acting like this. I took pictures of him being a naughty baseball player so he can see what he looks like when he isn't paying attention. Then my battery died.

Here's the punch line, during the next inning (no camera) he caught a ball, tagged a runner, and threw to first for a triple play! When he received the tournament ball, his coach said, "That was something that you'll probably not see again - an essentially unassisted triple play."

So hopefully this web archive of sorts will encourage me to take more pictures of both of them, no matter how they are acting!

Getting started, Kym McDonald, and Marina

Why, I asked, would I want to add "blogging" to my list of things to do in a day? Well, Kym McDonald is one of my BFFs (see how cool I am - I've got this text / blog lingo down) and she said, "I never know where you are or what you are doing. You need a blog." A blog? I scoffed at the idea. I am far too busy and blogging is so cliche. I prefer human interaction. Hmmpf. So yesterday my daughter was in a pageant and I had to explain / justify this to about 15 different people either in e-mail or over the phone. Then I knew I would have the responsibility of dowloading the pictures and e-mailing them out to everyone. This little thought creeped into my head, "if I had a blog, like Kym, I could just tell people to look there..." So here I am, thanks to Kym. And if I were to be honest, this will probably provide me more human interaction with friends and family than I am getting now. A quick, "yeah, uh huh" as I drive from one appointment to another isn't really much interaction... I'll probably be less of a mystery to everyone now. That is, assuming you have nothing better to do than check in with the Sherberts... Anyway, this won't be as hip as Kym's blog, but it'll get us started. As for the pageant, here is a copy of the pageant portions of the e-mail that I sent to Kym. As soon as I learn how to add pictures to this, you can see for yourself how precious the girl is... "You may know that Marina decided this year that baseball was NOT for her. She told me she just wants to sing and dance on TV. So she started dance class. Then one night after baseball for Robert we came home and turned on the TV. The last 5 or 10 women in the Miss Universe pageant were on. Marina kept saying how beautiful they were. Then her Barbies started having pageants. Then she said she wanted to be in a pageant. Rob and I looked at each other b/c this was about 2 weeks before the fair, and the words started forming and before we could stop them, we told Marina that there was a pageant coming up at the fair. So we signed her up ($20), we bought her a dress ($30), we bought her shoes ($7), and she won first place (priceless). The sign up form said church dress, child will not be judged on clothing. So we got her a fairly simple, but kind of dressy sundress and brown sandals. She wore her hair straight and normal. Every other child had satin and lace and curls and glitter, etc. She also was one of only 2 girls that didn't wear white or yellow. But they were all so cute, I kept telling Marina, "You never know who will win. There are a lot of cute girls here." She kept saying, "I hope I make it to the next round." Too much American Idol, Nashville Star, etc. in our house... But the end result was that she had the best time. She said, "I'm so excited!" about a hundred times. And then when she won, she said, "I'm thrilled!" Dr. Phil said on a show that one of my jobs as a parent is to be a talent scout. I need to expose my children to lots of different things and find what they love and what they are good at. So if Robert takes me to a million baseball games, I guess I have to follow Marina to just as many dance classes and pageants. And I can console myself by saying that she enjoys it and whether or not it is my thing, it is her thing for now." There's our beginning on the world wide web. Hang in there with me as I figure this all out...