April showers

Guess it's time to get my monthly post up before time runs out!

Still dealing with issues from before, along with other things that have come up. In addition, today is the anniversary of my mom's death, so that's weighed over me, on top of another friend dying last week.

Little Man's baseball season is in full swing. Unfortunately, it's going the same as last year did. After a nail-biting first game, we've fallen further and further back - tonight we lost by 20. I really want to see him leave the field a winner this year, even if it is just once. I also want him to walk on the field feeling like his team has a chance. Heck, the Royals beat the Yankees once in a while, why can't his team win?

Sweet Pea is fired up about the middle school band. We're still on the hunt for a clarinet. She's always been someone who never wanted to do anything - but would complain that she's never involved in anything. Upward cheerleading was great for her and I'm hoping she's able to jump in with both feet with the band stuff. Middle school will be an adjustment, this could give her something to hold onto and to help her find friends.

Lil Bit has had an interesting month. She gets more and more feisty each day! Sometimes though, she's a little too eager to jump into things - like when she grabbed the lawn mower last week right after it was turned off. She grabbed the exhaust, which led to a trip to the emergency room and the burn center. Second-degree burns on her hand. She's bounced back pretty well, considering, but still favors it a bit at times (understandably).

It doesn't stop her from coming up with stuff though, like this morning when Mom was getting her dressed. Purple and pink have been her favorite colors since, well, forever. Mom was putting a pink outfit on her and asked her how she liked wearing one of her favorite colors. She replied that her favorite colors were now brown and white. When asked why, she replied "Because I want chocolate milk."

I know some of y'all are going through rough times too - I'm praying for you.

March marches out

Well, at least I'm getting a post in before this month ends ...

Sorry it's been so long since I've been on. I got some news at the beginning of the month that kind of threw me for a loop. I've had to make some adjustments in my life and that's been my focus right now. I think I'm getting more of a handle on things, but trying to figure out all I need to do has been interesting.

Did make it back to NOLA a couple of times; once on a field trip with Little Man's Venture class (he LOVED the Insectarium, even though he wouldn't eat any of the critters they cooked up). The next week we met some friends down there who really weren't familiar with things. It was fun playing tour guide.

As I type this, the sun is shining and the temps are great. Would love it to stay this way for a while. I've had enough cold weather for one winter. Although, knowing Mississippi, we've got one more big cold snap left for us - after the flowers begin to bloom, of course.

We're getting ready to start baseball. It's our last season of coach-pitch (and before it gets "serious") so we're gonna try to enjoy it. Sweet Pea tried out for the middle school band and is fired up about it. We're thrilled; getting her involved - in anything - has been a struggle. Now we have to find a clarinet ...

At home

Lil Bit did not have a good night last night. Mom was out of town too, so it was on me to take care of her, while balancing the others as well. I'm home with her right now, just in case. She probably could have gone in today, but I wasn't sure, and didn't see the point in taking her in just to turn around and have to pick her up again if my concerns were true.

If Iask her how she's feeling, she's good - unless she senses I'm up to something. Then she'll screw her face up and say "I feewing bad again" and hold her tummy.

--

Little Man tickled me a while back. He was working on homework (he had to find different shapes in the paper and magazines) and was having trouble finding one shape. He eventually called me in and announced in an excited voice that he had found the shape he needed. He then held up an ad with a very curvy underwear model to show me that he had indeed found a triangle. He never did figure out why his mom said he couldn't use that one.

Happy Mardi Gras!

Hope you're having a good day, even if it is just Tuesday here. Sweet Pea wore a Mardi Gras shirt to school and Little Man wore a NOLA shirt in honor of the day. Lil Bit is just playing with some beads and stuffed animals she got from last week's parades.

(tap tap) Is this thing on?

I'm just starting to recover from our trip to New Orleans last weekend for the first weekend of Mardi Gras and the Saints' first Super Bowl game. I've always said that, if the Saints ever made it, I'd spend Super Bowl weekend back at home.

We made it down in time for back-to-back parades Saturday morning, the second of which normally runs on Sunday (they decided to move up a day for some reason, can't imagine why). Things were a bit more subdued than normal; everyone was in a Black & Gold stupor, even the people on the floats. My favorite part of the first one was when a float went by with an empty spot where a rider should be. A sign saying "Gone to Miami!" was hanging at that spot. Steven Seagal was in the second parade, and there was a camera there. Sweet Pea and I may end up on his TV show (my wife said the camera zoomed in on us while we were at the float).

Sweet Pea wasn't feeling good that night, so mom took her and Lil Bit to the hotel. We tried to convince them to come out, but they wouldn't. They should have; a friend invited us to a prime spot and we cleaned up.

My old church decided there was no point in having service Sunday night, so they held a Super Bowl party instead. Large screen, large crowd (some of which I grew up with), lots of food and inflatables for the kids. Everybody was in the mood for the game; Sweet Pea and Little Man had been listening to and singing Saints songs for weeks, and even Lil Bit was saying "Who Dat say gonna beat them Saints - not Santa Claus!"

Needless to say, there was lots of celebrating going on when the game ended. Someone popped in a CD of Saints songs and we all began second-lining around the church. I'll never forget the look on my kids' faces - they didn't know what was going on, but they thought it was cool.

One of the local sporting goods places opened after the game to sell championship apparel. We went, and so did thousands of others. It turned into a huge victory parade and party, with singing, dancing, hugging and hollering. It took me 2 1/2 hours to get into the store, but it was well worth it for the atmosphere.

Here's a picture my wife took near the end (but not at the end) of the line. If you look, you can see the back of the store in the distance.











Who Dat.

Past the holidays

Hope everyone had a good holiday season. To me though, it makes January even more blah than it is; after several weeks of excitement, anticipation and days off, we now have ... nothing. Just cold and bills. And for me, the crud.

It was an interesting holiday time around the Doghouse. Of course, we didn't get to do everything we planned to do, but that's par for the course. Both Sweet Pea and Little Man are loving Upward, and we get back started with it this week. Sweet Pea has been the quiet, non-involved child for most of her life; it's interesting to see her not only cheering but being the loudest one out there. It's showing up in other areas too, as she's loosening up around home as well (not so worried about what we might think). She even grabbed her guitar and lip-synched to "Rocking Around the Christmas Tree" during the break (and, naturally, when I grabbed the camcorder, it was out of tape).

Little Man, still eaten up with sports, has loved bowl season and is still in full Who Dat mode going into the playoffs.

Lil Bit still comes up with stuff. Got a note Monday from her teacher saying she wasn't following directions in line; when asked about it, she looked at me and said "But I was the leader today" as if that answered everything.

We went to New Orleans over the holidays for Celebration in the Oaks, etc. Don't know what she was dreaming about one night while we were there, but she woke up screaming in the middle of the night. When we got to her and asked about it, she said "Baby Jesus tickled my booty!"

Already?

The two oldest kids have been up for 30 minutes. It's been fun listening to their excited whispers. At one point I heard Little Man say "Let's wake the rest of the family up." Sweet Pea said L
"We can't; I promised I wouldn't this year."

"Well I didn't!" was his reply.

They just came and asked if they could use my Bible so they could read the Christmas story to each other. Of course I said yes.