Lights

Hello everyone, this is Morry.

Before I talked about what happened today, Rachel suggested I talk a bit about Evan's games yesterday.  Evan has been playing especially well in the last few weeks.  In particular, he's hitting the ball hard every time.  Yesterday, those hard hits finally paid off in the form of a triple.  He had hit a ball very hard earlier in the day to deep center but this one was a line drive that was so hard hit down into left field that it rolled all the way to the corner and Evan ended up with a triple.  While he was playing catcher, only one run scored (on an error) and only one kid tried to steal on Evan. The ball was in the dirt so Evan had to block it and wasn't able to make a throw.  At third base, Evan fielded a ball towards the mound and threw to first on the run to get the runner out.  He also barehanded a ball and fielded another ball and threw to end the game.

Evan slept over Reid's last night so he was not home this morning. He stayed at Reid's until after the Steelers game.

Rachel and I went to Lady Bird Lake and walked around.

When we got home I watched the Steelers game.  Rachel took a nap and also tutored during the game.  Noah watched with me but he left when they were losing.  When the Steelers took the lead he was nervous to come back and watch with me.

After the game, I picked Evan up and brought him home so he could clean his room.  Rachel has a sponsored post on her blog to get these wifi-enabled colored led light strips for the boys' rooms.  Rachel and I put them up in Noah's room at the top of one wall along the ceiling.  It was a bit of a pain.  Then we attached them underneath a shelf in Evan's room.  Both boys seemed to like them.  Rachel took pictures for her sponsored post.

When we were done, we went to HEB and shopped for the week. We had Domino's delivered for dinner.

The boys are upstairs playing.  Rachel and I will sit down to watch some TV soon.

Until next time...

Baseball, Passover, Hike and the Dog Park

Hello everyone, this is Morry.

We had a full weekend this weekend.  It started out with a semi-relaxed morning yesterday morning, and then what felt like non-stop after that.

Evan and I left the house around 11am to go to his games. It was a one-day tournament.  In the first game, Evan played third base the whole game.  He made two very nice plays.  On one play there was a hard hit line drive to his left.  He dove and came down with the ball.  You could see the ball sticking out of his glove a bit. Later in the game, he back-handed a ball going down the line and threw across the diamond to get the out.  Unfortunately, they lost that game.

In the second game, Evan caught the whole game.  He picked off a runner who had gotten to far from third in the first inning.  He also should have thrown a runner out stealing both second and third but in both instances, the fielder made a mistake putting the tag down.  He really played well at catcher.  Again, it was unfortunate but the team last.  Also the games ran long which made us late for the Seder.

We got to the Seder about an hour late.  I don't think the actual Seder started too much before we got there.  Maybe 15-20 minutes.  Noah took over the job of "God" from me.  I had done it the last three years.  Last year, we introduced "God, Jr." played by Noah.  This year he moved up.  This part requires answering Papa talking about the plagues he's going to do to the Egyptians.  Noah did a really good job.

Evan and Noah had a good time playing with their cousins, Nolan and Court.

This morning we got up and got going early to take Chewie to Emma Long Park.  There is a 3-mile leash-less hike there.  We got there at 10:30 but the park had already closed due to capacity.  We found a spot along the side of the road, and tried to walk through the woods to bypass the blockade.  Unfortunately, there was a barbed wire fence that prevented us from getting across.  Nevertheless, Chewie liked that hike.

From there, we went to Auditorium Shores.  We let Chewie run around and go swimming.  He seemed a bit worn out from the previous hike.  We stayed there for a while and then walked across the river to eat ice cream sandwiches at a placed called Baked Bear.

After that, we drove to Grandma and Papa's for the boys to finish the cleanup process in the backyard.

We rested at home for about 2 hours before we left, picked up Grandma and Papa and went to Lupe Tortilla for dinner.

We're home now and the boys are relaxing some.

Until next time...

Last Weekend of Baseball

Hello everyone, this is Morry.

This morning, we got up early to go to Evan's last tournament.  This is the "B" team that he's playing for.  We had to be at the fields at 7:15.  Noah wanted to come with us because Angelo's brother, Tony, as going to be there and they were planning to hang out.

We stopped at Donut Taco Palace on the way.  Noah didn't want anything.

Evan played third base in the first game.  He made some very nice places on balls that were chopped.  He seemed to know when to field the ball so he didn't get caught between hops.  He popped up once and walked twice in the game.  The team lost that game.  In the second game, he was catcher.  He threw out a runner trying to steal third in the first inning.  They never tried to steal second on Evan but they attempted third three more times.  Two of the times, I thought the runner was out but the umpire called them safe.  The third time the throw was just late, although that was Evan's most impressive throw.  The pitch was high and inside causing Evan to have to stand to catch but Evan was off balance. He somehow managed to catch it, transfer the ball to his throwing hand and throw a perfect strike without moving his feet.  He didn't step into it at all and the throw looked great.  They unfortunately lost that game as well.

We came home and did nothing all afternoon which was kind of nice.  Evan, Noah and I were all quite tired.  Rachel did take Chewie on the upstairs porch.  She did some work out there and let Chewie relax looking out front.

For dinner we went to Chipotle and then we went to the new Bahama Buck's that just opened in Austin.  We've been looking forward to it opening.

The boys will be getting ready for bed soon.

Until next time...

Another Busy Day

Hello everyone, this is Morry.

This has been a busy week so far and today continued the trend.  After taking the Noah to school, I did a bit of work and then went into the Touch To office.  Rachel didn't have to teach today so she stayed home, though she went to a physical therapy appointment in the morning.

I worked from the office most of the day and had a meeting in the afternoon.  I came home after Rachel picked Noah up from school and after Evan had gotten back from the bus.

Noah went to Grandma and Papa's for dinner.  He went from school to their house.

When I got home, Evan and I got ready to leave to go to practice.  I took him out to practice.  Then I went to a restaurant with Cooper's dad, Brad.  I didn't eat as I promised to take Evan out for dinner.  But we sat and talked.  It was nice.

Rachel went to a workshop for bloggers and influencers downtown.

Evan had a meeting with his coach where the coach told Evan what their expectations of Evan were for the season.  They want him to take over as a leader for both teams.  They think he can be that leader and they want him to realize it.  They also are going to start transitioning him to third base when he's not catching as they think he'll have more of a chance to play there in high school.  He'll still get to play first some, but they think he profiles better as a third baseman (I have always thought that but Evan likes first base).  Evan had a really good time at practice.
 
Evan and I stopped at Tucci's Southside Subs and got cheesesteaks for dinner.

When we got home, we fed the animals and then walked to Grandma and Papa's with Chewie to get Noah.

Rachel got home after we got back.  Shortly after she got home the boys got ready for bed.

Until next time...

Full Weekend

Hello everyone, this is Morry.

This weekend, we were in Houston for a baseball tournament.  Evan and I went down on Friday night.  Rachel and Noah joined us on Friday afternoon.

Evan had two baseball games on Saturday.  He ended the day 0-1 with an RBI (on a sacrifice fly), two runs scored, a walk, and a hit-by-pitch.  He played catcher for most of the day and did very well.  He also played some first base.  His team won both games and got the #2 seed in the tournament.

All the families went out to lunch for wings and watched college football.  Then we went back to the hotel and the boys all went swimming.

Noah had two flag football games.  Well he had one game and if they won, they would play later in the day in the "Super Bowl".  Noah's team won both games and Noah was instrumental in both wins.  He pulled a bunch of flags, pressured the quarterback into throwing an interception and had several big runs.  On one, he told me, he thought he was going to score but his flag got pulled at the last minute.

When Noah and Rachel got down, Noah immediately started hanging out with Evan and his team.

We all went out for dinner at a Mexican restaurant.

Yesterday, Evan's first game was not until 2pm.  For brunch, we went to Katz's Deli.

Evan's team won a very tight game.  Games are timed.  They are one hour and 40 minutes.  Once time has expired, you finish the inning.  Evan's team was the home team.  With time expired, the other team was batting.  They ended up tying the game after a very long inning.  That meant Evan's team got a chance to bat before going into extra innings.  With two outs, a boy walked.  Took second on a passed ball, stole third, and then scored on a wild pitch.  The game went 2 hours and 10 minutes long.  Evan played third base in the game even though he hasn't played it much.  He did very well.  I wonder if he'll end up playing there more often.

The second game didn't go so well.  The boys on the other team all looked much older.  It's hard for me to believe they were the right age.  We probably should have asked for birth certificates.  All-in-all though, the team played very well this weekend and they should be proud.  Evan walked 4 times this weekend and has walked 8 times in the last two weekends.  I don't know what his on base percentage is but it has to be high.

Until next time...

Three Football Games

Hello everyone, this is Morry.

We were able to sleep in this morning because football did not start until 10:30.  It was nice having a relaxed morning.

Noah's game was at 11am, followed by two football games for Evan at noon and 1.  Noah had to get there at 10:30 for warmups.  It was my first time seeing Noah play flag football in a game.  I thought he played very well today.  He had two passes thrown to him.  One he almost had, and another was knocked away by the defender.  He had a good run as well.  On defense, he covered so well that the other never passed to the guy he was covering.  He was always right there.  Noah's team had the lead briefly but ended up losing.

In Evan's first game, he had two good runs when he was on offense.  One he almost broke for a touchdown.  One kid made a great flag pull when Evan changed directions.  On defense, Evan blitzed quite a bit.  He had a great flag pull in the backfield and he jumped to knock down a pass as he was blitzing and took the pass off his forehead.  The ball shot straight in the air but he couldn't find it to intercept it.  Evan's team won.

In Evan's second game, he had a nice reception as well as a run.  The other team was quite big - they were made up of 6th graders - and Evan's team struggled.

Evan went home with Darius after the game.

We took it easy in the afternoon.

Around dinner time we picked up Evan and then went to a place called Third Base for dinner.  The service was pretty bad.  And actually, the food wasn't very good either.  We had gotten a coupon for $10 off when we did the 5K a few weeks ago and thought we'd give it a shot.

We stopped at HEB to get some shopping done on the way home.

The boys are getting ready for bed now.

Until next time...

Baseball Yesterday, Nothing Today

Hello everyone, this is Morry.

Yesterday morning, Evan had his first two baseball games of the season.  I wasn't sure if he'd play because he had a fever the day before.  I woke him up with medicine and thermometer in hand.  He jumped up, ready to go the moment I woke him up.  I took his temperature and it was normal.  He couldn't wait to go to the games.

We stopped at Donut Taco Palace on the way.  Evan talked the entire trip out to the fields.

In the first game, Evan was 2-3 with 2 RBIs and a run scored.  He played most of the game in right field but the final inning at third.  Actually, Evan knocked in the first run of the season for the team.  The Bucs won 16-5.

The second game was much more challenging, so Evan played third base the entire game.  He fielded a hard shot on top of third base and fired a bullet to first base to easily get the runner.  He was 1-2 and knocked in the tying run in the third.  The game was really tight.  Through the first two innings, it was 0-0.  The other team scored 2 in the third and the Bucs answered with 3 in the bottom of the third.  No one scored in the fourth.  In the fifth and final inning the other team scored one and the Bucs had a walk-off on an overthrow to first.  Evan was on-deck.  I thought he might have a chance to get the walk-off hit.   In both games, Evan was watching the other team's coaches and was able to steal their steal sign.

Today, we stayed at home most of the day.  Rachel tutored.  Grandma and Papa went to Home Depot and did things with their house.  The boys and I went to the park and played basketball.

Rachel stopped at HEB on the way home from tutoring.

For dinner, we went to Sap's.

The boys just showered and are getting ready for bed.

Until next time...

Let's Play Two

Hello everyone, this is Morry.

Evan's baseball team, the Marauders, were in a tournament this weekend.  Saturday is a two-game seeding.  Basically, based on your record after playing two games on Saturday, you're seeded for a single-elimination tournament on Sunday.  We got up early this morning as we needed to be out in Dripping Springs by 9:30am.  We stopped at Donut Taco Palace I on the way out there.

Evan played very well in the first game.  He played most of the game at third base but did play a handful of innings at catcher.  He played both positions very well.  In the first inning he was involved in a number of plays and threw someone out at first.  At catcher, he really shone.  He was very aggressive and was involved in making sure kids didn't score at least two different times.  In the third inning, he crushed a ball for a two-out bases-clearing double.  It was really a key hit in the game that played a crucial role.  We won that game by 3 runs.

In the second game, the kids stopped hitting very well.  Evan got two hits but several of the other kids didn't hit well.  Evan played even more catcher.  When he was at third base, he was involved in a run-down. Unfortunately, the team didn't win.

We're now a fifth seed out of 8.  We're playing the fourth seed at 9am Sunday.

On the way home, we stopped and got Icees at a gas station since I needed gas.  While we were there, I saw they were selling the original Batman movie and original X-Men movie for $5 each on DVD.  The boys have been asking to see them.  So I bought them.  We watched them this afternoon.  I think the kids liked watching both movies. I particularly enjoyed the old Batman.

For dinner, I picked up Torchy's for Rachel and me while Rachel made dinner for the boys.

The boys are now in bed.  Evan needs to get sleep for his game(s) tomorrow.

Until next time...

Full Day of Baseball

Hello everyone, this is Morry.

Today, we had the first day of a tournament that is benefiting the Oak Hill fields that were destroyed in the flooding a few weeks ago.  Each boy had two games today.  The games today set up seeding for tomorrow.  Noah had games at 10:30 and 1:30.  Evan played at 4:30 and 6pm.

Noah and I left the house around 8:45 to get to the fields which were far up north.  We were playing a team from Cedar Park.  I wasn't sure how good they were going to be.  During the regular season, I am required to have each player play in the infield sometime in the first three innings.  The tournament rules do not have such a requirement.  I decided to stick with those rules for our team.  Unfortunately, the other team was really good - they were a select team and we got absolutely killed.  We started off well getting three outs on the other team, but that was pretty much the high point.  Noah hit the ball well though.  His hitting has been doing well.

From there, much of the team went to Chick-Fil-A for lunch, so we joined them.  Evan and Rachel met us there.  Noah seemed to enjoy playing with his teammates.

In the second game, we played another team from Oak Hill.  But I didn't want to wind up with the lowest seed on Sunday so I changed the lineup to play to win.  I talked to some of the parents about this ahead of time and I didn't get any push back.  The strategy worked and we scored the most runs of any team in the tee ball portion of the tournament.

We stopped by the concession stand between that game and Evan's first game.  Then we had warm ups for Evan's team.

His team also was playing against a select team and like me, Evan's coach tried to play fairly in the first game with similar results.  Evan crushed a ball in the first inning down the left field line for a double.  He singled in his second at bat.  Unfortunately a mix-up with the third base coach had Evan running to third and he was a sitting duck.  He realized this but there was a kid on second and he had to run but he slid hard.  I mean really hard.  Somehow the third baseman held onto the ball because Evan clearly was trying to knock it loose.

Evan's coach employed my strategy in the second game.  The results were not the same as mine because we played another select team.  But the game went better even if we didn't win.  My feeling has been that Evan's best position is third base.  He played first base in the first inning and made a sliding catch of a really short pop up, but then he was at third base the rest of the game.  There he caught a really high pop up in short left field, snagged a hard hit line drive, and caught a force thrown by the shortstop with the boy running hard on him and sort of running into him without sliding.  His coach described him as a "monster" at third base.  His hitting was not as good in the second game but I think he really liked being at third base.

So after getting to the fields at 9:30am, we finally left the fields around 7:20pm or so.  For Father's Day, Rachel got me a Fitbit which keeps track of your steps, active minutes, calories burned, miles walked and even your sleep.  I set personal highs in steps, calories burned and miles walked today.  I think I stood pretty much the whole day as I was the assistant coach for Evan's team.

For dinner, I stopped and picked up Torchy's Tacos.  We ate dinner when we got home and then put the boys to bed.  Both boys went to sleep fairly quickly, though Noah didn't go down right away.

Noah's team is the number three seed in just a 5 team field.  The game is at 4:30pm.  Evan is the #8 seed in a 9 team field.  He is part of a play-in game now.  He will play at 10:30am.  If he wins he plays at noon against the 1 seed.  If he wins that at 3pm and then with a win there he'd have to play at 6pm.  If Noah wins, he will play at 6pm.

Until next time...

Season Is Over

Hello everyone, this is Morry.

I got up at 6:30 and checked my mail to see if the game was still on.  We were going to have to be at the fields by 7:30 for an 8:30 game. I hadn't looked out the window but I didn't hear any rain.  I didn't have any email.  I got dressed and checked my email again - nothing. I woke Evan up and we came downstairs where I got his uniform together to put on and still no email.  I got him dressed and checked my email - the game was delayed an hour.  I was thinking of laying back down but Evan insisted that we still go to the field and practice.

I woke Noah up and got him ready and we went to Donut Taco Palace and got donuts.  Then we went to the fields.  It was sunny out but humid.  I was surprised to see that the field was in pretty good condition.  It rained pretty hard last night.  I pitched to Evan in the batting cage for a while and then his team came.  I pitched to one other boy before Evan's coach came into the cage and started pitching.

Since I'm in the dugout and I help get the kids ready for their at-bats or going out into the field, Evan's coach gives me a lineup.  I looked and he had Evan playing third base every inning except one where he was catcher.  Those are Evan's two favorite positions.  I knew he'd be happy.  His team didn't give up any runs in the top of the first and quickly scored 5 in the bottom of the first.  Unfortunately, the other team scored 5 in the top of the second and Evan's team didn't score at all.  Evan lead off the top of the second and grounded to the first baseman who had to move a bit to his right.  It became a race to first base and the first baseman won.  The first baseman touched first and kept heading into foul territory.  I noticed Evan veered to the right as he hit first base.  I asked him later what that was about.  He said he was hoping to run into the first baseman and knock the ball out.  He's the only kid looking for contact.  The two teams played evenly with back and forth score the rest of the way. Unfortunately, at the end, the other team won by two runs.  Evan hit the ball hard (as you can see in the video below) but their third baseman was very good and had a very good arm.  In the video below, Evan hit into a fielder's choice and then later the third baseman threw him out on a great throw.  Evan was really distraught when they lost.  I felt so bad for him.

We stuck around as he wanted to be with his buddies for the team.  They watched a bit of the game following our game and then several of the parents said they were going to Doc's Backyard for lunch invited us along.  They have a big open space and a playground so we could all sit and talk while the kids played.  Both Evan and Noah seemed to have a good time.

We came home and at first Evan was in a bad mood.  I think he was tired and he didn't really eat lunch.  He ended up eating and then went outside to play baseball.

Later the boys drew on the sidewalk with chalk and then I had a catch with Evan.

We had dinner here and then went to Sweet Caroline's to get shaved ice for dessert.  We stopped at HEB to pick up food for the week on the way home.

The boys are in bed now.

Until next time...

Beautiful Day

Hello everyone, this is Morry.

This morning I got up around 8am.  I heard Evan already up.  He told me he wanted to finish watching The Sandlot.  Noah came downstairs shortly after we got downstairs.

I had a meeting at a coffee shop this morning.  On the way home, I picked up smoothies from Smoothie King.  Evan had asked me to get him one on the way home.

When I came home, the boys were eating lunch.  They went outside afterwards and were playing baseball.

I did some work in the afternoon while Evan continued to be outside playing.  Later on, I went out with Evan and we practiced ground balls.

Evan had a game in the evening.  Originally, it was scheduled for 7pm.  We were going to have an early dinner.  But at 4:50, Evan's coach called.  He said that one of his emails said the game was at 5:30.  This game was a make-up game.  So I got Evan dressed, while Rachel put together some dinner for the boys to eat.  When we got to the field, we found out the game really was at 7pm.  The boys didn't mind as all the baseball team organized their own game (not a baseball game, I'm not sure what they were doing).  One of the moms went and picked up dinner at Sonic for all the kids.

Evan continued to hit to the left side of the field.  He had a weak pop up in the first inning that dropped between the pitcher and shortstop which wound up as a single.  He popped up to the shallow outfield in the third and the shortstop caught it.  In the fifth, he hit another shot, again, right at the shortstop who caught it.  And then he grounded between short and third for an infield single in the sixth.  In the third, he fielded a ball really cleanly at third base and threw the runner out with a perfect throw to first.  Unfortunately, Evan's team lost.

We came home and put the boys to bed and then ate our dinner.

Until next time...

Championship

Hello everyone, this is Morry.

Try telling the boys that it was "fall back" today.  I heard them playing at 6:45 this morning.  Of course it really was 7:45 in their internal clocks.  We were hoping that the long day yesterday would cause them to sleep in some.

We finally got up and got ready to go to the Race for the Cure.  We signed up for the untimed portion which meant that we could walk.  We were able to park right by the start line because they reserve a special garage for survivors.  We brought the stroller in case Noah wanted to sit.  Evan walked the entire 3.1 miles.  Noah rode in the stroller for maybe a mile of it, if that.  He did well walking and walked fast.  It was downtown and I think the boys liked all the things to look at.

When we finished most of the swag had been given away already, although, to be honest, it looked like there were significantly fewer vendors there than when Rachel and I ran it two years ago.

We came home and had lunch.  We had about an hour until we needed to get to the fields for Noah's warm ups.

Noah hit well during warm ups.  He was very excited for the game.  One of the boys on Evan's team had a younger brother on the team playing against Noah's team.  So Evan and the boy from Evan's team, Anthony, played together until they needed to go to their warm ups.

For the championship game, the game is 6 innings untimed.  There were two umpires.  In the top of first, they had Noah at third base.  They said that this team hits mostly to third base and they wanted Noah there to start out the game.  They also shifted the shortstop much closer to third.  Noah played along the line.  One of the kids turned on the ball and hit a shot on the ground down the line.  But since Noah was standing almost at the line, he just put his glove down and stopped it.  It ended up taking a bounce and hitting Noah in the body, but he was not going to let that ball go past him.  It was a great play and Noah got lots of cheers.  Noah got hits in all of his at bats.  One of the times up, they overthrew first and Noah ran to second.  He runs well and listens so well.  In the third inning, Noah's team held the other team scoreless.  That turned out to be the difference and Noah's team won.  Noah was really happy about it.  It was a lot of fun.  They had a pizza party with a pinata after the game.  Rachel stayed with Noah while I watched Evan who took the field right after Noah's game ended.

Evan was playing a team they had beaten earlier in the season.  But somehow this team came alive since then.  They were hitting the ball all over the place.  Evan seemed to be very tired.  He did get a good hit in the bottom of the second.  And his fielding was good.  But he didn't quite seem as lively.  That seemed to be true of the entire team actually.  The other team won which meant that Evan had to play a second game right after.

A parent on the team bought sno-cones for all the kids.  Rachel got a Powerade for Evan as well.  That seemed to perk up all the kids.  Evan had a great game in the second game.  He doubled in one of his at-bats.  When he was playing third, a boy crushed a ball at Evan who knocked it down and fired over to first.  The umpire called the runner safe, which seemed questionable.  The third base coach for the other team was quite impressed and high-fived Evan.   A couple batters later, a kid hit a ball down the third base line.  Evan dove to his right and grabbed it.  He got up and threw the ball to first although a bit too late.  Again, it was just a tremendous play.  He was pretty pumped by it.  Unfortunately, Evan's team didn't have another comeback in them and they lost, finishing the season in third place.  Evan seemed ok with it.  The coaches told Evan they are going to try to get him on their team in the spring.  I think that would be wonderful.

Rachel took the boys home.  I went and picked up Rudy's.  We gave the boys showers and then put them to bed.

Until next time...

Baseball, Baseball, Baseball

Hello everyone, this is Morry.

Today, both boys had baseball games.  Evan had a game at 1pm and he needed to be there at noon.  Noah had a game at 3:30 and needed to be there at 2:45.  Knowing that we had a busy afternoon, we took it easy this morning.  The boys played baseball on the Wii for most of the morning.  Before we knew it, it was time for lunch and then we had to go to the fields.  Noah came with Evan and me.

They had Evan playing third at warm ups so I knew that he'd probably be playing that again today.  He's played so well there and he has the arm to get it to first.  He started the game at second base though and made some nice catches on cutoffs (which he also seemed to grasp) on balls to the right and right center.  He batted second and after the first boy got out, he singled and ended up coming around to score.  In the 2nd inning he was at third.  On a short popup, he came racing in and made a diving catch for an out.  He had another single in the third.  In the fourth, he was back at 3rd base.  A big kid came up and just turned on the ball rocketing the ball at Evan.  Evan calmly put his glove up and caught the line drive.  He seemed so nonchalant about it, though when he came back into the dugout later, he was very excited about it.  In the same inning, there was a slow roller than Evan ran up and picked up with his bare hand, though he didn't have a play.  And he got the third out in the inning on a ground ball that he fielded and touched third.  In the bottom of the fifth, Evan singled to score the fifth run of the inning which ended the game (each inning is capped at 5 runs or 3 outs).  Unfortunately, Evan's team lost for the first time this season 16-15.

After the game, we went over to the snow cone truck and got snow cones.  They allow you to put your own flavoring on it.

We walked over to Noah's field, ate, and then Noah warmed up.  He was very excited for his game.  Noah was the fifth batter and really hit the ball hard in the top of the first and ran hard for a single.  He played third base in the bottom of the first though he had to come out early because he had to pee.  In the third, Noah got out for the first time this season.  I was wondering how he'd handle that and he handled it like a pro.  I was really proud of him for that.  He seemed to know how got out, and casually walked back to the dugout.  He didn't seem upset at all.  He told me if the first baseman had made an error he would have been safe.  He came up in the fourth with a chance to atone and he came through.  He ran hard to first and that was the difference.  The batter behind him tripled and it was fun to see Noah running from 1st to home.  He did a good job.

After the game, we came home.  We made dinner and then I had to go back to the fields.  It was Evan's team's turn to volunteer at the concession stand.  So I had to do it from 6:45pm to 8pm.  The boys stayed home.  Evan through a fit because he wanted to come with me and help.  Rachel found a baseball movie to put on for the boys on Netflix and they watched it until I got home.

I did solve the problem with putting the boys to bed during the Steelers game and having them lose.  I started the game after I put them to bed.  It seemed to work as the Steelers won tonight.

Below are some pictures from today.

Until next time...

Home Run!

Hello everyone, this is Morry.

This morning it took a little bit to get Evan up.  He was sleeping pretty hard.  But he's always in a good mood when he wakes up so it was no problem.  It was a bit colder so he wore a sweatshirt on the bike ride to school.  As soon as we got there, he handed me the sweatshirt to bring home with me.

Noah slept until about 9am.  Rachel had to go to Westlake High School to meet with a teacher of one of her students.  The student got a bad grade on the test but would not allow the students to bring home the test to learn from.  She made it difficult to find a time for Rachel to come in to see it.  It's teachers like that that give all teachers a bad name.  I have no time for people like that.  Anyway, Rachel couldn't take Noah to school so I drove Noah in.  He was in a fairly good mood as well.

When Rachel got home, I was leaving to go to a meeting with a new client and when I got home, Rachel had to leave to get Noah.

I picked Evan up from school since Rachel was tutoring.  When I got home, Gabby came and watched the boys until I finished working.

Evan had a game tonight so when I stopped working, I had to quickly get dinner made, Evan's bat bag packed and in the car, get the boys to eat, make sure I didn't forget Rachel's dinner that she had gotten ready for herself and get the water ready.  I got the boys eating first before I ate and they both finished their dinner.  I think got Evan in his uniform and we left for batting practice first.

Evan's game began at 7:30 under the lights.  They changed up the line up for this game and Evan was batting fourth, the clean up spot.  He singled in his first two at-bats.  In the fourth inning, with two runners on, Evan came up and laced a line drive up the middle that split both the shortstop and second baseman, as well as the left and right center fielders and rolled all the way to the fence.  I looked at Evan and he was running as fast as he could so I knew he had a chance to come home.  The shortstop got the ball in the outfield and was running it in and they sent Evan home.  He beat the throw to the plate for a 3-run home run.  He was really happy.  In the bottom of the fourth, they had Evan at third base again.  With a runner on first, the batter smacked a ball a bit to Evan's left.  He moved sideways and got the ball on a hop, turned and fired to 2nd.  Unfortunately the second baseman could not hold on but he almost did it in back-to-back games.  If he keeps playing third like that, he may stick there.  Earlier in the game, while at 2nd, Evan got the throw as a cut off and the third base coach for the other team went to send the runner home. Evan threw a rocket home to the catcher forcing the runner to literally crawl back to third after he turned back to third and fell.

Needless to say, both Evan and Noah were super hyper as we came home at 9pm. They are in bed, but I'm pretty sure they are still up.  They were running around.  It was a fun night though.

Until next time...

Evan Knows

Hello everyone, this is Morry.

In the late 80s and early 90s, there was that set of Nike commercials with Bo Jackson that said "Bo Knows" as he played all the different sports since Bo excelled in both the MLB and NFL.  Well maybe they should be making commercials with Evan.  He had both a football and baseball game today, back-to-back.

This morning before the crazy day really started, Evan and Noah played downstairs.  Rachel went for an 8-mile run as she prepares for the San Antonio half marathon.

For lunch, I made pasta for us.  I figured Evan needed the carbs and energy.

At about 1:40 we left the house.  Evan's football team had pictures schedule for 2.  His game didn't start until 3pm.  After pictures they practiced some.  Noah and I had a catch.  Rachel came for the start of the game.

Evan started at wide receiver.  On their first possession, they attempted 4 wide receiver screens to Evan but the quarterback hopped the ball to Evan 3 of the times.  However, on one, Evan caught it and turned up field and ran all the way for an apparent touchdown.  The referee, however, said that Evan had stepped out about half way down and brought the ball back.  Evan seemed to handle it well.  They also handed the ball off to him on end-arounds twice.  Both times the other team tackled Evan as they tried to grab the flag.  That's a penalty and an automatic first down.  So Evan was responsible for 3 first downs in the first half.  Unfortunately, Evan's team lost.

We got Evan changed into his baseball uniform in Rachel's car and then Evan, Noah and I drove over to the fields for batting practice before his game.  Rachel went home for a bit.  Evan did well in batting practice.

As the game was about to start, it started to rain hard.  It did this on and off for most of the game.  In the bottom of the first, Evan came up to bat with two kids on.  At this point it was really pouring.  Each kid gets 6 pitches.  If you don't get a hit in 6 pitches, it's a technical strikeout.  Evan fouled the first 5 pitches off.  On the sixth pitch, he turned on it and put it into left field for double scoring the two kids.  Later in the game, Evan was playing third with a kid on first.  The batter rocketed a ball at Evan on the ground.  Evan scooped it so quickly and threw to second, I was slightly worried that there was no one covering second, but there was and the boy running from first was out.  It was such a nice play that the coach of the other team came on the field to high five Evan.  A few batters later there was a short pop up that Evan ran in and dove for.  Unfortunately, the ball hit before him and came up and hit him in the mouth.  He was crying.  He didn't want to come out of the game.  His coach high fived him and Evan crushed his coach's hand.  They knew that Evan was ok.  Evan's team ended up winning in the bottom of the fifth (the last inning).  The kids were really excited.  They've got a good bunch of kids on his team.  Evan likes his teammates.

Rachel had left a bit early to pick up Blue Bamboo for us on the way home.  When we got home, she had gotten food ready for Evan and Noah.  We had dinner and the put the boys to bed.  Amazingly, they had energy.  We didn't leave the baseball field until 7:20, almost 6 hours after we had left the house. Noah was with me the whole time and was amazingly well behaved.

Until next time...
 

Looooong Day

Today was a very long day.

Evan had a baseball game this morning.  From the baseball game we went with the team out to lunch.  It was  a nice day and we sat outside.  The kids all got to play together on the patio and at the playground.  We were there for a long time.

From lunch, we stopped at home for a minute for Evan to go to the bathroom and then we went to the school Fun Run and Carnival.

Each lap of the run was 1/3 of a mile and they got a bracelet for every lap they ran.  Evan ran 7 laps and Noah ran 2.  After the run we spent time at the carnival.  Evan had a great time running around with his buddies.

After the carnival we went back to the baseball field to pick up Morry's car and then came home.

We had leftovers for dinner and then got the boys ready for bed.

Here is some video from today.