Hawaii, Day One

Aloha!  We made it to Maui yesterday at 11:30am local time, after a long day of traveling.  The trip itself went without a hitch.  Connections were made, flights were uneventful, the kids behaved, and out of fourteen travelers, only one suitcase was lost.  The house we rented in Kihei is wonderful.  With such a large group we needed lots of space and the Hale Lelani fits the bill with six bedrooms and four baths. 

Yesterday was spent settling in, shopping for groceries, and crashing in a jet lagged fog around 9:00pm.  Today everyone was up for a bit more adventure.  We scouted out a beach and spent a good portion of the day enjoying the sun, sand, and water.  The temperature is in the upper eighties, but with the cool ocean breezes, it feels more like the mid seventies. 

Why no, I didn't fall off the face of the earth, thanks for asking

I know, I know.  The whole point of keeping a blog is to keep it updated and current.  It's just that life tends to get in the way.  The past five months have been jam packed to the point that I was lucky to remember my own name.  There have been some wonderful times, along with some terrible times.  A brief recap since my last post:

February saw J turning 14, the start of his 2010 LIttle League season, and all the rest of the many school and extracurriculars that make up our life. 

March brought unspeakable heartbreak when a dear friend lost her 21 month old daughter after an unexpected and brief illness.  I was able to travel along with a couple of other dear friends to offer her support and comfort.  Out of this tragedy came many lessons for me, as a friend and as a mother. 

April saw the pace of the school year start to pick up as J moved into his final weeks as an 8th grader at the school he'd been a student at since pre-k.  A was preparing for her dance recital and N for his gymnastics exhibition.  Baseball continued, along with school events, a field trip to St. Augustine, and graduation plans started to roll.

May is still a blur of school events, mostly for J's class as we preprared to send them off in style.  They had a dance, an etiqutte luncheon, a retreat, a trip to Disney, and graduation pictures.  The emotions were threatening to swamp me at this point as I watched my not so little boy close the book on several precious chapters of his childhood. 

June brought J's graduation, along with a couple of parties to celebrate.  It brought the end of the school year and finally, a chance to relax and just breathe.  For a few days anyway.  We're currently preparing for a trip to Hawaii.  We'll be traveling with my extended family for a thirteen day trip.  This trip has been in the planning stages for a year and it's hard to believe we leave on Saturday.  That's right.  This Saturday we will be winging our way to a dream vacation.  I plan to try and blog about the trip while we are gone.  Hopefully I can accomplish that goal!  If all goes well, my next post will be from the beautiful island of Maui.  Aloha! 

Proud Mama Moment

J is an athletic kid.  He has played soccer and basketball for the last few years at school.  He's pretty good at both.  But his first love is baseball.  He's played Little League since he was five and he'll be fourteen in four days.  (That's a whole other post!)  Recently we received a letter in the mail invitng J to attend a try out for the Under Armour National Tournament Teams in Boca Raton.  The letter was from a company called The Baseball Factory.  Tom called for more details and it turns out they are a company who train and help guide high school players through the college recruitment process.  College recruitment?  He isn't even in high school yet.  No problem.  The try out was for 13-18 year olds.  The cost was minimal and we decided if nothing else it would be a good experience.  This past Sunday I made the three hour drive down south with J and my dad.  We learned about how the recruitment process works, what J will have to do if he wants to play college ball, and watched about 50 boys try out.  J was one of only three 8th graders there.  Tuesday I called to hear his detailed evaluation.  He didn't make the tournament team.  Now let me say this was not surprising.  He is, after all, not quite 14.  He was competing against varsity players and they hold these try outs all over the country.    However, he was selected to attend the Cape Cod Pro Select Training Camp in Massachusetts this summer.  The training is provided by the Cape Cod Baseball League, which is apparently a big deal in college baseball.  Baseball factory only selects about 90 kids per year to attend this camp and J is one of them.  I'm still kind of stunned.  I mean, I've always thought he was a pretty spectacular ball player, but I'm his mom.  I'm supposed to think that!  J is over the moon and immediatley started trying to figure out ways he could earn money tohelp pay the cost.  Let's just say it's not so minimal!  I'm so proud of him.  He's been saying for a while that he wants a career in baseball and now he has the opportunity to get some further training and really see if this is what he wants out of life.  If nothing else, this is a good step towards playing in high school and college.  And who knows?  Someday you just may see J playing in the majors!  If things go his way, he'll be the one playing first base for the Yankees!

Hello Out There

It's been a while, I know.  I had good intentions when I decided to give blogging a try.  Really I did.  Somehow life keeps getting in the way of blogging.  But I'm back.  Again.  I'll try to be better.  Please comment and let me know you're reading.  Knowing someone, anyone is reading will inspire me to keep going.

Making Excuses

Yesterday we were in the drive thru at McDonald's.  The clerk repeated the order back and it was mixed up.  After repeating it, we pulled around and were waiting to pay.  I remarked to my mother, who was driving, that this could be a case of a screwed up order.  From the back seat, N pipes up with many reasons why this could be the case.  The clerk is having a hard day, it was hard to hear over the speaker, etc.  He finishes by saying that even if it is messed up, it's not a big deal.  I remark to my mother that N always trys to find a reason for why someone messes up.  He always tries to find a kind hearted excuse for the actions of others.   N chimes in with, "Yeah I have to make excuses for you all the time mom."  Gee thanks!

She has a head like mine

This afternoon we were in the car on our way to J's school soccer game. A started talking about someone named Casey and how she was a friend of J's. She seemed to know a lot about this girl. Only problem is, J doesn't know anyone named Casey. When J pointed this out, A became very frustrated and insisted there is a girl named Casey on his soccer team. Figuring A was probably mispronouncing the name and Casey was in fact a friend of J's, I asked A if she could tell me what she looks like. I got the following answer, "Well, she's a girl and she has you know, a head, like mine!" We still don't know who Casey is, but at least there won't be any headless players at the soccer games.

I haven't dropped off the face of the earth

Guess it's been awhile since I posted anything. Oops! Our summer was very relaxed and carefree and blogging was the furthest thing from my mind. Now that we are back to our regular insane fall schedule I'll try to be better about posting.