Baseball

I know I sound crazy but it's true when I tell you that I've been waiting for Little League since before Willie was born. In fact, his batting helmet which has the faded original stickers on it??? I bought for him at age of 1 and I don't buy toys at the store.....plenty others do that for us. I love Little League and just hope that watching our kids' activities will always be this thrilling.

Still kicking!

Yep, I'm still kicking! It's been killing me I haven't blogged in a month. But, I've been on vacation and that means everything needs to halt--I guess.

We made it back from our trip to the Dominican Republic. I can't wait to post some great pictures of the Dominican kids just loving on us. Jesus met us there as expected. He renewed our spirits among people who spoke a different language, experienced an extremely different life, yet were starved for the same love we all need.

Then we headed on the beach trip for me and Jay's fishing trip. We girls had perfect weather this year. We don't all live in Mississippi anymore but we all are Mississippi girls at heart still.

Our children enjoyed seeing their grandparents twice in the same month. Rarely happens for us so what a thrill!

Go to get in bed before the big garage sale tomorrow. Another step closer to getting the new home organized. Glad to be back in the routine of things especially blogging about the blessings of life. Pics coming soon I hope.

40 calories!

Can you believe that the orignal fudgesicle is only 40 calories! It's mine and obviously Ruby's favorite treat.

Game Ball and tomorrow

Willie was awarded the game ball tonight by his coaches! He even was willing to have his picture taken to commemorate. He is smacking the ball good and got several very solid hits tonight. He played 2nd base most of the game tonight. The first play of the game grounded at 2nd, Willie fielded beautifully and threw a perfect pitch to first base. OUT! He really wants to do baseball camp but he's not of age for the LU Camp. We might have to ask for a waiver from Coach Forehand.

Prior to the game....I walked out on the field and took this picture of Willie's baseball pants BEFORE THE GAME. What's the point of even washing 'em? Oh, well, we try. And it's all worth it. Watching little league is better than MLB. We have them washed for tomorrow's game which I'll probably have to miss so I can direct our movers around.

A little move update: I got all the boxes unpacked this week and Jay's been working over there at night. He has bedframes ready and is cleaning again tonight....dusty despite myriad of cleanings. We have a couple of snags.... the basement floor is not dry as expected (but it looks really cool) so we have to wait longer to move furniture into the basement which means more stuff in the garage and more moving to come....then the brand new refrigerator is not working. Part has been ordered for 3 days, but we're grateful for the refrigerator downstairs (that I guess we'll have to walk around the house to get to since we can't walk on the floors). In fact, just pray we can get that fridge going. If not, I'm going to focus on all the women of this world who would love to just have a fridge or clean water. And, lastly, Comcast is not arriving until Tuesday which was blah originally (mainly b/c of my high speed internet) but I guess that's now for the best since the floors downstairs need more drying time and some of their cable work is down there. So we'll just get done what we can. The kitchen is ready to go and we just need beds basically.

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Moving and Miracles!

Well, it's move week for the Walton's. Our renovations are essentially complete. I think I'll post a picture of Johnny (our contractor) soon. He kept us on schedule! I can't tell you how many people told me that I'd we wouldn't be on time---just inevitable they'd say. Great job, Mr. Johnny!

Last Saturday in between Willie's ballgames we got stuff out of storage with help of Eddie and Trey, former Bisons. Thanks Ronda, Sarah and Christy for all of your help in keeping the children in a safe, loving hands.

This week is dedicated to unpacking boxes for me. (Jay is recruiting hard for last 3 days of recruiting period. He and Billy Donavon were only 2 coaches in this one gym this week. Jay says they most likely had different reasons to be there but it's reassuring to see Billy Donavon's on your recruiting trail I think. ) This coming weekend we'll move from the rental (none too soon for me) and officially take residence.

I was trying to work (at my job) too which just all became too much even So I decided to use some of my personal time that I will lose if I don't get taken. Okay...now I can work at the house in the mornings and have consistent fun-loving afternoons with the kids to keep their lives in balance during this transition.

Until.....I woke up with a horrid virus this morning. I had added Ruby a school day today so I get move stuff done which was a huge blessing. Somehow I got the kids to school. Came home and took care of a crisis at work then realized I was really sick. I dragged myself to bed and started texting for help. The miracles started arriving! Thanks, Ann and Melissa for coming to the rescue. I said a prayer for myself, took some Ibuprofen, mixed Ann's ginger ale with Melissa's powder she brought me to settle my stomach, sucked down some applesauce that Melissa threw in her care bag..... and Voila! I was healed. Some will say it's the meds and concoctions....but I call it miracles because everything good comes from God including dear friends.

Jay and I were just recounting these blessings last night and talking about the year+ long process of searching for a new house. We had several contracts on different houses which didn't work b/c they were sold before we could sell our house, our hearts changed, or we just couldn't get peace. We prayed for guidance and the barriers were there along the way. Then it all came together on Forest Acres so we pray for God to continue to go before us and we seek to make our new residence our home that will glorify God in more ways than we can imagine. And the biggest miracle of all....we know Forest Acres is a temporary residence.

Baseball

Willie's team (Bisons!) took the field for their first game this Saturday. Willie played third base and did a great job of hurling that ball across the field. I haven't told him I played third base in Pelahatchie softball yet. Every night that I get to put him to bed he asked me to tell him a memory (he's resorted to asking for memories after bed time reading b/c I can't make up stories about BlackBart and Bojangles like his daddy.) Anyway, I think I'll share my third base stories with him tomorrow night.



For Willie's first at bat, he got a single and eventually rounded home! I'm so glad he got to run all the way around the bases. He did a great job of listening to his coaches to know when to go/stop. A bit of bad news....he has my speed it seems.




A couple of weeks ago...in anticipation....he fell asleep in his game hat with puppy right there. (Yes, Frances, that's the same puppy you gave him as a baby.)



We hit 2 LU Bison games this weekend too. Here's Ruby on Friday night with her friend Casen!

It was Happy Hunting!

Above are my babies and Jaybird all ready for church this morning. Of course, I'm still in my nappy pink robe with wet hair and once I was dressed and suitable for a photo opp the truck was backing out the driveway and I had to run to jump in.....just kidding but I'm usually behind everyone on Sunday mornings b/c mom's are usually at least thinking about lunch plans and trying to do chores while getting ready for church??? I'm not sure that excuse works either because Jay's usually helping with that too. I'm not sure what I do really except give directions. I tried to take credit for us being 45 minutes early for church today too, but it was obvious to Jay that I had Easter worship times wrong. We at least didn't have to squeeze our way in an already filled pew. We just got squeezed into the middle. After a beautiful worship service, we headed to home-cooked lunch with our dear friend the Kirk's. Then we rested then we headed to Buisson's for a hot dog cookout and last hunt of the year!

The following pictures are in no specific order. There have been so many egg hunts this week that I can't even remember which hunt happened when.



These kids are friends from the Harvest Hands Afterschool Program. Friends from Sunday School wanted to throw them an Easter Party which felt doomed with the severe weather but ended beautifully with snacks and crafts. The little boy on my left was on my basketball team last year and the little boy on my right sees me every couple of weeks in the lunchroom at his school. He keeps asking me to be his lunchbuddy (but he already has a great one and I've already got me a great lunch buddy so we're just friends.)



Here's our Ruby hunting eggs at the Martin's. She's got the whole hunt thing figured out this year. After our hunt tonight at the Buisson's we found her and the Buisson kids on Bobby and Melissa's beautiful bed eating chocolate. Willie was innocent and quite easy when it comes to the these junk-filled eggs. Can you believe he is my son and doesn't like chocolate?????

Here's Willie and Isaiah on our way to the Willie's class hunt! After some snow flurries the day before, we postponed for one day and got perfect sunshine. These 2 dudes played basketball much of the time at their class hunt except for the actual hunting of eggs, lunch and some organized games.

Here's Willie a bit reluctant for his picture to be taken I guess or dissatisfied with # of eggs in his basket....I'm not for sure which. This picture is from the Martin's annual Easter Egg hunt hosted for our Sunday School class. Great job, Tim & Jenn!!!

Here's Willie in his 2 hour jelly bean sort in prep for his class hunt. The room moms organized different games etc. I used a little jelly bean poem about the true meaning of Easter and Willie was eager to help organize.

Ruby spilled 2 cups of dye in Daddy's dying clinic:) Great job, Daddy!!!

Now, I'm going to hide the 100's of eggs around here in a bag and we will not see them until next year. Willie is focused on eating his dyed eggs for protein. He told me tonight that if Ruby didn't eat some protein tonight after all that candy she might die.