Hello From North Brunswick New Jersey!

The last two days have been full and fun...we spent the day at the Hall of Fame on Thursday, and then the boys went through the closing ceremonies, got their little rings and watched the championship game between two Texas teams.

So after a late night and an early morning spent loading the car, in the rain I might add, we made our way into New Jersey. I can tell you that the Catskill Moutains are truly beautiful. Worth a trip to see. We took some winding country roads, and were out in the middle of nowhere, I love it! Was sso pretty, I was driving so I have no pictures to share...

Rain followed us to New Jersey, and I was good and stressed by the time we made it to US 1. Here's my main complaint. You cant make a stinkin left hand turn! If you're destination is on the other side of the road...you have to turn right into this little U-turn thingy at designated intersections and then make your way back to wherever it is you wanted to go. Which kinda makes it organized I guess in a wierd way... but very difficult for the GA girl to understand when my stinkin hotel was on the left hand side of the road. On the other side of a concrete wall. and I was 3 lanes from being able to turn right. and had to go 2 miles past where I needed to turn.

Oh, and they dont have exits like we do either. when you get off the exit, you go to the right. period. you might make a series of 8 right hand turns before you get headed in the direction you wanted to head in. What is it with the left hand turn? Geez... I'm confused!

The boys are having somewhat of culture shock. The Holiday Inn we are at is home to an Indian wedding party. Wormy thinks their clothes are cool. LOL...

anyhoo- tomorrow, New York City. can't wait!!

The biggest kid of them all...

Well, it's been fun ya'll, but we are done. Stick a fork in us...the boys played an excellent first game today. Their spirits were high, were starting to prank Bart... except they crossed the boundary of "DO NOT MESS WITH MY BED" by filling his bed with gummy worms, and his pillowcase with rocks... and his hat with Gold Bond. So he let the bad man out and scared the crap out of them, called me to come pick him up... and take him to get ammunition of his own.

After a visit to the nearby Family Dollar I dropped him back at the Village armed with shaving cream, saran wrap, glitter fingernail polish, and bright red lipstick.

Game on.

Now at this point in th eday we are supposed to be playing baseball. But see, the Heavens opened up and it started to rain. and not a little rain. A whole freakin lot of rain. and my brand new nice big spiffy bumbershoot was where? In my car. Along with my raincoat. sigh. I"m a moron. Been totong everything but the kitchen sink, and still dont have what I need when I need it...

anyhoo--- after a 3 hour rain delay, we started the 3:00 game at 6:00. I swear to you it was the neverending game. Becasue see.. it never stopped raining. we just started playing in it. and every so often they 'd make us stop and they'd come work on the mounds and the batters boxes and 1st baseline. I kid you not you couldn't even see the bases. we ran through all of our pitching, even my boy got in to pitch and he NEVER pitches... and all this was through the 4th inning! we had 5 pitchers in the 4th. we'd held them up to that point. but starting in the 4th they scored 12 runs on us and put a stop to the bleeding some 3+ hours after it started.

so after the game the boys are all huddled, strangley they are smiling, becasue now, the pressure is off. and it's play time.

Bart see's Nick B whispering to Nick A and reaching into his bat bag. So he positions himself to get a better angle on the attack he knows is coming his way...because see Bart is prolly the biggest kid of the bunch and has been the prime target for these boys... So anyway...as Nick is sneaking around to hit bart with some silly string, Bart turns his 20 Mtn Dew upside down and get's it all spewed up...and as Nick unloads on Bart, Bart retaliates with the sticky drink...then Nick starts running and Bart tackles him. In the mud, and they tumble, rolling throught the biggest mud puddle he could find. About the time Nick B subsides... Nick A jumps in on the action and shoots Bart again, then makes a break for it. Running away. Bart grabbed Nicks belt/shirt, and holds on tight as Nick drags him through the mud. Again. and Nick goes down and they tumble and roll... and they've naturally drawn a crowd...

Then to put the icing on the cake, the boys decided to take one last running dive through the grass at the ball field... and guess who was right there with them? yep you got it. Then they all hoofed it to the dining tent and ate dinner together, covered in mud and grass, soaking wet from head to toe.... One big happy family.

ok, last pics for yesterday... promise

Matt being his usual self... lordy that boy won't do...

Even more pics

Matthew chasing Alex...harrassing him as usual...

Bart playing with Javy

More pics- boys having a blast

Photo's from Tues

Trev making a play



Ty just barely missed this one.



Nick A trying to locate a launched throw down to second... Jordan helped him out




Runner sliding in to 3rd, Trev putting a tag on him





Trev getting a bloop hit... unfortunately it was too late in the evening for me to get photos of his big hit...

Wed morning, beginning of elimination round

Hey ya'll ~ looks like we have 4 games to win today to make it through. and if we win all of those, then we have 2 to win to make it to the Championship tomorrow night at 9:15. I think we have a good possibility of doing well this first game at 12:00, but it just depends on which personality of our boys decides to show up. Hopefully they got some good rest, and are getting themselves prepared this morning to go the distance. They played really hard yesterday. The umpires we had last night against the Raiders said they would stay and do another game for free just to watch the two teams battle it out, said it was probably the best game they'd seen yet.

I'm happy at this point. I was hoping for 500 ball, and we got that. Some of these boys are so big and so mature, you want to question their eligibility, but you know what, we brought our boys for the experience, and that's what they've had. Whether it be an elite team with aspirations to win the whole she-bang, or an All-star team put together at the end of the season, each team and each game offers it's own unique experience. And each player (can't say boy because there are some girls here too) comes away with their own personal moment in which they pushed thier limits, and reached beyond what they thought themselves capable of.

Highs and lows, rollercoaster of emotions.... and thats why we love baseball :)

proud of my boy, for his sportsmanship and team spirit in spite of a hitting slump, and proud of my sweetie who has shown his level headed side... and hasn't shown his &*^ not one time :)
I know you're proud Dean :)

...altho he did come close the other night when a team was pounding us 18-4 and a player walks out of the dugout with a pink helmet on... evidently their coach saw B about to blow his top in offense and he quickly explained that their boys had made a rule that if you strike out looking, your next at bat you wear a pink batting helmet...

WOW what a day~

The boys played hard today! pulled out 1 run wins in both games... T-man FINALLY got his first hit in 6 ballgames... and bounced one off the fence at 200 feet... lacked about a foot from being a homerun... og course this was after I told him I'd buy a hit for $20 and double it for every base and make it a cool crisp $100 if he got a homerun...

over the top?

prolly so, but hey, I'll take it. can't let my boy go o-fer here in cooperstown. Shoot everyone here is wearing shirts that says "my son hit a homerun at cooperstown". I just want one that says, My son got a hit in Cooperstown" LOL... lordy... time to put the skirt down Judy and get serious. Geez...

anyhoo- he was proud as punch... got some good pics.. have to muddle through about 284. Yea- Wormy got the camera again :)

more pics of the complex

Sweetie, right before game 4 today... at this point he's hoarse. I think it's the first time this season that the parents have actually heard him get this bad... one lady even asked him if he had nodules on his vocal chords...anyhoo, he's tired. not getting to much rest with 2 foot of leg hanging off the bunkbed :)



this little stream runs behind the practice/batting cage area... look at these cool trees...



the practice area is Huge!





So peaceful and pretty here...

pictures from today

ok, it's too late to try to figure out what order this thing pulls pics... but I'll just give you the run down on what's happening...
In this picture above, notice how everyone is looking up? Thats my boy on third... bases are loaded and Stephen has hit a bomb grand slam homerun...




I dont know if you can see it well in this photo, but this is what it's all about... they are having a big time out there cutting up together




this was one of the last pitches... i think it's cool how the dirt is flying off the glove.





Winners!!!

My look to wormy boy- who takes 4 pictures of everything. Including the clouds. lol...he's such a mess...

Monday

Well wormy and i went into town last night and saw a little bit of the action, and decided we'd head back over this morning, there was a minor league team's hat that he was checking out...and he was in heaven with all the baseball card shops. I think he's spent a good bit of his souvenir money on cards...

while we were there we noticed a line of folks...turns out Henderson and Rice were in town signing autographs today... we jumped in line. and after a few minutes of waiting this dude behind me says...yougot your tickets?

Huh?

turns out you had a buy a ticket for $140 to get an autograph. one autograph.

Nah- no thanks.

so then we took ourselves to the park and watched a fantastic ballgame... our 0-2 boys jumped hard and fast on a 2-0 team... and then liked to have given it away only to hold them 2.5 hours later in the very last inning with 2 outs tying run on 3rd and winning run at the plate,

and we struck him out.

you'da thought those boys won the world series! I'll see if I can embed some pics once I get them off the camera

Game two wasnt so wonderful... face the 9th ranked team and they got 14 runs in the first inning... we held them to only 4 runs after that, but in the end we got mercied in the 4th.

but through it all our boys had a positive attitude and were smiling... I mean, these boys were studs, one's daddy plays for the Marlins I heard...so hey, hats off to the kids... they had a great time.

The crowds at the ball park

tons and tons of folks, and silly little boys. running crazy. :) they are having a good time.

After the Around the Horn competition - the boys watched Nick A in the King of Swat (homerun) - Nick made it to the finals, but wasnt able to make it happen...winning hitter hit 5 bombs...



Ty H did a fantastic job in the Roadrunner competition, and placed 6th out of 103 runners.

Scenes from Opening ceremonies

Aw -


Wormy was taking pictures... got the back of trev and a team that was not the Crush :) oh well he tried



the parents got into the action, doing a little YMCA and a little friendly singing competition between mom's and dad's




three jumpers brought in the Official Game Ball,





Wormy was so ready to see skills competition. He was flat bored at this point

Okay so this is my first attempt at posting pics and they posted opposite the order that I wanted them to, but I dont have time to fool with it now... so here's a reckless attempt to show you a little of what we are living... the photo above is what is behind my apartment and are pretty much teh norm for the area... it's beautiful


this is the main stadium where opening and closing ceremonies are:



this is the dorms, all the ball players when in uniform have to be in full uniform...as in pants to knees, shirt tucked in, hat on correctly. They are very strict and will punish you a game suspension if you disrespect the uniform.


this is the interior of the dorms prior to the havoc that 12 yr old boys will make on it. This photo was from friday night

maintenance

ok i've fixed the comments issue... sorry bout that...

Game one : lost 2-5... kinda overcast today but it's not hot.. and this place is crazy with traffic for the induction ceremony.

Trevor is excited becasue there is a pro ball player in the village staying with his son who is playing on a team from Texas....

game two is at 4:30,

Saturday

Today it's very nice outside, bright and sunny and about 80 degrees... we delivered the boys and helped them get uniforms straitened out, and then we played mini golf... we met our neighbor, a nice lady from Colorado and her son, who has just turned 11 and his name is Matthew (go figure) we had a nice chat about the field mouse that has inhabited her unit.. so now all of our food is in the fridge or the cooler...

sorry- she just came in to let me know that the two boys were playing with the lighters to the grill...burning the ends of sticks because the are bored. oh geez...

ok, so- we are heading to the park for the skills competition and then into C-town downtown because we've been told its hopping with hall of famers... lots of big parties going on and autographs being signed, plus it sounds like I've got to get my mischevious little boy directed to some non-destructive activities...

Friday Part 2

Ok... it was all hunky dory we were on schedule to hit C-town at 7:30. But that's in a perfect world. Then we hit construction traffic. and then it continued to rain. and then we took a detour to miss construction traffic and got lost. and made our way back and lost time- we were fighting a losing battle and trying hard to get to the park by 10. yep what was 'sposed to be 4 hours took about 7. we got to the park unloaded Sweetie and the boys and got their bunks made up then came to our little haven to pass out for the night.

But despite the stress of trying to get here, when we pulled into that park those boys went nuts. they were so jacked up. Even the full grown boys were in awe at the enormity of this place. It's just plain cool. Everything about it...

It's cool how they have it organized... works like a well oiled machine... each car pulls into the lot and you tell them your team name and they give you a slip of paper with a Aisle letter and a cottage number..you pull to your Aisle and then when they give you the get go you head out to your bunkhouse and you have 5 minutes to unload your car and leave the area. and they will hold you to this...it's total chaos. And admist the unloading, the boys are wild and excited, pin trading in a frenzy...but it's alot of fun.

So anyways, after all that we got in to our apartment, got clean and got horizontal...

Friday Part One:

OK ya’ll this is Fridays post sorry about the delay!
Friday Part 1:
Gettysburg:

We decided yesterday that we’d stop by Gettysburg since we were only about 20 miles from it, boy was that a great decision. I thought we’d just be driving thru an auto tour and we’d spend about 30-1 hr checking stuff out. But when we got there it was like time just stopped. The driving tour is a one way path, and you can purchase an audio cassette tour guide, or you can hire a tour guide who will take you through the route, and that person is yours for like 4 hours. We found ourselves (there was 11 of us) piggybacking onto some of the families that had hired the guides. I think that the boys were touched to be walking through such a historical place. I remember at one moment I was standing on the edge of the battlefield and there was a slight breeze and it was so serene and peaceful, and I was so surprised to see these 12 yr olds so respectful to the soldiers who had perished there.

Fav things about Gettysburg from some of the boys:
The battlefields, the history, The Pennsylvania Monument, Picketts Charge, they also liked seeing and walking where the Confederate and Union soldiers had built their boundaries on Seminary and Cemetary Ridges and then looking across the valley where the deadly battle took place.

Was an awesome day, a place to spend more than just a few hours. And the drive through Caledonia State Park was gorgeous…
So, now as I type this, we are finally headed north bound again, DVD playing cuz we are in a torrential downpour and there isn’t much scenery to see. About 3 hours later than we originally planned, but hey, it was so worth it.
ETA Cooperstown now stands at about 7:30 according to Sally the GPS, and steadily getting later…

7 States in a Day

Wow, a 12 hour drive will really take it outta ya! We got out of town with relatively minor mishaps... fortunately for us the bad luck and wierd circumstance seems to follow the head coach, not us for once...before we ever got out of town he'd had to make 2 extra stops and pick his luggage up out of the median...lordy. I'm just shaking my head thinking about it. needless to say, he was a tad frazzled.. me? I was too tired to notice, 3 hours of sleep does not suit me well. My sweetie did get his beauty rest and so he drove. My intent was to sleep until Charlotte, because I've seen that stretch of road before, but I was too excited. didnt sleep hardly at all...

By far, VA was my favorite state....so incredibly pretty. But thats not really a fair opinion as I only saw 30 miles of both West VA and Maryland... and have only seen about 20 miles of PA. I did notice that PA smells really good. must be the corn fields stretched out mile after mile... the people here think we talk funny, of course the sweetie got called out on that :) what with that deep voice and the funny things he says...

so after a dip in the pool, and some pizza and adult beverages, it's time to call it a night... tomorrow we are detouring to Gettysburg - only 2o-ish miles east, and there's no real reason to pass it by...so gonna take in some history tomorrow, then make our way North. Hopefully tomorrow I can post some pics...

hugs!

Who packed all this stuff?

We can officially stay for about oh - a month. We have everything except the dogs...hehehe the Tahoe looks like a low-rider... I fully expect Sweetie to pop the hydrolics ... we are stylin' and profilin'


Pepper, oldest lab baby, has officially been pouting because she knows what suitcases mean... but she'll be good cuz she's got Uncle B here taking good care of her and the garden...

Sssoooo -tomorrow we'll say hi from a long ways down the road...hugs!

Spoiled doggies and earthquakes=sleepless nights

So last night I was snoozing hard, work has been a total bear, what with computers down and trying to catch up from that and then trying to get ahead on being out of the office for a few days....I was pretty spent. So I went to bed at a decent hour hoping to get some good rest... thinking that maybe my eyebags wouldn't be quite so vibrantly purple.. anyhoo-

sorry, ADD here,

ok where was I, oh yes, sleeping. snuggled in my mostest favorite ever organic sheets... and I am startled from sleep by the sound of something crashing in the house. I come awake and listen. Nothing.

Huh?

So I doze ... just when I get to the good part in the dream, CRASH! This time, I get on up to investigate. What is in my house? I'm thinking what stack (yes, I am the worlds worst stacker) has crashed?But as stroll through the house... everything is right where it's sposed to be...

So I keep on trolling through the house, the moonlight shining through the windows... the frogs and crickets singing their night melodies... thinking - what in the world is that crashing? Is there a critter in my house wrecking havoc on the basement? Did the door to the tupperware cabinet finally give and my carefully booby trapped cabinet fall to pieces? Is the house shaking with one of those mini earthquakes, like I slept through a couple of years ago?

I wander in my sleepy stupor, bouncing off the walls because I do still have geri-feet that need a full 10 minutes to cooperate, when I hear it. CRASH.

Only it's not a crash. It's more of a muffled sneeze.

Like one that comes from a doggie with her head buried half under the bed, snuffling into the carpet. YAY!! wootwoot!! Mystery solved...

I stumbled past my girl (said sneezing poochie) giving her a little pat, after all, she didn't mean to wake me up... Just before I fall into my wondermous sheets and passout with... one foot still on the floor..I wonder... what do I have to wear that goes with purple?

My very first post ever..yay me!

Hi ya'll! Welp - after a lengthy year of playing baseball and fundraising and hardwork scraping up money its finally time. In a few days the family will be taking a fabulous road trip to Cooperstown, New York...so in anticipation of that wondermous trip I decided to set up a blog so that we could keep a recording of all the cool things we take in along the way... why do I think I need to create a blog?? I have no idea... other than I did a short trip report last year when we rode the bikes to the Outter Banks, and gots lots of positive feedback , so- I figured I would prolly do it for this trip as well. Plus, I am a huge fan of blogs anyway, I don't know why. I just find it fascinating to read what other people have to say. and I guess I'm probably a little nosy too :)

Anyways, today is a day for organizing and washing (I swear to you my washing machine looks like it vomited clothes all over my kitchen floor) and labeling clothing, and figuring out how we are getting all this crap in the Tahoe. We have maps printed and our list of things we want to do when we leave Cooperstown, - oh I forgot to mention that didn't I? Well after we spend a week playing baseball we are heading to New York City. Looking like the Clampits Come to Town, we will ride in led by our southern accents and see the sites... on our To-Do list first is the 911 Memorial, to stop pay our respects, then we want to see Lady Liberty, and Times Square and Central Park, and hopefully not get mugged during our stay. Then I've planned us a nice trip back down the coast, I'm still vying to get my toes in some sand somewhere along the way. having serious Beach DT's right about now...

anyhoo- hope you will join us, hope I don't bore you, hope I can tell a decent story without my ADD hindering me... oops better go- there goes the dryer buzzer, time to rotate the laundry!