Part One Done

When I'm feeling overwhelmed with the tasks at hand I try to break them up into parts. I've still got a lot of baseball photo stuff to do, but the scrapbook pages part is done! I delivered them today. Having one part done helps me to breath a little easier. Whew.

I was in charge of the cover, it's the same as last years except with the picture, age and year changed. I did a back cover too, with a picture of the backs of the boys. I was all set to print last night when I realized that Eric and I had miscommunicated about which of our printers needed ink...and I was out of black ink for my good printer! Oh no! Ummm...I think I sort of need black for this one.

Eric went to work for a while this morning, then headed to Office Depot at 8:00 a.m. to pick up ink for me. What a guy! He's got my back, how lucky am I?

I was responsible for doing 3 pages of action shots. Sort of needed black ink for these too.

Other years I have put a lot of small pictures on one page, this year I really tried to remember that less is more. I sort of like how they turned out, but with most things like this I am never 100 % happy with the final product.

The good news is that there was a deadline....so that means I had to be in "get 'er done" mode....and that's just what I did, I got 'er done. Good enough for the price...wait...I'm doing it for nuthin'....never mind.

Then there is Billy's page. It's hard to come up with something new each year...and it's hard to figure out which photos to use. I had about 20 or so picked out in addition to these that I really wanted to use...but then there is that less is more thing again.

Since Eric was an assistant coach, he got a page too. His main job was to keep the book and the stats....stuff he loves to do. I had taken a picture of his hand holding the book at the edge of a dugout...that's the background shot. The background is dirt. Yep, dirt. :-)

Just for fun I made what were to look like baseball cards for the boys and put them on a couple of pages...sort of like a roster.

That was fun to do. I'm going to use the images in the DVD / Slideshow too...just have to put them in a landscape format....two birds, one stone.

So that's what I've been up to, and that's why I haven't been blogging everyday. Next on the list is some actual paid work, then onto the slide show. And then maybe I'll get a few things done around the house...maybe....

Hope you're having a fun summer too!

Missing in Action

I'm not really missing...just a little busy for the last few days. Billy had his last baseball game on Saturday, we went out of town directly from the game to visit with Eric's brother and family, we got home late on Sunday night...and today I have been playing Taxi driver, doing lots of laundry and have been scrambling to get a couple of projects done....so not much time for blogging.

When Billy started playing travel baseball we learned about the tradition of putting together a scrapbook of the season and making copies for all the kids. Each mom does their own son as well as a few other pages. The first year I had a couple of pages to do, each year I've been assigned more and more. I need to figure out how to just say no! One of my assignments for this season was to do two pages for the Wooden Bat Tournament. I did get those done today.

I've done the cover of the book, the back of the book, the splines for the book, these two pages...and I have 6 to go. And they want them by tomorrow. Oh dear. There won't be much time for blogging tomorrow. And when the scrapbook is done I need to start on a DVD / Slide show for the end of year party....on Sunday....so if you don't hear from me this week it's because I have been buried in baseball pictures.

Come and dig me out.......please!

A cold game

Oh brrr. It's July 17th and it barely got out of the 60's today. What summer? Billy has his last baseball tournament of the year this weekend. They had a game today clear across town. Here my chucks and I are sitting in traffic. Sitting in traffic is boring.

The boys have had a sort of tough season. Last year they won a lot, this year not so much. Things seem to even out through the years. They lost their game today.
My camera seems to get wonky with all the red uniforms. Is wonky a word?

Here's an example of how things have seemed to go...the catcher makes a great throw to third. The third baseman makes the tag before the ball is in his mitt. See the ball behind his right knee?

The runner slides in.....

......safe. Shucks. So close.

I do have to say, even if they haven't been having such a great year, I sure like watching this boy play. As his mom, I know that I am the only one that sees him just the way that I do....

...but what I see sure makes me proud. And for me, Billy's mom, that's made the season a winner.

Cutie Pies

I've spent a big part of the day sorting through baseball pictures. There are a few projects that I'm working on for the end of the season party. It's making me think that I never want to see another baseball picture again. Ever. So to take a break, I decided to go to Eric's softball games tonight. He had a double header. Trouble was I hadn't taken my picture of the day yet...so I took a picture of Eric playing softball. Of course. The end. Not really. Sort of.

It was cold and windy at the games. Um...it's the middle of July and tomorrows highs are only going to get into the mid 60's. Brrr....it's been a strange year for weather. The good news is that my little buddy Jake was there. He's such a smiley little guy. Eric and I both play softball with both of his parents. Hi Jake!

Then little Curtis showed up. Eric plays softball with his dad, I play with his mom. Seeing these little guys that belong to our team mates is sort of a startling reminder of how the heck old we are! But it's also a nice reminder of what the boys were like when they were little.

I sure wish I had my digital camera back in those days! I'm not sure they even had digital cameras in those days. Old I tell ya.

Well, I'm off to find my parka so I won't freeze at Billy's baseball games this weekend. Gotta love Minnesota weather.

Happy Birthday Cupcakes.

Earlier this week a good friend of mine had a birthday. It just happens we play softball together too. So, I thought I'd do something nice and bake some cupcakes for her. Me, being nice? I know, but I can be sometimes. I decided to do something fun and make them fancy. Years ago...and I mean 30 years ago....I made cupcakes with gum drop flowers decorating the tops.

See...here is proof...this is me in Eric's parents back yard in the summer of 1979 with a plate full of cupcakes for him. Must have been trying to impress someone or something.

Anyway, I thought I'd show you how to make cupcakes with gum drop flowers. First you make the cupcakes. You can be fancy and make them from scratch or just go and buy a stinkin' box of mix like I did. I wasn't being that nice.

Mix 'em and bake 'em and try not to eat them before you get them decorated. Thank you.

For the decorations you need big gum drops, sugar, a surface to roll them out on, and a rolling pin. Easy enough.

Put lots of sugar on the surface that you will be rolling them out on. I used a washable cutting board because it can get sticky. Set the gum drop in the sugar...

...then flatten it a little bit with your hand.

Put some sugar on the top after you've flattened it.

Then press it down a little with your rolling pin. It looks like I am whapping it, I'm not, just was using one hand for the camera.

Roll it out a little at a time, putting sugar on the top pretty often. If you roll it out too fast it will stick to the rolling pin and you'll wonder why you had decided to be nice in the first place.

Roll a little, sugar a little, roll some more...

until you have a nice oblong shape.

When it's all rolled out, cut it in half the long way....not the wrong way, the long way.

Each half will get rolled up into a rose shape.

Roll and pinch as you go. It gets sticky but that's what holds it together. Don't pinch too hard or the bottom will come off. Um...that sounded bad.

Repeat as often as you want with whatever colors you want until you have as many flowers as you want. But don't use the black gum drops...because...yuck, that's why.

See...look at all these....I must have really been feeling nice.

Then you roll the green ones and cut them into triangles for leaves. Just pinch the short flat side of the triangle around the stem and you're good to go. I would have taken a picture of that, but I forgot. Oops.

Frost your cupcakes...I did take a picture of that but it was blurry....and then stick a flower or two in the top. Happy Birthday Gum Drop Flower Cupcakes. That's what I'm calling them.

They were a hit! And since I'm being so nice I won't show a picture of everyone chowing down on cupcakes after our game. You're welcome.

Hope you had a Happy Birthday Kris!

Funky Day

I'm trying to keep things positive on my blog, but today was just sort of a funky day and I don't have anything nice to say so I'm not going to say nuthin' at all. Well not really, but sort of.

Why the funk? Sort of an accumulation of things...but the topper for the day was the all day noise! The neighbors had tree cutters in all day, they sawed trees and then they chipped trees with a really noisy, bad exhausty chipper that filled my house with noise and fumes and put me in a funky mood. Sometimes living in the suburbs gets to this country girl.

Here's a funny little flower. The screens aren't the greatest in our house, this one in the master bath has a little hole in it next to the spring loaded lock thing that holds it in place. One of my silly petunias found the hole and has decided to come in to visit. Probably to get away from the noise next door.

Too bad all that noise followed the poor little flower inside. Here's hoping for a quiet tomorrow in the burbs.

The Mission Trip

During the wee hours of the morning yesterday, Brian packed his bags into the van for the short ride to church before heading out on a long ride for a mission trip. This is Brian at just after 5:00 a.m. on a Sunday morning. He looks a little sleepy. This is also an example of my photography skills at just after 5:00 a.m. on a Sunday morning. The dark shadow on the right side of the photo would be the camera strap....or maybe it was one of the bags under my eyes. Yawn. Bye bye sweetie pie.

Three chaperones and it looks like 11 teenagers (Eric took the picture so I'm not sure if some weren't there yet) piled into 3 vans to journey to St. Louis, MO for a week of volunteering, working, sharing, and learning about the every day struggles that people can face in an urban setting. The kids range in age from going into 10th grade to soon to be seniors. Umm...it appears the girls out number the boys by quite a bit.

The vans were packed up and off they went. Cell phones are discouraged, so contact will be limited. Last year Brian went on a mission trip to an Indian reservation with his confirmation class. Eric was a chaperone for that one, so I wasn't very concerned. This time around, I'm feeling a little discombobulated with the idea of him being so far away without one of us with him. Our main contact will be daily emails from the church that are written after a daily phone call from the trip chaperone. We got our first one today.

This was the email...short and sweet.

Jennifer called to let us know that they arrived safely yesterday. The trip, thankfully, was uneventful. They had just finished devotions when she called and everyone was heading off to their sites. Some were going to a nursing home, others to a transitional home for women and children and the last group was going to be moving furniture. They will be going to see the St. Louis Arch this evening. Jen asks for prayers, for open minds and that the students will expand their normal circle of comfort. She asks for prayers for safety, especially this evening. Tonight is the All-Star baseball game in St. Louis, so the downtown area will be unusually busy and congested. So far they are having beautiful weather.

My reply was...

Thank you for the update! I’ll admit that having my son so far from home is expanding my parental circle of comfort! :-) It’s good to hear that things are going well.

But what I wanted to say was how was the drive down there? What are you eating? Is the sleeping pad working well enough? Is it too hot? Crowded? What are you working on? Who is in your group? Did you bring enough underwear? Are you getting enough rest? Drinking enough water? Do you miss your momma?

I guess that's why they don't encourage them to phone home. I know that he's fine. I know that I can count on him to be level headed. I know that the chaperones are good. I also know that I am missing my boy. It could be a long week.