All Good...

What a great week & weekend! Other than Sierra being sick (and she is much better now) we couldn't have asked for a better week with the kids. We've had them for 10 days and they've been perfect!

Sierra is much better. We took her to the doctor "again" on Friday and they ran a lot of tests. They all came back negative (strep, mono, etc). We really like her dr., he called and talked to Brett for about 20 minutes and explained he wants to find out what's wrong, but thinks it's probably just a virus and will pass. She started acting like her old self again yesterday, and today seemed totally fine. YEA! In fact, we took them both and bought them new bikes and they rode all day long. Pierce got an orange (his favorite color) Mongoose and we bought Sierra a pink and silver bike. We rode around the neighborhood, played bounce-back in the backyard (a game we made up with JB's new pitch back) and we're all worn out! JB fell asleep in my lap and Sierra was asleep until Brett carried her into bed. Oh yeah, and they also got new kites. Of course at one point, Pierce was inside watching a movie, Sierra was taking a nap and Brett was outside flying a Ninja Turtle kite, hmmm.... not sure who those kite's were for??

Mary & Cherri, if you read this, thanks so much for stopping by. Pierce loved dressing up in character and playing with you. You were both really good sports...especially since I slammed the door in your face. Again, SO sorry...we've laughed about that imagining how it looked. We're so glad you stopped by and wish you would do it more often.

Well, to end the night, we cooked out on our new grill and everyone sat at the table and had dinner...what a great way to end the day.

We just listened to the final game of the NMSU series (first conference series) and they lost all three. Tough losses, especially since they were all pretty close. They played a double-header today and lost the first one 5-4 with bases loaded. Our all-american was up to bat with 2 outs and BL on deck. They brought in a new pitcher and the first two pitches were balls. The third pitch he popped up to center field to end the game. We just knew he was going to walk and then BL would get a chance to win the game. Tough break. BL caught both games, but we lost the audio and live stats in the middle of the second game so have to talk to him later to see what happened. We're going to see him again April 7 and taking the little ones...they're SO excited! Megan is going also with her dad so it will be fun for BL.

This week should be a tough one...we have our first annual Health & Wellness Fair next Saturday and it's a LOT of work. That will consume most of my time and Brett is leaving Saturday to go on a business trip out of town - should be a busy week.

Hope everyone is doing well and if you ever have time, post a note and let us know how you're doing.

KB

Something Exciting Happened!

I'm at home with SB since she is sick. Megan watched SB this morning while I went to work for a while and then since Megan had to go to work at noon, I came and got SB and took her to the doc. He said that the fever was probably viral since her nose, ears and throat looked fine. Also, her eyes are red, and he said may be a form of pink eye, but Kelly and I think that it is more likely that she has touched her eyes after putting the medicine on her hands and feet.

Anyway I'm bummed, I was kind of looking forward to staying home with her and playing games and watching movies, but also excited because BL was playing at 3PM our time. They cancelled the game.... Rrrrr.

But they did put a pretty neat pic of BL on the website to announce that the game was cancelled. Here it is:NMSU Game Cancelled

So really, the only thing exciting that has happened is that I beat SB in the first game of "slapjack".

Dreary Day...

Man, what a dreary day! I don't mind the rain, we need it. But you have the rain and cold weather together and it's not much fun.

The boys have gone to run errands. Brett was getting stir crazy and J.B. wanted to ride in the Tahoe.

Sierra is asleep again. Her temperature has gone down, but it stays right around 99.8. Just enough to make her tired. I took her in the car this morning just to get her out of the house. We went to Krispy Kremes. I'm not sure why, no one was really hungry, but she has been stuck in the house since yesterday so I thought it would do her some good. By the time we got home, she was worn out. I gave her a bath and put clean clothes on her and she has been laying around ever since.

Brandon just called and they are in Utah. He said it is the most beautiful place he's ever seen. They're scheduled to play tomorrow and Tuesday, but it started snowing today so he's not sure what they'll do. He did say they have artificial turf so all they have to do is sweep it off. Burrr...I can't imagine playing in that weather.

Megan got up and went to work. She has been looking into some medical classes and is still trying to figure out what she wants to do. In the meantime, she is hanging out with us and having fun. J.B. went in last night and put his arms around her neck and told her goodnight and he loved her...she was on cloud nine.

Me...when I get bored I cook. I'm baking some oatmeal/chocolate chip cookies while I'm typing this and trying to figure out what I'll make next. Good thing the weather's not like this all the time!

One good thing about the rain...we're getting six trees for our new house, but they haven't been able to plant them because it's been too dry. Hopefully after the rain we've had the past several days, we'll get to plant them next weekend.

That's all for now. We'll keep you posted if anything exciting happens. Don't hold your breath :)

KB

The Good, the Bad and the Ugly...

JB was exceptionally GOOD today. We had so much fun together! Today was Grandpa's birthday so we had a party at their house. JB was the life of the party.

Sierra feels BAD. She woke up this morning feeling fine and all of a sudden she said she felt hot. She has had a fever all day from 101.5 - 102 degrees. She had two birthday parties to attend today and had to miss both.

NMSU just looks plain UGLY right now. Brandon is trying to stay upbeat, but it's getting harder and harder every day. They start conference play next weekend and need to pull it together.

Other than that...Megan is good, Brett is good and I love having our family all at home together!

Life Is Good...
KB

Brief Update...

Just wanted to give everyone a brief update on ML, SB & JB. Seems like we're always posting baseball stuff, but this is our way to keep everyone informed during BL's senior year. But there are so many things going on with the other three as well.

Megan just got promoted to shift manager at the retail store where she works. She loves working. She has also interviewed at Brett's office and has gone through a phone and personal interview and is waiting to hear back. She is really excited.

SB is enjoying her first year of school. She is so much fun and has a new friend in our neighborhood that she plays with all the time. Last night she and I played "slap jack" with the new Cinderella cards we got her in New Mexico. Let's just say she inherited her dad's competitive nature.

JB is so funny. When I picked him up from daycare yesterday the afternoon teacher told me he must have gone to time-out that morning because he didn't have a star on his daily sheet. He tried endlessly to convince me that he didn't go to time-out until SB confirmed the story because she saw him there when she was reading with a buddy. Once he knew he was busted, he finally gave in and said he had gone to time-out. Brett asked him later who put him in time-out and he just looked at him and said, "I have no idea" He is such a hoot!

And of course we can't leave Molly out (our 42 lb bulldog) she is loving the new house and the heated floors. In her world...life is good.

KB

Update

NMSU played Texas Tech tonight in a special game played as a home game in Roswell, NM to give people in that part of the state a chance to see NMSU play. Three things from the game: #1 Texas Tech had 67 stolen bases coming into the game which lead the country (Div I). It was important going in for Brandon to shut their running game down. Result - Texas Tech not only didn't have a stolen base, but BL threw the only attempt out. #2 BL only went 1 for 5, but he hit the ball hard all night. His only hit was a "ground rule double" that everyone in the park knew was actually a homerun, but the umpires didn't see it that way. Rocky Ward (the head coach) argued for a while but to no avail. He also had a fly ball that the center fielder caught with his back against the wall. BL told us after the game that he hit that one harder than the other ball that actually left the park. A third at bat was a ball hit so hard that the third baseman took it off of his chest and Brandon beat out the throw, but the official score keeper called it an error by the third baseman. Tough breaks, but stats don't always tell the whole story. #3 The sixth MLB organization (to be left anonymous - but here's a hint: it's the Spanish word for "fathers") came up to BL after the game and visited with him while handing him their "questionaire". The first words out of his mouth were, "You can catch all day RIGHT NOW in the big leagues". Pretty awesome coming from a scout that sees players from all over the country on a daily basis. He asked Brandon some questions like: How much money will it take to sign you if we draft you? - Do you want to play professional baseball? - etc.

Brandon is higher than a kite right now, as well he should be. He is not nearly as "high" as I am because I should be in bed, but I'm so excited I can't sleep - so I thought I would post an update....

BB

Tough Situation

Brandon has found himself in a tough situation. New Mexico State was supposed to be pretty good this year. In fact, there was talk of this team being the best in NMSU history. No one will ever know how good they could have been because there are five players (four of them pitchers) that are scheduled for Tommy John surgery in the next month. NMSU is not known for pitching, but they had a decent staff at the beginning of the year. Take away four arms and no pitching staff in the country would be very good. That makes it tough when you are looking at a four run deficit before you even hit in every game (which happened this weekend). It's hard to keep your focus when the other team scores often and the game seems out of hand early. Brandon has done just that, though.

We were excited for him when a MLB team showed interest in him early in the year. After the second team not only had him fill out their questionaire (two weeks ago), but called him and talked with him about his situation, the excitement went to a new level. Riding that high, going into this weekend, my thought for Brandon was to just maintain his hitting and good things would happen... You see, his defense behind the plate is not in question, in fact, the cross-checker that called him told him that he could catch at the major-league level right now. The only thing in question was his hitting. Brandon is hitting .333 with 6 doubles and 15 RBI. He is not just having an "okay" year hitting, he is proving that he can really hit, and hit consistently.

The hardest part about it is that Brandon is having to do this while the team is losing. They may not lose every game, but the team is going through a time right now where it is hard to keep positive while their best arms are failing them. Well, this weeekend in every game - all the way to the end - Brandon was constantly "talking" to the other players, keeping their minds positive, continuing to do the little things right, even though the game was out of hand.

The scouts noticed. He got three more questionaires after Sunday's games. For people that may not know what it means to get a questionaire, it is like getting a "letter of intent" from a college. It means that they (that MLB team) are going to draft you , if only another team hasn't taken you first in the draft. Brandon's stock went up this weekend. Was it the fact that he had three "pop times" at 1.84, 1.85 and 1.84 between innings? Maybe (those are Pudge Rodriguez numbers, if you didn't know). Was it the fact that he had two of the teams six hits Friday night? Maybe. But most likely it was the fact that Brandon just loves to play - and that he is FINALLY getting noticed as the VERY good baseball "player" that he is.

Yes, it's a tough situation, but none of this would mean as much if it were easy. And it's only going to get better.

BB

Whatta Ride....

Man, what a wild, long, exhausting, fun weekend! We spent 20+ hours in the car and 10+ hours at the ballpark in three days. The drive was fun because it allowed us to talk and just enjoy each other's company, which we don't get to do that often with our busy lives. The baseball could have been better (Brett will go into more detail in a separate blog), and the weather was horrible! Saturday Las Cruces had a wind advisory with winds up to 60mph! That, combined with the mountains and cool air made for very miserable baseball weather. Scott (my ex husband, for those of you who don't know) also drove this weekend and he and Brett played golf Sunday morning while I shopped (I wasn't complaining).

The drive back last night was brutal. We arrived in Amarillo around midnight, just in time to drive through the fires that consumed both sides of I-40. We drove through smoke until we reached OKC. There was smoke and flames as far as you could see and telephone and electrical poles laying beside the highway still burning...pretty scary. At that point there was nothing we could do other than pray the fire didn't jump the highway while we were driving through.

We got home around 3am, took in only the essentials, took a shower and collapsed into bed. 7am sure came too quickly...we're both at work, returning our over abundance of emails and voicemail and can't wait to get home and see Megan and just relax and enjoy life.

Sometimes I stop and ask myself how much longer we can go at this pace. Then I look around at our children, our home and my wonderful husband and realize how lucky I am.

I also want to thank Wonderwoman II and the Hulk for taking care of SuperGirl and Batman. I'm sure they had a blast and we can't wait to hear all about it!

KB

Kid's say the darndest things

As soon as we got home from work tonight, SB & JB were ready to play with their new friends. It wasn't long before our doorbell rang and there they were. Again, we swapped the girls for the boys and the boys stayed with us. JB & JR have a lot of fun together and as they were playing in the backyard, JB looked up at me and said, Mommy, can I take JR for show-n-tell?

Gotta love him!
KB

Blessed...

I couldn't think of a better word that described today. It's late so I'll make this short.

Today was one of those days where you think, could it get any better than this? To start, church was really good today. Then this afternoon, SB had a friend from Kindergarten (that lives a few houses down) come over and play. They spent the afternoon playing, back and forth from our house to theirs. The best part is, she has a little brother whose 3 years old! They call him J.R. He and J.B. played so well together. They both dressed up like batman, cape, mask and all. They all had a blast.

Megan is doing so well and has been offered a promotion at her job. Everytime she walks through the door I tell Brett how thankful I am that she lives with us. She is such a good daugther and so good to the little ones.

NMSU won there third straight series. Yesterday, they broke the school record scoring 36 runs in a single game. BL is still doing great and is currently hitting .323 for the season.

Me? I'm good, other than a possible broken toe from playing baseball with JB in the house...that's another story.

Tonight, Brett, SB & JB all put their swimsuits on and got in the shower (our big shower) and gave Molly a bath. They had so much fun and I think this may become a weekly ritural. At least I know Molly's hoping it will. I opted to stand outside the shower and dry everyone off.

To end our evening, as I was drying SB's hair, she fell asleep sitting on the bathroom counter. They played hard today. JB, on the other hand, is still wide awake laying with dad.

What a great day.
KB