Opening Day

Unfortunately my brother-in-law, Scotty, was admitted to Emory Thursday night with heart complications. I ended up working from home on Friday so Lance could be at the hospital with his family while Scotty underwent a heart-cath procedure to diagnose the problem. The procedure brought great news – they were able to fix he problem by eliminating some scar tissue on his heart left from surgery at 5 years old. There would be no further treatment needed for now and everyone was beyond excited and thankful. Unfortunately after being discharged on Saturday, he was re-admitted on Sunday for a pulmonary embolism (blood clot in his lung) as a result of the heart-cath procedure. He will be in-patient for a few days as they resolve the clot with blood thinners. Please keep him and his family in your prayers.

Not completely understanding the circumstances, my boys are excited since it means their 3 cousins spent the night with us last night. A sleep over on a school night is otherwise unheard of!

Although overshadowed by my brother-in-law’s stay in the hospital, opening day 2008 was largely a success. It was a long day but we couldn’t have asked for better weather and plenty of fun. The parade was at 9am, which is what both Owen and Riley were looking forward to more than their games. Lance went with Owen and his team and I went with Riley. It’s a short parade route, maybe 1 mile if that, but they love throwing handfuls of candy at the scattered bystanders on the roadside. Owen’s game was immediately following the parade/opening day announcements at 11am. Have you ever seen 3 and 4 year olds play baseball? It is so funny! Owen is quite proud that this year he is one of the 4 year old veterans who can occasionally hit the ball without the assistance of a T. He did that during the game and made his turn around the bases. Another boy on his team had a great hit and then proceeded to run to centerfield to fetch his ball. Too funny! Even funnier was the jabs Lance made at this kid’s Dad, a former Atlanta Brave.We had a few hours after that before Riley’s 2:45 game. All the teams have fundraising booths and the local high school ROTC runs inflatable slides and bounce houses so there was plenty to do before Riley’s game. Nacho’s, Dippin’ Dots, Cokes, Cotton Candy, Hot Dogs, it was all there.

Riley’s game went well too. They lost, but still a good game. This is the first year with real strike-out’s. No T to use if you miss the pitches from the coach. It’s still coach pitch, but no T. It tried to rain on us before it was over, but nothing more than a drizzle until we got in the car after the game was over and then it rained pretty good. Owen kept complaining that it was “dripping on him.”

OB’s BBQ for dinner. I got to pick since it was my birthday. A busy, hectic day for a birthday but I got to watch my 2 guys do some of their favorite things – play, eat, play baseball – you can’t ask for much better.

This update wouldn’t be complete without confessing my ‘uh-oh’ on Friday. Lance was at the hospital with his brother (40+ miles from home) and I was taking the boys to the ball field, they both had a 6:30 practice. We headed out and as soon as the garage door closed behind me, I knew what I’d done. My keys (car and house) were on the kitchen counter behind the now locked, garage door. Oops. Lance has the only other house key. Even worse, my cell phone was also on the kitchen counter charging. Needless to say we had an opportunity to meet our nice neighbors who called their locksmith friend who was at our house in about 30 minutes. So after nearly 45 minutes and $90 later, I again had possession of my keys and off to the ball park we went. At least we made it in time to get everyone’s uniform for the Saturday morning festivities.