It's Been a Great Season!

The 2013 9-10 year old Giants finished the season as league runner-up.  After making our way through the season ending tournament in the winners bracket, we had to face the mighty Phillies in the championship game, and what a game it was!  After spectacular defensive play by both teams, the score was tied after 6 innings at 1-1 and everyone was treated to free baseball!  4 more innings to be exact!  The final score was 2-1 in favor of the Phillies in 10!

We fought hard in the second game but came up a little short in a 13-9 effort.  Our kids never gave up against a team that was clearly the best team in the league.  The Giants finished the season with a 10-5 record.  Our record against the Phillies???.........1-4.  They sort of had our number along with every one else.  They finished the season with a record of 13-2!  Congrats to the Phillies!

Reid had a very solid year, especially in the field!  He is shown here holding his "Golden Glove" trophy that he earned by having the best defensive stats on our team.  We decided early in the season that we wanted to honor some of the kids that excelled on the team and we kept stats on everything from fielding to base running.  We gave a trophy for best defense, best offensive numbers, Team MVP (which was a combination of the two), and a coaches award for the kid that showed the best attitude towards his coaches and his team.  This was a great team to coach because it was full of some really great kids!  In fact, at the recent school honors night, 8 out of our 12 boys were honored in some way, with 6 of them being recognized for having all A's for every quarter for this school term.  Makes us coaches proud!

Reid is also shown holding a sports devotional book titled "Have Fun, Try Hard, and Play Fair".  We wanted to give the kids something that they could use to help them become better young men.  A trophy will eventually loose it's shine, but lessons about how to live a Christian life will last a lifetime!  The book has 365 daily devotions related to sports and how that relates to living your everyday life for God.  Several of the boys got emotional after the game and I have had several parents call me and say that they couldn't believe a group of coaches would care that much for their kid.  I'll be the first to admit that I did not want to coach a team this year, but this team was worth it in every way!

To Coach Hal and Coach Stan-  I'll coach with you guys anytime!  It's been a great ride!  We were lucky to get such a great group!!

The season has not ended for Reid just yet!  It's on to All-Stars to see how our kids stack up against the best in the State!  Reid has made his first All-Star team and I am one proud father and Coach!  Let's go get 'em Son!!  Your Daddy is very proud of you and your hard work!!

Middle of Ball Season 5K!

We have been playing a lot of baseball lately.  In fact, for the past 10 weeks, all we have done is play baseball.  We did however take a Saturday morning off and participated in The Fitzgerald Rotary Club's annual Colony City Chase 5K.

I'll keep it brief-  Reid won first place for his age group (11 and under) in just his second 5K.  He shaved 4 minutes off of his first 5K time.  My friends that ran in the race told me afterwards that Reid could have had a faster time, but that he stopped to wait on some of his friends during the race.  He told me he didn't want them to have to run by themselves.  We had a good talk about how noble it was to want to help a friend, but I did remind him that this was a RACE! :)

I look forward to the next challenge as he really seems to have fun running in these races.  Run Reid Run!!

A Birthday Trip to Remember!

A very special little lady celebrated her 7th Birthday this past weekend!  Little Miss Mia is more than a little crazy about her American Girl Dolls, so we decided to give her the ultimate gift.  We took her to the American Girl Store in Atlanta on Saturday.  We gave her a gift card to spend and her Cheri gave her some money as well.  She also took her money that she has earned over the past year doing chores and picking up pecans.  She came home with no money left what-so-ever, but plenty of goodies and a new doll for her collection.  She will tell you that the day was a success!

Two dolls made the trip with us.  McKenna and Mia (the doll's name) both had scheduled appointments to have their ears pierced and their hair done.  My Mia watched them while they were at the spa.  She had the biggest smile on her face as they took each doll and placed them in a beauty shop chair and gave them the full spa treatment.  Let me just say that the appointment book was rather large and booked!  Depending on what treatment the doll was receiving that day, the bill could run from as low as $15 to as high as $50.  Based on what I saw on Saturday, we all need to go buy stock in this place!

We finished our shopping and stopped to have a picture made with Saige in her hot air balloon.  Saige is this year's "Girl of the Year" and also the newest member of Mia's collection.  Saige is a cowgirl who likes horses, but she also likes to do art.  Sounds a lot like my Mia and a certain first cousin of mine!  I'm sure she will feel right at home in Mia's room!

Happy Birthday Baby Girl!  As always, you are MY American Girl of the year!!



The Brave Eagles Sings "The Hump Day Song"

I'm a very lucky person in the fact that I live in a small town with some great friends.  I wrote a little blog a few years ago about The Hump Day Gang that you may want to use to refresh your memory.  Hump Day here in Fitzgerald, GA means seeing the boys, having a few cocktails, and cooking some fine southern meals.  It is a time for all of us "men" to get together and solve the world's problems as we see them.  I am a regular attender and I would like to take this time to thank my lovely wife for allowing me to be a part of this group every Wednesday night!

My good friend, fellow Hump Day-er and guitar player, Hal Wiley and I were sitting around his pool watching the kids swim the other day when we came up with the idea to write a Hump Day song.  It needed to be witty, but also describe what Hump Day is all about.  He picked the tune and I got busy on the words.  We sang it for the gang two weeks ago and did an encore performance this past Wednesday that somehow made its way to video.

Now before you watch this, I need to add a few disclaimers!  This group in no way disrespects the women in our lives.  This song is made to be funny and pick on the fact that every once in a while one of our wives may fuss about their husband being at Hump Day, or they may plan an event on a Wednesday night causing a member to be unable to attend the weekly Hump Day gathering.  Of course all of us make fun of the buddy whose is catching a little devil from his woman at home, and we even set up a little prize for the wife who so dares inter fear with a Hump Day activity.  It's called "The Pink Shirt"

Again, it's all in fun and the girls get a big kick out of it!  No harm done as the attitudes are generally all good!  The Pink Shirt is mentioned in the song several times.  I didn't want you to be lost!

Other things in the song that may need a little clearing up:

Kyle- He is a gourmet cook.  The kid cooks stuff that is simply awesome, even if we don't know what it is!
Davis-  He eats!  A lot!  Never cooks!
Bon-co- A dice game that the girls get together and play.  For some reason they try and meet on Wednesday nights once a month.
Clay Day-  A popular saying in this group as Clay seems to hunt, fish and play more than the rest of us.
"Playing her cards right"- As in after several cocktails someone says "If my wife plays her cards right, she might get lucky when I get home".  (Never seems to work out for some reason)
Quiet sign-  Bill has a sign from a golf tournament that says "QUIET".  He brings it out when the conversation gets a little too noisy for the neighborhood.
Hump Day Lite-  Some boys that live to the South of us have started their own Hump Day tradition.  We call them "Hump Day Lite"

So enjoy the song for what it is!  FUN!  The video is not very clear because it was dark, but the audio is not bad!

"http://www.youtube.com/embed/Pmyu0_OqOM4?rel=0"

Happy Hump Day to all the boys!!