Youth Legislature

My son has been chosen to be in Youth Legislature this year. Actually, we've known about it for awhile since we had to pay $50 for him to do it. But in super excited news, he drafted a bill for his school and they sent it off to the Youth Leg people in charge, and his bill is one that they are going to vote on!

Youth Leg sounds really neat. They elect a governor, a speaker of the house and something else. All the other kids are senators and house of representative members. They are assigned to certain Departments and they get to present their bills and their arguments for it and then it's voted on. It's a 2 day event at the Old State Capitol and it sounds like tons of fun!

His bill: The state should allow kids to have 3 full months of summer vacation. His points: it will save money on the schools not to operate the air conditioners in the middle of summer; it will give the kids more rest and able to do summer sports and still have time for a real vacation before school starts; and something else that I forget. Now he is researching his bill to find out facts to support it. And I must say, I haven't helped him a lick. He's come up with this and is doing it all on his own. I'm pretty impressed with the amount of effort he's putting into it too...especially since it's not sports oriented!

It might be cancer.....but it might not be

My dad had the lymph node in his neck removed this morning. Dr. Mathews suspects that it is cancer, but doesn't want us to jump to any conclusions, because it might not be. But he couldn't offer anything else that he thought it was. We should get Pathology reports back by Monday to know for sure, and then the process begins by seeing how bad it is, what kind it is, and a treatment option.

People beat cancer everyday. It might NOT be cancer, but most likely it is. But people live from cancer, they don't die unless you catch it late. And he's been mostly healthy so I can't believe that it's a late catch. And his blood work was fine. If it was bad it seems that his blood work would have shown something, like a high or low white cell count, right?

My mom is falling to pieces. There is nothing I can say to make it better. She lost her mother and her father to cancer. Her and my dad will have been married for 33 years on April 22nd. And she's falling to pieces. I can't fall to pieces in front of her. I have to put on a brave face. But, even knowing that people beat cancer everyday, and it might NOT be cancer, I'm still falling to pieces. He is my daddy. He has always been there for me. Through all the stupid decision, and all the stupid mistakes, he was always there. He may not have been there happily, but he was there. And now he might have cancer. And I'm falling to pieces.

My father

My parents aren't old. They are merely in their 50's. And, hey, since I turned 30...well, 50 ain't old anymore.

So my mom forced my dad to go to the doctor and do all kinds of tests that you need to do when you're 50. He did blood work, stress test, ultrasound of his legs (because his feet are always cold), etc. Every single test came back ok except the cholesterol test. And he has high blood pressure. But we knew both of those already. Basically, the doc told him that he's just fat and needed to lose some weight and both of things would go away.

BUT, he also had to do an MRI on his neck. About 3 months ago he jerked his neck pretty badly doing something and shortly after that has had this mass in his neck where he jerked it. Well, while he was at the doc the doc made him do an MRI to figure out what it was. We found out the results of the MRI yesterday...it's a swollen gland. But we don't know WHY it's swollen. And it just so happens that it is the exact same spot that he had melanoma a few years ago. So he is doing the biopsy today to see what it is. Hopefully it's just an infection, or a blood blister, or something silly like that. Hopefully it's not cancer. We're praying that it's not cancer. We'll find out in a couple hours exactly what it is.

100-0

I'm conflicted. One of yahoo's top news stories right now is about the Dallas coach that ran up the score of a basketball game to 100-0 a week or so ago. I heard the story the day in passing after it happened and thought he was probably a jerk. But then I read the Yahoo news story. And now I'm conflicted.

According to the news story, the girls were shooting 3-pointers in the 4th quarter. And while that may sound horrible to some, 3-pointers are the hardest shots to make. They weren't doing layups (the easy shots) but going for the hard ones. Some of the comments on the news story suggested that the coach should have told the girls to play opposite handed, or miss shots on purpose. That's what I disagree with.

I come from an athletic background, and my kids are involved in all sorts of sports. Never, ever, not one time would I EVER tell my kids to be less than they can be because someone else wasn't as good as they were. Ever. And I guess that's where I can somewhat see the coach's point of view. I applaud him for not making his girls "less" because their opponents weren't very good. And basketball is a different sport than say baseball or football. With baseball you can change positions up drastically and put kids in unfamiliar spots. Same thing with almost with football...although you obviously wouldn't put a 90 pound kid on the offensive line. But in football you could run the ball more. Whereas in basketball, you're kind of stuck. All positions participate in all plays and you have to know what one kid is doing in order to know what you are doing. So everyone on the court knows the basic fundamentals of each position. Especially if you are a good team.

So after the 100-0 game, the school issued an apology and said that they were a Christian school and the coach shouldn't have done it. The coach emailed the paper shortly thereafter and told them that he would not apologize because his girls had success, and he would never intentionally run up the score. He did what he could to keep the score down while at the same time not compromise the girls' abilities. Therefore, he feels that he has nothing to apologize for. And I agree with that position.

I can see the argument more if you are playing recreational sports. But when you are in a competitive league, and high school and college and beyond are definitely considered competitive, then it's a whole different ball game.

In any other aspect of life, I would never tell or allow my kids to be less than their potential. For me, this same rule applies to sports. You may not always win, but you always play to the best of your ability.

Cheap Bats

Lo and behold, Brendan "NEEDS" a new bat. Again. Although I just bought him one about 8 months ago. Why? Because that was a 2008 bat and he NEEDS a 2009 bat. And, and I 'd never tell him this outloud, he really has outgrown the bat from last year since he grew another 3 or 4 inches since I bought it. And short bats, on tall kids, they really don't work.

So I found this website. www.cheapbats.com. Bats are not cheap. Not the 2009 versions anyway. Wait. No. Not the NAME BRAND 2009 versions. More particularly, not THIS 2009 version: http://www.cheapbats.com/shop/2009-demarini-cf3-baseball-bat-youth-league-dxcfl-11oz-p-1064-c-99_100.html

But MOM, it's "ON SALE" for ONLY $249!

So I made a deal with him. If he could sell his $249 bat that I bought him 8 months ago for at least $125 to one of the smaller kids on the team then I would buy him the new bat....with the help of doing dishes, and laundry, and his homework.

We'll see how that goes.

Inauguration, New President, etc. etc.

I've tried to avoid it but I can't. Every news channel, every radio station, every newspaper, every office conversation, every everything is centered around one thing: Our new President is African-American. If I hear the word African-American one more time I'm going to pull my hair out.

I don't think I'm racist. Yes, I'm prejudiced against certain people and certain things, but it has nothing to do with skin color. Hell, some of my own family members fall into that category :)

I think the country as a whole would be more accepting of Obama as President (not that they aren't, just it seems that some people can't get past his skin color) if the doggone media would just STOP referring to him as "African-American." What about his thoughts on foreign policy, or his thoughts of the economy? We don't hear about that much, but he's AFRICAN-AMERICAN and that's all that matters and all we keep being reminded about. I call bullshit on that. I don't care about skin color, so quit throwing that in our faces and tell me what his first plans are.

I think he tries to get past it alot, he mentions it and then follows with a comment about things he wants to do...but interviewers keep going back and want to harp on his ancestry. And seeing black people on TV talking about how much of a change it's going to be for THEM now that there is a colored man in office just kinda makes me throw up a little. Really? You thought that you had it SO BAD before and all of sudden, just because he's black, you're going to get everything you ever wanted? Trust me when I say I'm not hatin' on the Prez, because I'm not. I just wish we as a country could get past the fact that he's black, or mixed, or whatever, and focus on what he is going to DO.

Yes, it's history making. I get that. But you know what? You aren't going to change some people's mind. And that's true about almost everything. But forcing it down our throats is getting to be a bit much for me.

My Schedule

I'm creating the post because I'm TERRIBLE with keeping up a calendar so I need something to refer to when I make commitments. Plus, I need people to know that I'm not exaggerating when I say that all I do at home is sleep :)

M-F: work 7:30 - 4:00...leave home at 6:30 and get home around 5:00

Monday -
Bren baseball practice 6 - 8 pm

Tuesday -
Bren religion, 5:30 - 6:30 (last class is Feb. 17)

Wednesday -
Des religion, 5:30 - 6:30 (last class is Feb. 18);
Bren practice 6-8

Thursday -
Open

Friday -
Bren pitching practice 6-8 pm

Saturday -
Bren practice 9 am - 1 pm

Desi and Nic will start practicing in April and playing ball in May. I have no control over Nicolas' schedule, but by taking the U10 league rep position, I have complete control over Desi's schedule since I'm the one that will make them for all the teams. Although I don't think I can avoid all conflicts, I am going to try my best!