So Saddened

 In the event that you may have been wondering where I've been the last little while...we have been mourning the loss of my mother-in-law, Sandy.  On Father's Day she had an aneurysm, and there was too much damage for the doctors to save her.

The above picture is her with Maestro when he was 3 weeks old.

And when he was finally well enough to actually laugh a little at 5 months, she was the first person he laughed at.  And he belly laughed at her for a long time, it was an amazing moment for me to see the child that did nothing but scream in pain from birth until then, laughing.  She had a magic with her grandkids, that is for sure!

And Grammy with Little Red, she was a great Grammy.  The boys are missing her deeply, as are we all.

And her with Little Red a bit older.  He used to be pretty interested in her glasses because at the time, no one else he knew wore them...now, age having set in, we all do.

And one of the people I know will miss her most is her wonderful son.  I have eluded to the fact that his father was not in his life by choice after he was 12, and his mother had raised him a lot alone anyways as he was deployed a lot.  Music Man has a special place in his heart for his mom.  She did an amazing job at raising a wonderful son to be an even better father and husband, something he did not have any example of in his own life. 

I will miss most her laugh, sense of adventure and hugs.  She worked out every day at the YMCA in her home town and was absolutely, by far, one of the healthiest people I know, my role model.  She had so many friends, it was amazing to see how many people came to her wake. She was very well loved. 

We had other news to report as well, but I'm going to leave this one here.  Sandy, I love you, I miss you and I'm so sorry that our boys didn't get to have you longer.  So sad to have to say goodbye way too soon.

Peace be with you, ~Peacemom

All Star!

This is Little Red in the ready position, waiting to make that great catch at second base!  He had a fun baseball season as well.  He's in a tough age bracket of kiddos because there are all different levels of focus at his age and many different age groups on the team.  They range from 6-9, and that's quite a span in maturity level.  And, Little Red is not the most patient person, but he's done pretty well with this big age range of boys to play with.

His swing has gotten so much more confident this year!  And this was his first year with kids pitching, which can be a little scary since some of them don't have the best control of where the ball will end up once it leaves their hand!  He did get hit once this year in the back of his ankle, knocked his feet right out from under him.  And he gets nervous when that happens and for a while will be afraid of the ball again.  This picture is one of my favorites because it shows Music Man in the back.  The one in the jeans and tan fleece.  He was coaching first base.  Music Man truly enjoys coaching the boys.  He wasn't able to do that with Maestro's team this year as there were too many rooster in the coop, if you know what I mean...so he decided not to tackle that this year and focus on Little Red's team. 

And he hit it!  He's off to first base, and his dad...kind of a cool thing to see and I truly hope that the boys remember doing all this with their dad.  It's definitely something Music Man didn't have in his childhood and he gets a lot of fulfillment out of doing that with his sons.  And hey, I even caught the bat in mid-drop, good job not throwing that bat, Little Red!  He's also a pretty decent pitcher, he's had quite a few strike outs this year as well.  He's played a lot of different positions, one of the things that made this coaching team a great success this year.  If a child wanted to pitch, they got the chance, if they wanted to play first base, they got the chance, if they wanted to catch, they got the chance.  And at this level that's the way it should be.  They tried their best to let the boys try out all the positions and learn from them.  Some of the other coaches like to put boys in one position and leave them there for the season.  At this level, that doesn't make for well rounded players.  Really all it does is make for frustrated boys in the outfield.  Movement and change are good right now.

 

Little Red was chosen to be one of the players on the All Star team this year!  Three boys from his team were chosen to play in the game.  It was a fun time, even though it was 95 degrees outside!  Which, for New Hampshire, is crazy hot.  We're not ready for that already this time of year.  After a very cool spring, we've got to work in to that kind of heat!  But the boys were troopers.  Here they got to have their names read and come out on the field together.  As you can see 4 different towns made up his team.

 

 

The boys had a good time meeting new kids from other towns in the dugout.  This is our three players from our town.

 

 

Maestro was even able to come and watch some of his little brother play.  We had to leave to go to his first play off game right from this field.  Maestro needed the umbrella, like I said, the sun was very hot that day!

 

 

Little Red got a hit in the game as well as made a great throw to home from second base!  He's had a fun season so far.  His playoffs will start soon and we'll be taking the summer off from baseball after that.  And maybe some fall ball once the weather turns a little cooler. 

 

Take me out to the ball game, ~Peacemom