Are you ready for some football?

The Northeast Tacoma Tigers kicked of their 2012 season today.

Despite the HOT weather this week (legit HOT weather, like in the 90's hot weather, not wimpy W. WA it's over 75 and we are all dying hot weather) today's game was played under overcast skies and in the mild high 60's.

Perfect football weather.

Unfortunately our first game was against last year's league champs.  Um, yeah...

The good news is we weren't shut out and there is nowhere to go but up. 

Despite the today's loss, this is the best team we have fielded so far.

(this is only the 3rd year of the program and they have come a long way in those three years)

Just look at the determination in these faces. 

GO TIGERS!!

:0)

TOC

Today is the first round of the Tournament of Champions.

Ben's team won their league and now they play for the District 10 Chmpionship.

Besides hoping for a win, we are hoping the rain will stay away.

Apparently, W. WA missed the memo that June is supposed to be part of summer.

Oh well, Go Tigers

:0)

Welcome to the Show

Yesterday was Ben's first game in "the Majors". This is the level that sends teams to the Little League World Series so the kids can really play. I think Ben was a little awestruck, but held his own his own on the field. The Tigers played well, but came up just a little short. Oh well, I was just glad it didn't rain. Our next game is Wednesday and it is the one day on the 5 day forecast that doesn't show downpours. Oh the joys of baseball in W. Washington.

:0)

Boys of Summer

Springtime means baseball.

Unfortunately the Soundview Little League doesn't have facilities down in AZ.

Oh no, we have NE Tacoma Elementary and snow that didn't get the memo that March is just a few days away.

While I love the snow, I don't think Ben shares my enthusiasm.

Poor Benji, such a trooper.

Muddy Mud Mud

We have been in a constant state of rain, sun, heavy rain, sun, down pour with this cycle repeating every 30 minutes (I'm not kidding)
Tomorrow was supposed to be Ben's first game of the season. Weather forcast: 37 degress and rain. Ben was oh so thrilled.
There are no "boys of summer" in the Soundview Little League. We are the boys of freezing rain and whiteout hail. We are the "blue tarp ball players". We don't tan we rust.
I spent all day running around getting the things Ben would need to stave off a case of hypothermia only to come home, check my email and see that the game has been cancelled due to too much mud on the field.
I've never seen Ben happier.

* Interesting side note... I googled images of muddy baseball players and there weren't any. Apparently no one in the world plays baseball in the rain except us.

Oh the drama

Okay, so I know I've mentioned that my preschool adventure has been a bit eventful over the last few weeks, but yesterday took the cake. Try as I might I try and avoid drama (I can hear the snickers, but I really do try) However, I am the kind of person who doesn't like to see people upset and I do try and "fix" things when I can. Last night, I had just about had it. I had spent the entire weekend on the phone (with the exception of the 2 hours I spent sitting in a hail storm during Ben's baseball game) and I was done. I couldn't talk about stuff any more. So I just made one more phone call to the person at the heart of it all. I'm sure glad I did. It was a great conversation, so much got cleared up and now (knock on wood) everything is better or at least in a MUCH better place. It is amazing how much damage a person can do, simply because their feelings are hurt and they are feeling left out. It boggles the mind. Anyway, I'm feeling much better and the key players are feeling better and I can now enjoy the remaining 3 weeks of my preschool career.
In other news, Ben got 2 hits last night. He was very proud. Since the kids pitch, there are a lot of strike outs and walks. It is rare the ball actually gets hit into play. Ben is 3 for 5 this season which is pretty good. We really need to have some decent weather for the games. Although it didn't hail last night, it was cold and the poor kids were freezing out there. Our next game is Saturday morning at 9 which means Ben needs to be there at 8:30. Ugh, that will be tough. Joji flies out of town that morning so I will be solo. Hopefully it will be decent weather (how Washingtonian is that? We don't hope for good weather, just not awful weather)
Oh well, I can hear birds singing today and I see some sun, so maybe it will be a nice day. I might even get my tomatoes in the ground, how fun is that? :0)

Play Ball (or at least try)

Today was opening day for Ben's baseball team (he was also team captain). He moved up to "AA" ball this year and it is a whole new ballgame (seriously, no pun intended) Last year, Ben's team was undefeated. They were pretty strong in both hitting and fielding (it was rare for any ball to get past the infield) The boys had been together for a couple of years and were finally starting to actually play as a team. They were also the "old" team with many kids at the top of the age bracket.
This year we are back to being the young ones and have to deal with kid pitching and base stealing. The biggest change is the use of a hard ball. Last year, Ben would smack the crap out of the ball and it wouldn't go anyway. This year, they do.
On Ben's first at bat of the season he sent a doozy over the head of the left fielder. He was getting extra bases for sure. When he got to second he was sent to third and we couldn't believe it when he was waved home.
We were all screaming and cheering. I don't think Ben has ever run that far that fast. As he was heading toward home, in comes the throw from the cut off man and there was going to be a play at the plate. Ben slides, but is tagged by the catcher. To make it worse, Joji was the home plate ump and had to call him out. He was sooooo close. Oh well, he was still totally stoked. I wish I had taken a picture, but I keep score and unfortunately don't have an extra set of hands. Ben's next at bat was just as exciting he hit a little blooper up the first base line and ended up with a double. I was hoping Ben would hit again, but it was 7:00 and it was cold!!!! There is just something wrong being wrapped head to toe at a baseball game. We had a practice game on Saturday and it was amazing. Warm and sunny. We were joking "what's wrong with this picture". Hopefully, the sun will make an occasional appearance at some of the games.

As I type this the M's are up 4-1 over the A's. Hopefully, they will win as well.
However, as any true M's fan can tell you, it ain't over til it's over. No lead is big enough going into the 9th inning. We have a few bugs in the old bullpen and hopefully they will work themselves out soon. Not to mention that JJ Putz, our closer, is on the DL. Why can't everyone just stay healthy. Oh well, go M's. :0)

Yes, I have become THAT mom

Okay, so report cards came home today and I really hate that I have become THAT mom. You know the one who gets a little too caught up in their child's grades. The one who has to restrain herself from calling to speak with the teacher, because there seems to be a problem. Yes, that totally annoying mom is now me. But let me explain...
While I was teaching I was made a project manager on our districts "new" report card adoption. It was my job to oversee the implementation and transition. I liked the new reporting system because it was very specific. Instead of "math" grades the kids were assessed in different areas so you could actually see what the kids could do. Well, parents hated it, because they didn't care about what skills the kid had, they just wanted the A,B,C's. The loudest critics were parents of "A" students who were now not "A" students. Bottom line, it was a total bloodbath, I had to resign and they brought in a mediator to try and find some middle ground. It was a mess, but it did bring up some good questions like "what are the kids really being assessed on" "how important is daily work compared to assessments" "should effort be figured into a grade" "how much of a student's grade is really subjective", etc. The whole grade discussion is very interesting, but I found it is right up there with religion and politics, folks have STRONG opinions and it is best to know your audience before you start the discussion.
So anyway, this December Ben brought home his first report card with letter grades. Kind of a big deal (we are not grade Nazis, but we want him to do well, since he is a bright kid) I must say I was surprised to see a lot of "B-'s". All the papers he was bringing home were always done correctly, he might miss one problem now and then. I chalked it up to the beginning of the year and there was probably other assessments that I was not aware of. So this trimester, we really focused on school work. Spelling tests were something that I know Ben had made no effort on in the first trimester, so that was an easy fix. Ben got A's on all of his tests with the exception of 1 and he got a B. On the report card, he still had a B- in spelling. What up??? The same thing with Math. All of his work coming home showed he got everything right, so why the B?
Okay, before anyone freaks out about B's being good grades and I should lay off, here is my frustration. I just want to know on what are the grades based. If there are other assessments being done, that's fine, just let me know. It just seems a little defeating when you work hard towards something and then there is no payout. Yes, I have unresolved grade issues from my youth and I'm sure Ben could care less, but this really drives me nuts!!!
So now, I have to go into our conference tomorrow and ask the teacher (who I adore and think is a great teacher) to explain her grading system (a question I hated as a teacher). I'm hoping it won't come across as "I don't think you know what you are doing" because I really think she does, it just doesn't seem to match what is coming home and that is my concern. If Ben needs more help, okay, we can help him, but when we see perfect papers coming home how are we to know he needs more?
Ben is bright (he gets that from Joji) and he totally gets the school thing. I have no doubt he will do well. I just like to know all the facts. I've also seen too many teachers give arbitrary grades because they liked or didn't like a kid (can you believe teachers admitted this to me during my report card project, scary) I just want a true picture of when Ben is, that's all.

Busy, Busy, Busy

I can't believe it has been a whole week since my last post. This past week has been crazy, but the good kind of crazy. Ben has been out of school since last Wednesday due to the holiday and teacher in-services. It has been really nice having him home. Last night Sammie spent the night at BaChan's house and it was so weird to just be a family of 3 again. Ben is growing up so fast. Last week, Ben informed me he needed new clothes because everything was too small. So off we went to Old Navy to take advantage of the 40% off kids sale. However, we soon discovered that Ben is no longer in kid sizes. He is officially a men's small. Yikes!! He just turned 9!! He also informed me that he preferrs khakis to jeans and likes would like more polo shirts. Ben is a preppy, who knew??
He has decided that he wants to be an engineer (like his dad) when he grows up. He loves to build things and recently built a "nest" for Sammie. I have to say I was impressed. He took some old shoelaces (the really long kind) and tied them around a couple of little chairs. He then took all the throw pillows in the house and lined the walls of the nest.

Sammie was thrilled and Ben made sure I took pics and wanted to know when I was going to put them on the blog :0)
The rest of the weekend was spent with our friends the Browns. They are so fun and easy to hang out with. Joji and Matt putter, Holly and I get some good girl talk in and the kids play and play and play. It is so nice. Of course, that meant that all the stuff I had wanted to get done, like clean and grocery shop didn't get done, but that is okay. Ben just left for school, Sammie is still at BaChan's so in theory I should be able to get my work done uninterrupted. However, my mom has the day off and I think we will spend some quality time today at TJ MAXX :0)
Happy Tuesday!!

Ben is 9

Yesterday was Ben's 9th birthday. Hard to believe. It has flown by. It is kind of funny that his birthday is right before Christmas. Ben's original due date was January 9th. I was happy to hear this because I always wished my birthday was "during school" so my mom could bring cupcakes. At least now I would have a kids with a "school" birthday, I was happy. However, my body and pregnancy didn't get along and Ben ended up being induced a couple of weeks early. So Ben came into the the world on December 21st at 7:51 pm.
He was so small. I was expecting a big baby, but he was only 6 lb 6oz. He had no fat and his poor little skin just hung on him. Since he was early he had trouble eating and dropped down to 5 lbs. Needless to say it was a very scary and tiring first few weeks, but soon Ben caught on and he hasn't stopped growing. He is tipping the scales at 115 and is almost 5 feet tall. Folks who meet him for the first time think he is middle school. But fortunately, Ben is still super sweet and a total mama's boy (in the good way) He still wants to be tucked in at night and likes to snuggle on the weekends. I hope he stays this way for a long time.

Wanted: Den Leader

This may sound like a "grumpy old man", but I feel bad for the youth today. Ben is a cub scout. This will be his third year. He really likes it and I think it is important for him to learn this kind of stuff. I was in Campfire (Wo-He-Lo) and also enjoyed it. I think kids need to go through the process of learning something that is turning into lost knowledge. I know that everyone may not be a fan of the boy scouts (I don't agree with everything either), but our pack is full of really nice families and kids. Although it may all come to an end.
The folks who have been leading our den for the last 2 years are done. Can't blame them, our den is huge and it is a lot of work. So now the search is on for a new den leader. Joji has NO interest in doing it. He came to the US in third grade and they don't have a Japanese scouting program so he just doesn't get it. Sadly, there really isn't anyone in the den stepping up. I would do it, but I can't. My other commitments are too big this year(co-op preschool board president and exec. PTA board member). I would hate to see an activity that does not focus on any electric boxes (wii, xbox, gameboy, etc....)be lost because nobody is willing to do it.
Boy scouts, to me, seem like what all good little American boys do. It is very "apple pie". I love how they look in their little uniforms and idea of service. Be Prepared and Leave No Trace are good things for kids to learn.
Oh well, maybe we can adopt a co-operative approach and have everyone share the load. I could do that so maybe others would be willing as well.

For the love of Benji

Ever since I started this little blog, Ben has felt rather left out. He was less than thrilled to see Sammie and Tinker on the header and insisted I do an entry on him. So today I will.
Ben is great. He is the kind of kid I loved having in my classes when I was teaching. I once had a student named Lyle and everyone would always say, "how can you not love Lyle?" I think Ben is the same way.
He is quickly growing out of "little boy" (although he was only actually little when he was born - now he's a good head taller than everyone) and into cool kid. He just finished his 4th season of baseball. He has had the luck on being a team with the best coaches, kids and parents. This was the last year of "A" ball and it is likely the team will be split up next year when the group moves up to "AA" ball. Too bad, they are all good players but a great team (14-0).
Saturday was the end of the year picnic and this year there was to be a Dad & Son game. Everyone was so looking forward to it, but in true Washington fashion, it dumped! Everyone was soaking wet, the food all got soggy, but we had a blast anyway.