I added some links over on the right hand side of the page. There is a slide show from this weekend (a lot of cool action shots) on the Houston 5A Baseball website that is worth checking out. I also put up links to the baseball & football sites for FHS. The schedules, pics, and other info can be found on those sites. I will probably add more favorite sites over time as I find good ones.
Today is Memorial Day - a time to reflect and be thankful for those who have died to uphold our freedom.
The story of America's quest for freedom is inscribed on her history in the blood of her patriots.
-Randy Vader
Let every nation know, whether it wishes us well or ill, that we shall pay any price, bear any burden, meet any hardship, support any friend, oppose any foe to assure the survival and the success of liberty.
-John F. Kennedy
The greatest glory of a free-born people is to transmit that freedom to their children.
-William Havard
The legacy of heroes is the memory of a great name and the inheritance of a great example.
-Benjamin Disraeli
There was a neat article about our win in the Galveston Daily News. Click here to read.
Our family took a fun road trip to Brenham this weekend to cheer on the Mustangs in the regional semi-final against the Austin McCallum Knights. The trip began with a send-off for the team on Friday morning. Elise and I went along to cheer, of course! After the send-off we had a few more things to do, then we got on the road to Brenham.
We arrived, met the guys at the hotel, and rested for a few hours before it was time to head to the field for game 1. It was an exciting game, and we came out on top with a solid win of 10-4. We had planned on accompanying the team for dinner afterwards, but Elise was exhausted, so I took her back to the hotel and she crashed!
Game 2 was more of a nail-biter, but thanks to a grand slam by Alex Anastas, we were victorious again by a score of 9-4. With this win, we advance to the regional final against Lamar Consolidated. It will be a tough series this coming week - the junior class of LC's team won the Little League World Series when they were 11/12 years old. But the Mustangs are up to the challenge, and I have confidence in their ability to win and advance to the State Tournament in Round Rock.
This has been such an exciting post season! It's been a total blast, and I look forward to the fun continuing.
Tonight we attended the annual Mustang Baseball Banquet. It's a nice evening to recognize the kids for their hard work and enjoy a good meal together. This was Elise's first banquet and she was SO GOOD. I was a little worried that she might be too loud or talk at inappropriate times, but she behaved perfectly. We got several compliments about how well-behaved and quiet she was. I am so proud. Trust me - quiet is not a word that is often used to describe my angel!
I had never heard of ladder golf before last night. Charlie (our head baseball coach) bought a set for his PE classes, and the guys were trying it out. We had a great night. The wives worked pretty hard on planning out when and where we should play our next series, then we worked equally hard on convincing the guys to go with our ideas. LOL
The game is pretty neat. The ladder is made of PVC pipe, and then there are ropes with golf balls on each side. You toss them and try to get them to hang around the rungs on the ladder. Each rung is worth a certain amount of points. More info on ladder golf can be found here.
And Elise was a total ham for the camera!
I am so excited to report that the Mustangs defeated Bay City in the regional quarter-finals this past Thursday and Friday. Thursday night's game was awesome. There is a "run rule" in high school baseball which states that after 5 innings, if one team is leading by 10 or more runs, they call the game. The game ended after the 5th inning on Thursday with a score of 11-0. Our pitching was amazing, and everyone was hitting the ball really well.
The day turned out to be wonderful! I had such a nice Mother's Day. We got the whole family together and spent time out on the back porch since it was a beautiful day. Elise got to play, the dogs got to hang out with us, and we had a really nice time. I always get a warm, fuzzy feeling when we are all together. Jamie and I were just talking about how nice it is that our parents get along so well. We love being able to spend special occasions as one big, happy group.
Jamie cooked dinner tonight for me as a surprise, and he's taking care of Elise's bedtime routine so I can watch Desperate Housewives uninterrupted. He's the greatest!! Thank you, my love!
Jamie and I booked a very impromptu trip to Vegas about 2 weeks ago. Our friends Candace and Jeremy called and said they'd booked a 3 bedroom suite and asked if we'd like to join them. We couldn't pass up such a great offer of a free room in Vegas with good friends! Another fun couple will also be joining us. It will be a nice, adult getaway this summer. I love it when nice surprises like this come up! Candace shares my love of shopping, and we are planning to get tickets to see O. I'm so excited, because the last time Jamie and I were in Vegas, O was blacked out. I've heard it's a fabulous show, so we feel lucky that we'll get to see it this time.
My day is off to a wonderful start so far. Elise slept in until after 9:00 this morning, which is VERY rare! She must have known it was my special day. Jamie got me Starbucks and we've been relaxing all morning. My parents and in-laws are coming over this afternoon for desserts and coffee/tea. We thought it would be nice to do that instead of a big meal so that none of the mommies have to cook today. The guys will get us some take-out at mealtime. Plus, wouldn't we all rather eat dessert anyway!? Mom has some chocolate covered strawberries, and I ordered some of our favorite shortbread cookies from The Cake Lady. I think I may pick up one more thing - maybe a chocolate pie or cheesecake. YUM!
Jamie got gift certificates for my mom and I to have a spa day together. He and my dad have volunteered to keep Elise for a day while we go enjoy ourselves. What an awesome gift!
I hope all my mom friends are having a wonderful day too.
And here are all my favorite moms (and one future mommy). This is our four generation photo (me, my mom, my grandmother, and Elise):
A popular 5A baseball website wrote an article about our team that was very flattering! Here is the text of the article:
Wednesday, May 7, Stang Gang As Hot as You Can Get
By Randy Byers © Houston5ABaseball.com
Heading into their area round play-off series with Galena Park, the Friendswood Mustangs are quite possibly the hottest team in all of high school baseball here in the Houston area.
A nine game winning streak where the Mustangs have outpaced their opponents by a whopping (76-14) in offense and along the way, clinching their first district title since 2002, has the boys in blue chomping at the bit to get back on the field and keep the streak going.
The Mustangs have been knocking on the door of great things since 2002 when they were District Champions and Area Finalists and 2003 where they were Area Finalist again. In 2004 they took another huge step finishing as a Region Finalist but fell back a step in 2005 when they were a Region Semi-Finalist. A disappointing 2006 season found the Mustangs on the outside looking in hoping for better things in 2007. That season marked a noticeable improvement when Friendswood grabbed a second place (10-2) finish in district but were quickly shown the door in the play-offs.
The 2008 Mustangs might be on the verge of something big. A 23-4A District Championship and an impressive (12-2) record where they dominated the last two thirds of district play. All this in quite possibly the toughest (4A) district in all of Region III has the Friendswood faithful giddy. You have to go all the way back to March 25 to find the last blemish on their schedule when they dropped a (5-3) decision to Angleton. Since then, they have been nearly unbeatable playing their closest contests, a (5-3) victory over the upstart Manvel Mavericks, and a (6-4) victory over Texas City in their last nine games.
The secrets to their success you ask? The answer, pitching, pitching, and more pitching. The Mustangs are blessed with three of the best arms in the district and all of 4A for that matter. Senior Andrew Beasley (San Jac signee), senior Stephan Myers (Alvin signee), junior Kevin Thornton, and junior Kyle Burris are leading the charge for Friendswood. Beasley, the first of the seniors to sign, posted an impressive (.88) ERA with (57) strike outs in (55.6) innings pitched. Myers has been an impressive addition to the varsity pitching staff posting (66) strike outs in just (49.3) innings pitched. Thornton has picked up a (5-0) record in just (19.3) innings pitched. Toss in (28.3) innings and a (3-0) record from Burris and the Mustangs have the makings of a pitching staff that could find them in Austin in a few weeks.
At the plate, the hard charging Mustangs are lead by senior Stephan Myers who has posted a very impressive (.439) batting average with (2) home runs, (5) doubles, and (24) RBI. Senior outfielder Matt McLaren stand in at (.356) while junior Cody Bergeson banged out a (.348) average with (2) home runs, a triple, and (5) doubles while driving in (15). Junior Austin Fitzpatrick added (20) RBI, with a home run and (6) doubles and junior Alex Anastas cracked out (4) home runs while driving in (21).
The Mustangs are firing on all cylinders ending up the regular season at (19-8/12-2) and can only hope they haven't cooled off while awaiting their area round opponent.
The web address is here, but the article is about half way down the page and a little tricky to find.
I'm late in congratulating the team, but last Friday night the Friendswood Mustang baseball team won the District Championship and secured a first round bye in the playoffs. A huge congrats to the team and coaches who have worked so hard. We will be playing the winner of the Vidor/Galena Park series that will be played this weekend.
So, last weekend we celebrated Jamie's birthday. He had a baseball game on Friday night (which was his actual birthday). Since it was my day off, we had a nice lunch together during his conference period. We had reservations at Benihana's on Saturday night to have a celebration with our friends. It took some planning in advance since there were 4 couples (some of us with kids which means getting sitters, etc). Everything was set and we arrived right on time for our reservation. It should have been a really nice evening.
Jamie and I have talked about this so many times since it happened, and we've come to the realization that no matter how we tell the story, we cannot do it justice. You just had to be there. I'm not even going to try to go into details about what happened at the restaurant, because it would just be inadequate no matter what I say. But I'll sum it up by saying that there was a REALLY intoxicated woman with a 2-month old baby at the grill directly across from us. She made a scene for a good hour and a half and was finally escorted out of the restaurant. Some of the highlights (or lowlights I should probably say) included her standing up and pointing and yelling at other restaurant patrons, falling down while holding her baby, accusing our whole table of being racist and personally attacking one of our guests for absolutely no reason, and having a screaming match with her husband while he kept telling her to "sit down and shut up".
Needless to say Jamie's dinner was totally ruined. I complained to the restaurant staff 3 times before they did anything about it. They told me they'd called the police, because I was VERY unsettled by the idea of her taking her baby home that night. The cops never showed up. I now question if they were ever called in the first place. If I had known, I would have called myself. I've been just sick thinking of what may happen to that baby. At the end of the night, they refused to even discount our meal. We did not leave a tip.
Luckily we had a really nice family celebration on Sunday, and I hope it made up for the disaster from the night before. I wish I had some pictures of us with our friends to share, but that whole meal was so interrupted by the drama going on in the room that I didn't even think to take one.
I'm already thinking about planning my 30th birthday party, and now I've decided that it will definitely involve a private room!
