**apple pie and baseball**

Hope you all had a great weekend.  Ours was spent at the ballpark..........our home away from home these days.  I have fond memories of lazy BBQs and evenings spent on blankets watching the fireworks every year growing up.  My kids won't have that, I'm afraid.  Instead they will remember eating peanuts on the bleachers, gettin' dirty, hula-hooping, concession stands, and lots of baseball cheering.

On the night of the 4th, we played in a steady downpour from start to finish.  The kids watched fireworks from the car windows on the long ride home.  We were a wet, soggy, muddy, sorry-looking lot when we arrived home late that night.  On nights like these, I always have that song by Fergie, "the G.L.A.M.O.R.O.U.S", running through my head.  Maybe just because I, in my wet straggly-haired, mud-soaked, kid-toting glory, am the complete polar opposite to living the high life she describes.  You know what, though?  There is something about having these crazy shared experiences that is extremely bonding.  Our team feels like one big happy family most of the time.  Not a family without it's fair share of dysfunction BUT, we've got each other's backs and we care about more than just this baseball thing.  I love how at this point in the season, anything brought to the ballpark is considered shared property.  A hula hoop, a bag of chips, umbrella, comfortable chair, pain medication, water bottle, etc.....are all shared without hesitation when needed.  It is hard to be the coach's wife on the sidelines with three kids to look after while trying to watch the games.  I couldn't do it without the other parents helping me out and encouraging me when I have reached the tip of the very end of my rope.  Our team's record right now is 55-5 which is impressive because of all the wins........when I see that number though, I think........."WE HAVE PLAYED 60 GAMES ALREADY THIS SEASON!!!"  That is a heck of a lot of baseball.  I can see the light at the end of the tunnel now.  We have one local tournament left, then CABA World Series in Chicago at the end of July, and we finish off the season at the Disney Elite in Orlando the first week of August.  Whew!