Homecoming Dance? No Dinner?...Maybe just Homecoming Pictures

I still remember walking into my bedroom, overhearing Sam tell Magan that he was taking Lauren to Homecoming, and I had to quickly pop back into the Living Room.   What?  What is happening?  Sam, in perfect teenage style, said, You heard me, then walked off to his bedroom, with me and Magan needing more information.  So yeah, we soon reached out to Brandon and Ashley to see what they could tell us.   But they were the cutest together, with Magan snapping some pictures of them and then with all of Sam's friends too.   Brandon and Sean didn't have a date, so Sean decided that Brandon would be his date.   

After a dinner at Mt. Fuji, Sam, Lauren and some of Lauren's friends went to a breakout room in Birmingham, where they had an adventure even without the breakout room.   Apparently the lady running it that night was drunk or stoned, but not really sure what was happening.   She tried to put Sam and his group twice into rooms where other people were in the middle of trying to escape.   "oops sorry".   And she kept asking about why they were so dressed up...as in multiple times asked the same question.  

Coosa Campout

 Davis was excited to go on this scout trip, as it may have been his first ever campout without either me or Sam being with him.  And a Kayaking adventure down the coosa river was not something he was going to miss.   This was Sam's Homecoming Saturday, and I wanted to be there for that also, so there you go...just Davis by himself on this adventure.   

He could not really stop laughing telling me about Grant going down the rapids.   Apparently there was one spot where all the boys were supposed to paddle over to some rocks and take a break before the rapids, but Grant somehow did not make it over in time, and in the midst of his attempt to get to the side, he was pulled into the current going backwards thru the rapids.   He said all you could hear was Grant's high pitched screams as he floated faster and faster down thru the rapids never knowing where he was going.   Mr. Kirby had to rush off after him, and get him off the river further downstream.   Davis said the only funnier thing was the same thing happening to his buddy Isaac, but Isaac never screamed, he just kept saying that his trail mix was going to get wet.   

Davis said there was a really fun place to jump off the rocks into the water, and he found a good lesson being one of the first ones to jump...when he barely bumped his tailbone on the bottom of his first jump, he shared with everyone they better jump out further from the rock.  And I am not a fan of the Low Country Boil for supper, but apparently Davis thought is was amazing.  That guy likes about anything, especially crazy things like crawfish.  

Sam's Senior Week

Sam, it looked like you had a great time this week.  I am so glad you have friends like these guys below.  Most of these memories are all in your head, so I won't try to place any here.   I did like what you told me about the waitress at Cracker Barrell asking you twice if you were sure you wanted black coffee.   Hahaha, you are too much like your dad, an old man ahead of your time.   But I have no idea how you drink that stuff black.   As I write this, you just finished your 1st 9 weeks of this final year of high school...we are trying to figure out college, we are both stumped on derivatives that include both X and Y in the equation for calculus, and I really don't know how you keep up with everything you have going on.  This is also when you wore a braves jersey and I wore a pizza planet shirt to that YLDP fancy first meeting.  You are dating Lauren Rawls right now, that that is just crazy weird.   And tonight I beat you 4 games to 2 at ping pong.   So anyway, happy senior week, I like watching you smile from the fringe of these memories.  

Night out with the Barons

I think we missed the full season last year, and this was the last home stand weekend for the Barons...and I won some tickets, so after our day of service with AHG, we packed up and headed to the game excited to get there early and eat our favorite pizza from Tortugas.   Since Tortugas closed down at the location on 280, we rarely get this treat, so I think some of us were more excited about the pizza than the game.   After finding our same parking spot we always get 3 blocks from the stadium, we began our walk to the restuarant, then as we got closer we saw the door shut, and lights off.   Then we saw the manager standing out front.   We did not ask, but he could see it on our face, so he told us "Sorry, we are closed, we had a water leak".   

So he told us about a small place around the corner called Hotbox, so we sat at the picnic tables below and tried Hotbox.  A free night with the Barons I have found it not very free when you have to feed family.  But we had a really good meal.   Both Sam and I got some giant egg rolls, I can't remember what Dave got, but it did not hit his stomach well, then Belle got a chicken sandwich.   Then we played a little pass the plate and all tried everything.  I ended up with the chicken sandwich, as Belle did not like it, but the eggrolls went over really well.  Magan felt young when they carded her going into Good People brewing to the restroom, then when we saw some white haired folks with a cane also getting carded, we all had a little fun with Magan.  

Inside the park, they were having a ChickFilA night, so we all got a cow, and got to guess how many cows were in a giant box, the winner got ChickFilA for a year.   Big signs in the team store about items on clearance for the end of the season, that ended up being one small rack.   But Davis found a cool Barons hat that could replace the one he has worn down to almost nothing.  Me and the boys had out barons gear on (Sam still wearing his Jordan jersey he got about 6 years prior on his birthday here at the park), even Belle and Ruby with ball caps on.   Do they love watching baseball as much as I do at the parks?   Maybe not, but they have learned to enjoy it.   "Hey Dad, can I go play in the blowups?" Ruby quickly began asking?  But Magan was nice enough to take her for me, so I could watch the game.   

It was a really fun game to watch.   The Lookouts had a pitcher throwing in the upper 90s, and the barons could not touch him.   Basically a 2 hit game thru  6 innings.  During one of these mid-innings, they began throwing ChickFilA cows from the upper deck, and Davis (just a big kid) ran down there and caught about 5 or 6 of them.   He had his glove for a ball, and we never had anything come close, but 5 cows in the glove ain't bad.  Ruby came back and told me about how she had thrown the ball so good at one of the games in the kid area.   I had to go see her do it, and she did throw it really well.  After the blowups had to come down, Magan took the kids for some ice cream, and they got them in the cool baseball helmets...except the helmets were Washington Nationals helmets.   Oh well.  So what happened in the game?  The lookouts pitcher hit his pitch count, and they took him out of the game, then the barons just starting smashing the other pitchers, ending up with a grand slam and winning like 7 to 1.  

After the game we found out about the ChickFilA count, and I was so close.   I had guessed 1259, and I think there was 13 hundred and something, but someone else was closer.   Our night ended with some fireworks.   A fun ending to a fun night of baseball.  These are the days I will miss one day, that I hope will spark a few more memories of this fun night as I read them later.  Glad Ruby will still run with me to get a picture with the cow.  Fun to watch every foul ball with Davis, hoping the next one will be ours.  Proud to see my oldest boy always taking care of a sister, and never ashamed to put his arm around her and be a good big brother.  Never will anyone be as cute as my Belle with the ball hat turned around.  And at least that pretty lady in the middle below will still "Take me out to the Ball Game".   What a fun day!

AHG National Day of Service with Grace Klein

 Another day of service with AHG at the Grace Klein house on the hill.   We brought all the gear to fix some of the signs and one of the benches along Sam's Eagle Scout Trail, Sam was not with us, as he was at the ACT test.   And I think Magan had to work the Giggles and Grace sale on this Saturday, but we picked up Ansley and had a fun workday.  Davis and I stayed outside and cleaned out pots (we just do what we are told, but we washed them out and off, so that someone later could put dirt into them).   Ruby worked with Ansley straightening up a shelf of items for women.   And Belle had another organizing effort with Sarah Beth.  

Little Brynlei Cool could not understand why Mrs. Magan was not there and just kept looking at me confused at why I would not have brought her.  And Mrs. Natalie, the lead from Grace Klein found me to tell me about how great a job both Ansley and Ruby had been doing with their work.   In her cool South African accent, she told me about how they needed hardly any direction at all, and just said OK, and took off getting it done.  Mrs. Natalie also gave Davis and I some ideas for Boy Scout Eagle projects for him.  

We did finish up the fixes needed on the Eagle Trail (Thanks Granddaddy!!).   And we all got a chance to plant some seeds.   The garden outside was set up to help provide veggies to the local community and people in need.   I really love this Grace Klein group and the work they do.   Sam and I periodically wear their shirts with a logo that says "The church has left the building".   Showing love to others outside the church building, always great to be a small part in the work they do.  After a morning of work, all those girls took time on the swing out front, before we grabbed a group picture.