JAGS

I am here asking for your help dear friends. Many of you are extremely creative and I need you to tap into that creative energy for me.

I am looking for a cute, positive, and powerful motto for the acronym JAG(S).
My new school will be the Jaguars and we are planning on calling them the JAGS. The other early childhood center (kindergarteners and preschoolers only) are the CUBS- Children Understanding, Believing, and Succeeding. Their mascot is "Cubbie Bear" which is a big cuddly bear.

Obviously, our mascot will be the Jaguars and we are looking at baby ones who are just getting their spots. Please help with something awesome and educational!

Purple Panthers

Thanks to one of the mom's on Madgette's softball team, we have a few pictures from her season. We are supposed to be on our way to the fields right now to play game 2 in the end of season tournament, but due to rain last night, the fields are muddy and play has been postponed this morning.

Madgette is giving it her all- trying to get that ball where it needs to go!

This was her batting stance for most of the season and it wasn't really successful for her. Last Sunday afternoon we went to the fields with her friend Lesly (who is our star first baseman) and has now acquired a new batting stance. Since the chance in stance she is hitting off the pitches now instead of having to hit off the tee. Woo-hoo!

This was a shot of the girls in the dugout at the very beginning of the season at a scrimmage. You can tell Madgette thinks she is in charge. She is the one who is marching in front while the rest of the girls sit patiently.

This dugout shot was taken during a real game. Doesn't Madgette look enthused?

For a lot of the season she played catcher. Here is my girl in all of the catcher's gear. She complains sometimes that it is heavy and she can't move. But she sure does look cute!

A Picture's Worth a Thousand Words

In the picture the mailbox is really on the edge of the street, and the light pole is on the other side of the street.

Well folks,
This was the scene in front of my house this afternoon by 2 pm after the rain blessed us. There was a large number of stalled out cars in the main street we turn off of. We decided to park at the end of our street in a neighbor's side driveway (thanks neighbors!) and wade home. Razorback went and spoke with the homeowners just to make sure it was ok, and off we went. I am sure we looked like the village idiot family. We were holding an umbrella and wading through water on the sidewalks that went up to our knees. The Razorback finally got tired of waiting on us slow girls and took off. I know he was probably home a good solid 3 minutes before we were.

When we made it to our front porch, we stood and watched some teenagers swimming in the middle of the street. They were standing up straight and the water went up to their armpits. They were having a blast! Madgette called it a "halleluejah flood" which just cracked me up.

We are all just waiting for it to go down so we can go back and get the truck, then go pick up the dogs from the groomers. We also have tickets to go see the Astros tonight- so we are really hoping that the weather clears out before tonight's game.

Purple Panthers

The title is the name of Madgette's 6U softball team. They are currently 9-0 which means they are undefeated. All the parents are SO PROUD. (Can you see my chest sticking out in pride?) We have 3 more league games before the end of the regular season. Thursday is the next game and probably the most important of the 3. We will be taking on the 2nd place team who has only had 3 losses all season. Unfortunately, all 3 of those losses have been to us. Their coaches and their girls want to take us down so bad they can taste it! Needless to say, we have a huge target on our back.

We are going this weekend to play with the "big girls." We are going to a tournament in Deer Park, TX that has 11 different 6U teams signed up to play. We will see how good we really are playing against people that aren't in our league, and who have done well in their own leagues. We will be playing on Saturday and Sunday- so we will have some tired little girls.

Saturday morning before the tournament, we have all star tryouts. The Razorback is coaching this team also so we will all be up early headed to those tryouts then onto the tournament. So a busy weekend for the Madge...and a half family. Is it sad that it is only Tuesday and I am already planning for the weekend? Or does it show that it is getting to be the end of the year and time for school to be out?

Astros Rock!

So Madgette and I went to the exhibition game Friday night and had an absolute blast- the wind was super cold, but it was a great game. We even got to stay and watch the Friday night fireworks which were amazing. Madgette decided her new hobby would be to collect all the really cool hard plastic Astros cups that she passed, so we came home with a collection of about 12 new cups. That's fine because they hold a lot and I take one to school almost every day.

Madgette was proud of her Carlos Lee jersey! She got it signed and authenticated.

We got home and to bed about 11, then Julie and I got up at 3 a.m. to go sit in line for Astros fanfest. (click the link to see a picture)

Madgette with her hero... well at least a cutout...

Madgette wanted to meet her hero Carlos Lee. She was able to come later in the morning, and was super excited about meeting him. When she got in line she started doing a little dance with a cheer for Carlos. Momma Pug and I shamelessly bribed the child to do her cheer in front of Mr. Lee. Well, she got up to him and he actually danced with her and gave her a high five before he signed her jersey. The whole event maybe took a minute, but she was so excited when it was over that she couldn't talk. For those of you who know Madgette well, you will understand why this is such a momentous time. I do have a video of this performance but I am having trouble uploading it. If I can figure it out I will load it- it is so cute!

Carlos Lee signing autographs

Later she talked the Mark Up into letting her go with him to see her number 2 favorite player- Lance Berkman. She was able to get him to autograph a baseball for her along with the other 3 players at his table. She continued getting players autographs throughout the day and now her ball probably has 10-12 different signatures on it. The Mark Up even introduced her to Jimmy Wynn, and Mr. Wynn gave her an autograph!

Madgette with dos los Caballitos

Momma Pug signed Madgette up for the Astros buddies program which is endorsed by Berkman. With the sign up you get a discount on certain game tickets, an Astros Buddies hat, and a Berkman jersey look alike backback. When Madgette was getting all the goodies she looked at the salesperson with a dead pan straight face and asked, "Do you have a backpack that says Lee?" to which Momma Pug and I just about bust.

We got face painting, balloon animals made, ate ballpark food, met players, and even made a wax hand. Madgette was exhausted by the time the game actually started, but Julie had never attended a baseball game so we stayed for the game. Julie was amazed at all the people, and I had to explain a lot to her but she really enjoyed it. We stayed until the 8th inning (you just can't leave before the 7th inning stretch) and then headed home. By this point Madgette was so tired she was past the point of friendliness. I must admit I was getting there myself-- we had been at the park for the last 12 hours!

This is a picture that shows how tired she is- a fake smile and an expression like "Mom, can I just eat my popcorn?"

ASTROS!

Madgette, Julie and I are all looking forward to this weekend.

Last night a friend of mine texted me that she has 2 extra tickets to the Astros exhibition game Friday night. Would Madgette and I like to go and make it an all girls night? Well, of Course! Madgette doesn't know yet- I think I will let it be a suprise. She and I rarely do an event together without all the rest of our crew.

Then Saturday is Astros Fanfest, and Momma Pug and the Mark Up have been talking to us about this for the last year. Madgette wants to meet Carlos Lee extremely bad. She currently has an autographed baseball and one of his figurines. We want to get her an autographed jersey and let her meet him, which she will have the chance to do at fanfest.

However, we do have a little kink in our plans. Madgette has a softball game at 9 am. So here is how this will work- 4:30 am- Madge, Momma Pug and the Mark Up will get in line at Astros stadium to get wristbands so we can get the autographs we want. 7 a.m. if you have a wristband, you can buy your tickets. 8 a.m. I will head back up to Humble for the softball game. 9 a.m. ballgame. 10 a.m. head back down to the stadium for the autograph session that has Carlos Lee, Roy Oswalt and one other person.

If we have any more energy, we will stick around for the afternoon ballgame. But after getting up so early, I am kind of doubting my energy level...

Can you tell we are ready for the weekend?