My Heart

Ok, so I have been TERRIBLE about updating my blog.  I thought giving myself a challenge would light a fire under my tush.  Not so...

Lots has been going on around here in good ole' Alabama.  The Fitts boys are in full swing of basketball.  Dan is coaching Jack's 4 and 5 year old team.  It is a hoot!!  (to say the least).  This is Jack's first year playing and he thinks he is big time now!!  He loves it and LOVES having his daddy as his coach!!! 

Mason is playing on a 3rd, 4th and 5th grade team (he is 3rd grade) and is killing it!  The boy was made for basketball!  He is a lot of fun to watch.  I think this is his game because he is constantly moving/running, which he LOVES.  His coach is his baseball coach that he has had since t-ball.  David Long. 

As soon as basketball wraps up, we will be heading into baseball for both boys.  In fact there will probably be a few weeks where they overlap.  Oh yea!

We are gearing up for our Disney Cruise at Spring Break.  We all cannot wait!!  It is going to be so much fun and cannot get here fast enough!

Because of other events going on right now, I just want to tell you all to live everyday like it is your last!  Hug and kiss your kids and husband every chance you get.  Never let them walk out the door without an "I love you".  Savor every moment because you are not promised a tomorrow.

And with that in mind, I am leaving you with a picture that takes my breath every time I see it.  It is my heart! It is a picture of my boys...ALL of them.  I love how sweet this picture is, how it shows just what a good dad Dan is and how my boys trust him to care for them.  The picture is a few years old, but I still love looking at it.  It keeps things in perspective and keeps my "eye on the prize", what is REALLY important in my life. 

PEACE OUT!

Committment.....(and not into an insane ward!..yet!)

A lot of bloggers are committing to post a photo a day for the entire year. HA!  Is what I say to that!! Realistically, I don't see that happening...but I can do better, right?  So, I will try to post at least 5 pictures a month that represent the events occurring at that time in the Fitts household!

We are going to travel back to November...we went to visit Libby and spent a little time with her.  For those who don't know who Libby is, that is Dan's grandmother.  She never would let anyone call her anything other than "Libby"...not Mom, Grandma, Aunt, etc.  Dan's father called her Libby, even when he was young.  I think it is kind of funny and cute.  Libby turned 94 this year!  She is the source of some good stories...like the one where she missed Dan and my wedding because she had too much "fun" the night before! 

I tried rotating it with no luck, sorry.  You are going to have to crane your neck to see this one.

October = Pumpkin patch and baseball!!!

What does October mean to us in the Fitts household?  Old Baker Farm's Pumpkin Patch and baseball (and Football, but that will come in a later post). 

We have had some beautiful weather and we took advantage of it this past weekend.  Sunday we went to the Old Baker Farm to pick out our pumpkins to carve.  Little did we know that they were having their annual Cotton Picking Festival Sunday.  So cool!  They had a civil war reenactment going on.  The "soldiers" had been camped out there all weekend. 

Jack and Mason with some soldiers

The soldier camp - how neat is that ?!?!?

Hiking through the woods from the Indian Village to the Soldier's camp.



They shot this cannon off while we were there.  We could hear it on the other side of the farm.

In addition to the civil war reenactment, they had cowboy shoot outs going on and an Indian Village set up.  I did not get any pictures of those two things though.
We went through the corn maze and did not get lost (we did have to take an emergency exit...).  And then we headed out to the pumpkin patch.

The pumpkins all had some green on them.  There were very few pumpkins that were all orange.  Did not matter to us, we got some huge pumpkins for us to carve!

Then after we picked out our pumpkins, we hit the hay stack.  This is a huge stack of hay bales piled on top of one another to form a big hill.  The kids climb to the top (be still my heart!) and slide down the side.  It is a ton of fun for the kids and terrifying for the parents!  Here Jack is on his way down.

Oh, and let's not forget the barn with chickens, turkeys, baby calves, ducks, pigs, etc.  These two turkeys, I think, were about to fight.  They had their feathers all poofed out and were growling at each other.  I think they were fighting over a girl turkey that was in the cage with them.  They looked really neat...what turkeys are supposed to look like.

And here we are checking out the chickens.  Man would I LOVE to have a chicken coup in my back yard.  Fresh organic eggs AND chicken!  Could we throw in a cow too for our milk please?  Is that allowed in the city limits of Helena???  Ha!

All in all, we had a great time!  It was a beautiful day and we got a months worth of kettle corn for the boys school snacks to boot!  A successful day.  We did have to hurry home to get Jack ready for his baseball game and Mason to his football practice.  Both at 4:00, of course! (and different fields).

Speaking of baseball, Jack has really been doing well this season!  I am very proud of him.  He is really focused and seems to really be getting the hang of things.  But it is no wonder seeing as he has been at a ball field watching his brother since he was in a stroller.  Dan has been helping coach and was the pitcher.  High pressure job!  ☺  The pitcher could make or break a game.  Dan did exceedingly well, thankfully!

Jack in the dug out with his buddies.

Notice Jack wearing Mason's allstar helmet.  I wonder if Mason will get it back.  ☺  Their team name is the Hooks. Or should I say "was".  Their last game was last night.  AND Mason's last football game is tonight!!!!  I could not be more happy!!  These last few months have really been a challenge with Football practice/games just about every day of the week and then throw in Jack's games and practice and the fact that Dan does not get home until 6:30 every night.  Makes for a VERY busy/chaotic house!!  Dan and I have spent the last three months flying from one field to another (across Helena of course) watching games and delivering kids to practice.

But enough about that...onto some more baseball pictures of my baby.

This is becoming an annual picture for this little boy.

Jack, #4, up to bat!

LOVE this picture!!  Dan and Jack striking the "baseball ready" pose!

Jack on first base.

Now we get to look forward to end of season parties for both Baseball and Football.  We will have about a 2 week break and then onto basketball for them both!  They will both be playing upward basketball which means very low commitment.  One night of practice and games for both will be on Saturday.  I can handle this!

I have not been able to upload Mason's football pictures, but as soon as I get Dan to fix either the camera or the computer, I will get them on here.  Mason LOVED football and did really well for his first year of tackle football.  





A Day in the Life....

Someone asked me to write about a day in the life of the Fitts Family...so here it goes...

Our usual day lately starts at 6:15 when we all get up, I get in the shower and Dan gets the boys dressed and downstairs for breakfast.  Jack usually takes a little time to wake up and needs a little coaxing.  Mason is up, out of bed, dressed and downstairs without any direction from us.  He is our morning person...the only morning person in the house!

6:15-7:05:  Breakfast, allergy drop, review anything that Mason might be having a test on that day, wet his crazy hair so that it will not look completely wild and try to brush it down as much as we can.

7:05:  Boys get on the bus and I leave for work.

7:05-anywhere from 7:35 to 8:05: commute to work.
During that time Dan is doing odds and ends for me around the house (unloading dishwasher, taking trash out, doing other cleaning/straightening, and sometimes sleeping).  He leaves for work around 8:30.

8:00 - 4:30:  Work

4:30 - 5:00:  Drive to after school care to pick boys up.

5:15 - 5:45:  (here is where it gets crazy so hang on y'all!)  Arrive home, rush in and fix a heavy snack for the boys (sometimes a corn dog or cereal or an egg or PB&J), change my clothes, change Mason into his football gear, pack cooler for football practice, do a little bit of homework, run out the door.

6:00-8:00 Football practice (this is every weekday but Wed)

6:00-7:00 (some nights) Baseball practice for Jack
If Mason has practice and Jack does not, Dan will meet us at the Football field and we tag and I head home with Jack to make dinner.

8:30:  Mason and Dan get home, eat some dinner, finish homework, shower, read a little bit and fall into bed around 9:30.  Earlier if we are lucky!

Dan and I are like two ships passing in the night.

In addition to all of that, Mason also has Cub Scouts 3 times per month, I am the pack treasurer so I have pack committee meetings once per month and of course my Bunco once per month (very important that I don't miss that).

This Mom falls into bed at 10:00 and tries to get a good nights sleep to start it all again in the morning.

Am I really this old???

So here we are, first week of school is just about done.  My baby is in school this year.  It is a mixed blessing!  Dan and I are saving a BUNCH of money with Jack being in after school care only...which is great!  But I don't have a baby any longer!!!  So sad.  Am I really this old???  To have 2 school age children?  The answer to that is Y E S!!

The first week of school has been pretty good.  Mason is LOVING the intermediate school and is doing great!  Jack LOVES being in Kindergarten but is having a hard time staying on green.  They have a traffic light in the room (green, yellow, red).  If they are misbehaving in some way, they get a warning.  If they are still not doing what they are supposed to be doing, they go to yellow and so on to red.  Jack has been in school a total of 7 days, including today, and has been on yellow 3 of those days!  What can I say, the boy likes to talk...just like his Daddy!  ☺  Jack's teacher is Jan Hughey, the same teacher Mason had in Kindergarten.  We LOVE her!  She will be great for Jack just as soon as he figures things out and how to act in class.  Jack is already learning how to spell his colors.  So far, he has learned Red, Blue and Yellow.  I have high hopes for this kid this year.  I think he will have a great time!

Mason, my big 3rd grader, has Mollie Evans and seems to like her a lot.  There is not a lot you can do to make Mason NOT like you!  He seems to be doing well.  Mason is also playing tackle football for the first time this year.  We have practices Monday, Tuesday and Thursdays for now.  They are from 6:00 to 8:15ish.  It makes for a BUSY night when he has practices.  I get home with the boys around 5:10.  I quickly make a sandwich or something light for the boys to eat.  I run up to get changed, come down get the cooler ready and Mason changed.  We are usually out the door by 5:40.  Dan meets me at the ball field at 6:30 and then Jack and I come home.  I get Jack fed a real meal, showered, read to and in bed by 8:15.  Mason is usually getting home about that time.  I feed him a real meal - he does any homework that is left over while he is eating.  Dan then gets him in the shower and in bed to read for 20 minutes.  If we are lucky, he is asleep by 9:15.  And then Dan and I fall into bed!  ☺  Mason LOVES football!  He is doing really well.  They have him on the 1st string playing both offense and defense.  The poor boy will never leave the field!  But he has a big grin every time he talks about it. 

Jack will be playing coach pitch baseball this year.  We sign him up on Sunday.  Should be interesting with both of them in sports along with Mason's scouts, my commitment to scouts as the treasurer, school stuff (like homework!), and everything else going on in our lives. 

Below are some pictures of the boys on their first day of school:

Eating breakfast on the first day.

My kindergarten boy, Jack.  The backpack is almost as big as he is!

My third grader, Mason.  We have taken this same picture in this same spot every year since Kindergarten on his first day of school.  It is fun to see how much he has grown!  Would be fun to make a collage of all the pictures for a graduation present for him! (or me!)

My babies waiting for the bus.  (this is actually the 2nd day of school, just missed this shot the first day).  The same bus picks up for the Elementary and the Intermediate schools which is great because they get to ride the bus together.

Getting on the bus.  This is back to the first day.  This is when I lost it and needed to go on inside.  Seeing them so big and independent makes my heart swell and break all at the same time!

Later that night, Mason using his new desk...with Jack's help! ☺  Jack says they are "sharing the desk".  ha!

And then this picture is just for fun because it is so cute.  A friend gave us the "costume" helmet for Jack to pretend with.  He insisted on wearing it into Publix on our shopping trip.  I got a LOT of comments from fellow shoppers.  This kid is too much sometimes!  LOVE IT!

Well, that is all for now.  Everyone have a great weekend and hopefully it will not be so long between updates!!  (ha, we all know the truth about that!)

Girls Trip, Graduation, and Baseball

I had misplaced my camera battery charger, so have been without a camera since Spring Break.  I think I left it at the beach.  POOH! (along with both boys DS chargers).  So to Amazon.com I went to order replacements for all three.  Dan was thrilled!  So, my iPhone has acted as my official phone these last few months.  So needless to say, there are not a lot of pictures and the ones that I have are not that great.

Mason is now officially a 3rd grader and Jack is officially a Kindergartner.  Whew!  When did that happen???

In May, Laura, Beth and I took a trip to Hilton Head and Savannah.  We all turn 40 this summer and decided it was time for a girls trip to celebrate our birthdays together.  It was wonderful!  We slept in, didn't cook, did not have to keep track of any kids, and relaxed a lot!  Hilton Head was beautiful, we spent some time on the beach and did a little shopping.  Beth's in-laws live in Hilton Head and her Mother in law gave all three of us a spa day at her country club.  It was fantastic!!!  We spent one day in Savannah touring and shopping and eating!  We were able to get into The Lady and Sons (Paula Dean's restaurant) with NO WAIT!!!  Does that even happen?  Ever??  YEP!  To us it did!  When we came out of the restaurant, there was a line around the building.  We must have just timed it perfect!!

Here is a picture of Laura and Beth eating the Hoe cakes...YUM!!!

After we ate, we hopped on a trolley to take a city tour.  I had never been to Savannah so it was a really good way for me to see the city in a short amount of time.  It was beautiful!  Nothing like all those live oaks with moss hanging off the branches...just beautiful!

Here we are on the trolley...notice Beth trying to squeeze in a little work!  SHAME!

When I got home from Hilton Head it was time to wrap up school and regular season baseball.  We were excited when Mason made the All-star team this year AND was able to play since we would be in town the entire month of June!  It was a lot of time devoted to practices and games...but totally worth it.  I think Mason learned more in those few weeks then he has learned in his entire time playing baseball.  And, most importantly, Mason was having a BLAST!!  Even thought the temps were ranging in the mid to high 90's! 

Below is a (bad iphone) picture of Mason's all-star team...

And here is his little poster that they hung on the back of the stands during pool and tournament play.  They had one of these for each of the boys...very neat.

Jack was a champ during all of this baseball.  We were playing almost everyday where practices lasted on average 3 1/2 hours and games were 1 1/2 hours, but we had to be there an hour before the games.  Jack did great.  Here he is with one of his little buddies, Christopher.  Christopher is the little brother of TJ, one of Mason's teammates.

And...in the middle of all of this, we had Cub Scout Camp.  It was at Oak Mountain from 8-2 everyday.  Poor little Mason was doing this during the day (in 94+ degree heat)  and then having baseball games every night.  He was whooped as were the rest of us!

Here Mason is using his bow and arrow...

He loved it!!!  Cub scouts has been such a neat thing for him that he really loves!  Jack cannot wait to join in!  He has 1 more year before he can join.

Well, I think that has us all caught up...

The boys and I are flying to Ohio in July for a few days and then Jack and I are flying home while Mason stays at "Camp Nana" for another week.  He cannot wait.  Poppy is taking him to his first professional baseball game!  He is so excited!

Until I have a chance to update again...everyone take care!

Day of tornadoes

April 27, 2011 is a day few Alabamians will forget any time soon. The morning started off with a loud thunderstorm around 4:30 am. The Fitts family slept right through this storm...what we should have been doing is going to the basement. This storm brought hurricane force winds in excess of 100 miles per hour. This storm brought (what we thought) massive damage. I left for work that morning at 7:00 am. I did not get to work until 8:30 am after dodging downed trees, construction barrels in the middle of the freeway, downed power lines and lots of debris. I got to work only to find out we had no power or phones. Soon after I got to work, I was called to come pick up my kids, school was closing at 12:00 due to the impending weather that was now in Mississippi. The meteorologist were predicting a SEVERE weather outbreak. Dan even closed his store at 2:00 thank goodness.

We got everyone home and the weather was just a little windy. I even let the boys play outside for a while knowing that they would be like caged animals by that evening if we had to stay in the basement all day. Around 4:00 is when the storms started passing through. We all went down to the basement where the boys played while Dan and I watched the weathermen on TV. That is when we saw it live on TV. The tornado that formed just before Tuscaloosa caught by a tower cam. It was MASSIVE. The weathermen saying that if you were not underground, you were not going to make it. We watched it make a track through the heart of Tuscaloosa. It seemed like an eternity. It was terrifying! Then they said it was headed our way. In the mean time, there were several other storms moving though with tornadoes thought to be in them. Some of them moved though to the South of us and some to the North of us. Every time we got out of the closet, the weather man would say, "we have ANOTHER tornado emergency, another tornado on the ground moving into Shelby County (our county)". I heard him say this no less than a 1/2 dozen times. The weather people are reporting that more than 60 tornadoes were reported in Alabama that day and the death toll is closing in on 300.

Facebook was blowing up! Everyone was warning everyone else and checking on people. It kept everyone in touch and let us know that our friends and family were safe. Crazy as it seems...faceboook...

The massive tornado that ripped through Tuscaloosa did move through West of us and on up to North Birmingham. Over 500 people are still "missing", 5700 business were destroyed.

This day is being reported as the 2nd most deadliest tornado event in US history. 1st being in 1925 when they did not have the warning system in place that we do now.  Below is what we watched on tv.

Now, the aftermath...

You turn on the radio...all they are broadcasting is where to post pictures of loved ones that are missing, where to report your claims, and where the nearest shelters are.  Or even worse you hear from people who witnessed one of these many tornadoes first hand or that worked in a hospital that tried to take in all these tornado victims. You hear stories about parents that watched their children get crushed by their house, or a father whose infant child was sucked out of his arms, or parents that flew to Tuscaloosa from Texas to search for their daughter only to find her dead in her car. 

Now they have the cadaver dogs out to tried to find the remainder of the bodies.  It is just surreal.

You drive down the road and there is a "tornado relief" tent on every corner for you to donate water, food, toiletries, etc.

You shop for your groceries or go to any event in your neighborhood and that is all people are talking about.  Where they were during the storm, who they know that was effected by the storm, and who they know that was killed.   Most people here have friends or relatives staying with them either because they have lost power or they have lost their house.

It is sad and everyone is traumatized by this tragedy.  It will be a long time before Alabama gets past this terrible day.  It reminds me a lot of when Katrina came though.  Communities adopting other hard hit communities. 

We have a threat of severe weather tomorrow...should be interesting to see how Jack and Mason react to this.  Dan and I have tried to keep this on the "down-low" so that they will not be scared of storms now.  But they saw the tv and saw the big tornado.  If nothing else, I hope they have a good respect for these storms.  I know Mason does, but not so sure of Jack.  Jack did not seem concerned at all when we were in the closet.  He just wanted out! 

But, life goes on...baseball games continue, school continues (for most of us), life continues.  It is just that we are now more grateful for what we have...especially our loved ones and our lives.