EAT YOUR HEART OUT SCRIV!!!!

My "dear" brother-n-law is always writing these nifty blogs about the wonderful and amazing things that he and his kids do, like going to the Tour de France and getting pictures with drugged up cheating adults that ride bikes for a living.

Well, this blog is dedicated to him, Mr. C. Jonathan Scriven of frenceforawhile.blogspot.com.

Tonight my beautiful wife, 3 precious sons, and myself attended the inaugural game of the Port Charlotte Stone Crabs, the single A baseball affiliate of the AL Champion Tampa Bay Rays with PopPop and GiGi.

This is PopPop and Benj getting settled in for Benj's SECOND professional baseball game at just over 4 months old.

This is Seth and Toby standing at the fence right in front of where we sat.

This is Toby's dream come true (being a Tampa Bay Ray).

This is our buddy, Billy.

This is Billy's big brother and co-owner of the Port Charlotte Stone Crabs making an lasting first impression on Ben.

And this is Cal greeting Toby and GiGi.



Hope you're having a good time with your "friends" in France Scriv!

The "Behind"

Toby and Seth are very intreged with the "Behind" in baseball. If you are a little confused, maybe this picture will give you a little hint.

Also, a bonus shot to give evidence to my suggestion that Seth pitch or play the out field!

Like Parents, Like Kid

Ben has finally found his thumb!

Tee-Ball!

Earlier this year Toby and Seth had a heart-to-heart and decided that there was not enough room in a single sports catagorie for them both, so they mutually decided that Toby was a football fan and Seth was a baseball fan. Please know that they were very serious about this commitment, to the extent that Seth gave Toby all of his football cards and Toby gave Seth all of his baseball cards!

Speed up the story a little and we get to tee-ball sign up. Seth was a definate YES, Toby was an uneasy "no". However, after some discussion, Toby discovered there was not (currently) any football teams he could sign up for--Toby does understand that it is "off-season" for the NFL, so obviously there are no current openings for him--I am NOT joking about this, the kids is seriously convenced that he can currently play in the NFL!

This story does not seem to have sped up at all!

Both signed up for Tee-ball, same team to same mom & dad some time (since of course we can't sign up for the league less then 2-miles from our house and have to drive to another district!). This was a little of a problem because tee-ball is apparently for 5-6 year olds and Toby would turn 7 shortly into the season. This is a good thing because the kid is DELUSIONAL about his athletic abilities. OK, that wasn't fair nor quite true. The Pitton boys can hit, Toby especially--but not off a baseball tee to save his life! If he ever "leaves" football to play baseball, he will have to play for a AL team that uses a DH...they are the ones that don't have to throw a baseball! That is not to say he doesn't give a "valient" effort in the field, have you ever actually seen a "chicken with it's head cut off"? I have not, but after watching my eldest child play the FIELD, I believe I can clearly picture what it must look like!

The biggest probably has been that until recently all the "games" had been on Saturday morning. Thank goodness we have exchanged Wednesday evening practices for added games now. The most touching thing for a pastor/father is to hear his kids pray that "they stop having games on Sabbath so all the kids can go to church."

I guess tee-ball is not that bad!

Strawberry "H*E*double hockey sticks"

A friend of mine asked a roadside stand guy for the tomatoes he was gonna throw out. He gave her six boxes, which we canned last Friday.

He called her Monday morning with six flats of strawberries he was going to throw out. (For those unfamiliar with “flats,” they’re 12 pounds apiece.) Her husband decided he was done with her canning project, so she brought them all to our house. The strawberries were not going to make it through the night, so bless his heart, John helped me process all those berries. We threw out at least half of it.

Unfortunately, I happened to run across directions on the internet for making apple cider vinegar from apple scraps. It seems the same process would work for the strawberry scraps. So the plan is to rot roughly 35 pounds of strawberries into vinegar. They had quite a head start.

The kids helped me squeeze out the strawberry goop (They were really, really rotten, long past the point of being “scraps.”) so we could get the liquid. Oh my. They saw me squeeze the goop over a strainer into a bowl, and decided to craft their own set ups instead of helping Mommy. They hauled out pots from their play kitchen and used the berry baskets to strain the goop. Then they got out little muffin pans and scooped the juice… Yeah, you’re getting the picture. Red all over the floor, the stove, the cabinets…

So now we have nearly five gallons of juice with a bit of goop sitting quietly under the slop sink in the laundry room, waiting a few months to become vinegar.

Anyone wanna come visit?

--crp