Random Fun!

Tesreau Baseball: Then and Now

A mom on Mullin's Little League team took some awesome pictures of each of the kids and gave them to the parents at the end of the season. She did an excellent job. Here's one of the shots.

Kinda reminds me of another famous Tesreau hurler.

1. Jeff Tesreau's Wiki
2. A good bio on Jeff Tesreau
3. Learn more about Charles Monroe "Jeff" Tesreau on this Google book search.

Interesting facts about Jeff Tesreau:

• As a rookie, led the league in ERA (1.92, some records state 1.96), along with the legendary Walter Johnson, the first year it became an official statistic
• Threw a no-hitter on September 6, 1912 vs. the Philadelphia Phillies
• 2.43 lifetime ERA, 880 strikeouts
• 115 (some records say 119) wins in less than 6 seasons
• Started three games in the 1912 World Series
  
• Known for having the best spitball in the majors
• Dartmouth baseball's all-time winningest coach
  

New Year's Day Adventure: The Apache Trail

I woke up New Year's Day and had to get out of the house.

One of the bad things about being surrounded by mountains is I'm always wishing I was up in them instead of commuting into the overcrowded, highly congested, smog-covered city every day.

One of the good things about being surrounded by the mountains is that I'm a very short drive away from a different climate, a different landscape, and a different pace of life. That, I love very much.

So, the boys and I grabbed our packs, Brandi packed us some sandwiches, and we set off to drive the Apache Trail. About half of this 40-mile trail is unpaved. It's very steep and very narrow in places. It reminds me a lot of the Oh My Goodness Road in Idaho Springs, Colorado, but it's not nearly as scary as that. However, Mullin did spot the remains of a vehicle that wasn't to careful out on the trail (see third pic below). The views from the Apache Trail are much better than any of my pictures capture, and the history is everywhere.

We scouted for a fishing trip at the Canyon and Apache Lakes. Then, we went to Roosevelt Dam, and ended the trip by hiking up to the Lower Cliff Dwellings of the Tonto National Monument. The boys got to handle some cool fossils and even earned Junior Ranger badges. Very fun.

A special thank you to old "TR" for having the foresight to preserve and reserve this awesome country for future generations!

Decorating Day is Finally Here

Ah, the day after Thanksgiving. No shopping for me, thank you. I look forward to this day for one reason only...well, make that two reasons.

Reason #1: Leftovers. I had turkey, ham, CiCi's hot corn, Lindsay's bacon-wrapped green bean bundles, Brandi's double layer pumpkin pie, and a small slice of cran-apple pie. Mmmmmmm, I love me some pie.

Reason #2: Time to decorate the tree. I miss decorating Paw Paw and Grandma's tree more than anything, but watching Brandi and the kids decorate our trees is fun in a whole different way.

The boys were up long before Brandi and me. They made their own breakfast and passed the time playing video games until we finally rolled out of bed at the late hour of 7:30am (very late for us).

Then, we continued the family tradition of giving each other new Christmas ornaments. Brandi and I especially like the S'mores ornaments and Dad and Cindy have given me for several years, so this year we added to the collection by getting Mullin a baseball player S'more and Lincoln a soccer player S'more. Very cute.

I got Brandi a cross for her theme tree, and she got me a Starbucks cup and a basketball player S'more.

Shiloh got more than everyone, as usual. She has no chance of not being spoiled rotten. Brandi got her an antique baby carriage, a Care Bear, and a very pungent Strawberry Shortcake.

The kids did a great job of getting their tree decorated without too many catastrophes, due in large part to Brandi's skillful staging of the whole event. We finished up all of the hard work with a cup of homemade hot chocolate.

Bedtime Theology

Let me preface this post by telling you a little bit about the boys. Both, of course, are smart as whips (whatever that means). Lincoln is quite artistic and creative, while Mullin, although very thoughtful and introspective, tends to be literal and scientific in his approach to everything.

So, I'm tucking them in tonight (Brandi's out with her mom), and the following conversation occcurs.

Lincoln: Dad, tomorrow I'm going to draw you a picture of what I think Jesus looks like.

Me: Wow, that sounds really interesting. I can't wait to see it. What do you think he looks like?

Lincoln: Well, I picture him with brown hair and a beard, and he's wearing a gold shirt with different colored jewels all over it.

Me: Interesting. I never thought of Jesus as wearing a gold shirt, but you know, I bet God has reserved the most beautiful robe in heaven for Jesus. So maybe you're right.

Mullin: Nobody knows what Jesus looks like.

Me: True, but it's okay to imagine.

Mullin: It's impossible to imagine that.

Me: No it's not. That's what we're doing right now.

Mullin: Well, it's impossible for me to do it.

Me: Why?

Mullin: Because everytime I try to imagine what Jesus looks like, he always turns into Obi-Wan Kenobi.

Simpsonize Three!

I had so much fun Simpsonizing Brandi and myself, I thought I'd try it with the kids. Here, in order, are Mullin, Lincoln, and Shiloh.





And here is my third sentence of original content, followed by the fourth. Good grief!

Blast from the Past: October 2003

Look at our two little puppies! I can't believe this was four years ago. Time flies. I know I haven't wasted a moment with Mullin and Lincoln, but it still seems like the time that they were little was so short.

Cutting Room Floor

So many pictures that I take never make it to the blog. I thought I'd post a few of the ones that I really like that for whatever reason were left on the cutting room floor.

Lincoln is adorable in his catcher's gear, but I like this picture for the baseball behind him that appears to be levitating.

Another nice picture of Lincoln. I took this one at Trinity Baptist during soccer practice (obviously) one afternoon.

This is one of the many spectacular views from the ski lift in Beaver Creek, Colorado.

Here's my dad creating an awesome spray while slaloming at sunset on the Tennessee River.

We got Mullin to pose for some pictures in the backyard. Here's the one we didn't pick, but I still think it looks good. He's doing his action hero pose.

This picture was taken the night we decided to move to Arizona. I'm now thinner, older, and poorer.

Well, whaddaya know? A post of nothing but pictures without one appearance by Shiloh.

Mullin's Knight Bus Video

Here's the video Mullin recorded on Scholastic's Harry Potter Knight Bus Tour.



You can see pictures from the event on my wife's blog.

Pics a plenty!

Shiloh loves to have her picture taken. This shot is from one of her recent "Sunday Morning Photo Shoots."


As you can see from this picture, we finally talked Mullin into getting a haircut. Now, if only we could convince him to let us do something with it.


Last night, we set out on a Memorial Day weekend camping expedition...in our backyard. The weather was perfect, very cool and comfortable. We setup the telescope and looked at Venus, Jupiter and the moon. Then we piled into the tent and fell asleep watching a movie on my laptop. Fun times!


Here's Shiloh being cute...again.


Lincoln's team had their end-of-season party at Peter Piper Pizza this weekend. He's very proud of his first baseball trophy. For those of you who may not be familiar with Peter Piper, it's a louder, more rambunctious version of Chuck E. Cheese. We actually had to go to Peter Piper two nights in a row, which meant I had to go to Wal-Mart last night on an emergency Excedrin run.


Here's another random Shiloh pic. There are an abundance of these types of photos. Here she is with her two favorite babies, Ella and Tenderheart Bear. Brandi's already planning her Care Bear birthday party for later this month. Shiloh is also really getting into tea parties. She hosts several of them for her "babies" each day. We even let her use the nice tea party set that her Aunt Karen gave her, but only when there's an adult present to make sure the festivities don't get out of hand. Shiloh's tea parties have been know to get a little, how do the kids say it, "off the hook."


Here's a little shot we managed to get towards the end of baseball season. The wooden bat I'm holding belonged to Grandma's little brother, Connie Mac. This bat is very special to the boys, and I let them each use it in one game this year. They considered that to be a really big honor.

Well, that's enough randomness for now. Sure wish I was skiing at the river today.

If There's Grass in the Field, Play Ball!

Little League is in full swing, and the boys are doing great! It seems like we are at games or practices every night, and I love it. There's something cathartic about baseball.

Mullin is playing his last year of coach pitch and has already asked if he can play on a summer league team. He's extremely focused and determined about his baseball. Tonight, he hit his first home run of the season. On the year, he's 8 for 9 with 1 homer, 3 doubles, and 4 singles.

Lincoln is playing his very first season of T-ball, and for him, baseball is more of a social event. He's having a lot of fun, but he has some unconventional ideas about how the game should be played. Instead of running the bases hard after a hit, he thinks he can advance around the diamond more successfully by tip-toeing. He prefers to "sneak" around the bases because, as he put it, "that's how Bilbo got past the trolls."

Oh well, one's serious, and one's a clown. But they're both having fun, and that's what baseball is all about.

You Did Not Have a Home

If all goes as planned, we will close on our house on the 22nd of this month and move in on the 25th. Unless they plan on getting Ty and the gang involved, I have no idea how they will have the house ready in time. Here are some pics from this past Saturday. Compare these with those taken on November 14th.

Here's the living room.

There's the boys on the dreaded stairs. Mullin isn't too keen on having a two-story house.

Here is - obviously - what will be the kitchen.

Once again, Lincoln volunteered to pose in all of the photos. Mullin was a little too shy, I guess. This is our dining area and arcadia door (Funny, I've only ever known it as a sliding glass door).


The front is looking nice.

This is our big backyard, which will look dramatically different after the landscapers have their way.

Thanksgiving Photos

This Thanksgiving, I am thankful for the most adorable girl in the world, even if she is a stinker.








Here's Shiloh loving on one of her new cousins. He's either Kenneth or Ryan.


Mullin took a few minutes off from playing with Christian and Jacob to hold one of the twins. Again, I'm not sure if this is Kenneth or Ryan.


We ate our Thanksgiving dinner under this awesome sunset.

It was weird not being at my Aunt Kristi's house for Thanksgiving. I really miss everybody, and the phone call was definitely appreciated, even if I did miss out on the pie because of it!

Mullin's Gone Berserk

Mullin has been learning about the Vikings in his homeschool lessons. Below, he's modeling the Berserker look, sans the nudity.

Have you ever described someone or something as berserk? Well, the Nordic Berserkers are the people to which you are referring. They're also the inspiration for Tolkien's Berserker Uruk-Hai.

After hearing Brandi's lessons on the Berserkers, Mullin's been a little obsessed with Vikings, a fact that surely makes the Superkraut happy for two reasons - it's historical and it's piraty. We've watched "Lyle the Kindly Viking" several times over the past couple of weeks.

I am so impressed with what an incredible job Brandi does teaching our kids. It's amazing how much they've learned in such a short time, and she gets all the credit! I think some people are absolutely clueless when it comes to understanding how much time, effort, and expense goes into educating a child, and homeschooling - done well - is by no means the easy way out, especially when you have to do it with an 18 month old tugging at your legs.

Photos From The Western Front

It was good to hear from my buddy Chris yesterday evening. Congratulations to him and his lovely wife Lisa on the birth of their baby girl Lydia!

See folks, it's that easy to stay in touch. Send an email. Post a comment. Wire cash. Don't be a stranger.

Okay, here are the belated Halloween...um, All Saints' Eve...costumes. As you can see, Mullin was a Clone Trooper, Lincoln was Darth Vader, and little Shiloh was an adorable Care Bear. Leave me a post if you can tell me which Care Bear she was. If anyone's wondering, I went trick-or-treating dressed as Guy Fawkes. (Thanks Brandon.)

Here's Mullin puttin' tha hurt on Goliath!



And here's little Darth plummeting to his doom!



These are just because.

T.G.I.M.

Well, it was one of those weekends where Monday just wasn't coming fast enough. Yeah, that bad. Anyway, who wants to blog about that? Not me. So instead, I give you PICTURES.

Here's the obligatory Shiloh picture.

Yummy holiday treats!

Mullin made a pagoda, and yes, there are trees in Arizona upon which one could hang a pagoda (see below). The pagoda is a big hit with the neighborhood birds. Nothing like a flock of nasty, pooping, virus infected, freeloading foul camping out in one's backyard!

More news and pictures forthcoming. Work is going well. Still don't have a house.

Happy 7th Birthday, Mullin!

Here's a little slideshow commemorating seven wonderful years with Mullin...better late than never.

Mullin is such a great kid! He is kind and gentle and loyal and so much fun. I'm so glad God gave him to us.

I love you, buddy.

Minor League Musings

Yesterday, the boys and I had a great time at the ballpark. The seats were tremendous. The barbecue nachos were delicious. The weather was almost perfect.

Time has a way of standing still at a baseball game, and that's something I really appreciate.

This was the first game where Mullin was actually interested in the details of the game, down to balls and strikes, but for Lincoln, it was all about hunting down Rocky Redbird.

"Daddy, where is Rocky Redbird?"

"Um, he's probably inside cooling off."

"Is he gonna come back out?"

"I'm sure he will later."

"Can we go look for him?"

"In a few minutes. We just went looking for him. Let's sit here and enjoy the game for a minute."

"Can Rocky Redbird talk?"

"I don't know."

"Daddy, is Rocky Redbird really real?"

"Well, there's a real person inside his suit."

"Can we go look for him now?"

"In just a minute. Let's watch some of the game."

"How much more?"

"One more out. Then we'll go wash the cotton candy off of your face and hands for the third time today and look for Rocky Redbird."

There was one thing that I observed at the game that left me somewhat confused and a little sad.

I noticed that there were men getting their pictures taken with members of the team's cheerleading squad, known as the Redhots.

That, in and of itself, is no big deal in the eyes of most, but what really left me dumbfounded is that in each of the instances I witnessed, the man was getting his "significant other" to take the photograph.

Now, two questions pop into my feeble mind at this point:

First, what woman would let herself be disregarded and disrespected to the point that she would not only stand there and let her husband/boyfriend pose for a snapshot with a cheerleader, but that she would go so far as to take the picture for him?

Second, what man would even think of putting his wife/girlfriend in such a degrading and demoralizing position? The message these guys are sending to their "significant others" is simple, selfish, and sexist. It's flaunting one's lust, plain and simple. Do these guys realize that, with their actions, they are communicating to their mates that they are not as beautiful or desirable or worthy as the person with whom they are posing, arm in arm.

I think if I ever go to a game with Brandi, I'm going to walk up to a Redhot with my camera in hand and ask her if she will take a picture of me and...my wife.

That's the way it should be.

Grasshopper Plagues Competition

After the opening weekend of T-ball season, here's how Mullin, the star of the mighty Grasshoppers, is doing:

G	AB	R	H	2B	3B	HR	RBI	BB	K	AVG
2	5	4	4	0	1	1	3	0	0	.800

Don't ask me who won. This is church league. We're not supposed to keep score.

Dirty Bomb Alert

Well, my firstborn asked me tonight if he could have his own blog. Have I mentioned that the kid is six years old?! Half an hour after I put him to bed, I thought I heard sobbing coming from his bedroom, so I ran in there and asked him if everything was okay.

"Yeah, everything's okay. I'm not crying. I'm laughing," he said.

"What are you laughing about?"

"I was just thinking about what I want to write in my first blog."

"Really, what are you going to write that's so funny?"

"Well," he said, "I was going to start off by saying, 'Most of you already know my dad, the ragamuffinwriter, but did you also know that he stinks up the store?'"

Now, I have no idea what he means by this statement. I do not "stink up the store." I mean, I know what the term "stinking up the store" infers. I've fallen victim to many "store stinkers" in my day. You know who I'm talking about - those unscrupulous shoppers who think they can simultaneously emit their gaseous expulsions on one isle of the store while fleeing to the next isle so as to disassociate themselves from the noxious treachery that has just occurred.

Recently, I was browsing for an item for my wife at the local Super Target, and I had to get on my knees to look for something on a lower shelf when all of the sudden, I was consumed by the most asphyxiating odor I've ever smelled in a public place. I turned around to find myself eye-level with the bodacious backside of a lady shopper. We were the only ones in the area, besides me and my kids, and before I could give my kids "the look" that tells them to keep their mouths shut, my blonde bomber pipes up, "Aghhh! Daddy, what is so stinky?"

Now there are two things about this story that violate the "store stinker" model. First, the offending party, Ms. Bodacious Backside, did not flee the scene of the crime, as is her duty under the unwritten code of ethics for situations such as this. Second, there was no way on earth to gracefully answer my son's question, which forced me to flee the area. What else could I do? "Well son, it smells like that lady is having some bowel troubles," isn't quite appropriate. Nor is ignoring the question. For some unknown reason that woman stood her ground, and as a result, I not only had to endure her "issues," I also had to give up my right to shop in that section of the store. She committed the crime, but I was both victimized and punished for it.

Really though, I had no choice. There is no way you could have remained in that area if the smell didn't belong to you.

I apologize for the lows to which this post has stooped, but apparently, this stuff is high comedy to Mullin. Stay tuned for his midseason spinoff. He wants to call his blog "mini-ragamuffinwriter." Will he be the world's youngest blogger?

There's the beep. Sounds like my Rotel (extra spicy) is ready. If I don't stop this late-night snacking, I'm going to have to change my blog to "maxi-ragamuffinwriter." That, and I may develop a nasty problem like the Bodacious One.

If I do, I'm sure Mullin will see to it that you are all the first to know.