he's back

after 8 months TJ is finally back on the field.  His 1st time up to bat he gets a hit. I see my boy running to 3rd base while the 3rd base coach is yelling "hit the dirt" meaning slide or your going to be out

I think a "Holy Shit, NOooooooo!" may or may not have passed my lips. In my mind I saw his head slamming on the ground

Thankfully he slid perfectly and not only was his head still intact...he was safe

TJ playing 3rd

catch up on the TJ-ster

photo taken with telephoto lens through the chain linked fence 100 feet away

 TJ started baseball this week, he is playing with his travel team of 5 years. They are playing in the Lombard League for 7 weeks (15 ish games) if you need help with the math that is 2 games a week... down from 11-13 a week last year (insert a big WOOHOO)


 After that I believe they will compete in 4 tournaments during the 4 weekends in July. I was pleasantly surprised how Tj just jumped back into baseball and looked like the player he has always been. I was afraid he wouldn't see the ball whizzing past him up at bat, but that boy was smacking it into the outfield each time. After sitting and I mean sitting, for 7 1/2 months he is somewhat out of shape. He put on a solid 20 lbs...I have no doubt his 6 pack abs will be back in no time. The boy/man is definitely filling out.

Kids are done with school next week, TJ has 3  finals on thur and 1 on Fri then he is done!. It turns out that TJ will only be short 2 credit hrs (Honors chemistry and German 2 he had to drop as it would be impossible to make up 20 consecutive missed weeks) He will take Chem either Jr or Senior year. He already has 2 science credits for Honors Biology and anatomy-He really should have no problem graduating on time unless there is a setback

Cal and Karrick have 1 hr on Jun 1st and they are done...which means I go down to 3 days a week in the office. Im really excited to have a summer, summer. Spending time at my brother's cabin in Michigan by St Joe's and a lot of time in Whitewater WI.

Tim and Cal leave for Italy in about 2 weeks  for 10 days .

LET THE GOOD TIMES ROLL, CAUSE THIS MAMA DESERVES ALL THE PAMPERING THAT IS COMING TO HER

2 weekends in a row in Wisconsin

 4th of July weekend Tim, myself, Cal and Karrick went up to the lake in Whitewater WI, our cute little summer "cottage" is really a trailer with a built on screen porch. It's nestled in the Kettle Moraine State Forest. We left TJ behind...all by himself (except for Patrick). This was TJ's 1st extended weekend alone (4 days). He didn't want to miss any baseball so we gave it a go. A teammate on the next block, father picked up and dropped TJ off all weekend. We did however, call the girlfriends father prior to our departure. TJ did get lonely at night, he said.
My Baby missed me!!! He's not so grown up after all!!
 Just cause you look 18 and act 18 doesn't mean you are 18, my still little 14 year old!

 Tim and I dug up around the screen porch....like freakin cement I might add and planted flowers, put in boarder, mulch and lights. Can't even believe I didn't take before pictures. Karrick and I scrubbed the entire outside on trailer and screen porch...It's like a new place

 a

This past weekend I made TJ skip his tournament and come with us. He did excellent while home alone, but Thursday he had his playoff game for high school and when that ended (lost by 1 run) we had to get to his tournament in Winfield that had already started. TJ was dragging getting to the car, felt sick driving there and proceeded to puke out the window. When we got to the park he rolled out of the car and was on his hands and knees retching in the grass next to the car.. Some water and he hopped up and played the remaining 5 innings of the game...in the 90 degree heat and hot sun. 

I had to make a motherly decision that this was his body telling him he needed a break. The coach was cool about him missing the next 4 games and we took off  for the weekend. TJ had some much needed R and R.

High School baseball is over, we have 3 more travel tournaments and high school football camp started this morning at 7am -9:30 am for 2 weeks, Then it is 2 a days(2, 4 hour intense outdoor practices a day) all through August

 TJ fell off and Karrick was the victor 

Cal and his good friend Ryan. Ryan's familyhas a place next to ours in Whitewater and they have become good buddies. They are attending IMSA this week together, Cals 4th year and Ryans 1st.

Oh, and Cal had a giant growth spurt...can you tell?

in need of a haircut?

This child has more hair than anyone!

Lombard pool! and is TJ, a Disney Darling?

First of all, pardon the horrific photography. I purposely didn't bring my good camera to the pool and relied on my camera phone...Aarrgh!

For the 1st time this summer Karrick and I went to out neighborhood pool and a mighty nice pool it is! 

I hemmed and hawed on whether to purchase passes. For a family of 3 it's $169, which allows you to go 1 hour earlier and never wait in line to pay the $6 fee (on a hot day that line gets long). You just walk through the scanner like an I-pass. To break even each of us (me, cal and Karrick need to go 8 times) Karrick and I are at 1 each, Cal-0. I obsess on it daily...No Joke!

TJ had a commercial audition downtown today and we didn't get back in-time for him to catch the Ram Van to Plainfield for his high school double header. My van's battery light was on so I wasn't going to drive out there and get stuck. On the way home from Lockport this weekend my battery light was on (for 2 days) and 4 blocks from home my lights went out (at night) I made it home but the van never started again. Tim had Cal and Karrick in Long Grove for a boy weekend. Tim changed the battery and all was good until driving home from the audition.

So, I called TJ in as a no go for the game. I hopped on my big pink bike with Karrick in the trailer and headed to Paradise Bay Water Park. It was fabulous, very few people and lots of fun.

We got outside to ride home and my tire was flat...WTF! Tim came home from work early so he was able to pick us up. Everything I touch lately seems to break

This is TJ and his "dad" going over their lines before going in the room together to audition this morning. TJ was just called for a second audition for the new Superman movie tomorrow, which is so secretive that the script was emailed straight to TJ, not the agency. No one is saying it's Superman, but it's Superman. We all know it's superman

A few weeks ago TJ was picked by name from the producer from the Disney channel in LA to audition for a new Disney Pilot. We had to go to our agency the next day and he auditioned with his agent on film, then it was Fed Ex-ed to LA that night. He was the only one from Lily's picked to Audition.

TJ's on-camera agent never met TJ until this audition...Well, she was so impressed with his acting ability she came out to talk to me. She said his direction and memorization skills were amazing and his acting was top-notch, would I mind if she started submitting him for a lot of projects.

She thinks he is perfect for Disney, so he had to go home and watch the Disney Channel to study the character relationships. My TJ the next Disney darling?
TJ was beyond ecstatic, he just started getting auditions 6 months ago and not booking anything...he realizes he is too tall for a lot of age appropriate roles and won't be booked for 16 year old + roles because he is still 14. He looks 17 and is 5' 11, but is not legal to work full time.  One of the High School actors on Glee is 29 years old (TJ is the opposite of the child actor, he is tall)
I keep telling him not to give up, it is all experience and getting familiar with the casting directors. They do keep calling him back, so they do see something. The chat with the agent put TJ over the moon with excitement.....kind of like "he is as good as he thinks he is" and he isn't wasting his time. Once he turns 16, I believe things will be easier to book
His agent thinks he will book things now

catch up with the McGinty boys

Summer is here and  the boys are busy which makes me busy.

TJ plays High School summer ball as a Sophomore coached by the sophomore coach, which goes like this:

Mon, Tue and Wed: 2 back to back 5 inning games (each day)

Thur: 1 seven inning game

Summer ball is fun, we have pulled together as a team and have more wins then loses, which is unlike our freshman team

It's really weird that TJ is a Sophomore...slow down time! and weird because he is still only 14.

There are maybe 4 weeks left, then it is football season. TJ also has a lot of summer home work, he needs to read a book for English and has 3 jumbo packets for AP European History. I gave him a homework vacation until July 1st

 On the rare occasion that TJ is home, his darling girlfriend Alexis comes over. Karrick is in love with her and asked TJ if they could share her. I calmly explained that you don't share girlfriends, nor do you ever try to steal girlfriends, especially from your brother. While not happy about it, he accepts it.

TJ and Alexis will play board games with karrick and include him a lot

We are also smack dab into travel season with a minimum of 4 games a week Wed-Sun, but mostly just Sat and Sun. If you do the math TJ plays on average 9-11 games a week (we have had rain-outs)

Many nights TJ is exhausted and too tired to eat, he is down 3 pounds

the wavy lines on the above picture is from the chain linked fence I shot through

On the plus side TJ is one of the starting pitchers on both teams, which was his goal. He has always been a 3rd baseman or shortstop, but has become an outfielder on both teams because he has an  incredible arm. Now that he is at the high school level, the pitchers mound and bases are at the major league distance and the outfields are 360 feet +. You need a strong arm

 Callahan is relaxing this summer hanging with friends until IMSA starts July 11th. My little Cal is smack dab in the middle of his growth spurt, measuring at 5' 5 with no end in site. I feel like I don't spend enough time with Cal, thank God Tim is able to spend a lot of time with him and take him away almost every other weekend
Once HS ball is over I can devote much more time to taking Callahan to different places this summer

Karrick has been playing with friends and playing baseball

Grandma's  house in Long Grove

Karrick played in his 1st all-star game and it was the 1st time he played under the lights. The whole family went to cheer on little Sand Gnat. Karrick is always so proud when his big brothers come to his games

A smart karrick!

I opened the mail to find Karrick's latest test scores. 

OMG!

The 1st line represents Spring of 2011 99 % in Math and 91% in reading. The Spring test was taken after he had his Tonsils and Adenoids out. I ask myself over and over

How freakin sick and miserable was my kid at school?

Answer?

Pretty freakin sick and miserable, enough so that he couldn't learn or concentrate

this little boy went from "struggling academically"  to "academically talented" in a matter of months. The only change was his surgery

Memorial Day

Finally some hot, sunny, dry weather . After TJ's baseball tourney was over, Cal and Karrick played in the yard. I shot some pics from far away as my regular lens is still not focusing.

The kid is just naturally photogenic. My 12 years old is in the middle of his growth spurt, he is 5' 4 1/2. I don't know how many times I've heard from photographers that Callahan has a great editorial look

My little Kare-bear had a ball jumping, splashing and sliding into the backyard pool. Tim served fresh watermelon, pineapple, corn on the cob, steak, homemade chips with salsa and jumbo scallops for me.

We went 4-1 in our tourney. As God is my witness we should of been 5-0. We being the 1st seed team, played the 4th seed ( Mt Prospect host team) to see who advanced to the Championship. We were winning 8-6 in the 5th when of the sudden the ump took a huge turn on us.We had a 4 in strike zone and worst of all they had a man on third and the ump made up a call that allowed the 3rd base runner to advance home w/o the  batter hitting the ball. Don't ask it was wrong. 2 of the opposing teams players slammed into 2 of our basemen (you have to slide) neither was ejected. Blatant ridiculous calls cost us the game 10-8, so we had to play for 3rd place.

Our coaches were livid to say the least and everyone was yelling at the ump. 

It was not really the kids fault, except for the tackling of our players, thats just dirty baseball, the ump was dishonest. Nothing you can do except suck it up and say "thats just baseball" It is a losing game.

We won our next game to win 3rd place out of 9 teams....Mt Prospect lost to Norwood (different ump)

Can you say KARMA!

Final standings

================

Norwood

Mt Prospect

Lombard

Elmhurst

TJ played a solid tournament, excellent pitching and in the final game he hit a 3 run, home run. He tomahawked that homer. Swung at a high pitch, kinda of swing one would use in overhand tennis serve or  swinging a tomahawk to kill your prey. 5 year olds swing at that stuff

Basically he got lucky as HELL because it was a bad pitch and it was a fluke that he even hit it