Playing catch-up II

This year has had it's own busy craziness.  Let's see, Benjamin turned 14, and Brandon 11.  Benjamin is an inch and a half shorter than me.  Yes, that's right, he's as tall as me.  Oh, and by the way, he's at 160 lbs.  Can you say man child?  Holy Guacamole.  He had some issues with History in 8th grade but was able to salvage the class no thanks to his teacher Mr. Duncan.  He is not a nice man and a horrible teacher might I add.  But don't just take my word for it...  Moving along... Benjamin will be a Freshman at Chiawana High School at the end of this month.  Where has time gone?  I officially have a child in High School.  My goodness.  Brandon became a part of his first AAU team early this year.  He was a point guard and did an amazing job with the Tri-City Cowboys.  Bryson found a team in the Tri-City Fuzion and played in one tournament.
When baseball season started I coached 3 teams.  Not 2, but 3.  I coached Henager-Black in Majors where we got 2nd place in the city tournament championship losing a heart breaker where we led 5-1 in the last inning with 2 outs.
I also continued with the 12U Storm for Brandon and played in a few tournaments.  The most memorable being Memorial Day.  Where we played a team from Eastlake that had 9 giants on the field.  All of the 12 year olds were 6' or taller and built like pro's and played like pro's.  I was so proud of the team because they stood up to them and played them toe to toe for two games.  We didn't win, but we competed.  By the way, Brandon is about 4' 2" tall.  Can you say mismatch?  
The third team is I started an 8 year old Storm team for Bryson's age group.  I have to say that this has been so much fun this year.  The boys played in Memorial Day at Pasco as 9 year olds and got beat pretty good.  But they made great plays on defense and the group began to mesh wonderfully.  I found during the summer that this group of kids and parents is totally amazing.  We played in Richland and lost two games and won 2 games.  Then played in another tournament in Richland and lost the championship game.  Out of 10 teams, the Storm placed 2nd.  It was an amazing weekend.  The boys went 5-1.  The Storm arrived.  We then played in Moses Lake and while we struggled in the first game, won the rest of the games.  We ended up 3-1.  So overall this group went 10-8.  If you don't count the 9 year old tourney we went 10-4.  Bryson had an amazing summer.  He played OF, 3B, SS, 2B, and Pitched.  We have one more 9 year old tourney on Sept 8-9.    Oh, did I say 3 teams... wait there's MORE!  I was named the 12U All-Star Manager for Pasco.  It was a first for me.  Truly an honor.  Because a team pulled out of All-Stars the league had to put together an 11-12 year old team.  So for a month I got to coach a group of boys in All-Stars.  It was an unforgettable experience for me to coach these boys and especially my son Brandon.  We didn't win much, but the experience was amazing.
Benjamin played 8th grade baseball on the A team again and some Babe Ruth.  He's focusing on next year.  I know I talk a lot about the boys' baseball teams.  Truth is they consume a lot of my time and for me that's a good thing.  I love spending time with the boys.  Speaking of which, Maddy also played on Bryson's league team.  And she had a blast.  At first she wanted to play soccer, but after the season was over she told me she loved baseball and wanted to do it again next year.  I will have her in Soccer this fall per her request... Brandon and Ben decided not to play football this fall... made me sad.  Bryson wants to play pretty badly but sadly I can't afford it.  It has been an expensive summer.  I just can't.  There is always next year.  As always I'm asking for your prayers.  Thanks.