Playing catch-up...

No silly, this post isn't about Ketchup.  For some reason I had brief thoughts of food fights in the grade school cafeteria...   I just wanted to bring you up to speed.  Which reminds me...I haven't yet figured out why the older we get, the faster time goes?  LOL!  Old?  who's old?  Not me!  Ok, ok... here we go.
Making ends meet has been pretty rough lately.  I used to say that before but now, paying child support and having all 4 kids for 3 to 4 weekends a month plus two weeks on and two weeks off during the summer has been financially rough.  That and I had hernia surgery early this year that I'm still paying for.  In any case, that's the real life stuff you deal with but can't talk about really.
So, last year when things got busy a few things happened.  I sadly became separated, moved in with a friend and his family, then moved into an apartment.  I'm thankful for my friends who stood by me through this hard time.  Thank you to Mark and Mitzi Hadley for opening up their home and Jeff and Michele Bonnington as well for their support.  Between the legal battle, work, building a new "home" and baseball you can say things got a bit crazy.  Somehow through that I was able to coach 2 teams.  I started the Pasco Storm 11U tournament team and Brandon (10) played up a year with them.   And I also coached the Star Rentals team in Pasco Little League that Benjamin (12) was on.  With the help of some excellent assistant coaches and great players, we won the city/league championship.  It was an amazing experience.  Benjamin and Brandon went on to play on All-Stars.  Benjamin went on to hit 3 amazing home runs...one of which was in the District Championship game that gave them the berth for the State tournament.  Brandon played well as well but their team was 2 and out.  The Storm played well last summer and placed second in the Mt. Si tournament in Issaquah.  Oh yeah...about that tournament.  My 2001 Honda Civic died on the way there.  Yes, the engine blew.  I had to get a new engine put in and thanks to Eric my brother for lending me a hand that day and loaning me his car in Yakima.  Be careful with the video... I scream really loud.  It's 8 years of taking my son to practices and coaching him all wrapped into one heaping WOOOOHOOOOO!   The video is of Ben hitting his home run in the District Championship game.  To be continued....