Welcome, Elden Ray !!!

What a great night!
Yesterday Tiffany and I headed up to Hurley Medical Center about 6ish!
My sister was having contraction every 2 minutes, and was comfortable. The contractions were progressing but she was not dilating. She had her last dose of medication a 10:00pm, so they were ready to move things a long. She was given some pitocin and they just kept increasing the amount they gave her. About 2am she was starting to get uncomfortable and was given an Epidural. About 3:15 we were all stretching our legs and getting Jan some candy form the vending machine, when we stepped back in the room they said here comes the baby. Tiffany & I stepped out and Mom and Jody stayed in. I told Tiffany she could push for a long time, there maybe a long wait yet. We decided to just to walking passed the room and the door was open a little and we heard Elden start to cry @ 3:25. They let Tiffany into the room, she was able to meet the baby when he was less then 2 minutes old. The baby came so fast that some of the group missed the whole thing, as they had not returned for getting snacks!


We are waiting

and waiting!

OK, here he comes!!!

Does Aunt Jan still want her candy?

He is perfect!!

Double Header

It's a great day for 2 softball games!

We are the only team in our division who is still undefeated. Time will soon tell if that will still be true at the end of the day.

Our first game started off decently. We traded runs throughout the game. We were not playing our best ball. We seemed to like just throwing the ball around the diamond while being just generous enough to let them score. We had a few bright moments. Amy made a fantastic running catch in Left Center. Paul and Stacie had a guy in a pickle at third. Paul was chasing him back to third when the runner dove for the base and Paul dove after him. It reminded me of when my kids were younger and watched wrestling. Paul landed on top of the guy with a flying elbow almost certainly grinding him into the base path. OUT!!!! the umpire says! Although Paul got up slowly, he knew he made a darn nice play. Too bad it went all for not, as in the top of the 7th we handed them the game. We were up 7-5, 2 on, 2 out. We then played catch with the grass, the fence and the umpire. We fell apart. 4 runs later we are down 9-7. Our first real breakdown of the season. We couldn't put anything together in the bottom of the inning. A loss.

We had an hour between games and pulled up a few coolers to cool off. We were not a team that was too happy with the way we played. After catching everyone up on the New York trip we got ready for game 2.

As we were watching the other team warm up, we notice that ( I will try to be as nice as I can), we might have to do a "cup" check on this other team. We seriously could only visibly pick out 3 men on that team. We started looking for boobies, sports bras and any other noticeable female attributes. Lets just say, the women on this team swung from both sides of the plate.

Now I know you think I may be being harsh, but there was 2 incidents that played out this tune. The first was when their team was coming up to bat. Paul was running the scorebook and the name they gave as the first at bat was Sara. Paul yells " WHOA WHOA, Sara is the first batter!!. The batter turns and says " I AM Sara. The umpire, then trying to cover for Paul says " OK, but is it Sara H. or Sara A." Uhmm, there was only one Sara on the team!The second happened when the umpire asked their catcher who was playing in the outfield ( he was trying to determine the boy, girl, boy, girl positioning). Now after they determined the names, it still did not help the umpire so he politely said that he could not tell who was who. Their catcher replied " Heh, I have trouble telling who is who too!"

We played pretty well. Angie made a great closed eye catch in right field, Nate had another in the park homerun and Dennis laid the biggest belly smacker crossing home plate for and in the park homer. For those that were at our first practice but not at the game, it looked like Paul's flop at home, only past home plate and a 4.4 on the Richter Scale! Not quite as graceful as Superman when he lands, but a helluva lot funnier. Love ya DENNIS! We thought we were going to have to give the Red Cross a call for a blood transfusion as Dennis was leaking quite well. 2 huge scrapes on his knees, 1 nice one on his shin and yet another on his elbow. It was bleeding well enough that the umpire had to ask him to cover it up or he would not be aloud to play. The man came prepared as a bandage went on the knee, his shin sleeve was hiked up over a knee and his white towel turned a dark red as he cleaned up as best as he could.

On another note I was playing catcher as I seem to have that down pat. A batter comes up, hits a slow roller out front. I bust out from behind the plate. I see Mike coming up, I pick up the ball, the runner is running to first, AAARGHHHH too many things going through my head, should I throw it to first, or toss it to Mike and have him throw it, should I , should Mike, should I should Mike....... I Let the ball FLY!!!!! and the damn thing ends up behind me. Now, lets be honest, I threw it for NEGATIVE yards. After realizing, what the heck I just did, I hear Mike L yell from Right Center "WHAT ARE YOU THROWING? A YO-YO!!!!!" Now yes, I am a tad embarrassed, I walk back to the plate so we can get back to pitching, when i notice the umpire is snickering. I turn and say "It was not that funny", When he replies " Oh **snicker** Yes it was".

We played much better in the field and pulled out a 5-0 win. It made it a little easier to swallow after our performance in the first game.

I need to give a huge shout out to Amy B as she had by far her best day out in the field today. She was making plays left and right. Didn't matter if it was a fly ball or a grounder. She was hustling all over, almost getting to a fly ball that went into right field. If she would have been 5'9" instead of 5' she woulda had it! hehe

With a4-1 record, we can not complain too much. Or can we?

New York (day two)

Tuesday we wanted to be at the Today Show at 7:00am. Lets just say sore feet, four lady's, NOT HAPPENING!
So this is the day we are going to do our travels on the subway. While walking to the Subway we encountered some New York sidewalks.

This is puke for you slow people!!! And the birds are having breakfast.

This is our first ride on the great Subway!

We get our subway passes and head to the Today Show. Some how we ended coming out of the
Subway right at Rockefeller Center,

right where the staff of the Today show come out. It was really awesome. We had a great time there Joe's blog sums it up!!!

From there we went to the Statue of Liberty. This was also really neat. It is big and Green!

This is where we stopped to eat lunch and some man helped Dawn spill her lunch on the floor. We also ran into Amanda, Lauren and her mother.

Our next stop was Ground Zero.
This was an emotionally draining stop for me. I could not stop thinking that I was most likely at one point going to be standing on the very ground someone lost their life. As we entered St. Paul's our trip went from chatting and laughter to immediate silence. This is the church right next to the Towers that was not damaged from the their collapse. It is also where all of the workers went for rest and food during the clean up and where the memorials were made for all of those that were lost.

This is St. Paul's behind the trees. These trees are what saved the church from damage. The construction in front of the church is the area known as Ground Zero. One of the Towers was located right in front of the church yard.
After leaving the Church we went to the tribute visitor center and tour. On this tour there was a former Firefighter that told his story of how his life has been changed forever from the events of September 11th. As his team arrived at the center he had to encounter some very horrifying things before the tower fell and through him over 600 feet.
I was just overwhelmed by the story this man told.

I was so glad we saved this for our last day, I think it would have been hard to enjoy myself after hearing of such a tragic time.

After we left the tour we still needed to shop for souvenirs and go to a Broadway show. So we needed to keep moving.
We shopped in Chinatown at a van, a closet and over a garbage can. (NO it is not a typo.) After I lost 10 pounds from sweating do to anxiety, I'm able to look back and say it was funny. There are so many people selling things illegally right next to the police, I can't even believe it! Shopping took a little longer then we had anticipated so we had to hustle back to our Hotel to change for the show.
Leaving our Hotel a little late we headed to the Subway. As we are waiting for the train to get there Dawn encounters a RAT! It was great. I wanted a picture so bad. I decided to cross the yellow line and try to take a picture, when a Police Officer came and tried to tell me my life should be more important then a rat. I told him I got a picture of the puke so I really need a picture of the rat. His reply was "I have lived my whole life in New York, taking puke and rats for granted. Now please stay on the other side of the line and close your bag, your in New York!" I didn't get the rat picture my batteries died right as I took the picture.

We arrived with 5 minutes before show time. I must say, I think everyone needs to go to a Broadway Show it was AMAZING!!! We stayed after to see the stars leave and got the signatures of all the stars but one.

After the show we did some last minute shopping and got a bite to eat. We were all so tired and started to get a little silly. Amy almost kicked a Waiter and we still don't know why they call Steak cut onion rings "steak cut"! Were they cut with a steak knife???

That is my wonderful trip to New York!!!

Letting everyone in on the bumps in the road!

Amy's husband Dennis thought is would be easier on us ladies if we were in Detroit the night before our big trip, so we didn't have to get up so early. He said he had a free night at the Red Roof Inn that we could use. Before we left Dennis tells us don't go to the McDonald's by the Red Roof Inn, it has bad service and terrible food.
So Amy, Dawn, Lupe and I drive down to Detroit Sunday night. As we get in to Detroit, Lupe states that she has not had supper and needs to eat. Dawn pulls into McDonald's (By the Red Roof Inn!) and orders Lupe's food and pop as well as pop and fries for herself and Amy. Before we got out of the parking lot we realize NO straws. So I got voted to walk back up to the drive through window to get our straws. So here goes little Jill in Detroit to the window where there is already another car to get our straws. (It was a funny moment you had to be there!)
Now off we go to our Hotel. Amy goes into the Hotel to check us into our room and comes right out. We go into the room got ready for bed we all laid down. It's quite in to the room as we all have almost falling asleep, when the phone rings. Dawn answers the phone to find the front desk telling her something about her coupon had expired. She hands the phone to Amy. Amy hangs up the phone and says Dennis changed the date on the coupon and they noticed that it was expired and she needed to come down and pay for the room right away.

See our trip is off to a good start. I did forget to say Dawn forgot her tooth brush, Deodorant, and Amy and Lupe did not pack there liquids as required by the airlines. So now my anxiety is starting because I think they are going to get us in trouble.
So now we are at the airport and Amy is directing us to the boarding area, Dawn keeps saying we have to get our tickets. Sure enough we get up to the boarding area and the nice Lady says "you need boarding passes". We turn around to go back and find the area where we need to get our boarding passes. Amy types in the information and out pops three tickets. No ticket for Jill! We check to make sure no one has two, then we find my ticket stuck up in the machine. We now return back to the boarding area where we are able to board with no trouble at all.

I bet you are thinking that our trip is smooth sailing from here, huh?

We got into New York and our flight was great.

We found a taxi and head to the Hotel. The Taxi driver was a CRAZY driver!!!! About three blocks from our Hotel Mr. Crazy crashes into another taxi. I wanted out! Before we could get out Mr. Crazy is back in the taxi, and continues to drive us to our hotel.



Now Amy tells Lupe and I to wait outside while she goes and check in to our room. As we wait, and wait, and wait.

Something hit my eye. I thought it could be water from an air conditioner from above, but my eye starts to swell.
Finally Amy comes out and tell us that they DO NOT have our reservations.
This is when I say "well, here is our situation." I remove my hand from my eye when Amy starts to laugh hysterically.

(It's my left eye, it did get worse!)


After about an hour we did get our room, and after some Benadryl my eye did start to go down.
After all of this, we were still able to laugh at everything and have a great time.

I most say we got a great room!!

Chicks in the City (day one)

Where do I start?

We could start with the Mc Donald's, the coupon, no boarding passes, the taxi crash, no reservations or just skip to the good stuff. I'll skip to the good stuff!!

We got into New York and met up with some friends for some lunch. I don't remember the name of the place but it reminded me of a flea market. What a busy place.

We left there and got on a Double Decker bus.


This was a great choice. We were able to travel all over New York with a tour guide. On our first day we were able to see Central Park, the Empire State Building, Time Square, Chinatown, do some shopping and got to go to a neat restaurant (Plataforma) for dinner.
New York was amazing, everything was so neat. My neck hurts from looking up at everything.

By the time we got back to our hotel I laid down and I was a sleep before the others were even in bed.

Amy and Dawn were good guides. They made sure Lupe and I were able to see everything, while still being able to experience getting turned around and walking slightly further then we needed for each destination.

AND WE ARE OFF!!!

We are on our way to the Big Apple.
I'm sure there will be some great stories when we return. Pray for a safe trip and I will see everyone on Wednesday.

By the way, the Sod Farm is still undefeated. Today's game was 7 to 6. It was a close one, but that made it entertaining for Lupe, Steve & Logan who were there cheering us on! Thanks for coming.

Peace out!

HAPPY FATHER'S DAY

HAPPY BIRTHDAY DAWN!!

GO TIGERS!

We win some and lose one!

It was another sports filled weekend, even with all the storms.

On Saturday the Hat Chicks reunited for a game against the Lapeer girls. They are a team that is just starting out and needed someone to play against. It was a great game. I had a lot of shots and there goalie was tough. Dawn had three break aways and just couldn't poke it in. We lost our game 1-0. What a bummer!!!

On Sunday we had our second Softball game. We were missing several of the man and a few women. We pulled off another mercy 19-0. Yeah Sod Farm!!!!!

Monday the last of the Hockey for the spring season. I finally got a shutout. We played the Pink team for 40 minutes and then the Blue team for 40 minutes. (We came out on top each time.)
Jessica scored twice in the first game and came close in the second, but just could not get it in there.

The girls are talking about starting up again Monday for the summer.

What a windy evening!

Its about 6:30 and it is starting to rain. My husband and son are on the porch having a good time in the rain. As the hail comes and the wind direction changes they come in, amazed at the wind speed. The phone rings and it's Tiffany saying that my niece Amanda had a tree fall on the garage. We decided to go see the damaged and had a hard time getting over to her house. There are down trees everywhere, on houses and cars. We drove as close as we could and had to go the rest of the way on foot. As we arrive her little play house is on its side in the front yard, and there is no garage left. The tree missed the cars by inches.



We drove around for a few snap shots

See what I got!

Saturday May 31st my hubby turned 39 years young. For his birthday we got him a softball mitt and a pair of cleats. He has needed them for a while as we play on a coed softball league. Last year his mitt was to small and he didn't have cleats.

On Sunday we had our first softball game, which ended in a 15- 0 win for the Stockmeyer Sod Farm powerhouse (our team, not so much of a powerhouse though). The game got off to a slow start but Lance cleared the left field fence for a 3 run home run that started our 10 run 2nd inning. I think it was an inning or so later my hubby comes to the plate with 2 runners on. Mike hit an IN THE PARK 3 run home run!!! This is a big deal as dust tends to settle faster than my hubby can run! This is in no way an exaggeration. Those new cleats made him as fast as lightning! Nathan hit and in the park home run as well. We were on fire! Dawn caught a high fly ball in right center that she even had to reach for! Curtis Granderson couldn't have done any better! Everyone did such a great job. I hope the rest of the games go as well as our first. Guess we will find out this Sunday.

Back to Saturday.
My sister Janette had her baby shower. My mom and dad came down from Traverse City. Here we are again with all the sisters together. It was beautiful weather, a little windy but still a beautiful day. I wanted a picture of all the sisters together and this what I got.
The Butt Sisters from left to right: Donna, Me, Janette, Mom and Jody.
And here are the Next generation of Butts!

From left to right: Tiffany, Audrey, Destiny, Megan and Amelia.

After the shower we were all still in the baby mode so we stopped at Jody's house to see their baby bunnies. They were more in the picture mood then the rest of us, see what I got:


Wednesday, Tiffany had her 8th grade dance. My mom and I went shopping for a dress on Saturday. She was so beautiful. To put it in perspective, to catch Tiffany in a dress would be like catching Joe without his Blackberry. It.... just..... doesn't....happen!! So I thought pictures would be a good idea, however Tiffany disagreed and this is what I got.



After such a great week I'm feeling quite sad. I know this sounds strange but things are starting to hit home. My oldest son is in his new house, my Taylor is going to be a senior in high school and my Tiffany is going into High school. They are all growing up so fast. I think now I'm beginning my midlife crises, see what I get!