Updates

Hard to believe it has been over two weeks since I have been here, but it has. So what's new? Well, Sydney had Round 2 with the stomach virus one week after Kelsey battled through Round 1, causing her to miss the last day of SATs at school (the standardized tests most of you are familiar with). Sydney was sicker, though, and her tiredness and lack of appetite lasted much of that weekend. We, again, had to cancel our little cabin vacation in Pigeon Forge for the second time. Let me tell ya', people, the folks at Cabin Fever Vacations really were understanding about the whole ordeal we were experiencing. Usually you can't get ANY kind of refund if you bail on your reservation -- I mean no exchanges, no refunds, no loss of deposit, no nuttin' -- but after explaining AGAIN that we had pukeheads at our house for the second weekend in a row, they allowed us to transfer our reservation to this weekend. So, fingers and toes crossed, we are all going to get a little R & R this weekend.

Last weekend, Kelsey played in her first kid-pitch tournament of the season (The two prior were called due to inclement weather). Her little team did so much better than I expected (and most who had seen them play before expected, I dare say). They came in second place in a little 5-team tourney at Willow Creek. Next week she will start league play and then we'll be on an every other weekend schedule of tournaments, so ball season has officially begun at the Birchfield house!

Yesterday I accompanied Sydney on a field trip to the Women's Basketball Hall of Fame. That is such a cool place, even if you're not a basketball fanatic. They have talking exhibits, collegiate jerseys in every color and all kinds of basketball artifacts from many, many different decades. The kids, being only 7 and 8, couldn't really appreciate many of the exhibits, but they thoroughly enjoyed shooting hoops on the interactive courts. It was cold and rainy yesterday, so it was a really good day for an indoor field trip.

That's it for the catch-up, I think. If something else of note has happened in the last couple of weeks and I haven't mentioned it, well, we'll chalk that up to being on puke patrol too long or just the normal sleep deprivation I exhibit on a daily basis. I hopefully will have pictures and lots of interesting stories to relate after we get back from Pigeon Forge this weekend!

~Peace