Spring = Baseball

I don't know about you, but I grew up playing baseball. To me, nothing says 'spring' like a sunny day and the ever-so-distinct "ping" sound of an aluminum bat hitting a baseball.

Holden has been playing soccer for three years now, but has never shown any interest in America's Pastime.

That has changed.

Earlier this year (roundabout February or so), Holden approached his mom and dad and said that he was interested in playing in Huntingdon's Little League. So, we signed him up and he was "drafted" to play for the Blue Jays. Practices started in mid-March and our first "real" game was April 14th.

Holden has really taken to this stuff. Here was his first at-bat in a scrimmage on April 11th:



A good hit last weekend (April 28th):



And another base-hit from last night's game (April 30th):



Despite the more-than-usually hectic schedule, the family has really been enjoying watching Holden. He's doing great, and getting better with every practice -- and game!

For the true baseball nerds out there (ahem), Holden's current batting average is .789 -- yes. He's better than most professional ball players!

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Back Up And Running...

Hi there. It's been a while, but the McBrayers are back.

Yes. You're looking at the dates correctly. It's been nearly three years since the last post here. Let's just say that life got in the way.

I've updated the site to be, well, more up-to-date. I added a scrolling "featured" area at the top -- which you can see is a short slide-show of pictures. That may change in the future -- but for now the pretty pictures will do.

A lot has changed in the time that has passed: the family moved (yet, again) from Hollidaysburg to Huntingdon, Pennsylvania. It was something of a homecoming for our family, as both Melissa and I grew up there (well, Melissa more than I, but I digress...) and the kids are now both in elementary school. Holden is in second grade and Fiona is finishing her kindergarten year.

Both Melissa and I are gainfully employed (thankfully!) at the Pennsylvania State University (a.k.a. Penn State); Melissa in the College of Liberal Arts as an academic adviser and me in the Undergraduate Admissions Office.

Life is good -- we don't have any (many) complaints.

I wanted to resurrect this site as a way to continue to document our lives for family and friends that we don't get to see as often as we'd like to. So, check back frequently, or sign-up for an email subscription down below.

The McBrayers on Aladdin's Magic Carpet at Disney's Magic Kingdon in November, 2011

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Best. Dad. Ever.

Found this on MSNBC.com, via a co-worker of mine. It definitely seems like something that I would do with my kids...

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We're Back

While our time spent in the Garden State was just grand, I'm displeased to report that all of the McBrayers got sick. Unbelievable.

Fiona was down first with the bug. She seems to have caught it on our trip down to the shore (possibly at a turnpike rest area or grocery store). She passed it to Holden, who, within a couple of days passed it to Bert. By Wednesday, Melissa came down with the bug as well.

Needless to say, catching the flu on your vacation is not fun. However, we managed to get a week of picture perfect weather (even though we forgot the camera) and were able to enjoy our fun-in-the-sun despite our ailments.

It's good to be back in Hollidaysburg and sleeping in our own beds again.

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Holden's New Haircut

I know, I know... Melissa is going to kill her husband. =)

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Clyde's Wedding

Melissa and I enjoyed a great weekend in Lancaster and Doylestown. Congrats to Jayson (Clyde) Walker and his new bride Marjorie. The ceremony was beautiful!

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Enjoy Your Memorial Day

Courtesy of Popeye -- here is a grill that I'm not sure was meant for cookin'...

I hope you have a safe Memorial Day!

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Onward To Kindergarten

Holden is officially done with pre-school. This is a shot of him in the class portrayal of The Three Little Pigs. Holden is Little Pig #2 (hence the shirt).

Nest up: Kindergarten. Oh boy...

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Holden Says The Darndest Things, Part Deux

The following is a questionairre that Holden filled out at school for 'Mom's Night'... the italicized words are what Holden actually told his teacher to write in the blanks. Enjoy!

My Mom

• My Mom's name is Melissa.
  
• My Mom is 33 years old.
  
• My Mom is 66 inches tall (that would be 5 feet, six inches).
  
• My Mom has brown eyes and black hair.
  
• My Mom's favorite color is purple.
  
• My Mom's favorite sport is basketball.
  
• My Mom's favorite tool is garden tools.
  
• My Mom's favorite song or music is 'flow something'. (a reference to 'Even Flow', by Pearl Jam)
  
• My Mom likes to watch Heroes on tv.
  
• My Mom likes to relax by lay down.
  
• My Mom's favorite place to eat is anyplace that has pizza.
  
• My Mom's favorite food is pizza.
  
• My Mom's favorite activity to do with me is any activity.
  
• My Mom always tells me, 'I love you'.
  
• I love my Mom because she gives me kisses at night.
  

Well, Holden has a much better grasp on his mommy compared to his daddy. Although, I think he mixed us up on the food/restaurant question -- it is I who is the pizza-addict.

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News... Soon

Yeeeeeeeeeeeeah.... So it appears that I haven't updated everyone in a loooooong time. Sorry about that. We've been working on another project which I'll be announcing here really soon.

Stay tuned...

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It's Been A While...

But that does not mean that we McBrayers have not been busy!

Holden is now officially signed-up for kindergarten.  He'll be starting at Charles Longer Elementary School in the fall.  The school itself is a scant 0.07 miles from our humble abode here in the borough of Hollidaysburg.  I will greatly enjoy walking him to and fro -- at least while the weather is pleasant.  

We have also enrolled Holden in swimming lessons at the YMCA beginning in early March.  We attempted to self-teach him how to swim when we lived in West Milton, but the pool at Bucknell was cold and deep.  We are hoping to have much greater success in this newer, warmer and more shallow swimming environment.

Fiona is finally starting to show progress on the potty-training front.  Prior to the wicked sickness that ran it's course through the famiy, Fiona had gone nearly a week without wearing any kind of diapers (in the daytime hours).  Due to the 'explosive' nature of the stomach bug, it was necessary to regress to daytime diaper usage.  This was disappointing, to say the least.  However, we have seen great improvement since then.  Fiona rarely has a wet Pull-up and I think that starting tomorrow, we may try to get her back into her little girl underwear -- sans diaper.  YAY!

Melissa is still loving her work -- but has spent several late nights on campus this week.  While she loves to be on campus and see the 'fruits of her labor', she has been tired.  I think that it has become clear that we are no longer 18-year-old college kids who stay up late all of the time.

Lastly, we went to church today.  I think that we have found our new church home here in Hollidaysburg -- which is extremely pleasing.  One of the reasons that we never really felt 'at home' in West Milton/Lewisburg was because we never got involved in the community.  Melissa had her work, and I took care of the kids, but we never really 'connected' with anything outside of our family.  I think that things appear to be very different here.  Both Holden and Fiona had a great time in Sunday School while Melissa and I attended the worship service.  We even ran into one of Holden's friend's parents (whose family is also new to the area).  Things just felt right.

I guess that's about it for now.  I hope anyone who might be reading this is happy and healthy, just as we McBrayers are!

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On The Mend... Finally

Fortunately, this post comes courtesy of a healthy McBrayer family.

After over a week of sickness being passed around the house, everyone is better... well, for the most part anyway.

Holden started us off with a bug that he brought home from school (we think it was the Rota Virus -- good stuff).  Last Sunday (Feb. 1st), Fiona started to show symptoms of the same bug -- vomiting and diarrhea.  Melissa came home from work on Tuesday (Feb. 3rd) complaining of flu-like symptoms which (inevitably) led to the stomach bug-business later that same evening.  Finally, Bert was stricken with the bug by Thursday morning and was down and out until late on Saturday.

Most of us were only affected for about 48 hours, but the bug seems to really be giving Fiona the worst of the lot.  She seems to still be fighting the nastiness more-than-a week later.  

As far as I'm concerned, there is nothing worse than a bad stomach virus.  Cold and flu I can take care of -- make the stricken one comfortable with relative ease.  But stomach are a completely different animal.  You can only set a bowl in front of the victim, and hope they have good aim.

For the record, Fiona has terrible aim.

The good news is all of this mass-illness?  MOVIES!

Last weekend, the entire family watched Surf's Up (which was surprisingly good) and Bert and Melissa watched Pineapple Express.  Both films were heartily enjoyed by each audience.

This weekend the family enjoyed an out-of-this-world adventure with Wall-E...

...and good times were had by all.

I hope that your family does not have to endure the icky-ness that we have had this past week.  Despite all of this, we are still thankful for our collective health -- emphasis on the ability to defeat the nasty virus.

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Holden Says The Darndest Things

The following is a questionairre that Holden filled out at school... the italicized words are what Holden actually told his teacher to write in the blanks. Enjoy!

My Dad

• My dad is less than 20 years old.
  
• He is a tiny bit taller than Mommy.
  
• His hair is brown and his eyes are green.
  
• My dad loves to relax by typing on the computer and he likes to wear sweatshirt and sweatpants.
  
• He loves to cook sweet things.
  
• His favorite household chore is cleaning the house.
  
• My Dad's favorite color is blue.
  
• His favorite TV show is Heroes.
  
• His favorite song is I don't know.
  
• Daddy always tells me 'It's time for lunch!'
  
• It makes him happy when me and Fiona are good.
  
• When my dad shops, he love to buy toys.
• I really love it when my dad plays with me.
  

What can I say? The kid definitely has got my number. =)

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It's Been A While

I just thought that I'd drop in and update the world.

Holden was sick all day yesterday.  Apparently, there is a really bad stomach virus going around -- and he got it.  He had Melissa and I up half of the night -- which is always a good time.  Fortunately, Melissa didn't have to go in to work on account of all the snow and ice that fell from the sky.

Holden seems better today.  We're just hoping that he didn't spread it to the rest of us...

This weekend is Little Grammy's 80th birthday.  Melissa and I have been working on a slideshow movie of pictures that the family has gathered.  I think that it turned out quite well and I'll probably post it here when it is done.

I guess that's it for now.  I hope that everyone is staying warm, as it has been frigid here lately (although if we turned up the heat, it would help!).

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Grammy's Visit

Grammy came to visit last week and I snapped a few pictures:



Despite what you see here, our Christmas decorations have been taken down.

The kids really loved having Grammy read books to them.

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A Gem That Is Not-So-Hidden

I'm unsure of exactly how many folks have been reading this blog, but I wanted to say thank you to everyone who has been -- and extra special thanks to those who voted for my political blog in the 2008 Weblog Awards. Results:



Coming in with a majority of the voting at 29.3%, ThePajamaPundit.com was the big winner of the 'Best Hidden Gem' category. Whee!

Thank you!

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Shameless Self-Promotion

Utterly shameless.

Vote for my website in the 2008 Weblog Awards. PLEASE!

Vote here.

That is all.

(thank you!)

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Happy New Year!

From the McBrayer family to yours... Happy New Year!

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Mount Aloysius Fun

The family took a field trip to 'the Mount' today. Although, I must admit that I will likely be chastised for referring to Mount Aloysius College as 'the Mount' when Melissa reads this. Apparently, the higher-ups at the College prefer 'MAC' (as in, "Mack").

Anywho.......

After we stopped into Melissa's office to grab a few things she needed, we took a walk around campus.

Photos abound:








[the statue is of St. Aloysius Gonzaga -- for whom the College is named]



It was indeed cold (hence no photos of Fiona), but the sun made for some great natural lighting. Plus, field trips are fun!

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A Busy Week

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

The kids got everything that they wanted from Santa.

Melissa and I got everything that we wanted from each other and other family members (I'm particularly partial to the subscription to The Atlantic magazine).

Now, the family is recovering from all of the family gatherings and travel to-and-from Huntingdon. Fiona is fighting a cold -- which Holden appears to also have caught.

Christmas Eve we all went to Bethel Presbyterian Church in Petersburg, Pennsylvania with Grammy, Noni, Little Grammy and Pappy. The kids were well behaved (much to my surprise).

Christmas morning Grammy, Noni, Little Grammy and Pappy all came to Hollidaysburg to have breakfast with us -- after which we opened presents. In the afternoon Popeye, Mamaw and uncle Sean all came over for Christmas dinner and presents.

On the 26th, we all went back to Huntingdon to Grammy & Noni's house for the Lang family get-together, at which Holden had a tremendous time playing with his (third) cousin Bella and her baby-brother Landyn. Landyn took quite a liking to Bert as well.

On the 27th, we all piled into the PT for one more trip to Huntingdon for a visit at Popeye and Mamaw's house. Aunt Naomi and cousin Eleanor (Popeye's sister and neice -- from Virginia) were in town and we all wanted to visit. Picture:



We also witnessed a surprise visit from Cliff Anders -- a high school friend whom Melissa and Bert haven't seen in several years.

While it has been an extremely busy few days, it has been exceedingly enjoyable for our entire family. We cherish each moment that we have with friends and loved ones -- and we are fortunate to have had many such moment in the past week.

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