Ring Of Fire

Happy Mother's Day!

This is the Pareo (tahitian lava lava) that JT, Joshua and I stretched out over a wooden frame that we made at Don Shiflet's house.  The boys were very proud of their present for Mother's Day,

 We took these pictures before church and the boys had a good time showing their strength. 

 Jonathan and I gave Ruth the blue tiare pareo.  He said it will look cool in the front room.

Joshua and I gave Ruth the picture of Tahiti that shows where grandma Tetua lives.  He said it will look cool in his room.

The boys with their special Mom.

It is amazing to see the love that these boys have for their Mother.  Reminded me of my own special Mom.

 We ripped the plywood at my friend Don Shiflet's house.  He moved all of his vehicles out of the garage for us and brought out his table saw.  I had the plywood measured and the lines drawn before I left for Greg's funeral on the 14th of April but didn't have a chance to finish.  Ruth's Birthday was the 15th and I missed it so my project became a Mother's Day gift.  It took us about 4 hours to make the two picture frames from scratch.

We set the ripping blades at 3/4 inch high so we could join the two boards together.  We put about 5 blades together to grind down the wood so we could join them together.

 We got the two frames together and took them inside the house to put the fabric on.

 We secured the frames with wood glue and screws.  We also had to square them up before securing.

We used a staple gun to secure the fabric just like a canvas painting is tacked down.

Tia and I thought we would cook Mom dinner and Ruth taught Tia how to prepare the steaks that we had in the freezer.  Oil, sea salt and seasoning.

I taught Tia how to fire up the grill and clean it.  She prepared everything like I told her and it turned out perfect while JT, Joshua and I played catch with the football.

Tia presented her Steak, red potatoes and asparagus to the special Mother.

Our awesome kids even did the dishes together.  They treated their Mother like a Queen and I couldn't have been happier.  We gave Grandma a call too and told her that we love her and asked if she got our cards. It has been 1 month since Greg passed away suddenly so we wanted Grandma to feel loved.  Each of the family spent some time talking to Grandma and telling her they loved her.  Good day for the Tucson Hamptons.

Thornydale Little League

The morning before opening day ceremonies at Arthur Pack Park. His team name is the Iron Birds and this is his first year in Coach's Pitch. We had to get him some baseball pants and a cup. He has a couple of friends on his team from school and the coach is a friend of mine from playing soccer.

Jonathan has a great swing and tends to drop his back shoulder a little and pops them up. We worked on his swing last week and he hit one out into the outfield over everyone and kept talking about it all the way home. Of course it made me smile a little and remember the good old days when I was a kid and loving to play baseball.

He didn't understand the rules of base running yet when he played third base and the whole force-out concept. He kept tagging the runners when he fielded the ball instead of stepping on third base. You can see his assistant coach yelling and pointing to the bag. Step on the bag! Step on the bag! A little coaching and he was ready by the end of the game to get the force out.

Coach Danny had him suit up catchers gear at the end of the game and he liked it. He thought he looked like an army man and a motorcycle guy. I thought he just looked cool. After a few pitches bounced off his lower parts I understand why they have them wear a cup.