I meant to post to the blog right after Halloween, but - glad to have waited. Something big happened here this past week... the Atlanta Braves won the World Series! More on that after getting through October / early November happenings.
Here at home, sadly, the Covid numbers reached another milestone. Over 5 million deaths in the world have been attributed to this pandemic. In the US, over 750,000 have passed.
Today, at our church, they were honoring those who have passed - on All-Saint's Day. It has been a tough year for many.
On the positive, the number of vaccinations is growing. 7.2+ BILLION in the world and 427+ MILLION in the US. I got my booster a couple of days ago through an event that our school hosted for employees. The FDA just approved Covid shots for 5 - 11 year olds. Our school is hosting an event next weekend (on Isabella's birthday)... we will not do that to her on "her day" but will need to schedule with her pediatrician. (She frets and pitches a fit over shots!) She does not want to get the Covid shot (she doesn't want flu shot every year or any of her annual vaccines either, honestly). There are mandates out in some public and private organizations. There are lots of protests too. More to surface about that in the coming weeks....
Rose Marie got Covid, but thankfully, she is pretty much recovered at this point. She had the "cocktail" that helps speed up recovery... and the last time I talked to her this weekend - she was not coughing / hacking the whole time.. and she FINALLY went out of her house to the grocery store. She had not left her house for
Of course, October is all about Halloween!
Mercer wanted to be scary this year with a light-up mask. He got to go to 2 Halloween parties -- one on his own with a friend (and friend's mom) at their neighborhood... and one with all of us at our normal neighborhood celebration.
I have to say something funny about the party that he went to... they were giving away door prizes. He won an air-freshener from the DJ. ha ha. They must know that he needs that in his bedroom! (the mom said the DJ brought candy and covid prevention sanitation wipes, hand sanitizer, etc.) ha! He had a good time, though. And is laughing hard about the air freshener.
We did not go to a traditional pumpkin patch this year, but, Isabella and I found a pretty decent selection at a church near her horse-riding lessons. It was nice to support their youth program and to have her help pick out this year's "porch decorations."
Isabella got to go to her own Halloween thing at our church - trunk or treat.
Once we got there - someone showed her a bug (a praying mantis). We were there playing with it for a long while.... and had to drag her away to actually visit trunks to score candy!
She was so excited to be there -- at an event -- in her costume -- getting candy -- seeing a school friend -- and petting a dog. (She said that was the best trunk... the one with the dog. Although this one with Harry Potter quidditch set up looks pretty great too!)
She wanted to be a pink ninja this year.
Halloween fell on a Sunday this year. Our neighbors threw their annual Halloween party again this year. So many new neighbors. Mercer went trick-or-treating on his own with some neighbors this year. Here he and his 14/15 year old friends are swinging on a child's swing set!
Todd and Isabella went out trick-or-treating while I handed out candy to the hundreds of cute kids in our neighborhood. Mercer was our last trick-or-treater of the evening. There was still candy left over, but... there was a Braves world-series game on TV, so trick-or-treating seemed to end a little sooner than normal this year!
We "crammed" in our other normal Halloween things this year: carving pumpkins and making cookies. Isabella carved her first official pumpkin. Todd may have helped a little, but she used the tools and got it done!
The other BIG thing this month: baseball.
Mercer made his debut on his 14/15 "travel" team - the Spikes. Same league, same jersey color as his previous spikes team... - just all new players because he is playing UP with the older kids. He did well.. holding his own. (And I'm more comfortable with this than his "Senior" league that he was doing with the Little League park before that fizzled. (14 - 18 year olds). I'll have to be honest, 18 year olds throwing balls at him from the mound made me a bit nervous -- and him too honestly! So, he made his debut in early October. He played in a few tournaments... and then it was over. The last tourney was cancelled for player injuries. The tournament team seemed to fizzle a little bit too. We really had a good thing going with that other team he played with for a number of years!
His old coach called on him a couple of times within the past month -- he got to play with many of his old crew in the 12/13 league. I only went to a handful of his games this year. The one I liked the most was him playing with his old crew.
He was more comfortable / had comradery / was acting goofy and was just plain having fun!
Also in maroon this year was Isabella - playing on the "Brickies" team. The coach - someone who Todd has coached with before (but - coaching the boys) "Coach Greg." We have spent a lot of time with this family - between all-stars multiple years and Spikes travel teams multiple years... until the old 12/13 year old Spikes crew broke up.
Greg was the head coach this fall and drafted ALL of the girls this season -- 3 total. The name of the team comes from a quote that the coach likes from a famous actor/singer... his father made he and his brother re-build a brick wall that he tore down in order to teach them a lesson. Build it brick by brick.
Isabella got to try out pitching for one inning. She said she was nervous. I don't doubt it. Sort of like Mercer... she was playing against much older players. She was one of the youngest / smallest on the team. (This was a mix of the 9/10 and 11/12 year old leagues. Isabella was 8!) and - they mixed the teams because in the fall they have fewer players... more players come out in the spring when it's more serious.
(But - the fall is great for conditioning, learning new techniques and growing in the sport.) So... she tried "kid-pitch" ball for the 1st time and will not be as intimidated by it when playing this spring. This spring, she will be 9... and it will only be teams of 9/10 year olds that she's playing with.
They ended up winning 3rd out of 5 teams. The last game was on a cold, rainy school night (thankfully, I got to go to the end of the game after I left "parent night" at the high school.) They were so excited to have won their game -- putting them in 3rd).
Also, Todd got a funny coach's gift! :) A clever tee-shirt!
Mercer also did a little bit of stuff with the Marietta High School baseball team this past month... he partook in some conditioning and fundraising. It was a little disappointing that they didn't really try him out on pitching. And - the 8th graders did not get to partake in the inter-squad games. (I guess it's the same "senior league" issue mentioned above -- 13 year olds playing against 18 year olds scenario?).
I met a bunch of moms at the pancake breakfast fundraiser. One is even our neighbor -- who lives about 7 or 8 houses up from us who I had never met! The neighbor who lives at the top of the street introduced us. Good to know there are 3 of the boys that will (hopefully) be on the MHS team from the same street. That may come in handy one day!)
The BIG BIG BIG news here in the A-T-L.... the Braves won the World Series!
They won the National League Championship series - beating the Dodgers which pinned them against the Huston Astros which had won the American League Championship series. Two games were played in Houston - they had home team advantage and the opportunity to host 4 of the 7 games. The Braves won the 1st game in Houston. But, then, Houston won game 2. They came out to Atlanta.
The Braves won the next two games. Houston won game 5 on Halloween... which meant that they would all go BACK out to Houston to continue. Luckily, the Braves won game 6 and a 7th game was not needed.They came back home to a TON of fanfare! Schools from around the metro area cancelled classes Friday because there was a parade in town! (really hard for working parents of young kids, but I was grateful. I had a really really hard week and needed a day off!)
We drove downtown to the parade b/c the infrastructure here in Cobb County (where the stadium is located) is just not there. If you did not have a ticket to the concert and event in the stadium Friday, you weren't able to buy parking.
So... i couldn't figure out how to navigate the parade here closer to home. I am glad we went downtown. After a couple of tries in 2 different spots (one I did not feel comfortable in / left and told the kids to "trust your instincts")... we found a free parking for 2 hours on the corner of 4th & Juniper -- a block away from the parade. There was an officer at that corner blocking people from going towards Peachtree.
We walked up the hill and found a spot behind one family who was sitting in camp chairs. We were able to stand behind them pretty much unobstructed.
The parade started shortly after we got there... and it ZIPPED BY.... so so fast! (that was disappointing because it was hard to see who was on top of the open air double-decker busses or in the back of the pick-up trucks. I was taking video. Mercer was taking photos. Most of these are his pictures. I did get 1 photo of the 2 of them as we were leaving. There was - of course - traffic headed home, but it didn't take as long as I thought. We made it home in time for PART 2 of the parade up in Cobb County and were comfortably watching from the warmth of our couch!
In looking at the pictures, I was soooo glad that we did not try to take in the parade closer to home. The 2nd part of the parade route was a zoo - crowds 15 - 20 people deep. We would not have been able to have seen anything. Plus no clue where to have parked - maybe a mile away?!
There was a concert in the stadium for those lucky enough to get tickets and a presentation of the team and trophy. All of the players commented how much the Atlanta fans helped THEM. They needed the energy during the games. They certainly got it! There were home-runs by the hometown hero Dansby Swanson (whose mom worked at the elementary school where our kids used to go... and... he played baseball at the high school where I teach / where our kids will go.)
The Braves did some of the unthinkable: they were DOWN before the All-Star break. They were losing. They made some trades at the last minute during a trade deadline and got a few players who were pivotal in helping them win. Those players brought energy and received energy. (there was a sword-toting player... a pearl-wearing player and a cowboy hat-wearing player that each had their thing they would do to rile up the crowd.)
The braves had only won 44 games before the All-Star break. They won 44 after the break. The field was dedicated to Hank Aaron (retired historic #44).... and they won it in the 44th week of 2021. Hank Aaron's wife was there at the presentation. It was emotional for a lot of players. It was exciting for us (well, not Todd)... as Mercer and I stayed up late to watch the games.
According to a poll, almost the entire country was pitted against Houston because they were caught cheating in one of their recent runs for the World Series. Atlanta was the underdog... and have given a LOT of people hope! The city was just what they needed. They were just what this city needed!!
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