Irish Clover: Best kid ever

Work life has been stressful. My company has completed a round of lay-off and benefit changes that have been quite taxing on a professional and personal level. During these trying times, I'm more grateful for my boss, who is truly an excellent boss, and my family who is truly the best family ever. In honor of this past Mother's Day, I will proceed with gushingly sweet "mommy moments."

Mommy Moment - The best baseball player ever
Little Clover has been playing a form of baseball since he was three. He loves playing short stop, but he is also quite the little pitcher. We practice with him at home, acting as his catcher. He's always had a decent arm and a pretty decent fastball. Normally, I'll grab my baseball mitt and we'll throw a few in the front yard. This season, he got two pitches on me. The first one hit my glove with a loud thud followed by an instant throbbing. The ball fell out of my hand and I told Little Clover I was done, he throws too hard and I needed a catchers mitt. He coaxed me with his sweet little face, begging, "Just one more, Mama." I could I refuse? I put the glove back on and attempted to catch the second pitch. He has just started pitching too fast for me to catch without additional gear.

He's pitching just as fast, and accurately on the diamond as well. His league plays for a set time limit instead of playing 9 innings. During his last game, the opposing team got two runs on him early in the first inning. After those two runs, Little Clover focus and proceed to hold them to those two runs for the rest of the game. They played a total of four innings, a total of 12 outs. He struck out 8 batters, caught two pop flies, and fielded a ground ball and threw the runner out at first. His team rallied as well, driving in 8 runs for their team. Needless to say, when Little Clover heard his stats, he was pretty thrilled.

Mommy Moment 2 - The most thoughtful child ever
With the lay-offs at work and the benefit changes, I've been pretty stressed and unbearable at home. Yesterday, Little Clover thought I could use a little pick me up. He grabbed my purse and told me I couldn't open it until I got to work. I told him I needed my keys to drive him to school. He handed them to me. I smiled with curiosity, but followed his instructions. Once at work, I found the little surprise, a key chain he bought for himself at Raglan Road in Disney World. The key chain has a four leaf clover in the center of a claddagh. Instantly warmed and touched by his present, I put my keys on the ring. I also ended up having the best day at work in a really long time, getting back some of the hope I had lost during the last few days. His little present was just what I needed.

In other news
We survived the great flood of 2011! Yes, the Mississippi River went from half a mile wide to three miles wide, but the river banks of Arkansas are pretty flat and uninhabited. There was a lot of damage to the north of the Memphis, and there will probably be more damage to the south of Memphis as the flood waters move towards the Gulf. Overall, the City was ok. We did have a couple of high schools in the city with low lying flooded athletic fields, but it could have been much much worse.

From Irish Clover

The river did flow across Riverside Dr onto Beale, and it covered Mud Island which has a scale replica of the Mississippi River from Minnesota to the Gulf. The replica normal mimics the water levels of the actual river, but for the time being, it is underwater.