Our Handsome Baseball Players

Look at these boys!! They are growing up too fast, for sure.

My Owies

So, here's what they look like! Each excision has about 4 inner sutures, and about 9 exterior. Probably a little longer than an inch. But for something so small, geez, they hurt! But then again, I have a very low pain threshold. (i.e... I'm a baby!) One is vertical and one is horizontal, just the way the doc felt the skin would heal better. They actually look like there will be very minimal scarring, but I'm not really worried about that part-- he did a good job nonetheless! It was strange, seeing them (chunks of flesh) sitting in the lab containers afterwards... interesting, but strange. So, now I wait two more weeks for the results, which will tell me they got clean borders. For how small the moles were, and the sizes they cut out, I have no doubt they got it all!

Papa's Amazing Work

So, Tustin may not be doing any kid modeling any time soon..... but check out this AMAZING sweater my DAD knitted for Tustin! It is SO beautiful, better quality than you could find in any store! There was a time when this same amazing knitter was horrified when I posted a picture of him on my blog, sitting around, knitting one year at Christmas, not too long ago... Now, how could he NOT be proud of his skills!! Tustin LOVES it dad! And I love mine, and I think I love Chris's just as much! :-) Thank you!

A Baseball Saturday

Little trouper that he is.... Keegan was at the game field by 8:30 a.m., to warm up for his 9:00 a.m. game this morning. I say little trouper because he had the stomach flu last night! And a touch of a fever (which is how his body fights of EVERYTHING, and much quicker than Tustin, who doesn't ever spike fevers). Tustin had the stomach flu Wednesday night (ALL NIGHT LONG), and was out of school Thursday and Friday this week. He really hadn't eating anything in that 48-hour period, poor guy. But he bounced back, and played his T-Ball game at noon today. Keegan pretty much had a 12-hour bug, and he's back to eating and drinking, although not 100% yet. Another day to rest tomorrow.

My Team Mom duties kept me pretty busy throughout Keegan's game, as you can tell by the lack of pictures (First pic, white helmet). I really got to relax and enjoy Tustin's game quite a bit today! He had a few of the best hits on the team- AND he got to try out the catcher position, which he seemed to enjoy.

So, game at 9am, until 11am; home for 15 minutes, to eat and back to the fields for the 12pm game. Getting there 20-30 minutes early to warm up, of course. And what did the boys want to do with their day AFTER baseball? Head back to the fields to watch a friend's game that started at 3pm (until 5pm). Yep, we were there ALL Day, and they loved it!

The Saga Continues....

Okay-- so if you already read my entry "So Busy Lately!" then you will be up to date and ready to read this entry! If not, please read that one first.

Two of my four moles that were punch-biopsied were not Negative. Not exactly Positive, but not Negative. There are a bunch of fancy technical terms that basically mean "a mixture of melanoma and/or pre-melanoma cells." Apparently there is a "gray area" of the line between when the cells are considered malignant or not. If there's any doubt at all-- they remove all those bad cells, so there is no longer any doubt, and no more gray area! I get to do this all over again- Yay! I get my stitches out tomorrow, two weeks status post biopsies, and soon I will have to have two of them officially excised. Not a little office procedure, but 30 minutes in the sterile "Procedure Room!" Poor Chris, he was just thanking his lucky stars that today is his last day of being my nurse. Kidding-- he has been extremely supportive and said he'll change my dressings as long as necessary!

So, they will dig deeper, full-thickness, with an inner layer of dissolvable sutures, and then the same two-week sutures on the outer layer that will need daily cleanings, dressing changes for 2 weeks, then suture removal.

But-- I'm still okay with it all (except the uncomfortableness of the next round of sutures- yuck!). They caught it all early, and the most important thing, I'M DOING SOMETHING ABOUT IT! And, again, who cares about little scars on my back, I never even look at my back! :-) So- that's the latest.

Picture Day

Up early again today, in full uniform, for individual and team photos. I snapped off a few pictures, behind the photographer's back.... shhhhhhh! I believe there was one player missing from each of the boys' teams. Otherwise-- here are the teams for this season!

It's Time for Little League

Here they are, in their brand new uniforms, ready to play baseball (and T-Ball for Tustin) for the first time ever. Yesterday, Saturday the 3rd, was Opening Day. They had ceremonies in the morning, and then Tut's T-Ball game at 11am, and Keegan's Caps game at noon. Tustin has had one practice a week for the last 3 weeks, and Keegan has had two practices a week. Tustin will soon have 2 a week, plus Saturday games. Keegan will probably have 3 practices a week, with Saturday games and possibly a week-day game as well. I volunteered to be Team Mom for Tustin's team, and was the only one who showed up to the meeting for Keegan's team, so I became Team Mom, by default, for Keegan's team as well. I organize the fundraisers, beg people for money, sell raffle tickets at some of the games, plan the snack schedule for the team, and just help with the general organizational issues as necessary. Having fun so far, but for BOTH teams it's a bit much. I wont quit thought, or no one will step up for Keegan's team, and we probably wont raise any money in any of the fundraisers, or get t-shirts, or attend the group Padre game or any of that. So, I'm doing it! And I'm organized, so I'll be good at it!

Play Ball!

I guess it's typical, but I'm pretty sure the coaches were much more "in to" the game than the players! I think they may have expected a bit much for their first game, but they still had fun. Many of these kids (including Keegan) have never played ball before at all. They didn't know where to throw the ball if it came to them, and some just stood there holding it, while the base runners ran right by them. (Too many people/parents on the side-lines yelling out directions, and the kids actually couldn't hear their coaches.) However, Keegan's team did very well. They scored some runs, and now the coaches now exactly what they need to work on during practices. Tustin's T-Ball game was just a big, fun, hoot! Players not having a clue where to run after they hit the ball; runners sitting down on the base while they are waiting to run to the next one; at one point, there were 3 runners on 2nd base alone! But EVERYONE was having fun with it, including players, coaches, and on-lookers alike! This is where they learn the rules (for the most part), and they do not keep score. An "inning" is when every player on both teams has hit one time, then they do it two more times. 3 innings, or 1.5 hour time limit is a LONG time for 4 and 5 year olds to stay focused. They had fun though.

Total Support!

As usual- the whole family came out to support the boys for Opening Day! The boys had so much fun out there. It may have been a bit hectic for mom and dad (supplying snacks for both teams; with mom being Team Mom for both teams, and partaking in "Team Mom Duties" for a while; and with the two games being close enough together that there was an overlap in time, unfortunately), but I don't think the boys focused on anything else, but playing their best. We talked about it at dinner last night-- and they had fun, positive things to say about the whole experience so far! Welcome to Little League, Tibbetts Family!

So Busy Lately!!

Whew-- so much has been going on lately. The biggest-- Little League! I'll be downloading pics and blogging about that over the weekend.

But, a little personal blogging. My motto, (if ya-all can't tell from how much I like to talk) has always been: Tell-All and Get the Support you Need, if You Need It! Rather than: "Don't say anything until absolutely necessary, and shock the crap out of everyone!." Think about it-- you are either ONE of those people, not both, I bet ya! And those mottos can go for anything, good news, bad news, or just every day talk.

My News-- which I'm not considering "bad" news, is that I went to the doc the Tuesday before last, after finding a mole on my side, that just didn't look quite right. Different colors, irregular borders, all that stuff "they" tell you to look for. Turns out, as my Dermatologist stated: "Well, I don't think you really have to worry about THAT ONE at all... but there are three others on your back we need to check!" ARGH! So, that same office visit, I had FOUR "punch biopsies" done: the one on my side, and the three on my back. It's not truly a mole-removal, although the size of the punch actually ends up taking the entire mole. So, I walked out of there with what turned out to be about 2-3 stitches for each mole, and my wonderful hubby has been doing DAILY antibiotic ointment treatments and dressing changes for me. I get the stitches out this Tuesday. Yay-- they are itchy!

To make my long-story longer... I got a call on Friday from my doc. Two of my moles are "fine," and two "need to be sent out for further testing." Which only means the preliminary testing was not negative, but that doesn't necessarily mean anything else yet. They can still come back negative. But, like I said, I'd rather ya-all know that something could be up, and urge you all to get your skin checked by a dermatologist EVERY year, rather than me telling you a month from now, "Hey, I'm getting treated for a melanoma!" and shock ya-all!

But-- I've got a good mind set right now. I'm not nervous or worried at all. In fact I'm strangely calm about it all so far. So what if they have to take a bigger chunk out of my back-- I don't mind a scar, I never look at my back anyway! :-) Love ya-all! Now go see your dermatologist!