April - Birthday Celebration, Family Visit, A-Day, Baseball, and Academic Achievement

April began with Katelyn’s 10th birthday on the 2nd. It’s become a bit of a tradition for us to go out for dinner on the kids’ birthdays to the restaurant of their choice. Katelyn wanted to go to our favorite Japanese restaurant, Hokkaido, for her birthday. So we all loaded up and headed across town. About a mile from our house, I had a flat tire. Of course, we didn’t have a jack or anything really to fix it, so I called my friend Lori to bring us some Fix-A-Flat in the hopes that we would make it back to the house so Byron would have his tools handy. Turns out the tire was in pretty bad shape and the Fix-A-Flat didn’t help at all. So Lori took Byron and the kids to the house while I stayed with my Expedition. Byron came back and, after a trip to Wal-Mart for a jack, got my spare tire put on. This whole process took a couple of hours so we had to postpone Katelyn’s birthday dinner until Friday. She wasn’t real happy about that but it was one of those things that just couldn’t be avoided. I found myself feeling incredibly grateful that the tire made it to Atlanta and back. That could have been very bad for us if that tire had blown out on the interstate. Someone was definitely watching over us on that trip.

On the 5th, we finally made it to Hokkaido for Katelyn’s birthday dinner. We had sushi, fried rice, chicken, shrimp and steak and it was all delicious. The staff sang Happy Birthday to Katelyn and she got some fried ice cream for dessert (which was also delicious). It’s hard to believe that my baby girl is 10 already. It seems like just yesterday that I was bringing her home from the hospital. I am so proud of the beautiful, smart, and sassy young lady she has become and I look forward to watching her continue to grow and learn. Life would be boring without our KK.

Byron went to Atlanta on the 9th for a management seminar for work. Katelyn had a dentist appointment on the 10th to get fillings in her 2 cavities we found at her cleaning in March, so I took the afternoon off to relax a little before her 3:00 appointment. It’s not often that I have the house all to myself so I enjoyed the quiet for a couple of hours before I picked her up. She did fantastic as usual and we were done by 4:00. We picked up Hunter and headed home. Byron came home on the 11th and our house was full again.

On the morning of the 13th I got a call from my niece Rebecca telling me that my aunt Missy had died. She was married to one of my dad’s brothers, Barber, who had died when I was in 2nd grade. She had been in poor health for a while so it wasn’t a complete shock. I had to take Hunter for his sports physical that morning and I had to get some new tires on my Expedition before I could go anywhere though. I did both that morning and the kids and I headed to Scottsboro that afternoon (Byron was working). We went to the visitation on Sunday and got to spend time with some of our family that we rarely see. The kids went back to Rebecca’s house with Anthony since the weather had turned a little cool, and I stayed for the funeral service with Rebecca and my brothers who were all pall bearers. We went to the cemetery where my dad’s family is buried after the service. I hadn’t been to that cemetery in a while so I took some pictures of the headstones so I would have some names and dates to share with the kids. It brought back memories from my childhood of going to that cemetery for decoration every year. I always looked forward to that because I usually wound up with a dollar or two and got to play with my cousins. Even though we were at a cemetery, we always had an adventure of some sort. And we usually ate some Mud Creek barbeque too. For those of you who may be from around the area where I grew up, you know how good that is. Next time I’m up there for a visit, I think I’ll take the kids and let them experience it too. We headed back home around 5:00 that afternoon. It was a quick trip for a sad occasion but it was still good to get to spend a little time with my family.

The 20th was A-Day in Tuscaloosa. A-Day has become quite an event here. It’s the day of the spring practice game for the Crimson Tide and it’s a lot like a real game day in town. People tailgate and there is a lot of stuff to do on campus that day. Since you don’t have to buy a ticket for A-Day, a lot of people come that don’t normally get to come to the games during the season. We decided to sell programs this year for a little extra money. We got there around 9:00 and walked around until we found a good spot to sell. We only sold 2 boxes, but we had fun anyway. Then we watched the White team battle the Crimson team followed by the team awards ceremony. We saw the players leave the stadium and get on the buses then we went home. It was a long day, but now we are all ready for football season to get here. ROLL TIDE!! The next day after church, we went to the Alabama-LSU baseball game. Kids get into the games free on Sundays and also get a free hot dog and coke. Who can pass that up on a beautiful spring day? One of Hunter’s friends had never been to a baseball game, so he went with us. Some more of our friends from school and church went to the game as well. We spent a great afternoon watching Alabama beat LSU in 10 innings. After the game, the kids ran the bases and got autographs from the team on the field.

On the 24th, Hunter was inducted into the National Senior Beta Club and Senior National Honor Society at North River Christian Academy. Since I was a member of both organizations in school, I know what an honor it is to be inducted into both of these. He was a member of both in Jr High as well. It was a proud mama moment watching that ceremony. I truly love those kids at that school and I was so very proud of each and every one of them for their accomplishments. Go Chargers!

We had planned on going to another UA baseball game on the 28th after church, but the weather was not very baseball-friendly that day so we went home instead. Our month ended on a quiet note, but I’m sure May will be anything but quiet with the end of the school year fast approaching. I don’t know about you, but we are ready for summer at the Jones house!