Missing Daddy on Father's Day

Oh Father's Day... just another reminder how much we miss our Daddy around here. Derrik is officially in Montana. He says it's gorgeous... overcast, slightly chilly, and raining today. He loves that kind of weather and has really missed it while in Arizona. They were put up in a hotel last night. He is currently at the field meeting the staff, having practice if the rain holds out, and meeting the host family he is assigned to. Their first game is tomorrow. I feel like I sent my husband off to college or something. I miss him terribly and am constantly worried about his well being. He of course is doing fine, but i'm a worrier at heart. I think he enjoyed his full nights sleep last night :) He also got a room to himself because they have an odd amount of players, and he is by far the oldest guy on the team. The team is full of guys that just got drafted from seniors just out of high school and the oldest being juniors in college. Seniority has got to pay off somewhere right?!

Ryder has asked quite a few times when Daddy is coming home. I keep trying to explain to him that he's never coming back to this home, and we are moving somewhere that Daddy isn't at in the best way possible. Thank God for Skype :) He already misses him and it's only day two without him!

I am so anxious to see how Derrik feels throwing in the days to come. I'm not sure how much I mentioned, but Derrik was really sick this week. After officiating a game on Sunday he came home absolutley exhausted from the heat. He was more pale then after his surgeries and that is saying a lot. I thought he was going to pass out. Wednesday he came home telling me he didn't feel good with the same symptoms. His body was on fire, and although our thermometer is broken I know he without a doubt had a high fever. The following day he was sent home from the field and in the middle of the night was so cold he couldn't stop shaking. It scared the crap out of me how much his body temperature was fluctuating. Needless to say he didn't do anything at the field on Friday either. I truly think he had heat exhaustion being out in the sun so much recently. So he hasn't done any baseball since his game last Tuesday. I'm hoping it was an amazing break that his body needed before he gets started in these games again :)

Derrik -

Thank you so much for all you do for us. I knew the day I married you that you would be an amazing husband, and hoped you would be just as amazing of a father. You have far surpassed anything I could ever ask for. Ryder absolutely worships the ground you walk on. I know Landon will follow suit in the years to come. I can tell already by the way he smiles at you when he sees you! Life is going to be sad with your absence these next two and a half months, but we will be sure to make up for it this fall. Enjoy doing your thing! You deserve to go be one of the guys on the team again! Enjoy it and know we are cheering you on every step of the way! We are your biggest fans!!!

We also want to wish a very Happy Father's Day to the other Father's in our life!

Happy Father's Day Mack, Papi, and Poppy!!!

And He's Back in the Game!!!!!!!!!!!!

Yeah you read that right!!! Derrik got a text yesterday afternoon, exactly one week before the second anniversary of his first Tommy John Surgery, saying that he would be heading with a team! As assumed, it was nothing we were expecting. I have said many times he would probably go to Low A Ball Dayton OH, High A Ball Bakersfield CA (this is the equivilent of the Sarasota team he played for... they have just relocted), or AA Ball Zebulon NC. NC is where he left off, and we knew that was a long shot. Anyhow... we always know we are completely thrown off every single time so we should have seen this as an option :) Mack, the pitching coordinator, thought he threw great on Tuesday. After a meeting between the two of them they both agreed he's ready to get the ball rolling. Typically rehab players start off at a lower level then they were working there way back up through the system at a fairly quick (hopefully!) pace. As our luck would have it, all of the teams we had thought he would go with are on an All-Star break this week. Mack wanted to get him out of here ASAP so that only left one option... Billings, Montana. Never mentioned that one huh? Billings, Montana is the High Rookie Ball team. We've always joked about how when Derrik signed with the Reds he got to skip this level. We always get the "You guys never went to Billings?! It's so gorgeous there!" So I am kind of jealous that Derrik gets to go check it out. This teams always starts up after the draft so the team is flying up there on Saturday morning. Derrik will fly on the team flight up there and (hopefully) make a few appearances. We have no clue how long he will be there. They will literally call him one day and tell him he's moving on the next day. I'll keep you posted!

Please keep us in your prayers. I was proud of myself for being happy before I cried yesterday. When I called my dad to tell him the news he was like "Are you crying?!" He was totally confused. YES this is what we've waited for for two years, BUT it also means Derrik has to go travel on his own while we live at my parents without him for two and a half months. I think that warrants a few tears. Also say a prayer for poor Derrik. He has been so sick the last two days with cold sweats and then so cold he can't stop shaking. It's pretty pitiful :( So hoping I don't get that when i'm on my own with the two boys!!!

So... Derrik leaves on a flight for Billings, Montana tomorrow morning. My mom flies in next Friday to help me finish the apartment off. My mom, the boys, the dog, and I will fly out next Sunday morning to Florida... See ya later Arizona!!!

One of a few reason we will miss AZ

The list of reasons we will miss Arizona is pretty short and sweet. I have to say #1 on the list though will be missing some of our best friends we have made out here. Luckily we will have spring traing to bring us back to them every year (if they don't move as well).

The boys waiting for their friends to get to our house this morning

The big kids were being too quiet for their own good....

Found them in bed together lol
The Little Cutie Pies
Logen and Landon

And we made an attempt at a picture of the four of them

How cute are they?

I told them to kiss their little brothers.

Immediately after this Ryder proceeding to reach his hand out to grab Page and kiss her... my camera of course messed up and missed it.

Enjoying their reward of Pez candy for taking pictures

Page-

I have loved watching you grow up sweetie! I couldn't have asked for a sweeter girl to be Ryder's best friend!!! We will miss you!!!

Tricia-

Thanks for always being there for me on my good days and bad ones out here :) I would have been lost without you and still plan on texting you each and every day!!! I'm going to miss you sooo much!!!

Sun Splash

With the idea of our family being separated in the near future for a couple months we've been trying to spend some quality time together. Derrik and I have been talking about taking Ryder to a water park since probably January. Of course it never happened, now we have a newborn, and soon we won't be together. On Friday we decided to wing it. We ignored the forty minute drive, the high temps, and the fact that we have a newborn and just went with it. I was so glad we did! We had such a great time. With the shaded areas and mister it wasn't hot at all so Landon was fine, and Ryder was in heaven. We took Landon into the Lazy River, and it was a huge fail. I got the worst Mom in the world award when I had the screaming tiny baby in the cold water. In the end it made him nice and cool, and we recovered quickly :)Ryder didn't shy away from anything and had the best time! The big huge water slides were his favorite. We took turns holding Landon relaxing in a lawn chair at the end of the slide and going down with Ryder. Great family time :)

Daddy and his boys

Our attempt at a family picture.... we need some serious help!

Landon sporting a swim suit for the first time

Relaxing on Mommy while Daddy and Ryder were on the water slides

The boys after they got off the water slide

"Did the boys ditch us again Mom?"

Enjoying some Daddy and Ryder time in the lazy river

Some video of Ryder in he kiddie section

Proceed With Caution

Kind of the phrase we are living by at the moment. More on that in a moment though....

Nope that isn't Derrik in the umpire gear...

He would be the one PITCHING on the mound in a game!!! WooHoo

Landon is doing A LOT of this lately! Trying hard to get some better photos of it.

I might need to do a full post on him before he's two months because he's a whole new baby since the one month post :)

There is another one :)

Four eyes looking at the lens... Check

Ryder smiling... Check

Landon not crying... Check
In PJs... Fail

Oh well... we'll take it :)

And our baseball update: I am SO sorry for not keeping everyone more updated. I didn't realize how long it had been. Judging by the texts i've been getting i'm clearly not keeping the blog updated with sufficient info :)Derrik pitched in games the last two weeks and has done great. He's been pitching well, had no elbow pain, and his velocity was up to 89 the other day (he's in the low 90s when healthy). His only issue at this point is he is having some shoulder tightness while he is warming up. It's causing him to have to warm up longer to get loose which isn't going to work with him coming out of the bull pen in games without much notice. I asked Derrik if he thinks it's something he can still play with. He said of course that he would just throw before the game some, play catch with outfield guys from the bull pen in between innings, and be loosened up about when he could get called to go into the game. This of course is his opinion, and we are hoping those making the call to get him back with a team will feel the same way.

The game plan... The pitching coordinator who decides where/when Derrik goes will be out here this week. He is watching Derrik pitch in games on Tuesday and Thursday. We have no way of predicting what will come of this, but he SHOULD be ready to get out of here immediately. Baseball is a crazy sport, with crazy decisions, and crazy politics. We have no control over how or when things go down and just have to roll with it when things happen. We refuse to truly plan anything because whenever we think we have a plan for any option that could possibly happen we can be guaranteed something completely different will happen that we didn't even think could ever happen (example: Tommy John surgery #2 last year). We are proceeding with caution. We have to be pro-active with the idea we could be moving this week. I am decluttering our stuff, packing stuff we don't use only a daily basis, making attempts to get our big furniture sold, getting ads up to sell Derrik's car, trying to use up any food we have in the house, and spend as much quality time together that we can. I hate I never have answers for anyone, but seriouly Derrik could come home one day this week with a plane ticket for the next day to head off with a team or we could be here for a while... I promise as soon as we get info on what is going on i'll post :)

Wordless Wednesday

Just so no one thinks i'm playing favorites around here..

Here are some photos I snapped of Ryder today