Pledge of Allegiance

So, we learned that Triton learned the Pledge of Allegiance at school. They also have another verse at the end now! With liberty and justice for all is how I and everyone else learned the ending. However this is Triton's version. With liberty and justice for all, Please sit down. Isn't that the cutest thing ever? The teacher must tell all the children to sit down and he takes that as the close of the pledge. I thought it was just cute as could be. Quinn has been standing on her own by the couch and toys and toy boxes for like a month now. She has been trying to take a step for the past two weeks and with her wobbly legs she could only muster one step or two then fall down on her behind. These past few days she is walking from object to object with only a few steps here and there, but yesterday she walked from the chair on one side of the living room to the couch that I was sitting on. It is only like 4 feet from that chair to the couch but she did it without falling and should be walking by her first birthday. I was worried that she might not be walking by her first birthday, but that shouldn't be an issue at all now. She like Triton didn't crawl for a long time, but it seemed with both of them that crawling just wasn't going to cut it. Triton starting crawling just around 7 months and was taking his first steps at around 9 months. Quinn took longer to crawl but just like Triton only a couple months later and those first steps have been taken. It is so funny to see her follow her brother around and pester him. Funny thing though is if she goes off on her own, then he follows her. He follows her to take toys from her and also to make sure that she doesn't get into his stuff, but it is good to see they play with one another at such a young age. I wondered if he would just be bored with her and not include her in his daily routines. He has a tent setup in the front room, just one of them little tents that have a tube coming out of it, just basically a play fort thing. He lets her play in that with him, and lately he has been getting rougher and rougher with her, but that is when he gets sent to his room. He doesn't understand that she isn't as tough as he is yet. He has been getting more and more whiny. So funny Monday night he was being a terd not listening to us at all. We were at Lowes and he was running off, so when we left I told him when we got home that he was going straight to his room. He threw a fit of course when I made him go to his room. He came down a bit later and did something again that forced me to send him to his room. On his was up the stairs, he was crying and screaming "not again"! So funny, heartbreaking, but funny nonetheless.

Triton's First School Picture

I guess they even try to get money from the preschoolers, they might get some from us now. I was wondering how Triton would be in front of a camera without his mom or dad there. Turns out he must be a pretty good boy away from home, he doesn't have red eyes from crying or anything. I was worried that he might be too shy or have red eyes from crying.

Bowling and Boring Stuff As My Mom Would Say

If some of you don't know I used to be one of the city's best bowlers. I was averaging 213 and was just going to get better from there. I had no aspirations of going pro, but I did want to compete with the best. I loved the competition and trying to beat the city's/state's best. One day I woke up and couldn't throw/roll a bowling ball properly anymore. My average dropped from a 213 to a 175!
I tried to get help over the years from friends who were the city's best of course and they couldn't get me out of my funk. I would have a bit of success here and there, even got my average over a 200 again one year, but that was at a real easy bowling alley and even morons who throw the ball like an idiot could average a 200 or more at the house. Even though I was averaging that high one year I knew that I wasn't happy with my bowling game at all, there was no confidence and I didn't like playing. I told everyone that if I didn't figure something out this year that I was probably going to quit bowling. I said that because it was true and I wasn't enjoying the game anymore, but it was to also light a fire under my butt and force me to grow a brain. The year started out horrible and I wasn't even averaging yearbook of 184. I knew it was going to be my last year of bowling!
A friend of mine wanted me to sub on his league on a Thursday night which is a scratch league. Scratch leagues have no handicap and I told him that I sucked, but he still wanted me to sub. I showed and noticed that his team was bowling Craig Goodwin's team. Craig has been one of the city's best bowlers for thirty years or more. I told him before we started that if he could watch me and see what I was doing wrong to please help me. In the middle of the second game he pulled me aside and told me something that everyone for the past 7 or 8 years had told me. To follow through to my target. It must have turned on a light or something because for the past three months I have probably averaged a 205 or higher. The game is getting fun again and each week I am getting better and better with my release. I struggle and lapse from time to time, but I am at least on the mend and won't have to quit playing altogether. My goal next year is to get my average back over a 200, it might be a 193 now and I don't have enough games left this year to get it over 200. The difference between averaging 200 next year and that one year about 5 years ago is the face that I will be bowling at the hardest house in the city and I have more confidence. I can move on any part of the lane and get the ball to do what I want, whereas 5 years ago I was throwing one line and because of the house I was able to score. So even though you all helped me and told me the same thing Craig did, I have to give a special thanks to him.
Poker is going good too, I have a goal to win $1000 this year playing live and online poker together. I started the year with $4.58 online, and I have gotten that up over $50. So, I am far from the goal online, but obviously it is hard to win a lot of money if you don't have a lot of money to play with. But getting that $4 up over $50 is a feat in itself. As far as live games I am doing good, but I only play at the smallest game and it is pretty hard to lose at a game where 3 to 4 people go and lose $20 every week. I have won a bit over $130 there and I have missed a couple of weeks or I don't get to play very long because I have to go to work at 11:00pm, so I don't get to win as much as I might if I didn't have to work. So, I am close to $200 on the year and once I get my online money up a bit more then I can move up in stakes and win even more. Or possibly lose it, but it isn't money that I deposited I am still playing with the houses money and have been for the past 7 years. I am playing a live tournament this weekend, if I win I profit probably $100, but lose $20 if I don't place in the top 3 out of nine people. That $100 would make it easier to get close to that goal of $1,000. This game is once a month, so if I cash in half and win one I will have positive equity for sure. In that game I should cash half of the time and win it at least once. I played in it once and took third which gave me $30, but only a profit of $10. A profit is profit though. With the snow melting and the golf courses opening though I am going to have less and less time to play poker so who knows about that grand goal?

Quick One

This last weekend we went to the wedding of Sheri's sister, Crystal. This is what we dressed Quinn in for the occasion. She is getting cuter and cuter, just needs to grow her hair out so we can do something with it besides hide it under bows all the time.