Well?

I entered last weeks tournament because I wanted to win and get enough money to get myself a new bag for my clubs. I accomplished that goal, somewhat! The tournament was a two day event and after day one I was three behind the leader. I had a very good day of golf and shot an 80 at a par 72 course. It is good for me and pretty good for my flight. There was another gentleman that shot a 77? I was paired up with him and three other guys on the second day. Some guy shot an 82 and another an 84. I figured that I would only have to beat the one guy that shot a 77. I have no idea how he shot a 77 because he wasn't that good. I ended up beating him by one stroke on the second day (even though I did horrible on day 2) and the guy that shot an 82 the first day shot a 75 on the second day! He must have been sandbagging before the tournament because he said that the 82 he shot on day one was the first time this year that he had shot under 90 all year! Right....... And then you conveniently shoot a 75 to break 80 the very next day! Okay if you feel good about sand bagging then so be it. So, he won first place Gross which means before handicap is added in. I tied for first in the Net portion which is obviously after handicap is added in. I won the above trophy and $195 credit for the pro shop. The bag that I wanted was $199 so I wasn't too mad about paying the extra and the tax on top because the tournament was only $35.00. That is if I had to pay extra, when I went in to get the bag, the nice gentleman behind the desk said that we would just call it even. So I didn't have to pay the extra, what a nice guy right? I was very happy with my prize and with the results, but I wasn't happy with my golf on day two. I shot an 84 on day two. I guess I can't complain since I got what I wanted that being the new golf bag.

Triton's birthday was on the 22nd and we had a little party for him at Sheri's mom's. Pretty much everyone else had plans already or were out of town so his party was little this year. This is him getting ready to blow out the candles.

Big boy eating his cake, he must have liked it because he ate most of that piece you see here. What a cute boy he is.

Here is the little chubby cheeked boy opening presents. He is still cute even with cake crumbs all over his face.

Baby girl oblivious to what is going on around takes a little nap.

We got Triton a bike for his birthday but the one that he decided he wanted wasn't at the store so we are waiting for it to be delivered. He had a chance to go home with one from the store but he liked others better just from their small picture. Heck even now days if I have a chance to leave the store with something or wait for an order I leave the store with it! What a little "Big" boy he is to have the patience to wait. Happy Birthday Triton.

Probably Boring

Golf.
I will label each topic so my mom can skip over the boring ones. Okay, so we know that I have been struggling with golf all year. I have tried so many new things in the past two to four years I don't even know where to begin. You might simply say take a lesson! The club pros should be able to help him. Well, my main issue has always bean hitting a wood whether it be the driver or three wood. I have taken lessons and I wasn't able to get the kind of help I wanted. I was told to change my grip, I thought that worked and it did help a bit, I am kind of using that old grip and the new one (new being 2 years). When taking lessons the club pros that I worked with all said that I had a good swing and would try to get me to think of things that would enable me to keep my own swing yet score better. I knew that something wasn't right with my back swing and nobody would address that issue even if I told them that was what I thought was my main concern. They said, no it is fine you don't have to worry about that.
A couple of weeks ago I was mega pissed again and was thinking of taking yet another lesson from someone else this time. I had to skip one of the biggest tournaments of the year because I had no confidence. I am always in the yard swinging a club and hitting plastic or foam golf balls while Triton is hitting real golf balls. He is getting way good by the way, you would not want to stand in front of him while he is hitting even if you were 20 yards ahead of him. If he hit you it would hurt for sure. So, we are out in the yard and I am trying anything and everything to get my club head to remain square at impact. I would think I would have something and try it on the course and it wouldn't work. This has happened what seems like a million times in the past 4 years. Before Sheri went back to work from being on maternity leave I was able to golf early in the mornings on my days off. 3 weeks ago I had a new thought process. It is to make sure that not only is the club head lined up and address but that my shoulders are as well. Of course the pros have told me this, but with my swing I wasn't able to stay lined up with either because of my swing plane. I threw on another thought process and that was to hit down on the ball. I thought that I had always been doing this but I actually wasn't because the pros tell you to swing through the ball. Swinging through the ball is what was causing me to duck hook the ball. A duck hook is horrible, it is when the ball takes off and just does almost a U turn in the air and flies left. The most distance I have had when duck hooking the ball is maybe 200 yards. My normal drives were anywhere from 100 to 200 yards and of course always left. So, I was lining up the driver, lining up my shoulders and now hitting down on the ball. This was starting to work a bit, but once I added in another thought it seemed to all come together. That was to take the club up and to the outside in the back swing. I had always been told to keep the club head low and to extend in the back swing. This caused me to come over the top with the club. I have three thoughts that I tell myself while setting up to the ball now. They are line, back, down. Line is for line up, back is for bringing the club back instead of under, and down is simply hitting down on the ball.
This is only about a week and a half in mind you, but in my last three rounds of golf I have only had one drive that was a bit of a duck hook. I am calling it my new swing now, but since these last three rounds with the new swing I probably haven't had a drive under 250 yards, unless it was into the wind. 250 yards isn't special by any means, but it is when your usual shot is 50 - 100 yards behind that. These drives are in the middle or just off into the rough as well. Whereas before they would be way left and in the woods or deep deep rough. So of course I figure out something a week after a big tournament. I was upset that I missed it, but thinking on it now I might not have won my division because I was still tinkering. My last round of golf was on a cold windy day and I was only 8 over par. I was still tinkering with it on the front 9 but it all seemed to come together on the last 8 holes. I was 7 over par after triple bogeying ten. Then from hole 11 to 18 I was only one over and that last bogey was a three putt from 20 feet, pretty dumb. So, there is a tournament this weekend at a course that I hate, but I am expecting to win. If I can play half of the holes the way that I finished this last weekend then I will win first place easily. I am expecting to win my division with no problems. This is a 2 day tournament so if I can have 18 really good holes then it is mine for the taking. My confidence it at an all time high. So, I will hopefully start fulfilling some of them golf goals that I had made for myself at the beginning of the year. These goals were if you didn't read them in a previous blog to
Drop to a 6.5 handicap.
Score 10 or more eagles.
Shoot par at least 5 times.
Never allow Henry to win.
Now Henry has beaten me a few times this year, but I didn't have the swing that I wanted. He shouldn't beat me ever again this year and I will keep posted about that. I will still be happy if he doesn't beat me again because this new swing is great. 6.5 handicap, wow I was really optimistic huh? Right now it is at a 14.9 and if I drop to an 8 by the end of this year I will be happy so maybe that goal of 6.5 can be raised to an 8? Shoot par 5 times this year is a lofty one too, but if I can start making long putts and keep the same swing I had this last weekend then that one could happen no problem. 10 or more eagles? That one is probably not going to happen, but I will sure try. I have had more eagle opportunities this year than ever, I just can't make a long putt like I said. I am loving the new putter and trying out a new swing for the putter as well. It has helped me too, so everything is coming together and I am hoping to post a new blog Sunday night telling everyone that I did win the tournament like I knew I was going to.

Poker.
I had given up poker for a couple of months and didn't really miss it at all. I would still watch new poker programs on the television, but that was about it. I didn't play didn't really want to. There wasn't the normal live game either or I probably would have played even though I hated the game because the people are nice and it is fun most of the time. 4 weeks ago the game started back up and I had a chance to go on my day off. I took home the most money that night and was able to go the next two weeks after that and I haven't lost yet. I haven't won much have you, but not losing for me is great because I hate to say have bad luck. I would like to blame it all on luck, but I can see that taking a break from the game a lot of it was my attitude and the way I was playing. I decided to have my uncle transfer my money back to me on the websites that I had told him I was just giving to him. I had transferred somewhere around $75 on two websites. He had kept track of what I gave him and he transferred $27.70 back to me on pokerstars and $46.00 back to me on Fulltilt. That $46 was actually on Doylesroom, but he wasn't allowed to transfer on that site for some reason. I didn't mind because Fulltilt has this new style of poker that is fun and fast. So, since deciding to start playing poker again I haven't lost one session. I have made over $87 in 10 sessions. Over $50 of that is from playing a live game not online. My goal online is to win $1.00 per session for my first 30 times. It should be easy since after only 7 times I am up over $33.00. I think I am playing better and having a little better luck. I am not having the urge to play as much after taking that long break, but that is a good thing.

QT

Quinn is doing good, I guess these last 4 days Quinn has slept pretty good. Maybe it was just after her worst night with me that she decided to start sleeping better. Last weekend I had the luxury of staying up with her while Sheri slept. I had been talking to my mom on the phone for about an hour and she knew that I was tired from sleep deprivation, but she wouldn't believe that Quinn would keep me up for at least another 2 or 3 hours. I got off the phone with my mom at about 9:30 and figured Quinn might let me sleep at 11:30 or midnight. This little darling angel of mine decided to have her most pissy night ever. She wouldn't sleep for more than 15 minutes even though I was doing everything I could think of to assist her. I also had a tee time to get of for at 5:30. She finally fell asleep at 2:00am I got up at 5:00 when she made a noise and I made Sheri take over and I still went golfing. I was not happy with baby girl that night I tell you what because she was basically awake from 6:30 pm to 2:00am with only them little 15 minute power naps. She wasn't even happy after these little naps either, she would wake up so fussy and angry! I think that she had bad gas. I guess one day this last week she allowed Sheri to sleep from 10:00pm to almost 4:00am or just after? I think that she has been sleeping good for Sheri but Sheri herself can't catch a break because Triton has been a sick boy for the past 3 nights. Maybe Quinn just knows that Triton is keeping mom up so she doesn't have to? Poor Triton he is the saddest boy when he is sick.
About 5 days ago Sheri said that Triton decided to get up for the day at about 7:00 or 7:30. He usually sleeps at least until 8:30 and sometimes 9:30. I was watching Triton that day and I saw him laying over by his TV watching cartoons. I asked him a question and he didn't move. I decided to walk over and see if he was alive. He was sleeping in the middle of the day? We haven't made him take a nap since Quinn's birth and since he got up early that day I thought he was just tired. It must have been more than that because Sheri said that he wanted to go to bed before 8:00 that night. She took him up to bed and he slept the whole night. He got up even earlier that next day and was a big sluggish here and there, but I guess that following night he threw up in his bed and has been sick ever since. We might give it another day or two before we take him to the doctor. Poor boy!

Who's Your Daddy?

Here is little Quinn fast asleep, during the day of course! When taking care of her and seeing her in different moods I have noticed that she resembles Gary Sinise? This is kind of weird because I play cards with Gary Sinise's father from time to time. I hadn't seen the old timer in a while because there hasn't been a game in some time. This last week he showed up and I was pullling into the drive when he was exiting his vehicle. I ran to catch up with him to tell him the news about the new arrival to my family and shared my insight on how much Quinn from time to time looks like his son. Without missing a beat he informed me that Gary hadn't been in town for years. It flew over my head at first because he is a nice guy and I didn't figure him as a prankster. I finally caught on to the fact that he was saying that there was no way that Gary could be the father! Hahaha!

A quick pic of little Triton at the golf course.

Quinn vs Triton

Round one obviously goes to Quinn! Okay so this wasn't caused by baby girl. A couple of weeks ago Triton was outside terrorizing the cats. I could care less if he is giving the cats a hard time but on this day he was doing a no no. We were outside in the yard and I was trying to figure out the dumb golf swing and I turn around and see that Triton is in the flower garden. That is a big no no by itself however he was also throwing the rocks that are in the garden at the cats. I told him to get his butt out of there in a stern voice and he turned and ran right through a couple of hanging branches from the rose bush. He didn't really cry except when I held him still to pull a thorn that was barely stuck on his face under his eye. I knew that he didn't know that his face was bleeding and we played outside for some time after that. We came inside and I decided to show him his face in the mirror to see if he would freak like I suspected. He didn't freak out totally but you could tell that he was upset and thought that he was in instant pain after seeing his scratches. I felt bad for him after it happened but he is fine and all healed up now.
Here are a few pictures of baby girl. She is doing well except she thinks that nap time is when we are awake and awake time is when we need to sleep. She is pretty sick right now too. She has caught a cold and is mega stuffy. I have never heard a baby that has so much mucus and boogers blocking airways. Poor Quinn.

Golf and Stuff

The weekend after Quinn was born Henry and I played in a golf tournament. It was a two day doubles tournament held at a local course in town. It is at a course that I can't stand because a round of golf at this course is at least going to take 5 hours! That is horrible! I might get to that later, but hopefully not.
The first day of the tournament was a scramble format, which means that you and your partner tee off and then both of you play from the same spot after that. So, if I were to drive the ball into the trees or out of bounds and Henry drove his ball in the middle of the fairway we would obviously play from his location and not worry about my drive. That is actually what happened most of the day too. The weather was horrible, winds were probably 20-30 miles an hour, it snowed a bit here and there and it was pretty dang cold. Henry and I knew that we would have an advantage golfing in those conditions because we always golf in that poor weather anyway. When others are in their homes hiding and waiting for warmer weather to golf in Henry and I are out on the course freezing our butts off. That was a main reason that I agreed to golf with him. He has been golfing pretty good this year so far. He didn't disappoint on day one either. I bailed him out only a few times, but either than that he held me up. We had a 4 shot lead going into the final day.
Day two wasn't much better as far as the weather but it was about 10 degrees warmer. Still pretty windy and again we had a snow flurry or two. There were three teams that shot a 2 over score of 74 on day one and we had a great day of golf and came in with the lead of a 2 under 70. We knew that we would be paired up with one of the teams that were tied for second. I love pressure and competition. I figured that the group we would be paired up with would be better than us and probably stuck up. I can't stand people that think they are better than others and I treat them the same way that they probably treat everyone. To begin the day I could tell that one of the guys was this way and wasn't sure about his partner. This second day of golf was a best ball format. This means that both people play their own balls during the entire hole. Thus if I score a 6 on a hole and Henry scores a 4 we would take the 4 and again my score wouldn't matter. We extended our lead on this team by one on the very first hole because Henry and I both parred and both of them bogeyed. The second hole I had an eagle putt and so did the other guy who was the stuck up one on their team. Henry drained a 50 footer from off the green for birdie and gave me a go ahead and make sure I get my eagle putt to the hole. I missed the eagle and birdied the hole as well. This other guy on their team missed his eagle putt as well. We kept extending our lead on these guys all day and they only beat us 1 hole out of 18. The one guy that I wasn't sure if he was going to be stuck up ended up being an alright fellow, his partner the one that I sensed thought he was better than us seemed to keep that demeanor the whole day even though we kicked his butt. After hole 16 we were even par on the day and I felt that we had the tournament in the bag. We ended up bogeying the last two holes to shoot a 74 and a total score of 144. We get back to the clubhouse and see that there isn't another team that was in our flight that was under 150. There was however a few scores that hadn't been posted yet. Come to find out that one of the other teams that was tied for second to begin the day shot a 69 to go along with their 74 and beat us 143 to 144. It seemed a little fishy that their score wasn't posted until our score was figured? We won credit in the pro shop and only lost out on $50 a piece for not getting first and maybe a trophy. I found out as well that after this tournament was over that one of the gentleman on the winning team was re-rated, which means that during tournaments his score is substantially better than that of his scores that he is posting to establish a handicap, so he isn't allowed to golf in that same flight anymore. It is basically a way to say that he is a sand bagger and cheats to win. He still gets this win and we lose out on a tournament that we should have won so who cares right? Maybe not! It is nice to know that Henry and I deserved first even though we didn't win. True we could have parred the last two holes and still won, but we know that we didn't cheat like their team did.
Henry golfed really great like I mentioned he held me up most of the time. After we teed off on a short par 3 on hole 16 Henry said that he was shaking. It wasn't extremely cold and he isn't one to shiver because of cold anyway so I asked him why? He said that he couldn't handle the pressure like I could and he was nervous. He must have tapped into something to golf as good as he did because it was the best I have ever seen him golf. In the past I mentioned that he is so lucky it isn't even funny. That weekend he didn't really have any lucky bounces or anything like that. He just golfed good and also took home money for closest to the pin and a couple of other extra money pots. I shot an 84 on day two and he shot an 80 and this is on a par 72 course. We golfed this last weekend a week after the tournament at an easier course and he shot over 100! I told everyone that I was glad he held it together for the tournament and won me some money! I am getting a new putter with the money that I won, it supposedly has been ordered and I can't wait to have it in my bag. It is so pretty that I might have to sleep next to it a few nights to begin with to let it know that it has a new loving home! I need a new driver but I can't stand woods so it was basically get a new driver or a new putter. I figured that 70 percent of the game is putting anyway so I went with the putter. I need a new bag as well but I have wanted this style of putter forever. A new bag and driver will have to hold on until I can first of all hit a wood with some consistency and win more money in another tournament to get a new bag and a new driver.
This is my new putter!!


Okay enough golf. Quinn is doing great and a little less than a week after being born she had her first doctor's visit. She had already gained 6 ounces and the doctor said that is basically unheard of. She isn't a good sleeper at night! During the day she sleeps pretty good and even with the television blaring she sleeps right though it. At night when it is quiet is when she wakes up tossing and turning! It is frustrating and Sheri is having a hard time with it. I just came back to work tonight and Sheri is dreading being home alone for so long with no back up parent to help at night. I hope and pray that she will do fine and I will help her out a ton on the nights that I don't work. Quinn had better sleep through the night before Triton did that is for sure! We tended to him throughout just about every night for 9 months. He was out first and of course we were worried with any little noise that he made so we would jump at his every whimper. We finally tired of it and decided to let him cry himself back to sleep one night and since then he has been a great sleeper. I am thinking that Quinn isn't going to get the same treatment, but for right now with her being so small and needing eat every 4 hours we can hold out for awhile.

Wow

So, I know that I mentioned that my cousin Josh was having a baby as well. They were due three weeks after Quinn. They moved back into town a little over a month ago and were to have their third visit with the girly doctor on the day that Quinn was born. They decided to go to the same doctor that Sheri goes to, but they hadn't met her yet because she had been busy with probably deliveries and what not. This day Josh blamed us for not being able to meet her because she was helping with Sheri's delivery. I thought that they might be able to meet her after the delivery but Josh and Kim didn't get to the hospital until after the birth and Sheri's doctor had already left. I informed Sheri's doctor that she was going to be delivering my cousin's baby in a couple of weeks and we would see her then. I told her that they had just moved here and she hasn't met them yet, but that the baby was coming soon.



I was driving home the night that Quinn was born to put Triton to bed and hopefully myself (I slept like crap even though I was awake over 24 hours). On the way home I was thinking that it was going to suck if I went back to work and Josh and Kim had their baby, because I wouldn't be able to be there. We had joked about how it would have been cool to have them on the same day because Josh and I are like brother's. He lived with us when his father was living with my mom. Shalee his sister was obviously living with us too and in fact lives with us now. So, he and I are very close and have shared many beds and baths together. When we were younger that is, it wasn't like the other day okay! We obviously knew that Kim wasn't going to have her baby on the same day because she wasn't due for almost three more weeks.



The next morning after trying to catch up on sleep I was getting Triton ready to go back to the hospital to see his mom and his new sister when Josh text me. His text read, heading to the hospital Kim is in labor. I replied with a one word text saying "Liar". He said that he was serious and that they were almost to the hospital already. I guess she had been having contractions since they went to bed and really bad ones since 4 am. They got to the hospital just before ten and she was so far along that she couldn't even get an epidural. She was in a lot of pain and I felt bad because Sheri wasn't even in nearly the same boat as far as pain was concerned. The baby was born just before 11:00am. His name is Parker and here is Quinn and Parker. Only one day apart but we will probably be able to have combined birthday parties throughout the years. I hope that Quinn and Parker can be as close as Josh and I have been our whole lives. I was so happy that I was able to be there and not at work. I love you Josh and Kim. It was so cool that we were able to go through this basically together.

Quinn is obviously on the left and Parker on the right. It was kind of funny when we were discussing names that we were thinking of naming Quinn with Josh and Kim because Parker was on of the names that Sheri liked back in the day. Josh said that Sheri had to negate that one from our list because it was theirs and they were sure on that. I guess they were because that is little Parker now.

Josh is a proud first time daddy. Kim is now a mother of three and of course Josh thinks of her two girls as his own. This is her first boy and Josh is a man having a boy as his first child. Three generations and six children all of the people on my maternal side of the family have had a boy as their first child. I am proud of Josh in that sense, but of course that has nothing really to do with how manly a man is or isn't.

Baby Q is here

Her name is Quinn as most of you already know. She was born today and weighed 7lbs 14 ounces. She is 20 and a half inches long and has the longest feet. Triton had short little fat feet, probably why he was able to walk at 9 months. Quinn might not walk until she is 5 with her huge feet. They are long and skinny, amazing how different she already is from her brother. Here is just a couple of pics before I slip into a coma after this long day.

Triton visits with his new sister.