B-Rod

Benson, AKA B-Rod, has taken to this baseball thing. It must come from his mom, as I do not have any skill in this area, word has it his grandpa Hinze was quite a player... I however, will watch any sport; I am good at watching baseball.

B-Rod was up 3 times today: First time, he swung and hit a roper to the right center fence for a double, I think he drove in two runs. However he has a habit of letting go of the bat emphatically, some folks might call it throwing, and it hit the ump in the leg... He was not too happy, and per league rules B-Rod got a warning, Next time he does it he's out the ump said...

Second time: he got a little behind in the count but finally he connected, it went about three feet, so essentially it was a bunt. (He did not throw the bat.) He out ran the throw to first and drove in another run. On the next hit he ran home safely, from first. By the time he rounded third he was really moving and made the catcher think twice about standing in front of home, (not to brag but he is about 180, 5' 8 ish and runs a 5.5 40). Nice bit of base running, he gets his cat like reflexes and speed from me I am sure.

Third time: time has run out for the game, they only have 90 min games, the score is tied, (BTW we have not won a game yet this year) and the bases are loaded with one out. The count is 2-1, Benson gets his pitch and puts it into right field, and scores three runs, the team is going nuts. We won our first game. It was great, the players are lining up on the base lines to say well done to the other team, then the coach on the other team yells "didn't he already have a warning"? and the Ump, who had moved to the first base line, called Benson out for throwing the bat. Nobody on our team saw it, I am not even sure if the ump saw it, but the other coach and the opposing fans did, of course.

The next batter came up and he stuck out swinging and trying, poor guy was in a tough spot.

Benson was mad, to say the least, but he is OK. Not so sure about Aunt Tara, she is still mad. B and I had a long talk about it on the way home, and the coach called him after the game and told him it was OK, and he is really proud of him, and that they were in a position to win because of him. Very classy guy.

Benson is making improvements every game, and has become an emotional and genuine leader on the team. What a guy. I love this game, being a level tempered parent is tough!

Natalie played her first volleyball game today. This is the first time she has played on a sports team. When she showed the least bit of interest, of course her mom jumped on that! She is doing great and we are so proud of her! She had some great bumps today!

Take me out to the ball game...

The kids make friends everywhere they go! Here are the girls with sisters of other ball players(the two at the far left are mine) and Xander was taking a break from his play mates to have a sip of his shake. They are good to go and "support". When it warms up around here they may not be as anxious to come. For now we are grateful for the family time.

Under Pressure!

The Coaches wanted to see Benson pitch. He is quite intimidating up there on that mound! You always hear people in the stand say things like, "Whoa! That's a big 12 year old!" or, "He's 12?" Yep! Sure enough! But he will be 13 in a couple of weeks. Anyway, his pitching debut was good! He got a "K" (strikeout). He didn't like it much though. He thought it was too much pressure! He is loving baseball however! Go B!

My incredibly talented brother-in-law, Eric Devericks, created this super cute artwork for our schools carnival t-shirt. We have sold almost twice as many as last year because everyone loves it so much! Here Xander is modeling for you! What you can't see are his Superman boxer briefs. I was sick that day and so we both stayed on our jammies!

Singing around the Piano

So, Chrissta and some friends got together just to "sing around the piano". We sang The Carpenters, The Beatles, The Sound of Music. That my friends, is good for the soul! I would highly reccomend it!

The Hinze Manly Men!

And here are the Hinze guys! We took some photos in the yard after church. The only time any of us look very photographic. Are they not the best looking bunch of men you have seen in a long time?

My Ladies..

so here is a dark pic of my ladies after church today. We are still trying to get this all figured out. (If you click on the picture you can see the full size....

Slugger here, also known as Benson, hit a double and a triple in his game yesterday. If it weren't for the 30mph winds the double would have been clean over the fence.

Okay my turn!

Even though I will not be nearly as witty as Josh or use words that the slighlty less educated will have to look up on dictionary.com, I will attempt to inform the viewers (all three of them) about the life and times of the "Hinze 6". I now have a camera that works, thanks to the afor mentioned and so will add some photos to this in the next 12-24 hours. But for now, thanks for coming and return often!

Welcome to our adventures in Blogging

Due to enormous external pressure, and despite Luddite traditions we are attempting to jump into modern times and try to blog, no guarantee that it will be updated often as we still are not sure how to get our Polaroids posted. Needless to say here we go...