Crazy Weekend!

What a crazy weekend we had! It started out pretty normal with two ball games on Saturday. Helmut played basketball in the morning. His team started out slow, but started to get things back together around the 3rd period. By that time we were already behind by about ten points. The other team was quite a bit shorter than our team, but very aggressive (they fouled a ton). Their littlest player, who couldn’t have been much taller then Sam, fouled out! We rallied back and by the time we only had about two minutes left in the game, we were tied. We fouled the other team and he made the free throw, but stepped over the foul line. We got the ball back and dribbled down to our goal. We shoot, we miss, we shoot, we miss, we shoot, buzzer goes off, we miss. We get fouled on the last shot before the buzzer. This poor eleven year old has to shoot two free throws after the buzzer. He misses the first one and looks like he may get sick to his stomach. He puts the next one up and makes it! The crowd went wild (everyone but the other team and their parents that is). Helmut was so thrilled.

Next stop, Josh’s baseball game. They did great the first two innings. They were ahead by five runs. In the third inning we fell victim to some bad pitching on our team and really good pitching from the other team. They weren’t playing as well as they could have. It came down to the wire with time expired and we are last up to bat. Bases are loaded and we need one run. Josh comes up to bat. He swings, he misses, strike one. Ball one. Ball two. Perfect pitch, strike two. Ball three. Ball four. Josh starts to head back to the dugout thinking he has struck out. Once we turned him around he walked to first and our winning run came home.

Now the day gets interesting. Judy had been at a birthday party for an old friend that morning. On touring her new home, she noticed they had a pet corn snake. She mentioned to her friend that Little Helmut was really interested in corn snakes. At that point her friend, Darlene, begged her to take the snake off her hands. She had found it at her old house and had been raising it for six years. All her kids are grown and out of the house and she didn’t want the snake any longer. I wish I had a picture of the look on Helmut’s face when I told him about the snake. After Josh’s baseball game, we drove over to Darlene’s house to pick up the snake. It is an Albino Butter Corn Snake that Helmut named Argos (Greek word for white). I am actually thrilled. It makes Helmut so happy, stays in its cage and doesn’t make any noise. He is the perfect pet. Stay tuned for the first live rat feeding!