Bragg Family South

Unlike our last attempt to get Kenny to a T-ball game, last night was a beautiful night for a game. The field was still wet from the heavy soaking that had fallen during the previous week, but it was not a problem for the young T-ball team (they have enough issues just trying to figure the game out). First things first, though--picture day! Here's Kenny hamming it up for me--he had just posed for a picture for the professional photographer... Something I'm still getting used to is how many people make a living selling pictures to family members--just about any activity comes with formal poses, and they've taken his picture at least 3 times at school. Each time comes with a sales pitch to buy more. And then there's the pressure to buy an add in the local paper to publish the picture of your lil' slugger or ballerina or whatever. We're resisting as much as we can... Here's Kenny posing with his team: and Kenny playing second base: Sorry about the Yankee's ...

On Sunday, we went over to the going-away party for some friends of ours. Jeff Earl had been one of the first people we befriended when we moved to Monticello, and he seemed an almost permanent part of UAM and Monticello. Jeff's taken a new job in Texas, and will be leaving shortly. When we first arrived, there were some faculty, faculty kids, and grad students batting softballs around. Kenny was eager to join in, so they let him swing the bat at a few pitches. Kenny did remarkably well--he seemed better coordinated with a pitch than he does with the tee in T-ball. Kenny actually faired better with batting than he did just goofing around with a ball after dinner--more on that later. Today, Kenny was all excited because it was his first day of T-ball. However, as is typical in the South, the humidity was up, and the atmosphere was not too stable. Hope and I watched the skies and the radar during this afternoon, and sure enough, about 4:30 p.m. the clouds opened up. Kenny's game...

After a few days of cloudy, cool weather here in south Arkansas, the weather forecast finally called for a picnic-friendly weekend. So, we hopped in the van late this Saturday morning and drove over to Arkansas Post National Memorial. This small park is about an hour northeast of Monticello, and we've taken some of y'all here for a visit--it is the site of some of the earliest permanent European settlement in Arkansas, was controlled by the French, Spanish, British, and Americans, saw a brief skirmish during the American Revolution and a larger Civil War battle before fading into history (check out the National Park Service's website on Arkansas Post: http://www.nps.gov/arpo/ ). Today they were hosting some memorial service for veterans of foreign wars and some Revolutionary War-era reenactors, so we figured we'd take the kids out on a bit of a history lesson. We joined scores of others at this year's event just in time to see the end of the memorial ceremony (just ...

Leila says hi! Let me apologize in advance for these pictures--I took them with the camera on my cell phone, and they're somewhat out of focus... I returned last Thursday from my most recent trip up north. This was primarily a business trip, with a good dose of Bragg Family North thrown in... I had a meeting in Madison, Wisconsin, and another in West Lafayette, Indiana, to attend during this week. So, I flew to Madison and stayed with my sister Laurie and her husband Mark. After an uneventful plane ride, I arrived Friday evening. I went to Morel's to wait for Laurie to finish work that evening, and we chatted for a little while before turning in. We had to get a good night's sleep, because we were traveling to sister Lisa's home the next day (about 3 hours away) to visit her and her VERY recently expanded brood. Leila's t-shirt is courtesy of Lulu, of course! Anyhow, brother John joined us Saturday morning, and we drove to Lisa and Jon's home in Colfax...