What was I thinking???

This is the first of many very busy weekends in the spring. Tyler and Foster open up their soccer seasons in the morning. Foster at 9am at the Irmo YMCA and Tyler opens his season at 11:30 at the Lexington YMCA. Tyler also has a baseball tournament on his travel team, the Lake Murray Titans, this weekend. Most recent count: Tyler is on two baseball teams and one soccer team. Foster is on a soccer team and Caroline is still doing her dance. We just took some great pictures of the kids...I'll try to get them up soon as well as some pics of this weekend.

All that know me already know this but...I had a kidney stone back in January: it was the worst personal illness I have ever encountered in my life time...not a good time.

Annabelle Butcher is looking to be coming home from Charleston early next week. Let's all continue to keep her and the entire Butcher family in our prayers!

Slacker

Yes...I know it has been 4 months since my last post and yes we have tons of pictures...I'm not even going to stress about trying to update all those pictures...I have posted some at www.myspace.com/caseyestridge if you really want to see some. I'll try to do a better job of updating in the future.

Please continue to pray for Annabelle Butcher, she and her family are all still in Charleston. There's a lot of information there to take in...http://babygirlbutcher.blogspot.com/

Another baby to keep in our prayers is Mac and Michelle Estridge's baby boy. He has been diagnosed with a heart problem and the doctors are waiting for him to gain some size before they perform their procedure.

Foster finally got himself a haircut! He's such a handsome little lad.

Until next time...Adios!

Thoughts and Prayers requested for The Butcher Family

Scott, Rebecca and their son Wyatt Butcher are facing a huge challenge. They are expecting a baby girl...here is an excerpt from their blog:

Friday, August 24, 2007

August 23, 2007
Today our baby girl was diagnosed with Hypoplastic Left Heart Syndrome. We are a little over 16 weeks pregnant with her. HLHS is a very serious and fatal congenital heart disease. It must be treated at birth. As we visited the pediatric cardiologist (Dr. Shuler), we learned the severity of it. We were given three choices as to our baby's future: 1- heart transplant upon baby's birth 2-3-Stage Surgical prodcedures (first surgery within first week of life, second surgery at 4-6 months of life, and third surgery between 2-4 years old), 3- the option of terminating the pregnancy. We have chosen to carry the child that God has given us and have the 3-Stage Surgical procedures done. We never thought that we would have to make a decision anything like that one. We have been blessed with a healthy 3 year old son and expected this baby to be the same. We are dealing with a wealth of emotions and taking each hour as it comes. We know that the Lord has performed at least one miracle in this type of situation in the past and are asking Him to reveal His power to us by healing our daughter's heart. Prayerfully, the surgeries will not be necessary. Please join us in praying for a miracle in our baby's heart. We return to the pediatric cardiologist in three weeks and will continue updating the blog. We are being carried on the wings of prayer and know our daughter will be healed!


Well, there it is...those of us (myself included) think things are not so great...We have 3 tremendously healthy children; yes they are a handful but may never face near the challenges that 'BabyGirlButcher' will face in the first few months of her life! Again, keep them in your prayers! The link to the Butcher's blog is: http://babygirlbutcher.blogspot.com/





Now, just a very quick update on the Estridge 5. As you notice, I have not updated any pictures or messages in recent weeks! This new camera we have has memory enough to hold like 1 billion pictures and I haven't bothered to upload them to our home computer. I know that is a lame excuse but that along with the start of school has kept us busy.

I hope to have some pictures about some current events in the near future.

I'm 39 today and dad turns 59 Sunday, the 14th.

Go Gamecocks!

A Day With Thomas!

This was our weekend in North Carolina. We spent all day Saturday in Cherokee NC and as you can see, we splashed around in the creeks in there for the better part of our entertainment. We ended up at the outdoor drama titled "Unto these Hills". The drama depicted the history of the Cherokee tribe; I know more about the Cherokee nation than I did before I arrived, that's for certain. It rained on us at the show but we did enjoy it in spite of that.

Next, you see a group of photos from our "Day Out with Thomas" in Dillsboro NC which is only 15 minutes away from Cherokee. You see Foster above in two different outfits. I insisted he have this engineer baseball jersey and Tyler insisted that he have his engineer hat. Foster was out of his mind over Thomas. We took a ride on the train, played in bubbles, pet the goats, ate, bought Thomas gear and trains, whew, I'm tired typing it. All the kids had a great time but as we expected Foster was very happy and very excited. He had an awesome time. I've got some good video footage as well. The new camera is working great.

A New Camera!

We have a new digital camera and we are thrilled thus far. We still lack a lot of education but we are excited, nonetheless! Shannon discovered this tree frog out on our deck this weekend and she got a couple shots of it.





Guess what Casey did with the camera at our first outing? Evidently Casey didn't have the strap on correctly and the camera did a "lens plant" into the dirt out at North Springs Park. Boy, did I feel like a doofus, not to mention the ice cold treatment I received from Shannon and the "oh nos" from the onlookers. Not a pretty sight it seems to working just fine.

A couple notes about the pictures:

• My goodness, Caroline is going to be a hottie!
• Caption this photo: Foster: "Oh ****"; Caroline: *evil laugh*
• Dixie on duty
• Aforementioned tree frog
• Picture of some annuals I planted, of course, I can't remember the names of them...btw, I despise planting annuals...*hint* don't ever think you're doing me a favor by giving me a flat of annuals to plant...a favor would be giving me a flat of annuals and planting them for me

Seven Oaks All Star Season is Concluded

The All Star experience was a good one. The boys did not play up to their potential but we only had 1 returning all star from the previous year if memory serves me correctly along with 5 9 yr olds and 1 8 yr old (Tyler). The guys gained a lot of experience and should be able to hang in there a little better next year. That's the plan anyway. Many thanks are in order to his coaches, Byron, Todd, George and Tex.
These pictures aren't necessarily in chronological order but it is what it is. Here is Tyler on 2nd base. He reached on a fielder's choice. He did advance the runner to third on his ground out. "Move 'em over and get 'em in". For you hardball junkies, you know what I'm talking about.








You now see Tyler fouling off a pitch...it's either that or he's going to need some glasses soon because that swing would be a foot away from the bat!










Look at that stance...have a little tweeking to do and some offseason winter strength conditioning to do. He has two more years in this league...LOOK OUT.

Seven Oaks All Stars at the Columbia Blowfish game

OK, we took the whole All Star team out to the Columbia Blowfish ballgame tonight. Prior to the game the guys got to play catch with the Blowfish players and they also stayed on the field for the National Anthem. We have a very well mannered group of young men and they didn't disappoint tonight. I look forward to them playing in their tournament this coming Monday. After the guys seemed to get a little restless, they turned to Foster for entertainment. You'll see some pictures of him having a great tme.