The Estridge 5+

What was I thinking???

2008-02-29T22:54:00.002-05:00

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

2008-02-16T12:38:00.002-05:00

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

2007-10-11T22:43:00.001-04:00

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!

2007-07-29T20:25:00.000-04:00

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!

2007-06-27T12:11:00.000-04:00

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

2007-06-27T12:09:00.000-04:00

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

2007-06-23T22:49:00.000-04:00

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.

Mother's Day 2007

2007-05-15T10:42:00.003-04:00

Mother's Day was celebrated for the most part at my mom's house, naturally. We had a nice day. The weather was great, the food was great and the company was even greater. We spent the majority of the time in the backyard talking about Na-Na and Mandaddy's yard, the kids and their new addition to the house that you see here in the background. They were running around getting into whatever they felt like getting into and that was fine by me.

After 0ur visit we all went back home to take a big nap.(everyone in the house took a nap) To assist us with our naps, we tuned the television into the NASCAR coverage. I woke up with 23 laps to go only to watch Jeffy-poo, the most feminine race car driver of all time (sorry Na-Na), drive his steam machine across the finish line.

I'll soon let you all know where I will be registering for my Father's Day gifts. Until the next blog...Have a great one!

Caroline's Gymnastics

2007-05-13T09:14:00.000-04:00

OK...Caroline's big finale for gymnastics was held this past Saturday at Crooked Creek Park. A good time was had by all. We are very proud of Caroline and her progress in gymnastics. She is showing a lot of strength in that little body of hers. If she ever gets as strong physically as her strong will, we'll all be in trouble! Our 5 plus Paw Paw and KiKi made it to the big event. Gymnastics is provided by Paw Paw and KiKi , they pick her up, take her to class and then off to eat dinner at San Jose every Wednesday. At the end of the event all of the participants were awarded a medal, a trophy, and a carnation to give to their mothers. Caroline got down off of the platform and went straight to KiKi and handed her that carnation! We thought that was very intuitive of her to know how happy that would make her KiKi and to feel appreciate for what she does.
Here she is on the rings!
Parallel Bars!
Hamming it up for her adoring fans.

We're still here!

2007-04-27T21:51:00.000-04:00

The last couple weeks have been a blur. We've all been pretty busy...work, school, soccer, baseball, muscials, gymnastics, homework, yardwork, concerts....whew! I know I'm not the only one who has been busy. I think everyone is doing well since my last entry.

Last week at this time we (Shannon, Tyler, myself) were rocking at the Kenny Chesney concert along with Laurie and Alexis. We had a great time. I've learned to like his music over the last few years but beyond that if you have never been to one of his concerts, let me tell you, it is great. Just think of all day Jimmy Buffett tailgating with a "twang". I highly recommend taking off the entire day. I wish I had some pictures to post at this time, hopefully I'll have that for next entry. Oh yeah, I loved it when Spurrier was wished a "happy birthday" on stage at the concert and Spurrier told the Clemson fans this is just the beginning! I love it.

Dammit, the Gameocks just dropped the opener with Bama, 10-5. What's going on with the gamecocks lately? They better get out of this little lull they appear to be in if they want to succeed in the postseason.

Final soccer games of the season are kicking off in the morning. Postseason parties will ensue following the games!

I hope to check in again soon.

Caroline's 5th and Foster's 3rd Birthday Bash

2007-04-07T22:37:00.000-04:00

Well as you can see, we had a great big time today. I'm still a novice at this so just try to be patient with me. I did discover that the Picassa software that I download my digital pics to has a button to "mash" so that I can just add any/all pics to our blog! We had a great time and thanks to everyone that came and helped. This will be our last joint birthday party for these two. My head is still swimming! I hope to have more pictures and commentary in the near future.

Gearing up for the Easter Bunny

2007-04-06T07:09:00.000-04:00

Big weekend ahead. Caroline and Foster have their combo birthday party tomorrow. The party will incorporate an Easter Egg Hunt! Guess who will be stuffing a couple hundred plastic eggs with money, candy, and other little surprises?? Yes, Shannon and me. Caroline is being diplomatic about the joint birthday party but she didn't fail to express her opinion about the matter. She prefers to separate her self from her little brother in the future. I know it's coming...a sleep over with a half dozen squealing little kindergartners next year!
Tyler has a ball game this afternoon at 6 pm. The Rangers are 3-1-1. We suffered our first loss Monday night. I think the boys are hungry for a win tonight against the Braves. Tyler is still in seek of his his first official base hit. Lots of walks in the 9-10 year old league...Yes, Tyler just turned 8. I'll explain that later if need be.

I look forward to seeing everyone there.

I'll try to get some pictures on here early next week of the weekend's events.

What is this blog all about?

2007-04-04T09:56:00.000-04:00

I'm going to make this short and sweet. I'm not even sure if this will be an ongoing project or not, it depends on how much time I have to devote to it. As of today, all is well. I hope to post more in the future with updates on everyone in the family.