Red

From June 11th to the 19th I went to Cincinnati Ohio to grade Spanish AP exams; something I've done the last two years. It's a great way to meet professors and high school teachers of Spanish from around the country. Each day after grading exams, the readers can find a wide variety of activities to entertain them. Last year I enjoyed a trip to the Freedom Center, a museum on slavery. This year on the evening of June 17 I walked down to the Great American Ballpark with Jeff Turley—one of my former professors at BYU—and three other professors.

Earlier this summer I took Bells and Gabs to a couple of minor league baseball games to see the Tucson Padres before we move back to Idaho this fall. I hadn't been to a baseball game in about fifteen years and the last time I went to a major league game was about twenty years ago when I watched the Oakland A's while visiting my oldest sister and her family in California. It's been fun to get back to a few games.

During the 6th inning Drew Stubbs of the Cincinnati Reds hit an inside-the-park home run that had the more than thirty thousand fans on their feet. Now that's not something you see every day! That night as I walked into my hotel room at the Millenium, Duane Rhoades, my roommate told me that my wife had gone into labor and was at the hospital. I was in trouble! :-)

Thanks to a feature on Gmail, I was able to call Deb's cell phone and learn that she gave birth to a 6 lbs. 11 oz./18 in. baby boy. He came three and a half weeks early. It's a good thing he came early though, or he would have been even bigger than his older siblings. The following day during the AP reading, the room leader announced my "dedication" to about four hundred other readers. Believe me, had I known she would have gone into labor that week, I would not have been at the reading, but at least I got to see an inside-the-ball-park home run!

On Saturday night, June 18, Deb's mom took the kids to the hospital to see their baby brother. Erik suggested names like Pooh Bear, and after a bout with hiccups, Hiccup.

Erik also insisted that the baby try on his cowboy boots while at the hospital.

On Sunday afternoon when I returned home, Debs and I settled on a name. When we announced it to the family, Gabs decided that Sammy Jay, after a character in Thornton Burgess' Bedtime Stories, would also work. None of my suggestions survived. I guess that's what happens when you miss the birth of your son. Aside from William, which is a family name, I suggested Red or Cincy since I was at a Cincinnati Reds game watching an inside-the-park home run, which by the way, happened at about the same time as Sammy Jay's birth. I can always tell my son that I was on my feet cheering vociferously during his birth! Can you?!