Clayton County T-Ball Letter

This is a letter I wrote to Clayton County Athletics after our experience with Joey's T-Ball.

May 31, 2012

To whom it may concern:

I would like to voice my displeasure with the administration of Rex Park T-ball this year.  I have three boys who all participate in sports.  My husband and I also coach a baseball team for special needs children in Henry County.  When our five year old asked to play t-ball this year, we did not hesitate to sign him up!  We thought it would be a good opportunity for him to learn the sport, get active, and have fun.  As his parents, we were surprised.  I have never seen such disorganization as I have seen with this season.    

I was a couple of days late registering since he did not tell me he wanted to play until after the sign up had ended.  Because of this, I had to pay a late fee.  I paid this fee with no hard feelings, since I was, after all, late registering.  We were told we would be called be called by our coach.  After several calls to the main office, we were asked to come to a special meeting at the park.  Imagine our surprise when we arrived to find the teams had not even been formed yet!  By this time, the other leagues had been practicing for two weeks already!  If I have to pay a late fee for registering 2 days after the deadline, what accountability should the park county have to take for being late?

Throughout the season, our team has struggled with equipment shortages, mismanagement of practice schedules on the field, and having our games cut short because of not enough time allowed between scheduled games.  We never did get helmets provided! To say this has aggravated us is a correct assessment.  However, nothing compares with the fiasco occurring at the end of the season. 

Our son has played the whole season looking forward to going to his end of the year ceremony.  He has older brothers and has been to their award banquets.  He was really looking forward to finally accepting his trophy as his family looked on.  At the last game, we asked for the date and location of the end of the season awards ceremony.  We were told it would probably be Tuesday of the following week, but that they would let everyone know as soon as possible.  On Tuesday, my husband texted the coach.  The coach responded the get together had not been scheduled.  On Monday of this past week, we again contacted the coach to ask when the trophies were going to be handed out.  At this point, we were told they had already been handed out -- AT THE END OF THE YEAR PARTY!  Our only option now is to pick up the trophy from our coach and give it to our son- No banquet, no recognition of his achievement.  The coach said the banquet had been planned without his knowledge and he was only made aware of it after a mom called to see if he was on his way!  Did I mention this was held about 3 miles from our house and had the coach called us when he was called, we would have still made it?  He also mentioned only 4 kids showed up.  Really?  Could it be because no one knew that it was actually taking place?  Thank you so much Clayton County for making this season a memorable one.  My son will NEVER  get this back.  This was his first season playing organized sports.  This has taught us one important lesson… Pay the out of county fees and let him play in a quality organization!

Sincerely,

Aaron and Karyn Campagnone

Family Update

This post is going to be full of complete randomness- Bear with me.  Things have been so busy in the Campagnone household lately! Some of it has been good and some not so good. 

 Logan, our resident genius, was chosen to go to Georgia Tech for a kids in science program.  He had a great time visiting the campus, the lab, and completing several projects.  He got a t-shirt with Buzz on it so he was on cloud nine!  His Dad graduated from Tech and he swears he’s either going there or Yale. ( I am voting for the in-state tuition!)    His Pepa and him have fun picking one each other about the whole Ga- Ga tech thing.  I am just proud of the man Logan is becoming.  Not only does he have the brains, he also has a large heart.  While he loves both of his brothers, Tyler is his heart.  I love hearing him interact with him.  Tyler talks to Logan more than any of us.  He really looks out for him.  He is already stressing about Tyler going to a different school than him next year.  

Which brings us to the Tyler news.  Tyler will be going to middle school next year!  (Special needs children are required to do 4^th grade twice.)  I can hardly believe my baby will be in middle school.  This is hard on me for two reasons.  #1- He’s my baby.  It is difficult for me to believe Tyler will be a teenager in September.  (Don’t call him baby, though!  He will let you know very quickly that is not the case.  Right,  mom?)  #2- I HATED middle school.  It was a very awkward time for me.  I HATED it!  To this day, walking into a middle school still makes me hyperventilate. Tyler is in the middle of “senior week” at his school.  They are doing special activities, getting ready for the graduation ceremony, and just took senior pictures.  Sunshine league, the baseball league he plays on, starts their season this Saturday.  His coaches are awesome.  (Did I mention Aaron and I coach his team?)  We are also having a “end of the year party” for his class next Saturday.  Aaron and I are showing a movie for them on the side of the house.  It should be fun.

Joey is playing T-ball this year.  That kiddo is definantly our outdoor, athletic kid.  Aaron has him at practice at the moment and he also has a game on Saturday.  Our weekends are packed!  He is finishing up Pre-K and will be starting Kindergarten next year.  At the moment, Aaron and I are trying to decide which school to put him in.  He has a new hobby.  He absolutely loves to fish.  It seems we will be doing a lot of that this summer!  His birthday is May 15^th and we are currently planning a Batman party for him.  More details on that to come.

My sister had her baby in March.  He is adorable!!  Big brother, Tristan, is so proud.   I am a gloating aunt who can’t wait to see the pictures they took of him today!

My uncle lost his battle with cancer two weeks ago.  He fought a good fight and lived a lot longer than the doctors expected him to.  My uncle was a good man.  He, like all of us, had his faults.  Uncle Charles graduated from high school the year I was born.  He had THREE children.  The oldest was born when I was 11.  The youngest was born when I was a junior in high school.  I was fortunate to, not only have known him, but also to be related to him.  There are so many things I will remember about him.  I saw him two days before he died.  We both knew it would be the last chance we had to see each other.  We didn’t pretend everything was fine.  We didn’t talk about what we were going to do in the next few weeks.  He talked. I cried.  In fact, I cried most of the way home. 

 I don’t feel like sharing memories of him right now.  I also don’t feel like writing down our last conversation at this time.  I really don’t want to discuss the funeral very much.  But I will say this about the day we buried him.  As we made our way from the funeral home to the church, cars not only stopped, but pulled completely off to the side of the road.  Some people got out of the car to stand.   Police escorted us and were at every light and turn.  They stood outside of their vehicles with their hats held over their heart.  I am use to Atlanta traffic.  More often than not, people don’t even stop.  This touched me greatly.  You gotta love small towns!  My mom cared for my uncle(and my grandmother) in his final months.  She is a tough lady, my mom.  She was the only person with him when he died.  She is doing okay right now.  She is staying busy and I think that helps.  My mom is now an only child.  My grandmother has buried two of her three children.  I can imagine no greater hell.  

For spring break, we went to Florida to visit Aaron’s dad and his wife.  We had a very relaxing time.  It was fun to go to the beach, ride in the boat, and take the kids to the small aquarium they had there.  It was a nice visit and we hope to get back down there soon.

The lawsuit for Aaron’s mom seems to be drawing to a close.  We go to mediation on May 10^th.  If nothing is settled there, the court date has been set for July.  Keep us in your prayers.  It will be difficult emotionally to recount the events of that time.  The most horrible part is no matter what decision is made, it will never bring her back.

This blog has turned depressing.  Sorry about that. I will leave you with this.   I was dancing with my class today.  One of the students told me I needed to stop because I was embarrassing myself.  Hmm…. She was probably right! :)

African Backyard Safari

The weather has been so unseasonably warm this winter it feels like we missed out on winter!  Usually we end up cutting the grass around the middle of April.  Last week, I discovered grass (and weeds) up to my knees. We had a yard service last year.  I have been trying to call him, to no avail. So, I got out our lawn mower.  It was dead.  I changed the oil and spark plug………………nothing.  I called it.  So, Monday we bought a new little push mower and Tuesday Aaron put it together.  This brings us to tonight.  I got the mower out and started mowing the front.  

 Logan actually asked if I could show him how to mow.  Of course!  (Hehehe!:))  He wanted to mow our neighbor’s yard, which he did.  When I asked him to mow our front yard, he was suddenly tired and plus didn’t I know he has allergies?!  (and so getting OUT of mowing the yard begins!)  I did the front and side yards pretty quickly since they weren’t really bad.  Then, I went to conquer the back.   

At this point, Joey came out onto the patio to watch.  Jokingly, I said, “Be careful- I don’t know what animals are going to come out of this tall grass!”  I started mowing.  I Had gotten through about half the lawn when I noticed Joey was still sitting on the patio.  Worried about the pollen and grass the mower was unsettling, I told him to go inside.  That is when my baby boy looked me in the eye and said,

“ Mom, I want to watch!  I’m watching for a tiger!”

Sunshine League Schedule

GO HORNETS!  I should have my roster soon and I will be calling all of our players.  However, this is the tentative Schedule for Sunshine League:

	THE SUNSHINE LEAGUE
	GAME SCHEDULE 2012
DATE	TIME	HOME	VISITORS
April 14th	9:00am	BANDITS	FLAMES
SPRING SEASON	10:00am	WARRIORS	HORNETS
April 21st	9:00am	HORNETS	FLAMES
	10:00am	BANDITS	WARRIORS
April 28th	9:00am	FLAMES	WARRIORS
	10:00am	BANDITS	HORNETS
May 5th	9:00am	WARRIORS	HORNETS
	10:00am	FLAMES	BANDITS
May 12th	9:00am	HORNETS	FLAMES
	10:00am	BANDITS	WARRIORS
May 19th	9:00am	FLAMES	WARRIORS
	10:00am	HORNETS	BANDITS
May 25th	6:30pm	WARRIORS	HORNETS
**NIGHT GAME**	7:30pm	BANDITS	FLAMES
October 6th	9:00am	FLAMES	HORNETS
FALL SEASON	10:00am	WARRIORS	BANDITS
October 13th	9:00am	BANDITS	HORNETS
	10:00am	FLAMES	WARRIORS
October 21st
BANQUET

FAMILY

(This letter is me trying to sort through feelings.  I apologize if it is choppy and unorganized. As you could tell from my post on facebook,  yesterday was a difficult day. Our family is on a journey right now.  I know we will get through it.  We appreciate those who are keeping us in your prayers. ) 

Given the current circumstances, I have been thinking a lot about family lately.  Everyone’s family is different.  If you think about your own family, you can probably even break it down into several different families.  You have your mom’s side, your dad’s side, the family group you grew up in, The family you have presently, in-laws, ect.  You get my point.  You may, like me, have friends you consider family.  Aaron told me years ago, he sometimes has a hard time understanding the relationships our family has.  He grew up in a military family and lived many years overseas.   He has probably seen my grandparents more times than he did his own.  Since I did not grow up in a military family and both sets of grandparents lived only hours away, I saw them a lot.  As a result, I had/have a great relationship with all of them.    My relationships with both sides of my family are different.  Unfortunantly, my relationship with my Dad’s side is strained.  So let me focus this conversation on my mom’s side of the family.  That is, after all, why I have been thinking so much about this topic in the last few weeks.  

My mom’s side the family consist of my grandmother, Grandfather, two uncles, six first cousins, and many, many, many great uncles, Great Aunts, and other cousins.  Just to give you an idea, My Grandmother had 6 brothers and sisters.   I spent every summer at my grandmother’s house for as many weeks as I could talk my parents and grandparents into.  Grandma lives on a farm and there are always different animals.  In my life, I have bottle fed cows, goats, and even a deer once.  She also has ponds to fish in, bales of hay to climb on, fruit trees to pick, and there were always cousins to play with.  I loved it there.  

 A few years ago, I was at our annual family Christmas.  I was walking in the front yard with my cousin, Michelle. To the left of us, Michael was taking the smaller kiddos on four wheeler rides.  In front of us, other family members were shooting skeet.  My uncles were sitting on the back of the truck eating oysters out of a cooler.  It hit me…..Like an epiphany.  Turning to Shell, I said, “We really are redneck aren’t we?”  Redneck or not, our family is tight.  We take care of each other and are extremely protective of our own. (Let me also say, when you marry in to our family, you are one of us. Be warned!) My cousins and I have grown up almost like siblings. My uncles were like 2^nd parents. I knew they would get me just as quick as my parents if I even stepped a toe out of line.  

About two years ago, my Uncle Bobby passed away.  Although I knew he had some health problems, his death still came as a shock.  I remember going to the hospital to see him the weekend before he died.  It was horrible, even more so for my cousins who were losing their Dad.  My mom had a hard time with it.  She was the oldest.  Being the oldest  child, I think you just naturally expect to go first.  I know I never want to go through losing my sister.   My grandmother use to tell me about her mother-in-law who had seven kids.   She buried all seven before she died herself.  My grandmother always said the same thing, “ Karyn, I can imagine no greater hell than burying your own children.”  

Fast forward to today.  Our family is rallying again.  My mom’s baby brother, my uncle Charles, is dying.  Today, the doctor told him it wouldn’t be long.  We are doing what we can to help him.  My mom has moved in with him to care for him in his final days.  My mom is a force to be reckoned with.  She is so amazing.  I don’t think I have ever met a stronger woman than my mother.   I don’t know what my Grandmother is  going to do.  I look at my grandmother.  She seems so weak and frail.  Yet, as she faces her greatest nightmare, I see the strength she carries.  

It is hard to imagine him not being here.  He always has been here.  When my first marriage imploded, he was the first one I called.  He was at my house in fifteen minutes with 3 trucks and 4 extra men to pack me up.  Once, Joey told him he loved watermelon.  My uncle sent to our house TWENTY of them.

A few weeks ago, I was staying at my uncle’s house.  It was late and the only people up were the two of us.  We talked.  We talked about stories from the past, what we remembered, and our family members.  He told me what it was like for him growing up.  Some of the things he told me I knew already.  Other things were new to me.  He talked about what the past few years had been like, our triumphs, our regrets.  We talked about dying and heaven.  He told me what he wanted when the end came.  I told him how much he means and has meant to me.  Sometimes, we just sat in silence.   At one point, he looked up at me and said, “I love you, girl. You know that, right? ”  Yes,  I know that.  That is the great thing about our family.  Good or bad, not much goes unsaid.