An Exclusive.....

Here's an exclusive for my loyal readers.

Your first look at....."Baby" Phillips. Personally I think the little thing is taking after Julie, but it's kind of hard to say. ;)

Playoff heartbreak

Oh we're still in it. But Leyland had to break the news as to who's on the roster and who isn't...

Maroth, Clevlen and Tata aren't going.

Shelton is probably in. Ironic since he's been running with the Mud Hens for the end of the season. Here's hoping my boy get's his hitting groove back.

Playoff baseball in Detroit. Whod've thunk it?

Whew...

So I don't really have time to rest lately. I'm a little crazy, I'm really tired. But life goes on....I'm slowly adjusting to the whole Dad with stroke thing and the whole Julie being pregnant thing. I just need to sit down awhile.

I know I haven't mentioned it lately, but just so you don't think I'm slacking on the important news:

THE TIGERS MADE THE PLAYOFFS!!!!!!!!

Woo-Hoo!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! We're in the playoffs, we're in the playoffs, we're in the playoffs!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Oh my. This has certainly been a welcome reward to a hard-played season. And maybe I'm one of the few who remember it but, "Bless You Boys!" It's great to have baseball back in Detroit again...

Update on Dad

Well, we've finally gotten him out of the hospital and over to a rehab facility. There's alot of work ahead, but he's already made so much improvement that I have no doubt he'll get through this just fine. It just goes slowly.

I have to admit that I have no great reflections on what has gone on recently. Between the stroke and the pregnancy I'm just, for lack of a better term, numb. If anything I've learned to just slow down and concentrate on what's important.

If have havn't called some of you to talk about this, please don't take it personally. I've talked this whole topic to death. I've called most all of the relatives, spoken with most friends and left messages for others. My brain is fried as far as this subject is concerned. But we shall survive.

Life Lessons...

These last few weeks have truly been messages from God. What those messages are, I'm not quite sure. I'm pretty sure that it's something along the lines of, "Jim, get your shit in order, you've got work to do" or something like that. Being God there's probably a few more thee's and thous's in there somewhere.

It started a couple of weeks ago when one of my accountants, out of the blue, turned in her 2 week notice. I was instantly going into coping mode...planning and planning. I made plans, arranged a transition, reorganized a department, created a new job posting and got it posted. It was alot of something I really had not started out thinking I would have to deal with around the holiday. But I dealt with it.

This week, my Father suffered a stroke. He's making progress each day, but it's forced me to assess my priorities. To rearrange, shuffle and make plans to take care of my mom and my dad. As the oldest son I feel it's my duty to take care of this and I'm happy do what needs to be done. With Bill and Julie we'll get this all taken care of. Sure does cause you to look at life differently, though. I'm not even close to done processing all of this yet. There's going to be a lot of work ahead of us, but we'll do what we need to do.

God throws it in there. I deal, I grow. Happens to everyone.


Oh yeah.....Julie's pregnant, found out this morning....

Enough lessons God, I'm getting the point. Really. :'D

Prayer Request

For any of you so inclined, please add my father to you lists of prayer requests. This morning he suffered a small stroke and I've spent most of the afternoon and evening at the hospital. There have been some good signs...he's self-aware and he tries to answer questions, but his mouth and brain seem to rebel. He has full motor control elsewhere, but it's slow. I'm optimistic, but I'll think he'll be fine in the long run. Anyway, I've been making calls to relatives all day and I'm kind of out of steam for storytelling.

Just pray. This is too damn early for me to ever have imagined dealing with this.

The Crocodile Hunter is dead....

Steve Irwin dead at 44. Injured by a stingray.

No joke. Take a look here:

http://www.news.com.au/story/0,23599,20349888-2,00.html

Weird. I can't say I've ever been a huge fan of his. But at the same time how could you not be a fan? The guy had a lot of passion for working with animals. Just seems a little sad.