The Watts' Adventures

This is a letter that I put in our local papers. I comes from the bottom of my heart! I wanted to share it with everyone.


Dear Editor,

I would like to thank the News & Record and Gazette Virginian for the awesome coverage of the Major League Dixie Youth Sub-district baseball tournaments in Halifax this past week. As a mother, there is nothing more exciting than to see your child’s name in the headlines and his picture as he shares excitement with his 11 other teammates. This year has been a very emotional year for us and for Michael to accomplish what he has in regular season and during the Sub-district tournaments is simply unimaginable. For most people that know us well, know what Michael has gone thru this season with his health issues and I can only thank God for keeping him safe all season. He has worked hard and sacrificed so much!

As a baseball mother, I want to remind everyone that Michael was only 1/12 of a winning team. Without his other 11 team mates, winning the sub-district title would have never been accomplished by Halifax County South. We are so fortunate to have such an elite group of boys with talent, drive, and perseverance. For that, I honor and thank the parents. All of the boys support each other no matter whether they are winning or losing.

I would also like to thank the coaches of Halifax County South, Ricky Nelson, Harold Carmichael and Tom Harris. They have given up a lot of their family time and other obligations to coach our boys for countless hours and days. You all have not only been their coach, you have been their role model. The pat on the back, the stern talking to, and the drive you have given them have made the boys better people. Lucky for us it has all paid off. For all the other volunteers that have spent countless hours with our kids, we thank you!

A huge thank you goes to the Halifax County South fans. No matter whether it’s the pitching machine all-stars, Minor League All stars or Major League all stars, HCS always has the biggest fan club! You rock!

To Halifax, Scottsburg and South Boston Major League All stars, hold your heads high, you each played awesome baseball and you too, should be proud to be a part of the whole experience. Never give up and keep on rocking that baseball!

To everyone in Halifax at Duffer Field thank you for the great food and facilities you provided, as I know it took a lot of time and energy to put on a very successful tournament. The grounds crew did a whale of a job to get that field ready as the storms blew thru our area. A BIG THANK YOU FOR EVERYONE INVOLVED!

As HCS leaves this Friday going to Independence, VA to compete in the Virginia Dixie Youth Baseball Tournament, we go from representing our League to representing Halifax County. We hope that we make Halifax County proud, win or lose!

For the love of the game and our kids,
Christy Watts
Alton VA

There isn't much for this I can say but PROUD!!! Click on the link below to see the article and make sure to scroll all the way down so you can see the lay out of the Front page of the sports section.... Oh, yeah that was me in all my emotion!

http://www.gazettevirginian.com/sports.htm

Just incase it doesn't come up maybe you can search the archieves: July 11th, 2008 Sports Edition.

The graduates!

And to whom we owe all the credit: Harold, Ricky & Tom

HCS did it and boy did they do it with style.....
Michael's Grand Slam #3 and the 2 run homer won the game. Michael had 6 RBI's of the 12 runs scored!! It was the most emotional night of my life, with the exceptions of my boys being born of-course. Knowing how hard Michael had worked to get out of his hitting slump and what he has been thru since his January diagnosis of ITP, it was a tearful night. David and I were two proud parents and we didn't hide it one bit. All of our family was there to witness the memorable event: Dean, Leon, Granny Granny, Mom, Dad, Chad, Mark, Suzanne, Tyler and gosh the list of fans would be simply impossible to name!

The boys played as a team and they won as a team. They all support each other in a way that I've never seen a group of boys do before. When any of the kids get the monkey on their bats they all pull together and get thru it. Alot of credit goes to their coaches, Harold, Ricky and Tom for having the faith in the boys and pulling out of them what was needed to get the job done! Words can't express the awesomeness of all of this.....

We are headed to Grayson County July 18th to begin the Virginia State Dixie Youth Tournament play... Wish us luck and I'll keep you posted as I can...... pictures to come..

GO HCS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Well we lost our first game Monday night to Halifax. Final score was 2-6
Michael struck out, walked and got a double. Seth scored the 2 run homer. It was a tough loss but we will meet them again on Tuesday night..... For the Championship game...

Wish us luck!
Here is the news paper article that was in today's (Wednesday July 9th's paper)
http://www.gazettevirginian.com/sports.htm

Lastnight we won our 2nd All star game! We played Halifax with a 7-2 finish! It was an intense, nail biting game. We were losing 1-0 in the first 4 innings until Seth came up and hit a grand slam which gave us a 4-1 lead. Everyone hit and defense was tight. Michael struck out the first time at bat, walked and got a base hit. I was excited as Michael's hitting hasn't been the best in the world, but I think he is coming back! All the boys hit the ball and they won as a team. Seth had 15 strike outs with 18 batters up to bat!!! That is awesome!

So today we have the day off and we play the championship game tomorrow night to advance to state. Wish us luck!

Go HCS!!!!!!!!!!!!

This July 4th weekend, like most, we can be found at a ball field. Michael's Major League All star tournament started this weekend in Halifax. Most of my readers know that Michael has been in a hitting slump and last night we hope that he came out of it. He struck out his first 2 times at bat, and the third time he hit a homerun! I was the happiest mom in the world and I'm sure you could hear me all the way in Scottsburg! I wasn't celebrating the fact that he hit the homerun, I was celebrating the fact that he hit the ball. He could have hit it back to the pitcher and gotten out at 1st and I would have been just as excited. The action photographer captured the moment for us. He got a picture of Michael hitting the home run ball! I had told Hunter before the game to get all the homerun balls and return them to their parents, but instead, he took Michael and Tripp's homerun ball and exchanged it for a free drink and hotdog!!!! So from now on, he gets $10/game for food & drink so that he makes sure he gets the actual balls to the players... geez The league did give Michael a ball for his homerun... Unfortunatly it wasn't "the one", but that's ok! Dr. Schacht came just in time for Michael to knock that ball out so he has become our good luck charm! He has really supported our team this year and loves to watch all the boys play!

Oh, guess you want to know who won?? We did 23-2 !! We had 2 homeruns and a grand slam! Tonight will be tough and we will have to be on our toes. If we win sub-district we go straight to state this year. Wish us luck and I'll try to keep this updated!
Go HCS!!!!

Hunter made the official HCS AA machine pitch All stars this year. Last year they were called the AA tournament team! This year they were official with colors and all. We went to South Hill last weekend for the tournament. The boys played great. They lost the first game, won the second and lost the 3rd game. We camped at Rudd's creek and had a very relaxing weekend in between games. We just hung out and fished which is the best therapy in the world after a stressfull night before and an even more stressfull night to come. Hunter played a great game as all the kids did. I have bragging rights here because he's my kid and this is our site. Hunter made some awesomely, smart plays. He got lead runners out and stopped 2 runs at home in the win or die game. Unfortunatly coaching killed us and the 3 runs held up at 3rd lost us the game. I think we had a bad call on the 3rd out of the game but that's the way it falls. All in all, the boys did a great job. They were on their game. It was a great weekend! There is nothing that I love better than watching my boys play ball!! Go HCS!
Until... next weekend...

All stars have begun! Hunter is playing AA pitching machine and Michael is in his last year of Major League All stars at HCS! Michael's team decided that they were going to all blonde their hair. The ones that were already blonde went blonder and the ones with dark hair went bleach blonde! Hunter decided that you can't be a true allstar unless you blonde your hair so he did it too! I think he feels just as much a part of Michael's team as he does his own. He always practices with them and the hard work has certainly paid off for him.

See below as the "new hair" unfolds.....
Enjoy!

This week has been a very busy one!
Michael has been at bible school for the first time in years. He usually misses it due to baseball. He got a week off before practice starts for All stars. His practice starts this Friday night and he is so siked about the team this year.

Hunter on the other hand has not been able to attend. He has been at practice every night from 7pm until as late as 10pm. He usually wants to stay after his practice is officially over and hit batting practice. He is working hard and very proud to be on the All star team again this year. His first tournament is in South Hill next weekend. Feel free to send any gas donations :-). Go HCS!!!!

My cousin from Richmond is getting married on Saturday. David and I had planned to make a weekend of it, but due to traveling with baseball, Michael's condition, and ball practice, our plans got a little twisted. We are however going to try real hard to drive up for the wedding and come home the same night. I really want to see all of my family as I think so much of them and they have been a great support group! I hope we make it and if so, I'll post pics!

Wednesday June 4th-
Dad brought Michael by the office as they were in town and we checked his counts and to our shocking surprize he only had 9K Plts. This was an all time low. I kept my emotions intact. Both of my doctors were called to look at his smear and do manual counts of his platelets. The PA and MD at Duke were contacted with the verbal results and I nervously worked away. The manual counts weren't much better at 20K. Both my docs were on stand-by. At 4:50pm the PA from Duke calls and the dreaded Prednisone was about to be prescribed. Michael started a whopping dose of 140mg. Also Duke said, let's start getting things together for a spleenectomy. I said ok, but not til August, you all have to get him thru All stars. With alot of thought, we let him play ball anyway that night. I was on pins and needles but everything worked out.

Thursday June 5th-
I had a melt down at work....... my baby is sick and there isn't anything I can do about it. Am I a bad mother for letting him play ball and try to be as normal as possible?????? nuff said...

Friday June 6th-
Drew's 2nd Anniversary of his death. Mary's blog entry made me smile for Drew! My brain was on overload. The Llewellyn family was on my mind, my kid was down in the dumps about his 9K platelet count, the meds were making him funky, I am sometimes feeling overwhelmed at work with not enough hours in the day to be a mom, employee, daughter and wife. Yep, I was on a pity trip and I don't feel quilty about it one bit!! Good news: Platelet count was up to 100K, can't remember the exact number.

Wednesday June 11th- Michael's last game at HCS. He stricks out 4 times!! Yep, 4 times! Bases loaded and all. It was ugly. Good news: His platelets are 636K... now we have too many! Gees! Duke lowers his dose to 70mg/day. He still isn't eating real good and not feeling his best, but other than striking out, he played a great game!

Friday June 13th- Baseball closing ceremonies (i'll post pictures) Michael graduates from HCS after 10 years of playing ball. He went out with a bang: he played with an undefeated team, 1st place, graduated & made Major League Allstars! It was an emotional night! Hunter's team came in 2nd place and he made AA Allstars. I was one proud mom! More importantly Mom & Dad were here to share in the excitement!

Saturday & Sunday were pool days!

Which brings us to today: Michael's platelet count today was 316K. They have lowered his dose of Prednisone again to 50 mg/day for 5days then we have a tappering regimen for the next several weeks.

The great part of these meds is that his platelets are up and he is no danger of bleeding. Bad news is that I can't keep enough groceries in this house for this constantly starving child! When Michael started the Preds, I went to the grocery store and bought tons of health snack foods and the first week he didn't eat much at all. The thought of food, just made him gag! Boy has that changed. He can eat a foot long sub within a matter of mins. We have to tell him to slow down so he can at least taste it. Michael doesn't sleep very well and is up most of the night and taking cat naps during the day. Usually when he is awake, he is eating. He is certainly enjoying food now! It's rather entertaining watching him eat every hour or so as he expresses how delicious it is, whether it be a Subway sub, sandwhich from home, bag of chips, an orange, ice cream... whatever it is, he LOVES it!

He did it again!! Lastnight Michael hit his 2nd homerun grand slam!!!

Needless to say we are 2 proud parents and one proud brother! Everyone was there to witness it this time: Mom, Dad, Leon, Dean, Hunter, Granny Granny and most of all a VERY Proud Father that was beside himself!! Mom & Dad had asked for an instant replay of Michael's Saturday game and darn if he didn't come thru. It was picture perfect as the ball hit the bat and sailed over the center field fence. I didn't think the 2nd time around would be as emotional as the 2nd but it was. Who would have thought? Back to back games, back to back grand slams!

Go Michael!!