School is out, and you would think this would mean lazy hazy days of rest and relaxation for the children.

But you forgot about the insane person who signed them up for Little League. Four kids + three teams translates to Every Night of the Week. (Did you like how what started as math changed to language? I wish I could do that with all my math.)

In case you haven’t figured it out, the insane person would be me.

I forget during the long winter what Little League is like. Last night two daughters played in Grayling in the rain. Yes, I said Grayling. Did I neglect to mention that Little League games for the three oldest are happening in Houghton Lake, Grayling and Roscommon? Technically, we are in the Houghton Lake league, but it is a 13 mile drive, one way, for us to the Houghton Lake field. Grayling and Roscommon? You don’t want to know. At least they dropped Mio from the schedule this year. Oh, we still play Mio. We just do it in Grayling.

In all fairness, when we signed up for this, gas prices were still hovering around $3 a gallon. That’s right. Way back in the good old days of March. Grayling is approximately 30 miles from here. Roscommon is about the same if you were a bird, but there are these two pesky lakes that make you go way out around to get to Rosommon, so it might be about 40 miles. I can’t tell you exactly because I don’t want to know. (Isn’t the approximations bad enough?)

This Little League schedule creates huge negotiations. On Monday, Steve and I had everything down to a science. We managed to get everyone and everything to Roscommon on time (5:30 p.m.), which is huge since Steve works until 5 p.m. in Houghton Lake. One hour drive there and back home later + 2.45 hours of game time + eating free pizza (I had a coupon) in the car while driving there = watching your daughter play in the outfield twice for about 10 minutes total/no batting. In all fairness, what was supposed to be a double-header turned into a 7-inning combo game, which ended up with a “mercy” finish in the fifth inning. Autumn’s team won, but we didn’t get to see her play very much.

But it is almost the end of June, which means the season is almost over. Except it isn’t. Although the calendar says it is June, it was 49 degrees AND raining last night as we watched Maxine and Amanda play. That doesn’t sound like summer to me. Amanda played every inning, and Maxine sat out two at her own request because she was cold. Despite the miserable weather, I enjoyed watching the game. But this wasn’t meant to be a rant about June’s crappy weather. It was supposed to be leading up to something….

An announcement of sorts. The Little League season has been extended.

That’s right. Amanda made the all-star team. This means we have to prove residency and age. It requires formal documentation. I have had to show less documentation to get thousands of dollars in loans. I managed to gather the birth certificate (must be original) plus four pieces of “official” documents to prove our residency. Except it doesn’t. We use a PO box, and all of the “official” documents: bank statement, property tax notice, phone bill and insurance document fail to list our street address. We need to find other official documents that list our street address.

It sounds simple, right? Except you forget where I live. Let me remind you. I live in Missaukee County. My kids attend Houghton Lake Community Schools, which is primarily made up of Roscommon County. We have a Merritt phone number, and a Lake City address. This is why we use the PO box. We live less than 5 miles from the Merritt post office, and more than 15 miles from the Lake City post office. Technically, our PO box address is a Merritt address, and our street address is a Lake City address. Officially, we use the Merritt PO address along with our street address. It makes proving residency just a tiny bit of a headache. People tend to get confused when you switch cities on them. (You think?)

I’m not sure what position Amanda will play on the all-star team. She likes to play catcher, and she is good at it. We’ll see. That is, if I can prove where we live (and have lived since 1994). It should be easy, right? Why do I keep hearing that evil laugh?

Thanks for playing.