Better late than never...

Last week Ethan's team was in the running for their leagues championship game. They were playing the Red Socks and in the 3rd inning it was tied 3-3. It was a pitching dual, both teams were pitching great! Now, these boys usually only get in 5 maybe 6 innings in an hour and a half and that's only with quick innings. This game went almost 9 innings! In the bottom of the 8th inning, there were 2 outs and bases were loaded. Ethan gets up to bat, he watches 2 balls and a strike go by. The next pitch he swings and the ball goes rocketing out to center field with no chance of being caught! They won 4-3!!!! The next day was the championship game against the Orioles. They played great but, ended up losing 9-7. All in all Ethan's first season in the majors was a great experience, his team took 1st in league play and 2nd in the tournament. Not a bad season at all!!!

Makenna had a tournament during the same time. Her team has not placed in a tournament yet this year, which is not what she's used to. Her team picked up a pitcher who did an awesome job and helped them out in the championship game. Again with the tied games! Her games are only 70 minutes long, which only gets in a good 3 inning game. They were tied 5-5 after 70 minutes. Now softball is not like baseball in that girls don't keep playing until there is a winner. We have a stupid international tie breaker rule. You put your last out on 2nd base and play the inning from there. We gave up 3 runs, switch, and we got back our 3 runs. Now we are tied again only 8-8 this time. Well, now you put a runner on 3rd and 2nd. Our girls held them to no runs. We get up and they held us, their catcher wasn't letting anything get by her so we could steal home. They ENDED THE GAME!!!! How do you end a tournament game in a tie?! Men made up these stupid idiotic rules, if a woman had come up with rules we would continue to play until someone scored and actually won the game! So, because the team we tied with beat the team we lost to we came in 2nd. The girls actually played like a team and they deserved to place in this tournament. They played great!

All in all it was a super weekend of ball!

Mother's Day....

Is a very bitter-sweet day for me. I have been blessed by God with 6 beautiful children. I believe you have the children you are supposed to have. I have 3 great kids that were given birth by 3 different women who were gracious enough to allow me to become their children's mother. They gave up the opportunity to see and have what I have in Christian, Ethan and Makenna and allowed me to have them. How do you thank someone for that? Can you ever say enough "thank you's"? Then I have 3 beautiful children that God blessed me with all at once, Avery, Grace and Noah. Although they were taken before I was ready for them to go, I was still able to have a lifetime of happiness and love in the few short months I had them in my life. Do I love Mother's Day and the joy being a mother has given me? ABSOLUTELY! Does Mother's Day make me sad at the same time? ABSOLUTELY! I love and miss my kids all at the same time. Not to mention I haven't spent a Mother's Day with my own mother in 18 years, living so far away from my family makes lots of holiday's bitter-sweet in my life.

menagerie of stuff...

Lets see where to start... I am almost 2 weeks post-op and so far I am very pleased with my recovery. My family was about good for 3 days of taking care of me and come to think about it I slept for those 3 days. They will help now if I ask, but they aren't falling all over themselves to help mom! I've cut down on the pain pills, so my spelling should be better! LOL!!

May 4th was my 40th birthday. To Eric, a birthday is just another day, so he never goes all out for anyones birthday. Makenna had a 3 hour practice, then she played pick-up for another team. Needless to say I spent my birthday at the ballpark however, there is no place I would rather spend my birthday!!!! Makenna did what she was supposed to as a pick up player and played well. The poor thing was so tired!! She worked hard during her own practice and then plaed 2 games on someone elses team. I think that last game she actually fell asleep standing up in left field! It was just a good thing no ball came to her and the 3rd baseman didn't miss any balls.

Makenna has been made team captain for her travel team. Right now she is co-captain but, in the fall she will be all alone. Last night was the first game as co-captain and Eric and I were quite disappointed in her attitude. They were losing and in the 4th inning she just gave up. On the way home, with tears flowing, we had a discussion about what it means to be a team captain! Hopefully there will be no more giving up on her team!

We have one free day this week, friday night. If I could sit for any length of time I would kidnap my husband and make him take me on a date, but my can't just can't do that as of yet.

4 days post-op and

I'm feeling pretty great! I slept pretty much 24/7 until last night. I had an alarm set to wake myself every 4-6 hours to take my meds, but last night I decided I would try to sleep as long as I could without having to take anything. I took 2 Percocet and a muscle relaxant at 10:30 and slept until 6:00 when I woke up and really neeed something. I too the same amt. and tried to make the kids breakfast, where I tried to pass out twice, once they left I slept until 10:30. I took a walk up to the pool and back, showered and did my hair for the first time since Thurs. I decided to only take 1 percocet during the day when I needed it. I went to Kenna's game tonight and ended up overdue to Percocet and ended up needing 2! Tomorrow I'm going to try to make it up to the stop sign on my walk. I'm also going to try not to pass out in the morning, I have done it a few times since surgery and can't tell if it's a lack of food on my stomach and all the meds or something else. So, all in all I am very pleased with how my recovery is coming along so far!

Big Day!

Well, tomorrow is it! My back gets fixed....yay!!! I am trying too hydrate now cuz last night at work we couldn't get a vein to pop up, the last thing I need is someone digging around in my arm. My surgery is at 7:30am and I will stay the night, but home on Friday! I got my toes done today since I won't be able to bend over for weeks to tie my shoes, so it's flip flops and hooker toes for me! Eric likes them bright red! I'll be off work until July, but I won't be limping around anymore...at least after I start to heal and life can get back to normal. The other day Ethan told me he would be glad when I can ride my bike with him again....'bout broke my heart! I know this has been hard on the kids with me not being able to be as active with them as I used to be. Keep me in your prayers for a non-eventful surgery and quick healing.

Oh how good it feels!!!

Ok dirty minds, I'm talking about softball! Makenna had a 7 game guarantee tournament this past weekend. The first game was AWFUL! They played like doodie. After a little "discussion" with my child, she played like she actually knows how to play from then on. Sat they played 4 games, and lost them all. To say that it was frustrating watching them making mistake after mistake is an understatement. Come on, this is a TRAVEL TEAM and some girls either won't or can't catch a fly ball, or they let them roll between their legs, and EVEN jump over balls!!!! Now, my child is not without errors that's for sure, but she an one other girl made 7 out of the 11 runs scored on Sat. Sunday was better, they were winning the first game and then they fell apart and ended up going into international tie breaker and lost 8-9. Well, as you can imagine the coaches were a bit miffed at what was going on and let the girls have it! My thought was, it's about time! This is a team that is in 1st place in their regular season, only losing one game. Yet, when it comes to tournaments they (not all) look like a bunch of t-ball players! So, here they are 5 games in the hole and we are playing the team who has been our nemesis since Makenna has been playing travel ball. GREAT, the team she was on that was unstoppable could not beat them and now we are up against them and these girls have not won a game yet?! Well, I don't know which team showed up, but it wasn't the ones who just lost 5 games in a row!!! Kenna played short stop and DOMINATED the field!! It was like watching her back in 8U when all the balls came to her. In 10U she doesn't get a lot of action because most girls can't pull the ball like they could in 8U. She must have made 75% of the outs, it was GREAT!!!!!!! She said it felt so good getting all that action out there again. They ended up beating the Chill by one in 5 innings!!!! WOOHOO!!!! It was worth all the money spent just to have beat them. At the end of the game the other coach came over and asked if we used to be the Hot Shots (Makenna's old team)!! Oh how great is that!!! Kenna's bat died and she had to start using another, which she hit the mess out of the ball with. Among the numerous singles she hit, she hit a triple and a home run, to which I owe her $20 for! Now, I can argue that the home run was really an actual triple but, she was watching the play and when they over threw the pitcher she took off and made it home. Ummmm, no one sent her, she said she saw her chance and took it. I say she saw $$$$ signs and wanted it!!! LOL!! Either way, she played 6 great games and beat the team she has always been afraid to play!!! It doesn't get any better than that!!!

Pre-op done!

Well, my surgery is in just over 2 weeks away now. I am having it at my hospital and you would think that because I worked there I would get a little bump to the from right? NO!!! I sat in there for over 2 hours and that was AFTER my appointment with my Dr. I offered to have my blood drawn upstairs from one of the nurses I know, but they wouldn't let me do that either. What's the point of working in a hospital if you don't get any perks? I can't go on my floor and let them take care of me after surgery, everyone said absolutely not! Come on, all they have to do is make sure I don't have a fever and my incision looks good. We have surgical pts all the time, how different can it be? Heifer's! So, just because I work there doesn't mean I am not going to give the what-for about how long my pre-op took!!! I can get someone admitted, get their history, have them change into a gown, draw blood, start an IV with fluids going, have them fill out their "pink sheet", write an admission note AND do a vaginal exam in less than 30 minutes!!! Why did is take over 2 hours for all that to be done to me....minus the IV, change into a gown, admission note, oh and the vaginal exam! Only 8 more days to work before I have 3 months off.

Tournament news

We thought it would get rained out, but Makenna had a tournament on Sunday. They only won one game, but after a little chastising they played 2 great games! Makenna played short stop the first 2 games, didn't get a lot of action, but hit well and stole bases like no body's business. The 3rd game she caught, of course being a catcher myself, I am a little partial to her playing that position. However, she is SOOOOO good back there!! She is a total natural! Don't get me wrong, she is a great short stop, but as good as she is there, she is that much better behind the plate. She threw 2 girls out at 2nd, a girl out at 3rd and caught a girl in a pickle and tagged her out at home. She only let a few balls get by her and she was taking chance after chance at throwing an out at 3rd until they just weren't leading off anymore. She laid down the most perfect bunt and instead of stopping at first and just kept going and took 2nd...the other team had NO IDEA what to do! Very clever!!! The last game she caught again and did very well, we had some bad calls, no really...bad calls! Not that they would have made a difference in the outcome, but non the less....I have photographic PROOF of one of the bad calls!!! Either way, she played great and that's all that matters!!!

Props to single parents!

With Eric being 'el presidente' of his bass club and fishing in the BFL tournaments, I have had to spend the majority of the weekends as a single parent. Toting around 3 kids to 3 different ballparks and either only seeing parts of each game or missing one or more altogether, is a real big pain in the tush! Not to mention, every other Saturday I am running on 2 hours of sleep or less. Don't get me wrong, when I work 3 nights, Eric has to pick up and take the kids to practice and games, but they usually are not all in the same night.

My mom spent the majority of my youth as a single parent and being a parent now, I can see how easy I have it and how tough she had it.

So props to all you single parents who make the sacrifice and put yourself on the back burner and give all you have to your kids so they can have a full life!!! You amaze me and I take my hat off to you...this sucks!

Needless to say it has already been established that Eric will NOT be so involved in the club next year! Having the help only one weekend a month...I am way over it!!!

Proud as a peacock

If you didn't know, Makenna plays softball for a travel team. Well, her team wasn't playing this weekend and she was invited to play on another team in a tournament. Not just another team, but an "A" bracket 10U team, she plays "B" 10U. You might not think that there is a lot of difference between the 2 levels however, there is a BIG difference! These girls are older, stronger and their plays are very polished and well planned. She played very well and did exactly what they picked her up for. She played right field in the first game and caught 2 fly balls, one was foul at the fence. She got on base and slid under numerous tags. She did a great job and I am so proud of her I could just pop!

Happy Easter!

This is the day which the Lord has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it. Psalm 118:24. Today is Easter, the day in which we, as Christian's celebrate the death, Resurrection and eternal life of our saviour, Jesus Christ our Lord. We left our church last fall and this was the first Easter we have not been to a service in over 10 years. I must say I am a bit depressed about it. We haven't found another church, nor have we really been looking. I'm not sure why, except for our busy schedule...but that's just one excuse I can give. I loath nothing more than visiting churches!!!! By nature both Eric and I are shy, both our jobs put us WAY out of our "box", so having to do that on my day off really doesn't make me happy at all. I really would rather just sit at home and listen to a sermon from the church I REALLY want to go to on the web then have to go skipping around from church to church putting on a fake smile and saying, "nice to meet you too". When in reality I will not remember who you are in the next 5 minutes and it probably was really not that nice to "meet you" in the first place. I must sound horrible and awfully bitter don't I?! Can you tell we've been burned once or twice? Alas, we must find another church, if nothing else, it must have a good children's ministry for the kids. They are chomping at the bit to get back into church and I can feel the Lord gently pushing me a little more now in that direction....I've had Him shove me off the proverbial cliff a time or two and I'm so over that! I will certainly heed the warning before the cliff's edge comes in view.

Please pray God leads us to the right church for our family.

Happy Easter!!

3 up, 3 down

Well, the tournament was a bust. They played and lost their 3 games. Makenna played very well but struck out twice. She blamed it on the slow pitcher, instead of waiting on the ball she was way ahead of it and just couldn't do it. She hasn't struck out in a long time! First game she played short and caught. She even caught her first pop-up behind the plate...to which I didn't get a picture of! She hit well, stole bases and got into the most amazing pickle I have ever seen and ended up beating it out at third! It was incredible! They lost 6-3. The second game, how should I say this....I threatened to pull her off the field if she didn't act like she wanted to play. They ended up losing 8-5 to a team they should NOT have lost to. Third and final game she caught the whole game and it was HOT, she did great! Even though she struck out twice, she played defense really well. They lost 4-1. That's it, 3 games, 2 that should have been won and 1 that was played really well both offensively and defensively. I hate 3 game wraps, they always have weired brackets!!!

Procrastinating

Yeah, that's the word for it. I am tired, just down right tired. I got off work yesterday morning and never take anything to help me sleep when I am coming onto my day off. I finally fell asleep around 9:30am and was woken up at 11:00 by the painters banging the heck out of my house fixing bad wood. Once they left for lunch I was able to fall back a sleep for an hour before Ethan called me from school to come get him. I think he had a spider bite on his neck that he was having a little allergic reaction to, a little Benadryl and all is well. It looks much better this morning. Needless to say I didn't go back to sleep after that. I missed Makenna's game last night due to Bunco I had promised I would go to. Needless to say, one thing led to another and I walked in the door at 1:45am and within 20 minutes I was asleep....after laughing my head off at Makenna because she jumped up and went into my hall closet saying Daddy, who was dead asleep, told her to get up and get something out of there! I digress...7:00am I am awake. Ok, I haven't seen 7:00am on purpose, unless it was tournament time, in over 9 months. I am like a vampire now after working night shift, no matter how tired I am, my body is ready to be awake at night and asleep all day. I am awake this early so I can go to sleep early tonight for a 4am wake up call. We have to leave at 6am to get to a tournament tomorrow. I HATE 8am games!!! I have so much to get done today and am procrastinating getting into the shower by sitting here writing more and more on here. It must be done though, I must get up and shower!!

In case you were wondering, yes Makenna's team won their game. Although an ugly win, it was a win none the less and now they are in first place! Hopefully that streak will continue tomorrow during the tournament. I will have a full update soon! Think winning thoughts!

If you are traveling over this Easter holiday, may God keep you safe as you celebrate our Saviours death and Resurrection.

Spread too thin?

Physically...I WISH! However that is not what I mean. Have you ever felt like you were spread too thin? Like you had and wanted to do everything in one day but, felt like you didn't give any area enough attention? I felt that way today!! I don't usually do baby or bridal showers but one of my dear friends from nursing school was having a bridal shower today. That's all well and good however, Makenna had practice and so did Christian and all at the same time. Eric was at his Bass club and I had made arrangements for Makenna to spend the night on Sat at a team mates house...she messed that up and I had to drive her out there this morning, get a shower gift, fill my gas tank, make a birthday cake for Eric, drop Ethan back home and then leave for the shower (which I was late for). Luckily Eric took Christian to practice and his coach brought him home. I had to leave the shower early to go watch the last half of Makenna's scrimmage. We got home and picked up Eric and Ethan to celebrate Eric's birthday dinner, not Christian because he decided to take off to a friends house and not tell anyone...oh yeah, he's grown. Came home, got the kids to shower, watched a movie with Eric and had birthday cake. PHEW...now it's midnight and I am so tired but can't go to bed because I have to stay up to prepare for work tomorrow night. Am I crazy or did I spread myself a bit too thin today?

This was my very first blog ever...hope I did it right!