Another Attempt at Randomness

It seems that most of my readers are not much baseball fans, sorry Todd. But that is OK, there many other random topics out there. When I started this blog (over a year ago) I seemed to have so much to say that I never expected to have a lack of topics. Unfortunately, life has a way draining my soul so translating my many thoughts into text on the computer has not always been easy. But I am going to try to be better.

Ahhhh they love each other.

So there is this new hotel in town that seems to be getting really popular. If any one is planning to come out here you should really check it out. It isn't really big or fancy but they are cool because they serve BBQ once or twice a week. Usually they serve on Tuesdays but occasionally they also serve something on Saturday or Sunday. The Tuesday BBQ is usually more of a grill with standard items such as hamburgers and hot dogs. Although every once in a while they serve something a little extra. Last Tuesday they made hamburgers but they mixed the spices in the meat with eggs and a little butter. Then for a little zing they mixed in some A1 sauce. They also used wet hickory chips with the charcoal to give it a little smoke flavor. Oh, and they grilled some red peppers to put on the burgers. Man, they were good!!!!! On the weekends they serve BBQ with more adventurous items like ribs or chicken wings but this section is already too long so I'll have to tell you about it later. The operators told me last time I talked to him that he expects to be serving chicken wings in about a week so maybe I'll let you know then.
Well, there isn't much exciting going on here. Amy and Phelan are here and we are enjoying their company. Also, the rug rats keep us going. That Lizzy sure is cute. I think she likes me more then the others did. The other day when I put on my backpack to leave she started crying and crawled right over to me. Also, when I come home she always seems so happy to see me. :) Amelia is doing great in school. It is amazing to me to think that just last year she was barely reading and now she is getting little chapter books from the library and just busting through them. Jacob on the other had is just entering the reading arena but so far he is doing really well. Oh, and Amelia is so good in her class. They get 12 tickets each week and the teacher takes them away when they get in trouble during the week. Then on Fridays the kids that have a certain amount of tickets left get to eat a healthy snack an play games (like UNO or the likes). I don't think there has been one week that Amelia has had less then 11 tickets. She really is such a good girl.

"Can I have one of those, Mommy!?"

OK. That should be good for now. We are hoping to go to a pumpkin patch this weekend. I hope to take pictures of the kids in the patch for their winter pictures. I hope I can get a few to come out really good so I can post some cute family pictures next week. I really like it if they turn as good as Stephen's last few that he posted.

PS. Yes I added shameless pictures of my cute kids in order to boost my ratings and reader comments. What can I say, I'm weak.

My Softball Game

****If you haven't read my post "Falling into Baseball" you might want to skip down to read it first as this post is related.

Last Thursday I played in double header softball games. Todd's ward has a team and they were going to be a couple of guys short so he asked if I was interested. Since they were 0-6 and had lost the last three by mercy rule, I figured I could give it a try. The last time I play anything that even resembled softball was probably my freshman or sophomore year of high school in PE. You should know that back then I wasn't the athlete that I am today :) I even needed special extra credit just to get a decent grade in the class. So all I was hoping for was to connect with the ball with either my bat or glove. (I would have taken either.)
Anyway, Todd wasn't totally truthful because when I showed up they did have enough guys. I ended up switching with another guy every 2 innings. I played as the catcher. For the most part I did OK but I could hear the other team laugh a little as balls got by me. I was a bit timid back there, but in my defense I was nervous and those bats seemed to get really close to my head. But in the end I just focused on the fact that I was wearing my John Buck t-shirt and tried to gather courage from that :)



In fact, I was glad I was wearing my John Buck t-shirt because I had one really intense inning. The first play was a hit to left field, thrown to the short stop and then GUNNED to home plate to get the runner out. (a 7 - 6 - 2 play) Well, there I was, a big ugly runner coming at me like a freight train and the ball flying at my head at 200 mph!!! Well, I was nervous and so I put up my glove but also my bare hand and in the end my body's reflex was to try and catch the ball with my bare hand. (With my eyes mostly closed) Needless to say, I didn't make the play :(
Well....not two or three hitters later there was another 7 - 6 - 2 play only this time the ball was probably only coming in at 195 mph and the runner was more like a semi truck. (Although equally ugly.) This time I remembered to use my glove and thankfully it fused with the fibers in the glove because I was able to swing my arm around and make the play to end the inning. Whew! (I let the other guy play an extra inning after that.)
As far as hitting, I was able to hit the ball each time I was up (only three times) I got out twice but made it to base on one hit. The hit was to shortstop but he bobbled it a bit so I was able to get a few steps on him. I think that irritated him a bit (ugly people are that way) and so he decided to throw it at my head! (At least that was my impression because it was kind of out of my field of sight.) Since I didn't have a helmet that made me nervous but I didn't want to cower too much so I just kept running. Well, as it turned out, it wasn't coming at my head but rather my foot. It hit it square on the inside side but I got on base! I was even able to get to second but not after embarrassing myself but leading off a bit. (Apparently, that isn't allowed in softball.)
So bottom line.... we lost both games but only by 3 points. Oh, and I had a bruise on my foot!!! It is gone today but still tender. Sports wounds are awesome.