Blessed by Community

On Sunday Daddy had a softball game, of sorts.

I say "of sorts", cuz it turned out only 10 guys total showed up (for both teams) so, instead they played a nice game of 5 on 5, and made up rules about how to determine if each hit was a single, double, triple, homerun, etc.

Tay got a little tuckered out, as we drove around for several minutes, hoping to land on an empty softball field. We had trouble finding a field to play on, as it was just an impromptu game, and most of the parks had teams playing soccer or flag football on them. But we eventually ended up at a small elementary school near our apartment- and had the whole area to ourselves.

And when we got to the wonderful, empty field, we found out we were going to get to hang out with Taylor's buddies, Silas and Owen.

Silas reportedly got out of his car, saw Taylor was there and said to his mama, Miss Shannon, "I've got to go see my Taylor!" Precious? yes! It's like he's proud to have a "lil' sis" to care for and make giggle. And nobody can make Taylor giggle like Silas!

And Owen's favorite thing at this new park/elementary school, appeared to be the waterfountain. He watched one of the older, softball men come drink and then spit his water into the grass. Well, that was enough permission for Owen to feel he should become "one of the men" and follow suit.

So he did! And he watered all the trees, sprinkled the grass, and soaked his lil' shirt in the process =)

Taylor greatly enjoyed the outdoor air. It was a beautiful day, with a great breeze, and not-too-hot sunshine.

Taylor hung onto her precious "no hablo" pacifier, with gusto, however, as she is most likely workin' on tooth #3! We're still not sure if it'll be a top or a bottom toofer, but she's actin' like it's on it's way!

We had a great afternoon, and I was glad to have the hang out time with Shannon while we watched our men play softball! We don't get to chat much, other than to talk about what times Taylor slept, ate, or how many diapers she went through in a day of daycare, ha! I really like her, and greatly enjoyed our time.

We're excited, cuz we joined a LIFE GROUP from church. On rally Sunday, they had all the life group rosters out on the table, for people to join if not in one, or to see what new ones have been born, etc. Several months ago Pastor Kirk challenged all us "board members" to join a life group- as it's a vital part of how our church does ministry (these groups serve each other, but also serve together).

We tried a few different times to motivate ourselves to get to it, but things fell into or out of place, and we just didn't feel the timing was right. But now it is =). And we're also excited, cuz we got into one with Shannon and her family, and Maricela too =). So I'm stoked to have some time set aside each week, to pursue these friends, make new friends, focus on what God is up to in our lives, and dig deeper into understanding what God wants to do in our lives!

We are feeling so blessed these days too- I wanted to share with ya how God takes care of us in the lil' things... I can't remember if I ever mentioned on here that a friend from church asked me to come over and pick through her daughter's 18 month clothes, and take what'er I wanted for Tay. Well she called again last week, and said she'd just moved her lil girl into 3T, so I could come over and get all her 24 mo and 2T clothes! Whoa! I left with two huge trashbags FILLED to ripping when I lifted them! How incredible to be blessed in this way!

And, Kathy, you'll for SURE get a kick out of this! We got little pink crocs for Tay too! hehe

And, lastly, I wanted to show a cutie picture of Taylor in her "big girl car seat" cuz I don't think you've seen it yet! Isn't it pretty?

It, also, was a blessing from Jesus, as we got a WONDERFUL deal on it, from a friend, and Taylor looks mighty cute in it! And, on this day, she was MATCHING the pretty colors, so I just had to take a snapshot!

I'm thanking God for the community he builds around us. I feel blessed!

Blessings to you, too!

Casi Campeones

This week was the championship game for the
Girls Softball teams
(6th-8th Grade)
Small Schools Division
of the Diocese of Orange

and I am the proud wife
of the proud coach
of the proud second place winners

The game was played at a little school
in Huntington Beach,
and we had GORGEOUS weather
and a nice lil' breeze!
Here's a highlight video...
It's a lil' long so it may take a sec to load

Remember you need to go to the site to view the video.
At the site click on the triangle to play the video.


The ACS Eagles 2010

And here's a pic of the Graduating 8th Graders
Greg's been their coach for FOUR years!!
'Tis a sad goodbye!

Today is Sunday.
We had a great morning at Church.
We're sittin' on the couch,
enjoying Beauty and the Beast this afternoon.
(a birthday gift from Kathy to me)
and I'm singin' along,
imagining the day
when Tay can sing along too.
How fun!

We are headed to a birthday party later,
and we'll be eatin' homemade Middle Eastern Food
Mmm!

Have a happy rest of your Sunday!

~-~-~PS~-~-~
For those of you "non-Spanish-Speakers"
Casi = "almost"
Campeones = "Champions"

It's In Her Blood

That's right...

Whether a player or just a fan,
without a doubt,
Taylor will experience a ball and bat
cuz it's in her blood!

She went to Daddy's Softball Game
before her two month birthday!

PUSH PLAY ON THE TRIANGLE TO PLAY THE VIDEO
(remember you may need to go to the site to view the video)

And Taylor has also learned how to
cheer on the ACS Eagles
at Daddy's Coached Team
of 6th-8th Grade Girls!

PUSH PLAY ON THE TRIANGLE TO PLAY THE VIDEO
(remember you may need to go to the site to view the video)

And Taylor just got to see her first
professional ball game
this past week
and she was an incredible trooper
staying for the entire five hours
from start to finish!
Way to go Tay!

PUSH PLAY ON THE TRIANGLE TO PLAY THE VIDEO
(remember you may need to go to the site to view the video)

As you can see,
this post is later than I had hoped,
but I had fun editing all three ball games
so I wanted to post all three together
and it took some extra time.

This week I got in a few hours of work
by editing our Christmas Program
and burning it to a DVD.
I have now mastered that whole process.
It took a few tries to get it right.
But it now is done,
and Clancy said she'd pay me for my hours =).

Also
as you can probably guess
Spring Break threw us off our "days of the week"
and we lost track of yesterday being Friday
so the FFF post will have to wait until tomorrow!
We'll take the photo today,
after Taylor gets up from her nap.

I have Honey Baked Chicken cookin' away
and the smell in here is fantabulous.
Can't wait for dinner tonight!

Mmkay,
love to you all,
and enjoy your weekend!
We know we will
as it is our last weekend of SPRING BREAK!

Summer's Over

Thanks for the many sweet comments
about Baby Girl's room and decor!

We've had a lot of fun thinkin' it all thru.
Right now it looks pretty dishevelled
(had to look up the spelling of that!)
as there's no real furniture in there
except for an empty desk
which has turned into a work table
until we get the crib and shoo out the desk.
It's been nice to have the easy access
to the desktop
and it works VERY well for craft making.

I think I'll try to hold onto it
for at least a few months,
as my mama is comin' in Oct
and my mama-in-law is comin' in Nov
and I'm going to try to borrow
a sewing machine for each of those weeks
so we can get some projects done on
Baby Girl's Red and White Room.
So fun!

Anna comes this weekend
to visit and hang out
and we're so stoked she's comin'!
We have plans to do some "So Cal" stuff,
and some to just hang with friends.
Should be great!

Last weekend I mentioned we went to SD
and we had a great time!
We were only there for a handful of hours
but we had quality time with "family"!

Here's Uncle George and Aunt Carol

Here's the Mellinger Clan.
They are a gorgeous family INSIDE and OUT.

And here we are with the Mellingers.
We had a great time with them.
We're planning on NOT waiting another 5 years
before we catch up again!

School has started.
I don't have classes this week,
but have an hour or so of office duty each morning
(instead of traffic duty
which is a great switch for me
this year!)
so I spent a few hours this afternoon
getting my "office orientation", ha!
Other than that,
I've been working on getting to know
my US History- 8th Grade Social Studies texts,
my Pre-Algebra curriculum, and
my Spanish leveled lessons
(yes we finally bought texts
for me to make wksts out of
so that the class is more academic).
As of now,
it looks like office duty
will be my "other period" of the day.
She is deciding at this point
whether or not she wants me to teach Art
to one or two grades.
I just think it might be weird to teach
only one or two grades,
but whatever.
We'll see.

Greg is doing traffic duty this week,
and both of us assume it will become
his responsibility for the year,
as we can't seem to think of
who else would be available to do it! ha!
And he's not holding classes this week
so he's been working on
his PE Curriculum and Equipment,
his 7th Grade Life Science texts and expectations,
and his 4th Grade Math lessons.
We will both have very full years this year!
(not to mention
we're adding a new life
to our family this year too!!)

Greg had the play off game
for his softball team
in the Summer Church League
last Sunday.
They had a tough game,
and lost,
but Greg ended with the best Batting Avg
of the team...
which is kinda fun!
He's right around a .700!!
Not bad!

In the above picture he got a double.
He's known for his speed
around those bases!

Alright--
I'm going to take after my father,
and go relax in a hot bath
before I crawl into bed.
Last night, or should I say this morning,
I awoke at 3:30am
and stayed awake until the alarm rang
at 6:30am.
I had nothing I was thinking about.
I even asked God
if he wanted me to think about something
or pray about something
and nothing came to mind.
I just wasn't sleeping anymore.
I hate watching minutes tick by so slowly!
So I'm hoping for some restful rest tonight!

Goodnight!

A Stadium of Singers

Okay,
so I alluded to a funny story at Angel's Stadium
a week ago
and I just have to share it with you.
Too too funny!

We got to go for free
cuz Tamra
(our church children's director
and my good friend)
had extra tickets for Kids' Summer Camp.
So she offered to let us come,
because the church was gonna eat the tickets anyway.
They had about 100 kids there,
but still had too many left over.
So we got there,
and found out it was one of the few
mid-week
mid-day
games of the summer
so there were TONS of
schools,
camps,
and youth groups
there that day!
In fact,
the Angels Franchise
had this day marked as a
CAMP HALO
day game,
so just about the entire third tier
of the Angel's Stadium
was chaperones and kids
wearing all different colored t-shirts
that their churches,
school districts,
camp staffs,
or other groups
had them wear for "easy-identification".
It was a rainbow of shirts!

Kids were cheering the whole time,
and the chants like
"Let's Go Angels...
*long clap*long clap*clap*clap*clap*"
went on FOREVER
cuz... kids can do that!
It was loud,
it was fun,
it was shaded (thank you God),
and we all got a free hot dog too!

So it was like the 8th inning,
a batter had just fouled off a ball,
and we were dazing off,
waiting for him to set himself back in the box,
and receive the next pitch.
I think most kids,
by this point in the game,
were not really watching or paying attention,
and were going wild in their seats,
ready for it all to be over.

Onto the big screen comes the face of a pirate.
And the pirate says,
"Are you ready kids?"

I kid you not,
10,000 children responded,
"Ay ay Captain!"

Greg and I looked at each other in disbelief.
How do these kids know the Angel's ads?
There's no way they've come to this park
enough that ALL of them know this ad.

The Pirate continued,
"I can't Heeeeeear youuuuu!"

12,000 children shouted,
"Ay ay Captain!"

Hysterically laughing,
Greg and I whipped around to see the
chaperones and other leaders,
jaws dropped,
tears streaming down our faces.

And then it all became clear.
The pirate sang,
"Who lives in a pineapple under the sea?
Sponge Bob Square Pants.
Absorbent and yellow and porous is he.
Sponge Bob Square Pants."

These 12,000 children
sang along,
all standing,
swaying to the music,
and smiling away.

I couldn't stop laughing.
It was so absurd that they were so bored
and suddenly all became enthralled by a song.
We cracked up.

Okay- so maybe it's not that funny typed up,
or maybe you just had to be there,
but if ever you get the chance
to hear 12,000 bored kids,
erupt into song in unison
you've got to grab hold of the opportunity
cuz it's great!

"Let's Go Angels...
*long clap*long clap*clap*clap*clap*"

So it begins...

I understand that my baby girl will not

ALWAYS be wearing pink...

and for that I am thankful.

At the same time, I realize that,

from time to time,

she will.

So, as a VERY MASCULINE Father,

I have started the trend of pink,

and started it in the right direction =)

She will be just about the right size to don

one of these at the Angels Home opener

in April 2010 =)

Back and in the Swing... of Rest

Home Sweet Home

We had a great time up North.
I'll be posting a few pix of each of our stops.
We did spend a lot of time in the car,
but we also got to hit some great stops
and see some great people
and make some great memories!

We'll start today with our stop in

San Francisco


Crossing the Bay Bridge
(We could see the park
from the middle of the bridge
out on the left)

AT&T Park in San Francisco
A RAINBOW across McCovey Cove
Can you see it?

Then as the sunset,
the rainbow became a double
and the clouds turned red.
(Yes men...
I did also watch the game!
No really! I promise!)

Us at the Giants vs Padres

We were a little late-
had hit some traffic on the way,
but we got in a good 6 innings.
We stood in line for hotdogs
-SO HUNGRY-
and the when we got to the front
they were out of hot dogs
at a ball park
on a Saturday
in only the 3rd inning.
Are they crazy?
Yup!

The game wasn't great
but the company was =).
It was a low scoring game,
with quick innings,
and a few errors.
We missed the SF no hitter
BY ONE DAY
but that was okay.
We still had a good time.

Incidentally,
I had blogged that my gift to Greg
to celebrate our 5th wedding anniversary
was tickets to both Giants and A's stadiums
**however**
we decided not to go to the A's game
as that Saturday other things came up.
We ended up coming back home earlier
and getting to see Grandpa Robbie
(Kathy's Dad)
because he was in Huntington to attend a funeral
and we didn't want to miss him.
It was a good thing though,
because it woulda been like 100 degrees
and it's possible we wouldn'ta gotten shaded seats.

All in all
A good time in the Bay Area

(Don't worry- more to come in later days!
I promise!
**Oh**
And my belly is slightly pooching now
and it shows in a few of our pix
from up North
so look forward to that too!)

Training School Stories and Baseball

Yesterday we spent the afternoon and evening with Caleb down in San Diego! It's amazing to think that we've seen every one of our immediate family members since June! And that's without any huge family reunions or weddings to bring us all together! Gary and Kathy and Nate: June/July in Montana -- John and Sharon and Neil and Laura and Sally: August in Tennessee -- Anna: August in Orange County -- Caleb: August in San Diego -- We're so blessed to get to travel this much and to see family that lives so far away from us!

A Baseball Fan?

Thursday, 06 October 2005

• I'm excited. I get to teach in the same classroom for three weeks straight! It means I'll have papers to grade, and a little lesson planning to do... But I'm so stinkin' excited to see the same kids day after day! Yay! Plus, it means steady work (which means steady pay).
  Did you know that Greg is a huge baseball fan? He is. He really likes it. That's great. I've learned to enjoy watching a game, and rooting for a team. However-- the playoffs really bother me! They take away the times of the shows that I REALLY want to watch! I'm totally totally into the show Hause, MD. It's AMAZING! If you haven't seen it, you should. But wait-- there's not going to be an episode on UNTIL NOVEMBER because of Baseball! Bummers.
  Did you know that Greg loves to play MMO, RPG, PVP computer games? (I actually know what those initals stand for!) The kind where you're playing with and against other gamers all around the world. He really likes it. That's great. I've learned to enjoy not only watching him play, but playing with him! Can you believe it? I play computer games, with my husband, like several times a week, and I enjoy it!
  I really think marriage opens your eyes to other ways of enjoying life. If someone had told me I would enjoy watching baseball, and care about which team won, I would never have believed it. If someone had told me I would actually play a video game on the computer, and play it often, and understand what people are talking about when they say it's horde versus alliance, and they're a dwarf paladin fighting a tauren shaman in a battle ground... I never ever would have believed it. AND I understand what that means! I like finding out more about myself.
  Yay.

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