Play ball!

One of my favorite quotes has to do with baseball (shocking, I know). It says, "People ask me what I do in winter when there's no baseball. I'll tell you what I do. I stare out the window and wait for spring."

After months of waiting, baseball season is finally upon us. I love sitting in the bleachers watching games--Cooper's, Bennett's, the Rockies, random games on TV. Bring it on!

Cooper had his first tournament last weekend and they got their rear ends handed to them in all three games. I hate seeing them lose big, but the scores were not indicative of the kind of team they will be. They had one or two bad innings and the other teams capitalized. All of the teams we played were 8th grade teams and we really hung in there. Coop was exhausted after catching three games, but he did great. He was a bit rusty in game one, but pulled it together after that. In game 3, he had two collisions at the plate tagging runners out. So fun! He has been putting in extra time working on blocking and something has finally clicked with his hitting. He went 3-5 over the weekend with one walk. The video is of his 2 RBI double. He was pretty pumped!

Digging a pitch out of the dirt.

Had to also throw in this photo of Kaiya. We now have two kids in braces. As if these kids don't already cost enough! She is pretty sore at the moment, but is hoping it resolves before we head out for sunny Scottsdale on Friday! She got to watch a movie while they were putting on her braces, so it wasn't all bad. I think she looks so old with them on!

Not too thrilled

Finally talked a smile out of her

2 RBI double taken with crappy cell phone video

Tulsa Time, Take Two

When my little brother headed off to college, I promised him I would make it out at least once a year to see him play. I wish I could go all the time, but I have to settle for once a year.

This time, I took my girls and make a girls' weekend out of it with my mom. We had to be super creative to make this trip work because the flights were all oversold. Add to that the time changes and Daylight Savings, and it was a whirlwind of a weekend! So, this is how it went . . .

1) Fly standby on Friday to Oklahoma City since Frontier no longer flies direct to Tulsa (drat!)

2) Rent a car in OKC and drive to Tulsa airport (plus a scenic drive around Tulsa getting lost thanks go errant Google maps airport address), dropping of rental car #1.

3) Take a shuttle from the Tulsa airport to our hotel

4) Pick up a rental car #2 to drive one-way home on Sunday since all flights were oversold.

That took some careful planning!! The only thing we failed to plan for was bad weather. Just before Salina, KS, we hit a massive spring storm. My mom and I are both bad weather driving wimps, but we survived. It added over 2 hours to our drive time and there were times we couldn't even see the pavement or the lines on the highway, but somehow we made it, arriving home at 5 a.m. on Monday. Whew! The memories were totally worth it and we got some great quality time with Bennett and his girlfriend, Casady, and her family who also came to cheer on Bennett.

My girls did great with all the travel and loved the whole weekend. Neither one wanted to come home!

Getting our rice burner car--good thing this wasn't rental car #2 through the snow!

Finally got to see B after the game Friday night.

The batter is supposed to be a first round draft pick in June and Bennett outplayed him!

After game activites--Casady's younger sister is a cheerleader and Kinley was in heaven!

Walking around ORU campus

Inside the student center--everything has a biblical reference, like these mirrors.

What a good lookin' couple!

The Bennett Pickar fan club

Some snuggle time in our hotel

Perspective

It's funny how life teaches you little lessons when you least expect it. I have had a rough couple weeks and have been trying so hard to snap out of my funk. All it takes is one life-altering moment to put everything in perspective.

Last weekend, we were at Kaiya's gymnastics banquet enjoying a really nice night when my phone starting ringing off the hook. I kept ignoring the calls, but after about the 10th call from my co-workers, I stepped out and took one of the calls. It was then that I learned that one of my favorite co-workers from the cardiac floor had just tragically lost her husband in a freak accident just days before they were going to head to New Zealand. They had only been married for 18 months and now he's gone at age 27. She and I started at the same time and became buddies very quickly. When you spend 12 hr shifts with people, they become your work family and I just loved this girl! My heart is broken in two for her.

As I've processed the enormity of the event and then attended the memorial service with all of my work family yesterday, it caused me to do some serious reflecting on what is really important in life. Ironically, I had already had plans with some of my old high school friends to get together and we continued on with those plans. We had 12 guests for dinner tonight and had an amazing time--the kids all played and had a ball and it was great to reconnect--I just love every one of these girls and their spouses/significant others. They are just warm, good people in every way. It's the 2nd time we've gotten together since our big 20 year reunion and it's so fun to renew old friendships. I've done the same thing with my gymnastics friends about once a quarter as well and it's just really special to create new memories with people that I have known most of my life.

In honor of Kate, I am going to try really hard to keep this perspective to focus on what's important and let the rest go!

Kaiya's gym family at her banquet--what a neat group of girls!!

Jodi and her super cute girls

Those eyes!

We will not admit our age!!

Shonda and Max

Lupe and Robyn & Jenna

Such a fun night