Monday, March 11, 2013

Batter Up!

It's baseball season!  It's also tax season.  What does that mean for us? ...

Peyton is playing baseball with Pittsburg Pony.  This is his third year with Coach Dave and Coach Tobin.  Maryam is playing softball with Delta Baseball and Softball Leage.  This is her first year as an official player. (She has "practiced" a bit with Peyton's team in the past.)  Fortunately or unfortunately--I haven't figured out which it is yet--their practices overlap twice a week.  Scheduling is becoming quite interesting, especially since Tobin is super busy at work.  Alas, the woes of the soccer, or baseball, mom!

Peyton loves playing baseball.  He was a little wary this year, since he moved up a division and is playing with a harder ball now.  Around Christmas time, he and Tobin were playing catch together at the park one afternoon.  Peyton missed a "pop fly" thrown by Tobin, and ended up catching the ball with his mouth.  Needless too say, there was a lot of screaming, crying, and blood involved.  The inside of Peyton's lip was split open, and Tobin ended up taking Peyton to the minor injury clinic to make sure he didn't need stitches.  This view of his fat lip doesn't paint an accurate picture of the hamburger that was the inside of the poor boy's mouth!

Since this little mishap, Peyton has done fine.  He was a little scared to start the season, but all in all, he is doing well now.  I think he will really love it once the games start in a couple of weeks.  (I'm already hyperventilating about the scheduling nightmare that could become, even though I don't have his game schedule yet.)

Maryam's team got off to a rocky start.  The original coach quit unexpectedly, so another mom stepped up as the team coach.  It's her first year coaching softball, and she is working like mad to learn all the rules, drills, etc.  Poor lady!  It's a steep learning curve!  Maryam is working hard to learn softball skills.  She wishes that the girls pitched overhand, like boys do in baseball.  She is not used to underhand pitching and is struggling with batting.  I think with some more practice and a positive attitude, she will soon be batting just fine.

There's so much drama with the parents on her team right now.  Most of the other parents didn't know what happened with the original coach, and assumed that our coach just isn't on top of things.  I'm struggling to find the balance between staying clear of the drama, supporting the new struggling coach, and informing other parents of the rough hand that was dealt to this coach.  Ugh!  I hope girls softball doesn't always involve this much drama!  Next year has to be better, right???

Braden and Natalie love that their older siblings are playing baseball and softball.  Why?  Well, it means that four times a week they get to play at the park for two long hours, or more! Luckily, both parks we practice at this year have great playgrounds.  The little ones get their fill of running, sliding, climbing, etc., while the big kids practice.

It's time to break out the summer hats and sunscreen!  Let's play ball!

Friday, February 15, 2013

What to do . . .?

When you are super behind on something like blogging or scrapbooking--I'm behind on both, by the way--where do you start?  Do you go back, start where you left off, and try valiantly to catch up?  Or do you just start with today (or the recent past) and move forward, filling in the giant gap as you can?  I've heard before with scrapbooking that you should do the latter, but I'm not sure if it would work all that well for blogging.  What say you, fellow bloggers?

Anniversary Weekend

On February 5th my husband, Tobin, and I celebrated 14 years of wedded bliss.  And by bliss I mean lots of hard work, trials, tears, fun, love, laughter, triumphs, miracles, and everything in between.  Tobin's fabulous brother and sister-in-law took our kids for TWO nights so that we could get away for the weekend.  Did I mention they are awesome?!?!

Due to several factors, including our goals to pay off debt, we decided to stay close to home--a staycation of sorts.  We made a bid of Priceline and ended up at the Pleasanton Marriott.  That's about 45 minutes from our home.  We had such a fun weekend together!  It was really nice to get away without any kids or other distractions and just enjoy each other.  We were spoiled with lots of alone-together time for the first seven years of our marriage.  (read: we had no children)  Now, with two six-year-olds and two two-year-olds, life is crazy!  I'm learning more and more how important it is to nurture my relationship with my husband.  It's far too easy to let it get swept aside by all of the other obligations in a busy family life.

We didn't plan anything specific to do during the weekend.  We saw a movie, went out to brunches and dinners, went to the Oakland temple, tried out the hotel's outdoor hot tub (which was really only warm), did a bit of walking and shopping, etc. 


We had sushi on Friday night; it was possibly the best sushi I have ever eaten.  Sooo delicious! 

California Roll and ?
 
Moonlight Roll
 
Shrimp Tempura

 I ended up packing at the last minute because I tried to get everything else done first. I figured it wouldn't be too hard to throw a few things in a bag for us; we were only going for two nights, after all. I did pretty well, but forgot a couple of essential things like a comb and brush. Don't you think our hair looks good in the picture at the temple? That was just before we headed to a store to get a brush and comb. Luckily, short, curly hair styles pretty easily without any tools.



A beautiful day at the Oakland Temple
 
View of Oakland and San Francisco from the temple

 
The weather was so clear we could see the Bay Bridge and the Golden Gate Bridge from the temple.

We really enjoyed the time to ourselves! And now we are back to reality in full force, including Tobin's busy season and the older twins' baseball season. Whew!




This One Is For Sarah Elkins!

My sister, Sarah Elkins, is having a baby shower tomorrow.  She and her husband are expecting a new bundle of joy, due in May.  However, the baby seems to want to arrive sooner than that!  I want to make the baby a quilt, but Sarah and her husband are waiting to find out the sex of the baby until he or she is born.  What a fun surprise!  Because of this, I am waiting to make their baby quilt.  :)  I have sketched out an original idea.  Something I've never tried before, so I hope it turns out well.  I'm actually really excited about it.  Now I just need to know the baby's sex so I can finish the plan and make sure I have enough of the right color(s) of fabric.  I can't wait to find out!

Once the quilt is done, I'll certainly post pictures here so you can all see how cute the quilt is.  (If it doesn't turn out well, then there won't be any pictures.  ha ha ha!  You might have to wonder for a long time which way it goes, based on my most recent blogging frequency.  ;))

I love you, Sarah!  I hope your party tomorrow is super fun!