Summer Baseball

We've spent many evenings at the baseball field this Spring/Summer. I thought I would post a few from Quinn's game this last weekend. These are from his travel team, the Concord Future. He really enjoys playing ball with his closest friends. Two wins for the weekend!

ESPN sports report

Quinn's baseball team did very well tonight. I have no idea what the score was... I forgot to ask Pakka. He keeps track with rocks on the ground because there is no "official" score keeping. I think we probably won. Quinn played very well. He played at the pitcher's mound and at short-stop. He caught a couple of fly balls and got people out at first base. He also had 2 hits tonight so I think the lucky birthday helmet is back in action!
...Post-date: Pakka says his team lost! See how close I paid attention to the score?

After the game we drove over to Madison's tournament game... just in time to see most of the last inning. I guess we were behind by about 4 going into it but ended up losing by the 10 run rule in the 5th. It seemed like they lost by "a-lot to not-a-lot"... I don't know what the score was there either. See how my mind is getting numbed from keeping all of these sports scores straight??? Nine games in the last 1 week will do that to a mother. I got to see Madison bat the last time... enough to see her get hit by a FAST pitcher! She got hit on the right forearm (she bats left handed). Out of all the girls, MY girl is the LAST one I want to get hit... for obvious maternal reasons but also because last year she had a tooth knocked out by a wild pitch and ever since then she's been afraid in the batter's box!!! This certainly isn't going to help. If I have my facts straight, this pitcher from Middlebury takes lessons year round from a Notre Dame coach and at 11 years old, pitches around 44 mph. So, that pitch had to hurt. My girl took her base and held back her tears until she got back to the dugout, to an icepack. I just hope this doesn't scare her off in the future. When I played softball as a kid, we certainly weren't facing pitchers with 44 mph pitches!! She's a tough athlete... even if she is only 10 1/2!

A softball cheer often heard from the dug-out...

We don't wear no mini skirts (echo)...
We just wear our softball shirts. (echo)...
We don't drink no lemonade (echo)...
We just drink our gatorade (echo)...
We don't play with barbie dolls (echo)...
We just play with bats and balls! (echo)...

Well, you should see my house after this last week... OK, I'm glad you are NOT going to see my house. We are in a state of chaos here. I do have LOTS of clean laundry from washing uniforms each night but I have loads and loads to fold. Have I mentioned that my dishwasher is limping along? Only the bottom sprayer is spraying so nothing on the top rack gets clean. Dishes are taking twice as long now. We need to get a new dishwasher that's obvious but we need to find the time to go get one!!!!!!!!!

Pakka is having a total knee replacement tomorrow (on Wed) around 1230 so pray for him will ya?... for a successful surgery, free of infection, pain relief, fast recovery... ya know, all of it. Thanks.

I must get to bed earlier tonight, I must, I must....
I must get to bed earlier tonight, I must, I must....
I must get to bed earlier tonight, I must, I must....

Saturday's Sprinting

Happy Birthday Michelle! Not another year older... just another year BETTER!

Today was another busy but fun Saturday. The kids went to bed between 10:30-11pm last night and were both up by 7am. How's that for their chance to sleep in? This morning the 3 of us helped "staff" the garage sale. Katie and Madison sold drinks. Quinn and Nathan made sure that the bikes and ride on toys that were for sale continued to function properly throughout the morning by riding them in circles around the driveway. The garage sales always draw a variety of people... a lot of Hispanics and some Amish too. The most interesting garage sale person was the man who walked around with a rat perched on his shoulder... with the tail draping down the front of his shirt. ...In case you are wondering, my grand total was around $52 which actually wasn't that bad because I really didn't take over much stuff. yeah!

Quinn had a baseball game at 11:30-1:20... it was a boiler!...sooo hot!! Beppe and I are already dreaming about Fall! Quinn got a batting helmet from Grandma & Grandpa and this past week was the first he got to use it. He was the first up to bat and he hit a home run! Soooo, from then on out, it was ..."this helmet is my life!"... "Don't let one speck of dust get on it!"... he was just IN LOVE with the thing! He went on to hit a double and two singles. Wow!.. What amazing powers were contained in that helmet.... that came to a screeching halt today while striking out 3 times!!! Some days you've got it... some days you don't! Oh well. I think his team won... I was in the process of a heat stroke, so who knows.

Quinn...with his "lucky" new helmet on. Taken just moment before he hit a homerun earlier in the week. A line-drive down the right base line.

Madison's second game of the tournament was today. Tony and she got to the field in Goshen at 11:15 or so for a noon start. Well, the game before them ran late... they didn't get started until 1:20! ...so 2 hours later, hanging out in the heat... they finally started play. And 2 1/2 hours later they were finally winding things up with a 35-6 win or something. The ump told Tony that that team had been undefeated before... in their Goshen league. We can't quite understand that. So they go on to play tourney game #3 tomorrow at 4pm in Elkhart against an Edwardsburg, MI team. Madison usually plays 1st base and does a really good job. The timing will be tricky with a Flames game at 3pm...hmmm.

One of the softball girls invited all of the team over to her house to swim after the game... a very much needed cooling down break. Madison got to swim about an hour and a half and then we picked her up and headed to Wakarusa to Abby's graduation party. She graduated from Northwood High School. Congratulations Abby!! Abby is our childcare provider for the summers. This summer will be her 3rd summer. The kids enjoyed seeing their pictures up with her picture collage displays at the party. The kids love her and so do we! She plans to go to Bethel College this Fall. She had a really nice party and I must say that they have the nicest garage I've EVER been in! Ask me about it sometime.

You know, we stay awfully busy, but each activity is a lot of fun. The kids enjoy it. Madison, especially, never wants to stop going, and going and going. I would enjoy it more if it wasn't so blazing hot... I mean I'm talking near 90 degrees Amanda!!..Do you feel our Midwestern pain? OK, probably not.

I'll try to post after the softball and soccer game tomorrow night!

Love to all, Leah

Baseball

On a happier note than the last one...

Quinn had a baseball game last night and tonight. According to the paper tonight, his team lost last night 16-23. He got his name in the paper though... for having some hits. I thought that was pretty cool. His team is...well...let's see... let's just say they probably won't make it to the championship game this year!

Tonight was a rain make-up game. He played catcher some both nights and really likes it. He made a great play at home tonight. A kid hit the ball straight down the left field line and it rolled almost to the fence. He was 3 steps away from a homerun but the left fielder had run in the ball and threw a rocket to Quinn who jumped to catch it and then he tagged the runner out! It was so exciting! The crowd went wild. : ) Quinn has played on the same soccer team with the runner and after he got out he turned around and told Quinn, "I hate you!" Can you believe that? That prompted a scolding by the umpire. I'm positive this boy is a special needs kid (or should be) and anger is obviously a problem. That made Quinn feel bad but he was able to shake it off. I'm sure his team actually won tonight. They slowed the machine-pitch down a notch and they hit much better!

Well, that's all for tonight. I just watched the last 5 minutes of American Idol and my predictions were all correct! Jordin won as suspected...

Love to all, Leah