Howie Turns 1

When asked how his life has been for this past year, he simply replied, "meow." And ran outside to attack bugs.

The Final Cover for Harry Potter 7 has now been released... what does it mean?

I went for a walk and I got hives...

So after a long day, I was looking forward to going home and wearing the dogs out and going right to bed. However, my body had other plans. We had work, softball practice, then athlete of the month. We didn't get home till after 8:00pm. The dogs had been alone for 8 hours and were hyped up. We decided to take them for a walk so they could run off some energy. We took them to some dirt fields and let them go.

As we came back and walked up the driveway, I felt really warm around my neck like I was getting hives. I thought maybe something bit me and my reaction was some hives, not completely unnatural for me. However, as I removed my shirt I had some very curious looking welts on my arms, legs and stomach. As I was frantically searched for some medicine, they got worse, a lot worse and spread all over... I was one big welty rash.

So after some phone calls, home remedies, a trip to the ER, I was back home in bed by 12:30am. I still had some welts but I looked a hundred times better and felt better too. I woke up and was super sleepy. Adrenaline will wipe you out every time. I re-checked in with a nurse today and I'm pretty good, just tired. Damn hives. Have no idea what caused them, have no idea why they magically disappeared in the ER waiting room...

Brain Child

So we've been struggling with the girls in softball. They are so near perfect one day and then play like t-ball girls the next. We are trying to get them to understand what it's like on our side. Insert my Brain Child. I came up with the idea of them running a practice. Not their own but planning and executing a practice for Frosh/Soph. So Friday they had 40 minutes to plan a practice. Erin and I spend about 15-20 so we figured double as their first shot out. They had to write it out and follow it. Today that was executed.

I was particularly looking forward to a couple of parts, the stuff with my pitchers and catchers, a drill called 5 in a row and then seeing how they work together as coaches. Watching the pitchers work with other pitchers was nice. It showed me they do pay attention once in awhile :) 5 in a row which they turned into 3 in a row is a drill that is based purely on getting your own job done. Simple enough. You must cleanly field and throw the ball to 1st base as an infielder. As an outfielder you must cleanly field and hit your cutoff depending on what side of the field your on. Pressure, you have it in a game and you have to find creative ways to create it in practice. As is our other drill, 21 outs. They have to get 21 outs in a row, no errors. Why 21 outs? Because we have 7 innings with 3 outs, do the math. The simple fact of it is, they each would only have to get 1-2 outs each, not near as easy as it sounds.

We heard some great comments: "I think I have a grey hair growing; I want to throw the bat; I don't know how you do this everyday; I want to choke **** (other coach). It was nice to sit in the stands and drink water. We had to make a few comments for form that they didn't see but other than that we were out of it.

They got out of it exactly what I was hoping. Every comment they made was exactly what we wanted to hear. They were ready to get back to practice and are really looking forward to tomorrow and what we do for them. YAY! :D

Sleep? There is cleaning to do!

So we slept till around 10:00am. It's hard getting home at 1:30am. The beach was FANTASTIC! In fact, we were so distracted by our "heat" here that we forgot to pack anything with a long sleeve. So we bought some cute zipper hoodies in Morro Bay and all was right once more. We spent a good 4 hours on the beach but most of that was spent in the back of my car, laying around reading magazines and listening to the iLive. We just wanted to relax and that's just what we did. We took the dogs into the ocean a couple times and wore them down. We walked around in Pismo and Morro Bay, it was really nice.

Today, we clean. Erin is out working in the yard and I'm off to grocery shop and then work in the house, my fav! I've turned my plan into Spring Cleaning. We've been working on the house for the past week and it's really coming along. We're probably about 3 more days of 3 hour blocks from being all done. Which is good because the Candle/Jewelry Party is this next weekend. Well off to the store and then to make a pineapple upside down cake! MMM :D

So to the unknown eye, this would just be a picture of a Geocaching Website. HOWEVER, if you looked at the pic of the dog toward the top and even clicked on the picture, you would see toward the bottom right that is says, "Photo by Team Rise Over Run." HEY! That's us! I took that pic of Eve the dog while we were out getting others hooked on geocaching. She was ready to go the whole time. That was quite a surprise to see my pic on a website. :)

Quote:

"After I got home, I could bow-hunt... if I wanted to... on an ATV"


LMAO: This coming out of Erin's mouth after reading a "Woman in the Outdoors" catalog. It's a weekend of outdoor-sy workshops for women only. You can attend any number of things, 2 of these being "bow-hunting" and "riding ATV's."

Overdoing it

So Monday I went to work at 7:00am and by 7:30am I was on my way home. I had a bad sore throat and didn't sleep for crap the night before. Turns out the allergies I thought I had from cleaning and doing yard work was actually a cold. Not a bad cold but a cold none-the-less. So I slept all day Monday, had trouble sleeping that night and went in around 10:30am on Tuesday. If I had to pick a cold, I pick this one. Cake walk compared to the sinus infections I had last month.

Only 3 days till the beach...woohoo!

Check 2 big ones off...

So we got up and were out in the garage yesterday by 8:30am. Pretty good since we didn't get home from Denny's till after midnight (long day of horrible softball, we needed something). By 9:00am we had unloaded, removed and dumped everything into the middle of the garage. By 9:15am we were in the car on our way to Lowe's to get organizational items to help in our task because we were way underprepared. A dent to the account and an hour and half later we were back home. We got some great little shelves to install, a tool/yard organizer and a few other little do-dads. Some friends stopped by to get some help on their GPS and ended up helping with the shelves. Turns out the website was down but we got a few good laughs in anyway. A few hours later and we were done for the day.

Enter take-n-bake pizza and some good company with friends while helping plan their wedding invitations.

Sunday - Today

We got up and I wanted to plop a chair in the garage and hang out there. It was purdy. Erin had other plans, so there we were in the backyard fighting huge weeds, over grown grass and dog mishaps. I was excused at 12:00pm to meet my dad and cousin to get our new fridge (for the garage, YAY). When I got back Erin had did wonders in the backyard and we called it a day around 2:30pm. A short nap later and we decided to stay in for the evening and relax.

VERY productive weekend. The plan is well underway!

Well this looks familar... where have I seen this before? Hmmmm...

Spring Cleaning AKA: My plan to get the house ready.

So with softball, committee's and meetings. I'm finding myself stretched thin, not physically, but we can't get everything all at once or can I? Anyway, geocaching came to a screeching, ear clinching, heels in the ground hault. It's sad but that is low on the priorities list :(

The house is taking a beating and that makes me sad because we worked so hard to get the darn thing in the first place. She wants to be painted and decorated and by golly, we'll get her there. First things first, must get cleaned up, cleaned out and organized. 3 of my FAVORITE things to do. Phase 1 started yesterday, I brainstormed. I made "clean house" in the center and drew lines out from the middle, each line being a room, bathroom, yard, garage, etc. From there I visually figured out what needed to be done and drew more and more lines. Then, Phase 2, I went into Access and set up a cleaning template with each room then it's subcategories. (Oh yes my friends, I'm this twisted and enjoyed every moment of this). Then across the top I set up Week of 5th, Week of 12th and Friday the 23rd. Next to each respective week I picked 2-3 days that I have scheduled cleaning duties. I have it set to be done on Friday the 23rd. Now, those of you who truly know me will also know this has now become a personal challenge to finish before the set deadline. Again, yes, I am this obsessive.

Guess what? Today begins Phase 3: Execution of said plan. I wonder how much I will get done :) This being, AFTER practice of course because nothing can get started or done till after practice...

Tortoise & Hare

Last year I got the turtle for my birthday and he has been sitting happily on my counter. Last night, at bunco, I won this little rabbit candy dish and I thought they could keep each other company. Share some candy, maybe some stories about their racing days. I really think it's a good match.