Softball

It was better than the championship!

By Lisa B on May 21, 2010

All day I had been planning a speech — a pep talk for my women’s ball team. We were 2-10 (that’s won 2 games, lost 10 games). I was going to share much of my revelation from yesterday’s post — we’re blessed to be able to even hold a bat and run the bases. Just being on the field is a blessing. We were playing the first place team (again!). Each time we’d played them, they’d run ruled us — some games more than others. I wanted to tell my team that my goal was to make them play 7 innings of ball!

Before the game, all I could get out was “I got new balls!”

We started off scoring first. Runners got on before me and I hit to right field. She missed the ball. I ran to 2nd — they threw home. I ran to 3rd. She overthrew 3rd so I ran home. That’s how crazy most of the game was. We played hard — every single one of us. When someone made an error, I made sure to yell as loud as I could to shake it off — good stop if it was a bad throw — try to find something positive about the situation. Of course I had one hit over my head. I turned towards the fence and let out a scream and I was over it.

I never asked what the score was and I was thankful I never heard it. I didn’t even know what inning it was. I just knew we had to get 3 outs. That’s what I concentrated on. I bobbled a fly ball and ended up pinning it against my stomach — out! Yes! I jumped up and down. Probably looked like an idiot

We got the last out (bases were loaded). We were walking to the dugout. I thought I’d heard the ump call ball game but I had to ask someone else. Was that ball game? Yes. Did we win? Yes. WUHOO! I whooped and hollered like I didn’t have any sense. But you know what? It was awesome. Simply awesome!

When we got into the car, Doodle asked me if we’d won the championship game. “No,” I replied, “it was better than the championship!”

Congratulations Luther’s Angels! We’re now 3 and 10 playing the #3 team in the championship game Tuesday night! {insert long, jumpy, happy dance here}

| Filed Under: Softball

Reality Check

By Lisa B on May 20, 2010

If any of you know me in person, you know I’ve been playing a lot of softball lately. It seems to be winding down as our co-ed team is in tournament play and Tuesday night my ladies’ team finished the last regular season game.

The game Tuesday? Was frustrating and painful. We played the first place team. Please don’t get me wrong – I wasn’t frustrated with anything anyone else on my team did. I was totally frustrated with me. I hit to the first baseman twice and made it very easy for her to get outs. Then I hit to the pitcher but somehow managed to beat out the throw. I was mad. I was determined to get there. And when I did beat out the throw? Something I never would have been able to do before I started to workout? I was still mad because I hit it back to the pitcher. I couldn’t even give myself credit for running hard.

Wednesday morning came and I was still down. I really tweaked my quad muscle and it hurt to walk. Our co-ed team was supposed to play our next game in the tournament and I didn’t feel like going. Duck’s group (which I run sound for) was supposed to be playing at a church service. He wasn’t going to the game which was disappointing because we were missing a few other players too. We had decided the group could do without me so I could go to the game, but the way I hit Tuesday, I didn’t have any confidence to go play.

Then the wonderful news came. Ball game canceled. I could let my leg rest. Our players would be back for the make-up game Monday. This was great news.

So I got to go to the church service. And. Oh. My. Did God show up and give me a reality check. See, this was no regular church. At least, not like you and I know it. This church is part of an intermediate care facility for the mentally retarded – profound, severe or moderate mental retardation.

Many were escorted in wheelchairs. Many were just escorted. I fought back tears as I realized how amazingly blessed I am to have 2 fully functioning arms and 2 fully functioning legs (even with a pulled muscle!). How blessed I am to be able to hold a bat, grip a ball or run the bases. I realized softball is just a game and it’s supposed to be for fun.

The biggest realization came when Duck’s band played “He’s got the whole world in His hands” — because it was then that I realized how truly mentally handicapped I am. Here were many who were doing the hand motions and singing as best they can — and they were truly worshiping God. They weren’t worried about what anyone else thought. They weren’t worried about what anyone else was doing. They just sang and bounced and had a grand time! I should be like that when I worship God! A child-like faith.

I thank God He had us right where He wanted us to be last night.

Tonight my ladies’ team plays the first place team again as the first round of the tournament starts. My prayer is that I will realize how much I am blessed to even be out there on the field and win or lose, have fun playing the game.

| Filed Under: Blessings, Personal, Softball

Catching up

By Lisa B on September 21, 2009

This post is going to be one of those great, random, short “what I’ve been up to instead of blogging” posts

Church: We seem to be settling into church. I setup a website for a little girl who we’re doing a fundraiser for — and you can help! I’m still finishing up a few things on the site, but I should have online donations available soon. We’re doing a fundraiser BBQ chicken dinner if you’re in the area. Check out the details at KaitlynAcosta.com and download a flyer — help us spread the word! So along with that site, I’ve also been trying to work on the church site — the pastor wants to setup his sermons in a podcast. I’m having to look up information about this again as I *used* to know about all that but have seem to forgotten. If any of you do this for your church, give me a shout. I’ll blog about it here too as I think others might benefit from the information.

She Seeks: I began setting up this site right before She Speaks, and I continue to work on it. We would love for you to help us promote the site to 20-something ladies. It’s a division of Proverbs 31 Ministries and really seems to be filling a void. Today’s post is on domestic abuse. I am more likely to lash out physically than Duck beating me — I think that’s a by-product of growing up with older brothers who would wrestle me. Still, I know many women who struggle with that. Pass it along even if it doesn’t apply to you!

She Reads: This is another division of Proverbs 31 Ministries. I helped setup this site. I wish I were more into reading as I think it would greatly help my writing, but I just can’t seem to make the time to read for pleasure. I’ve always gotta be learning something There’s some great posts here about whether or not Christians should read stuff like the Harry Potter books. Doodle loves the movies but she’s not much of a reader either — so we haven’t read the books. There’s some great discussions going on in the comments though so check it out. They are going to have author interviews and you’ll be able to converse with the author in the comments. A neat idea! Mary E. DeMuth has posted today also sharing about domestic abuse and her latest book Daisy Chain.

Softball: The Sunday league ended yesterday. Kind of a bitter-sweet ending. We went undefeated this season (6-0) and won the championship game by 3 runs. The first game of the championship was quite a bit of drama as the other team was really trying to stretch the rules … ie. cheat. Nerve wracking is what it was. But we pulled it off! Ball Hogs rock! Duck’s still got some men’s games left and we have our co-ed team. Our co-ed team was undefeated as well until last Wednesday … but I’m supposed to be letting that go I know we win and lose as a team, but all I concentrate on are my mistakes. I know. I’m hard on myself.

Vacation: Doodle is out on intersession already and we’re planning on taking her and a friend of hers to the Great Wolf Lodge in VA. I’ve heard great things about the place and it better be as awesome as they say, because it’s ex-pen-sive! Doodle’s already thanked us a million times for bringing her friend though so I think they’ll have a ball! Pray for Duck and I though as we’ll have 2x the talking to take in.

New member of the family: Congratulations to my niece who gave birth to a healthy bouncing baby boy. Everyone is doing well. That makes me a great-aunt. Wow. I must be getting old

I think that’s all for now. It may be another week before I catch back up with ya’ll. Just wanted you to know I’m still alive. But with working on 5 or 6 different sites this past week, well, mine’s fallen to the very end of the list as usual

Remember you don’t have to be a light to the whole world, just the ones God places on your path (to quote My Genius Better Half).

| Filed Under: Personal, Softball, Vacation

Women’s Softball 2009

By Lisa B on May 13, 2009

It’s bitter sweet really. The Adult Women’s league ended last night. The season seemed to fly by — I guess because there were only 4 teams in the league. We finished 4th in the season (that’s right 4th out of 4 teams) but that just so does not do our team justice. To look at our record of 4-9 does not tell of the heart that each lady played with every night. Several of the games we lost, we only lost by a few runs — and those all came down to one bad defensive inning.

The game I’ll remember is when we gave the undefeated 1st place team their first loss. Yes! That was awesome And we beat them in the first round of the tournament. Last night we played in the championship game. No one really expected us to be in that game. I know I didn’t. We lost 17-8 — just didn’t hit the ball. I’ll forever be focused on how bad I did though. Popped up to the pitcher with bases loaded, 2 outs. Unacceptable. So I’ll keep working out and practicing ball. There’s always co-ed this fall.

This was my first year coaching and a stressful one at that. I had just wanted to play but knew I couldn’t play without putting a team together. Well, that and if I had not put this team together, there might not have been a league at all. Although I’ve griped about coaching most of the year, I think I’ll be crazy enough to do it again next year

Way to go Luther’s Angels!

luthers-2009

Back Row: Angie, Gale, Rose, Melanie

Front Row: Tracy, Sabrina, Lisa C, Holly, Lisa B (me), Katherine

Styling behind trophy: Cece

| Filed Under: Softball

Not exactly according to plan

By Lisa B on June 13, 2008

Yesterday didn’t go at all according to my grand scheme. I was not able to stay off the computer as much as I’d hoped — I had a work project to complete. I did refrain from reading blogs, and only checked email for ones regarding the project. Duck worked from home which always throws my schedule off, and he convinced me (although it wasn’t that hard) to not clean house and ride our motorcycles to lunch.

When we rode to lunch, it was the first time I’ve gotten my bike on a major highway. I think the fastest I got the bike up to yesterday was about 63 MPH. And that was fast! Without a windshield, the wind was coming at me from all angles. I was afraid of one big gust knocking me over, but I survived! The vibration in the bike was a little much at that speed — something that Sportsters are known for I think. I was tired even after a short ride and that’s just not how it should be.

I need to give Duck a big THANK YOU! for riding my bike to put it in the shop. I think he had it up to about 70 MPH and had a much longer distance to ride it! My bike is too small for him and not comfortable at all. He takes such great care of me

I played in my last softball game of the Spring League last night. One of my players broke her foot attempting to slide into home. Please keep Nikki in your prayers. She’s in a lot of pain and can’t swallow pills. I hope they give her some strong liquid pain medicine! Other than that, we lost by at least 11 runs that I know of. The team we played shouldn’t really be in a church league, but since Duck warns me to watch what I say on here, I’ll leave it at that.

The best part of yesterday was when Duck paid me a compliment. He said I’m doing really well on my bike and looking more comfortable. I still have to learn a lot — how to park and I can’t back the bike up in our driveway to go out by myself. But that’s ok — I’m headed to the gym. Maybe if I get some bigger muscles, I’ll be able to roll my bike over the gravel to get it out. For now, Duck’s relieved I can’t go anywhere on my bike without him

| Filed Under: Fitness, Marriage, Motorcycle, Prayer Requests, Softball

End of School — Beginning of One Hot Summer

By Lisa B on June 7, 2008

Yesterday was the last day of school for Doodle, and I didn’t send her. They weren’t doing anything — they’d already had their end of the year party Wednesday. I was amazed at how much pizza a third grade boy can put away. Seriously, Doodle doesn’t eat anything compared to some of those kids. She’s just like me.

I think I saw where it was 104 here yesterday, and it’s supposed to be even hotter. Fletcher likes to come in and plop on the vent in the kitchen floor. He loves to be outside, so you know the weather’s gotta be bad for him to come in the house.

Last Wednesday Doodle’s softball team lost their tournament game. Doodle played an awesome ball game — Duck and I both were so proud of her! She played 2nd base the first inning and actually threw someone out! The move she did was one Duck worked on with her when she was the only one who showed for practice. We only scored 5 runs, and she had a part in scoring 4 of them — she hit really well every time she got up to bat. Just shows that it’s hard being the coach’s kid and practice pays off.

Today we’re headed to Build-A-Bear. Doodle’s birthday is pretty close to July 4th — or at least if I’d try to have a birthday party for her the weekend around her birthday, people would probably be out of town. So I got the bright idea to do her party a little early and right after they get out of school. She’s going to be celebrating her birthday for a good month I think.

If you happen to be around today, say a quick prayer for me. There’s only 6 kids total, and they are 4th graders now — so it really shouldn’t be that bad.

Oh, and if you haven’t seen the newest Straight from the Heart with Shannon @ Rocks In My Dryer, go check it out!

| Filed Under: Family, Priorities, School, Softball

Life from the Laundry Room

By Lisa B on May 5, 2008

It really sounds like a blog name, but it’s just describing my day — today. Because you see, I don’t go to the laundry room that often. At least, not as much as I should.

Today I was determined to “just do laundry” if I did nothing else. I was on a roll. Folding clothes from the dryer (ok, so they’d been there a week — cut me some slack). Washing clothes. Wet clothes to the dryer. New dirty clothes in the washer. But wait … there were 2 of Duck’s ball shirts. They had stains and stuff on them. I grabbed a bottle and attacked the stains because I was the Queen of Laundry today! There would be no stains making way through my wash!

What’s that smell? It didn’t smell like Shout. It wasn’t. It was generic bleach. The kind I would use in on my kitchen counters if I cleaned them. Uh-oh. Should I wash the bleach out? Would that make it worse? Maybe I should wash it in hot water? Maybe cold?

I did have enough sense to wash them by themselves. I know Mom’s relieved I figured if I’d messed them up, they were done for. Why take a chance on messing anything else up? The good news? The shirts were 2 different colors (originally) gold and yellow. When I finished washing them, you couldn’t really tell that I had squirted bleach over most of the lower half. It hadn’t faded out that much.

As soon as Duck walked through the door, I decided to come clean. His eyes got real big, and then he started to laugh. See, he always gets 2 ball shirts on whatever team he’s playing with. That way, he has a clean shirt to wear (think 2 games a week). I knew this and I thought I’d ruined both shirts. Turns out he had a third shirt I hadn’t even got my paws on yet The screen printer made a mistake with the gold shirts — they really are supposed to be yellow. So the printer gave the gold shirts to the guys anyway.

So, yay! I didn’t mess up his only shirts for this team (he’s got a game tomorrow!). He wasn’t mad! Although I’m sure he’ll be bringing this back up again … and again … and again. AND he said they really didn’t look that bad. I think the dirt and grass stains would have been more noticeable than the bleach At least that’s my story and I’m sticking to it!