Savings

Today my thankful is rather on the sarcastic side, but too funny.

Everyone likes to save money right? Well, tonight I had to make a trip to Meijer for one of the items below. And can you believe the savings they were offering?! What a price drop! Seriously?! I couldn't help but laugh here. Too funny.

However, today I am thankful for savings. It might not have been on this purchase, but saving is always something to be thankful for! :)

Josh

Today I am thankful or Josh. I spent most the day on the couch, sick. I went to the Med Station, got some meds, some soup, and hit the couch for the afternoon.

Now I hate being helpless. Hate it. Josh knew how stressed I was and he stepped up to help. Sundays are now my mowing days. Josh went over to my grandmas and my other grandmas house and mowed their lawns for me. Then he went to Meijer and grocery shopped! All this while I laid here trying not to to get up. I love Josh.

Josh is awesome! I really love how helpful and thoughtful of a husband he can be.

Today I am thankful for Josh helping me out today and allowing me to rest to feel better.

Surprise Visits

Today, I left Cooperstown after a cold and rainy morning, feeling awful. I wasn't just cold, my ears hurts, my throat hurt and my body was ready for a break! (Blah, blah, I know.)

Luckily I was able to spend the rest of the day on the couch. Josh was great and just let me sleep and rest.

About 945pm, we got visitors from Alexis and Tori. They came to stop by and bring me my favorite thing, a fountain diet Pepsi! I really appreciate them stopping by and wishing me a get well. They are very special to me, I mean us. We were both happy for the visit.

Today I am thankful for our late night visit!

Calling it Early

Today, I am glad that we have waited to cancel our softball invite to see how the weathers fairs in the morning. I do not like to cancel early. The weathermen are rarely accurate. Let's just pray we get to play! Today I am thankful as of now, our 16 team invite is still on for tomorrow. Pray!

Grandmas Birthday

Today, I debated if I should just order my grandma some flowers and have them delivered or if I should take my lunch and deliver them.

I decided to deliver them. I am really glad I did. I know my grandma was very thankful! She was happy to have a visitor and thankful for the flowers we got her. She showed me all the birthday cards she had gotten in the mail. They were all stood in line up on the table. She showed me the outfit she was going to wear to dinner and the outfit she was ironing to wear to the casino with my family on Friday. She was in a good mood.

Today I am thankful that I delivered my grandma some flowers on her birthday! :)

Life's Lessons

Today a few of my softball players learned some valuable life lessons not just in the game of softball. No details needed here. I wouldn't want to embarrassed anyone. :)

Today, I am thankful for life lessons.

Stats

Tonight we had a double header at home. I wasn't able to keep stats on the iPad during the first game. Boy was that a mistake. I just spent almost 2 hours trying to enter in the game details. However, in game two, Josh was able to come up and run the iPad. How nice was that? I appreciate Josh. Being able to go home and have the game done is awesome. Tonight I am thankful for Josh keeping our stats.

Motivation

After two day of reflecting on our team and our sub par performances, I decided we needed a good kick in the rears! We needed some motivation to get us geared up for conference play. Our talent level is above average, but lately our performance has been below. We got ten runned or mercied this weekend too. I just can't seem to motivate this group. We needed something. I searches my files to find the information below. That and an intense practice followed by a little agility and running might have done the trick to pump us up for tomorrow.

Our goal is to be conference champs. It all starts tomorrow. I hope our motivation did the trick. We will see.

11 Traits of the Best of the Best
1. The Best know what they truly want.

2. The Best want it more.

3. The Best are always striving to get better.

4. The Best do ordinary things better than everyone else.

5. The Best zoom focus.

6. The Best are mentally stronger.

7. The Best overcome their fear.

8. The Best seize the moment.

9. The Best tap into a greater power than themselves.

10. The Best leave a legacy.

11. The Best make everyone around them better.

Grandma's Goulash

Today I was tired. Long day yesterday and early morning today. I knew I still had to complete my weekly duty of mowing my two grandmothers lawns. As I got to my grandma's Stevens, she showed me the goulash she had cooked. Afterwards, she kindly gave me two huge bowls of it to take home. I was so grateful to not have to make dinner when I got home. I stopped at Meijer, picked up some bread and came home to warm up dinner for Josh and myself. It was good, real good. My grandma is such a nice person. She's kind and giving. I'm so lucky to have such and awesome grandma. I am thankful that I didn't have to make dinner tonight. :)

Craig's Birthday

After a long day of softball, we came home and grabbed a few things and headed out to my sister and brother inlaws house.

Today was Craig's 36th birthday! If you have never met Craig, you are missing out. I'll have to introduce you sometime. Craig is the most giving person I know. He's very extreme, but usually in a good way. For instance, this morning, Josh and I received a text from Craig at 5:53am asking us to bring our outside chairs for the bon fire he was already outside digging a new spot for. He said he was just looking forward to everyone coming over. It was great that all of our friends could come over too!

Tonight Craig gave hey rides and let the nephews drive the tractor for his birthday. Tara had a ton of food for everyone. It was all delicious. Cake and ice cream too. They were wonderful hosts.

Today I am thankful for Craig's birthday!

Field Trip

Today I got to take a field trip at work. Since Western passed a bond in February, we are getting new athletic facilities. Wahoo! Mainly, a new gym. Today me and 8 others toured some Battle Creek area schools to get idea on the best way to design our gym and storage areas. It was kind of neat to see the other facilities and know our new gym, locker rooms, and weight room will be just as nice soon. We are long over due for some updates. Below are some pictures from our tours today. It was nice to get out of the office for today and take a tour.

Thank you's

Today I shared one of favorite things with my softball team! Not candy, not food, not any softball strategy. Before school began, I was thinking about how thankful I was to be coaching such a nice group of girls. I was thinking about what could I share with them or have them do that was not softball.

Today, I shared thank you notes. At lunch I ran to Weatherwax to buy some cards. I would give them the task of writing a thank you to anyone they'd like and I did mean anyone, from moms to great aunts, friends, and family. To my surprise, the team enjoyed this. They took the time to write a thank you to someone. :) The rule was that it had to be given out tonight.

As you've said before, I love thank you's. I think giving a card or gifts is a great feeling. The world needs more thank you's.

Guts

Today I am proud of my softball team for the guts they showed at Lumen Christi tonight. They came out ready to fight. I saw some fight in our softball program tonight that I had not seen in a while. Every player gave 100%. Diving plays, grand slams, bunts, great pitching and catching, constant good jobs and "atta girls". Tonight, I saw the turn in our program. I have a good feeling about this season. Bring on Onsted! Tonight I am thankful for Western Softball!

Private Practice

This one was a no brainer. I couldn't wait all day for my favorite show Private Practice to begin!! I have been waiting for over a month for it to return. Tonight, it did in full swing. It was a sad episode bringing tears to my guest filled living room. Tonight I am thankful for my TV show to return with new episodes.

SWEEP

I love that I can say Western swept Marshall tonight! Wahoo!! Finally, we were able to play two solid games of softball. I am happy my team despite the cold and wind, picked up two wins!! Great hitting and solid pitching by the group. Everyone contributed to the wins. I'm proud of my team. Great job ladies!!


Marshall
(0-4-0)
1
4/16/2012
6 p.m.
Parma Western
(4-2-0)
11

Parma Western High School, Parma, MI

Parma Western puts up double-digit runs in both games of softball doubleheader sweep of Marshall on Monday
James Gensterblum | jgenster@mlive.com, April 16, 2012 9:59 p.m.

Game 1: Parma Western 14, Marshall 7; Game 2: Parma Western 11, Marshall 1

Julia Zoski finished with three total hits and a grand slam, while Madison Cooper added three hits and a double to lead Parma Western to a doubleheader sweep of Marshall.

Zoski finished with six RBIs, while Holly Washburn finished with four total hits for Western.

Taylor Lasky and Allyson Oliver both earned wins for Western, combining to strike out six and walk seven in the two games.

Kassidy Jarvis and Morgan Benham took the losses for Marshall.

Philippians 3:13, 14 NIV

"Brothers and sisters, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus." Philippians 3:13, 14 NIV

Today Josh and I went with Alexis and Tori to church. Glad we did. The message today is above. Forgetting and moving ahead. I liked this message today for numerous reasons. One would be for my relationships with others. I think we all tend to hold a grudges at some point in time, but I am really going to work at letting things go. In my later ages, I've been much better at this, but can always improve. I value all my relationships and hope I prove to be understanding in each of them.

The second thing reason why this verse hit home, not pun intended, was for our softball team. This group of girls is exceptionally hard on themselves. They are smart and talented. I don't have to really 'yell' at them. However, after a mistake, they need to learn to let it go and move on to keep working toward our goal of winning each game. No one is perfect. Everyone will make mistakes, but its how we deal with them that makes us successful in the end. We need to let go and move on. :)

Today was a great day, but I kept coming back to this verse. I hope to share it with my team tomorrow. Thank you Alexis and Tori for going with Josh and me to church today. I am thankful we went to hear a great message and of course for lunch at Panera afterwards.

An unplanned Day

Today our softball team was supposed to start their first tournament of the season at Homer against Springport. We had geared up all week for this game. I knew the girls were ready. When they got to my house for breakfast, they were pumped. Unfortunately, we were cancelled due to rain. Sad. Sad. Sad.

After the girls left, I was pretty bummed. I wanted to play so badly. I decided make the best of my day. I took a power nap and went to watch alumni Alexis Boyt play at SAU. They had an exciting 10th inning win!! :) and then went on to win game two as well.

Afterwards, Josh an I decided we might as well get the mowing done. My grandma's lawn mower is over 12 years old. It runs well, just old. My grandma was adamant that she buys me a new mower to use this summer. Thursday, we went to check a few out. Toro was the brand we liked. This year Toro made a 30" inch walk behind mower. It's sweet. My grandma purchased it on Thursday even though I would have been happy with just a 22" mower. Today I was excited to use the bad boy. It was awesome! I got the front lawn done in 17 minutes!! Whoop whoop! Josh did the back yard. We hooked up the hoses, cleaned out the shed and washed the movers. I'm sure grandpa was happy about that! :) Then we ran over to Grandma Lewis' house and mowed her lawn as well. She wanted us to do a special job... Picture below. Josh did that since my bad back wouldn't handle that too well. However, Grandma Lewis made us cookies! Yum!

I thankful that my grandma bought us a new mower to use this summer! It will save so much time. And I am thankful that my awesome husband Josh is so nice to spend his Saturday evening helping me mow our grandmas lawns. He's awesome! Crazy unplanned day!

Friday

TGIF. That about sums up my Friday back from spring break. ;) Going to bed early.

Thursday night!

Josh and I enjoyed some great Thursday night TV with our two favorite SAU softball players, Alexis Boyt and Tori Fite. We even ate some strawberry shakes! Yum! Loved my Thursday nights!

Finally a Game

Today I was so excited to finally get our softball season back under way. Two weeks off is a loooooong time! I was excited all day for our games against Lakeview. I am happy to say we split tonight. A little rusty, but we will get better. Today I was very thankful for softball to start again!

Thank you too for those who came out to support is tonight too!

Running Errands

Today our game was cancelled due to the freezing cold weather. I took this evening to run some errands with Josh. We picked up some thank you cards and gift cards for some people we wanted to thank for being so wonderful! Josh and I enjoyed some Jimmy John's for dinner too. We were in good spirits and had a good evening running errands together. Tonight I am thankful for my evening with Josh in town.

Monday

Today I was thankful to be back to work and to see my softball team again. 10 days of no practice makes me really uneasy. Plus, I missed those girls. I was glad to get back to a routine and get our season into full swing.

Easter Sunday

I was happy to be home in time to spend time with my family on Easter Sunday. Jenna stopped by to visit for a while before we headed out. Aunt Mary hosted all of us for the day. We were all in good moods and happy to be together. Mallory's egg hunt was great! Wyatt enjoyed his new bike. We took some fun spring pictures. I love my family. I'll have to add some more pictures to my Facebook page soon too. I'm glad we could spend the day together.

Home

Leaving Florida was not a fun thought. However, driving in a car for 20+ hours is really not fun. Actually, the trip home wasn't as bad as it could have been. We barely had any traffic and we drove through the night.

I was really happy when we pulled in the driveway!! HOME! I missed Josh and Champ and Marla. :) It was just nice to be home. Today I am thankful for being home.

Last Day

Today I am thankful for my last day in the sun shine state. I really love Florida. I mean really love it. I could live here except I'd miss my family too much.

Today I enjoyed my last day by waking up to the sound of the ocean and then with an early morning run around the island streets. The clouds in the morning didn't stop us from going to the beach. I finished Hunger Games book two and started book three all while laying in the sun. I watched a 7 year old boy play catch with his grandpa. He was pretty good. :) The end of my beach enjoyment was highlighted by one of my enjoyable softball players and team captain, Hannah Repasy stopping for a visit. She's just a unique person. Always fun to chat with my players.

Packing was not as enjoyable, but I did it pretty quickly as Mr. DenHerder kept us on a tight schedule. Kidding. We had our last meal together (Bethany, Shannon, Annie, Kristen, Mr. and Mrs. DenHerder). What a great family. I'm lucky to have been able to join them this week.

Today, even though I am sad vacation is over, I am happy to have been able to take the trip and happy to go home to see my husband and my family.

Today, I am thankful for a bittersweet last day in Florida!

Palm Trees

I have loved palm trees since I was really little. Living in Florida as a child, I probably took them for granted. Today, I just couldn't help but notice the palm trees everywhere we went. We don't have these in Michigan. I wish we did. However that wouldn't make trips to Florida so enjoyable. Today I am thankful for palm trees!!

Beautiful Day

Today I am very thankful for another beautiful day on the beach! It was awesome!

Florida Sunset

Today I am thankful for the Florida sunset. I realize how lucky I am to be in Florida with Bethany and her awesome family. I am very thankful I am here. :)

Ziecina's

Today I was thankful that the Ziecina's drove over an hour south to hang out with me and the Bethany's family for a day at the beach. I hasn't seen my sister or Paige in a long time. We hung out on the beach. I saw with Paige and we got ice cream and walked the pier. Fun times. Bethany's family was very nice to let my family hang out and use their condo throughout the day too. They were able to shower here too. We all went to dinner and enjoyed the evening. The best part was Annie's love for baby Paige! :) They were so cute. Today I am thankful for my family and Bethany's family. I'm lucky to have great people in my life!