Spring Training

Since we didn't really plan anything for my spring break, we've just been going day to day before deciding what to do. Yesterday Jon-Paul didn't have to work, so we decided to catch a spring training game at Peoria Sports complex. I've never been there or to a spring training game, so I killed 2 birds with one stone. On the way there Adrian saw my Mp3 player and loved listening to it. He wouldn't give it back.

We sat out in the lawn. It was bright and hot until about the 5th inning and then a nice breeze came through to cool us down. I had a heck of a time trying to get a good picture of them. This was the best one I got and Adrian's eyes are still closed.

He was actually happy eating his ice cream. I just don't think he wanted to take anymore pictures.

It was a day off that was well spent!

Happy Birthday to me (a week late)

Yep it's true, I'm now a quarter of a century old. It happened on Tuesday, but I got to celebrate for a few days. On Sunday we went over to Jon-Paul's parents' house to have dinner. After dinner Jon-Paul suggested we all go to Castles-N-Coasters to play goofy golf. It didn't take any convincing at all, and off we went. Adrian has never been goofy golfing, and he had a blast.

Here's daddy showing him how to hold the club.

Mommy helping him hit the ball.

Adrian and Grandma moving on to the next hole.

Doing it all by himself.

Say what?

Cheese!

Now we're up to the day of my actual birthday. Like I said, it was a Tuesday, so I went to work. My 4 hour class had been planning something and they were trying to be secretive about it. It wasn't working. They were speaking in Spanish, but they should know by now that I can understand most of what they were saying. I just kept on pretending that I didn't know what was going on to make them feel better.

One thing that was very surprising though was the delivery that showed up to my work from Jon-Paul. He did something so sweet, I couldn't believe it was from him. (Sorry babe!) He sent an arrangement of chocolate covered strawberries and a balloon. I ended up sharing them with my class because I knew I could never eat all of those strawberries by myself. Then, Jon-Paul brought me lunch too!

After my class got back from PE they threw me their little party. They each brought something in. There were tostadas, beans, avocados, tomatoes, mexican white cheese, chips, cake, and ice cream. It was so cute. They tried so hard to put it all together by themselves. There were some things they didn't think about, like a knife to cut the avocados up, but luckily I had one.

After school we did have a soccer game. I'm coaching the boy's soccer team right now, and up until the game on my birthday we had an undefeated record. We had 3 wins-0 losses-2 ties. The team we played on my birthday was Palo Verde. The last time we played them resulted in a tie. All I asked the boys for for my birthday was a win and not a tie. Well, I should have settled for a tie because we ended up losing for the first time this season. It put a little bit of a damper on the rest of the evening, but oh well.

When all the boys finally left I was able to go eat dinner with my parents, Jon-Paul, and Adrian. Overall, I had a wonderful birthday filled with a tremendous amount of thoughtfulness.

Introducing Ginger

Last October tragedy struck at my parents' house. Adrian was out in the backyard throwing the ball for Brandie, as he always did, when she just suddenly fell over while chasing after a ball. My parents rushed her to the vet because she was crying in pain and unable to move her back legs. I got a call just as I was leaving work from my dad and he was crying. For a second I thought something had happened to Adrian, so there was a moment my heart stopped. I couldn't really understand what he was saying, only that they were at the vet and I was supposed to meet them there.

When I arrived I found my mom sitting on the floor of one of the exam rooms crying and Brandie laying next to her on a blanket. It was determined that she ruptured a disk in her back and was paralyzed. She was sedated when I got there. There was a surgery that could be performed but there was absolutely no guarantees, and she wouldn't be allowed to play catch anymore. Brandie's life without catch wouldn't be fair to her, so my mom decided it would be best to put her out of her misery. This was the second dog I saw put to sleep in front of me. Not something I recommend.

One of the hardest things was having Adrian talk about the event. He would recall step by step what happened that day. It would mainly happen at night while he was going to sleep. It took about 2 weeks for the nightly recall of events to stop. Anytime he would see a picture of a sheltie he would say, "Brandie!" Here are a couple pictures of the two friends...

So, now we're up to last week. My mom knew she wanted a new dog, but she also knew that it would be best to hold off on the search until after we got back from Hawaii. She started looking in the paper and online the day we got back. She was just excited to find a new dog. She found a few leads in the paper the past few weeks, but nothing too promising.

I got a call on Thursday while I was at work that she thought had possibly found one. I was in a meeting all day and then I had soccer practice in the afternoon, so I was unable to go to look at them. So, my dad, mom, Jon-Paul, and Adrian drove out to look at the puppies. The lady had said that she had a 7 week old, but that she didn't have white around her collar, so my mom might not want her. The lady said that there were some 5 week old puppies that they could go look at and pick one out, but they wouldn't be ready to go home.

Well, the 7 week old was perfect and now residing at my parents' house. They decided to call her Ginger. She is so sweet. She follows my mom everywhere and sleeps through the night. It sounds like I'm talking about a baby, but a new puppy away from mom for the first time can be like a baby when it comes to sleeping at night.

Adrian loves her, but isn't used to puppy teeth and nails. She loves nipping at toes and he's not for that one bit. He's very protective of her especially keeping her out of the pool area. Right now she could fit through their pool gate, so Adrian makes sure to pick her up and move her away from the fence.

Introducing Ginger.....