My Baseball Blog

So...we decided Noelle/Nelly (our 9yr old daughter) has been so cooperative and patient with her brothers' baseball schedules, that it was time for her to get to do something for HER. For the last 5 years, she has gone from field to field for both of her brothers' practices or games. She usually finds a friend/sibling of another player and will keep herself busy. Until recently, when she made it known to everyone that, "BASEBALL IS RUINING HER LIFE!!!" She said it as loudly and obnoxiously (as do most 9 year old girls) as she could which absolutely horrified me. How could my daughter speak such profanity?? I thought we raised her better than that How could she NOT love the beautiful landscapes of the fields, the hot blistering sun that makes us the beautiful tan that we are, the kinda crisp uniforms of the players, watching her brothers' teams come from behind and play with all they had to pull out a win, the uber comfortable seating usually NOT provided, or the awful sweaty, dirty, stinky boys that usually got in the car with us afterward. I mean come on.....who doesn't LOVE all that???

She hasn't quite figured out what SHE wants to do extracurricular-ly so until she did, she's just had to tag along. Now, she has said in the past that she would like to try dance and I put the kibosh on it as long as I could. I just can't do it any longer though.

So...we've signed her up for three different classes. She THINKS she wants to do Jazz, Hip Hop and Tap. Well....let me start off by saying that I am a dance virgin!! I have NO clue as to what all is involved with dance. All I've known, is that I didn't want to be a part of it. I've heard other moms complain about having to sew on sequins to recital costumes, the cost of dance recital costumes, find the right shoes and so on and so on. Ok...first off, if I have to sew anything, poor Nelly is probably going to have a wardrobe malfunction. I'm hoping hot glue will work just the same You see...just putting all this down on "paper or screen" is making me NOT look forward to it even more. I'm trying to act interested in it for Noelle's sake though.

Her first day of dance was to be Tap. It all started off on the wrong foot though when I had to race her over there after work only to be there in the knick of time. She still had to try on dance shoes which is where this all started to down hill. Ok, I had NO idea that Jazz & Tap were each going to need their own type of shoes at $65 a pop. I'm not even sure she's going to like these styles of dance so I'm hesitant to buy them right off the bat. (BTW...I LOVE bats...baseball bats that is!!) So I inform the lady behind the desk that I have no clue what the differences are or really even what class Noelle was scheduled for this particular day at this exact moment. I'm just standing there dumbfounded in silence with my eyes I'm sure bulging out. I'm HATING it already!! Other moms, who are obviously seasoned in dance, kept coming in and distracting the lady who was trying to help us, so we weren't getting anything accomplished. I finally told Noelle to just go to class in her socks, see if this is something she thinks she might like and we'll pick it back up after class. I'm trying to rush since Noelle's class is starting and I didn't want her to be late on her first day AND I still had to go pick up the boys from school and football practice. So she goes into the dance auditorium and I race out to my car. I feel like I can't get out of there fast enough.

I race over to the school to pick up the boys. As I pull up to the football field I just felt a huge sigh of relief. NOW......I'm not totally crazy about football either, but G plays it through the school. I realized that I am SOOOOO more relaxed with "boy activities" than "girls". I was sitting in my car watching the practice next to all the usual dads that I'm usually with out at the ball fields. I am SO more in my comfort zone!! I just don't seem to fit in with "dance moms". EEWWWWW......They all are dressed to the nines, most of them have a baby dressed to the nines in a stroller and they are just, "Eeek...HI so and so....awwww.... she just looks adorable or what did you and so and so decide on your remodel or whatever?!" I'm making some of that stuff up but it wasn't the banter I was used to. I'm used to talking about how a boys "form" is when pitching or how his batting stance or swing looks. What they're doing right or wrong. Of course, now that I'm watching football it's watching the plays be played out. Again, I have NO clue as to what position my son plays or what his number on his jersey means position wise, or what they did or didn't do right with a certain play. All I DO know, is that I was WAY more comfortable "on a field".

So, I race back to pick up Nelly after a meesly 45 minute class (I'm used to 2-3 hour baseball practices) and go back in to try to figure out the whole shoe ordeal. I asked what color they will need for recital and the lady said, "Oh, I have no idea. It will depend on what costumes she'll have". WHAT???? So you mean to tell me that I might have to buy a tan pair if I decide to buy black right now?? UGH!!! Of course they don't take credit cards or debit cards and I never carry the checkbook so I have her hold the one pair that I could find that fit until next week. The other thing that I discover is that recital is in June!!! Umm....Yea, that might not work for me considering that State tournaments are usually during that time!! I sure hope Nathan enjoys dance recitals I'm kinda kidding...I'll go watch her little 3-5 minute dance or whatever it is they do and will have her little flowers for her. That's one of the things you do for dance right?!?! I DUNNO, I think it is though!

Anyways....I get home and I'm complaining about having to buy all these shoes when Nathan reminds me of how much we have spent on baseball. I have no problem dropping $200-$400 on a bat or $100 on cleats so I immediately am told to suck it up for Nelly's sake. I'm reminded of how she deserves this, seems very excited about it and at least has to TRY it first. She might get into it and decide it's not for her either. I can only hope right??

p.s. I DO love my daughter very much and I am excited for her since she seems to be very excited! Just say a prayer for me though so I don't have a rotten attitude for her sake. I want her to find something that she enjoys and I'll enjoy it with her!! But it's safe to say that I just can't wait for 7th grade to roll around and she can try volleyball!!!! Until then....dance it may be!!!

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So yes....we are home from our much anticipated journey to the Elite World Series. I've read Heidi's post about pet peeves about the tournament and I would have to concur with all of them. On top of hers though...here are a couple of my opinions, complaints, ideas.....

After paying such a large entry fee, there was nothing offered for the boys. No t-shirt (even a generic Disney shirt), no pin, no hat, no extra "fun" games...nothin!!

The facilities were nice. Although, the long arse walk out to the back fields is NOT fun in the blazing sun. Moving floors would be nice to those fields :) JK....they WOULD be nice but...I get it, I get it, we're at an athletic event, so me walking several miles a day isn't going/supposed to hurt me! Thank you Wide World of Sports!!!

Another thing.....I hate...HATE showing sweat on my shirt (which is always a given anyways) but seeing that everyone else had sweat marks made me feel a little less consciencious of my own. Some of the restrooms were air conditioned so it was nice to walk into one to chill out for a sec.

There were a couple of smaller quirks like: would have liked to have been able to purchase parking passes and entrance passes ahead of time, better tasting water in the dugouts, a specific spot for just Elite information. The National basketball tournament was going on and that seemed to get more priority than baseball. Grrrr......

Overall, we had a good time but bottom line was that we felt it was like any other tournament. Nothing really special about it. The competition was top notch which was fun to watch. When families put out that much expense though, it would be nice to feel like you've left with getting your monies worth and I don't know if I can honestly say that we did.

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Okay....yesterday and today totally confirm that my thought of playing up a level is indeed the best thing. Teams may come into tournaments with not-so-hot rankings, BUT...you have to look at what level they've been playing during their season. A team could come into a tournament ranked towards the bottom but end up kickin' butt. Well, at least that's what we've seen so far!

It's at least fun to watch some good competition. I never have enjoyed watching a game where there just doesn't seem to be any competition. I've always told my boys, "practice hard, play hard" and that goes right along with playing up in competition. Don't stay "at your level" or you'll never get better!!!!

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Whew...after a VERY long 13 hours, we arrived!!! We arrived so early in the morning that our rooms weren't available so we decided to run over to the USSSA office to get our Disney tickets. Despite having a GPS, a yahoo map printout and a telephone to the office (which no one answered), we had a heck of a time finding the place. FINALLY....we got our tickets and headed back to the hotel. Checked in and spent the rest of the afternoon at Magic Kingdom. Having just been there not too long ago, we knew exactly where we wanted to go. We hit Space Mountain (which was fun to reminisce with Heidi about), Thunder Mountain, Pirates of the Caribbean (Nathan's fave), watched the parade of lights and the fireworks and then headed out. After the long drive and running around we had pretty much wore ourselves OUT!!! I think everyone crashed as soon as our heads hit the pillow. I know I did and G-man didn't even make it to the hotel.

Saturday we headed to Hollywood Studios. We hit the Indiana Jones show, Tower of Terror, Rock n Roller coaster, High School Musical 2 show, Tower of Terror and Tower of Terror. So YES...the Tower of Terror was our favorite. Everyone except Nelly & Nathan rode it first. Bradester about worried himself out of it despite having ridden it before. It was a blast so we went back with our Fast Pass. This time Nelly came with us. There was no line so we quickly got back in line. We talked Nathan into going with us this last time. Lots of screaming & laughing was done by all!! We came back after a LONG day and G-man and Jatman had a pseudo hitting practice, Bradester & Nelly went swimming, Nathan and I hit our local Wal-mart, and Heidi worked vigorously on the site. We came back and hung out by the pool until they shut it down. Again, we all crashed after a long day in the sun.

Soooo.....after having all this fun, of course there has to be some bad stuff right?? Nine vehicles were broken into and of course our awesome luck would make us one of the victims! Our GPS was stolen!! So now we're TOTALLY lost....literally :) :) Good thing I'm like a live GPS!! No seriously, I am. I think it comes from staying up with my dad on our family vacations. I would always sit up front with him on the cooler in between their seats. Still, bummer that Nathan's new toy was stolen! Let's just hope that we're in good hands with Allstate and that they really ARE on our side!!

Today, we got up nice n early, had breakfast and scooted on over for opening ceremonies. It was really cool to see 144 teams out on the field with the little 9 year olds mixed in with some big ol 14 year olds. The teams had to stand out there a long time so we were glad that our boys were the last team announced. That was actually planned out by our smart coaches (I think). We came back to the hotel and are chillin out. We'll go get something to eat and head back over for our first game at 4:30.

So...I'll end here and update later cuz this pretty much brings ya'll up to par on our happenings!!!!

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Oh my lord....I am crazy busy trying to get ready to leave in the next 26 hours for our long awaited trip to the Elite World Series in Orlando, Florida!! I've got to make sure laundry is caught up, food is cleaned out, dogs are squared away, yard has been tended to, house is clean (enough), G & J have EVERYTHING they need as far as uniforms and what not, and packing bags for everyone else.....I feel like I'm going crazy and tomorrow night can not come soon enough!!

We are so excited and are looking forward to this fun experience!!! Not really looking forward to the 13 hour drive but we're planning on driving through the night so hopefully that'll help! Wish us luck!!!

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