here it comes

diarrhea of the mouth that is...


This morning (in the shower) I was formulating a blog post just like a do every morning. It was a good story, it had highs and lows, a little love and war, parenting advice and a bonus freebie. Then I turned the shower off and it all went down the drain, just like it does every morning.

By the time I got upstairs to my coffee two kids were up and there was no more quiet time for mom. So here I sit while the house is in chaos typing up a post because I love you. I can't even hear myself think right now let alone form a complete thought and put it into a sentence. Hence, diarrhea of the mouth.

Are you ready? Wait for it...

It is SO STINKING HOT OUTSIDE. I can hardly breathe. I think it was last week when I was complaining about the air being cold and hurting my lungs on our morning routine. This week the air is so think I can chew it. I took my workout wear off this morning and it was as wet as my swimming suit. Ew. Sorry. Good thing I am a go with the flow kinda gal and these temperature changes don't stop me from working out. I am loving our early morning routes. It has been nuts these last two weeks with one or more of us always on vacation so I have been changing it up. My muscles are screaming at me but I sure do like not gaining anything because I have been eating CRAP.

My (smart) sister is running the concession stand at the youth games. I volunteered (stupidly) to help her out. Four or five nights a week I make chocolate covered rice crispy bars and popcorn treats to sell at the counter. We are usually down there by 5pm and things don't quiet down until after 10 most nights. It is exhausting. Then getting up early to walk and run. But that isn't the half of it. Do you know how hard it is to be around all that food all night long? I started the summer out feeding my kids supper before we went down and then they begged me for food all night long and I eventually gave in and fed them chips and cheese, walking tacos, bbq's, hot dogs, fruit and yogurt and veggies and ranch and a Gatorade with laffy taffy, ring pops, super ropes and rice crispy bars for dessert. Then I got smart and stopped feeding them supper before we went. Yep, I am a smart mom :)

The garden (yep this is how my brain works no transitions) is BURSTING with strawberries and spinach and lettuce and cilantro. I am so proud of those little green plants. I took photos about a week ago but they have changed so much it isn't even worth posting them. We get an ice cream bucket of strawberries about every other day. I have to cover the plants with tulle so the birdies don't eat them. We have been stuffing our faces with the berries. There is just no comparison. It makes the ones at the grocery taste like paper. Ours are tiny and misshapen and as sweet as honey. YUM. I have so many I don't know what to do with them. Do I freeze them? I am not much of a jelly maker but I may have to start. This is a lot of strawberries. The best crop we have ever had. I am dreaming of a balsamic vinaigrette with the spinach and strawberries and sugared pecans...yum.

Maleah made an AWESOME catch last night at the ballgame. The team we played was very good at the plate and hit the ball every time. It was the last inning and they were popping up every time. Our team is still in that stage where they are mostly afraid of the ball. They are little, ages 10 and under, and you can just see the fear in their face and they back up and hold their glove out while their other arm shields their body. Maleah, on the other hand, is a chatter box and she is always yelling out things on the field. She is telling the girls to watch or get ready or shouting encouraging phrases to her teammates to play. She yelled out, " Don't be afraid of it - catch that ball" right before a high pop came right to her. She stepped forward to it, caught it and immediately got rid of it back to the pitcher. I was screaming, "Nice catch, Mia" from the stands and she was already thinking about her next play. It must be something in her blood. It's a desire to play and run and never give up. She got herself out of a pickle last night, too. Just plain outran the second and third basemen to reclaim her base. "SAFE" the ump yelled and she didn't even blink. She put her hands on her knees and watched the batter so see when she could run again. It is a joy to watch her. I love to see her face so caught up in the game and her knowledge of the sport surprises me every time I see it. I am so blessed.

Gavin loves the game as well, has since he was 18 months old. That boy was born with a baseball glove on his hand I think. But lately, the fishing pole has taken over. He has always loved throwing a line in and he has this classmate that loves to fish, too. Last week his mom took the boys down to the part of the river that flows through town and they both caught walleye. If you could have seen the look in Gavin's face. He was so proud of that catch. He has begged to go everyday since. Almost makes me want to learn how to put a worm on a hook, ALMOST. Ryan went out the other day and out fished his buddy for the first time, EVER. It was a good week here for fishermen and it was in our own backyard, too:) I do love a good walleye baked in butter with a little lemon...mmmmmm.

Speaking of fish (the kids are engrossed in PBS cartoon so my brain is coming together now enough for smooth transition into my next topic). I got two free samples of fish oil and started taking them in the morning with my protein shake and my vita slew (I like to call it that it reminds me to eat or else I have vita slew in my belly urping up my throat all morning). I take a multi vitamin, calcium with added vitamin d (EVERYONE NEEDS TO ADD VITAMIN D if you don't do it shame on you) vitamin a and lysine. I added the fish oil this past week. The first pack was three or four pills and I didn't have a problem with it. The second pack I began a couple of days ago. Different brand. Same size pill. Very similar. Same nutritional info. on the package. Same benefit. I figured I was safe. SO WHY AM I BURPING UP FISHY GUNK ALL DAY LONG. It is terrible. I shouldn't take the last two. So I know for a fact that I will not buy this brand. Too bad I threw the other sample package away so I will never know the one that did not give me fish indigestion And that,my friends, is why the Lord created free samples :)

So I was bound and determined to get a "good" meal in yesterday because we have been eating chips and cheese and hot dogs and tacos and crap for weeks upon weeks. I spent all morning mixing up turkey meatballs and rolling them and baking them. I had a few cans of progresso light creamy mushroom soup I was going to throw them in the crock with and serve it over penne with spinach salad. I was cooking and slaving away and the house smelled like onion heaven when I popped open a couple of cans of soup and dumped them in the crock. I stirred it ever so gently so as to not break the turkey balls and this foreign smell hit me. It smelled weird...like...fishy...like... I RAN to the trash to get the soup can and read the label "Light New England Clam Chowder"! That is the story of my life.

There you have it.  A post with no photos. I HAVE photos. I do. I just don't have enough patience to wait for the upload.

May your 4th of July be safe and blessed.

Ew, I just burped fish breath. Gross.

GameDogs draw first game first round

It's drawn out of a hat they tell me.

GameDogs play Dimock/Emery tonight at 6pm in the first game of the first round of the South Dakota State Amateur Baseball Tournament. Here is the bracket for the tournament.

Sdaba.com has a webcast of the games if you aren't able to make it to the beautiful Sioux Falls stadium.

Tickets for the tournament games are sold in sessions (afternoon & evening) and are $7 for adults and $4 for children 12-and-under, kids 5-and-under are free. Tickets can be purchased at the stadium the day or night of the game.

State tourney bound

Despite two losses at the end of the tournament the Gamedogs are going to the State Tournament. The first game will be Wednesday night at 6 pm against Dimock/Emery. The tourney is at the Sioux Falls Stadium, home of the Pheasants(previously known as the Canaries). I am hoping they update Sdaba.com shortly with game info. and times.

Come out and support the town team if it's not raining.

District Tourney Matchups 2010, Humboldt

Fri July 23rd

6:00 pm - Game 1 ~ #9 Lennox vs #8 Colman

8:00 pm - Game 2 ~ #12 Canistota vs #5 Madison

Sat July 24th

2:00 pm - Game 3 ~ #11 Tea vs #6 Dells PBR

4:30 pm - Game 4 ~ #10 Harrisburg vs #7 Flandreau

7:00 pm - Game 5 ~ Winner of Game 1 vs #1 Canova

Sun July 25th

2:00 pm - Game 6 ~ Winner of Game 2 vs #4 Dells Mudcats

4:30 pm - Game 7 ~ Winner of Game 3 vs #3 Salem

7:00 pm - Game 8 ~ Winner of Game 4 vs #2 H-M-H Gamedogs

Tue July 27th

6:00 pm - Game 9 ~ Loser of Game 3 vs Loser of Game 5

8:00 pm - Game 10 ~ Loser of Game 4 vs Loser of Game 6

Wed July 28th

6:00 pm - Game 11 ~ Loser of Game 1 vs Loser of Game 7

8:00 pm - Game 12 ~ Loser of Game 2 vs Loser of Game 8

Thu July 29th

6:00 pm - Game 13 ~ Winner of Game 5 vs Winner of Game 6

8:00 pm - Game 14 ~ Winner of Game 7 vs Winner of Game 8

Fri July 30th

6:00 pm - Game 15 ~ Winner of Game 9 vs Winner of Game 10

8:00 pm - Game 16 ~ Winner of Game 11 vs Winner of Game 12

Sat July 31st

2:00 pm - Game 17 ~ Loser of Game 13 vs Loser of Game 14 ~ Third Place Game

4:30 pm - Game 18 ~ Winner of Game 13 vs Winner of Game 14 ~ Championship Game

Note:

The winners of games 5, 6, 7, 8, 15 & 16 advance to the Amateur State Tourney in Sioux Falls, SD that runs August 4-15th.

2010 Cornbelt League Standings ~ Final and District Tourney Bracket

#1 Canova Gang 18-3

#2 H-M-H Gamedogs 16-6

#3 Salem Cubs 16-6

#4 Dell Rapids Mudcats 16-6

#5 Madison Broncos 16-6

#6 Dell Rapids PBR 12-10

#7 Flandreau Cardinals 11-11

#8 Colman A’s 7-15

#9 Lennox 7-15

#10 Harrisburg 7-15

#11 Tea Toros 5-17

#12 Canistota Rebels 0-22

Note:

First tie-breaker: Head-to-head record among the tied teams.

Second tie-breaker: Season records are compared by starting at the top of the standings and working down until one team has a better season record than another team.


Tie-breaker results of 16-6 teams:

HMH Gamedogs: 4-2 ~ #2 Seed

Salem Cubs: 3-3

Dells Mudcats: 3-3

Madison Broncos: 2-4 ~ #5 Seed



Salem: 1-1 vs. Canova; 1-1 vs. HMH Gamedogs ~ #3 Seed

Dells Mudcats: 1-1 vs. Canova; 0-2 vs. HMH Gamedogs ~ #4 Seed



Tie-breaker results of 7-15 teams:

Colman A’s: 3-1 ~ #8 Seed

Lennox: 2-2 ~ #9 Seed

Harrisburg: 1-3 ~ #10 Seed

CBL District Tourney Bracket

2010 Cornbelt League Standings ~ 7-6-10

Canova Gang 16-2

H-M-H Gamedogs 13-4

Salem Cubs 12-5

Dell Rapids Mudcats 11-5

Madison Broncos 11-5

Flandreau Cardinals 10-7

Dell Rapids PBR 7-8

Lennox 7-9

Harrisburg 4-12

Tea Toros 4-12

Colman A’s 3-13

Canistota Rebels 0-16

Another beautiful summer evening ballgame

Gavin giving Jake knucks
Ryan at bat
Jake spins for a fouled ball while Ryan plays third and Chad is at short

I have spent the last 20 years watching my husband play baseball. No exaggeration neccessary. We were 15 years old when he was playing Legion ball. Now, I watch my son being the bat boy and wonder how many more years I will be following my boys. They love the game so much. Thank you, Lord, for my boys and for baseball to keep them happy!

Gavin's game

like father like son, they both are in love with the game, I am already praying for Gavin's wife...

smores, a 5k, sunshine and more baseball

Friday's game was cancelled. We got the notice pretty late and supper (early) was on the table already, grilled burgers, watermelon, and baked potato wedges. So we ate, slowly for a change, and then lit up the fire pit and roasted smores into the night. Well, actually it was still pretty light when the kids went to bed, but dad and I (and a couple of fat tires) stayed up past dark.

We woke to an early morning phone call. Ryan looked at the clock and couldn't believe the whole family was still in bed. The call was an invitation for Maleah to run in a 5k. She is the runner in our home. She loves to run and run and run. I was told she had a perma-smile all day. This morning she said her calves hurt ;)

Today the Gamedogs play in Canova at 2pm. The sun is shining the babies are napping and I have clothes on the line so I plan to give the game a go. I hope it's a good one and we come out on top. Check the website for stats later on and hey, if you're out and about, get on over to Canova and enjoy the sunshine and a little of America's favorite pastime yourself!

Tied in the last 1.5 seconds of the game 43-43

My nephew, Andy K., number 4 makes the winning shot with only a second to go!

They play Tri-Valley on Tuesday night, GO MCM!!!!

Cheer

A superb cartwheel and a collision...

GO MCM!

One season down, two to go...

The Gavinator had his end of season t-ball party last night. It was the perfect night. One parent always plays the last night so I had to hit the ball left handed and run backwards...little did they know that I probably did better than using my right hand since I am such an athlete. Gavin hit the ball well into right field. I hit the ball three feet into the infield. It was fun, nonetheless. One more week of Maleah's softball and then districts with daddy. Isn't summer fun?

Look Grandma!

Present softball player.

Future softball player.

Nora can crawl.

She got a single

More Maleah

The sun is shining. It's the last day of school. Maleah kicked butt at field day, AND I have the videos to show daddy! Can life get much better than this?

Football toss, one for three. This one went right through the tire.

Nora enjoys the sunshine.
Maleah doing the tires, she gets her supreme athletic ability from me, uh-huh, right.
Taking a break to hold her sister.

She pulled out a first in the potato drop race, the obstacle course, the potato sack race and she won her heat and then tied for first (with her bff) in the finals in the 50 meter dash. I can't wait for dad to wake up and see her cross the finish line again and again. Guess we'll have to work on frisbee toss, football toss, softball throwing and soccer kicks for next year.

'sun' dried tomatoes...

I really need to make this sun dried tomato Alfredo recipe. But I am too cheap to buy the sauce or the maters so I have to make them myself. I will be using the dehydrator today...the oven is too hot (it's humid out there). I wonder if I can just freeze them or do I have to cough up the cash to buy some olive oil to store the 'maters in?

DIRECTIONS

1. Preheat oven to 200 degrees F (95 degrees C).
2. Wash and halve tomatoes. Gently squeeze out the seeds. Place the tomatoes on a non-stick cookie sheet, and sprinkle with salt to taste.
3. Bake until tomatoes take on a leathery texture. This could literally take all day; smaller pieces will require less oven time.

It's on the menu for Saturday. Tomorrow we have the Irish Bowl and will be eating out!

***if you have time go to http://www.keloland.com/sports/ and scroll down to the bottom of the page. Vote to see the Montrose/ Viborg game highlighted on SportsZone this Friday night! Go IRISH!

GO Twins!

Keeping warm at the Twins game in Oakland, CA.

end of the season...

It's over. Finished. Complete.

Partly because I washed the hat. Partly because of poor umping and a super competitive opposing team with a couple of A+ hitters.

straight from the website....

Muckdogsfinished the 2007 season with an overall record of 27 and 8.

Congratulations to Dell Rapids on another State B Championship!!Cornbeltleague had another great showing at State, Congrats to all the other Cornbelt teams too! I believe the Cornbelt teams had a combined record of 14 wins and 6 losses at the tourney, 2 of those losses came from a vs. Cornbelt match up.

Another big congratulations to Matt Mathiesen for winning the batting title! He tied with Derek West from Chamberlain, both batted .667!!

The Muckdogs won their first, second & third round games of the State Tournament. They beat Britton 15-5 in 7 innings, Vermillion 4-2 & Redfield 12-4. This is the 5th straight season of a Quarterfinals showing or better for the Muckdogs!

If you want to see the Muckdogs in person and maybe even get an autograph or two, they will be throwing candy at the Parade on Saturday August 25th at 10:00 am in Montrose. They hope to see you all there.

Thanks to the many fans who showed up to cheer on the home team during this exciting and pretty darn successful 2007 season. GO MUCKDOGS!

Superstitions and baseball...

It was probably about 10 years ago when I first heard him say..."Where are my lucky underwear?". Had I known then what I know now about the great American tradition of baseball and all that it comes with, I might not have exchanged those rings...

Over the last 10 years or so of our marriage I have been able to learn, firsthand, the way that these little superstitions work. Usually after I break one or ruin the luck or jinx the team or whatever the catch phrase is.

One year it was the Hershey t-shirt. He wore that shirt under his uniform every game. I washed it the same way each time, until one night when it wasn't in the pile with his uniform. I put a different white t-shirt in the pile of clean clothes and when he found it...well I was not so politely informed that he ALWAYS wears the Hershey shirt and nothing else will do.

It may be a pair of undershorts or even a before the game ritual, or the cheek I kiss him goodbye on. But usually it is something that is completely beyond my female comprehension. So today, when I saw his filthy, dirty hat lying on the floor I popped it into the washer with the rest of the blues... I didn't dry it, left it nice and shaped to be air dried by the lucky baseballs trolls and their tiny, invisible hairdryers. When my husband woke up I tentatively asked him, "So, would you, had you a choice, choose to wash your hat or leave it dirty?" The look that came from his eyes could have bore a hole in my head. "I take that as a 'leave it'?" I nervously giggled. Just an FYI to anyone out there. Never and I mean NEVER wash a hat during a winning streak.

I politely reminded him that there was something else that he hasn't done the entire winning streak and if he pushed it, I could go a year or better without it. End of conversation.

Play Ball!

DISCLAIMER*** I will take complete responsibility for any loss to the team because I a: washed the dirty hat and b:told the world about it.

Muckdogs advance to semifinals

Montrose routs Redfield en route to semifinals
Matt Bunke
The Daily Republic - 08/18/2007

SIOUX FALLS — After struggling a bit offensively in Tuesday night’s win over Vermillion, the Montrose Muckdogs made sure to score plenty of runs in Friday’s 12-4 victory over Redfield Dairy Queen in a quarterfinal game at the Class B state tournament.

But as it turned out, they didn’t really need many of them with (DH) on the mound.

(DH) gave up a run in the top of the first inning and ran out of gas in the eighth, surrendering three more runs, but for most of the night, Redfield struggled against the Muckdogs’ starter.

(DH's) final line showed three earned runs in 7 1/3 innings pitched, but the numbers weren’t indicative of his true performance.

After allowing a first-inning run on a Keith Gall RBI single, (DH) cruised all the way through the seventh inning. After stranding a Redfield runner at third base in the second inning, he didn’t allow another runner past second until the eighth inning.

“He was very impressive,” Montrose manager Jeff DeBates said. “He kept the ball down. He changed speeds and nothing was ever the same (arm) angle with him. He played a heck of a game.”

But after cruising through the seventh inning with barely a threat, (DH) began to tire in the eighth inning.

He allowed a walk and a single to open the inning, and after surrendering a two-run triple to John Tadlock, his night was over.

“I got a little tired, and the legs got a little loose,” (DH) said. “I just ran out of gas I think.”

For Redfield, however, it was far too late.

While (DH) was shutting Redfield down for six consecutive innings, the Muckdogs’ were busy building a 10-1 lead, making (DH's) eighth-inning hiccup virtually meaningless.

Montrose did much of the offensive damage in a six-run fourth inning. After Jeff Schultz and Jake Kloos opened the inning with consecutive singles, Matt Mathiesen’s sacrifice bunt set the stage for Eric Graves’ two-run single. An infield single by Jamie Grosdidier followed by an error on Redfield third baseman Mark Gulseth loaded the bases.

Chris Conrad drove in a run on a sacrifice fly, and with two outs, Chad DeBates followed with an RBI single. Jason Brown’s two-run double capped the inning.

“I guess they just came ready to play tonight,” Jeff DeBates said of his team’s offense explosion. “We had a lot of two out hits. Those were big.”

Montrose managed just one hit in the first three innings against Redfield starter Lonni Stover, who entered the tournament with a 7-0 record. But in the fourth through ninth innings, the Muckdogs banged out 18 hits.

After going scoreless in the first three innings, Montrose also scored in every remaining inning except the seventh, when singles by Graves and (DH) were wasted. The Muckdogs scored single runs in the fifth and sixth innings, and they plated a pair in both the eighth and ninth.

“We didn’t really hit ball early on,” said Brown, who finished with three doubles. “We just kind of hung with it and made some adjustments, and then we started hitting the ball a little bit.”

Schultz finished the game 4-for-6 with two RBI at the plate. (DH) complimented his nice pitching performance with four hits of his own, and Mathiesen, Graves and Grosdidier all had two hits for Montrose.

The Muckdogs advance to play in one of tonight’s semifinal games at 7:30 p.m. against either Irene or the Parkston Mudcats, who were scheduled to start at 8:55 p.m. Friday night. Results were not available at press time. Dell Rapids PBR and Larchwood will meet in the other semifinal at 1 p.m.

The two winners will advance to Sunday’s championship game in Sioux Falls. First pitch is scheduled for 2 p.m.