The One with the Softball Game

Much of our back yard is coated in mulberries. They are delicious. And messy. Very messy. My flips flops are stained. So are my ankles. And no wonder all the bird poop is purple. Now if only the tree branches were lower to the ground. Apparently my husband knows the trick to collecting this elusive berries. We shall attempt this tonight.

It's super windy outside. My clothes were blowing off the line. And into the mulberry carnage. Not cool.

I'm pretty sure our washing machine was attempting to free himself from the bonds of our laundry room. From outside I heard *bang bang rumble rumble BANG* twice before I ran in to check. Sure enough the machine--filled with only our bed's blanket--was bouncing and rocking like it was possessed. Hopefully I settled it down.

I've got myself a buy one DQ blizzard get one free coupon that expires in just two weeks. Redeeming this coupon will require a 20+ minute drive to Toledo. But I believe it is worth it. Oh, and you should get yourself a coupon too. Sign up for the Blizzard Fan Club--because who isn't a fan of blizzards?!

Yesterday, the church service was led in its entirety by Paul Pitts --world renown opera singer who just so happens to have a passion for the Cross of Christ. It was a really powerful service--musically and spiritually. Afterwards, I got a chance to chat with him and after finding the common ground of the Buckeye State we discovered that he knows my childhood piano and voice instructor quite well. Brenda has played for him at multiple concerts put in right at the Ashtabula Nazarene Church. All of these shared experiences were so exciting to find out about. We called Brenda together and left her a message :) right before Kevin and I and the Kaufman's went out to La Fiesta with Paul for lunch. It was a wonderful time of fellowship.

Despite my desire to collapse after lunch, Kevin and I headed outside to warm up our throwing arms for the All Church Softball Game and Hotdog Night that the youth group was sponsoring. This idea came to us back in May and while I was hoping for a weekly church softball game to get the teens and adults together, we ended up with one date set in stone. We weren't sure if we'd get a good turnout or not--it's impossible to predict these things. We were hoping for enough people to make two teams and we knew we'd be lucky to get 40 people out there. Well, from 6-7pm people were just streaming out to the softball field behind the church. The teens were great helping us set up and get the food prepared--one of the guys did all the grilling! The game had full participation--with people from age 5 to 75 playing against each other. We stopped after 7 innings to grab some food and before you knew it two more teams were being picked. The weather was absolutely perfect, the bugs could have cooperated a bit more, and the game went on until after 8pm. There were two whole rows of spectators and everyone kept saying "We have to do this again!" Three cheers for successful events!

I have yet to eat lunch. That's weird for me. I think I'll go do that now. And leave you with these pictures captured during the church softball game.

:::two rows of spectators:::

:::John grilling up a storm & others enjoying the food:::

:::spectators:::

:::pastor dale up to bat. shelby umps:::

:::my team up at bat. we lost. twice.:::
but I don't think we cared :)