Yikes, Maybe I Should Add a Post

So it has been a while and time has just flown by like it always does and there is no way to stop it. We are doing fabulous and us, as a family, are busily happy.

When so much time has passed where do you begin . . . .

The kids just started school. Connor is in his first year of Junior High and he is doing great. He, of course, was pretty nervous at the beginning, but I think he has figured most things out and is excited about things he will be able to do this year that they don't do in elementary school. They had picture day last Wednesday and wasn't too happy with me because I asked him to wear his nice shirt, a polo type shirt, and it bothered him all day. He is definitely a t-shirt only kid, and if he could, he would wear a hat all the time.

He is on the Sandlot Sox 13 and under team. He loves pitching and playing second base (or anything infield). You know, he even likes outfield. He loves anything baseball. It's kind of sad for me, he doesn't watch cartoons as much anymore - now he watches the MLB channel and any baseball related show.

Derek and I are always amazed with Connor and how tolerant he is of his sisters. He is so patient! He never gets angry with them and his sisters adore him for it. Connor, Hannah and Emilie can play together for hours, giggling and laughing without arguing and me and Derek don't understand how. Both of us only knew of fighting, arguing and vicious, evil plots to get even with our siblings. I know that this harmony is due mostly to Connor's tolerance of his sisters schemes, teasing and giggling.

Hannah is in fifth grade and we love her teacher, Ms. Burgi. She was Connor's teacher and she was so excited to have Hannah in her class this year (Ms. Burgi is a huge baseball fan and talks baseball with us whenever we can). Hannah loves her class, she is always surrounded by friends and she laughs all the time. She finds humor in almost anything and her laugh is adorable, maybe I can create a soundbite and put it on the blog one day. She is in her third year of piano lessons, she takes lessons from Rosie Summers who lives just around the block. Hannah's main activity is her softball team. There are a lot of practices and a lot of games but she loves it all. This team really pushes these girls to work hard and I am always surprised how much fun these girls have and how competitive this team is. With the coaches we have, these girls can compete with the best. This fall we have three tournaments - it's going to be great. I Love Road trips!!



Emilie is just as cute as ever!! She is in second grade and as usual she has completely charmed her teacher, Ms. St. Louis. She loves being surrounded by friends and activities, so school is her favorite place to be. She hates wearing her eye patch and tries to bargain her way out of wearing the patches whenever she can. I even buy her the designer patches with all sorts of designs, but patching her good eye to make her lazy eye work harder makes it hard for her to see the TV and any small details. Her eye sight has improved, but it is a slow process. She had a MRI last week just to rule out any tumor in her brain and behind her eyes that could block her vision, and we will hear back soon from her eye doctor. Her doctor was 90% sure that she has no brain or eye tumors and this MRI will verify this.  She kept telling everyone that she had a "samurai" done that day, even her teacher. I am sure they were pretty confused and I had to correct Emilie later that it was a MRI that she had.


We are surrounded by family, friends and blessings everywhere!!! It can't get much better than this. Connor, Hannah and Emilie will always amaze us with their laughter, their talents and their unconditional love of Derek and I - even with all of our many faults.

Yes, A Triathlon.

I never have any problem blogging about my family/kids, but it feels weird to blog about myself. But, I would like to look back at our families blog in the far future and remember some things I have done. So here is my contribution to the family blog.

On Saturday, August 15th, 2009, approximately 8:38 a.m. (started at 7:30 a.m.), in West Valley City, Utah - I completed my first Novice Triathlon. I don't mean to sound so formal, but I must type it out this way because I might not believe it, now or later. The details help me prove/remember that it actually happened.

A novice triathlon is 200 meter swim, 7 mile bike ride and 1.5 mile run. Very short, but difficult none the less for me.

It all started last September. I signed up for a gym membership at the West Valley City Recreational Center and attended a few classes a week and met some fabulous friends. I started aggressively exercising every day in February - weights, cycling, running, and even a boot camp class. I wake up at 4:30 a.m. every morning, but I have never felt better, and it doesn't interrupt being a Wife and Mom.

I never even thought about a triathlon back in September, but positive peer pressure is wonderfully effective. The day before the tri I wasn't sure about myself and felt a little nauseous. Here's why:

First, I never learned how to swim, just doggy paddle and float. With some help from my gym friends I started learning freestyle swimming this June. It was hard at first (fyi - I am afraid of deep water). I would definitely swim way too fast when I got to the deep end because I couldn't touch the bottom, therefore I would be out of breath before I could even return back for the next lap. I eventually learned some basic techniques, and leared how to relax a little, and became a very SLOW freestyle swimmer. A turtle is an appropriate mental picture (make sure you picture a turtle with a swim cap and goggles. Oh baby, do I look hot in a swim cap!)

Second, I don't own an appropriate road bike. I have adopted a mountain bike from my sister Annesha, and I have been training with that. For the day of the triathlon I borrowed a friends bike, which was better than the mountain bike, but it still wasn't a sleek, fast road bike. Maybe Santa will bring me a red road bike for Christmas (with this thing that tells time).

Third, the weather was terrible. Cold, windy and rainy! Biking against the wind was exhausting and I still had yet to run.

With all the doubts and weather, I still finished. Now I am training for a St. George triathlon in October, a full triathlon this time.

Here is my finish line picture.

Yeah for Me!!

Summer is almost gone.

Wow, the summer is almost gone.

The kids are bored and secretly they are looking forward to school starting, so am I.

Connor's baseball team, The Sandlot Bombers played one tournament in July at West Jordan and they have now hit their slow time until the end of August where they will start up the fall season. They lost a few players to football, but it's great that most are playing in the fall. I believe their first tournament will be Labor Day weekend.

Hannah's Hot Shotz did great in July. They won two more championships.

They won the Firecracker Tournament on the 4th of July weekend in Taylorsville.

And then they took home the West Valley City Classic Tournament trophy.

The West Valley City Tournament was the last 8 & under games. Now they are playing with the 10-year-olds and there are a lot of new rules and strategies to learn. The hardest thing for them to learn right now is the pitching. 8 & under games are coach pitch, and now the girls are doing the pitching.

Last Saturday, the 15th of August, we played in Tooele and they took third place playing the 10 year-olds. Hannah did get a hit on her first up to bat, she hit the ball right to first base and got out, but did get a RBI.

If anyone is interested, the Utah Hot Shotz are looking for sponsors and the advertising opportunities are great.

Hot Shotz Dominate Tooele!

Hannah's team played in their first 8 & Under tournament this weekend in Tooele. After being beat up in a lot of 10 & Under tournaments, it wasn't really known how they would stack up against teams their own age. To add to the unknown, their regualar first baseman is older than these girls and unable to play in 8 & Under tournaments. Also, probably their best player was playing in another tournament with her older sisters team, leaving Hannah's team with 9 players for the entire tournament. If their were any injuries, we would have forfeited the entire tournament.

They started Thursday night with pool play, going 1-1 and getting the second seed from their pool. The double elimination tournament began Friday. The Hot Shotz got off to a big league but fell apart as the other team came back to tie the game in their last at-bat and send the game to extra innings. In the extra inning, the Hot Shotz held on and won.

In the second game, Hannah had 4 hits leading the team to an easy win against a really good team.

Saturday's goal was simple, win two games and the title was theirs. They played a team from Vernal that was undefeated so far. It was quite a game but in the end, the Hot Shotz pulled out a squeaker, putting them in the title game later that day. The best part was the team could rest the remainder of the day while the other teams had to fight it out in the hot sun to make it to the championship game.

Saturday evening came and we had to wait and wait and wait as games were a little behind and the game in front of us went into extra innings for the right to play the Hot Shotz for the title. It turns out it was the team from Vernal again. The earlier game was quite intense and heated at times.

Eventually the game started and it was intense! The girls played their hearts out. Hannah came up with a big hit early on and made a great play in the outfield to keep what could have been a triple or a home run into a very close play at second base.

In the later innings, the Vernal team really played well and opened a 13-7 lead in the last inning.

The Hot Shotz had one chance, they had to score 6 runs before recording 3 outs. To make it more tough, the first batter got out, so they had to do it all before two outs. Hannah was the next batter, and she laid down a perfect bunt and raced to first base. It was a close play at first but she made it and the rally was on.

After Hannah's hit got things going, there were 5 straight hits that lead to 3 runs. The score was 13-10 and the bases were loaded. Our youngest player on the team, a 7-year-old, hit a scorching double to left field to tie the game and send the game to extra innings.

In the extra inning, we held Vernal without a run. In softball play, extra innings have a twist. To begin the inning a player is put on second. All we needed was one good hit and the game would be over. We got the hit we needed and the Hot Shotz won!

The celebration was priceless seeing these little girls jump around and act like kids. The parents were no diffent. During the post game meeting, Hannah's coach singled her out as the one who got the rally going. "Without Hannah getting on base, nothing else after that would happened."

The girls got a medal and a t-shirt for their efforts. Hannah slept in both last night.

WAY TO GO HOT SHOTZ!

In July she will have 3 tournaments. One in Riverton, one in Kaysville and another somewhere in Salt Lake County, but we're not sure exactly where.

Slower Week

This past week wasn't quite as busy as the rest. Hannah had one game scheduled for Tuesday, but it was rained out. The girls had been playing so well, the coach gave them the rest of the week off.

Connor played three games, and almost missed one due to a flat tire. Good thing for roadside assistance.

Connor was quiet on Thursday, but his team won 12-2. It was fun because it was against his Fall coach, but Connor was a little disappointed he didn't do much in the game.

Saturday was a different story. He played two games in Alpine against two pretty good teams. The first game was amazing. Connor's team began the game with a 42-minute first inning. There were no walks, just hit after hit after hit! Connor's team absolutely crushed the baseball on their way to a 22-7 win. Connor did his part with two doubles off the fence in right field and four RBI.

The real fun came in the final inning. With the game in hand and the coach needing to save pitchers for the second game, Connor got the call to pitch. He took a couple of shots, including one home run, but there were no walks. The other team just flat out hit the ball. The team was really excited for him in his first real appearance of the season.

The second game was not so lucky. The other team hit the ball like Connor's did in the first game. It kind of took the energy out of them and the final score was 22-6, although the game was much closer than it sounds. The score was 9-6 going into the last inning and the other team scored 13 runs. Connor had 4 hits on the day against some pretty good pitching. He now has 8 hits in his last 9 at-bats.

Monday's game was rained out but we were able to get some good news. Connor's coach has decided to keep the team together for the fall season. Connor was quite excited as this is the most fun he has had on any team. He is playing with the most confidence I have ever seen from him and the kids love him.

Hannah has a double header on Thursday and there may be a tournament on Friday and Saturday. Connor plays Wednesday, Thursday and two on Saturday.

Hits, Hits, Hits!!

It was a quite a week for the Applegate ball players. Both had great weekends and both were swinging the bat like never before.

Hannah's team began the week in her city league. As expected, her team won, but the big news was her bat. She hit her first double, a scorcher down the third base line. The team was so excited for her and she was grinning ear to ear for the remainder of the game. All the parents came to Derek and told him how fast she is catching up to everyone on the team and the great progress she is making.

Friday and Saturday she was in another 10 & under tournament in Sunset. Once again, we went in with the expectation to play hard and learn, but winning would be a long shot. Oh how wrong we were.

The first game saw the Hot Shotz play hard and stayed with a very good team from Murray. They lost but played with a lot of heart and made some magnificent defensive plays. In the second game, the girls played a team from all over Salt Lake County and they put together their best game of the year. Late in the game, they were up by one run and the other team had the bases loaded. The batter hit a shot that the second baseman made a diving stop, got to her knees and made the out. That play saved the inning and eventually was the difference in the game as the Hot Shotz beat their first 10 & under accelerated team.

Day 2 began with high hopes. Hannah's coach has been around fastpitch softball for many years. He coached his daughters for years and is now coaching his granddaughters. He said that in the history of Utah softball, no 8 & under team had ever won two games in the same 10 & under accelerated tournament. They lost their first game and were matched against the team that beat them in thier first game the night before. In the last inning, the Hot Shotz were up by one run with two outs and were one strike away from winning their second game. Unfortunately, the batter ended up hitting a 2-run single to win the game, and eventually go on to win the tournament. The coach and players were disappointed, but they had a lot to be proud of. Hannah did not get a hit or have the ball hit to her the entire tournament, but for the first time all year, she did not look intimidated while batting. She stepped in with confidence and swung for the fences, but came up short. Mom and dad are more proud than ever.

This is probably their final 10 & under tournament of the year as the 8 & under games will start soon. They should benefit from these games as they are now playing their own age.

Connor had a great week as well. His team won all three games handily (6-1, 19-3, and 13-1). He is swinging a hot bat right now. In his three games, he went 5-for-6 with a walk and reached base on an error. In fact, in his last 10 at-bats, he has been on base 9 times, with his only out coming on a great hit right at the leftfielder for the out.

Hannah has only one game next week, Tuesday at Taylorsville. Connor will play Thursday and has two games on Saturday.

Tough Weekend

Both kids played in a tournament over Memorial Day weekend. Both kids teams struggled and had some tough losses.

Hannah's games were once again expected. They probably won't win any games in the tournaments this year as they are playing up an age division but are playing hard and competing. It's just hard when the other girls are far more experienced. At least they are still dominating their Taylorsville league.

Connor's games were heartbreaking. Although he hit the crap out of the ball in the tournament, he made some mistakes, as did the rest of the team, that were costly. they won one game and lost three, but the three losses were all by one run. In fact, all three games ended with the tying run on third base. One less mistake in any one of the games and they could have gone undefeated.

We finally got the pictures back from the Bees photographer. We will post the best one above.