Double Homerun Night!!!

OK, so now you know the ending but now from the beginning. I didn't get much sleep last night so I kind of lazed around during the day. The game tonight was in Weatherford, Carolyn (Kevin's mom) was going to ride with me so she came over a bit early to look at some of my old scrapbooks just for motivation and ideas on working on one for him. We got going and then I noticed that I had to fill up with gas so we stopped on the way and continued on toward Weatherford. Even after that, we got to the field faster than expected due to minimal traffic so we stopped at *the* Taco Bueno there to get a bite to eat before heading on in to the game. Once we got to the field, we bought our tickets and headed in and got settled. Once we sat down I looked around and there was only one Weatherford player visible and none of ours. I found another Outlaws fan and asked if she knew what was going on, she had followed the bus but it took a strange exit very suddenly on the way and she continued on the way she knew how and arrived before them. I called Eric and he said they were coming and I asked him what happened and he said that Heath had some trouble and they had to pull over and take care of his blood sugar but they would arrive soon. The game was postponed for 30 minutes to allow our guys to get warmed up. Eric came out and told me some details of what had happened on the bus and then went on to finish getting ready. The game was then even more exciting as Eric made a great diving catch early in the game and then hit his first homerun of the season. The game continued on with good pitching by the Outlaws and believe it or not...Eric hit another homerun the same game. We won 6 to 1 thanks mainly to Eric's RBI totals. Carolyn and I had a nice visit on the way home and despite getting in late and being so tired to star, this was a good day!

Host Family Appreciation Night

So here we are, it's Host Family Appreciation Night. Sounds like a good thing, well, it is, but it also means it's nearly the end of the season. That also means the boys are leaving soon and if you know me, you know that makes me sad. Obviously we wouldn't keep them if we didn't love it and so the end of the season is hard because I no longer have baseball nor an extra guy around the house and then school starts. But good news for this year is that school is starting late!!! This morning we went to the gym then Eriq and I headed down to DeSoto to meet Jenny (Dan's girlfriend) and see Dan when they flew into town. I had a nice swim despite the sun and rain together. We had a nice visit with the family and also since Eriq had to cancel his first pitch for tonight, I got a call asking if I would do it. Well, there should be, but there are not any baseballs or anything like a baseball at my parents house so Dan tried to teach me how to pitch with rocks and finally the "lips" from one of those tree faces (don't ask). Then we headed back north to the game, it rained on us the whole time. We checked the field and everything was still a go, so we headed home, got our stuff together and headed to the game. Eric gave us a rose and thank you note and we got our picture taken after standing in the drizzle for a bit. Unfortunately we were playing the Roughnecks and in typical fashion they got to us early and often for another loss to them. Take away the losses to them and we have only about 1 loss per team for ALL the other teams in the league. That's the last time we will play them, in regular season anyway...

IKEA

Leave it to someone from California to drive all the way here just to take me to the IKEA over in Frisco. I'd never been and they have them at home and Eric's mom was just sure I would love it. So today is our day to shop! We all piled in Eriq's truck and headed to the store. Beryl was right, I do like it, so many ideas. It was amazing, too much but really cool. I got an idea for how to redo my office/scrapbooking/garden/guest room. (See why I need it done?) We all spread out but kept coming back together before we got too far apart. Eric looked at all the animal skin rugs, I looked at all the storage, etc. Then it was nearly 1 so we ate lunch in the restaurant on the top floor before heading down and continuing to shop. The timing was great because as we were eating it starting pouring outside. By the time we finished shopping , everything was wet but there was no more rain. All we bought were some of the wonderful cinnamon rolls and some small kitchen items. Good for us. Tonight we had an odd sort of double header, we had to finish the game from the 11th that had to be called due to passing midnight then we began a second regularly scheduled game. We finished up the first game in one inning thanks to Eric's single RBI and then him scoring to win. We won game two as well in a shutout by Posey, going all 7 innings and allowing only 2 hits the entire game while we got in 7 runs. We're making a run for the playoffs!

Road trip, well sorta

Tonight the game was in Colleyville, which is "on the road" but thankfully not more than about 35 miles from us. We took the whole gang, that is Eric's parents and Eriq and I out tonight. I let Eriq navigate while Bruce drove. We all headed down in the Oliver's car and got settled in to watch Rusty coach and hope for good pitching from the Outlaws. The pitching wasn't horrible nor great, but our hitting was off and our 7 hits only managed to score 2 runs leaving us with a loss for the evening. Eric crawled in the car with us for the ride home to make it more cozy than the ride to the game and we were all able to just chat a bit going home. I'm out of it tonight so that's about all there is for today.

Zoo Day

Eric loves animals, so we've talked about getting him down to the zoo and today was finally the day. It's an off day so that allows more time to explore. Eric's parents picked us up early and we headed down to Ft. Worth again today. We got to the zoo and it was looking to be a warm day so we stocked up on the water bottles and headed on in. The monkeys put on quite a show for us, the zoo was great and we beat the crowd but by the time we finished it was getting busy and hot. We had an ICEE to cool off before heading out. Next stop, The Ballpark in Arlington for a Rangers game. We finally got to use some of our host family tickets and got some seats for free. We got there early so we went in to Rawlings Sports Grill for some food and a/c before heading to the seats for the game. Eric and his dad had the buffet while the his mom and I just cooled off with drinks. Another fun packed, long, busy day as a tourist in my own city! I need some sleep!

Fort Worth Day

Eric's parents are here to have fun and be tourists as well as of course see him play ball. So today, we got up early again and took off for Ft. Worth. The Museum of Nat Sci and History had only Star Wars exhibits so we headed over to the Stock Yards. We parked and got out and there was a sports bar called "Outlaws Sports Bar" so we must have been meant to stop there. We wandered on over and went through the museum and then shopped our way down the old stock yards. Eric even got himself a real cowboy hat! Yes he did, Beryl got some Llano wine and we all had a nice lunch as well. Then we headed home so Eric could get ready for his game. Tonight was a home game and despite giving up 2 runs in the top of the first inning, the pitching was able to hold it together and the hitting came through giving us a 3-2 win over Mineral Wells. Another fun but long day, I'm exhausted so off to bed.

McKinney finally

Who knew we would WANT to play McKinney, our arch rival? But here we are so far into the season just beginning to play them so a double header in McKinney is just what we had tonight. But before all of that, all of us got together for lunch at Rudy's BBQ. Then Eriq headed back to work, Eric and I went back to the house so he could get ready to go to the field and his parents went back to the hotel for a bit before coming to pick me up for the game. We all headed off and then headed out to McKinney for the night. We sat in the shade for the first game as it was 5:00 on a summer afternoon, then headed a little closer to the guys for game two. We took both games thanks to some good hitting but mainly good pitching finally. It was a nice evening, but a long day, more fun planned for tomorrow in Ft. Worth.

Changing guests

Eric took Taylor to the airport this morning and was back in bed by the time I got up this morning. She made it home safely and now it's time for Eric's parents to arrive. They left California early yesterday morning and arrived at the hotel up the road around 5:00. I spent the day baking cookies for tonight's potluck dinner and cleaning a bit, doing laundry and dishes and such as we changed from having one guest to none at the house, but the parents coming in. Eric got up and cleaned his room then headed off to the field. His mom called shortly thereafter from the hotel and I made plans for when and where to meet them at the field. We headed over around 5:30 and got Eric's new walk up song taken care of, the cookies stashed away and the tickets set up before meeting his parents in the parking lot. The game was absolutely horrible, our pitching had another meltdown, giving up 7 runs in the 1st inning! And offensively we couldn't come back from that, in fact, we didn't get a single hit until the bottom of the 7th and at the end we had no runs on 3 hits. Despite that, we had a nice dinner of brisket and lots of sides to go with it and the weather was nice for our meal. Then we took our 3 vehicles and all got back to the house. We sat in the living room just talking about baseball, Eric, catching up for them. Eric's parents brought us a really nice gift set of a hand blown Margarita pitcher and glasses and some good tequila so I got to open a present and the cats got to play with the wrapping paper and empty box. Then I drew them a map back to the hotel and they headed off to bed, I am upstairs getting the pictures off the camera, Eriq's in bed, Eric's in the shower and we're wrapping up for the night. Another home game tomorrow...I told the Olivers that it can't be worse, I hope I'm right!

Fun day off!!

Due to Monday's failed attempts to get to the Dallas World Aquarium, we planned to head there today. Eric was going to get in around 2:30-3:00 this morning from the Brazos Valley trip so we planned to leave around 12:30 for our day out. We got away shortly after that and had a nice lunch at Mama's Daughter's Diner in Lewisville before moving on into Dallas. I've never seen so many people at DWA, the line was around the building but we got to talk and enjoy the plants surrounding the area as we waited. The place was packed so there were some slow times but the animals were in good form as always and Eric and Taylor got to see some things they'd never seen before, there were even a few new exhibits Eriq and I hadn't seen before. Despite being so crowded, it was a good time, we even got to the penguin exhibit just in time for feeding. And if that wasn't enough, we got out of there just before closing and headed out to Herrera's! My favorite Mexican food place, down in Dallas for dinner.
Then we made plans to meet Thomas and Emily at the field and headed to see the Frisco Rough Riders play the Corpus Christi Hooks up in Frisco. The stadium is very nice, although next time I'll have to get in the pool there, how fun would that be! We met Cindy and family, along with Tyler at the game. Everyone seemed to enjoy themselves with the good seats, nice field, ballpark snacks (dippin dots, funnel cakes and turkey legs) and a night off with friends. I went with Cindy and Ashley to get a free shirt, yes I won, and then Ash and I went to get stickers when we ran into Heath and Jocelyn. They were sitting just one section over and a few rows up from us so Thomas, Tyler and Heath had a nice chat and Eric and Tay visited briefly with them before all heading back to our own seats. The weather was warm but nice, the game was good, the guys had a good night off and we were still home before midnight! Scheduled days off sure beat rainout nights! Taylor is leaving in the morning so she's got to pack now and they will be off to the airport around 7 and I'm going to work on my scrapbooks for a bit. Tomorrow Eric's parents are driving in and we have a potluck dinner, I need to make cookies.

Ollie's breakfast

After all we discussed that Eric could make for breakfast, he actually did it. He got up around 10, went to the store and bought several items, although he called because he couldn't find the Krusteaz pancake/waffle mix and I told him that I couldn't find the waffle iron anyway so he got Bisquick. Then he came home and fixed scrambled eggs with cheese, bacon, hash browns, pancakes, cinnamon rolls with icing, and he even bought a bowl of mixed fruit. Taylor came down and we all got it pulled together just in time to eat quickly before he had to be at the field at 1:00 for the trip to Brazos Valley. He helped clean up and packed a good cooler full of snacks, including some of the fruit and after nearly forgetting deodorant, they got out of here about 12:55, the bus leaves at 1:15 so he should be there just in time! It was a great time, watching and slightly helping him prepare such a full "buffet" meal for us.

D'ville time again

I couldn't get ahold of Anna Minor to meet me at the ballgame and mom and dad had bible study but Michelle Foster was able to join me at the game tonight! I haven't seen her since high school and it was nice to catch up a little and just enjoy some baseball together. After Taylor dropped Eric off for the bus, I started getting ready and although I wanted to leave around 5:30, I wasn't ready so we didn't get away until about 5:50 or so, that was pushing it for getting to the game by 7, however we arrived right at 7 to find out that the game start time was actually 7:35...my mistake, better than the other way around like that first Weatherford game! When we arrived, the guys were hanging out on the steps eating nachos, we headed to the seats and they headed to the dugout. The game was a good one, Maxwell pitched 7 innings without giving up a hit, Eric had another good hit and reached base on an error and was walked another 2 times tonight. Not bad...
We won 6-0 and then said goodbye to Michelle and went to Sonic, thanks to the short game, we were able to hit one before midnight when they all close! Taylor and I got the grilled chicken wrap she had been wanting and Eric just went for a butterfinger blast so he could make a quesadilla at home. On the way home they decided that instead of going to breakfast in the morning (since Eric has a 1 pm report time) he would make breakfast for us. We discussed all the things he could make and what he would need to buy. We'll see how early he gets up for this, sounds fun! I got the pictures off the camera and Taylor and Eric are going to watch some more House.

Midnight ends the game

Eriq, Taylor and I were running a little late but we decided to go to Sonic for food. Last night after a funnel cake, a Pibb and a frito pie, I thought Sonic sounded pretty good rather than ballpark food. Not that it's bad, but enough was had last night. Despite going around a wreck on Swisher, we got to the game on time. The game started at 7:35 as scheduled...and then was called shortly after midnight due to TCL regulations. What a game! Ashley and Lauren were the ballgirls, despite me having to carry Ashley to the dugout, she had a great time and wants to do it again. We were down for awhile but after getting 2 runs, 3 runs and then 4 runs, we were finally up 9-6 going into the bottom of the 8th. But then the game was tied up again at 9 each. That's when the pitching finally started to hold strong and we had 3 straight innings of no score for either team. Taylor really wanted to go to Sonic again after the game for a chicken wrap but we knew that one closes at midnight so shortly before then she started calling the other ones in the area to see if anyone was open later...they weren't so by the time the game was called due to lateness, the Sonic dream was over. Cindy had to head home so she dropped off Eriq so he could go to bed and I could stay and take Eric and Taylor home. So the three of us went to Jack in the Box for a bite to eat instead of our first choice which was closed already. I watched one episode of House with them while eating and then left them to stay up all night and finish the other 3 episodes.

Rangers vs. Angels

Happy 4th of July! Tonight is a scheduled off night and somehow the Angels (Eric's team) is in town playing the Rangers here in Arlington. We got some really good tickets, thanks to Candiss, and invited Jose and Jeremy along as well. I know that the Angels are in first place and the Rangers are horrible...I can't believe I'm bringing a couple of Angels fans to the game! We went early so we could catch BP and all the pregame stuff as well as getting some good ballpark food, supreme nachos for me. Tyler Ladendorf called for directions as his mom and grandma are in town and they decided to go to the game as well. We didn't get to see them, but I talked to him a couple of times getting them out to the game, great mind think alike.
Unbelievably, the Rangers decided to really play ball tonight and scored the first run in the 2nd inning, then gave up 2 in the 4th but got another in the bottom of the 4th to tie it up. They went on to win the game with 2 more runs, despite Jared Weaver pitching for the Angels. We had a good time and it was nice to take the Angels fans and beat them ;) for the second game in a row especially. The fireworks show after the game was nice as well and then we took the gang home for the night. Back to our baseball tomorrow, hopefully at least.