My 25th Birthday

I just celebrated my 25th birthday (ugh). This was kind of hard for me because I am now feeling a little old. I had such a fun birthday though. I am visiting my pitcher right now, so I got to spend most of the day with him and the rest of the day with the wives and girlfriends of the other players.

My pitcher took me to see the movie "Horrible Bosses" in the morning and then took me to the mall to do some shopping and to get some lunch before I had to drop him off at the field. After I dropped him off, the girls and I went to a flea market. I have to admit, I had never been to a flea market before. I had so much fun! I need to find some good flea markets around home. I fell in love with this adorable Pillsbury Dough Boy cookie jar, but I couldn't bring myself to buy it because I couldn't figure out how I would get it home. After much thought and after calling my wise mother, I went back the next morning and bought it though! :)

Isn't he cute?!

I tried to ship him home, but they wanted to charge me $28! That was more than I paid for him, so I moved some things around and somehow fit him into my carry-on bag. Hopefully he makes it home safe and sound!

After the flea market, I changed into my birthday shoes! I always wear these on my birthday! I feel like my birthday is the one day of the year that I can do whatever I want. This includes wearing hot pink heels to baseball games! ;)

Before heading to the game though, we went to grab drinks and appetizers. We found this adorable little cafe/bar downtown that had happy hour specials all night. We ordered delicious fondue that may or may not have had Velveeta cheese in it and some yummy drinks. I feel that birthdays are also days that you can indulge a little because calories don't count.

Lemon drop martini

A fancy raspberry puree martini

I also got a free "birthday cake" shot that tasted just like a birthday cake!

One of the girls was so sweet and bought me a cupcake from a shop next door. The girls felt that they all had to sing to me in the cafe which of course was mildly embarrassing. ;)

Vanilla cupcake with toasted coconut cream cheese frosting. Yum!

After the baseball game (where I even got to see my pitcher play!), we headed back downtown for dinner and more drinks. We decided to go back to the cute little bar/cafe since they had happy hour specials until close that night. I got to meet some of my pitcher's teammates who I hadn't met yet. Of course, they had to embarrass me some more by singing to me again.

I had a great time on my birthday and am so glad I got to spend the day doing fun things with people I enjoy. Let's hope 25 isn't as bad as it sounds! Here's to hoping this year will bring good things! ;)

~Ms. Baseball

Volcanoes Game

My pitcher finds it kind of odd, but I enjoy watching baseball and going to games. I have been to a ton of games in the past few years. Last weekend, I invited my parents to come for a visit and to go to a baseball game with me. This was a strange experience because I don't often go to baseball games where my pitcher is not involved. This was also weird because my pitcher played for this team a few years ago and I had never been to a game at this stadium before.

During the game, the Giants World Series Trophy was on display. Of course, my family and I stood in line to see the trophy and take pictures with it.

Don't get me wrong, the trophy was pretty awesome, but it was smaller and less significant than it appears. We thought it should have diamonds or something on it and be much larger! :) It was such a fun experience and so cool to see it though!

During the game, I got asked if I wanted to spin a wheel for a gift certificate to a local restaurant. I said sure, so in the middle of the 6th inning, I went down and spun the wheel in front of the whole crowd.

The wheel landed on the "Volcanoes" logo, so I won a $100 gift certificate! The man said they had been doing this same game for 3 weeks and I was the first one to win!

We had a good time at the game even though it was strange to watch baseball without my pitcher.

Happy weekend to all. I am, again, off to watch more baseball! :)

~Ms. Baseball

What If....

My pitcher and I were talking the other day and he mentioned to me that as a little boy he wanted to go to the University of Texas. This got me thinking about "what if..." When I was younger I wanted to go to the University of Oklahoma and be a cheerleader. Had I gone to OU or had my pitcher gone to Texas, we may not have ever met. I'm so glad we decided on the same college instead. It's interesting to think about how each choice you make has an effect on the rest of your life.

Another example of this that I have thought about is when you drive up to a car accident just moments after it happens. Had you not run back into the house to grab your gym bag or had you not eaten that bowl of cereal before you left, you could have been involved in that accident.

Looking back at choices I have made over time, there are some I am so glad I made. Some of my choices have led to great things and others have even kept me out of danger. Back in high school my parents took me to the Rose Bowl one year over New Years to see WSU and OU (SOOO fun!!). This was a great decision because not only did we get to go to the Rose Bowl, but back home, my friends got in a rollover car accident in a soft-top Jeep. Luckily, all of them had a seatbelt on, so everyone was okay. Had I not gone to the Rose Bowl, I probably would have been in the car and someone wouldn't have had a seatbelt on.

I am so glad I joined my sorority in college. I made some of my best friends in college through my involvement in the sorority. After I graduated, I am grateful for the city I chose to move to and the jobs I chose to apply for. I am so happy where I am and love doing what I'm doing. I am also glad I chose to attend the women's retreat at church a few months ago. Not only was I able to grow spiritually, I made some new friends which led to my involvement in an amazing small group.

Although one should not stress and worry over decisions*, it's interesting to think about the "what if..." and good to think about the consequences for our actions.

I hope you all have a beautiful Saturday! I definitely will as I am off to a Baseball game!! :)

~Ms. Baseball

*If you find yourself worried, please refer to my quote about worry in my post from June 3 titled "My Random Friday Thoughts." It's a good one! ;)

Fourth of July: Movies, Sun, BBQs & Rodeos!

It was so hard to get up at 5am this morning to get ready for work. I did not want to work after the beautiful long weekend here in the Pacific Northwest. It was a weekend filled with rare warm temperatures and sunshine! 

My weekend was busy and included a ton of fun things! It started with one of my sorority sisters pulling me out of the house late on Friday night for an 11pm showing of Transformers. I admit, although I was very skeptical, I kind of liked the movie. I went for an 8 mile run jog/walk with my best friend on Sunday after church. I then went to a BBQ on Sunday night and participated in all sorts of random shenanigans. On Monday, I relaxed in the sun for hours and ate some delicious food with Mrs. Bee.

I think the most interesting event I attended this weekend though was definitely a Rodeo in Southern Washington. This was my first encounter as an adult with a Rodeo. We witnessed events such as bareback riding, bull riding, barrel racing, team roping, kids sheep riding, as well as Mrs. Bee's absolute FAVORITE event: calf roping. We even got some delicious food and desserts and a shot of Pendleton Whiskey! Below are some pictures from our adventure.

This horse was wearing "leg-warmers" and was decorated with glitter:

The flags at the beginning:

The rodeo clown wearing a fat suit (he also performed an impressive dance in this fat suit):

Definitely Mrs. Bee's favorite event of the night - the calf roping:

The calf roping was really not her favorite part. She was traumatized and absolutely freaking out the whole time this event was going on. We had to get up and go take a shot of whiskey just to calm her down. You kind of had to laugh a little though. We were all dressed the part with cowboy boots and hats, but we were taking pictures of EVERYTHING, squealing and being ridiculous. The lady next to us (who had become our friend) even joked that we needed to get a life. 

Poor little baby cow...good thing I now know this doesn't hurt them AT ALL:

The cutest part was the small children riding the sheep. Each child would ride the sheep and then after they fell off, they would be interviewed by the announcer. They were saying some of the most adorable things! 

This child was determined to stay on:

This sheep definitely sat on this little kid's head:

Finally, I would like to share some of my favorite quotes from the weekend (which for some of them you may have had to be there, but we found them entertaining at the time):

• I love horses! Wait, horses, is that right? Or is it horsi?
• What is Cowboy Church? I feel like it's a real church...
• That sheep just sat on your head!
• Why would I go camping? It's like being voluntarily homeless for sport!
• Nobody's arrogant at Christmas!
• I hope you're sleeping in my backyard someday and I can light a firework in YOUR face!

That's all I have for tonight. I had one of my most eventful and entertaining weekends in quite some time. I hope everyone else had a wonderful Fourth of July weekend, too!

~Ms. Baseball